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Monday, August 27, 2012

New vision for Tampa's Channelside: 24-hour health and wellness TV channel,Brokered by Teresa Williams/ Prospera Realty


New vision for Tampa's Channelside: 24-hour health and wellness TV channel

By Drew Harwell, Times Staff Writer
In Print: Tuesday, August 21, 2012

Real Estate Brokered By: Teresa Williams/Prospera Realty
http://www.tampabay.com/news/business/retail/new-vision-for-tampas-channelside-24-hour-health-and-wellness-tv-channel/1246865
Drew Nederpelt, left, and partner Randy Gruber stand in their prospective TV studios for the Health & Wellness Channel.Drew Nederpelt, left, and partner Randy Gruber stand in their prospective TV studios for the Health & Wellness Channel.
[WILLIE J. ALLEN JR. | Times]
 
TAMPA — The minds behind what could be the Channel District's next big thing stand in a cavernous wasteland of dirt and concrete pilings, pointing out their sets.
Here, above the tread tracks, will be a future green room and makeup salon. There, a massive TV studio, with windows facing the cruise ships and the Towers of Channelside.
"We want to have that 'wow factor. TV is sexy,' " said Drew Nederpelt, a budding TV executive. "We're going to have celebrities flying in, coming here. . . . This will be the crown jewel."
Nederpelt's vision is the 24-hour Health & Wellness Channel, a TV network — part fitness, part home shopping — targeting the eyes and wallets of the fit and diet-minded.
On Monday, he stood in the fledgling network's planned headquarters: a 60,000-square-foot space, half the size of an average Target, on the ground floor of a two-towered condo complex, Grand Central at Kennedy.
When the four studios here open next summer, beaming programming to satellite networks like DirecTV, the station will likely employ around 100, many of them locals. Later, Nederpelt said, could come the holy grail: a spot on cable TV.
It's no coincidence the network will be across the bay from HSN, which its daytime product Marketplace will emulate. Several Health & Wellness executives cut their teeth at the Clearwater giant, as well as the Golf Channel. Nederpelt, too, is at home in the aisles, having overseen the development of Wal-mart brands like Great Value from the mega-retailer's Arkansas headquarters.
But this network of original programming would be deeply Tampa-based, with shows taped in nearby gyms and hosted by local yogis. Infomercial king Tony Little and '90s Tampa Bay Bucs quarterback Jeff Carlson will face the cameras, and downtown audiences could gather at the windows to watch the shows taped live.
That Nederpelt, the owner of a New York publishing house, would choose here for his mini-Hollywood could say something about the industrial-born Channel District, its once-barren condos now shaking off the dust.
With Channelside Bay Plaza fielding interest from big names like Tampa Bay Lightning owner Jeff Vinik, and downtown awash in the spotlight for the Republican National Convention, Nederpelt said the district's business capacity is set to soar.
"Hopefully," Nederpelt said, "we'll be a big part of that boom."
• • •
Here's what the network has to offer: Morning exercise shows like Spin the World, a first-person cycling ride through scenic routes like the Great Wall of China. Daytime talk and cooking shows like Grocery Aisle Ambush, where shoppers are taught the error of fatty foods.
But wait, there's more: During primetime, the station will offer a medley of game shows, relationship advice and reality TV. One, a competition show likely in the vein of The Biggest Loser, is called Drop & Give Me Everything.
In the middle will be the Marketplace, five hours of models and salespeople hawking workout gear, juicers and "nutraceuticals" like vitamins and herbal cleaners. Bestsellers will be rebroadcast in that trademark of retail TV: the early morning dead zone between 2 and 5 a.m.
The key to the network's revenue is what Nederpelt calls the "cross-pollination" (and what others call product placement) of shows and stuff to buy. If viewers like a meal being cooked, they can call (now) to order not just the ingredients, but the blender, too.
"Everything they're utilizing, we sell," vice president of television operations Randy Gruber said. "Television ends up becoming a means to a sale."
Shows, Nederpelt said, will be toned toward the baby boomers, the TV-weened generation Nielsen Research predicts will soon command 70 percent of the country's disposable income. The calls to action and impulse buys that worked for HSN could no doubt help in a network many might feel healthy just turning on.
• • •
Nederpelt is clearly confident about the idea — Oprah native Dr. Mehmet Oz, he said, called it "brilliant" — but its execution is still a ways away. Building the headquarters from the dirt, including sound dampeners for nearby train tracks, will cost about $3.5 million and take half a year.
And where that money will come from remains a sticking point. Nederpelt said his network, now self-funded, is considering four investment offers to fund the operation. He turned down a $40 million investment from a New York fund in April, he said, believing it wanted too much control.
Standing between the proposed dressing rooms and editing bays, near the "Kitchen" studio and the actual kitchen and the Health Desk with sights of Channelside, Nederpelt doesn't back down on his network's ambitions of grandeur.
"We want to spread the gospel of living long, healthy lives," he said. "We want to save lives, frankly. We want to change the world."

83 degrees:Health, Wellness Network To Move Into Grand Central At Kennedy, Tampa


83 degrees:Health, Wellness Network To Move Into Grand Central At Kennedy, Tampa

Brokered By Teresa Williams, Prospera Realty
TUESDAY, JULY 31, 2011

HEALTHRETAILTOURISM TAMPA Health & Wellness Network -- parent company of Health & Wellness Channel (HWC) -- is moving to the Channel District.

A one-stop-shop for all things life, love and longevity,HWC will develop a 60,000-square-foot space in the Grand Central at Kennedybuilding in Channelside into its new headquarters. The space is expected to include four separate television studios, a 22,000-square-foot mezzanine for offices and 38,000 square feet of studio space, production offices, engineering and storage forMarketplace products.

According to HWC Founder Drew Nederpelt, the location also comes equipped with a street level studio space, Studio B, which can be viewed from the street much like the Today Show set-up in New York City.

“Just like in Rockefeller Center, there's a courtyard at Grand Central that we can use for concerts, fitness demonstrations, cooking contests and the like,” Nederpelt says. “There will be at least one morning each week that we'll have a celebrity in town for some type of event in the courtyard, which will bring people to the area.”

Joining tenants such as Channelside Bay PlazaPowerhouse Gym and the Tampa Bay Times Forum, HWC is expected to bring in 85 employees in its first year of operation at the new location, as well as several hundred in the following years.

“We will not only increase demand for housing in the area, but also raise existing homeowners' investment values,” Nederpelt says. “Our ultimate goal is to make the Tampa Bay area the center of health and wellness in the United States. We're interested in helping along Channelside's current march toward a vibrant and bustling residential and entertainment destination, choosing to open up not only our studio, but also our Master and Studio Control to the viewing public in hopes that it will imbue the residents of the area with a sense of pride and ownership in the network and the overall health and wellness movement.

The network is slated to be in place at its new location by the end of 2012.

Writer: Alexis Quinn Chamberlain
Source: Drew Nederpelt, HWC