Volume 26 Issue 23 November 2, 2018 Remember To View, Like & Share Every Episode Of WCNT-tv On YouTube & Facebook! The Direct-Mail News Magazines Serving New Tampa & Wesley Chapel Since 1993! For the complete list of the neighborhoods that receive this publication by direct mail in New Tampa (zip code 33647), see page 54!
Where Is Everybody Going? By JOHN C. COTEY
john@ntneighborhoodnews.com The shelves inside the Bed, Bath & Beyond in Market Square at Tampa Palms, once filled with kitchenware, bed sheets, towels and candles, have been laid bare. Yellow papers were hung in the final days, declaring that what once occupied the shelves were now 50- or 75-percent off. All that remained, it seemed, were cell phone chargers and knickknacks destined for your junk drawer. But now, it’s all gone. Another New Tampa store, another big business closing. In recent months, a number of high-profile and seemingly popular local stores have closed up shop in the 33647 zip code. In stark contrast, a few miles north, across the Hillsborough-Pasco county line, Wesley Chapel continues to grow and expand at a breakneck pace. So, what’s happening in New Tampa? Or rather, what’s not happening? At Market Square — which is still anchored by BJ’s Wholesale Club and located on Commerce Palms Dr. — three “big box” stores have closed in the past two years alone. HH Gregg, Staples and now Bed Bath & Beyond leave behind 79,471 square feet of now-vacant retail space. Elsewhere in New Tampa, restaurants like Casa Ramos in Tampa Palms, Ruby Tuesday’s and Dairy Queen on
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As nearby Wesley Chapel flourishes, New Tampa struggles with small & large businesses closing their doors. Bruce B. Downs (BBD) Blvd. have closed in the last year, and right next to old Dairy Queen, Oakley’s Grille has been sold twice. While the Dairy Queen space is reopening soon as a Jamaican restaurant, other local businesses have not been so quick to turn around. The old Romano’s Macaroni Grill site has twice been reborn as a Mexican restaurant, but neither lasted a year. Behind Oakley’s Grille, the old Sweetbay Supermarket (next to Home Depot) has been vacant since 2013 and is now merely an eyesore with a parking lot that serves mostly as a motel for semi tractor trailers. Further north, Beef O’Brady’s on Cross Creek Blvd. at Morris Bridge is empty two years after closing, and the old MidFlorida bank has laid dormant even longer. Even non-chain restaurants, like popular Spanish restaurants Café Olé and Las Palmas, have shut down over the past six months. “It’s not a joke,” says Said Iravani, an engineering and environmental consultant who has lived in New Tampa for 17 years. “I think there are a few problems.” One of the most prominent, he says, is a lack of collective spirit, that begins in the local neighborhoods but extends to the commercial areas. New
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Tampa’s offerings also may be growing stale, he says, thanks to poor design and a lack of connectivity. With the exception of popular smaller chain restaurants like Glory Days, Ciccio Cali and Stonewood Grill & Tavern, and the popular Fat Rabbit Pub, Iravani thinks better choices for a day of shopping or a night out for dinner currently exist across the county line in Wesley Chapel, which wasn’t always so. “We seem disjointed,” says Iravani, who also thinks a lack of a town center, poor street exposure and lack of a destination such as a mall or something comparable to Florida Hospital Ice Center has created a series of one-stopand-go plazas along BBD. District 7 Tampa City Council member and Hunter’s Green resident Luis Viera, who has long argued for a less fragmented community and business district, agrees. “You don’t see (as many failing businesses) necessarily in South Tampa,” Viera says. “It’s a problem we need to address. This is a place with significant purchasing power. So why are retail and commercial not lasting here? We should try to get to the root of that.” Viera is quick to acknowledge that big-box stores around the country are struggling in the face of the growing See “Closings” on page 4.