Keel Farms keeps a glimpse of Old Florida alive with new event space

For as long as he can remember, Clay Keel has had a soft spot for the house on the hill. 

It always seemed to sit a little taller than the other homes lining the winding road around Lake Thonotosassa, its sprawling, wrap-around porch looming over the northeast Hillsborough County lakeside like a lookout tower. For Keel and his brothers, the white, wood-frame home was a silent sentinel overlooking the break in the shore grass where boys have launched their fishing boats for generations — a portal to sunny summer days spent reeling in Bluegills and exploring scrub-covered sandbars, searching for alligators snorkeling along the waterline and ancient flint arrowheads buried in the sandy soil of the shore. 

The house was there every morning when the time came for Keel to drive from his Plant City home to the University of South Florida for classes, and it was still there when he would come back to visit during his 23 years in the Army. 

So when Clay Keel saw the 125-year-old house and its 10-acre, waterfront lot were for sale, he and a handful of friends-turned-investors bought it. 

The impulse proved to be a good one. 

Since buying it for $2.15 million in November 2023, the old farmhouse and its derelict orange grove have been transformed into a new event destination for Keel Farms and Keel & Curley Winery, twin companies created by Clay's father, landscaper and blueberry farmer Joe Keel, that encompass a winery, cidery, brewery, farm and restaurant.

It took more than a year of restorations, renovations and several coats of vibrant, navy blue paint, but the old house on the hill has been reborn as The Osprey View — a sprawling, lakefront wedding and event venue nestled inside six-acres of muscadine grape vines. Renovations took some 18 months, with an additional setback after Hurricane Milton flooded the property's old boat house on Lake Thonotosassa, the family says. The Hurricane added another $75,000 to the already $400,000 renovation and property upgrades. 

“I’ve been coming to this place my whole life — so many people have — and I’ve grown up looking at this cool, unique house that just embodies so much of the history and what’s special about this area so buying it and making it an event space was a no-brainer,” Clay Keel said. “Really, people have been gathering around this lake for 5,000 years — for the Native Americans it became sort of like a community center where tribes would come from hundreds of miles away to meet with the other tribes. So this place is meant to be somewhere that brings people together.”

So close

The Osprey View house made its public debut Sept. 20 with an open house celebration featuring Keel Farms craft beers, ciders, and signature Keel & Curley wines (Curley is the maiden name of Joe Keel’s mother). 

Yet the innovative agrotourism space, which also offers overnight stays on the property for up to 15 people, has already hosted nearly 100 different events since its soft opening last July, says The Osprey View’s general manager, Josh Henneman. The house has played host to wedding parties of more than 200 guests, private elopements, baby showers and even pilates and goat yoga classes. 

Courtesy image

“I think the property is close to where we want it to be,” Henneman says. “We’re still not quite where we want it to be but the demand is definitely there. We’ve already added additional help to keep up with the events, and we’re extremely lucky to have a machine like Keel Farms behind us.”

The Osprey View, at 11501 Thonotosassa Road in Thonotosassa, offers far more than a vineyard and bridal suite. The location also includes a fully renovated boathouse-turned-grooms suite outfitted with arcade games and a bar. There’s a manicured beach and boardwalk for waterfront weddings and a lakeside spa space equipped with a cold plunge tank and floating sauna. The home’s unique permitting allows Clay Keel and his family to even offer guests a boat and captain for fishing trips on the lake, and events are always overflowing with Keel Farms signature beverages. 

Flock together

Finding an elevated event space was a natural progression that was long overdue for Keel Farms, the team says. 

Clay Keel took over as president of both his family’s companies in 2019 and has since seen his father's venture expand from a brand name product to a family-oriented dining and entertainment hub, with annual revenues around $15 million and growing and distribution across the state, including at Universal Studios and Tampa Bay Rays and Buccaneers games. 

The family business has grown at such a rapid pace that the 35-acre Plant City farm couldn’t contain the brand’s potential, Keel says. The property at 5202 Thonotosassa Road in Plant City is not only a working farm and winery, but home to a tasting room, a restaurant, and an event space for everything from weddings to trivia nights to line dancing lessons. There are guided tours of the farm’s operations, seasonal u-pick events and an annual Harvest Days fall festival that takes over the farm every weekend in October with hay rides, camel rides, food trucks, pie-eating contests, a corn maze and a pumpkin patch. 

“Recently we’ve had to cut off weddings at Keel Farms because we’re just too busy,” Clay Keel said. “It’s hard to tell someone, ‘Yeah, you can have your wedding here but there’s also going to be people tasting wine next to you and kids playing on the playground.’”

For Clay Keel, the early interest The Osprey View has already seen is confirmation that preserving this piece of the past is really an investment in the future of his hometown. Just one of the payoffs: watching its namesake birds return to the old oak trees surrounding the Osprey View House. 

“The Osprey is such a cool animal and has really made a comeback in our area,” Keel says. “You kind of have to stay here for a while, maybe an hour or so, but you’ll realize the Ospreys are everywhere. They’re in the trees overhead, they’re out over the water, and they’re watching what’s going on, looking out over the lake just like the house.”