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Wesley Chapel Chamber of Commerce

Chamber’s goal: Being there to meet members’ needs

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When the North Tampa Bay Chamber began two decades ago, it was known as the Wesley Chapel Chamber of Commerce.

In the beginning, it had 65 members and met in a garage.

Now, it has 734 members — with some based as far away as Brooksville and St. Petersburg.

It attracts a wide range of political and business leaders to speak at, and attend its monthly breakfasts and luncheons.

Hope Allen, president and CEO of the North Tampa Bay Chamber, believes chambers can help businesses thrive by advocating on their behalf, and creating opportunities for connection. (B.C. Manion)

The chamber also hosts numerous networking and learning opportunities each month.

It frequently celebrates with businesses through grand openings and ribbon cuttings, too.

Beyond that, the chamber seeks to help businesses as they navigate through government bureaucracy and learn about community organizations. They also act as an advocate on issues affecting businesses.

“We’ve come a long way in 20 years,” said Hope Allen, president and CEO, during the organization’s breakfast meeting earlier this month.

The chamber was born long before the area’s widely known developments, such as The Shops at Wiregrass, AdventHealth Wesley Chapel, Pasco-Hernando State College’s Porter Campus at Wiregrass Ranch, Tampa Premium Outlets, and Cypress Creek Town Center. And, that’s not to mention the scores of subdivisions, schools, restaurants, hotels and small businesses that now make up Wesley Chapel and nearby communities.

Over time, the North Tampa Bay Chamber has moved from the garage to an old flower shop to a storefront at The Grove, to its current home in Lutz.

It has shifted direction, too, Allen said.

“In 2013, the board of directors decided we were going to switch our focus from being ‘the parties, pageants and parades’ to the connector, the convener and the catalyst.”

“It was scary for everybody. We went from a nonprofit organization that was robbing Peter to Paul, to a membership-based business organization,” Allen said.

“We said we’ve got to stop what we’re doing with all these things, and really focus on the needs of our business community.

“So, we went on a listening tour. We went around. We visited all of our members.

“We said, ‘What is happening with your business? What is happening with Wesley Chapel? How can we help?’” Allen said.

The businesses responded: “They said we need somebody to be an advocate for our businesses, we need somebody to go to, when there’s an issue,” she said.

The chamber stepped up to accept the challenge, Allen said.

When someone broke a water line on State Road 54, for instance, the chamber set about to make sure it got fixed, Allen said.

Now, the chamber fields all sorts of calls.

“We know code enforcement now. I have his personal cellphone number now,” she said.

Creating a strong business network
“We’ve grown and evolved, and made ourselves important. We weren’t very important way back in the day, to the elected officials. We weren’t important to the region, as a whole, until everything started happening up here. Then, they were saying, ‘What is going on in Wesley Chapel?’

“We had built this amazing network of businesses and built this amazing network of community,” Allen said.

In 2015, it  combined with the New Tampa Chamber, keeping the Wesley Chapel Chamber of Commerce, but adding a tag line: Serving New Tampa.

“It was seamless,” Allen said. “We started to really grow. We started to really have the pulse on what was happening.

“Businesses were coming to us and they were saying: ‘We need this.’

“The developers would come to us, ‘We’ve got this land, we want to do something with it.’

Allen recalled that a man walked into the office, then at The Grove, seeking information about Wesley Chapel. He wanted to take a look around, so Allen took him on what she calls her first “windshield tour.”

It turns out that he represented the hotel developer who built the Fairfield Inn & Suites, in Wiregrass, which opened last year — three years after that initial visit.

The chamber often is involved in work that won’t come into fruition for years, Allen said.

She credits the chamber’s board, ambassadors and members for the progress the organization has made.

“What we have going on here is incredible. We all know it. We can feel it. This community is incredible. This business community is amazing. We support each other. We grow with each other. We cry with each other,” she said.

She and her staff are committed to serve chamber members, she said.

“We stand behind all of our members. We speak with one voice for our membership,” she said.

In 2018, the chamber rebranded itself as the North Tampa Bay Chamber.

“We didn’t leave Wesley Chapel behind, we just brought everybody into the arms of what is North Tampa Bay,” said Allen, who is passionate about the value that chambers can bring to communities.

Across the country, she said, “chambers of commerce are having the conversation now, ‘Are we relevant? Do you need a chamber of commerce in your community?’”

In her view, chambers “are here to serve a purpose, in every single community.

“If you’ve seen one chamber, you’ve seen one chamber.

“We’re all different. We’re all governed by our own board of directors. We all have our own programming that’s different.

“We’re not in competition with other chambers of commerce.

“If you can join every single chamber of commerce in the region, do it. Because you’re going to get something out of each and every one of them, “ Allen said.

Published August 28, 2019

Wiregrass sports complex will be hurricane-ready

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Pasco County received a $2 million federal grant to make the future Wiregrass Sports Arena hurricane-resistant, according to a news release from the Federal Emergency Management Agency.

Pasco’s emergency management department applied for the grant, which will pay for 75 percent of the approximately $2.7 million total cost of hurricane preparedness.

“We’re very excited for this opportunity,” said Laura Black, assistant director of emergency management. “It’s one of our top projects.”

This is a rendering of how the Wiregrass Sports complex will look. The complex is expected to open in 2019. (File)

The federal agency awards these grants through its Hazard Mitigation Grant Program. The grants are provided to states, and tribal and local governments, to reduce the loss of life and property due to natural disasters, including hurricanes.

The 98,000-square-foot sports arena will be built and hardened to withstand up to 170-mph winds. That exceeds Florida’s standard requirement of 142 mph.

In addition, the floors will be elevated by 1-foot to reduce the risk of flooding. Also, a 1000-kilowatt generator will be installed to provide backup power.

All of this will be done from the ground up, during construction. Doing that will result in substantial savings, Black said, adding the cost could be as much as $8 million, if a retrofit was required afterward.

The Pasco County Commission approved the project as a public/private partnership in 2017.

RADD Sports, a private company, will operate and manage the sports complex. Pasco County will own the facility and share in anticipated profits.

The federal application included a cost analysis on economic losses, if the arena suffered hurricane damage and couldn’t operate for a period of time, Black said.

In addition to the indoor sports arena, the complex will have seven outdoor sports fields, an amphitheater with an event lawn, trails, pavilions and a playground. The county also has a ground lease for a Marriott Residence Inn that will be built with private funds at the complex.

Richard Blalock, president of RADD Sports, spoke last year at an economic briefing luncheon sponsored by the Wesley Chapel Chamber of Commerce (now known as North Tampa Bay Chamber of Commerce).

The facility will host sporting and recreational activities, including basketball, volleyball, cheerleading, dancing, wrestling, gymnastics, curling and badminton.

Blalock last year estimated annual economic impact would be about $6.5 million. Over 10 years, about $8 million or more in sales and use taxes would be generated, not including tourism taxes from hotel stays.

A construction date isn’t scheduled as yet, but the arena is expected to open by late summer or early fall of 2019.

Published April 25, 2018

Efforts on to settle renaming dispute

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Pasco County officials are trying to search out the historical boundaries between Land O’ Lakes and Wesley Chapel to help determine the name of a new road near Cypress Creek Town Center.

Finding out that information could help determine whether a new stretch of Wesley Chapel Boulevard should:

  • Be renamed Circle O Ranch Parkway
  • Be named something else
  • Keep the name it has

The roadway, south of State Road 56, is planned as a southern continuation of Wesley Chapel Boulevard that will connect with County Line Road.

According to county records, a compromise decision to name the road “Town Center Parkway” was considered, but then abandoned.

“I don’t think Town Center is historical, but at least it’s a new beginning,” said Sandy Graves, a long-time Land O’ Lakes’ resident and a member of the Central Pasco Chamber of Commerce.

The chamber requested the name change to Circle O Ranch Parkway in December. The name would recognize the King family, whose ranch now is a prime development area for Tampa Premier Outlets and the Cypress Creek Town Center.

In the next weeks, meetings with groups who are at odds over the renaming will be held. Interested parties are being asked to provide evidence in the form of documents, oral histories, videos or anything that might shed light on the matter.

“We’ll put this in a staff report,” said Matt Armstrong, the county’s executive planner for the long-range planning department.

He hopes to have that available to Pasco County commissioners in March or April.

The effort is to give everyone a fair shake, he added.

But, county officials also are trying to put the focus on more than drawing a line between Wesley Chapel and Lutz-Land O’ Lakes.

Settling the boundaries also will affect future decisions on vision plans for each community.

“It’s more important to focus on the heart of the communities,” Armstrong said.

Pasco County commissioners unanimously agreed to continue the public hearing on the road’s renaming.

“It would be really nice to have some resolution to this contentious issue,” said Commissioner Kathryn Starkey.

Renaming roads can be a delicate matter, said Commissioner Ted Schrader.

He had some concern, though, about road name confusion with Wesley Chapel Boulevard, State Road 54 and State Road 56 all converging at the same intersection. The entrance into the outlet mall, also at the juncture, is Grand Cypress Drive.

“What really resonated with me was the potential renaming and how four roads are at the intersection, all with different names,” Schrader said. “That really stuck with me.”

To date, county officials have met with area residents and members of the Central Pasco chamber.

A meeting is scheduled Feb. 19 with area residents and members of the Wesley Chapel Chamber of Commerce.

Developers with Sierra Properties, which is building Cypress Creek Town Center, also are participating in discussions.

“This isn’t a chamber issue to me,” said Graves. “It’s something the county did that was wrong and needs to be corrected.”

Hope Allen, president of the Wesley Chapel chamber, declined to comment on the issue.

The Land O’ Lakes community crafted a vision plan and presented it to the county in 2003. The boundaries were Interstate 75, State Road 52, the Suncoast Parkway and the county line.

But in 2004, and Graves says without notice, the county renamed County Road 54 as Wesley Chapel Boulevard.

But, Lutz and Land O’ Lakes mailing addresses exist along the boulevard, north of State Road 56. The outlet mall and the town center have Lutz addresses, while Stagecoach and Grand Oaks subdivisions have Land O’ Lakes addresses.

“Lutz and Land O’ Lakes have been together forever,” Graves said. The King family had a Lutz address, but were ingrained in the Land O’ Lakes community, she said.

Still, she is hopeful that a resolution will soon be reached.

“The history of our community is very important,” Graves said.

Published February 17, 2016

Sheffield pitching Wesley Chapel to the Atlanta Braves

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The Atlanta Braves aren’t making a trip to the postseason this year, but could they instead be planning a trip to Pasco County in a few years? Like for spring training?

Retired Major League Baseball player Gary Sheffield, left, listens as Blue Marble Strategies owner John Talton shares his vision of a new 20-field baseball complex in Wesley Chapel's Wiregrass Ranch area. (Photo by Michael Hinman)
Retired Major League Baseball player Gary Sheffield, left, listens as Blue Marble Strategies owner James Talton shares his vision of a new 20-field baseball complex in Wesley Chapel’s Wiregrass Ranch area. (Photo by Michael Hinman)

Gary Sheffield, the retired Major League Baseball star who hit 64 home runs when he played two seasons for the Braves more than a decade ago, believes his old team will come. And if not them, maybe the Houston Astros or Toronto Blue Jays — both which have expressed interest in looking for new spring training homes — instead.

Regardless, the former outfielder says the proposed $70 million baseball complex planned on 100 acres in the Wiregrass Ranch area will be so attractive, it would be impossible for any Major League team to turn it down.

“They don’t want to be second to Disney,” Sheffield told a group of business leaders recently at a Greater Wesley Chapel Chamber of Commerce economic development meeting. “The problem they are having is that the fans coming to the games there are not Braves fans. They are there for Disney, and that is a problem for them.”

The Braves have played spring training at ESPN’s Wide World of Sports Complex near Disney World in Orlando since 1998, but have been unofficially considering other options in recent months since their lease there is set to expire in 2017.

Wesley Chapel could be perfect for the team, Sheffield says, since many might consider the Interstate 75 trip between there and Atlanta a straight shot. It also makes sense as a second home for the team without making it inconvenient for its fan base.

“That is an easy commute for them,” Sheffield said. “All those fans could come straight here, plus go to other places like Disney and Clearwater Beach, since they would be close by. That is a possibility that is pretty much there for the taking.”

The sports complex was proposed by James Talton, owner of Blue Marble Strategic, and would supply 20 baseball and multipurpose athletic fields, as well as dormitories for players and other amenities. It’s a way to tap into the lucrative youth baseball market, he said.

Talton is raising $54 million in private funding, and looking for $11 million from Pasco County tourist tax money, to make such a project a reality.

Even without a major stadium component, Talton feels his sports complex could play a role in creating 8,000 jobs in the county, and produce $318 million in annual economic impact, as well as a direct revenue stream of $9 million each year to the county government. But if the project could attract a Major League team, there’s no telling how big of an impact that would have in the Wesley Chapel area, Talton said.

Creating a separate field for spring training would not be anywhere near the headache the Tampa Bay Rays are experiencing with its efforts to get out of Tropicana Field in St. Petersburg. In fact, spring training fields are typically much smaller than regular season venues, Talton said, where average attendance usually holds around 6,700.

“We would want to put in up to 12,000 seats, but that could be a little ambitious,” he said. “A lot of what we hear from the league is that they want to have no more than 8,000 seats, because they want to make sure they are filled.”

Yet, just from his own youth baseball operations, Talton believes he can fill 3,000 of those seats with his players and families that might be using the rest of the facility during spring training time. He wants to be open for business by January 2017, which would be just ahead of when the Braves’ lease with Disney expires.

But are the Braves even looking to stay in this part of the state? Braves president John Schuerholz told the Atlanta Journal-Constitution in March that staying in Central Florida could be tough.

Many teams that used to participate in spring training are looking for other parts of the state, especially south, and it could be tough for Atlanta to travel around if its only nearby opponent is the Detroit Tigers in Lakeland.

The Braves want to stay in Florida, however, and have waved off any suggestions the team could move to the other popular spring training state of Arizona. But if the Astros move out of Kissimmee, and the Washington Nationals leave their home in Viera, that could leave the Atlanta team rather isolated in Lake Buena Vista.

Yet moving to Wesley Chapel could be a good move in that respect. The Tigers would still be available in Lakeland, joining five other teams in quick driving distance — the New York Yankees in Tampa, the Blue Jays in Dunedin, the Philadelphia Phillies in Clearwater, the Pittsburgh Pirates in Bradenton, and the Baltimore Orioles in Sarasota.

The Braves also would be a lot closer to the Tampa Bay Rays, who play its spring training games in Port Charlotte.

A request to the Braves for comment is still pending.

Sheffield, who was born and raised in Tampa, says he has been spending a lot of time in Pasco County, especially since his kids are members of the Pasco Predators youth athletic teams. Once tourists start discovering the area, they won’t be able to stay away.

“There is something about Tampa and Pasco County,” he said. “People can’t leave. They can’t leave the water, or the beautiful places here. It’s totally community-driven.”