Osprey Observer » developer

YMCA Names Miller Dowdy For Campo Award

Jennifer Silverstein — Tue, 20 Jan 2009 19:32:46 +0000

Longtime community advocate and developer Miller Dowdy, of Trinity Advisory Group, recently won the YMCA’s Ray Campo Leadership Award, named after Ray Campo, a developer who donated the land for it and two other YMCA facilities. Campo served on the YMCA’s board of directors and, upon his death, also donated more than $1 million toward the Valrico Y and Camp Cristina, a YMCA facility in Riverview.
Dowdy is a board member at the Campo Family YMCA and led the Family Fun Pool project.
Dowdy said that he feels completely humbled by receiving the award. “Just to know the history behind who the award is named after, Ray Campo, and all the major impacts he accomplished for this community makes this award a genuine honor,” he said.
The Campo family continues to make large impacts on the greater Brandon community with their continued time and monetary donations. Dowdy said, “I am particularly pleased that the recently finished YMCA Campo Family Fun Pool project was a joint project donation of the Campo Family and Hillsborough County.”
It took thousands of volunteer hours to accomplish the Family Fun Pool project over the past two years, and it was led by individuals such as Cindy Sofarelli, Lance Cohn, Tom Nicholson and John Sullivan as well as the leadership of the YMCA Campo Board of Directors.
Mags Oldman, Development Coordinator for the Campo YMCA, said, “We have been incredibly blessed and very proud to have Miller Dowdy as part of volunteer team for the past few years.”
“He sets a very high standard of leadership and advocacy for our organization, and has contributed countless hours of dedicated service to the YMCA. Miller’s affiliation with our organization has been nothing but a bonus to us, and to the thousands of children and families we serve,” she said. “His passion and commitment are truly a gift to us, matched only by his integrity and genuine thoughtfulness as an advocate for our mission, a volunteer leader and friend.”
Dowdy said, “It was also a pleasure to work with Mark Thornton of the Hillsborough County Parks and Recreation Department for his department’s involvement in this project. And, ultimately, the project could not have been completed without the support and guidance of Commissioner Al Higginbotham.”
Currently, the YMCA is in the process of its Annual Giving Campaign for the year, a giving effort of local businesses and the community’s citizens.
“Most people think of the Y as just another gym alternative, and they could not be more incorrect,” Dowdy said. “Your community YMCA supports many local community programs that stretch your charity giving dollars to the maximum. Many of these programs would not be possible for the community to have if it were not for the amount of volunteers it takes to properly run these programs. This is even truer today in these tough economic times.”
“It is these very programs that need your support more than ever. It takes more than just the regular membership dues to bring these programs to the community,” Dowdy said. “I would ask our community to care for others even less fortunate than them this year and give to your local YMCA or even better…come and be a volunteer!”
Dowdy is the managing partner for a group of commercial real estate professionals that have combined 55-plus years of experience and over $3 billion in closed real estate transactions. Dowdy has also won the YMCA Bullard Family Super Hero Award, the Brandon Chamber Chairman’s LIGHT Award and Hillsborough County Planning Commission Community Design Award of Merit for Institutional Projects (The Greater Brandon Chamber of Commerce Building).
Dowdy is also involved in the Hillsborough County Planning Commission, the Hillsborough County Citizens Advisory Committee, the Brandon Community Master Plan Committee and the Lithia-Pinecrest Road Planning Committee.
For more information on the Campo YMCA, call 684-1371 or visit http://tampaymca.com. Campo Family YMCA is located at 3414 Culbreath Rd. in Valrico.

Newland Communities Renames Lake Hutto To Circa FishHawk

Marie Gilmore — Sat, 03 Jan 2009 13:16:16 +0000

By Michelle Caceres
It’s not a part of FishHawk Ranch, but the 700-acre site formerly known as Lake Hutto has been renamed Circa FishHawk to reflect its close proximity to the master-planned behemoth.
FishHawk and Circa developer Newland Communities and its advertising agency worked closely to settle on the new name.
“We felt that it was important to position this community as its own special place while still acknowledging the strong FishHawk Ranch brand that has come to define the ‘FishHawk’ area,” said Newland Communities Regional Marketing Director Pam Parisi.
Located south of FishHawk Blvd., between Boyette Rd. and FishHawk Ranch, the steady pace of construction in Circa is currently underway. Roadways to two new schools, Stowers Elementary and Barrington Middle, are being laid with the schools slated to open in August. Attendance boundary lines for the schools are in the process of being drawn and approved. A public meeting to discuss boundaries has been scheduled for Wednesday, January 14, at 6:30 p.m. in the multi-media room at Randall Middle School.
Parisi expects the community to attract families for the same reasons they’re attracted to FishHawk Ranch. The community will feature onsite schools, a convenient town center and a variety of amenities all connected by a trail system.
In addition to families, Circa is also expected to attract singles, pre-family couples, empty nesters and retirees with its variety of housing options, including many maintenance-free options that appeal to these buyer groups.
While the land plan is still being designed, product offerings will include apartments as well as a variety of single-family and multi-family options.
Circa is the continuation and evolution of the FishHawk area, bringing a vibrant Village Center and fresh, new lifestyle choices-both residential and commercial-to the area, said Parisi.
Newland officials say the community is still in the envisioning process, as they are attempting to nail down the land plan and product offerings. Builders are showing interest in the community but specific discussions with builders have not occurred.
“It’s still way too soon,” said Parisi.
For more information about Circa FishHawk, visit www.newlandcommunities.com.

No Increase in CDD Fees for FH

Renee Hobbs — Thu, 28 Aug 2008 20:56:33 +0000

When is zero a good number? When it is the amount of dollars your Community Development District (CDD) fees are going up the next fiscal year, if you live in FishHawk Ranch. Originally, it was thought that the charge could go up as much as $67 per household with the proposed district’s combined multimillion dollar budget. Right now each resident pays $1,242 in CDD fees and that will stay the same when it shows up on your Hillsborough County tax bill. CDD District Manager Debby Bayne with Rizzetta and Company, an agent for FishHawk Ranch Developer Newland Communities, says, “Both boards have worked hard to decrease costs and it has paid off.” Bayne sent letters to each homeowner in FishHawk explaining the originally proposed increase and inviting them to the workshop and public hearing. Only a handful of people showed up at the workshop which Bayne took as a good sign, saying, “I guess people are happy with the way things are.” It was at the workshop that Bayne explained the numbers and how she was able to whittle the increase down to zero, even keeping in resident’s requests for aquatic plants to be installed in ponds, to include pond bank repairs because of low water levels this year and maintain some small capital improvements. Bayne also says, “These workshops allow me to get feedback from the residents and present it to the board before the final decision on the budget is made.” Each CDD board went over its own budget, line by line, before it was finally adopted by both Districts l and ll at the public hearings. Although there are two different districts in FishHawk Ranch, there is an interlocal agreement between the two where operations and maintenance costs are shared at a flat rate, meaning all residents in FishHawk Ranch pay the same assessment and it lets them use all the facilities in each district. Each CDD meets the third Monday of each month beginning at 2 p.m. at the Palmetto Club in FishHawk Ranch and both are open to all residents. For more information about what is going on in the community, you can go to www.fishhawkconnect.com and to learn more about the Community Development District, click on “CDD”.

Mosaic Gives Development Boost

Marie Gilmore — Fri, 01 Aug 2008 22:01:52 +0000

A 7.4 acre purchase for a regional headquarters by Mosaic fertilizer on the fledgling Lake Hutto project being built by Newland Communities, near FishHawk Ranch, is a boost to the community and a spur for the development. Newland announced the purchase in July of a building that will house 400 jobs in a 100,000 sq. ft. proximity and will abut a planned town center commercial project with an additional 100,000 sq. ft. of neighborhood commercial businesses.

Newland Communities Vice President of Operations Tom Panaseny spoke to a room full of 70 residents and representatives to update residents on development plans for the community.

“We are proud to have partnered with Mosaic on this project,” said Panaseny. “Mosaic will break ground on its headquarters in 2009 and the building will be completed by 2010,” he described. The headquarters will have its own entrance off of FishHawk Blvd. and will face the boulevard. A national commercial leasing company is being brought in to lease the 100,000 sq. ft. of additional commercial space. “This is about three times the size of our current Park Square,” he described.

Rich Krakowski, vice president of Mosaic, said, “We conducted a study to determine a suitable geographic location that’s closest to the center of where our administrative and staff employees live. FishHawk Ranch area was the bull’s eye.”

Ryan Companies US, Inc. will be developer and contractor for the building, which is scheduled to break ground by early next year and open in the first quarter of 2010.

In addition to the Mosaic entrance, a four-lane divided boulevard with an entrance off of FishHawk Blvd. is scheduled to break ground to access the now-under construction, combined elementary/middle school which is also scheduled to open in the Fall of 2009.

“The school represents the district’s efforts to share some parts of the facility, including administration offices, across the two campuses,” he described, adding, “The district has not yet named the schools, and they will each have their own bus drop off points.”

In addition to Mosaic headquarters and the school, Panaseny said that specific plans for the residential portion of the community are not yet available other than a planned 200 rental apartment complex surrounding the town center.

For more information on Mosaic, visit www.mosaicco.com. For Newland, visit www.newlandcommunities.com.