Fresh market day at Grand Hampton in New Tampa

Fresh Market Day at Grand Hampton will be held tomorrow, August 30, 2009 from 9:00 a.m. to 2:00 p.m. There will be live music, food, and up to 48 vendors offering a mixture of homemade, local, eco-friendly products for sale; including ready to eat food, take home food, and crafts. Located at 8301 Dunham Station Dr., Tampa, FL, 33647

Light rail route from Wesley Chapel to St. Pete?

The Tampa Tribune reports that a 52 mile light rail route from Wesley Chapel to St. Petersburg would draw the most riders of five routes examined by TBARTA, with a construction and equipment cost from $2.8 billion to $5.7 billion. Full Story

SWIFTMUD returns to Phase III water restrictions

Today the Southwest Florida Water Management District voted to return to Phase III water restrictions in Pasco, Hillsborough, and Pinellas.

Nutrition Smart coming to Wesley Chapel

Nutrition S'Mart, an organic grocery store is coming to the new shopping plaza next to the ABC Liquor store on BBD just south of SR 56 in Wesley Chapel. No opening date is available at this time. The store will have 12,000 sq. ft. of space (mol). Website: http://www.nutritionsmart.com/ .  Phone:  813-341-4444

China Gourmet to open at Meadow Pointe Center

China Gourmet plans to open at the Meadow Pointe Center within the next month or so and will be located next to Perfect Haircut.

Seven Oaks home being raffled for charity

Occasionally we all stumble upon some things on the internet. Today, I stumbled upon a website regarding the raffle of a home in Seven Oaks at 3523 Hickory Hammock in Wesley Chapel.

Apparently the home is being raffled for a charity according to the website: http://www.winafloridadreamhome.com/ . According to the site, the drawing date for the raffle has been extended to September 30, 2009; tickets are $100.00 and the charity is The Irene Foundation. ??? Note: The above site was "taken down" after I wrote this post.

Please note the virtual tour of Seven Oaks shown on the raffle site is my copyrighted material and has been used without my knowledge or authorization and should not be taken as an endorsement of this raffle in any way.

SR 56 extension is open! Finally!

The State Road 56 extension to Mansfield is now open.

Drivers will encounter a sea of traffic barrels along the stretch on SR 56 from The Shops at Wiregrass to Mansfield and should go slowly when approaching that intersection which has no traffic light, especially at night since there are no street lights:

Parents dropping off kids at John Long Middle School and Wiregrass Ranch High School will now have another route available to them, (new drop off directions for Wiregrass Ranch High School), and residents of much of Meadow Pointe will no longer need to take County Line Road to get to I-75 & I-275.

Of course, once SR 56 is opened up to Meadow Pointe Blvd. (November?), travel from the rest of Meadow Pointe and Country Walk to I-75 also will become a breeze!

Work on the Meadow Pointe Blvd. / SR 56 intersection has begun. See below:

Market Update for Grand Hampton in New Tampa

Our MLS reports nine single family homes sold in the last month in Grand Hampton, located in New Tampa. The reported sold prices ranged from $185,000 for a 3 bedroom, 2.5 bathroom home to $460,000 for a 4 bedroom, 4.5 bathroom, pool home on a conservation lot.

Eighteen homes are reported under contract and there are about 50 Grand Hampton single family homes listed for sale in MLS.

The Cypress in New Tampa

LA Fitness and Sweetbay opened at The Cypress in New Tampa in June, but more retail is signed up for this new New Tampa retail center:

Five Guys Famous Burgers and Fries
Grandeur Salon
Ego Nails
China Wok
Pita's Republic (Website)
Hungry Howies
Hudson's Dry Cleaners
Biagios Pizza N Pasta (Website)
Uni. K. Wax (Website)

Leasing space still remains and out parcels are also for sale, so look for future announcements of more retail at The Cypress.

First time homebuyers feel pressure to buy before deadline expires

First-time homebuyers looking to take advantage of up to $8,000 in federal tax credits are feeling the pressure of the November 30, 2009 deadline: http://tinyurl.com/lqltzg

A sign goes up at the Meadow Pointe Center

The first sign goes up at the Meadow Pointe Center on County Line Road & Mansfield in Wesley Chapel:

hhgregg in New Tampa to hold job fair for fall opening

There has been much interest in the new hhgregg appliances and electronics store at Market Square in New Tampa (especially since the closing of Circuit City), which plans a fall opening. Now, hhgregg has announced full and part time openings and job fair dates for the new store: Appliance Sales, Home Theater Sales, Customer Service Merchandiser, Warehouse.

JOB FAIR DATES:

When? August 24th-August 29th, & August 31st-September 5th

Monday-Friday 9:00 AM - 6:00 PM, Saturday 9:00 AM - 2:00 PM

Where? At the New Tampa store in Market Square--6250 Commerce Palms Drive, Tampa, FL, 33647

Phone? No contact number is available.

Sports complexes for Wesley Chapel?

Wow! This week the news in Wesley Chapel has been all about the possibility of two different sports complexes coming to the area. While the 5,000 seat Pasco National Tennis Center ended up fizzling out this year, the community now has two very different sports complexes that are considering Wesley Chapel.

1. Pasco County is pursuing a multifield athletics complex with Sportsplex USA. With a potential investment of up to $10 million (to be funded with Pasco County tourist dollars), the county recently directed Sportsplex USA to begin a site selection process. This County project has been under consideration since last year. Wesley Chapel, along with Land O Lakes (Connerton & Starkey Ranch) are among the the locations under serious consideration. Additional details from The Tampa Tribune.

2. The Laker reports that "The Plex", a private 470,000 square foot sports and entertainment center project is under consideration for a 42 acre site adjacent to The Grove mall in Wesley Chapel. News of this project first went public in June of 2008. The Plex is reported to include 3 ice rinks, 36 bowling lanes, an indoor water park and miniature golf, a rock climbing wall, laser tag, and a skydiving wind tunnel. The $83 million Wesley Chapel project, according to The Laker could be underway as early as this winter. The Laker did not report if The Plex would also be a Sportsplex USA project as previously reported by The St. Pete Times in 2008.

July Home Sales in Meadow Pointe

21 single family homes were reported sold in the month of July in Meadow Pointe by our local MLS. Sold prices ranged from a low of $120,000 for a 3 bedroom home to a high of $342,000 for a 5 bedroom, 4 bathroom, pool home with over 3,300 sq. ft. The average sold price per sq. ft. for Meadow Pointe single family homes reported sold in July was $82.13.*

Currently our MLS is showing over 50 single family homes listed for sale in Meadow Pointe with prices ranging from $125,000 to $275,000.

*Information from MLS deemed reliable but not guaranteed.

A new restaurant for Heritage Isles in New Tampa

The restaurant at Heritage Isles Golf and Country Club on Cross Creek Blvd. has had a series of misses with different concepts over the years. That may be about to change!

This past weekend I spoke with Ernest Kennedy, Jr., owner of Kennedy Barbecue. Kennedy plans to open a restaurant at Heritage Isles Golf & Country Club starting on Friday, August 7, 2009. The restaurant will be open from 7:00 a.m. to 9:00 p.m. for breakfast, lunch, and dinner. In addition to barbecue, Kennedy will be offering a wider menu selection and also plans to have entertainment on Friday evenings beginning August 14th. Additional info: (813) 406-4941