Your top choice for compassionateIn-Home Care in Sun Center City, FL

The body of a Sun City Center man was discovered Feb. 3 at 2006 W. Del Webb Blvd., when his foreclosed home was sold and forcibly entered by the purchaser.

The homeowner and occupant at the time was Wolfgang Hauth; however, the Hillsborough County Medical Examiner’s Office, which has custody of the body, is investigating the cause of death and has yet to officially confirm its identity.

According to several sources, Hauth lived alone and was thought to be reclusive, a man with no known friends or living relatives. He was two years in arrears on paying his Sun City Center Community Association and Magnolia Lakes Property Owners Association fees. He had no emergency contact on file, and his utilities reportedly had been turned off.

At various times in 2021 and early 2022, Hauth was confirmed to be in the hospital or in a skilled living facility.

The Hillsborough County Sheriff’s Office has records of several requests made over the past three years for welfare checks on the property, which were conducted by several HSCO deputies. Each time the house was secured, and no probable cause was found to enter the home.

Some in the community believe deputies should have entered the home during those checks; however, according to department policy and procedure, they cannot do so without probable cause (an open door, sighting a body, smelling an odor, seeing flies buzzing around), exigent circumstances (hearing someone cry out or scream) or a warrant signed by a judge. All of the welfare checks were documented.

Two years ago, an HCSO deputy responded to a request for a welfare check by the concerned neighbor on an 88-year-old man living in Riverview. The garage door and door of his house had been left open for two days, which gave the deputy probable cause to enter.

Her entry was recorded on her body cam. When she identified herself and stepped inside, the deputy was threatened by the tenant with a shotgun. The deputy repeatedly pleaded with the man to drop his weapon, and when he cornered her in a spare room, she was forced to shoot and kill him.

Ways to avoid remaining undiscovered

There are a number of things that can be done to ensure you or your neighbor are assisted during a time of need. It’s important we all take personal responsibility for our welfare.

Folks who live alone are especially vulnerable.

• Get a Lifeline alert. The Sun City Center Men’s Club offers three different systems: a button the wearer pushes if assistance is needed, a fall detection system to alert the response center if you fall and are unable to push the button and a GPS-based button. Financial assistance is available, based on need.

• Purchase a smart watch with fall detection software.

• Take part in a phone tree with your neighbors, which involves regular calls to check on your welfare and that of your neighbors.

• Fill out a key locater card with the Sun City Center Emergency Squad, which lets the squad know the location of your key should they need to enter your home in an emergency.

Anyone with a key has implied consent to enter your home and can be accompanied by law enforcement, if requested.

Today let's take a head-to-head look at two of the biggest 55+ communities in Florida, The Villages and Sun City Center.

History

While The Villages is bigger, more popular, and more famous, Sun City Center has actually been around longer than The Villages.

Del Webb began Sun City Center in the early 1960's, about a decade before Orange Blossom Gardens which would later become The Villages started, and it has been through a number of developers over the years.

While The Villages continues to grow today under the leadership of the original developer's family, Sun City Center is winding down new home development with just a few new home opportunities left.

It’s interesting to note though that essentially modeling the Sun City concept of plentiful, well-maintained amenities and nearby golf cart accessible commercial development is what helped turn things around for The Villages.

The Villages was a struggling mobile-home development before implementing the changes to be more like Sun City communities.

Location

A lot of future Florida retirees hearing about The Villages for the first time wish it was closer to either coast. It's about as far inland as you can get. But that does come with some benefits, which include being more insulated from the effects of hurricanes, and partly as a result, lower homeowners insurance rates. Plus, the southern parts of The Villages where the bulk of new construction is taking place are within an hour of Orlando.

While Sun City Center is not directly on the coast, it is 30 minutes south of Tampa, 30 minutes north of Sarasota, and 30 minutes to the Gulf Beaches. There are three airports less than an hour away. Professional football, baseball, and hockey are also less than an hour away.

Size

Despite having started earlier, Sun City Center is much smaller than The Villages.

The Villages is home to more than 130,000 residents and Sun City Center is home to around 20,000.

In the grand scheme of things, those are both very big compared to most other Florida retirement communities, but again, they are quite different from each other.

More people in The Villages means more potential friends, more clubs, and a bigger social scene. Sun City Center has all of those things, just on a much smaller scale.

Amenities

With more than 700 holes of golf, The Villages is the biggest golf community in the world, so there’s no competition there, though Sun City Center does have a few hundred holes of golf spread across multiple clubs and courses.

Just like The Villages, Sun City Center has multiple clubhouses, swimming pools, tennis courts, pickleball courts, softball fields and more, but again, just on a smaller scale than you would see in The Villages.

As I mentioned before, Sun City pioneered this concept of a highly-amenticized retirement communty, but The Villages has just taken it to a whole other level.

The main difference I see here is that because The Villages is still growing, lots of new amenities are still being built, and even some older ones are being refreshed.

While they of course provide lots of benefits for current residents, amenities are also marketing pieces to attract new potential residents, and nobody knows that or uses it to their advantage quite like The Villages does.

Real Estate

For the most part, the sizes and types of houses are similar between The Villages and Sun City Center.

However, in addition to single-family homes, Sun City Center also offers what they call “paired villas” … essentially a townhome or duplex. These are basically “maintenance-free” and offer “lock it and leave it” convenience.

There are a few very limited areas in The Villages where you can find townhouses like this, but it's something a lot of people wish there was more of in The Villages.

The price ranges between the two communities are also quite a bit different.

In The Villages you can find something from the $200k's up to more than a million dollars.

At Sun City Center, while you can find a lot of homes in the $200k range (or even sometimes less), the high end seems to top out around $600k.

Which community should you choose?

The decision here really comes down to your personal preferences.

Do you want to be near the coast or is being in the middle of the state fine by you?

Do you believe bigger is better, or do you think you'd prefer a more intimate setting?

Do you prefer a community where new homes and amenities are still being developed, or are you happy with a community that won't get much bigger than it already is?

Only you can answer those questions. But whichever way you choose, I don't think you could go wrong with either Sun City Center or The Villages.

If you are leaning more towards The Villages, be sure to check out my website and book by the same name, Inside the Bubble.

If you have an interest in learning more about new home and resale opportunities that exist at Sun City Center, just fill out the form below:

SUN CITY CENTER, Fla. — It’s not often you meet a world champion in anything, let alone a world champion in one of the more interesting sports out there.

What You Need To Know

When it comes to lawn bowling, no one is better than Anne Nunes.

“I'm, like, in my element," she said. "This is just peaceful, it's relaxing in a way.”

Nunes lives in Southern California and became passionate about lawn bowling through her dad, who started rolling in the 1990s.

“I'll come out and watch it,” Nunes said. “Might be a good way to spend some time with Dad.”

It not only created an activity to bond over with her father but created a foundation that led to this past September when she bowled in the world singles Champion of Champions on the Gold Coast of Australia — becoming the first ever American to take home the title.

“They're like, ‘Well, you can leave it in Australia, or you can take it with you,’” Nunes said of winning the title. “I’m like, ‘Oh, this is going home with me for a year.’”

Now, she continues her title defense at the Sun City Center Lawn Bowling Club for the 2023 National Championship tournament.

It’s an event that the club here has put on a few times, but when it includes star power, like Nunes, it makes this year’s competition significant.

“When somebody says, ‘Oh, I get to play against the world champion,’ and I'm like, ‘Oh, no, don't say that,’” Nunes said.

But for people who don’t have to compete against her, like Bob Fladung, who lives in Sun City Center and is competing in men’s singles this week, it’s a privilege to see a master of the sport he loves dearly.

“I'm hoping that she can defend so she can go back and defend the world championship,” Fladung said.

For Fladung, he not only competes, but also coaches.

“I enjoy working with the new bowlers,” he said. “I used to coach Little League and to see somebody gain confidence is such a great boost.”

And confidence is key for so many bowlers here looking to take home the title of national champion in a unique sport like this.

Despite being a world champion lawn bowler, Nunes still has to have a full-time job.

She works as an aerospace engineer for Boeing in Southern California.

This week’s tournament started on Tuesday and ends on Saturday.

The Fifties Decade: those post-war years are noted in history as an era of economic growth and prosperity for those willing to work hard. Many middle-class seniors, with assured income from Social Security and pension checks, left their workplaces with renewed confidence about selling their homes and relocating for retirement.

Del Webb, an Arizona developer with vision, didn’t want to just sell homes to those retirees seeking a warmer climate. He wanted to sell an active lifestyle, so in 1960, he built two Sun City communities, one near Phoenix and a second in southern California. He quickly recognized senior migration eastward, so he built Sun City Center, the first planned active retirement community in Florida. (Note: The “Center” was added to the name to avoid confusion with a Sun City community south of Ruskin.)

At a Sun City Center Community Association (CA) member meeting on March 22, History Society Chair Susan Muise and member David Lemley introduced a community project to honor SCC’s place in history. The marker will be erected this fall adjacent to the SCC Community Association administrative building.

To be clear, this designation applies only to the section of the Sun City Center postal zip code (33573) that was, in fact, started by Del Webb. Residents are members of the CA, which manages the member-owned amenities.

At that association meeting on March 22, a video presentation by Muise and Lemley showed members the marker’s attractive design with information about SCC on one side and about Del Webb on the other. Muise then described the next phase—a community fund drive to raise the estimated cost of $4,000. Checks payable to SCCCA or cash can be dropped off at the CA office, 1009 N. Pebble Beach Boulevard, Monday-Friday during office hours of 8 a.m. to 3 p.m. or at the History Society, 901 Cherry Hills Drive, in the Information Center on Tuesday afternoons or Thursday mornings. The donation must be in an envelope marked “History Society/Historic Marker Project.”

The Sun City Center History Society, led for many years by John Bowker and now by Muise, is a CA committee. Members work diligently to preserve the community’s history. Muise attributes the marker concept to Marilyn Miller, a former board member and SCC History Society proponent. “The project stalled when Marilyn moved from Sun City Center a few years ago but was revived last year when David Lemley joined us. His interest in the concept was piqued, and he ran with it by finalizing the research and proposing a design,” she said.“I joined the history society after reading the new 60-year SCC history book. I wanted to learn more, and what I discovered was a much more interesting and diverse past than I ever expected. I give credit to the long line of trailblazers for the community’s success and the history society for preserving the story,” Lemley said.

“We are making this a community project so members can be a part of it. If only 2,000 of our 11,500 members donate $2 each, we will have enough,” Muise said.

CHICAGO and VANCOUVER, British Columbia, Oct. 25, 2023 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- RISE Dispensaries, a rapidly growing cannabis retail chain owned by Green Thumb Industries Inc. (“Green Thumb” or “the Company”) (CSE: GTII) (OTCQX: GTBIF), today announced that RISE Dispensary Sun City Center, the Company’s tenth retail location in Florida and 86th nationwide, will open on October 27^th. RISE Dispensary Sun City Center will welcome patients with a grand opening celebration on November 14^th, where profits from the day will be donated to Minorities for Medical Marijuana. The event will include a ribbon-cutting ceremony with representatives from the South Hillsborough Chamber of Commerce.

“As we near five years of caring for medical cannabis patients in Florida, we are excited to expand our presence to ten locations in the state with the opening of RISE Sun City Center,” said Green Thumb President Anthony Georgiadis. “Our team is passionate about building strong relationships with the communities we serve, and we look forward to supporting Minorities for Medical Marijuana as part of our new store opening charity donation tradition.”

Minorities for Medical Marijuana (M4MM) is a purpose-driven nonprofit organization that provides education and programs to build a more accessible and equitable cannabis industry, such as their Safe Access initiative, which hosts community-centric events targeting low income and veteran patients to help them learn about and obtain a medical marijuana card at no cost. In addition to the RISE Sun City Center grand opening donation, M4MM also serves as the recipient of RISE Dispensaries’ Round Up Program across Florida, where patients have the option to round up to the nearest dollar when making an in-store purchase in support of the organization.

Green Thumb joined the Florida community in 2018 and operates two production facilities in Ocala and Homestead where the Company produces its branded products. Green Thumb’s cultivation and manufacturing practices reflect the highest quality standards to ensure all its products offer a true-to-plant, consistent experience. The Company’s retail brand, RISE Dispensaries, is committed to expanding access to well-being through cannabis and making a positive impact on the communities it serves. In addition to RISE Sun City Center, there are nine other RISE Dispensaries in Florida, including locations in Bonita Springs, Brandon, Deerfield Beach, Fruitland Park, Hallandale Beach, Kendall, Oviedo, Pinellas Park and West Palm Beach, with delivery services available at each location. All RISE Dispensaries in Florida offer products from Green Thumb’s award-winning family of brands, including RYTHM premium flower and full spectrum vapes, Dogwalkers pre-rolls, Good Green flower, and &Shine flower, pre-rolls, vapes and chews.

Located at 1509 Rickenbacker Drive, Sun City Center, FL 33573, RISE Dispensary Sun City Center is open on Monday through Saturday from 9 a.m. to 8 p.m. and Sunday from 11 a.m. to 6 p.m.

For information on how to become a medical cannabis patient, email RISEmed@gtigrows.com. For more information on RISE Dispensaries' locations, product offerings or other services, visit www.risecannabis.com.

About RISE Dispensaries RISE Dispensaries, a fast-growing national cannabis retailer founded under Chicago-based Green Thumb Industries, promotes social conscience, community impact and well-being through the power of cannabis. Since opening its doors in 2015, RISE has grown its national footprint to 86 retail locations across 14 U.S. markets and serves millions of patients and customers each year. RISE Dispensaries lead innovative access to cannabis by offering home delivery, virtual pharmacist consultations, mobile pre-ordering and the first consumption lounge east of the Mississippi at RISE Mundelein, Illinois (services vary by market). RISE locations offer a wide variety of products and award-winning brands including &Shine, Beboe, Dogwalkers, Doctor Solomon’s, Good Green, incredibles and RYTHM, produced by owner Green Thumb Industries. RISE Rewards members enjoy insider perks, points and first access to products and merchandise. More information is available at www.risecannabis.com.

Cautionary Note Regarding Forward-Looking InformationThis press release contains statements which may constitute “forward-looking information” within the meaning of applicable securities laws. Forward-looking information is often identified by the words “may,” “would,” “could,” “should,” “will,” “intend,” “plan,” “anticipate,” “believe,” “estimate,” “expect,” or similar expressions and include information regarding the expected growth of the Company. The forward-looking information in this news release is based upon the expectations of future events which management believes to be reasonable. Any forward-looking information speaks only as of the date on which it is made, and, except as required by law, Green Thumb does not undertake any obligation to update or revise any forward-looking information, whether as a result of new information, future events or otherwise. The forward-looking information in this news release is subject to a variety of known and unknown risks, uncertainties and other factors that could cause actual events or results to differ from those expressed or implied. When considering these forward-looking statements, readers should keep in mind the risk factors and other cautionary statements in Green Thumb’s public filings with the applicable securities regulatory authorities, including with the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission on its website at www.sec.gov and with Canada’s SEDAR+ at www.sedarplus.ca, as well as on Green Thumb’s website at https://investors.gtigrows.com, including in the “Risk Factors” section of the Company’s Annual Report on Form 10-K for the year ended December 31, 2022.

Investor Contact:Andy GrossmanEVP, Capital Markets & Investor RelationsInvestorRelations@gtigrows.com310-622-8257