A Fond Look Back At The Last 30 Years Of Saddlebrook Resort

By GARY NAGER Editorial

When I first moved to Florida in June of 1993, my family actually rented an attached townhome for two years in the community around Saddlebrook Resort.

After having previously lived virtually all of my life in Long Island, Manhattan and Westchester County, NY, Saddlebrook was an absolute jewel to behold, with our small townhome development standing out as the least expensive place to live in the entire community.

Majestic million-dollar homes lined virtually all sides of Saddlebrook Way, the treelined main road connecting the Saddlebrook community to Tom Dempsey’s magnificent golf and tennis resort (photo). My sons, then five and less than two years old, begged every weekend to go spend time around the resort’s gigantic “Superpool,” the huge precursor to the Metro Lagoon at Epperson nearly 25 years before that community even began building.

I fondly remember the delicious grilled hamburgers and hot dogs served at the Superpool’s outdoor pool bar. Even Dempsey’s Steak House, which would become my favorite restaurant in Wesley Chapel a few years after we moved to Hunter’s Green in New Tampa, didn’t exist at the time. Instead, the building that would become Dempsey’s, near the starter’s tee at the Arnold Palmerdesigned Saddlebrook golf course, was home to a much less impressive restaurant known as the Little Club.

The first time I met Mr. Dempsey, who finally sold the resort last year, it was at the opening of Dempsey’s after I had moved out of the community. He said then, as he has many times since, that he opened Saddlebrook where he did not just because the land was available but because it was located within 25-30 minutes of Tampa International Airport, even though entering the gates of Saddlebrook was like entering an entirely different world from anything in or closer to the City of Tampa. And, the community where I lived was so idyllic, those gates might as well have been the gates of heaven — even with the gigantic alligators eyeballing you at every pond and, often, on the 18th hole of that Saddlebrook course.

I also remember the first time I drove from Saddlebrook to Ybor City — the closest thing in Tampa to Manhattan’s Greenwich Village, where I had previously dined at delicious restaurants and had a choice of places to catch some live music. There was only one blinking yellow traffic signal at the intersection of S.R. 54 and Bruce B. Downs (BBD) Blvd., which was then only known as C.R. 581 in Pasco County. If you can believe it, there were no other traffic signals along the full length of BBD from 54 until you reached the I-75 interchange in what was not yet even being called New Tampa. At that time, it literally would take you only 25 minutes to reach 7th Ave. in Ybor from the gates of Saddlebrook. Today, you can’t even make it to the BBD exit of I-75 from Saddlebrook in the same 25 minutes.

I can’t remember exactly when the Palmer Course, also designed by the golf legend, opened, but it was somewhere around the time that Dempsey’s did. Not long after that came the opening of the truly beautiful European-style spa at Saddlebrook.

A little less than 20 years later, I had the opportunity to stay in one of the hotel suites at Saddlebrook. It was huge, bigger than most apartments I’ve rented, but was already dated. And, even though celebrities like Gen. Norman Schwarzkopf and Jennifer Capriati still lived in the community’s spectacular homes, I could feel the grandeur that Saddlebrook once was slipping away.

Even my beloved Dempsey’s Steak House itself fell into disrepair, so much so that it was closed before Mast Capital (see story on pg. 16) purchased the resort.

In other words, even though it’s important to me that Saddlebrook should be redeveloped responsibly, it needs a major infusion of capital to return it to the splendor I remember back in 1993. I have high hopes, but also share the concerns of the community’s residents. After all, the night I proposed to my beautiful wife, we stayed over at the resort.

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