Attorney Brian Arrighi of North Tampa Law Group can help you with real estate transactions, estate planning, probate and more at his North Tampa Law Group office off S.R. 56 in Wesley Chapel. (Photos by Charmaine George) Attorney Brian Arrighi helps people with estate planning, probate and real estate transactions at his North Tampa Law Group office, located in the Cypress Glen Professional Park off S.R. 56 (east of I-75) in Wesley Chapel.  The Tampa Palms resident has served his neighbors in New Tampa and Wesley Chapel for 19 years, helping those who find themselves in need of an attorne ..read more

Capstone Communities celebrated the official ribbon cutting & Grand Opening of The Cottages at Cypress Cay on Apr. 17.  (Photos provided by Carrie Wildes Photography)  Congratulations go out to Capstone Communities, which celebrated the official Grand Opening and ribbon cutting ceremony for The Cottages at Cypress Cay with the Tampa Bay Chamber of Commerce (TBCC) on Apr. 17.  As we first reported in our July 2023 issue, The Cottages at Cypress Cay is a cottage-style rental community located off Bruce B Downs (BBD) Blvd.  “With 1,400 member companies and more joining ev ..read more

Less than two weeks after this issue arrives in your mailbox, the vomFass store in the Shops at Wiregrass mall will be closing. On May 3rd, local vomFASS store owner Paula Ayala (photo, left) publicly announced that her location (next to Victoria’s Secret) would be closing the weekend of May 25-26.  She wrote that, “These past eight years have been a tremendous journey, and I am immensely grateful to each and every one of you who has been part of this adventure…We will miss all of you…”  Paula’s franchise store beat the odds for many years. Hers was the only vomFASS store left open ..read more

It’s that time of year when parents and students count the days remaining until graduations, from pre-kindergarten to college. At our local public high schools, hundreds of graduates are moving on to a new phase of their lives, whether it’s starting a career, joining the military, going to a distant university, attending a local college, or taking some time to find themselves. The students below are the top-10 graduating seniors of the Class of 2024 at each of Wesley Chapel’s three public high schools by grade point average (GPA). Congratulations to everyone listed on these pages for their ext ..read more

Owner Giovanni Gocaj offers flooring and kitchen and bath remodeling at his location in the Super Target-anchored Northwoods plaza on BBD. (Photo by Charmaine George) If you’ve driven in the SuperTarget shopping center on Bruce B. Downs (BBD) Blvd. recently, you may have noticed a change at the flooring store next to Marshall’s. In fact, new owner Giovanni Gocaj has not only changed the name of the showroom, he’s also greatly expanded the services that his Giovanni’s Flooring, Kitchen & Bath now provides.  Giovanni, who is originally from Albania, moved to the Trinity area of New ..read more

When the new Rodizio Grill® — America’s First Brazilian Steakhouse® — broke ground on May 14, I’m pretty sure I was the only member of the local media — and perhaps the only one of the nearly 100 people who waited on line for a coupon for a free meal at the new location when it is expected to open in about nine months, or sometime in early 2025 — who had already dined at the Rodizio Grill location on Fruitville Rd. in Sarasota. More on my experience at that Rodizio Grill appears below. Rodizio Grill Founder and President, Ivan Utrera, and local owner, Charlie Haney, invited the community to j ..read more

David Nelson Construction Co. To Widen WC Blvd. To Six Lanes Between S.R. 54/56 & Old Pasco Rd.  Research by Joel Provenzano  The map (above) shows the full length of the $69.4-million contract to widen Wesley Chapel Blvd. from (mostly) two to six lanes between Old Pasco Rd. & where S.R. 54 & S.R. 56 meet. All of the existing and planned traffic signals are shown, with the planned “additional” signals outlined in yellow. Please note that the signal that is “planned” at the intersection of Stagecoach Village Dr. and WC Blvd. is already there, but that is considered to be a ..read more

Whether or not you’re currently a business owner, imagine, if you can, working hard to create a product that provides a unique service to your customers.  Next, imagine that someone who spent literally zero of those man/woman-hours to create that product comes along and — without your permission — represents themselves as “working with” your company in order to be able to get your customer to spend money with them as they blatantly copy that work. They even go so far as to put your company’s logo on the product — again, without so much as asking the ownership of your company “Is it OK if ..read more

The parents of Gabriel (Gabe) Hassan, the Wharton High graduate who passed away on Feb. 6 of this year from a rare form of leukemia, shortly after receiving his diploma, held a blood donation drive at the Islamic Society of New Tampa’s Masjid Daarusalam on May 10, in honor of what would have been their son’s 18th birthday. There were three OneBlood Bloodmobiles on hand at the blood drive, which began a few hours before the regular services at the New Tampa Mosque, located just north of Cross Creek Blvd., at 15830 Morris Bridge Rd. Hundreds of worshipers, as well as District 7 Tampa City Counc ..read more

Realtor® Johanna Navarro of Century 21 BE3 The Roman Group (located in The Grove at Wesley Chapel) is a New Construction-Certified real estate professional who can help you sell your home or purchase a new one. (Photo by Charmaine George)  When Realtor® Johanna Navarro was buying a house in 2017, she says the experience nearly left her homeless.  The Tampa native, who moved to Wesley Chapel in 1997, says her real estate agent didn’t give her a lot of guidance about how to navigate the overactive local real estate market. She made nine offers before she finally got one accepted.  ..read more