From burritos to bowling. From coffee to comestibles. This edition of Comings & Goings has something for everyone.

(Yes, I had to stretch on comestibles to keep the alliteration going).

It’s been awhile since my last column so there is much to cover. So without further fanfare, let’s get started.

Chipotle

Chipotle Mexican Grill is tentatively scheduled to open its first restaurant in Citrus County this summer.

Located at 911 Main St. in Inverness, Chipotle specializes in tacos, burritos, quesadillas and burrito bowls that are made-to-order in front of customers.

The franchise is at the same spot that used to be home to Joe’s Family Restaurant. After 28 years, the family decided to open a smaller, 155-seat building nearby at 1754 U.S. 41 North, a former art studio next to the Roller Barn.

Chipotle has 211 restaurants in Florida and over 3,000 globally.

Bowlero

Speaking of bowls (non-burrito), the new Bowlero sign went up this month in Crystal River, replacing the family-run Manatee Lanes that had been there for more than 40 years.

Bowlero, at 7715 State Road 44, is a Virginia-based chain.

“From our signature blacklight lanes to our sleek laneside loungers to our huge HD video walls, our stunning locations feature modern, upscale amenities and a retro-cool vibe that makes every party a little more memorable,” is how the chain describes itself on its website.

Bowlero Corp. is the largest 10-pin bowling operator in the world with more than 325 bowling centers across North America. In 2019, Bowlero acquired the Professional Bowlers Association,

To learn more, visit https://www.bowlero.com.

Aldi

The German-based grocery store is building two stores in Citrus County: one at the under-construction Shoppes of Black Diamond at the northwest intersection of County Roads 491 and 486 in Lecanto and the other at the northwest corner of State Road 44 and Forest Drive in Inverness

The Lecanto site is nowhere near ready.

The ground-clearing, utility work and other infrastructure should be completed on the Shoppes by the end of the first quarter of 2023 – weather permitting, Joe Cappuccilli, with Gulf to Lakes Real Estate Inc., told the Chronicle recently.

Land-clearing at the Aldi in Inverness has not begun so don’t look for that location to open anytime soon.

Starbucks

The Shoppes at Black Diamond will also be home to the Seattle-based Starbucks coffee chain.

Starbucks recently filed a site development permit with the county, which is required before the issuance of a building permit. Look for it to open about the same time as Aldi.

The coffee chain will also build a standalone store off State Road 44 in Inverness. Insight Credit Union will be torn down to make way for Starbucks. A timetable for construction and opening has not been announced.

Jersey Mike’s

Wanted to let sub fans know Jersey Mike’s opens March 22, at 6826 State Road 44, inside the Publix-anchored Crystal Springs Plaza.

No burritos but lots of other comestibles.

Oh, the wind! It has been a wild couple of days around here. The nasty nor'easter that drove in 40-60 mph wind gusts, along with the rain and snow early this week, is now centered off the coast of Nova Scotia, Canada.

So, good news for windswept New Jerseyans: Conditions have already calmed down significantly.

Additionally, as high pressure builds in from the southwest Thursday, we will enjoy a beautiful springlike weather day. Calm, dry, mild — can't ask for much more than that.

Our next weathermaker will be a cold front arriving on Friday. That will drive in clouds. And a couple rounds of spotty rain showers. It will kick up a stiff breeze. Temperatures will fall back by about 10 degrees for the last weekend of winter. And that's about it.

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As of this writing, the top wind gust in New Jersey is 17 mph. Much calmer than NJ's top gust of 62 mph over the last 48 hours. (At Atlantic City Tuesday afternoon.)

Thursday will be bright and sunny, with some passing clouds. Just like Wednesday, but with much lighter winds. Northwesterly gusts may touch 20 mph at times Thursday — but it will be a much calmer, more pleasant day overall.

We are starting Thursday morning with temperatures in the 20s (inland) and 30s (cities and coast). Pretty chilly. But we will warm up quickly, averaging mid 50s Thursday afternoon.

There is some nuance with that forecast high temperature. The cool spot may be the Jersey Shore, if a sea breeze forms. (The land mass warmer up faster than the water, a local circulation sets up, and blows chilly ocean-influenced air toward the beaches.) Temps may be stuck in the 40s there.

Meanwhile, I would not be surprised to see 60+ degrees in inland South Jersey.

Thursday night stays quiet and dry. Expect partly cloudy skies, with low temperatures around the 40-degree mark.

We will hold on to above-normal temperatures for one more day, to close out the work week. However, things will turn somewhat unsettled by the end of the day.

Although you may catch a glimmer of sunshine early on Friday, clouds will fill in pretty quickly and thoroughly by midday. The first batch of showers will arrive Friday afternoon. They will be spotty (spread apart) and light (not heavy). You might be able to skip the umbrella altogether.

High temperatures will come close to 60 degrees.

A cold front will push northwest to southeast across New Jersey Friday night, setting up another chance for a quick rain shower. Winds will also start to pick up, into the "breezy" category.

A third and final rain chance will come Saturday morning, mainly along the southern coast. This could be the heaviest and steadiest of the bunch — still, don't expect much.

The sun should come out by Saturday afternoon. But as our new cooler air mass takes root, it will be a breezy and cooler day. Highs come down to around 50 degrees. Close to normal for mid-March.

The last full day of winter! And it will be the coldest of the next week — how appropriate.

20s in the morning. Mid 40s in the afternoon. Mostly sunny and dry. But also breezy. Not terrible. Just chilly.

Early next week should be quiet, with a warming trend slated for the first few days of Spring. 50-ish on Monday, then mid 50s Tuesday and Wednesday. Our next chance of raindrops should hold off until the second half of next week. And I do not see any threat of wintry weather on the horizon.

Dan Zarrow is Chief Meteorologist for Townsquare Media New Jersey. Follow him on Facebook or Twitter for the latest forecast and realtime weather updates.

Both the Iowa men’s and women’s basketball teams enter this week with identical goals: win two consecutive basketball games to earn a berth to the Sweet Sixteen. Earning a spot in the tournament’s second weekend would mean something slightly different to each team. For the men, it would end a drought that extends back to 1999 and would be Fran McCaffery’s first ever Sweet Sixteen bid as a head coach. For the women, it would help erase the memory of last season’s upset loss to #10-seeded Creighton in the Round of 32, which was a bitter end to an otherwise excellent season. Fundamentally, however, earning a bid to the Sweet Sixteen would mean the same thing for both programs: being only four victories away from a national championship.

Of the two Iowa squads, the men face a tougher path to the Sweet Sixteen by virtue of their #8 seed. The Hawkeyes’ first step involves defeating #9-seeded Auburn on Thursday evening, a team coached by former Iowa assistant Bruce Pearl that is one year removed from a 28-win campaign and four years removed from a trip to the Final Four. One might say that the Tigers have been inconsistent this season, but that is actually misleading, as Auburn has actually been consistently bad since late January after playing like one of the country’s elite teams for the first three months of play. While Auburn got off to a scintillating 16-3 start to the year, they proceeded to lose nine of their last thirteen games and saw cracks exposed in what had been one of the top defenses in college basketball from November-most of January.

Auburn poses an intriguing matchup for the Hawkeyes. Auburn is somehow even worse on the road than Iowa is (the Tigers have not won away from Neville Arena since January 21), yet they will have the luxury of playing only a two-hour drive from their home campus and should have a clear majority of fans in the stands. The Tigers also boast several skilled wing and post defenders they can throw at Iowa’s leading scorers Kris Murray and Filip Rebraca to slow them down, and have held opponents to only 46.8% shooting from two this season thanks in large part to their stout interior defense. Second-team All-SEC guard Wendell Green Jr. is also the kind of quick, shifty point guard who has often given Iowa trouble over the years, and there is a real chance he will be able to frustrate Iowa’s guards off the dribble for much of the game. However, Auburn is a bad outside shooting team (31.4% from three on the year) that is not equipped to punish Iowa for its often lax perimeter defense, and has often struggled with allowing offense rebounds (they rank 331^st in the country in most offensive rebounds gathered by their opponents). Iowa’s guards should also have a size and strength advantage over Auburn’s backcourt, so don’t be surprised if Tony Perkins is able to get to the rim or if Payton Sandfort manages to get shots off against players like Green (5’11”), K.D. Johnson (6’1”), and Zed Jasper (6’1”).

If the Hawks manage to beat Auburn, they will have to knock off the #1 seed Houston Cougars to reach the Sweet Sixteen (assuming Northern Kentucky doesn’t pull an historic upset in the Round of 64). Houston plays arguably the most suffocating defense in college basketball. The Cougars have the best defensive rating in the country (87.2), allow the second fewest points per game (56.5), and are ranked fourth in KenPom’s adjusted defensive efficiency metric (89.6). Point guard Jamal Shead is one of the best lockdown defenders in the sport, and his tenacious perimeter defense is one of the key reasons Houston has held its opponents to the second lowest three-point shooting percentage in basketball (27.8%). When the Cougars have the ball, they play at one of the slowest paces in the country (343^rd in the nation in adjusted tempo according to KenPom), but also rank 11^th in adjusted offensive efficiency, proving that their low offensive output is often a feature rather than a bug.

Houston should have a clear advantage over an Iowa team that has been inconsistent on the road and played poorly to end the season, but there is reason to believe the Cougars may not be at full strength. First-team All-American guard Marcus Sasser sat out Houston’s AAC Championship game against Memphis last Sunday after suffering a groin injury the day prior, resulting in a Houston loss to a team that now shares the same NCAA Tournament seeding as Iowa. Sasser is the engine that drives the Houston offense and a key cog to their defense, and the Hawkeyes would have more than a fighting chance to pull the upset if he misses the game or plays at less than full strength. If Sasser is back in action, however, the Hawkeyes will need to play their most complete game of the year and shoot better from three than the 28.2% of shots they have made away from Carver-Hawkeye Arena so far this season to advance to the Sweet Sixteen.

The Iowa women have an easier path to advance to the second weekend of the tournament, but not one that is without potential pitfalls. The #2-seeded Hawkeyes’ first round matchup comes against the Southeastern Louisiana Lady Lions, a team that won 21 games en route to a Southland Conference tournament championship. This matchup will be an interesting battle of strength on strength, as Iowa’s nation-leading scoring offense (87.5 points per game) takes on one of the country’s top defenses which holds opponent to only 54.5 points per game. Earlier this year, Southeastern Louisiana limited LSU (the nation’s third-highest scoring offense) to more than 20 points fewer than their season average while allowing only 41% shooting from the field. Yet the Hawkeyes should have a clear size and athleticism advantage over their opponents. The Lady Lions have only one player in their rotation who stands 6’0” or above, and Iowa’s guards should be able to exploit this on both sides of the ball.

Should Iowa avoid the upset in the Round of 64, they will play the winner of the game between #7 Florida State and #10 Georgia. If the Seminoles advance, fans will be treated to a matchup between two high-scoring offenses (FSU averages 80.1 points per game, good for 10^th in the nation) and two elite guards in Iowa’s Caitlin Clark and Florida State’s Ta’Niya Latson. The ACC Rookie of the Year is averaging 21.3 points per game in her first year playing college basketball and has more than lived up to her five-star pedigree. Between Latson and defensive stalwart Makayla Timpson, the Seminoles have enough weapons to give the Hawkeyes a run for their money. One key matchup to watch would be whether low post weapon Monika Czinano and the Hawkeyes, who lead the nation in two-point field goal percentage (59.5%), will be able to control the paint against an FSU team that is eighth in college basketball in both rebounds (43.2) and blocks per game (5.5) and is holding opponents to only 38.9% shooting from two this season.

Georgia, meanwhile, is led by a talented duo of UCF transfers in Diamond Battles and Brittney Smith. Battles is one of the toughest perimeter defenders in college basketball and could provide a fun but challenging matchup for the dynamic Caitlin Clark, while Smith is an efficient low-post scorer who led her conference in both player efficiency rating (26.5) and win shares-per 40 minutes (.246) last season. Florida State may be the more talented of Iowa’s two potential opponents, but Georgia would provide the biggest contrast in styles. Caitlin Clark alone makes as many three-pointers per game as Georgia does as a team (3.4), and Iowa would have to either successfully dictate its style to the Bulldogs or adapt the aggressive, defensive, interior-based brand of basketball its opponent wants to play.

Both the Iowa men and women have had strong seasons, and a Sweet Sixteen berth would help validate their successful campaigns. While the Iowa women seem to have more legitimate championship aspirations than the men, both teams have proven capable of beating elite competition when they are on their game, as evidenced by their respective late-season victories over highly-regarded Indiana squads. The first weekend of the NCAA Tournament will give them a chance to add to their already impressive resumes by notching two more wins against top-tier opponents.

+20000

Get ready for two massive residential developments headed to Lecanto.

Earlier this year, news broke about the retail explosion planned at the intersections of County Roads 486 and 491.

Big names like Target, Texas Roadhouse, Aldi and Starbucks are coming.

Now, it’s time for the housing boom to accommodate all the new folks who will be moving to that area because of the stores, the future Suncoast Parkway interchange off County Road 486 and the plethora of services such as the YMCA and a new rehab center on the way.

Amber Ridge, which will wrap around the retail area on the southwest corner of the intersection, goes before the Planning & Development Commission on Dec. 15 and then to county commissioners Jan. 24.

Joe Cappuccilli, with Gulf to Lakes Real Estate Inc., is brokering the transaction for CR486 LLC, which is selling 136 acres to Dix Development of Lake Mary, Florida. The engineer for the project is Ocala-based Pigeon-Ardurra.

Amber Ridge encompasses 136 acres in the county’s Central Ridge area and is currently zoned as medium density residential that allows up to four dwelling units per acre. But this project will actually have three units per acre, “less than what is allowed under the current zoning,” Cappuccilli said.

The property is on the southern boundary of Black Diamond.

The single-family homes are expected to be about 2,000 square feet. A community clubhouse and pool will be built and 20 percent of the development would remain open space.

There will be four separate access points into Amber Ridge, with the main one being off C.R. 491.

The two-story townhomes will have four to eight attached units per building. A portion of the townhomes will have Black Diamond Ranch Golf Course visibility and be gated and the other would overlook the Target plaza.

There will be connectivity to the YMCA on its eastern side as well as the new rehab center going up.

Apartments

In a separate housing project, look for the building of a new apartment complex on 15.5 acres by the new 40,000-foot rehabilitation center off C.R. 486 in Lecanto.

Cappuccilli said 300 apartments are planned, at 20 units per acre. These will be market-rate pricing (not state-subsidized) to accommodate the county’s workforce, he said.

The apartment buildings will be three stories and will not abut Black Diamond, Cappuccilli said. They will also have access to the YMCA.

What’s driving all this?

“The developer certainly feels good about the retail coming in and sees it as a huge selling product,” Cappuccilli said.

But it’s not just convenient access to stores.

It’s the future easy-on, easy-off Suncoast Parkway interchange by the developments and the affordability of the land.

“That is why these developers are starting to come to this market,” he said.

Dix Development is already marketing the site on its website and describes it like this:

“Expect a community that promotes parks, recreation and walk-ability. With the YMCA adjacent to the community, all the amenities you can imagine are at your fingertips.

“Maybe you want to use your golf cart on one of the many wide multi-use trails and visit the Shoppes at Black Diamond.”

NORFOLK, Va. (WAVY) — Black entrepreneurs will take over downtown Norfolk for Black Diamond Weekend, beginning Thursday and extending through Saturday.

The three-day businesses conference offers 50 different sessions. The sessions are split into different tracks, including Women Who Lead, Black Forbes List, Commerce Street, Impactology and The Art of Possible.

The courses include information on budgeting, real estate, cryptocurrency, the cannabis industry and Black art creatives.

Blair Durham, the president of Black BRAND, wants to help keep minority owners in business.

“There are thousands of Black-owned businesses in Hampton Roads,” Durham said. “We are underrepresented if you compared to the percentage of the population that is Black.”

“When you look at the data by year three, most of the businesses don’t exist. If we could help businesses get over that hump by providing access to knowledge. What a difference that would make in Hampton Roads! I think we’ll see more job creation and more entrepreneurship. That’s why we exist! We want to see those businesses succeed.”

Black Diamond Weekend is celebrating its seventh year assisting business owners, students, and retirees.

“Often times we start with just a passion, and we have no idea how we can translate that into a business.”

Last week, Virginia Beach native and music icon Pharrell Williams hosted the Mighty Dream Forum. Through Williams’ Black Ambition foundation, 31 different Black and Latino entrepreneurs received $2.5 million.

“The time is now! We’re seeing so much philanthropic, government, [and] corporate support behind all things Black entrepreneurship. For him to do something like this, it really just elevates and amplifies the work that we’re doing in Hampton Roads!”

“Partnering very closely with Mighty Dream Forum and the timing of that three-day event relative to ours,” Durham said. “Now for those that are in business day to day. We’re providing some actionable steps through this conference that they can take with them into what they are looking to build in 2023.”

Black BRAND awarded three owners $4,000 grants during the PitchBLACK competition. This Friday there is another competition.”PitchBLACK part two is laser focused on tech entrepreneurs.”

Two tech businesses will receive a $6,500 grant.

Those who complete the sessions will receive continuing education credits and a certificate of entrepreneurship from Tidewater Community College.

The conference will also end with the Diamond University commencement ceremony at Roper Performing Arts Center.

“Attendees get more than just the value of being there! For those that need those certificates, they are able to get them through attending this conference.”