Business Observer Feb. 15 issue

MEMBER FDIC

8535

6

FEBRUARY 15 - FEBRUARY 21, 2013 | THREE DOLLARS

REDEVELOPMENTA Place to ExhaleThe founders of the Oxford Exchange weren’t looking to create a booming business. But their space so far has garnered a high demand. PAGE 8

MEDIAA Changing AudienceMedia Vista cornered the market for Hispanic media in Southwest Florida. Now it seeks growth outside the state. PAGE 9

MARKETINGSpread the WordTo sell her natural skincare products, Jennifer Devlin leverages social media and other forms of less expensive, non-traditional marketing.PAGE 10

HEALTH CAREA Better Way to HealAn entrepreneur partners with hospitals to build his chain of hyperbaric wound-treatment centers.PAGE 11

CONSTRUCTIONThink AheadA niche general contractor decided not to do a mass layoff in the recession. Focusing on bids and managing debt paved the way for survival. PAGE 14

COLUMNManage the FamilyApproaching family matters the same way you approach your business can help keep everyone working together.PAGE 17

CEO Emeritus | The former head of Bacardi Canada shares his leadership tips. PG.23

DON’T MISS 3 OPINION: Eliminate the taxes — and the incentives.

PA S C O • H I L L S B O R O U G H • P I N E L L A S • M A N AT E E • S A R A S O TA • C H A R L O T T E • L E E • C O L L I E R

SuperMario Andretti says business isn’t so di!erent from racing: You have

to take chances. PAGE 12

Mario Andretti | ENTREPRENEUR

MARIO

Lee Memorial buys the Lee Physician building for $4 million. 18

St. Pete’s Skyline Fifth Avenue apartment sells for $19.5 million. 20

Sarasota Housing Authority buys Osprey Avenue building. 21

TOP DEALSMARK WEMPLE

2 BUSINESS OBSERVER | FEBRUARY 15 – FEBRUARY 21, 2013BusinessObserverFL.com

THE FLAGPOLE BEACONTHE PROPER WAY TO LIGHT YOUR FLAG!

8545

8

U.S. PATENT #7,275,495

Contact our Business Lending Professionals to learn more.

[email protected] | 941.907.4850

Achieva is pleased to offer the SBA 7a Fixed Rate Program* - providing loans to small business owners to purchase a facility to operate their businesses.

FIXED for the full term of 25 years.

NO BALLOON, fully amortized for the life of the loan.

10% Cash Injection required, closing costs and fees may be included in the loan request.

Rate is based on the SBA 7a Allowable Fixed Rate Pricing Matrix (updated and published monthly at SBA.GOV). Must meet SBA 7a requirements for eligibility.

SBA 7a 25-Year FixedProgram For Owner-Occupied Commercial Real Estate

that’s GOOD

Federally Insured by NCUA. Equal Housing Lender.

*Eligibility requirements and restrictions apply.

1024

63

Subscription PriceOne-Year Periodical Rate ....................................................................................... $75One-Year First-Class Mail .....................................................................................$107

Two-Year Periodical Rate ......................................................................................$127Two-Year First-Class Mail ......................................................................................$180

Three-Year Periodical Rate ...................................................................................$185Three-Year First-Class Mail ..................................................................................$239

Single copy price: $3Group rates for five or more corporate subscriptions are available.

To subscribe online: www.businessobserverfl.comIf you have a question about your subscription or wish to suspend your subscription

temporarily, call Anne Shumate, (877) 231-8834 or contact her by email: [email protected]

HOW TO SUBSCRIBE

A DIVISION OF THE OB SERV ER MEDIA GROUP

BusinessObserverFL.comThe Business Observer, formerly the Gulf Coast Business Review, is Southwest Florida’s newspa-

per for business leaders. With offices in Hillsborough, Pinellas, Pasco, Manatee, Sarasota, Charlotte, Lee and Collier counties, the Business Observer is the only weekly business newspaper that provides business leaders with a regional perspective. The Business Observer’s mission is to deliver relevant news and information on Southwest Florida’s leading and growing companies, up-and-coming en-trepreneurs and the important economic, industry and government trends affecting business. The Business Observer is also the leading publisher of public notices on the Gulf Coast of Florida.

HOW TO REACH USHILLSBOROUGH COUNTY 412 E. Madison St., Suite 911 Tampa, FL 33602Phone: 813/221-9505 (Legal Notices)Fax: 813/221-9403

LEE COUNTY 5237 Summerlin Commons Blvd., Suite 324Fort Myers, FL 33907Phone: 239/275-2230 (Jean Gruss);FAX: 239/936-1001 (Legal Notices)ORANGE COUNTY 446 N. Dillard St., Suite 4Winter Garden, FL 34787Phone: 407/654-5500 (Legal Notices)Fax: 407/654-5560

CHARLOTTE COUNTYAddress: 949 Tamiami Trail, Suite 202 Port Charlotte, FL 33953Phone: 941/249-4900 (Legal Notices)Fax: 941/249-4901

PINELLAS COUNTY14004 Roosevelt Blvd.Clearwater, FL 33762Phone: 727/447-7784 (Legal Notices)Fax: 727/447-3944

“The road is cleared,” said Galt. “We are going back to the world.” He raised his hand and over the desolate earth he traced in space the sign of the dollar.

Ayn Rand, Atlas Shrugged$$

The Business Observer (ISSN#1539-9184) is published weekly on Fridays by the Gulf Coast Review Inc., 1970 Main St., Sarasota, FL, 34236; 412 E. Madison St., Tampa, FL 33602; 14004 Roosevelt Blvd., Clearwater, FL 33762; 5709 Main St., New Port Richey, FL 34652; 5570 Gulf of Mexico Dr., Longboat Key, FL 34228; 949 Tamiami Trail, Suite 202, Port Charlotte, FL 33953; 5237 Summerlin Commons Blvd., Suite 324, Fort Myers, FL 33907; and The French Quarter, 501 Goodlette Road N., #D-100, Naples, FL 34102. Periodicals Postage Paid at Sarasota, FL, and at additional mailing offices. The Business Observer is circulated in Charlotte, Collier, Hillsborough, Lee, Manatee, Pasco, Pinellas, Polk and Sarasota counties.

POSTMASTER: Please send changes of address to the Business Observer, P.O. Box 3169, Sarasota, FL 34230.

For information on reprints, visit BusinessObserverFL.com

POSTAL INFORMATION

MANATEE COUNTY 5570 Gulf of Mexico Dr., Longboat Key, FL 34228Phone: 941/362-4848Phone: 941/906-9386 (Legal Notices)Fax: 941/954-8530

SARASOTA COUNTYPO Box 2234Sarasota, FL 342301970 Main St., Suite 400,Sarasota, FL 34236Phone: 941/362-4848Phone: 941/906-9386 (Legal Notices)Fax: 941/954-8530

COLLIER COUNTY The French Quarter, 501 Goodlette Road N., #D-100Naples, FL 34102PHONE: 239/263-0122 (Legal Notices)Fax: 239/263-0112

PASCO COUNTY5709 Main St.,New Port Richey, FL 34652Phone: 813/221-9505 (Legal Notices)Fax: 813/221-9403

Editor and Publisher / Matt Walsh, [email protected]

Managing Editor / Kat Hughes, [email protected] Managing Editor / Mark [email protected]/Collier / Jean [email protected] Bay/ Denise Kalette [email protected] Editor / Sean [email protected] Editor / Amanda [email protected] Design / Nicole Thompson, [email protected]

Associate Publisher / Diane Schaefer, [email protected] of Legal Advertising / Kristen Boothroyd, [email protected] Production Manager / Kathy Payne, [email protected] Graphic Designer / Shawna PolanaChief Financial Officer / Laura Keisacker [email protected] of Distribution and Subscription Sales & Marketing / Anne Shumate [email protected] Coordinator / Leslie Gnaegy, [email protected]

To send Legal Notices, email to: [email protected] the county of interest in the subject line and attach notice.

Deadline for legal notices is noon Wednesday.

For Display Advertising, Call (941) 362-4848.Deadline for display advertising space is noon Friday.

Vol. XVII, No. 7

Business tax cuts and corporate-recruiting incentives will be promi-nent policy issues for the Legislature this year.

For one, the mainstream media’s reporters will make them so; they hate both with a passion.

Lawmakers are also tar-geting these topics. Demo-crat legislators already are positioning themselves as potential obstructionists to Gov. Rick Scott’s priority to eliminate Florida’s sales tax on machinery and equipment. It’s valued as a $140 million tax cut.

And now that Republicans no longer have a supermajority in the House, Scott will need Democrats’ votes to eliminate the sales tax.

Predictably, the Democrats see an opportunity to make Scott beg and grovel. The governor is heading into the next election cycle, and you can bet Democrats are going to do whatever they can to derail Scott’s record.

Scott’s pitch is the elimination of this tax will help make Florida more attractive to manufacturers. And, duh, if Florida can attract more manufactur-ers, there will be more jobs.

Some Democrats and the profit-hating media see this tax cut primarily as a sop to a special interest. Indeed, whenever you say “tax cut” in Wash-ington or Tallahassee, there is always a loud chorus whining how cutting taxes and tax rates will “cost” government.

As they see it, the state apparatus is the loser. Tax cuts mean lost revenue must be made up by taxing someone else.

What they don’t see is the concept from the other side. That lowering taxes is a winner for the economy, the state and the taxpayer, whether that

taxpayer is a corporation or individual. As Steve Forbes often tells his audi-ences, taxes are a cost, just as paper and laptops are.

The anti-tax cutters also are not convinced that lower tax rates or the elim-ination of a tax will lead to greater tax collections that replace and surpass what was given up.

It’s a mystery why the following is so difficult

to envision: Eliminate the machinery sales tax, and the taxpayer — be it company or individual — will be able to keep more of his money (key word: “his,” not the state’s). And he, not Talla-hassee, will be able to decide how best to put his capital to uses that benefit him and others (known as free trade). That trade, in turn, fuels more trade, more economic activity. And it leaves out the government middle man, the bureaucracy that takes its slice of the tax and then redistributes what’s left.

While it makes sense to say those government workers keep the economy going when they spend their wages, they’re not creating wealth. They’re toll takers and redistributors.

Manufacturers, on the other hand, are wealth creators, especially if they are selling and shipping their products across state lines. In those instances, every time a Florida manufacturer makes a sale, say, in Georgia or Ala-bama, the buyer is sending new money into Florida. It’s adding to the busi-ness’s and the state’s wealth.

Lawmakers often also seem to forget, in the case of business taxes, that busi-nesses don’t pay taxes. They pass the cost of all taxation onto their customers

3FEBRUARY 15 – FEBRUARY 21, 2013 | BUSINESS OBSERVER BusinessObserverFL.com

reviewandcomment

Businesses don’t pay taxes; consumers do

BY MATT WALSH | EDITOR AND PUBLISHER

See COMMENT page 22

YOUR GOVERNMENT AT WORKNo one should be surprised at the

following two news stories. When government intervenes in the mar-ket and makes government money available for social programs, the dirtbags find it and abuse it. To wit:

TAMPA BAY TIMES, 2/10: “[Yolanda Axson] served

probation for felony child neglect and then, barred from child care, found a less regulated line of work. She started a company to earn tax dollars tutoring poor kids in Florida’s failing schools.

“When state officials saw Axson’s name on an application for the government tutoring program … they stamped their approval, and her business, Busy BEE Services, went to work tutoring Florida’s neediest children.

“The cost to taxpayers per student? At least $60 an hour.

“Axson’s case points to a larger problem with mandated tutoring in Florida: The program pays public money to people with criminal records, and to cheaters and profiteers who operate virtually unchecked by state regulators …

“Florida school districts paid at least $7 million last year to tutoring

companies run by people with criminal records. Among those who have headed state-approved tutoring firms are a rapist, thieves and drug users.”

WALL STREET JOURNAL, 2/12:“The U.S. government spent about

$2.2 billion last year to provide phones to low-income Americans, but a Wall Street Journal review of the program shows that a large number of those who received the phones haven’t proved they are eli-gible to receive them.

“The Lifeline program — begun in 1984 to ensure that poor people aren’t cut off from jobs, families and emergency services — is funded by charges that appear on the monthly bills of every landline and wireless-phone customer. Payouts under the program have shot up from $819 million in 2008, as more wireless car-riers have persuaded regulators to let them offer the service.

“A review of five top recipients of Lifeline support conducted by the FCC for the Journal showed that 41% of their more than six million sub-scribers either couldn’t demonstrate their eligibility or didn’t respond to requests for certification.” — MW

1035

06

YOUR JEWELRY EXPERIENCE REIMAGINED

EST. SARASOTA 1978

SynchronicityRe-Imagine

Daniels Rd.

Alico Rd.

Tree

line

Blvd

.

Terminal Access Rd.Exit128

Exit131

Florida Gulf Coast University

Jerry [email protected]

Southwest Florida’s Premier Location!Sites 1-13 Acres / Direct from Developer

1015

00


©2013 Bright House Networks. Some restrictions apply. Serviceable areas only. Service provided at the discretion of Bright House Networks.

Need one phone line or several? Internet speeds of 4 Mbps or 70? We can help. Want to lock in your price for 3 years or pay month to month? We have options. Looking for reliable service and features with more convenience and value? It’s what we do. At Bright House Networks Business Solutions we’ll make sure you get the services that !t your needs. Give us a call.

Contact us at 1-855-339-4514. We’re always available, at your convenience 24/7/365.

Learn More Visit brighthouse.com/business

YOUR BUSINESS IS DIFFERENT. We Are Too.

104

492

topstories from BusinessObserverFL.comSARASOTA-MANATEEFormer Gemesis CEO sues for termination

Stephen Lux, the former CEO at Gemesis, a synthetic diamond manufacturer, has sued the company for wrong-ful termination and not paying him at least $500,000 in wages.

The lawsuit, filed Jan. 10 in Sarasota County Circuit Court, contends Lux’s employee contract states he’s entitled to 18 months of salary if he’s fired without cause. Lux’s salary, ac-cording to court records, was $375,000 a year, so that would entitle him to $562,500. The suit further alleges Gemesis owes Lux 400 hours of vaca-tion time and other benefits, including health care and $12,000 a year of car allow-ance.

Lux’s attorneys, Robert Persante of Clearwater and Cynthia Fallon of Sarasota, couldn’t be reached for com-ment today. An official with the public relations firm that represents Gemesis, Raleigh, N.C.-based French/West/Vaughan, responded via email that as a private company, Gemesis “doesn’t publicly discuss financial or legal mat-ters.”

Jury orders FCCI to pay $6 million

A jury in Broward County has ordered FCCI Insurance Group to pay $6 million in damages to Debra Peters, a plaintiff in a case involving a denied claim.

Peters sued FCCI after the company denied her busi-ness’s insurance claim for Hurricane Wilma in 2005 and then attempted to bring crimi-nal charges against her for filing a fraudulent claim.

Peters’ attorneys alleged in the case that FCCI breached its contract by denying Pe-ters’ claim for her business, a high-end furniture and cabinet company she ran with her husband, Ronald. The attorneys also allege that FCCI attempted to maliciously prosecute Peters by filing false and incomplete information with the Florida Department of Insurance.

The Broward County State Attorney’s Office dropped the charges against Debra Peters, and on Feb. 6, the six-member jury ruled in Peters’ favor, and ordered FCCI to pay $4.8 million in compensatory damages for malicious prosecution and $1.2 million in punitive damages.

TAMPA BAYHMA executes partnership with Bayfront Health

Health Management As-sociates Inc. announced that a subsidiary has executed a definitive agreement to form a joint venture with St. Peters-burg’s Bayfront Health System.

As part of the partnership, HMA will acquire an 80% interest in the 480-bed Bay-front Health System and will introduce an affiliation with Shands-HealthCare, part of UF&Shands, the University of Florida’s health center.

CHARLOTTE-LEE-COLLIERLee hotel revenues rise sharply in December

Revenues at lodgings in Lee County in December rose 10.6% compared with the same month in 2011, accord-ing to data from Smith Travel Research.

Hoteliers appeared to be able to push up room rates in December without impacting the occupancy rate, the data show. That indicates the spring tourism season could be par-

ticularly strong, especially if hoteliers can continue to boost rates.

Revenue per available room is a function of occupancies and average daily rates. In De-cember, revenue per available room reached $60.02, up from $54.25 in December 2011.

The average occupancy rate rose 6.2% in December to 50.6% compared with the same month in 2011. The average daily rate rose 4.2% to $118.65 in the same period.

Residential broker expands to Tampa

Premier Sotheby’s Interna-tional Realty is expanding to Tampa and will open an office there in March.

Premier’s Tampa office, to be located in South Tampa, will be the firm’s 19th location. The firm has 450 agents who cover from Tampa to Marco Island. Real estate veteran Kurt Gleeson will be the managing broker of the Tampa office.

“The timing is ripe as the lux-ury market is flourishing, with sales of homes over $1 million enjoying a 40% increase in 2012, year-over-year,” says Judy Green, Premier’s president and CEO, in a statement.

what do 40% YES

60% NOyou think?

quoteof theweek

“”When the private sector goes to hell, everyone shows up at the public trough to stay alive.Thurston Lamberson | founder and president of general contractor TLC DiversifiedSEE PAGE 14

Does your company have a plan to deal with Obamacare?

Do you think Enterprise Florida’s new logo is o!ensive to women?

Last week’s question:

Vote at BusinessObserverFL.com


Priced from $3,195,000

™

1043

07

Personal Inventory& Documentation

Services

Documenting assets has proven to be the most effective way to ensure maximum settlement of your insurance

claim. Even more dollars are recovered if documentation is provided by an independent source. We provide clients with a complete and detailed inventory of professionally

prepared photographic, video and written records. Our services ensure recovery in a full range of scenarios—from

from loss due to fire, theft or natural disaster—to pre-nuptial documentation and civil situations.

We are now offering BUSINESSES and HOMEOWNERS a safe and

secure way to protect the replacement value of their assets in case of loss.

Investigations

Investigations

Institutions

Incidents

is a Licensed Investigator in State of Florida and State of New York. His history was in major felony crimes, with specialties in Frauds, and Elder Abuse areas. He has a dual background on state and local levels

as a police officer, and also was a Corporate Security Director in the Financial Banking industry. This background allows for a high level of security and protection

of your actual property AND documents prepared during property inventory and documentation. We have worked closely with some large corporations in the area, to

assist in areas of fraud and protection of assets. We have also worked with insurance carriers, and understand the needs from that industry.

property.

RAY A. HARKNESS

(727) 374-7291 (585) [email protected] | www.HarknessInvestigations.com

Fl Lic#: A2500146 | NY Lic#: 110000496671044

69

Co!eeTalk

The mergers and acquisition market in Florida had a down year in 2012 in several respects, yet it remains a na-tional leader.

There were 452 merger deals with disclosed locations in the Sunshine State last year, down 15.5% from 535 ac-

quisitions in 2011, according to a report from Tampa-based Hyde Park Capital Advisors. The total amount of state-wide deals, including ones where the

Rainmaker slows, but state remains wet

Jackson Laboratory is back. Well, not exactly. But the medical

research center, the subject of fawning economic development efforts to woo the entity to town, first in Collier County and later in Sarasota County, is back in the news.

This time Jackson Lab, in an opinion column in the Wall Street Journal, is used to prove why state incentive programs for business usually fail. The column, writ-ten by onetime Connecticut Republican gubernatorial candidate Tom Foley and Ben Zimmer, executive director of the Connecticut Policy Institute, cited Jack-son Lab first in the failure section.

“Most incentive programs aren’t so effective,” write the authors, after citing one example, in Kentucky, of a program

that worked. “In 2011, Connecticut agreed to pay The Jackson Laboratory, a genetics research institute, $300 mil-lion in exchange for a promise to bring 300 new jobs to Connecticut. That cost a whopping $1 million per job.”

The efforts to lure Jackson Lab to Naples and Sarasota hit a fever pitch in 2010 and 2011. At one point deals that included any-where from $100 million to $200 million in state and local money were under dis-cussion for the Bar Harbor, Maine-based nonprofit organization. Collier County balked first, followed by Sarasota.

While several prominent officials in the economic development community lamented the “loss” at the time, Coffee Talk saluted the prudence. Now it’s Con-necticut’s victory, err, problem.

Big-dollar cheers to an unseen blessing

For those of you craving Norman Love chocolates outside of Fort Myers, get ready for a special treat.

“We opened Naples a year and a half ago and Sarasota County is the next goal,” says Love, the celebrated choco-latier, tells the Business Observer in an interview.

Love doubled the size of his produc-tion facility near Southwest Florida International Airport in Fort Myers to 11,000 square feet. He produces 6.5 million pieces of chocolate a year

and 60,000 pieces a day for Valentine’s Day, the second-busiest holiday

after Christmas.“Now I have the infrastructure nec-

essary,” says Love. “We’re on a path to open multiple stores around Florida.”

NORMAN LOVE: BE MY VALENTINE

Florida’s economy may be recovering, but business owners remain concerned about making capital outlays.

That’s the sense Jack Ablin gets when he’s traveling around the state, as he did recently making stops in Naples and Sarasota to talk to entrepreneurs and other clients. Ablin is executive vice president and chief investment officer for BMO Private Bank.

“Among business leaders I still see a sense of reticence. They’re unwilling to take incremental business risk not know-ing what our nation’s future holds,” Ablin says.

In particular, some business own-ers tell him they have doubts about the recovery, even though signs of it abound. “There may be a growing sense of skepti-cism of whether this recovery is for real.

What are we going to be left with? What’s our money worth anyway? These guys have lived through the downturn and that’s left some residual battle scars.”

Ablin says he suspects business own-ers’ reluctance to commit to significant capital investment is a result of the un-certain regulatory and tax environment in the U.S. “My sense is that the longer we can keep this recovery going, the more likely the freeze will slowly thaw,” he says.

On the plus side, Florida has zero state income tax and is attractive to foreigners with stronger currencies, such as Eu-ropeans and Canadians. “This housing recovery though seems real to me,” he says. “Most of our clients in the area and most professionals agree that things are looking better.”

Business owners remain cautious

Gale Sayers, a member of the Pro Foot-ball Hall of Fame who was called The Kansas Comet, is coming to Tampa Feb. 27 for a business networking event. The gathering at the Tampa Club is sponsored by HomeBanc, according to a statement from HomeBanc chairman and CEO Jerry Campbell.

Sayers played for the Chicago Bears from 1965 to 1971. His friendship with ailing Bears teammate Brian Piccolo was portrayed in the film “Brian’s Song.”

After a lengthy career in football, and as an athletic director, Sayers launched

a sports marketing and public relations firm, and a computer supplies business that has become a global provider of technology products. He is chairman of Sayers, based in Vernon Hills, Ill., near Chicago. The company has an office in Clearwater.

In 1999, Sayers was inducted into the Chicago Entrepreneurship Hall of Fame. The executive, who earned a master’s degree in educational administration, serves on the board of directors of Triad Hospitals, which manages facilities in the South and Southwest.

A legend comes to Tampa

See how Love makes his chocolates at BusinessObserverFL.com.

VIDEO

See COFFEE TALK on page 7


1-877-366-7112

C!""#$%&'( R#'( E)*'*# L!'+)

! I"#$%& P'$()#*"+ , O-"&' O##).*&( P'$.&'/*&0 !

Lending in Hillsborough, Pinellas, Manatee, Sarasota, Charlotte, Lee and Collier Counties

Steve JonssonNMLS # 387144

[email protected] Jack Pilkington

NMLS # [email protected]

Charlie [email protected] Doug Johnson

NMLS # [email protected]

Kevin [email protected]

1037

83

Consumer durablesThe gain

in economic activity for

consumer durables statewide

in November, compared with

November 2011.

The number of areas out of 22

statewide that beat Florida’s average increase of 8.5%

in consumer durables in November

compared with November 2011.

Naples’ rank in the state for increases in the consumer

durables category for November. The Fort Lauderdale area was first in the state, with a 28.9% gain over November 2011.

economicsnapshot

8.5%

2

4

BY THE NUMBERS

WHAT THE DATA SHOWTaxable sales in the consumer durables category in-

clude appliances, furniture, home electronics, hardware, boats and aircraft. The latest data are for November.

WHAT IT MEANSThe recovery in new-home sales helped boost tax-

able sales of consumer durables in November on an annual percentage-change basis. This was particularly pronounced in the Naples area, which has seen a sharp rise in new-home construction. But except Naples, ev-ery area of the Gulf Coast lagged the statewide 8.5% increase in this category.

FORECASTStronger new-home sales in the spring season will lift

sales of consumer durables such as furniture and appli-ances. Builders are reporting sharp increases in new-home sales, particularly in affluent retirement markets such as Naples and Sarasota. Existing-home sales help too because people renovate and upgrade their appli-ances. Unemployment has declined and fewer layoffs means Gulf Coast residents may feel more secure about buying big-ticket items. Still, consumers remain cau-tious while the economy recovers.

Nov. 2011 Dec. ’11 Jan. ’12 Feb. ’12 Mar. ’12 Apr. ’12 May ’12 June ’12 July ’12 Aug. ’12 Sept. ’12 Oct. ’12 Nov. ’121.0

1.5

2.0

$2.5 billion

Naples

Cape Coral-Fort Myers

Punta Gorda

Sarasota-Bradenton

Tampa-St. Petersburg

NOVEMBER CONSUMER DURABLESAREA CONSUMER DURABLES % ANNUAL CHANGE

Source: Florida Legislature Office of Economic & Demographic Research

$224.9 8.4%

$66.9 5.8%

$70.5 8.0%

$55.1 22.1%

$14.5 1.1%

(in millions)


Josh KitchnerVice President

Rich PierroPresident

ChFC, ChHC, CLU, RHU

LEADING EXPERTS IN:

5550 26th St. West, Suite 7Bradenton, FL

941-753-3053

Founded in 1975

1010

46

With the ongoing Health Care Reform Laws, what will the !nancial impact be for you the employer and your employees?

TAKE CONTROL!

better option for us?

to the employer?

to the employees?

Don’t just let anyone help you out…Let K&P, part of the 3rd largest Underwriters in the country o"er you the latest technology. A program developed by the leading American College professor on Health Care Reform in which we provide you the insight as to what direction to take.

Are you ready to

PLAYOR PAY?

Please contact [email protected] or [email protected]

invites you to hear

Dr. Arthur B. LafferThe Father of Supply-Side Economics, and Creator of the “Laffer Curve.”

Forecast 2013:

What Comes after the Fiscal Cliff?

Registration: 7:15 a.m.

Sarasota Yacht Club1100 John Ringling Blvd.

(non-members)Reservations required by Feb. 15. Call Donna Condon, 366-3468, x301.

Pay by credit card or check in advance. Send checks to: Gulf Coast CEO Forum, 1970 Main St., Sarasota, 34236

Sponsored by: PLATINUM EVENT SPONSOR

SILVER SPONSORSPEAKER PROVIDED BY

1023

33

Co!eeTalkFROM PAGE 5

The next time a banker complains about over-regulation he will have some muscle to back up the vent.

In fact, the Independent Community Bankers of America, a leading lobbying group, recently reported that 900 new and proposed rules have been entered into the Federal Register since 2007. These regulations, say ICBA officials, have a steep cost.

For example, the organization cites a Federal Reserve study, one that predates the onslaught of rules, which says “the most burdensome regulations amounted to more than 14% of community bank operating expenses.” ICBA officials worry that things will only get worse for

community banks. Smaller banks are in especially tenuous positions, given many already operate on thin margins.

“To alleviate the burden of excessive regulation on the nation’s community banks, ICBA is calling on policymakers to carve out community banks from new regulations while continuing to pursue tiered regulation that distinguishes be-tween community banks and larger and riskier institutions,” ICBA President and CEO Camden Fine says in a statement. “Community banks have little in com-mon with Wall Street firms, megabanks or shadow banking institutions and did not cause the financial crisis or perpe-trate abusive consumer practices.”

Community banks feel weight of more regs

Gulf Coast community bankers have argued for years that the too-big-to-fail dictum ushered in by Washington, D.C., punishes small banks at the expense of big ones.

Now there’s an admitted government bureaucrat, a high-ranking official with the Federal Reserve Bank of Dallas, who agrees with them. Indeed, Harvey Rosen-blum, executive vice president and direc-tor of research at the Dallas Fed, says the policy has morphed into a safety net for behemoth banks that “do crazy things.”

Rosenblum, who recently spoke about his disdain for the theory at an event at New College of Florida in Sarasota, says being big in and of itself isn’t the problem. The problem, he says, is when the biggest banks, like JPMorgan Chase, Citibank and Goldman Sachs, do all sorts of risky non-banking activities yet remain protected like a regular bank.

“It’s called deposit insurance for a reason,” Rosenblum tells Coffee Talk. “It’s supposed to protect depositors, not support casino-like activities.”

Rosenblum and his boss, Dallas Fed

President Richard Fisher, came out against too big to fail in a public report last spring. The duo have since spoken out about the issue multiple times, both in speeches and newspaper columns.

Dodd-Frank, adds Rosenblum, a fed-eral financial reform bill ostensibly writ-ten to correct some of these issues, isn’t a good fix. “Nobody can comply with a law they don’t understand,” says Rosen-blum, the past president of the National Association for Business Economics. “It’s incomprehensible.”

Instead of massive regulation, Rosen-blum proposes to basically provide some tough love. For starters, big banks will be forced to compete like all the others in the marketplace if the safety net is taken away. Rosenblum, who says he brings his “libertarian streak” to his analysis, says the issue has an overhang-ing sense of urgency, given the teetering economic recovery.

“If we don’t address the fundamental problem,” says Rosenblum, “we will have another crisis on our hands sooner than later.”

Too big to fail is a disaster in waiting

People scoffed when Lee Memorial Health System executives started talking about raising $100 million in 2010 for a new children’s hospital.

After all, this was soon after the finan-cial crisis and the housing collapse that hit the Fort Myers area especially hard. “People thought we were absolutely nuts,” says Tracy Connelly Sr., senior director of major gifts for Lee Memorial Health System Foundation.

But so far, the foundation has raised $67 million, and it may reach the $100 million mark by the time construction crews start breaking ground on the new hospital in August.

Last year, the foundation received a $20 million commitment from Naples

resident Tom Golisano, the founder and chairman of Paychex. Golisano will match any gift up to $20 million, dollar-for-dollar.

“Last week, we received another $5 million commitment,” Connelly says without naming the donor.

The new children’s hospital, which will be named after Golisano, will cost $201 million to build. Fundraising will ac-count for half of the cost, and the hospital will finance the rest by selling bonds.

The children’s hospital will consist of a seven-story building at the Lee Memo-rial HealthPark campus in Fort Myers and will have room for as many as 160 beds. It is scheduled to open in late sum-mer 2016.

Hospital closer to $100M fundraising mark

companies’ locations weren’t disclosed, dropped 11%, from 583 in 2011 to 517 in 2012.

Yet those 517 deals put Florida in fourth place nationwide for total merg-ers and acquisitions. The state ranks behind New York, with 608 deals, and Texas, which had 919 deals in 2012. California tops the list with 1,264 total mergers and acquisitions.

The dollar value of deals in Florida also dropped significantly last year. For example, there were 64 acquisitions each worth $100 million or less in 2012, down 15% from 75 such deals in 2011. The dollar volume in that category year over year decreased 13%, from $2.3 bil-lion in 2011 to $2.1 billion last year.

The falloff in the $100 million to $499 million category was even more acute, Hyde Park Capital reports. That segment dropped 29% in total volume, from 24 deals in 2011 to 17 last year, and 47% in total value, from $6.1 billion to $3.3 billion. The $500 million to $999 million

category saw a slight increase, at least, from three deals in 2011 to five deals in 2012. The total value nearly doubled, from $2.1 billion in 2011 to $4 billion in 2012.

The Gulf Coast, meanwhile, is the second-biggest rainmaker region in the state, behind the Miami-South Florida area.

The acquisition of Clearwater-based Lincare Holdings Inc., a $1.8 billion in-home oxygen and respiratory services firm, stands out in the local big-deal category. The Linde Group, a German health care conglomerate, bought Lin-care for $4.3 billion July 1.

Other local companies acquired in 2012 include Tampa-based SRI Surgical Express, Tampa-based Numara Soft-ware and Lakewood Ranch Oncology Center. Fort Myers-based Radiation Therapy Services Holdings bought Lakewood Ranch Oncology Center, in east Manatee County, in a deal worth $26 million in April, the report shows.


infocus | redevelopment | BY DENISE KALETTE | EDITOR/TAMPA BAY

MARK WEMPLE

ALLISON CASPER ADAMS, director of the Oxford Exchange in Tampa, says the aim in renovating the former Plant Hotel stable was to create a gathering place.

There are no golden arches at the Oxford Exchange in Tampa, but the family that owns 53

local McDonald’s has created a vibrant new center as a way to say thanks for its success.

a spaceGenteel

The Oxford Exchange, a re-habbed brick structure near downtown Tampa, wasn’t

supposed to be a money-maker. It was intended as a community gathering place, a setting for the exchange of ideas, and a way for Blake Casper and his sister, Allison Casper Adams, to give back to the community.

Barely 5 months old, the Ex-change has indeed become a gath-ering place, an upscale hangout that draws CEOs and university students alike. Its soaring interior houses a restaurant, coffee and tea bars, lounge chairs, shops and a club where members can rent con-ference space by the hour or sit qui-etly with a laptop. The Oxford Ex-change is Tampa’s new go-to place for lunch or conversation, and pa-trons say it fills a void by providing Tampa with an elegant gathering space that could easily fit in New York or London.

Tampa residents fell in love with the eateries and shops, and the con-cept of thought-provoking speak-ers. They flocked to the restaurant, snatched up honey jars and can-dles at the shop, and have already prompted the Exchange’s founder and director to expand into baked goods, new catering and branded merchandise. At lunch, the res-taurant is so busy reservations

are needed. Casper has rented a 3,500-square-foot adjacent store to build a second kitchen and bakery, a new shop that will be called the Marketplace.

Casper and Adams are partners in Caspers Co., a Tampa-based fam-ily firm that has owned McDonald’s restaurants for more than half a century. Blake Casper, a graduate of the London School of Economics, is chairman and CEO of the firm. Ad-ams is an entrepreneur and direc-tor of the Oxford Exchange. Caspers Co. owns 53 McDonald’s.

“We always wanted to have a place in Tampa where people could gather,” says Adams. “We didn’t build it so it would be a profitable business. That was never what the conversation was about.” Other wealthy families might donate to a museum or hospital, but the sib-lings envisioned the new center as a thank you for the family’s success. In 2011, Caspers Co. posted revenue of nearly $178 million.

Blake Casper bought two build-ings at 410 and 420 W. Kennedy Blvd. in 2011 for $1.15 million, ac-cording to Hillsborough County re-cords. Built in 1925 and 1950, they totaled 24,868 square feet. Part of the property had housed stables for the Tampa Bay Hotel built by rail-road magnate Henry B. Plant in the late 1800s. The hotel closed in 1930,

and later became part of the Uni-versity of Tampa.

The arcade-style buildings lan-guished for years, and redevelop-ment unearthed a trove of relics. “They found a lot of old horse-shoes—we kept them and framed them,” says Adams.

The entrepreneurs drew inspi-ration from London, where shops line old arcades, and alleys wind underground. To the dark Tampa buildings, the architects added sky-lights, a conservatory, and arched windows. In September, the Ox-ford Exchange debuted, drenched in light and showcasing the retail shop of specialty wares and gifts. It offers refreshment at TeBella tea shop, Buddy Brew coffee, and the gourmet restaurant. A bookstore displays architectural volumes, classics and new fiction at a time when other bookstores are closing. “We believe there is still the love of a hardbound book,” says Adams. The Exchange owns the restaurant and two stores, while the coffee and tea bars are separately owned.

Although laptops occasionally occupy tables on the first floor near the coffee and tea shops, the space does not provide wireless service. “We prefer that people talk to each other downstairs, and if they need to work and be alone, they can go upstairs to the Commerce Club,”

says Adams. Club membership costs $75 per

month and allows members to rent glass-walled conference rooms for nominal hourly fees. The club taps into the emerging mobile work force operating beyond traditional offices.

The Exchange is bustling. “The retail space has blown all of our wildest expectations,” says Ad-ams, although she declines to pro-vide figure. She flies to London, New York, and Paris to buy goods with “an interesting story.” The Ex-change plans to brand umbrellas and soaps with its name.

Although the restaurant and bookstore are still subsidized, revenue opportunities keep mul-tiplying, including hosting formal events. Although the Oxford Ex-change didn’t start with a formal business plan, the siblings hope it will become financially self-sus-taining. In an age of reality TV and fast-paced Internet communica-tion, they believe there’s a demand for a genteel space where people can exhale — quietly read or ex-change ideas.

“Maybe it’s different and old-school,” says Adams. “We thought there’s still that level of civility and manners.”

Email Denise Kalette at [email protected]

“”We didn’t build it so it would be a profitable business. That was never what the coversation was about. Allison Casper Adams | Oxford Exhange, Tampa


Fortune

The Princeton Review

U.S. News & World Report

Take the next step. Request more information at www.ut.edu/gradinfo or call (813) 258-7409.

EMBA | MBA | M.S. in Accounting | M.S. in Finance | M.S. in Marketing | Nonprofit Management Certificate MBA Concentrations: Accounting, Entrepreneurship, Finance, International Business, Marketing, Innovation Management,

Information Systems Management, Nonprofit Management

9831

6

infocus | media |

When Orlando and Mayela Ro-sales started Media Vista a dozen years ago, all they start-

ed with was a camera and an editing station that cost $15,000.

Today, Media Vista has become the dominant Hispanic media company in the region that stretches from Charlotte County to Marco Island. Its properties include a television station affiliate of Azteca America, a magazine, and a web-site that all produce local content.

Now, Media Vista has an agreement to purchase the Univision station in Fort Myers and two other stations in Kansas City and Minneapolis. The deal is scheduled to close in the next few months for an undisclosed sum.

“We were waiting for this to happen for a long time,” says Mayela Rosales, vice president. “We have a lot of room to grow.”

Indeed, the Hispanic market has been one of the fastest-growing segments of the population. For example, in Collier County, Hispanics now account for 26% of the population and 52% of the school population. Hispanics make up 21% of the five-county region that includes Charlotte, Collier, Glades, Hendry and Lee.

Despite Hispanics’ significant pres-ence, some advertisers mistakenly be-lieve that the population declined pre-cipitously during the downturn, but many Hispanics are permanent resi-dents. “They thought all the Hispanics were gone,” says Mayela Rosales.

Fact is, Hispanics are big spenders because they’re seeking greater oppor-tunity than their country of birth, says Orlando Rosales. “People come here to

have a better life,” he says.The Rosaleses themselves moved to

Naples from Maracaibo, Venezuela, for that reason in 1996. Orlando Rosales had been hired by a Naples company to handle software issues. Previously he had worked for Venezuela’s oil and phone companies. With Mayela Ro-sales’s background in journalism and public relations, they realized the op-portunity to start a Hispanic media company in 2001.

They started by buying airtime on

the local UPN affiliate and they filmed a show with Mayela Rosales as the host while Orlando Rosales shot the cam-era and edited the footage. The show quickly became a hit and the couple later partnered with a Miami investor who owned a television station affili-ated with Azteca America in Cape Coral.

The Rosaleses also started a maga-zine called D’Latinos Magazine (circu-lation: 16,000) and launched a website, dlatinos.tv, that now has 150,000 unique visitors a month. “We sell advertising as

a multi-platform package,” says Mayela Rosales.

One of the key selling points is that Media Vista produces shows and pub-lishes articles that focus on the local Hispanic population. “We are content producers,” says Mayela Rosales.

Unfortunately, the economic down-turn forced the couple’s Miami investor and partner into bankruptcy and the Rosaleses were forced to trim Media Vista’s employee count to 12 from 22. “We had no choice,” explains Mayela Rosales. “We had to do it to survive.”

By 2010, business started to pick up as advertisers began spending once more. While Orlando Rosales declines to cite revenues, he says annual sales rose 35% in 2011 and another 20% in 2012.

Significantly, the national elections in November reminded business own-ers of the power of the Hispanic popu-lation. In addition, a resolution of the immigration issue could be a plus for Media Vista. “People will feel more confident about spending money,” says Mayela Rosales.

With the economic recovery, the Rosaleses are confident that their pro-posed acquisition of the Univision af-filiate in Fort Myers will turn out to be a smart move. “We don’t know the strat-egy yet; we don’t want to disclose that,” says Mayela Rosales.

For his part, Orlando Rosales says the Kansas City and Indianapolis markets present new opportunities to expand. “My plan is to spend months in these markets to make it work,” he says. “We have a lot of passion for this business.”

Follow Jean Gruss on Twitter at @JeanGruss

NANCY DENIKE

ORLANDO ROSALES says the recovering economy will help Media Vista grow in Southwest Florida.

A Venezuelan-born couple is cornering the Hispanic media market in Southwest Florida. They started modestly.A Better Vista

BY JEAN GRUSS | EDITOR/LEE-COLLIER


Jennifer Devlin’s Tampa Bay skincare company, Celtic Complexion, may be

a one-woman business, but her goal this year is one many larger firms would envy — doubling revenue.

Her strategy is to use small-budget marketing tactics to get big results. She tries uncommon campaigns, such as sponsoring Oklahoma rodeo rider Tana Poppino to reach women in the West. Devlin is paying Poppino, a champion barrel racer, $600 a month under a short-term agreement arranged by Donnell Rodeo Promotions. “She talks about my product on Facebook, she tweets about it and gives away samples,” says Devlin, add-ing that Poppino found her nat-ural creams helpful for women who spend a lot of time outdoors.

In another high-profile pro-motion, Celtic products were in-cluded in gift bags distributed to celebrities at the Sundance Film Festival. Devlin caught the eye of Sundance marketers when she donated $10,000 worth of skincare products to victims of

Hurricane Sandy. “They decided I was the type of company they wanted to include,” she says.

Devlin creates the creams and moisturizers in her Trea-sure Island kitchen, blending them right on the countertop. A former beauty director at Nor-dstrom, makeup artist for cos-metic companies, and master esthetician, Devlin carefully planned before starting her business. “I minimized all my expenses. I got debt-free,” she says.

She traded a six-figure income and generous corporate expense accounts for independence and entrepreneurship. Twice a week, Devlin works with skincare cli-ents in Pinellas County because she enjoys the contact with cus-tomers, she says.

In 2011, the founding year, Devlin’s revenue was $17,000. In 2012, it climbed to $50,000, and this year, she projects that revenue will double, to $100,000. Her products aren’t cheap. On her website, a 2-ounce jar of Celtic Complexion cream made with organic shea butter, coco-

nut oil and other ingredients, is priced at $52, plus $5 shipping and handling. From a desk in her home, she packages the incom-ing orders, and mails them off to clients.

The epiphany that spurred her transition from corporate cosmetics executive to inde-

pendent producer of organic creams, arose when a skin spe-cialist noticed that Devlin had rosacea, a condition that causes reddening of the skin. Devlin learned that a number of chemi-cals in products she was using could contributeto her rosacea. She began a quest for healthier

products that led to the decision to start her own company and use pure ingredients.

Devlin promotes her prod-ucts with Twitter and Facebook, welcoming reviews by beauty bloggers with large fan bases. One reviewer’s 30,000 followers offer a potential mother lode for new orders. Sales in Boston, with its strong Irish-ancestry popu-lation, leapt after a newspaper wrote about the Celtic line.

Low-budget test-marketing has also been fruitful. Sites such as goodebox.com send trial-sized, eco-friendly products to subscribers.

But the main strategy for dou-bling revenue in 2013 is Devlin’s expansion into cosmetics pro-duction. She is working with a private label to develop makeup that fits her skincare mission.

Her creams last months —good for customers, but not for a growing company that needs continual income. “I have to add products that have a much shorter shelf life,” says Devlin. The new line is in pre-produc-tion as she works with the lab on colors and her strict standards.

She has gained confidence in her products and her marketing. “The first year you’re in business, you don’t know where to go. You think, I’m going to throw that stuff on the wall to see what sticks.” But after two years, she is seeing results. “I know the kind of PR I need to do to get new customers. And it’s always about getting new customers.”

Email Denise Kalette at [email protected]

The Sky’s the Limit.

Limited Time Offer. Act Today.Send your qualifications to:[email protected]

Advertising sales positions rarely open at the Observer Media Group … Because our sales executives know there’s no limit to what they earn.

The sky really is the limit.

All it takes is … the right person. To soar in our limitless sky, you will need:

What’s the payback?

FLORIDA’S WEEKLY NEWSPAPER FOR THE C-SUITE

BusinessObserverFL.comA DIVISION OF OBSERVER MEDIA GROUP INC.

1041

191027

77

infocus | marketing |

MARK WEMPLE

JENNIFER DEVLIN has a knack for promoting her Celtic Complexion skincare line.

Small Budget, Big Impact

BY DENISE KALETTE | EDITOR/TAMPA BAY

Using non-traditional methods to promote her hand-blended skincare products, Jennifer Devlin has gained customers from San Francisco to Boston.


AUCTIONS

Auction World USA, LLC Licensed R.E. Broker

SAVE $$$

1045

02

THURSDAY, FEBRUARY 21ST 11:00 AM5222 15TH ST EAST, BRADENTON, FL1.06 Acre Vacant Out Parcel, 155 Ft Frontage on 15th St. East, Zoned GC, Located between Burger King and Checkers

1:00 PM5110 26TH ST WEST, BRADENTON, FLSurprising 1100 Sq. Ft. First Floor Office Building, Reception Area, 5 Offices, 2 Bath Rooms with Outstanding Paved Parking Area

5:00 PM7188 21ST ST EAST, BRADENTON, FL1,950 Sq. Ft. Flex Space / Office Building Exceptional Build Out, Front Reception Area, 5 Individual Offices, Conference Room, Kitchen Area, 2 Bathrooms / 1 Bathroom with Shower

WEDNESDAY, FEBRUARY 20TH 11:00 AM5222 15TH ST EAST, BRADENTON, FL One Story Professional Building situated on 1.6 Acres with 200’ Frontage on Cortez Rd Located on the Busiest Commercial Arterial Highway in City of Bradenton. Property is annexed into City of Bradenton and has “Suburban Commercial Corridor (Heavy Commercial) Zoning.

1:00 PM7406 NORTH TAMIAMI TRAIL, SARASOTA, FLSurprising / Versatile 3,132 SF Office Building Fronting US 41, Amazing Visibility, High Traffic Count, Zoned PRS/WR/AI, Intended for Professional or Medical Office, Most recently used as a Photographic Studio , Close to the University of South Florida, Ringling School of Art and New College.

infocus | health care |

Pharmaceutical sales is rigorous work, demanding long hours on the road and the skill to negoti-

ate past the gatekeepers to reach busy doctors.

Jonathan Rotella excelled at this and developed an extensive network of contacts selling blockbuster drugs for companies such as Hoffman-La Roche, Sanofi and Schering-Plough in the Bra-denton-to-Naples region.

The ambitious 38-year-old who moved to Naples in 2000 quickly made a name for himself among physicians. “Because of those relationships, I learned about wound care,” he says.

Patients with chronic diseases such as diabetes often have wounds that are difficult to heal. Rotella realized that he could help hospitals manage these patients more effectively by improving patient outcomes and decreasing pa-tients’ length of stay, two measures for which hospitals are being rewarded by the government under the new health care law.

So Rotella formed NexGen Hyperbaric and now operates seven wound-care centers in partnerships with hospitals in six states. He’s planning another three centers as well as negotiating a possible acquisition that would vault his company to 20 centers.

Hyperbaric medicine involves using oxygen at various pressures to treat wounds. Medicare, the government’s insurance program for older people, has approved hyperbaric medicine for wounds ranging from foot ulcers to crush injuries, Rotella says.

To establish a center, Rotella identifies a “champion” physician in a market he

considers underserved, and then togeth-er they lobby hospital administrators to contract with NexGen to provide hyper-baric treatment on a fixed-fee schedule.

“I offer a turnkey program with no risk to the hospital,” Rotella says.

The hospital doesn’t have to spend the capital on a hyperbaric-medicine pro-

gram because NexGen spends $250,000 to $3 million to renovate or build a new wound-care treatment center, usually in an outpatient building on a hospital campus. The hospital collects the reim-bursement from insurers.

Meanwhile, physicians can use the NexGen center and generate profession-al fees from insurers like Medicare as an additional source of income. “Physi-cians are working harder,” says Rotella.

Each NexGen center measures 2,000 to 4,500 square feet and has a staff of eight to 10 people. To help him manage labor costs and keep the focus on pa-tients, Rotella hired AMN Healthcare to screen and provide the staff. “It makes us very efficient,” he says.

Rotella uses bank financing to build the centers, though he acknowledges it was hard to convince bankers of the via-bility of his first project. His first deal in 2006 had a 50% loan-to-value ratio, and Rotella had to put up significant cash savings to make the deal work. He jokes that explaining his business to bank-ers in the beginning was like explaining quantum physics to first-graders.

Rotella, who declines to cite revenues, says he prefers to build the company on his own using debt rather than take on investors and partners. “The more people you have involved, the more you have to answer to,” he says.

The big challenge on the horizon is how the new health care legislation will affect hospitals and reimbursements for hyperbaric medicine. “We really don’t know what’s going to happen,” says Rotella.

Follow Jean Gruss on Twitter @JeanGruss

NANCY DENIKE

JONATHAN ROTELLA, pictured here with his dog Brunello, is building a fast-growing wound-care business.

Jonathan Rotella is building a chain of wound-care centers around the country in partnerships with hospitals. One looming challenge: Obamacare.Healing Wounds

BY JEAN GRUSS | EDITOR/LEE-COLLIER


EXECUTIVE Q & A BY MARK GORDON | DEPUTY MANAGING EDITOR

EXECUTIVE SUMMARYIndividual. Mario Andretti, retired race car driver, entrepreneur Industry. Branding Key. The ability to take risks is the only way to generate long-term business success.

That is, Andretti, 72, now spends about 20 days a month crisscrossing the country for the variety of companies and brands he represents. The list includes Firestone tires, Hot Wheels toys, Go Daddy Web do-main names, Phillips Van Heu-sen clothes and Honda. He was also cast in the 2006 animated movie Cars, where he played himself.

Andretti, moreover, is a tire-less entrepreneur. He oversees Andretti Winery, a 53-acre wine operation in Napa Valley. An-dretti launched that business in

1996 with his friend Joe Antoni-ni, former chairman and CEO of Kmart Corp. Andretti also owns an Indy-style race car simula-tion business and, with his son Michael Andretti, a chain of gas stations in California. His previ-ous list of businesses includes auto dealerships, car washes and go-kart tracks.

The business success, of course, came together after a stellar racing career. Andretti is the only driver to have won the Daytona 500, the Indianapo-lis 500 and the Formula One World Championship. All told

Andretti, a native of World War II-era Italy, had 109 career rac-ing victories.

Andretti, who recently spent a morning at an east Manatee County tire store for Bridges-tone Americas and its Firestone brand, says he works hard in business because he’s always pursuing excellence.

“I was lucky to be in the sport for so many years,” says Andret-ti. “I was as a motivated at the very end of my career as I was at the beginning. I really loved what I was doing and I was al-ways searching for something better. That’s what drives this train.”

Andretti spoke with the Busi-ness Observer about his entre-preneurial career during his

Manatee County pit stop. Here’s an edited transcript of the in-terview:

•••••••••••What are some of the keys to

the success you’ve had in busi-ness in your post-racing career?

It’s no secret, but the only formula that really works is to surround yourself with the best people you can possibly find anywhere for that particular job. It’s all about people. Once you recognize that, you will al-ways be successful in whatever endeavor you are in. In any busi-ness that is something techni-cally foreign to my knowledge, I don’t profess to be an expert. So I surround myself with the best people and I learn every day.

Mario Andretti turned his name into an iconic brand through 30 years of championship auto racing, but his new business is pitch-ing.

MARK WEMPLE

MARIO ANDRETTI recently attended the grand opening celebration at a Tire Choice store in east Manatee County. Andretti, named the driver of the century by the Associated Press in 2000, has been a partner and spokesman for Bridgestone Americas and Firestone tires for four decades.

A racing legend says being great is about the pursuit, not just the result. That’s why Mario Andretti still moves fast.

NEEDSPEEDfor


A Business and Consumer Law Firm

Helping Florida Businesses andProfessionals Navigate the newBP Settlement Program

to make claims. The Settlement Program is broad in scope, and all

west coast businesses and professionals should be evaluated.

ERG is dedicated to helping clients who wish to be evaluated. We

are working in referral relationships with business, commercial

litigation, and consumer law firms across the State of Florida that

have clients located along Florida’s Gulf Coast. We look forward

to helping you.Henry “Hank” Didier Jay M. Fisher

ERG IS A STATEWIDE LAW FIRM REPRESENTING BUSINESSES AND PROFESSIONALSALL ALONG FLORIDA’S WEST COAST WHO SUFFERED DIRECT OR INDIRECT

ECONOMIC LOSSES AFTER THE APRIL 20, 2010 BP OIL SPILL.

1037

80

What parallels have you been able to draw from racing to being in business?

Business is competitive. Whether it’s in sports or you are selling tires. The objective is to be better than the com-petition.

What defines a good company culture, the kind that makes you want to repre-sent them publicly?

I think it’s when the word “excellent” is a prize in everything that they do. (Fire-stone) over the years has stayed right at the forefront of technology. Why? By be-ing involved in the motor racing sport, the most demanding sport and the most demanding discipline in the world. In my opinion that helped them gain tre-mendously over the competition. There’s also a fulfillment factor, where you feel that somewhere along the line the com-pany made a difference.

What companies have you worked with where the brand wasn’t as estab-lished as Firestone or Hot Wheels?

MagnaFlow is a company I joined about 11 years ago. They were just basi-cally getting into the aftermarket busi-ness for special exhausts systems. This company is now worth over $1 billion. They are the boss in that industry. I’ve been part of that growth and part of that resolve they had to become the best.

What business decision do you regret? I don’t know if it’s regrets, but some-

times you become a little bit too ambi-tious as far as stretching yourself. We had an automobile (dealership) business. We had Toyota, we had Ford, we had Chrys-ler. But I realized at one point in today’s world I needed to have 50 stores, not 12. I’d have to take all of my energies in one direction to have 50 stores. So we pulled back and just got out of it. It was some-thing where I felt I didn’t really analyze the situation close enough.

What was a particularly good decision you made in business?

You have to find a leader. And the guy who runs the petroleum station busi-ness for us, we took him away from Cor-porate America. He had opportunities elsewhere, and we hired him away. It turned out to be the best decision of our lives. We’ve grown that business tremen-dously.

What advice would you give to other entrepreneurs who seek to grow their companies?

You have to stick your neck out. If you are afraid to fail you are never going to get out of the house because you might think a brick will come down and hit you in the head. Somewhere along the line you have to feel confident and have a certain vi-sion. Mediocrity is very convenient, but I despise mediocrity. It’s easy to lay back and do things 95% and just ride along. But if you are ambitious and believe in things then it has to be 100%. That’s where you get the ultimate satisfaction.

You have to stick your neck out. If you are afraid to fail you are never going to get out of the house because you might think a brick will come down and hit you in the head. Mario Andretti | retired race car driver, entrepreneur

“”

FEBRUARY 20LAFFER FORECAST: Economist Arthur La!er, the father of supply-side economics, will speak at a Gulf Coast CEO Forum meeting. The meeting will run from 7:15 a.m. to 9:30 a.m. at the Sarasota Yacht Club, 1100 John Ringling Blvd., Sarasota. Cost is $50. For more information call 941-366-3468, Ext. 301.

MANUFACTURING SALES: Peter Straw, executive director of the Sarasota and Manatee Manufacturers Association, will discuss sales-force techniques at the association’s monthly meeting. The event will run from 5:15 p.m. to 7:15 p.m. at the Holiday Inn Sarasota-Lakewood Ranch, 6231 Lake Osprey Drive, Sarasota. Cost is $25 for members and $40 for others. For

more information contact Straw at [email protected] or call 941-376-4272.

DOWNTOWN TRENDS: Pat Hill of the Tampa research firm HCP Associates will speak at the Tampa Downtown Partner-ship meeting. The event will run from 7:30 a.m. to 9 a.m. at The Tampa Club, 101 E. Kennedy Blvd., Suite 4200, Tampa. Cost is $20 for members and $25 for others. For more information contact Kimberly Finn at 813-221-3686 or email [email protected].

FEBRUARY 21GROW YOUR COMPANY FASTER: Tom Hall, chairman of public-relations firm Tucker/Hall, will discuss concepts companies can use to outperform the

competition at a Greater Tampa Cham-ber of Commerce meeting. The event will run from 11:45 a.m. to 1:30 p.m. at the Greater Tampa Chamber of Com-merce o"ce, 201 N. Franklin St., Suite 201, Tampa. Cost is $35 for members or $50 for others. For more information visit tampachamber.com.

GOOD HABITS: Rob Preston, vice president and editor-in-chief of Informa-tionWeek, will discuss the seven habits of innovative information-technology leaders at the Tampa Bay Technology Forum’s IT Executive Council meeting. The event will run from 7:30 a.m. to 9 a.m. at the Hilton St. Pete Carillon, 950 Lake Carillon Drive, St. Petersburg. For more information visit tbtf.org.

calendarofevents


EXECUTIVE SUMMARYBusiness. TLC Diversified, Palmetto Industry. Contracting, wastewater treatment Key. Several niche contracting firms are in post-recession rebound mode.

RECESSION SURVIVAL BY MARK GORDON | DEPUTY MANAGING EDITOR

Lamberson, founder and presi-dent of Palmetto-based TLC Diver-sified, a niche general contractor for the water/wastewater industry, chose to not layoff en masse. About 20 positions were cut in 2010 and 2011, mostly laborers, but he stuck with the core group of employees. In the process, Lamberson ran TLC at a sizable loss for nearly two years — a particularly painful ex-perience for someone who calls himself a simple Iowa farm boy.

The pain, however, recently gave way to gain: Revenues at TLC Di-versified are up 110%, from $11.5 million in 2011 to $24.2 million in 2012. That’s even 39% better than 2009, when the firm had $17.4 mil-lion in sales. The payroll is back up, too. TLC now has 89 employees. Says Lamberson: “We’re glad we have our company still going at full strength.”

Lamberson, 62, has now turned his anxiety to 2013, which he so far doubts will replicate 2012 in sales growth.

Nonetheless, the sales rebound at TLC Diversified isn’t an isolated experience. Indeed, several Gulf Coast construction firms have had big revenue boosts. Examples

include:• McIntyre Elwell & Strammer

General Contractors: Revenues at the Sarasota-based firm increased 33.7% in 2012, from $34.4 million to $46 million. Work at the firm in-cludes several large-scale renova-tions for Publix stores;

• DeAngelis Diamond Construc-tion: The Naples-based commer-cial construction firm saw reve-nues rise 15.2% in 2012, from $88.5 million in 2011 to $102 million last year. Co-founder John DeAngelis says the work is still coming in, too, and the firm could hit $125 million in sales by 2013. Says DeAngelis: “We think 2013 is going to be a very good year.”

• Power Design: Sales at the St. Petersburg-based firm, one of the largest full-service electrical con-tractors in the U.S., rose 28.2% last year, from $110 million in 2011 to $141 million in 2012. The company is up 53.3% since 2010, when it had $91.96 million in sales.

Lauren Permuy, a business de-velopment executive with Power Design, a family-owned firm that does work in 17 states, also says 2013 should be a big growth year. Permuy says one factor in the

recession-era success is the com-pany, like many others, branched out in geography and sectors when the economy sank. “If we were only Florida-based,” says Permuy, “there is no way we would be able to keep our doors open.”

Those firms and others are also hiring again. Sarasota-based Core Construction, for instance, hired nine people over the past three months, for projects that stretch from Georgia to Miami. Now with 37 employees, Core expects to hire another nine people by mid-March. Core President John Wiseman says the company, with a focus that includes multifamily housing and senior-living projects, is “as busy as we have been in four or five years.”

Both Wiseman and DeAngelis say the influx of business comes mostly from clients that were on the sidelines for a few years. Some of those clients include real estate investment trusts and private eq-uity firms — a signal that the long dormant financing end of the in-dustry could be on the mend. “Fi-nancing isn’t becoming easy by any stretch,” says Wiseman, “but it is less difficult.”

PRACTICAL RESTRAINTMeanwhile, there are several

reasons behind the revival at TLC Diversified, from both external and internal forces.

One that stands out is the re-straint Lamberson and his wife, Joanne Lamberson, who runs the financial side of TLC, exercised to not overspend during the boom. The company, further, used boom-time profits to pay down debt on property, equipment and trucks. Says Thurston Lamberson: “We knew tough times had to come from the good times.”

The company also expanded outside the Gulf Coast, where it picked up jobs in central Florida and Iowa. One project, its largest in 2012, was an $11.3 million con-tract to work on improvements at a water reclamation treatment facil-ity in Orlando.

Manatee County officials, more-over, enhanced their local con-tractor rules, which led to a few more local jobs. TLC even took on some rare private sector work, in partnerships with other compa-nies.

Counterintuitively, Lamberson also doubled the estimators on staff, from two to four. His goal was to flood the market with offers to work. “The key to success in this business is number of bids,” he says. “If you put out enough bids you are bound to get something.”

The confident move to mostly keep the staff intact, of course, was another integral factor. While

forwardTHINKING

A gutsy move to maintain a hefty

payroll in the core of the downturn

has finally begun to show

dividends for one entrepreneur.

When the private sector goes to hell, everyone shows up at the public trough to stay alive. Thurston Lamberson | TLC Diversified, Palmetto

“”

MARK WEMPLE

JOANNE LAMBERSON, THURSTON LAMBERSON, DALAS LAMBERSON and TIFFANY MONACO are the family behind TLC Diversified Inc.

The stark recession choice Thurston Lamberson faced in 2010 was simple, even common, yet brutal-

ly di!cult to execute: To layo" a bulk of the sta", 75 people, or main-tain the payroll with 40% less work.


9948

1

Advertisement

The secret of getting more publicity By Ronald T. Smith*

260 Parkinson’s patients participate in meeting

Research on Parkinson’s disease was discussed at a meeting in Lakewood Ranch Saturday attended by 260 Parkinson’s patients and their caregivers, and sponsored by the Parkinson Research Foundation.

Among information shared by medical professionals was a detailed description of the new Parkinson Place in Sarasota, where patients can participate in programs to improve their lives. Audience participation events included “Dance for Parkinson’s” and “Voice Aerobics,” plus “Eating Well” and “How to Keep Your Body, Mind, and Spirit Up and Moving.”

ATTENTION INVESTORS

Jerry [email protected]

1044

14

Call Robert E. Turffs, P.A.

941.953.9009

BP CLAIMS97

042The hiring of a lawyer is an important decision that should not be based solely upon advertisements.

Before you decide, ask us to send you free written information about our qualifications and experience.

Lamberson says he thought a lot about how he was responsible for many em-ployees and their families, his decision was only partly altruistic.

It was also practical. “If we had cut some of those guys to be more profit-able,” Lamberson says, “we wouldn’t be able to do this much work now.”

LOW DEBTThe Lambersons not only kept up the

payroll, but they recently made at least a $200,000 investment in technology to help transform the way TLC works. The changes, says Lamberson, “just make data so much more available. We want to stay as high-tech as possible.”

Those changes include updated es-timating and scheduling software and new hardware, like iPads for project managers in the field to track projects. Dalas Lamberson, vice president of production at TLC Diversified and the Lambersons’ son, says the software al-lows the company to move fast when la-bor, material or equipment issues arise.

Intricate drawings of projects are now done electronically, not printed. “We used to do everything on big sheets of paper,” Dalas Lamberson says. “Now we do everything on a 30-inch monitor.”

That vision is far from the early days of the company.

In fact, when Thurston Lamberson first started out on his own, in Pompano Beach in 1985, it was a true barebones startup. He and a business partner got things going with a $20,000 loan. Lam-berson had previously worked for a con-struction firm in Minnesota that built grain-processing plants worldwide, from Minneapolis to Moscow.

Lamberson started small, yet busi-ness still came in slow. Some weeks in those early years he made payroll off his credit cards. For a while he ran the business out of what was Joanne Lam-berson’s garage.

“We barely had enough work,” says Lamberson. “The only thing that kept me in business was my unwillingness to go broke.”

But just like he did a few years ago, Lamberson ran an operation with little debt and little overhead. That allowed the company to survive, and by the mid-1990s it booked about $8 million a year in jobs. The company opened an office in Sarasota in 1997 and in 2001 it relocated its headquarters to a 5-acre complex in Palmetto. It continues to maintain an office on the east coast.

“It wasn’t my intention to become a mega company,” says Lamberson. “I al-ways wanted something I could man-age.”

‘STAY ALIVE’That something is now a statewide

leader in construction and renovation for the water and wastewater industry. Recent projects include a $5.6 million screening and grit removal contract with the city of Clearwater; upgrades to a water and wastewater treatment facility in Martin County, a $6.1 mil-lion contract; and a $3.8 million re-claimed water facility job in Palm Beach County.

Lamberson says the certainty of doing work for municipalities and governments was a recession bless-ing. Plus, he adds that one of the best things about being in such a techni-cal niche of construction is the high barrier to entry. Several big regional firms, in $300 million range, do this work, but there aren’t many others out there.

Yet that edge, temporarily, turned into a disadvantage in the recession.

That’s because companies with lit-tle to no experience in the field bid on jobs. Sometimes 30 companies would bid on one project, Lamberson says, when there would normally have been no more than 10.

Those low-bidders — some, says Lamberson, were cash-strapped homebuilders — won jobs because

several clients sought to save money any way possible in the downturn. “When the private sector goes to hell,” says Lamberson, “everyone shows up at the public trough to stay alive.”

Another challenge, more long-term, is the company is currently working out its succession plan. In addition to Dalas Lamberson, there’s Tiffany Mo-naco, the Lambersons’ daughter. Mo-naco, who first worked for TLC in West Palm Beach, when she was a teenage receptionist, has worked her way up in the accounting department.

Both Dalas Lamberson and Tif-fany Monaco are being groomed for leadership positions. The key to that process, says Thurston Lamberson, is one person does field work, while the other does inside financial work. He says he’s seen succession efforts fail when there isn’t a good balance.

The elder Lamberson says he’s not ready to retire, though he and Joanne Lamberson have already begun to spend four months of the year in Iowa. He’s also doesn’t want to go through a downturn again.

“When you are 40 or 45 years old, it’s just a challenge,” says Lamberson. “But when you are in your 60s, do you really want to roll up your shirt sleeves and do it again?”

BY THE NUMBERSSeveral Gulf Coast construction firms are in rebound mode, at least when it comes to revenues. Some examples of the growth:

TLC Diversified, Palmetto McIntyre Elwell & Strammer General Contractors, Sarasota

DeAngelis Diamond Construction, Naples

Power Design Inc. Ed Taylor Construction South Inc., Tampa

30

90

$150 million

2010 2011 2012

30

90

$150 million

2010 2011 2012

30

90

$150 million

2010 2011 2012

30

90

$150 million

2010 2011 2012

30

90

$150 million

2010 2011 2012

$24.2 million$46 million $44 million

$201 million$141 million110.4% growth

33.7%

15.2%

28.2%

109.5%

Source: TLC Diversified Source: McIntyre Elwell & Strammer Source: DeAngelis Diamond Construction Source: Power Design Inc Source: Ed Taylor Construction South Inc.


corporatereport | BY SEAN ROTH | RESEARCH EDITOR

Tampa oil, gas company buys Quality Lease, Rental Service

Tampa-based upstream oil and gas services holding company, Roca-ceia, has acquired Quality Lease and Rental Service Holdings LLC. The Quality companies offer a wide range of oil and gas field services including rig housing and related support.

“We are excited to become a part of Rocaceia,” Quality President and founder Mike Mobley says in a press release. “With the additional capital and management support they bring to our company, we will be better able to meet the needs of our growing customers.”

Kendrick Pierce & Co. and Skyway Capital Partners served as financial adviser and placement agent for Roca-ceia.

Rocaceia has operations in Florida, Texas and Louisiana. Its principal in-vestors are Atlantic Merchant Capital Investors, Main Street Capital and Gulf Standard Energy.

PGT sells N.C. facility, consolidates operations in Venice

Venice-based impact-resistant win-dow and door manufacturing com-pany PGT Inc. has sold its Salisbury, N.C., manufacturing facility to an af-filiate of Gildan Activewear Inc. for $8 million in cash. The sale is expected to net $7.5 million for the firm after sales costs.

The company is relocating its North Carolina operations to its Venice facilities from the 390,000-square-foot building.

“As previously announced, we listed this facility for sale in connection with the consolidation of our manu-facturing operations into our Florida facilities,” Rod Hershberger, presi-

dent and CEO of PGT, says in a press release. “This sale further improves our financial strength and aligns with our strategy of focusing on our core impact-resistant markets within the state of Florida and nearby coastal regions.”

Founded in 1980, PGT employs 1,000 at its manufacturing, glass laminating and tempering plants in Florida.

C2 Communications owner chairing local PR society

Cyndee Woolley, owner of Naples-based C2 Com-munications, was elected to chair the Sunshine District of the Public Relations Society of America. The district repre-sents seven chapters and more than 1,500 members of the na-

tionwide public relations association. She will also serve as secretary of the PRSA National District Council.

Naples’ U.S. Antique Shows buys National Antiques Show & Sale

U.S. Antique Shows, a Naples-based division of GLM, has acquired the Miami National Antiques Show & Sale from Dolphin Promotions.

The Miami National Antiques Show features 150 exhibitors annually. Now in its 36th year, it is one of the longest-running antique shows in South Florida, an international antiques marketplace during the winter season. The next show will be held Jan. 24-26, 2014, at the Miami Airport Convention Center.

The acquisition creates a strategic tie between the Miami National show

and U.S. Antique Shows’ Original Mi-ami Beach Antique Show.

Dais Analytic Corp. awarded grant by federal government

Tampa-based Dais Analytic Corp. has secured a second grant from the federal government for $800,000 to help it market a high-efficiency de-humidification system for HVAC and refrigeration uses.

The Defense for Operational En-ergy Plans & Programs and the U.S. Department of Energy’s Advanced Re-search Program provided the funding.

The combined Navy and Depart-ment of Energy team is focused on funding heating and cooling tech-nologies to achieve 20% to 50% less fuel usage than current systems. The program is focused on bringing the energy gains to government depart-ments, but they might be brought to market for consumers as well.

“Our approach is radically different from today’s dehumidification,” Brian Johnson, director of development at Dais, says in a press release. “Instead of using environmentally sensitive refrigerants, our unique nanotechnol-ogy plastic allows us to manipulate the water molecules directly to change the humidity and/or temperature of the air. This simple approach low-ers energy consumption and carbon dioxide emissions while providing what we believe is a far superior level of comfort.”

Targeted in this grant is Dais’s ongoing development of an energy-efficient, compact dehumidification system that uses a nano-composite membrane developed by Dais to al-low moisture — but not air — to pass through it. This process is engineered to efficiently remove water vapor from the humid air, and is projected to enable high-volume, low-cost mass

production of the dehumidification system.

Dehumidified air can be cooled us-ing far less fuel with systems, such as Dais’s innovative NanoAir membrane-based chiller component.

Dade City commission funds new Pasco business incubator

Dade City Commissioners approved $50,000 to launch Pasco County’s first business incubator. The incubator will be located in the Dade City Business Center and will be managed by a team led by the Pasco Economic Develop-ment Council Inc.

Saint Leo University has offered to partner with Pasco EDC and the new business incubator to provide techni-cal assistance to startups.

“The incubator completes a long-term objective for the school of busi-ness to deepen our support to the local business community and provide opportunities for our students and faculty to engage in creating new busi-nesses,” Michael Nastanski, dean of the Donald R. Tapia School of Business at Saint Leo University, says in a press release.

C1 Bank becomes Heat corporate partner

St. Petersburg-based C1 Bank has entered into a partnership with the NBA’s Miami Heat. As part of the partnership, C1 Bank will be the Presenting Sponsor of the Miami Heat Home Strong program, the team’s on-going initiative to honor members of the military during every Heat home game. C1 will also be an Official Sup-porting Sponsor of the Heat Academy; a community program that provides economically disadvantaged students with after-school tutoring and aca-demic programs.

WOOLLEY

out of the o!ce | CELEBRATION | BY JIM JETT | CONTRIBUTOR

Business executives on Jan. 23

celebrated the $1.8 million renovation of the former AmericInn hotel by real estate

investment firm TerraCap, which

acquired the property and rebranded it as a La Quinta Inn &

Suites in north Naples. The 87-room hotel is located near the intersection of U.S. 41 and Bonita

Beach Road.

COLLEEN DEGUZMAN, revenue manager at La Quinta Inn & Suites, and JEFFREY PALLA, senior vice president of franchise operations at La Quinta Inn & Suites.

SUSAN MEYER, director of sales at Homewood Suites, and JOVINA HU-BER, travel agent data manager with the Lee County Visitor and Conven-tion Bureau.

FRED HIRSCHOVITS, president and CEO of Twenty Twenty Worldwide Hospitality, and STEVE CLINKENBEARD, vice president of franchise operations with La Quinta Inns & Suites.

STEPHEN HAGENBUCKLE, managing principal with Ter-raCap, and RAJ PANDYA, director of franchise operations with La Quinta Inn & Suites.

MARGIE MCGLYNN, director of sales at La Quinta Inn & Suites, and TERRI LAMAINE, owner of T-Square Renova-tions.


Most business owners and CEOs whom I coach acknowledge the impor-tance of having ongoing meetings with their leadership team. The purpose of these meetings ranges from clarifying their vision for the company to discuss-ing potential challenges and executing company goals successfully. Yet many of these same business leaders are re-luctant to have similar transparency in personal discussions with their family, resulting in leaving their families and their financial futures vulnerable.

With the expected intergenerational wealth transfer of $41 trillion through 2052, there is a critical need to ensure that the next generation is able to sus-tain wealth in a responsible manner. However, research indicates that a ma-jority of families have been unable to successfully transfer their wealth upon the patriarch’s death. This highlights the need for parents to proactively have conversations with their children about money, family values and their financial future.

Although most business owners are probably loathe to add more meetings to their schedule, treating communication at home more like you treat it at your business can ensure everyone knows the plan. Family meetings offer oppor-tunities to discuss critical issues that can impact future generations. While wealth management will always have a place on the agenda, family meetings

can also provide an unparalleled op-portunity to build stronger family co-hesiveness. Once family members get comfortable with the process, meetings can inspire the development of family mission statements, formalization of family histories, family education proj-ects, philanthropic efforts, and other ventures that reflect established family values.

PREPARING FOR THE MEETINGTo frame how you approach this idea,

just think that a family meeting is to the family what a strategic planning meet-ing is to a company. Preparation is the key to ensuring a successful outcome. First, you need to decide who will facili-tate the meeting, whether it’s and out-sider (such as a family business adviser) or if you will do it yourself. If you are not comfortable initiating personal con-versations; your family constellation is complicated (i.e several marriages or children from different relationships), or there are current conflicts brewing, it might be a good idea to engage an outside consultant to guide the family through these intimate discussions.

One of the most important things a family meeting facilitator must do is ensure all the participants have equal standing. Another is conducting some pre-meeting due diligence, which may mean interviewing various fam-ily members to become familiar with

their personal agendas as well as their hot buttons.

These pre-meeting interviews should ask relevant questions about all aspects of family members’ views on legacy (val-ues, history, family traditions, wishes to be fulfilled, family heirlooms and pos-sessions of emotional value, and finan-cial assets, for example).

The goal is to identify the unique is-sues that are critical to family members’ emotional and financial well-being. The most important question to ask is: “What worries you about your future?” As a member of the older generation, you need to consider what you want upcoming generations to know about you, your values, lessons learned and life experiences. Consider the impact you want your accomplishments and lessons learned to have on future gen-erations. Just as importantly, ask the younger generation what they want to know and understand about the older generation.

And, just like at the office, you want to enter a family meeting the purpose of achieving a goal, and surprises can derail its achievement. Typical family meeting goals include:

• Creating a framework for the opti-mal development of family financial interests;

• Sustaining the value of the family legacy;

• Keeping the family together;• Supporting individual family mem-

bers in meeting their goals and potential;

• Setting expectations and responsi-bilities for family members.

Finally, prior to the family meet-ing it is imperative that you establish ground rules. Each family should tailor the rules to fit its needs. Some issues to consider are:

• Make sure one person talks at a time and everyone gets a chance to speak.

• Keep an open mind. Remember, “where you stand depends on where you sit.”

• Make “I” statements. Don’t blame or attack; talk about how you feel and say what you think.

• Create an action plan with a follow-up for each topic.

Family meetings can be a critical part of achieving the goals you have as a family as well as making sure you lay the groundwork for the lasting family legacy you envision. As a family leader, they can also provide an opportunity for you to express your vision for your family, recognize and resolve conflicts, preserve family values and share family history so younger generations can gain an understanding about the commit-ment they need to make to the family and prepare for inherited wealth.

A Better View of Business BusinessObserverFL.com

PASCO

HILLSBOROUGH

PINELLAS

MANATEE

SARASOTA

CHARLOTTE

LEE

COLLIER

FEBRUARY 1Special Issue:

Manufacturing Featuring the products made on the Gulf Coast & the companies that create them

Advertising Reservation Deadline: January 24Our lineup of 2013 special issues o!ers an entire year of opportunities to advertise and reach Florida’s Gulf Coast business leaders. To receive more information or our editorial calendar, contact Diane Schaefer at 941.362.4848.

% OF OUR READERS HAVE INQUIRED ABOUT A PRODUCT, BUSINESS OR SERVICE THAT THEY’VE SEEN IN THE BUSINESS OBSERVER

4010

1064

bottom-line behavior BY DENISE FEDERER | CONTRIBUTING COLUMNIST

The same approaches that work in achieving goals at your business can work at home. The key is how you craft the conversation.

Denise P. Federer, Ph.D. is founder and principal of Federer Performance

Management Group. She has 27 years of experience working with key executives, business leaders and Fortune 500 companies as a

behavioral psychologist, consultant, coach and trainer. Contact her at:

[email protected]

Family Meetings: How to build a stronger family


commercial real estate | CHARLOTTE-LEE-COLLIER |

Drive Medical’s Inovo Inc. relocating, expanding to Lehigh Acres

BUYER: Inovo Inc. (principals: Rich Kocinski, Harvey Diamond, Tom San Antonio, Douglas Francis, Je!rey Schwartz and Richard Kolodny), Naples

SELLER: JLM Financial Investments 3 LLCPROPERTY: 401 Leonard Blvd. N., Lehigh AcresPRICE: $1.8 millionPREVIOUS PRICE: $3.95 million, October 2002LAW FIRM ON DEED: Robert D. Royston Jr. PA, Fort Myers

PLANS, DESCRIPTION: Naples-based Inovo Inc. purchased

the 60,000-square-foot former LeeSar building for $1.8 million.

The price equated to $30 per square foot. The two-year average price per square foot for industrial space is $50 in the Southwest Florida area, accord-ing to the CoStar Group.

Constructed in 2001, the tilt-wall building features nine dock-high doors, a sprinkler system and 30-foot ceilings.

Inovo plans to relocate from 30,000 square feet in several Naples buildings to the Lehigh Acres facility.

The expansion follows Drive Medi-cal Design and Manufacturing’s purchase of Inovo in late 2011. Inovo is a manufacturer of medical oxygen regulators and conservers.

Gary Tasman and Shawn Stone-burner of Cushman and Wakefield Commercial Property Southwest Florida LLC represented the buyer and Stan Stouder of CRE Consultants represented the seller.

“This was more about getting into a single contiguous space that was much more conducive to their busi-ness,” Tasman says. “It has access to State Road 82, which should also allow them to retain a lot of their employ-ees.”

Inovo mortgaged the property to Webster Business Credit Corp. for $2.1 million.

Lee Memorial Health System buys Lee Physician Group’s building

BUYER: Lee Memorial Health System, Cape CoralSELLER: Three J’s LLPPROPERTY: 9131 College Pointe Court, Fort MyersPRICE: $4 millionPREVIOUS PRICE: $3.81 million, December 2002LAW FIRM ON DEED: Fowler White Boggs PA, Fort Myers

PLANS, DESCRIPTION: The Lee Memorial Health System

purchased a 16,447-square-foot medi-cal office building for $4 million.

The price equated to $243 per square foot. The two-year average price per square foot for office space is$120 in the Southwest Florida area, according to the CoStar Group.

The building already houses 17 physicians from the Lee Physician Group.

“We’ve been leasing that space for a

little over 10 years now,” says Mary Briggs, a spokesperson for Lee Memo-rial Health System. “We had the right of first refusal on it and the former owner had a purchase offer on it. The numbers also made sense. Buying it should save us $1 million over the term of the lease. It’s an excellent loca-tion.”

The new owner has no near-term plans to change the two-story build-ing. It houses family practitioners, internists and pulmonary specialists.

Etc…• South Cross Rental Co. pur-

chased a 5,368-square-foot medical office condominium at World Plaza, 12535 New Brittany Blvd., Suite 28, Fort Myers from Bank of America for $325,000. Brandon Stoneburner of CRE Consultants represented the seller.

• Jose Alfredo Trujillo purchased a 2,480-square-foot freestanding retail building at 4501 Palm Beach Blvd., Fort Myers from Yehud Development Group 3 LLC for $110,000. Fred Ker-mani of CRE Consultants handled the transaction.

• Torres Family Holdings LLC purchased 5.76 acres of agricultural-zoned land at 14050 Tamiami Trail E., Naples from Tucker and Marie Rooney for $75,000. Fred Kermani of CRE Con-sultants represented the seller.

• WCU2 Holdings LLC purchased 2.8 acres of waterfront land on Charlotte Harbor at 5000 Tamiami Trail, Port Charlotte from Grande Harbour Corp for $1.74 million. Tony Veldkamp of Sperry Van Ness Commercial Advisory Group handled the transaction.

• Kiazen Elizabeth Street Holdings LLC purchased a 21,600-square-foot industrial property at 855 Elizabeth St., Punta Gorda, from Wells Fargo for $700,000. Fred Kolb of Colliers Inter-national Southwest Florida represent-ed the buyer.

• GRM Acquisition Corp. purchased 1.02 acres at 20231 Summerlin Road, Fort Myers from RAI Restaurants Inc. and GE Capital Corp. for $240,000. Bill Mankin and Karen Johnson-Crowther of Colliers International Southwest Florida handled the trans-action.

• Reinhard Zank purchased units 5 and 6, totaling 2,849 square feet, in the Cape Professional Park at 1216 S.W. Fourth St., Cape Coral from Bank of America NA for $165,000. Jim Tamblyn of Colliers International Southwest Florida represented the seller.

• District School Board of Collier County purchased 2.84 acres at 2065 Commerce Ave., Immokalee from CE-MEX for $130,000. Jim Garinger of Col-liers International Southwest Florida represented the seller.

• RCH Co. of Texas purchased a 998-square-foot office condominium at 2739 Oak Ridge Court, Suite 203, Fort Myers from SunTrust Bank for $56,000. Dan Miller of Colliers Inter-national Southwest Florida represent-ed the seller.

• Fort Myers Broadway LLC pur-chased 0.17 acres at 2230 Liberty St., Fort Myers, from DUMCO Properties LLC for $25,950. Jim Garinger and Fred Kolb of Colliers International Southwest Florida represented the seller.

• C&C Construction and Remodel-ing Inc. leased an 11,500-square-foot industrial space at 6215 Idlewild St., Fort Myers from Lawhon Properties. Dan Miller of Colliers International Southwest Florida represented the landlord.

• SOS Furniture Co. Inc. leased 8,250 square feet of retail space at 4500 Tamiami Trail N., Naples from Green-belt LLC. Patrick Fraley of Investment Properties Corp. handled the transac-tion.

• Designer Creations LLC purchased 1,600 square feet of industrial condo-minium space at 5405 Taylor Road, Unit 9, Naples from The Northern Trust Co. and Gus Richard Edwards as trustee of the Gus Richard Edwards Revocable Trust 2003 for $135,000. William Gonnering of Investment Properties Corp. handled the transac-tion.

• SOF Ventures 2 LLC leased 2,115

BY SEAN ROTH | REAL ESTATE EDITOR

Ochopee

Immokalee

Naples Park

Sanibel

Punta Gorda

GoldenGate

BonitaSprings

LehighAcres

Fort MyersShores

San CarlosPark

RotondaWest

MarcoIsland

Cape Coral

Fort Myers

PortCharlotte

11

2

COSTAR

2

3

BUYER: Naples Community Church Inc. (principals: Darleen Cors, Douglas Van Oort, William Buchanan, Karna Bodman, Bill Allyn and Kirt Anderson), NaplesSELLER: Fontana LLCPROPERTY: 849 Seventh Ave. S., NaplesPRICE: $2.25 millionPREVIOUS PRICE: $1.13 million, March 1998LAW FIRM ON DEED: Ross Lanier & Deifik PA, NaplesPLANS, DESCRIPTION:

Naples Community Church Inc. purchased the 16,000-square-foot Fontana Building on Seventh Av-enue for $2.25 million.

The price equated to $141 per square foot. The two-year average price per square foot for office space ($120) in the Southwest Florida area, according to the CoStar Group.

The two-story office and retail building has served as the church’s sanctuary for the past several years. It shares space with the FLAVA res-taurant, interior design firm Certain Something and Faire Bella Beauty Bottega.

“Three and a half years ago we

were meeting in a high school,” says senior pastor Kirt Anderson. “What initially drew us to [the building] was the aesthetics of the facility; plus it was right in the middle of our congregation. It was originally built to be a church with two stories inside. It works perfectly for our space.”

Anderson says the church’s initial lease arrangement had a purchase agreement with the current seller. The church plans to continue to lease out much of the space, includ-ing 2,000 square feet of vacant space.

“This is expensive property, so we had to look for a creative way for the church to buy the property,” he says. “Most churches stand empty all week long. This way the build-ing is full most of the week, and we can grow and expand our programs slowly.”

Through sharing the building and a capital campaign, the pastor expects the church to pay off the building in three years.

The church mortgaged the prop-erty to the former owner Fontana LLC for $1.65 million.

Naples Community Church buys its Seventh Avenue home

3COSTAR


square feet of retail space at 2146 Tamiami Trail N., Naples from CRF Gateway Limited Partnership. Paige Eber of Investment Properties Corp. handled the transaction.

• JBRFGF LLC purchased a 10,460-square-foot industrial building at 17031 Alico Commerce Court, Fort Myers from Palm Royale Properties LLC for $425,000. Bob White of Lee & Associates’ Naples-Fort Myers office handled the transaction.

• West Coast Design Build Inc. pur-chased an 11,760-square-foot indus-trial building at 2471 Rockfill Road, Fort Myers from Pantropic Power Inc. for $425,000. Bob Johnston, Jerry Mes-sonnier and Derek Bornhorst of Lee & Associates’ Naples-Fort Myers office handled the transaction.

• QJR Properties Estero LLC pur-chased a 1.1-acre parcel at 9451 Cork-screw Road, Estero from Park Circle LLC for $230,000. Bob White of Lee & Associates’ Naples-Fort Myers office represented the buyer and Stephanie Miller of Select Real Estate represent-ed the seller.

• Charles & William Underwood purchased a 4,200-square-foot indus-trial condominium at 300 Leonard Blvd., Units 5 and 6, Lehigh Acres from Montgomery Bank for $136,600. Hal Tate of Lee & Associates’ Naples-Fort Myers office represented the buyer and Justin Swiney of Special Assets Manager represented the seller.

• 1-800-Pack-Rat LLC leased 26,844 square feet of industrial space in Southwest Florida Business Center at 7874 Drew Circle, Suites 1-3, Fort Myers from Carroll Partnership LLC. Jerry Messonnier, Bob Johnston and Derek Bornhorst of Lee & Associates’ Naples-Fort Myers office represented the tenant and Jim Garinger and Fred Kolb of Colliers International SW Florida represented the landlord.

• Velocity Express leased 15,000 square feet of industrial space at 4075-2 Edison Ave., Fort Myers from Lunsford Real Estate LLC. Bob White of Lee & Associates’ Naples-Fort Myers office handled the transaction.

• Hendry Aluminum Inc. leased 5,250 square feet of industrial space at 5582 Lee St., Unit 1, Lehigh Acres from RCH Co. Jerry Messonnier, Bob Johnston and Derek Bornhorst of Lee & Associates’ Naples-Fort Myers office handled the transaction.

• RV Tech LLC leased 4,000 square feet of industrial space in Country Lakes Business Park at 5701 Country lakes Drive, Units 1 and 2, Fort Myers from EB Properties Inc. Bob John-ston, Jerry Messonnier and Derek Bornhorst, CCIM of Lee & Associates’ Naples-Fort Myers office handled the transaction.

• Extreme Export LLC leased 2,600 square feet of space at 3550 Work Drive, Units B-1 and B-2, Fort Myers from Southeast Spreading Co. LLC. Hal Tate of Lee & Associates’ Naples-Fort Myers office handled the transac-tion.

• A-1 Logistics Inc. leased 2,500 square feet of industrial space at 14231 Jetport Loop Road, Unit 15, Fort Myers from Accutek. Hal Tate of Lee & As-sociates’ Naples-Fort Myers office rep-resented the tenant and Bob Johnston, Jerry Messonnier and Derek Bornhorst also of Lee & Associates’ Naples-Fort Myers office represented the landlord.

• Women’s Healthcare of S.W. Flori-da leased 2,049 square feet of space at 7890 Summerlin Lakes Drive, Unit 3, Fort Myers from Two Brothers Restau-rant Management Inc. Chuck Smith and Carlos Acosta of Lee & Associates’ Naples-Fort Myers office handled the transaction.

• Anchor Towing & Marine Trans-

port of Broward leased 2,000 square feet of industrial space in Country Lakes Business Park at 5701 Country Lakes Drive, Unit 11, Fort Myers from EB Properties Inc. Bob Johnston, Jerry Messonnier and Derek Bornhorst of Lee & Associates’ Naples-Fort Myers office handled the lease transaction.

• Greg Bock leased 2,000 square feet of space at 5483 Lee St., Unit 12, Lehigh Acres from Palm Royale Prop-erties. Bob White of Lee & Associates’ Naples-Fort Myers office handled the transaction.

• Southern Chute Inc. leased 2,000 square feet of industrial space in Country Lakes Business Park at 5701 Country Lakes Drive, Unit 6, Fort Myers from EB Properties Inc. Jerry Messonnier, Bob Johnston and Derek Bornhorst of Lee & Associates’ Naples-Fort Myers office handled the transac-tion.

• RK Enterprises International LLC leased 2,400 square feet of office space at 13750 Treeline Ave., Fort Myers. Godfrey Santini of LandQwest Com-mercial represented the landlord.

• Ministerio Nueva Esperanza Inc. purchased the 19,206-square-foot indoor roller skating facility, Roller-skating the Net, at 399 Alta Vista Ave., Fort Myers from Manna Christian Missions Inc. for $625,000. The sale included two attached residential lots and will be used by a Spanish Chris-tian church. Stan Stouder of CRE Con-sultants represented the seller and Jim Boback of Boback Commercial group represented the buyer.

• Fort Myers Auto Mall purchased an 11,469-square-foot industrial building at 2475 Fowler St., Fort Myers from Bridgestone Americas Tire Op-erations LLC. Enn Luthringer of CRE Consultants represented the buyer.

• Goodwill Industries of Southwest Florida leased 9,600 square feet of retail space in Palm Pointe Shoppes, 11601 S. Cleveland Ave., Fort Myers from 2010 Palm Pointe Limited Part-nership. Mike Concilla and Brandon Stoneburner of CRE Consultants rep-resented the landlord.

• Century Link leased 5,000 square feet of industrial warehouse space at 5625 Eighth St., Lehigh Acres from Jack and Lois Smith. Bill Young of CRE Consultants handled the transaction.

• Eye Centers of Florida leased 3,400 square feet of office space in The Financial Center, 7370 College Parkway, Fort Myers. Adam Palmer of LandQwest Commercial represented the tenant.

• Insphere Insurance Solutions Inc. leased 2,917 square feet of office space in The Financial Center, 7370 College Parkway, Fort Myers. Adam Palmer of LandQwest Commercial represented the tenant.

• Shook Hardy & Bacon LLP leased 7,000 square feet of office space at Jack’s Place, 3131 E. Riverside Drive, Fort Myers. Bryan Myers of LandQwest Commercial represented the landlord.

• Stephen Cunningham and Rich Sommerville of LandQwest Commer-cial assisted Murex Properties LLC in representing Northwestern Mutual, the buyer of the 115-acre Plantation Oaks mobile home park in Flagler Beach for $26.39 million.

• Sue Redmond purchased 133 W. Marion, Punta Gorda from Caldwell Trust for $370,000. Redman will use the building for a hair salon and spa after completing interior improve-ments. Ken Hoskinson Jr. and Joe C. Hembree of Hembree & Associates

represented the seller and Jim Quinn of Keller Williams represented the buyer.

• GVM Tile & Marble Inc. purchased a bank-owned 5,800-square-foot warehouse building at 2255 Alicia St., Fort Myers from Florida Community Bank for $135,000. Jim Boback of Bo-back Commercial Group handled the transaction.

• Capilano Inc. purchased the 25-lot Bogart Mobile Home Park at 7760 Bogart Drive, North Fort Myers from Bruce Scott for $410,000. James McMenamy of Re/Max Realty Group Commercial Division handled the transaction.

• Gerard Wiktor Holdings LLC purchased the Braman Avenue Apart-ments, a 12-unit rental complex at 1915 Braman Ave., Fort Myers, from Blanton Properties LLC for $410,000. The property consists of all two-bed-room, one-bath units, with an average unit size of 800 square feet. Jonathan Richards of CRE Consultants repre-sented the buyer.

• Crimson Plantation Road LLC pur-chased 3.02 acres of commercial land at 14670 Metropolis Parkway, Fort My-ers from Synovus Bank for $407,384. Hal Arkin of the Frye Commercial Group at Re/Max Realty Group of Fort Myers handled the transaction.

• IMS 2603 Andalusia LLC pur-chased a 31,171-square-foot industrial building at 2603 Andalusia Blvd., Cape Coral for $350,000. IMS manufactures sliding doors and high-tech industrial products for shipping and offshore industries. Gary Tasman and Shawn Stoneburner of Cushman and Wake-field, Commercial Property Southwest Florida LLC handled the sale.

J.L. Wallace wins contract to build Bonita Isles amenities

J.L. Wallace Inc. has been award-ed a pre-construction contract with Minto Communities LLC to build amenity features in the new resi-dential community Bonita Isles.

Bonita Isles, a lakefront commu-nity in Bonita Springs, will include an island-style clubhouse and amenity center to be constructed by J.L. Wallace Inc. The builder’s work may also include entry gates and arbors, a community center and resort pool, tennis courts, water features, pool cabanas and more. Humphrey Rosal handled the architectural design for the clubhouse. OpiDesign is the site architect.

8564

2


DEEDS/MORTGAGESThe following real estate transactions more than $1,000,000

were filed in Charlotte, Collier, Hillsborough, Lee, Manatee, Pasco, Pinellas and Sarasota county court-houses. The information lists the seller, buyer, amount of sale, mortgage and lender, if available, address and book and page of the document.

CHARLOTTE COUNTYNCM Commerce Center LLC sold in lieu of foreclo-

sure to IberiaBank, $1,599,133.91, vacant industrial, 8254 Duffie Drive in Enterprise Charlotte Airport Park and additional land, 2151714.

COLLIER COUNTYNaples Woman’s Club sold to City of Naples,

$1,530,000, vacant institutional, 610 Park St., 4786540.

HILLSBOROUGH COUNTYCamden USA Inc. sold to 5100 Live Oaks Blvd.

LLC, $63,400,000, Mortgage: $39,600,000, CBRE Multifamily Capital Inc., multifamily residential, 5100 Live Oaks Blvd., Tampa, 2013028201.

RV Realty Associates LLC sold to National Retail Properties LP, $8,000,000, auto dealership, 4811 McIntosh Road and single-family, 13025 Gore Road, Dover, 2013026121.

MJB of Florida LLC sold to Lennar Homes LLC, $3,428,000, pasture, 98.96 acres, in SEC 3-27S-20E and a portion of Meadow Pointe III Parcel SS, 2013019441.

Orix Capital Markets LLC as special servicer for Wells Fargo Bank NA as trustee for the Holders of Banc of America Commercial Mortgage Inc. Commercial Mortgage Pass Through Certificates Series 2005-4 sold to GSNP Florida LLC, $3,075,000, Mortgage: $2,925,000, Central Bank, limited services, 17301 Dona Michelle Drive, Tampa, 2013030564.

Community Bank & Co. sold to Caravel Brazil LLC, $2,091,500, Mortgage: $1,673,200 and $713,647.20, Community Bank & Co., warehouse, 5520 Anderson Road and light manufacturing, 5502 Anderson Road, Tampa, 2013032257.

M Tampa O LLC sold to MI Homes of Tampa LLC, $2,855,000, pasture, 78.81 acres, in SEC 3 and 4-27S-20E, 2013019436.

Quest Management Group Inc. sold to Pyramid Inc., $1,400,000, Mortgage: $1,120,000, Bank of America NA, rehab hospital, 1508 W. Sligh Ave., Tampa, 2013023675.

LEE COUNTYReflections of CLS LLC sold in lieu of foreclosure to

ACM Florida RE LLC, $3,754,834.45, commu-nity shopping center, 13550 Reflections Parkway, Fort

Myers, 2013000013070.

Hutton Florida One LLC sold to Family Dollar Stores of Florida Inc., $1,839,946.25, vacant com-mercial, 85 Joel Blvd., Lehigh Acres, 2013000016237.

Albert Erp as trustee of the Exit 24 Land Trust sold to Exit 24 LLC, $1,749,600, vacant industri-al, 17.022 acres, in SEC 10-44S-25E, Fort Myers, 2013000010223.

Albert Erp as trustee sold to North Trail Land Trust LLC, $1,379,700, parking lot or mobile home park, 5270 Orange river Blvd., Fort Myers, 2013000010281.

MANATEE COUNTYGreat Eastern Corp. sold to North River Village

GEC LLC, $9,207135.60 (no monetary sale but sold for principal balance on mortgage loan), Mortgage assumption: $11,160,000, Western Reserve Life Assurance Co. of Ohio, community shopping center, 6110, 6214, 6210, 6206, 6202, 6138, 6134, 6242, 6238, 6234, 6230, 6222, 6218, 6144, 6250, 6242, 6126, 6250 and 6226 U.S. 301 N., 02455-0976.

Sunshine Realty Partners LP sold to IH Bradenton LLC, $1,890,000, restaurant or cafeteria, 6320 E. State Road 64, Bradenton, 02453-6548.

PASCO COUNTYGoodForest LLC sold to Macy’s Florida Stores

LLC, $5,000,000, 28233 Paseo Drive, Wesley Chapel,

8806-2790.

Spacebox Land O’ Lakes LLC sold to Extra Space Properties Two LLC, $4,686,800, warehouse, 2550 Land O’ Lakes Blvd., Land O’ Lakes, 8806-3569.

Capozzoli Realty Port Richey LLC sold to Bashmart LLC (82% interest) and Victoria Land Partners LP (18%), $4,180,000, retail stores, 11938 U.S. 19, Port Richey, 8807-0800.

Page Electric Inc. sold to Forest Green Family Communities LLC, $1,900,000, Mortgage: $2,200,000, Glenn Pearson, rental mobile home or RV park, 11337 Hudson Ave., Hudson, 8813-2268.

Longos LLC sold to Robert and Elizabeth Ferrer, $1,422,500, retail, 1809, 1813, 1817, 1825 and 1829 Collier Parkway, Lutz, 8808-1931.

Family Dollar Stores of Florida Inc. sold to Realty Income Properties 19, $1,388,000, retail store, in SEC 2-25S-16E, 8806-2458.

PINELLAS COUNTYNone

SARASOTA COUNTYAM II Inc. sold to 280 GGP LLC, $2,650,000,

Assignment of mortgage: $400,000, from RL BB Acq II-FL LLC, residential multifamily land, 280 Golden Gate Point, Sarasota, 2013005566.

commercial real estate | TRANSACTIONS| BY SEAN ROTH | REAL ESTATE EDITOR

commercial real estate | TAMPA BAY |

Tampa Howard Johnson Express owners buy, rebrand New Tampa Wingate

BUYER: GSNP Florida LLC (Nilesh and Ghanshyam Patel), TampaSELLER: Orix Capital Markets LLC as special servicer for Wells Fargo Bank NA as trustee for the Holders of Banc of America Commercial Mortgage Inc. Commercial Mortgage Pass Through Certificates Series 2005-4PROPERTY: 17301 Dona Michelle Drive, TampaPRICE: $3.08 millionPREVIOUS PRICE: $125,000, September 1998LAW FIRM ON DEED: Scheef & Stone LLP, Dallas

PLANS, DESCRIPTION: Local hoteliers Nilesh and Ghanshy-

am Patel purchased the 84-room Wing-ate by Wyndham New Tampa hotel for $3.08 million.

The price equated to $36,607 per unit. The four-floor hotel, which has since

been rebranded as the La Quinta Inn & Suites Tampa North I-75, features an outdoor swimming pool, fitness center and meeting facilities.

The Patels also own the Howard Johnson Express Inn & Suites - South Tampa/Airport. Calls left at the hotel for the new owners were not returned prior to deadline.

The purchase entity GSNP Florida LLC mortgaged the property to Central Bank for $2.93 million.

Miami investor Altis buys Skyline Fifth apartment

BUYER: Altis Aju Skyline LLC (principal: Frank Guerra), MiamiSELLER: Skyline Fifth Avenue US LPPROPERTY: 441 33rd St. N., St. PetersburgPRICE: $19.5 millionPREVIOUS PRICE: $17.13 million, June 2011LAW FIRM ON DEED: Steinberg Garellek, Boca Raton

PLANS, DESCRIPTION: Altis LLC, a purchase entity led by

Frank Guerra of Miami, purchased the 178-unit Skyline Fifth apartment complex for $19.5 million.

The price equated to $109,550 per unit.Located in the Kenwood area of St.

Petersburg near Interstate 275 and St. Pete Beach, the property features one- and two-bedroom units in nine floor plans. The property was constructed in 1962, but was completely renovated in 2009.

The gated development was 97% occupied at the time of the sale. Com-munity amenities include a swimming pool, cardio center and a café lounge.

An HFF team, led by Elliott Throne and Manny de Zárraga, represented Al-tis in the creation of a $15.6 mllion loan

with Freddie Mac for the purchase. The 10-year loan was at a 3.71% fixed inter-est rate.

“The borrower locked in great, long-term financing on a practically brand new asset whose local popularity is evidenced by its very high occupancy,” Throne says in a press release.

Ontario real estate trust buys Granada Plaza

BUYER: PX Granada Plaza LP (H&R Real Estate Investment Trust), Downsview, Ontario, CanadaSELLER: Odyssey DP I LLCPROPERTY: 1491-1575 Main St., DunedinPRICE: $10.78 millionPREVIOUS PRICE: $12.4 million, June 2004LAW FIRM ON DEED: Clark Campbell & Lancaster PA, Lakeland

PLANS, DESCRIPTION: Downsview, Ontario-based H&R

Real Estate Investment Trust pur-chased the 74,200-square-foot Granada Plaza neighborhood retail center for $10.78 million.

The price equated to $145 per square foot. That figure is in line with the two-year average price per square foot for retail space ($146) in the Tampa Bay area, according to the CoStar Group.

Anchored by Publix, the retail center was 96% occupied at the time of the sale. Other tenants include Curves, UPS Store, Hair Cuttery and Firehouse Subs. The center occupies a 6.92-acre site at the intersection of County Road 1 and State Road 580.

HFF marketed the property on behalf of the seller, Odyssey DP I LLC an entity affiliated with Lakeland-based Odyssey Diversified Properties Inc. The seller develops and manages retail projects for several national tenants including Bealls, Publix and Starbucks.

The buying REIT has an interest in 41 office properties, 116 single-tenant industrial properties, 139 retail proper-ties and three development projects, principally in the Greater Toronto Area.

Etc…• Alex Blagojevich, senior associate

in Marcus & Millichap’s Tampa office, and David N. Gaines, vice president of investments in the firm’s Chicago office, handled the sale of the Raintree Apartments, a 184-unit apartment complex located in Topeka, Kan., for $5.15 million.

• MIDA Group LLC purchased a 31,000-square-foot industrial facility at 11256 47th St., Clearwater from Tri-ple T. Holdings LLC for $1.13 million. Elliott Ross and Dennis Bush of The Ross Realty Group Inc. represented the seller and Triple T. Holdings LLC and Judy Humbarger of the MIDA Group represented the buyer.

• Anything IT Inc. leased 30,050 square feet in 41 Industrial Center at 2412 S. Gelman Place, Tampa from 41 Industrial Ctr LP. Elliott Ross of The Ross Realty Group Inc. represented the tenant and Jeff Lamm of Indus-trial Property Group represented the landlord.

• MIDA Group LLC purchased a 31,000-square-foot industrial building at 11256 47th St. N., Clearwater from Triple T. Holdings LLC for $1.125 mil-lion. Dennis Bush and Elliott Ross of The Ross Realty Group Inc. represented the seller.

BY SEAN ROTH | REAL ESTATE EDITOR

BrandonTampa

St. Petersburg

Clearwater

Belleair

Largo

Seminole

Bay Pines

Oldsmar

Highpoint

East Lake

Keystone

Citrus Park

ChevalLutz

Dunedin

Westchase Thonotosassa

Town ‘N’Country

PinellasPark

EgyptLake

LakeMagdalene

EastLake-Orient

Park

TempleTerrace

SafetyHarbor

PalmHarbor

TarponSprings

TreasureIsland

St. PeteBeach

Tierra VerdeSun City

Ruskin GreaterSun Center

ApolloBeach

Riverview

ProgressVillage

SeffnerDover1

23

COSTAR

1

2

3


Sarasota Housing Authority buys Osprey Avenue building

BUYER: Osprey Housing LLC (Sarasota Housing Funding Corp.), SarasotaSELLER: 269 South Osprey LLCPROPERTY: 269 S. Osprey Ave., SarasotaPRICE:$1 millionPREVIOUS PRICE: $200,000 in 1999LAW FIRM ON DEED: BridgeTrust Title Group, St. Petersburg

PLANS, DESCRIPTION: A nonprofit affiliate of the Sara-

sota Housing Authority purchased a 6,782-square-foot office building on Osprey Avenue for $1 million.

The price equated to $147 per square foot. The two-year average price per square foot for office space is $115 in the Tampa Bay area, according to the CoStar Group.

The authority plans to relocate its ex-ecutive offices into 1,600 square feet on the top floor of the building and its Sec-tion 8 Housing office in 3,500 square feet on the first level. The authority plans to lease out another 1,700 square feet in the building.

“We hope to move sometime in the July timeframe,” says Bill Russell, the authority’s executive director. “It will require almost no work. We’ll be doing some tree trimming and very, very little remodeling. We were leasing space near Five Points and we were maxed out. With rents going up and interest rates as low as they are we thought it would be smartest to lock up the prop-erty and give us enough room to grow.”

DeLieto & Associates of the Com-mercial Division of Michael Saunders & Co. represented the buyer and Diane Lawson of Sperry Van Ness represented the seller.

The purchase entity Osprey Housing LLC mortgaged the building to Branch Banking and Trust Co. for $240,000.

Sarasota investment firm buys SR 70 Taco Bell, Long John Silver’s

BUYER: Taco 70 LLC, SarasotaSELLER: Tromble Land Company LLCPROPERTY: 6310 State Road 70 E., BradentonPRICE: $1.68 millionPREVIOUS PRICE: $300,000, February 2001LAW FIRM ON DEED: William Parker Harrison Dietz & Getzen, Sarasota

PLANS, DESCRIPTION:A Sarasota purchase entity, repre-

sented by attorney William Seider, purchased a 2,958-square-foot Taco Bell and Long John Silver’s restaurant building for $1.68 million.

The price equated to $566 per square foot.

Jag Grewal of Ian Black Real Estate represented the buyer and Clint Con-way of Sperry Van Ness Commercial Advisory Group represented the seller.

“The buyer was just an investor look-ing for a good return,” says Grewal. “This was one of a group of restaurants owned by Rick Tromble. He sold his business a couple years ago to Coastal QSR, which is owned by Prometheus Partners. They’re one of the largest franchisees of Taco Bell in the county.”

Grewal says the store was perform-ing well and that the location, near the Braden River High School and Manatee Technical Institute, was exceptional.

The purchase price equated to a payoff ratio based on tenant income (capitalization rate) of a more than 7%.

Texas real estate investment firm buys Spacebox Palmetto storage

BUYER: VREC Spacebox Palmetto LLC (Vitus Real Estate Capital Mgmt. GP LLC), Austin, TexasSELLER: Spacebox Palmetto LLCPROPERTY: 2100 N. U.S. 301, PalmettoPRICE: $5.81 millionLAW FIRM ON DEED: Bryan Nelson PA, Hattiesburg, Miss.

PLANS, DESCRIPTION: Austin, Texas-based real estate firm

Virtus Real Estate Capital purchased the 220,000-square-foot Spacebox Palmetto self-storage facility for $5.81 million.

The price equated to $26 per square foot.

The gated property features a 4,300-square-foot consignment mall. The property includes both climate-controlled and regular storage units and a variety of associated business and storage services. It also allows automobile, boat and RV parking.

Founded in 2003, Virtus Real Estate Capital has since launched 35 invest-ment funds and partnerships that have invested in 143 commercial prop-erties with a combined acquisition value of more than $1.8 billion. Virtus uses an income plus growth strategy, which means it targets stable income producing properties with the goal of even further improving them.

The purchase entity VREC Spacebox Palmetto LLC mortgaged the property to Virtus Real Estate Capital Lender LLC for $3.98 million.

Etc…• Planned Furniture Promotions

Inc. leased 40,850 square feet of ware-house space at 1712 Northgate Blvd., Sarasota from Systemair US. Jon Kleiber and Terry Eastman of Coldwell Banker Commercial NRT handled the transaction.

• Perks 4 Pets LLC leased 2,800 square feet of retail space at Beachway Plaza, 7208 Manatee Ave., Bradenton. Tom Strauss and Matt Yaniglos of LandQwest Commercial represented the landlord.

• Scherer Construction of West Florida LLC has started renovations for MedXchange. Located in Braden-ton, the renovations for the two new buildings included a face-lift for an art deco feel, new windows, doors, finish-es, HVAC, plumbing and light fixtures and an updated electrical system. The project is scheduled for completion in the spring.

• Mike Migone was named the “2012 Advisor of the Year” by Sperry Van Ness Commercial Advisory Group, which has offices in Sarasota and Manatee counties.

• Gypsy Bay Marketplace LLC leased a 2,120-square-foot office suite at 2620 Manatee Ave. W., Bradenton from Manasota Properties LLC. An-gela Varga, of Sperry Van Ness Com-mercial Advisory Group’s Bradenton office handled the transaction.

• Fusion Energy Solutions leased 4,980 square feet at 4424 and 4428 Ashton Road, Sarasota from Rocco Castoro, as trustee. Nick DeVito of Ian Black Real Estate and Brian Seidel of American Property Group handled the transaction.

• BeHealthy America Inc. leased 6,463 square feet at 6948 Professional Parkway E., Sarasota from Lakewood Investment Partnership. Nick DeVito, Debbie Anglin and Ian Black of Ian Black Real Estate handled the transac-tion.

• Several local companies have been hired for the $10 million renovation of McKechnie Field, the Bradenton spring training home of the Pitts-burgh Pirates. NDC Construction is the construction manager for the project, and Fawley Bryant Architects Inc. designed it. In addition, Wm F. McDonough Plumbing of Sarasota handled the plumbing needs of the renovation, Duncan Seawall of Sara-sota constructed the boardwalk for outfield seating and All Steel Consul-tants of Palmetto was contracted for the structural steel.

• SSI Properties LLC purchased a 15,600-square-foot industrial build-ing at 1014 Ninth St., Bradenton, from Southern Electric Supply Co. Inc. dba Rexel for $500,000. Christopher Leon-ard of Colliers International Tampa Bay represented the seller.

• AR Manatee LLLP purchased 6.11 acres of vacant general commercial land, at 4217, 4207 and 4115 Manatee Ave., Bradenton, from CNL Bank for $475,000. Kelly Prior and Christopher Leonard of Colliers International Tam-pa Bay handled the transaction.

• Debra Cooper and Angela Varga of Sperry Van Ness Commercial Advi-sory Group were awarded a contract to lease the Bradenton Financial Center at 1401 Manatee Ave. W., Bradenton. The Bradenton Financial Center features more than 120,000 square feet of office space and views of the Manatee River.

• Cheesman LLC purchased a 3.65-acre residential development site at 9216 36th Ave., Palmetto from Regions Bank for $38,000. Michael Gallatin of Sperry Van Ness Commercial Advisory Group handled the transaction.

commercial real estate | SARASOTA–MANATEE | BY SEAN ROTH | REAL ESTATE EDITOR

HolmesBeach

BaysideGardens

Myakka City

Osprey

North Port

Bradenton

Sarasota

Venice

Engelwood

Palmetto

Parrish

Myakka RiverState Park

Upper MyakkaRiver Watershed

Lake ManateeLower Watershed

BekerState Park

MyakkaState Forest

1

2

3

3

2

1

Hunt Group subsidiary building Rosedale

second phaseRosedale Construction, a sub-

sidiary of the Hunt Group of Cos., plans to develop 445 single-family homes on 237.3 acres in Rosedale Golf and Country Club adjacent to the existing residences. The Lake-wood Ranch community current contains 650 homes.

“We were exclusive builders of the original 650 residences at Rosedale and we feel the time is right for this new phase,” Patrick Hogan, vice president of the Hunt Group, says in a press release. “Both demand for homes in established communities, as well as for new-home construc-tion, is on the upswing. And with only 22 homes available for re-sale in the existing community and nine new homes, we knew we had to respond to consumer demand.”

In addition to homes built by Rosedale Construction, the devel-oper/homebuilder will be opening up the phase to several other home-builders, including Ashton Woods Homes, John Cannon Homes and M/I Homes.

Minto Communities starting new Mangrove

Walk phaseMinto Communities has launched

the second phase of the Mangrove Walk neighborhood in Harbour Isle on Anna Maria Sound. The builder will release 12 buildings with 36 island-style coach homes. The first phase of Mangrove Walk consists of 32 buildings with 96 units, a community pool with cabanas and outdoor fire pit, kayak launch and six furnished model homes.

“Only a handful of homes are still available in phase one,” Wil-liam Bullock, vice president of Minto Communities, says in a press release. “We have seen a steady in-crease in sales and the release of the next phase was necessary to keep up with the demand.”

Starting in the $370s, Minto offers six floor plans ranging from 1,621 to 2,960 square feet of living space.

in the prices of the goods and services they sell.

That’s the concept that should be reiterated in Tallahassee this spring when the Legislature is in session.

Or paint a picture, like the one in the accompanying box. Compare two states — one with a sales tax on machinery and one without. Then do the math and the analysis. The results should be obvious.

This is really an old story. But un-fortunately it must be told like Aesop’s Fables — again and again. But unlike a fable, this story is real and has been shown and proven many times. Dr. Ar-thur Laffer and Stephen Moore — the former a Milton Friedman protege, the latter a longtime economist and eco-nomics journalist — have shown many

times in their book, “Rich States, Poor States,” what should be intuitive:

States with falling tax burdens always have higher and faster growing personal incomes than in states with rising tax burdens.

What’s more, Laffer and Moore-provide a clear road map for having a health economy with their “10 Golden Rules of Effective Taxation” See below.

CORPORATE WELFARENow, about those corporate subsi-

dies, Enterprise Florida and boosting the state’s economic development spending from $111 million to $278 million. While we don’t know how much of that is earmarked toward in-centives and tax breaks, however much it is is too much. It’s corporate welfare, and it’s morally wrong. No business deserves an unearned benefit.


COMMENT from page 3

SCENARIOSay there are two manufacturers of the same product in di!erent states. One state requires manufacturers to pay a 7% sales tax when it purchases equipment for its manufacturing plant; the other state does not.

STATE A7% sales tax on equipment

ABC Manufacturing Inc.Average Annual Capital Expenditures ..............................................$200,000Sales tax (x .07) ............................................................................. $14,000Cost of equipment ........................................................................ $214,000

5-yr. Cost of Equipment .............................................................. $1,000,0005-yr. Sales tax (x.07) .......................................................................$70,000Total Cost ............................................................................... $1,070,000

STATE BNo sales tax on equipment

XYZ Manufacturing Inc.Average Annual Capital Expenditures ..............................................$200,000Sales tax ............................................................................................... $0Cost of equipment ........................................................................$200,000

5-yr. Cost of Equipment .............................................................. $1,000,0005-yr. Sales tax ........................................................................................ $0Total Cost ............................................................................... $1,000,000

ANALYSIS• Which manufacturer is likely to have a lower price for his product?

Duh. XYZ Manufacturing• Which manufacturer is likely to have more capital available to pay

dividends to shareholders, reinvest in his business or create jobs to expand?Duh. XYZ Manufacturing

• What e!ect will the sales tax have on ABC Manufacturing?a) It likely will be less profitable than XYZ because of its costs b) It will increase its price to consumers to cover the cost of the taxc) It will be less competitive because it will have less free capital to pay dividends or reinvestd) All of the above

• Which state is likely to attract more companies? Double duh.

• Which state is likely to generate more tax revenues to fund public services? Duh.

COST OF MANUFACTURING TAX

1. When you tax something more you get less of it, and when you tax something less you get more of it.

2. Individuals work and produce goods and services to earn money for present or future consumption.

3. Taxes create a wedge between the cost of working and the rewards from working.

4. An increase in tax rates will not lead to a dollar-for-dollar increase in tax revenues, and a reduction in tax rates that encourages production will lead to less than a dollar-for-dollar reduction in tax revenues.

5. If tax rates become too high, they may lead to a reduction in tax receipts. The relationship between tax rates and tax receipts has been described by the La!er Curve.

6. The more mobile the factors being taxed, the larger the response to

change in tax rates. The less mobile the factor, the smaller the change in the tax base for a given change in tax rates.

7. Raising tax rates on one source of revenue may reduce the tax revenue from other sources, while reducing the tax rate on one activity may raise the taxes raised from other activities.

8. An economically e"cient tax system has a sensible, broad base and a low rate.

9. Income transfer (welfare) payments also create a de facto tax on work and, thus, have a high impact on the vitality of a state’s economy.

10. If A and B are two locations, and if taxes are raised in B and lowered in A, producers and manufacturers will have a greater incentive to move from B to A.

Source: “Rich States, Poor States”

10 GOLDEN RULES OF TAXATION

A Better View of Business BusinessObserverFL.com

PASCO

HILLSBOROUGH

PINELLAS

MANATEE

SARASOTA

CHARLOTTE

LEE

COLLIER

MARCH 8Special Issue:

Law Featuring the go-to lawyers on the Gulf Coast

Advertising Reservation Deadline: February 28Our lineup of 2013 special issues o!ers an entire year of opportunities to advertise and reach Florida’s Gulf Coast business leaders. To receive more information or our editorial calendar, contact Diane Schaefer at 941.362.4848.

% OF OUR READERS ARE CEOS, BUSINESS OWNERS, PRESIDENTS, PARTNERS OR SENIOR MANAGERS

82

Target the decision makers{

1010

65


out of the o!ce | CEO EMERITUS | BY MARK GORDON | DEPUTY MANAGING EDITOR

A three - decade career in sales and manage -ment for Paul

Beggan began in sausage ended in spirits.

The sausage part was Beggan’s first job after college, with Oscar Meyer in Madison, Wis. It was a sales position, but he spent time on the factory f loor, where he literally witnessed the sausage being made. Says Beggan: “I saw all the gory details.”

That job soon led to a sales position with Bacardi, the rum and spirits giant. Beggan began working for Bacardi in 1982. In 2002 he was named president and CEO of Bacardi Canada, which grew from $68 million in annual sales to $125 million dur-ing Beggan’s tenure. In 2007 he moved to Switzerland, where he ran a $250 million software inte-gration project for the company.

Beggan moved to Sarasota in 2010. He now consults with CEOs through the Sarasota-Manatee chapter of Vistage Florida. He also runs a spirits-industry con-sulting business that currently works with a startup rum compa-ny and a startup tequila project.

Beggan recently discussed some of his past work experi-ences, challenges and successes with the Business Observer.

ON TOUR: At Bacardi Canada, Beggan ran a company with 175 employees, where seven manag-ers reported directly to him. He spent his first three months in the Toronto headquarters on a listening tour. He held a three-day retreat with top managers, where he only participated from the background. Says Beggan: “It was a way for us to move forward with what kind of com-pany we wanted to be.”

FROM THE GUT: Beggan adheres to the hire slow/fire fast philosophy, no matter how dif-ficult it is to let people go. “You always want to believe a person will turn it around,” Beggan says. “But in your gut you know it’s not going to work.”

YOU OUGHTA KNOW: A key move in Beggan’s time at Bacardi Canada was a restruc-turing of roles and responsibili-ties. Beggan sought to eliminate communication walls between people and departments. He had signs made up and put all over the office that said, “Do our people know?” If the answer was no, employees were supposed to make sure they found out.

PLAY HARD: One of the raw motivating factors in Beggan’s career was his competitiveness. For example, he and his team at

Bacardi Canada always checked sales numbers against their American-based counterparts. “I’m a competitive person,” Beg-gan says. “You are in business to keep score, and we did that a lot.”

DECISION TIME: Beggan’s fa-vorite business saying is “sooner is better than perfect,” a phrase from famed IBM executive Lou Gerstner. He always sought information and opinions from trusted executives, but he moved with purpose. Says Beggan: “The desire to get out in front of something was always the way to go for me.”

BE POSITIVE: Beggan says he had several good bosses during his career, and a few great men-tors. But the bad bosses stick out, too, if only for displaying traits he never wanted to have. Most prominent on that list was ego. Beggan says when a man-ager thinks of himself first, not the company or his employees, the results usually lean negative.

PLANS CHANGE: Bacardi made several high-level execu-tive changes in 2010, and the person who appointed Beggan to the Geneva job was forced out. A few months later, with a new CEO, Beggan also saw that his job was on the way out.

Beggan believed at one point the Geneva job was a step on the ladder to his ultimate career goal: Running U.S. operations for Bacardi. That didn’t pan out. “At one point you are part of the past, not the future,” Beggan says. “It happens to everyone.”

SHELFtop

MARK WEMPLE

Here are some of Paul Beggan’s most memorable business/life les-sons from a 30-year career in sales and leadership positions.

• If you are a boss with status, don’t give it up: make them take it away at a price;

• Stick to your expertise after 40. Try the new stu! before 40;

• Take 10 years to learn the busi-ness, 10 years to make a name for yourself;

• Have fun, be proud of your job and never, never be late;

• Ask questions, be humble and listen;

• Fall in love with your direct reports and show them trust, humor, loyalty and support;

• Make sure your family is on board — your spouse is everything;

• People turn out to be who they think they are;

• Prepare to change jobs every five years. Relationships count;

• Always make it about the other person, it’s not about you.

BEGGAN’S BITS

Paul Beggan has a few grand takeaways from a long high-level leadership career. Some notables: Have fun, be proud of your job and never, never be late.


SARASOTA’S PREMIER COMMERCIAL REAL ESTATE FIRM

www.AmericanPropertyGroup.com

For Over 25 Years...Proudly Presenting THE AREA’S PREMIER COMMERCIAL PROPERTIES

BARRY SEIDEL Broker/Realtor®

www.AmericanPropertyGroup.com | 941.923.0535

2032 Hillview Street, Sarasota, FL CALL FOR PRICE

7750 S. Tamiami Trail Sarasota, FL 34231

11,250 SF Available Generous Build-Out Allowance-Great Sarasota/Manatee Location

Small O!ce Building Zoned CI+/-20 Cars Available now!

3,500 SF up to 20,000SF 5,622 SF Zoned CG Excellent "nancing options, call today!8,000SF - Fully Insulated - O!ce Space - 3 Phase

6,920 SF Available 5,500 SF Directly on I-75 Zoned ILW6,908 SF 8 Overhead Doors Zoned PID4,600 SF - 9 exam rooms, 7 o!ces, XRay, and much more!

O!ce Building with new low price and now o#ering ! Located on Hillview Street behind Kinko’s. One story, freestanding building with plenty of private o!ces, reception, and much more!

7113 S. Tamiami Trail, Sarasota FL 34231 $2,895,000

Great location directly on US 41 with easy ingress and egress. Building o#ers plenty of retailopportunity and lot provides 400 feet of high-tra!c frontage. Former Sam Seltzers property.

We Are Your Local Restaurant/Bar Specialists American Property Group specializes in retail, o!ce, industrial, land, restaurants, business opportunities, property management and more!

104

496

Documents

Business Observer Feb. 15 issue