Construction continued on the first phases of two mixed-use retail developments in Gainesville in 2018, as Celebration Pointe and Butler Town Center started to look more like finished products and not construction zones.

Editor's note: The online version of this story has been changed to delete an incorrect assertion that a judge had approved a restaurant's eviction from Celebration Pointe.

It has been a busy year for business in Alachua County, as high volumes of development continued in 2018, picking up the development pace left off in 2017.

Construction continued on the first phases of two mixed-use retail developments in Gainesville in 2018, as Celebration Pointe and Butler Town Center started to look more like finished products and not construction zones.

But as that development continued, issues occurred with tenants of two announced Celebration Pointe restaurants, one with ties to a former mafia member and the other tied to mounting debt and a failing restaurant empire. The insoluble issues led the development to wipe the restaurants off its website and file lawsuits.

It also was clearly a year for medical cannabis investment in Alachua County as two medical cannabis companies bought out Alachua County medical cannabis cultivation and dispensary licenses, perhaps turning the county into the epicenter for cannabis cultivation in Florida.

Additionally, new hotels sprouted up across Gainesville as developers swooped in to fill the need for hotels on game days in Gator Country, and new housing developments were announced to fulfill a low inventory of homes.

Here’s a recap of 2018’s development highlights:

Mixed-use developments



Progress continued on Gainesville’s most prominent mixed-use retail developments, Butler Town Center and Celebration Pointe.

Celebration Pointe held openings in 2018 for the Regal Celebration Pointe 10 movie theater, Nike Outlet Store, Tommy Hilfiger, Midici, Kilwin’s dessert shop and Decadent, another dessert shop. Celebration Pointe has quickly turned into a recreational destination, even more than a shopping center.

On any given day, people are seen huddled around its fireplaces, playing corn hole or taking photos on the development's City Walk.

However, it did have hiccups in 2018. Two of the restaurants planned to open in 2018, Rascal Flatts Bar and Grill and Reggae Shack, never opened, both under unusual circumstances.

And their operators ended up being sued by Celebration Pointe Holdings LLC, the development’s ownership group.

The Sun found that Rascal Flatts Bar and Grill’s ownership group, Las Vegad-based RF Restaurants VII LLC, had ties to Tawny Costa, who had ties to former mafia member and adjudicated scam artist Frank Capri.

Costa is Capri's former or current girlfriend. Capri was known, according to The Arizona Republic newspaper, as the man who started up country music star Toby Keith’s failed restaurant chain, I Love This Bar, and then was accused of bilking the restaurant’s contractors at will, leading to the failure of the restaurant chain. He has had more than $65 million of judgments awarded against him, The Republic reported.

The Rascal Flatts Bar seems to be headed down the same path, as many promised across the country have not opened. Celebration Pointe Holdings sued RF Restaurants due to shoddy work completed by its contractor, who turned out to be unlicensed in Florida, and failing to open on time. All references to the restaurant at Celebration Pointe have been removed from its website.

Another restaurant that failed to open was Reggae Shack Cafe.

The Sun documented Oselimo’s financial struggles in 2018. Last month, a circuit judge awarded Fidelity Bank nearly $700,000 in a judgment against Oselimo for a defaulted loan. He’s facing more than $300,000 in additional judgments, pending the outcomes of lawsuits from contractors and other banks.

His former restaurant Twisted Peacock is up for auction and Southern Charm Kitchen, a community redevelopment agency project, has closed.

Reggae Shack's Celebration Pointe blunder came after Oselimo couldn’t come up with the finances to start up the company, even after Celebration Pointe had supplied at least $500,000 for the restaurant’s build-out that would have been paid back like a loan in Oselimo’s monthly rent. Oselimo claimed he should have more money to open the restaurant, but didn’t, according to the developer.

He sued Celebration Pointe and Celebration Pointe countersued.

More openings in Celebration Pointe are in the pipeline for 2019.

Elsewhere down Archer Road, Butler Enterprises in 2018 celebrated the opening of organic food purveyor Whole Foods in May to long lines and excited customers. The grocery store shaped the progress of the town center as its largest tenant, while phase two of the project, which could be even larger than the first, seems to be picking up steam heading into the new year.

Grub Burger Bar, a fast-casual burger spot, followed Whole Foods and opened May 29.

P.F. Chang’s, an Asian bistro, opened in September. December had two store openings in the urban town center: The Village Jeweler, and Hearth and Heart, a jewelry and home goods store respectively.

After their openings, Mary Reichardt, Butler’s director of corporate marketing, said there are several openings planned for 2019, including Irish 31, an Irish bar, Noire Nail Bar and European Wax Center, a major chain of hair removal salons.

Reichardt said Irish 31 should open before St. Patrick’s Day in March and the nail salon and wax center should open in early 2019.

The second phase of Butler Town Center is underway.

Across the county, plans for new mixed-use developments were submitted to city and county planners.

Plans for a 16-acre mixed-use development called Markets West, proposed to be built off Tower Road, were submitted this year. The plans show a medical facility and more professional office space, retail stores and restaurants could be coming to southwest Gainesville.

The development is planned across the street from Oak Hall School, 8009 SW 14th Ave., according to city planning documents.

The documents show Markets West’s developer, Concept Companies, will build a North Florida Regional Medical primary care facility and retail store in its first phase of development.

Plans also were submitted for Newberry Park, a mixed-use, planned traditional neighborhood off West Newberry Road at Parker Road. The developer, Parkwood Alachua Land Investment Inc., shows it could have 300 apartments and up to 150,000 square feet of commercial and retail space. The retail park will be separated into four buildings.



Trematerrra said he has been in contact with Chick-fil-A, Wawa, Starbucks and an Aldi grocery store as possible tenants.

Medical cannabis boom

Toronto-based Liberty Health Sciences, a medical cannabis investor and operator that launched in 2011, closed a deal Feb. 16 to purchase 242 Cannabis, a subsidiary of medical cannabis company 242 Cannabis Canada — a $6 million deal that included a 387-acre parcel north of Gainesville, southeast of Brooker.

The company, which bought almost 400 acres’ worth of properties in Alachua County within the last year, has begun mass-producing cannabis products, clearing the way for the county to be at the forefront of a booming Florida medical cannabis market.

The land purchased in February near 18770 N. County Road 225 had been owned by Alico Citrus Nursery, which shut down production in Gainesville last year.

Liberty purchased the 36-acre Chestnut Hill Tree Farm nursery last year for $36.2 million.

This year, the cannabis company has been retrofitting more than 200,000 square feet of greenhouse space.

Additionally, Phoenix-based cannabis company Harvest Health & Recreation Inc. acquired Alachua-based San Felasco Nurseries, Inc. in November for $65 million worth of cash and stocks. The deal included included 8,000 square feet of cultivation space and its cultivation and dispensary license. It plans to use the the license to allow itself to open up to 25 new dispensaries across the state.

New dispensaries are also in the works, according to city planning documents.

Plans submitted for new apartment high rises

The Sun in 2018 found another high rise is planned to go up next to The Standard, the student apartment complex giant on Northwest 13th Street.

Sergio Reyes, president of EDA, a Gainesville-based civil engineering and planning firm, said the project's developer, Chicago-based CoreSpaces, is calling the project Hub 2. It is proposed as a seven-story, 202-unit apartment building with about 15,000 square feet of ground-floor retail space on three lots totaling 1.7 acres. The development has been approved.

The developer, Chicago-based CoreSpaces, has another project planned nearby — the Hub on Campus — which will be built on West University Avenue on a lot cleared by the razing of buildings that housed The Independent Florida Alligator, Caribbean Spice and Papa John’s.

Another student complex will replace America’s Best Value Inn on Southwest 13th Street. The proposal, according to city planning documents, is a four-story, 235-unit apartment building. Construction has already begun on the site.

Hotels

Hotels in Gainesville during football weekends are often booked. Developers have taken notice and opened four new, large hotels in 2018, with plans for more.

Drury Inn & Suites opened in February off Archer Road and Interstate 75. AC Hotel Gainesville Downtown, 151 NW 14th St., also opened in February. Fairfield Suites, 3877 SW 37 Blvd., opened in spring. Hotel Indigo opened this past summer in Celebration Pointe. And plans were submitted and approved for a Comfort Suites on Southwest 13th Street in the former Florida Hotel spot.

The city of Gainesville took possession of the historic hotel’s unique, Florida-shaped sign and plans to display it somewhere else in the city. The city has not yet decided where it will go.

Homes

Plans for home development out near Newberry Road and Jonesville continued in 2018.



G. W. Robinson Homes, a longtime home builder and developer in Gainesville that has built other neighborhoods near Jonesville, submitted plans earlier in the year to build about 163 single-family homes and 240 multi-family units, which should be townhouses, on a 130-acre parcel in the unincorporated community between Gainesville and Newberry. The urban sprawl west continues.