"There will be live music Friday and Saturday nights, pop-up markets twice a month and seasonal holiday events that will begin when tenants open for business." Courtney Bissett-Hayes of Center Connect Development made that promise in August 2025, back when The Hub at Lexington Oaks was still six buildings waiting on their tenants.
Thirteen months later, the first confirmed piece of that evening plan is a single market that runs on the third Friday of each month. That market arrives at the tail end of a long sequence. Since spring, the plaza at Wesley Chapel Boulevard and Lexington Oaks Boulevard has filled in roughly in reverse of how you'd picture a dining destination. Errand businesses opened first. Dinner came next. Then dessert. The nighttime programming came last, and it's only now starting.
If you live in Lexington Oaks, at Sentosa Lexington Oaks next door, or anywhere along the Wesley Chapel Boulevard corridor, that order explains why the Hub felt half-finished for most of the year. It also explains why it should feel different this fall.
A barber shop went first
The Hub started long before anyone could get a haircut there. In November 2023, Neighborhood News reported that construction was expected to start any day. By August 2024 it had gone vertical, with all six foundations poured and a projected opening of October 2025. The whole thing covers about 40,000 square feet across six buildings on roughly 6.5 acres, with a reported $24 million investment, and it sits on the southwest corner of the intersection in front of the Sentosa apartments.
Here's the order things actually opened, pieced together from local coverage:
- Headlines Barber Shop at 27053 Halter Loop was the first tenant to open its doors. It's a local chain with about a dozen Tampa Bay-area shops.
- La Creación Bistro at 27073 Halter Loop opened as the Hub's first restaurant.
- The Clubhouse Golf Simulator had been open a couple of weeks by mid-May. It's owned by brothers Mark and Tyler Ward, both Wesley Chapel High grads, and you can play everything from Augusta National to Heritage Isles Country Club. More than 200 people had already tried it at that point.
- Bonchon Korean Fried Chicken at 27093 Halter Loop started serving on May 20.
- Lexington Nail Lab at 27105 Halter Loop and Pet Wants at 26939 Halter Loop were both open by early July.
- Hummus Republic at 26962 Halter Loop opened July 20.
- Farmer's Milk at 27049 Halter Loop and Cinnaholic both opened in August. Cinnaholic opened on August 21, and local reports put Farmer's Milk's opening on either August 17 or August 25.
Half of the first six businesses are places you stop at on the way to something else: a haircut, a manicure, a bag of dog food. That's a useful mix for the neighborhood behind the plaza. Still, a barber shop and a pet store don't give anyone a reason to stay past dark. The restaurants that came next changed that.
Dinner, then dessert, on the same stretch of Halter Loop
Hummus Republic gave the Hub a build-your-own dinner. Annu and Ash Kumar own the franchise, which belongs to a California-based chain with more than 50 locations in 17 states. Neighborhood News noted that it gives the area a second Mediterranean bowl option, after the CAVA that opened in the former MOD Pizza on the south side of S.R. 56.
The bigger shift came in late summer, when sweet shops started arriving close together. Cinnaholic is the second Tampa Bay store for Thiago and Juliana Mendes, who also run the South Howard Avenue location in South Tampa. They signed the Wesley Chapel lease in April 2025, almost 16 months before opening day. Everything on the menu is plant-based. You start with a cinnamon roll and choose from more than 20 frosting flavors. The detail that matters for evenings is the hours. Regular hours are 10 a.m. to 10 p.m. daily, according to a post the Sentosa Lexington Oaks community shared before the opening.
Farmer's Milk, at 27049 Halter Loop, opened that same month. Next up is Urban Crunch Creamery Cafe at 26935 Halter Loop. A company representative told What Now Tampa it's planning a mid-October grand opening, and the Wesley Chapel Community Website repeated that on October 3. This will be Urban Crunch's third storefront, after Odessa and The Hub at Bexley. The family-owned business started with ice cream trucks in 2021, and its flavor list includes Apple Strudel, Insta Graham and Lets Go Bananas. Urban Crunch is splitting its space with Brew Bar Self Pour, which a July update said was still in fit-out.
Once Urban Crunch opens, one plaza will have cinnamon rolls, a café and bakery, and an ice cream counter within a short walk of each other. A single dessert shop is something you drive to. Three of them next to a shaded courtyard make it easy to stick around after dinner, and that's the kind of place the developer described back in 2025.
The third Friday is where the evening plan begins
The courtyard was always meant to be the center of the Hub. In 2025, Bissett-Hayes called it "a great, upscale place for families to dine and enjoy," with nine artificial trees shading a large gathering area. The plan changed a little along the way. A 2023 description mentioned 12 trees.
That space now has its first scheduled programming. Florida Penguin Productions runs the Friday Moonlight Market at The Hub Lexington Oaks on third Fridays from 5 to 9 p.m. The listed address is 26967 Halter Loop, and the series kicked off September 18. The promoter's listing reads, "Lexington Oaks is officially open and we are kicking off the fun with our Moonlight Market series on 3rd Fridays." The event's Eventbrite page advertises vendors, music and food, but it doesn't name any performers.
If the third-Friday pattern holds, the next three dates are:
- Friday, October 16, likely the first market with Urban Crunch open, if its mid-October target holds
- Friday, November 20
- Friday, December 18
I worked those out from the calendar. The promoter hasn't posted them as individual dates, so check the event listing before you head over. I also couldn't find a recap or photos confirming the September 18 kickoff actually took place, and no separate Halloween or fall event is listed for the Hub this month.
The Hub at Bexley in Land O' Lakes gives a good idea of where this could go. Bexley opened in 2022 and comes from the same Center Connect team. Its promoter's vendor page lists Moonlight Markets on second and fourth Fridays, though an Eventbrite listing gives a different schedule. Bexley also books weekend music. The weekend of September 18, The Unwinding played Friday from 6 to 9 p.m. and Mike Delay played Saturday from 6 to 9 p.m. That's roughly what Lexington was promised. So far Lexington has one market a month and no published weekend music schedule. The developer's own project page still says "Coming Fall 2026," which reads like a team that doesn't consider the place finished yet.
Tenants announced but not yet open
Bissett-Hayes has said her team prefers not to name tenants until they're committed. Even so, several announced names still haven't opened as of early October:
- Saigon Pho Wesley Chapel: in May the owners hoped to open by July, and an August roundup still listed it as coming.
- The Monk's Indian Fusion and Tampa Joe's: both appeared on the planned-tenant list in August.
- Brew Bar Self Pour: the brand's own page labels its Lexington Hub location "coming soon."
- Island Grill: named in 2025, with no opening date reported since.
The Landing Bar & Grill showed up on tenant lists in 2025 and April 2026. A later August roundup names Tampa Joe's and leaves The Landing off, and no coverage explains the change. Saigon Pho and The Monk's would add two more dinner options. Brew Bar would add the plaza's first self-pour drinks. Each new restaurant makes a third-Friday evening at the Hub easier to plan.
Getting there this week
The Hub sits close to I-75, so the interstate is the easy way in for a lot of Wesley Chapel. Plan around one project first. FDOT is reworking the southbound I-75 ramp at Exit 279, which is CR 54 and Wesley Chapel Boulevard. It's a $1.7 million project starting October 5, with overnight lane closures from Monday, October 5 through Thursday, October 8, and estimated completion in spring 2027. The October 16 market falls the week after those overnight closures.
Shell works across Wesley Chapel, and she keeps up with spots like the Hub because they shape day-to-day life for the families and downsizers she works with. If you live near Lexington Oaks and want to know whether a plaza like this shows up in what your home is worth, or you're house-hunting within walking distance of a third-Friday market, Shells Florida Realty can walk you through it street by street. When it's time to buy or sell, call Shell!
