Owner of Tampa’s Champion Pizza will open a new food hall in Seminole Heights

If you’ve driven by Florida Avenue’s former Little Care Bears daycare recently, you may have noticed the speedy construction happening on the Seminole Heights building.

The owner of NYC-based chain Champion Pizza Hakki Akdeniz tells Creative Loafing Tampa Bay that a brand new food hall is slated to open out of the former plaza at 4205 N Florida Ave.

Records from the Hillsborough County Property Appraiser show that the 5,184-square-foot Seminole Heights strip mall was purchased for $750,000 in 2021 by 4205 Florida Ave LLC, an entity owned by Chong Yo, Akdeniz’s business partner and co-owner of Tampa's various Champion Pizza locations.

Both Akdeniz and Yo tell CL that their new food hall will boast 8-9 different concepts—from Korean street food and Japanese fusion to Vietnamese fare and American offerings like pizza and smashburgers.

Since the former strip mall is in the middle of a complete build out, it’s hard to pinpoint a projected opening date, although Yo is confident that it will be open by the end of the year.

While recent permit-related documents acquired through Accela state that the upcoming food hall will be called “Hikari,” ownership says that its name may be subject to change.

Construction plans depict that the food hall will occupy about 75% of the plaza itself with about 1,200 square-feet of shared dining area, bar seating, multiple kitchens, a patio and  a large walk-in cooler, while the rest of the building will be occupied by a separate, undisclosed restaurant tenant.

Akdeniz, who owns and operates Champion Pizza franchises across the country with local partners, made his debut in the Sunshine State last year. Tampa's first Champion Pizza opened out of Ichicoro’s former Seminole Heights space in 2023, a few months after the Bib Gourmand-winning ramen spot suddenly closed its doors. [content-1] Since last spring, a second location popped up in South Tampa at 138 S Dale Mabry Hwy., with another by USF getting ready to open its doors at 11802 Bruce B Downs Blvd.  Akdeniz and Yo tell CL that Tampa’s third Champion Pizza is also slated to debut later this year.

Akdeniz—a Turkey-born restauranteur with a popular rags-to-riches story that's been highlighted by The New York Times,  CNN and in a recent Discovery Channel-produced documentary —thinks that the greater Tampa Bay area can eventually support over a dozen Champion Pizza locations.

Since there are no social media pages or website for his new Seminole Heights food hall just yet, keep your eyes peeled on the construction happening at 4205 N Florida Ave. as it inches towards an opening date.

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