Pasco County

[tampasteve]

Originally Posted by FloridaFuture

^The Japanese steakhouse at Wiregrass, Yamato, is pretty good. One of the better Japanese steak houses.

I agree that it is good, but I found the sushi to be a bit expensive compared to other restaurants in the area. I cannot comment on the steak though.

The other major restaraunts there aren't so great but there's a few cafes and sandwhich shops which I have yet to try.

I like the Teriyaki Experience and Cosi. Grillsmith is Grillsmith, the Cantina Laredo is OK (not a bad price). Caffe Italiano had great Gilato and their paninis and sandwiches are really good; they are not for everyone though, it is a very European type of sandwich served without a side dish.

I'm shocked Wiregrass still doesn't have an electronic store of any type. That has got to be killing them.

Brookstone opened a few weeks ago, but it may end up being a seasonal store. If sales are good they may remain, but if they are not too great then they will close after the holidays. At least that is what I have been told by the manager.

Steve

[TampaMike]

I have yet to visit that place. I might go some time next week, don't they have some christmas/holidays thing going on?

Hopefully, and this a big hopefully, the plan to build the sports complex in Trinity will restart construction on the "town center". Even though now I wish it never started because it is landlocked for expanding, I'd rather have it finish now then have it half completed. Likely a hotel will be built on the former Tampa Executive site with this complex. The land is already cleared for any development and all that would likely be needed is a zoning change. I think they recently changed the zoning from industrial to retail and office I believe. Positive on the retail though.

And the hospital has been topped out for a month now. Certainly is tall for the area and does put a dent in our skyline lol

I'll likely be the first person to start contacting hotel chains in building a hotel in Trinity once it is approved. There might be talks already, but better safe than sorry.

[tampasteve]

I went to Primebar last night. The atmosphere is nice, not too loud, but still music and flat screen TVs. The TVs were not overpowering either. The outside dining was just opening (because of rain) so I did not go out there. Prices were OK, maybe a little high. They only carry microbresws (local and other regional) in the beer category, which I usually do not drink (prices are higher, which is the main reason). I had a Dunedin Red Head Ale, it was $5. My wife had a mojito, that was $9. Of course drink prices are not listed on the menu. Sandwiches (hamburgers, tuna steak, etc.) started at $9 and came with french fries. Other main courses started at $11 and went to $19. Overall I liked it a lot and will go back for sure. It seems a great place to have a medium sized group out to.

Steve

[TampaMike]

Sports complex company pulls out of Pasco deal
By Jodie Tillman, Times Staff Writer
Posted: Dec 29, 2009 02:20 PM

NEW PORT RICHEY — The California-based consultant helping Pasco County plan and build a tourist tax-funded sports facility has pulled out of the deal.

In a letter to County Administrator John Gallagher, Sportsplex USA blamed "the constant ridiculous harangue spewed forth by (commissioner) Jack Mariano" as well as "diverse individual efforts trying to impact or derail the project."

Pasco County in August signed a $270,000 contract with Sportsplex to help plan and build the sports fields envisioned to host weekend ball tournaments that would attract people to local hotels.

Sportsplex has finished the first phase of the contract — a study that recommended building the facility on county-owned property in Trinity — and says it is now finished. That study came with a $60,000 price tag for the county.

"The current environment in Pasco County tells me there is no way we could successfully co-exist on a long term basis running a business endeavor as partners," Sportsplex chairman Paul Berghoff wrote.

Commissioners will decide how to proceed at their next meeting on Jan. 12. County officials had stepped up talks with Sportsplex after the deal for the first tourist tax-funded project — a proposed tennis stadium in Wesley Chapel — fell apart.

Mariano said Tuesday that the company is unfairly blaming him for its decision to pull out. "I have no problems with the questions I asked," he said. "I'm not just going to be sold on something because a person is a nice personable guy."

http://www.tampabay.com/news/localgo...o-deal/1061839

WHHHHYYYYYYYY?!?!?!?!?! Something good for Pasco and one commissioner can kill it! This is so ridiculous. And people are complaining about taxes being spent on this, but it's the county's TOURIST TAX! Only affected if they stayed in a PASCO COUNTY HOTEL. And the tax can only be spent on things like a sports complex, not for schools or police stations. I can't believe that we were at the final step come Jan. 26 and now we're back at ground zero!!!!

[TampaMike]

Sportsplex USA open to return to Pasco to work on multiuse facility
By Jodie Tillman, Times Staff Writer
In Print: Thursday, December 31, 2009

Consultant Sportsplex USA this week gave sharply worded reasons for its decision to part ways with Pasco County:

Commissioner Jack Mariano "despises" the company. People are trying to derail their work. Others are sending conflicting signals.

Yet officials with the California-based firm hired to help plan and build a multiuse sports facility might be willing to return to what they call an "adversarial environment."

In an interview Wednesday, Paul and Bill Berghoff of Sports*plex said they would consider helping get the facility off the ground — and even train a local company on how to operate it.

"We have not lost any enthusiasm about the viability of the project," said company chairman Paul Berghoff.

The father-and-son team said it's the community that lacks the "unified support" for the project.

"What we're doing is making a business decision based on an underlying tone that's been pretty gosh darn adversarial," Paul Berghoff said.

They said they base that assessment partly on Mariano's line of questioning but also on e-mails from a Wesley Chapel lawyer and some of the critical comments from residents at public meetings.

In August, Pasco County signed a $270,000, multiphase contract with Sportsplex to help plan and build the sports fields envisioned to host weekend ball tournaments that would attract people to local hotels. Sportsplex also wanted to operate the facility, something that Berghoff says it no longer wants to do.

As part of the first phase, Sportsplex finished a report recommending building the facility on county-owned property in Trinity.

That site already has roads and infrastructure, meaning the county would not have to spend money to prep the site, said Rich Bekesh, president of Spring Engineering, which worked with Sportsplex. Other sites, according to their analysis, would have come with hefty price tags or permitting delays before construction of the building could begin, he said.

The Berghoffs said they were thrown off by Commissioner Ted Schrader's recent suggestion to build two facilities. They said commissioners should be committing to the site Sportsplex recommended and sticking with that decision.

"We don't want to have to defend the (recommended) location over the Starkey property," Paul Berghoff said. "I want the commissioners to say, 'Hey, we've made a decision and this makes sense.' "

Starkey Ranch also has gotten attention as a possible site.

When it comes to deciding where to build the facility, the Berghoffs said they underestimated Pasco County's east vs. west dynamic.

"We basically came out with the feeling that the size of the county dictates that one side is going to benefit and one is not going to benefit," Paul Berghoff said.

Sportsplex says what it sees as a distrust of an outside company running a facility in Pasco could be addressed by hiring a local company to do the job.

At one of its California facilities, for instance, an experienced restaurateur is running the restaurant — the money maker — and Sportsplex officials are training him how to market the fields for ball tournaments and supplying him with their sports association contacts.

Sportsplex is trying to get a foothold in the Florida market, and company officials have met with an Orange County commissioner. Manatee County officials have also followed up on information Sportsplex sent to their office, though Sportsplex says it hasn't talked with anyone there.

The Berghoffs said Wednesday that there is no prospective deal anywhere else that played into their decision.

"We don't have a better deal in Florida," Bill Berghoff said.

County officials have said they were surprised by the timing of Sportsplex's letter. Commissioners held a long meeting with Sportsplex this month but put off a vote until January amid some unanswered questions.

Paul Berghoff said that "everything that has come forth since has been thumbs down." He cited Schrader's two parks idea as well as a long list of questions from Wesley Chapel lawyer Stephen Bennet about whether the facility could be funded with the tourist tax.

Did anything push him over the edge? Paul Berghoff said it was when his son last week showed him a line in a recent column by a Tampa Tribune opinion writer.

That line said, "One commissioner who must be persuaded despises the company selected to vet the process and put it into action."

Berghoff, in his Monday letter to County Administrator John Gallagher, wrote of "the constant ridiculous harangue spewed forth by Jack Mariano, including 'he despises us and our firm.' "

Mariano said Tuesday that he had never said he "despises" Sportsplex. "Matter of fact," he said, "I do find them personable."

Berghoff said he assumed Mariano had spoken with the columnist.

At any rate, the pair said they see Mariano as an obstacle.

"There are many more places in the United States that has a bigger welcome mat than Commissioner Jack Mariano kneeing us in the groin," Bill Berghoff said.

But just one commissioner?

Bill Berghoff said that Mariano isn't a typical citizen but "somebody who has a legion of staff to continually rake you over the coals."

http://www.tampabay.com/news/localgo...cility/1062199

[tampasteve]

It looks like a Red Robin is moving into one of the out parcel spaces at The Shoppes at Wiregrass. It will be located between B&N and Primebar. A hearing on a beer/wine license is scheduled for Januray 13th (Planning commission) and February 9th (BOCC).

I think this is great. I love that restaurant, and it is nice that it is moving near where I live.

Steve

[TampaMike]

Never been to one, but have heard good things about the joint. It'll be the first one in the Tampa Bay area aswell.

On the subject of restaurants. Up the Creek at the corner of SR 54 and Suncoast has closed down. Don't know for what reason, but it looked like they weren't recieving that much business in the past couple months. This leaves only the Jacksonville location as the only restaurant in Florida.

[tampasteve]

Yeah, Red Robin is great for a good burger; although it is a little themed for kids, so that can get tired real quick (at least the one in Ft. Myers is).

I think Up the Creek closed a while back. I went to the International Beer place there a few months ago and they were closed at that time. I know they were open in early June, so sometime after that. I went once. It was OK, not good enough (or cheap enough) to go back though.

Steve

[randommichael]

I'm happy that a Red Robin is coming to the area. I wish it were in Tampa, but I'll make the drive out to Wiregrass everyone once in a while for it. I've been to several and really enjoy their burgers.

[tampasteve]

Best Buy is opening another store in the New Tampa/Wesley Chapel area in the former Linens and Things unit in New Tampa.

Also, the former Johnny Carinos on SR54 in Wesley Chapel is going to be an Asian Buffet - which should be open in a little over a month.

Steve

[TampaMike]

Work starts on multi-use path from New Port Richey to Starkey Park
By Times staff
In Print: Thursday, February 11, 2010

Construction began this week on a multi-use path that gives bicyclists and pedestrians a link from New Port Richey to Jay B. Starkey Wilderness Park, where people can then reach the Suncoast Trail. The project extends from Congress Street, east along Massachusetts Avenue and to Starkey Boulevard along DeCubellis Road. The path is being built on the south side of the roadway in three phases — Congress Street to Rowan Road, Rowan Road to Little Road and Little Road to Starkey Boulevard. The project is expected to finish in June. The $579,000 project is being funded with federal stimulus dollars.

http://www.tampabay.com/news/briefs/...y-park/1072301

Drove by the first phase today and can back that construction has begun. Hard to tell how big it will be because right now everything is pretty much rubble from them tearing up the existing sidewalk.

[TampaMike]

Hospital under construction influences commercial real estate sale
By Carl Orth | The Suncoast News
Published: March 2, 2010

TRINITY - More than a year and a half before it is supposed to open, Medical Center of Trinity already is spurring economic development, according to one real estate company.

The hospital under construction near S.R. 54 and Little Road was cited as a factor leading to the sale of a building in an industrial park, Prudential Commercial Real Estate-FL executives say.

The building in the West Pasco Industrial Park sold for $440,000, Prudential spokeswoman Alison Crumbley reports. Renee Dyer handled the transaction for the structure with more than 7,000 square feet. Davlin Investments Inc. bought the property from Stephen and Anita Taylor.

The property at 2645 Success Drive, Odessa, represents the first sale over 2,400 square feet in the industrial park since the fall of 2008, according to Dyer.

"Since the hospital (Medical Center of Trinity) made the announcement it will be operational in November of 2011, we have begun to see significantly more activity," Dyer said in a press release.

Could it be a sign the recession is finally receding? Only time can tell, local leaders say.

Hospitals often serve as magnets for development, John Hagen, the president and CEO of Pasco Economic Development Council, said during a Feb. 26 talk before a breakfast meeting of West Pasco Chamber of Commerce.

The region's first new hospital in more than 20 years, Medical Center of Trinity will feature only private rooms. Opening in 2011, the new facility will replace the existing Community Hospital of New Port Richey.

Community Hospital of New Port Richey already is one of Pasco largest private employers, hospital officials report. Medical Center of Trinity is expected to employ 1,300 people. Medical staff is expected to number more than 400.

The Trinity facility will have 236 beds in a five-story hospital tower with some 400,000 square feet. A three-story medical office building will be attached to the hospital at the 55-acre site.

The final cost of the project is estimated at $195 million.

http://suncoastpasco.tbo.com/content...commerci/news/

[TampaMike]

Not development news, but something I found hilarious. Just to point out how our County Commissioner Mariano is out of touch with reality, while he was speaking about the SunWest project in Hudson during the discussion on raising the county's tourism tax to 3% (which didn't past because our commission was foolish enough to fall for Saddlebrook's plead to vote this down), Mariano mentioned how SunWest was constructing a beach for their project that would compete with CLEARWATER BEACH! He later downplayed his comment but said that everyone upset with the congestion at Clearwater Beach would drive through the hell we call US 19 to the SunWest Beach.

[Jasonhouse]

^That's great news... That means when I go to Clearwater, there won't be as many gap-toothed drunken rednecks from Pasco to contend with.

[TampaMike]

Originally Posted by Jasonhouse

^That's great news... That means when I go to Clearwater, there won't be as many gap-toothed drunken rednecks from Pasco to contend with.

We already have Hudson "Beach" which had accomplished 153 advisories and warnings in 7 years.

[TampaMike]

Here's the website for the project.

http://www.sunwestpasco.com/

And yes, it actually does say hotel resort.

[I-275westcoastfl]

They think by having lakes with beaches will compete with Clearwater Beach? Haha!

[TampaMike]

Originally Posted by I-275westcoastfl

They think by having lakes with beaches will compete with Clearwater Beach? Haha!

Yep, because you know, St. Pete Beach, Ft. DeSoto, Caladesi, Honeymoon Island, or even Howard Park in Tarpon Springs would all be overlooked for a lake beach in HUDSON! And you have Mariano who thinks Hudson could be the next big thing in the Tampa Bay area. You have also have to consider that Mariano promised more developments up in Hudson during his campaign and this is pretty much what he has to show for his efforts. So you can see why he's trying to get this moving.

[Jasonhouse]

^US19 in Pasco seems destined for continued decline much more than it does an upswing... All of the action in Pasco is occurring near the expressways that link it to Tampa.

[TampaMike]

So it's likely that the sports complex isn't going to happen. After basically starting over from where they were in January, it's unlikely the county commission will come up with another location by June 1st. And now, Sportsplex is saying if they don't come up with another location by next month, they'll likely leave and look elsewhere. Which really, isn't a bad idea.

I had a talk with a candidate that's running for my district this past Monday. He showed me plans, that we basically just concept plans, of a bigger and (imo) better sports complex. Would include 10-12 soccer fields, 6 baseball fields, and more but I don't want to throw out everything. And he had it in a more understandable location than the Trinity area. Which isn't a bad location, but this area was better.

It was actually a great oppurtunity to speak with him and see about his ideas and have him listen to mine. I actually learned something about Six Flags though. I'll just leave it at this, they actually did want to open a park in Pasco. Of course before they had their finance troubles.