3 25 16 by Kat Hughes

M A R C H 25 - M A R C H 31, 2016 | TH R E E D O LL A R S

FLOR IDA’S NE WSPAPER FOR T HE C - SUI T E

Senior living | Entrepreneur thinks small to gain an edge in a crowded market. PG.16 PASCO • H ILL SBOROUG H • PIN ELL AS • P OLK • M A N ATEE • SA R ASOTA • C H A R LOT TE • LEE • COLLIER

Core

Appeal St. Petersburg is the latest, and some say greatest, example of a live-work-play oasis. How’d it do it? PAGE 12

STRATEGIES

COMMERCIAL REAL ESTATE

DEVELOPMENT

Share the Road

So Happy Together

Room at the Inn

COMMERCIAL REAL ESTATE

DEVELOPMENT

Select Storage

Moving on Up

Bike programs in Florida cities are ga in ing speed, a nd accepta nce, through one firm’s innovation. PAGE 7

Luxur y storage condos aren’t for everyone. But My Other Place in Naples found the right audience. PAGE 8

A prominent Naples commercial real estate firm looks north, to Lee County, for more deals. PAGE 10

A $3.5 million project at the Gasparilla Inn & Club provides a rare look at how the storied resort will grow. PAGE 11

Mint Opportunity

Canadian builder Minto is going big on a multitude of Gulf Coast projects. Collier County is a particular focus. PAGE 14

Pasco County developer beats back naysayers with spec project. 18 Land owners in region look for big paydays. 18 Presidential politics breed anxiety in retail sector. 19

PAGE

22 CEO dishes on the secrets of employee retention.

190781

DON’T MISS

Are the suburbs ready for the co-work trend? One businessman is confident they are, starting in Manatee County. PAGE 9

TOP DEALS

cooltoday.com

BUSINESS OBSERVER | MARCH 25 – MARCH 31, 2016

BusinessObserverFL.com

COMMERCIAL

REAL ESTATE

LEADERS

Vol. XX, No. 11

A Division of The Observer Media Group

BusinessObserverFL.com Founded in 1997, the Business Observer is Southwest and Central Florida’s newspaper for business leaders. With offices in Hillsborough, Pinellas, Polk, 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 and Central Florida’s leading and growing companies, up-and-coming entrepreneurs and economic, industry and government trends affecting business. The Business Observer is also the leading publisher of public notices on the Gulf Coast of Florida.

GLOBAL RESOURCES, LOCAL EXPERTISE

FOR SALE

Editor and Publisher / Matt Walsh, mwalsh@BusinessObserverFL.com

240 Field End Street, Sarasota

Executive Editor / Kat Hughes khughes@BusinessObserverFL.com Managing Editor / Mark Gordon mgordon@BusinessObserverFL.com Editor-Lee/Collier / Jean Gruss jgruss@BusinessObserverFL.com Commercial Real Estate Editor / Kevin McQuaid kmcquaid@BusinessObserverFL.com Staff Writer / Steven Benna sbenna@BusinessObserverFL.com Editorial Design / Nicole Thompson nthompson@YourObserver.com Contributors / Traci McMillan Beach, Beth Luberecki, Anita Todd, Foster Barnes

Freestanding 7,200 SF Warehouse building. Concrete block construction, Four 14’ overhead doors, large fenced and paved yard. Multiple private offices, conference room and break room. Good truck access and great location east of I-75 in the International Trade Center.

$729,000 Call Terry Eastman 941-914-2936 Call Janet Robinson, CCIM 941-993-0895

FOR SALE

Associate Publisher / Kathleen O’Hara kohara@YourObserver.com Associate Publisher / Diane Schaefer dschaefer@BusinessObserverFL.com Director of Legal Advertising / Kristen Boothroyd kboothroyd@BusinessObserverFL.com Advertising Production Manager / Kathy Payne kpayne@YourObserver.com Chief Financial Officer / Laura Keisacker lkeisacker@YourObserver.com Director of Circulation / Anne Shumate subscriptions@BusinessObserverFL.com

1500 DeSoto Road, Sarasota

Land only for sale. Seller has secured site plan approval from Sarasota County allowing an office/flex building of approximately 30,000 SF. Engineering, survey and traffic study have all been done. Retention pond on property and potential for ample parking.

HOW TO REACH US Hillsborough County

204 S. Hoover Blvd., Suite #220 Tampa, FL 33609 Phone: 941/906-9386 (Legal Notices) Fax: 813/287-9403

$650,000 Call Elliot Rose 941-812-5057 Call Bill Rex 941-350-5253

Lee County

5237 Summerlin Commons Blvd., Suite 324 Fort Myers, FL 33907 Phone: 239/275-2230 (Jean Gruss); Fax: 239/936-1001 (Legal Notices)

Orange County

FOR SALE

1161 Sheldon Rd Tampa FL 33636

6% CAP rate offered at $3,669,600.00 9600 SF BLD. Fully leased. Average HH income $84,000. Retail Occupancy rate for this zip code 97%

Call Ron Struthers, CCIM 941-769-3316

720 S. Dillard St. Winter Garden, FL 34787 Phone: 941/906-9386 (Legal Notices) Fax: 407/654-5560

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

Sarasota County

PO Box 2234 Sarasota, FL 34230 1970 Main St., Suite 400, Sarasota, FL 34236 Phone: 941/362-4848 Phone: 941/906-9386 (Legal Notices) Fax: 941/954-8530

Collier County

Charlotte County

The French Quarter, 501 Goodlette Road N., #D-100 Naples, FL 34102 Phone: 941/906-9386 (Legal Notices) Fax: 239/263-0112

Pinellas County

Pasco County

Address: 949 Tamiami Trail, Suite 202 Port Charlotte, FL 33953 Phone: 941/906-9386 (Legal Notices) Fax: 941/249-4901 14004 Roosevelt Blvd. Clearwater, FL 33762 Phone: 941/906-9386 (Legal Notices) Fax: 727/447-3944

FOR SALE

Manatee County

3030 Starkey Blvd. New Port Richey, FL 34655 Phone: 941/906-9386 (Legal Notices) Fax: 813/287-9403

Polk County

This unit has approximately 468 SF of A/C office with the balance of 1,399 SF as warehouse with restroom and a rear 12’ overhead door. Close to Laurel Rd Exit of I75. The buildings have been recently painted and the parking has sealed and striped. There is a Tenant in place.

3730 Cleveland Heights Blvd., Suite 5 Lakeland, FL 33803 Phone: 941/906-9386 (Legal Notices) Fax: 863/646-9491 To send Legal Notices, email to: legal@BusinessObserverFL.com. Name the county of interest in the subject line and attach notice. Deadline for legal notices is noon Wednesday.

$137,000 Call Janet Robinson, CCIM 941-993-0895

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

HOW TO SUBSCRIBE Subscription Price

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

FOR LEASE

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

2,000 SF of retail end cap on busy Bee Ridge (53,000 cars daily) Road. Great signage. Terrific potential.

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

4100 Bee Ridge Road

$3,066/ month, modified gross Call Dana Beecher 941-444-5580

POSTAL INFORMATION

Congratulations, Ron Struthers, CCIM - “Bronze Circle of Distinction Winner” Ron is a dedicated member of the commercial real estate community in Southwest Florida. Ron has served on the board of directors of the Sarasota CID association The SWF CCIM District, and chaired the Charlotte County Commercial group. Ron Joined Coldwell Banker Commercial NRT in Dec. of 2012 and services most facets of commercial brokerage in Charlotte County and South Sarasota Counties. He has helped hundreds of clients buy, sell and lease commercial real estate to become one of the top agents in The Coldwell Banker Commercial NRT Florida market place. Ron earned the number one commercial agent for the Sarasota office in 2013, 2014 and 2105, and has placed in the top 10 agents list for the state of Florida for the same period.

The Business Observer (ISSN#1539-9184) is published weekly on Fridays by the Gulf Coast Review Inc., 1970 Main St., Sarasota, FL, 34236; 204 S. Hoover Blvd., Suite #220, Tampa, FL 33609; 14004 Roosevelt Blvd., Clearwater, FL 33762; 3030 Starkey Blvd., New Port Richey, FL 34655; 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; The French Quarter, 501 Goodlette Road N., #D-100, Naples, FL 34102; and 3730 Cleveland Heights Blvd., Suite 5, Lakeland, FL 33803. 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

“The road is cleared,” said Galt. “We are going back to the world.” 194230

RON STRUTHERS CCIM

Single copy price: $3 Group rates for five or more corporate subscriptions are available. To subscribe online: www.businessobserverfl.com If 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: subscriptions@BusinessObserverFL.com

He raised his hand and over the desolate earth he traced in space the sign of the dollar. Ayn Rand, Atlas Shrugged

MARCH 25 – MARCH 31, 2016 | BUSINESS OBSERVER

BusinessObserverFL.com

review and comment

IANBLACK

REAL E S T A T E

BY MATT WALSH | EDITOR AND PUBLISHER

THE PLACE FOR SPACE

An antidote to help Trump on trade When you hear Donald Trump launch into one of his rants against the Chinese, Japanese and Mexicans for “killing us” on trade and how he’s going to pound them with 45% tariffs, you can imagine so many Americans cheering him on. “Yeah, get those guys!” When he rails against the executives at Carrier for shifting jobs from Indianapolis to Mexico and urges Americans not to buy Carrier air conditioners any more, you can imagine so many Americans cheering again: “Yeah, get those fat-cat turncoats and put them out of business!” And when he calls U.S. trade negotiators a bunch of incompetents and brags that he will negotiate “great deals,” Americans want to believe him. After all, he is the author of “The Art of the Deal,” you know. Unfortunately, Trump is disingenuous with these protectionist tirades. And he knows it. He — and the mainstream media — is not telling the parts of the trade story Americans also should know. They don’t fit in TV sound bites at a political rally. VOLUNTARY TRADE: WIN-WIN The story of trade starts with the incontrovertible truth that has been in existence from the beginning of civilization: Peaceful, voluntary trade — when two sides agree and government does not intervene — is good for both sides, win-win. In fact, two of the best explanations of trade ever written are reprinted below — from Adam Smith’s 1776 classic, “The Wealth of Nations.” As Smith pointed out, what’s good for one family — to buy or trade for what it cannot produce on its own and to buy whatever it wants from those “who sell it cheapest” — makes complete sense for a great country. And, as Smith said, it would be ridiculous to try to argue otherwise. That pretty much sums it up.

To underscore Adams’ truisms on trade, consider how important international trade is to Florida (see box on page 21): • The Business Roundtable estimates international trade, including exports of goods and services plus imports, accounts for 2.4 million Florida jobs. • More than 61,000 Florida companies export — the second-largest number of exporters in the U.S. And they account for roughly 20% of all U.S. exporters. • Florida ranked sixth in the U.S. in exports, at $58.3 billion, exporting more than the industrial states of Michigan, Ohio and Pennsylvania. Texas and California were first and second, respectively. Altogether, goods worth more than $147 billion flowed through Florida’s airports and seaports in 2015. And by the way, if you look at the entire picture of U.S. international trade, not just Trump’s side of it, the U.S. is not “getting killed” or ripped off. OTHER SIDE OF THE DEAL Yes, the United States has “uge” trade deficits (we import more than we export) with China ($365 billion), Mexico ($58.1 billion) and Japan ($68.6 billion). And China and Japan, especially, resist opening their markets to U.S. goods, which restricts the growth of U.S. companies. Or, as Trump alleges, it means those countries are stealing our jobs. But Trump never mentions the other side of the trade deal. In fact, U.S. consumers overall are winners. When U.S. consumers can buy what they want — imported cars, irons, TVs, refrigerators, clothes and computers — at low prices, they are able to raise their standard of living. Those low prices leave more money in their pockets to save or invest or buy other goods and services, which in turn creates more jobs and more wealth elsewhere, much of it in

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See COMMENT page 21

ADAM SMITH ON TRADE & TARIFFS

S EA L / LE

L SA R FO

The following two passages are excerpts from Adam Smith’s 1776 classic on free enterprise, “The Wealth of Nations:” “It is the maxim of every prudent master of a family never to attempt to make at home what it will cost him more to make than to buy. “The tailor does not attempt to make his own shoes, but buys them of the shoemaker. The shoemaker does not attempt to make his own clothes, but employs a tailor. The farmer attempts to make neither the one nor the other, but employs those different artificers. “All of them find it for their interest to employ their whole industry in a way in which they have some advantage over their neighbors, and to purchase with a part of its produce, or what is the same thing, with the price of a part of it, whatever else they have occasion for. “What is prudence in the conduct of every private family can scarce be folly in that of a great kingdom.”

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“What is prudence in the conduct of every private family, can scarce be folly in that of a great kingdom. “If a foreign country can supply us with a commodity cheaper than we ourselves can make it, better buy it of them with some part of the produce of our own industry, employed in a way in which we have some advantage. … “In every country, it always is and must be the interest of the great body of the people to buy whatever they want of those who sell it cheapest. “The proposition is so very manifest, that it seems ridiculous to take any pains to prove it; nor could it ever have been called in question, had not the interested sophistry of merchants and manufacturers confounded the common sense of mankind. “Their interest is, in this respect, directly opposite to that of the great body of the people.

4 topstories from BusinessObserverFL.com

BUSINESS OBSERVER | MARCH 25 – MARCH 31, 2016

TAMPA BAY

Business school names dean The University of South Florida’s St. Petersburg campus announced Sridhar Sundaram as dean of the Kate Tiedemann College of Business, effective July 1. Sundaram replaces Gary Patterson, who had been interim dean since June 2014, according to a statement. Sundaram joins the college from Grand Valley State University in Grand Rapids, Mich., where he was associate dean for graduate programs and centers and academic director of the executive M.B.A. and full-time integrated M.B.A. program. He was also chair of the finance department for seven years.

Marketing agency adds jobs Kobie Marketing is on pace to add 255 new jobs in the St. Petersburg area, with 85 of these jobs to be filled by the end of the year, according to a company spokeswoman. The new positions include project managers, developers, creative designers, copywrit-

quote of theweek I made more money last year than any other year. And with this I will probably lose money for two years. Keith Pandeloglou | CoworkLWR SEE PAGE 9

what do you think?

ers, strategists and consultants, according to a statement from Florida Gov. Rick Scott’s office. Kobie Marketing is a customer loyalty marketing agency. It has been headquartered in St. Petersburg since 1990. CHARLOTTE-LEE-COLLIER

Furniture store opens outlet Furniture Factory Outlet opened a store at Miromar Design Center in Estero, promising discounted furniture. “For years, designers and private individuals have made the trek to the annual markets held in High Point, N.C., for the purpose of taking advantage of the selection and discounted prices available on beautiful American made and imported furnishings,” says Phil Ison, owner of the new home-furnishings store, in a statement. “Furniture Factory Outlet brings that High Point experience to the Southwest Florida market.” Miromar Design Center is at 10800 Corkscrew Road in Estero, near Miromar Outlets. The center has 45 home-furnishing stores and is open to the public.

Do you trust Cuba to promote free enterprise?

Vote at BusinessObserverFL.com

Home sales fall 21% The number of sales of existing single-family homes in Naples fell 21% to 261 in February compared with the same month one year ago, even as inventory surged and median prices flattened. Meanwhile, the number of existing single-family homes on the market rose 22% to 2,978, and median prices leveled off in all categories, according to data from the Naples Area Board of Realtors. “February had the lowest number of closed sales on record of any month since November 2013,” says Bill Coffey, broker manager of Amerivest Realty Naples, in a statement from the association. “And the highest inventory level in two years. If we continue to see a dramatic increase in inventory each month like we did for February, then we may eventually see it affect median closed prices.” SARASOTA-MANATEE

City ranks high for tax friendliness Sarasota was recognized as one of the most tax-friendly cities in the United States in a report from Thumbtack.com,

Last week’s question:

a local commerce firm. Thumbtack, in the 2015 edition of its annual “Small Business Friendliness Survey,” ranked Sarasota the seventh most tax-friendly city in the country. The survey, which started in 2012, asked nearly 18,000 small business owners about their tax experiences. West Palm Beach was the other Florida city on the most tax-friendly list.

Accounting firm tabs new partner Millard Martin has been named a partner at Shinn & Co., a Bradenton-based accounting firm. Martin has worked with Shinn & Co. for the past 16 years, most recently serving as a principal, according to a statement. He also has experience as a controller and CFO. Martin, a graduate of the University of South Florida, works with the business valuation division and in tax preparation, review and business consulting. He is also a certified valuation analyst. Shinn & Co. was founded in 1993.

Is the federal proposal to expand overtime pay excessive?

60.87% Yes 39.13% No

184190

BusinessObserverFL.com

MARCH 25 – MARCH 31, 2016 | BUSINESS OBSERVER

CoffeeTalk

BusinessObserverFL.com

INSURING OUR CLIENTS’ TRUST SINCE 1953

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A jolt of perseverance them pretty much everything I had.” The couple got a $280,000 loan in 2009 to buy out their partners in the business. While the recession forced them to pare back, Rinehart says the Chamberlains’ regular communication with the bank helped the entrepreneurs stay in business and pay off the loan. Rinehart advised the couple through the ordeal, sometimes breaking out the box of Kleenex. “I’ve been doing this for 40 years,” says the former Barnett Bank executive. “You can tell very quickly if they’re sincere.” The Chamberlains plan to celebrate with a company party by firing up the grill and bringing the bacon. “He’s going to go hog hunting and hopefully he’ll get two,” Valerie Chamberlain laughs.

See COFFEE TALK page 6

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Sun Apr 3 Polk County’s top tourism driver, Legoland, is on the verge of a major multimillion-dollar expansion project — the largest since the park opened in October 2011. The work includes the Legoland Beach Retreat, a village-style lakefront resort with 82 single-story, cabin-like duplex units that total 166 hotel rooms and sleep up to five people per unit. Amenities will include a themed pool, a sandy play area and a buffet-style restaurant. The retreat, scheduled to open in mid-2017, comes on top of the Legoland Hotel that opened last May. There will also be more things to do at Legoland, to go with more rooms for people to stay, according to a statement. The list includes:

2016

• More dining options with an increase in seats; • A new section of the theme park called Lego Ninjago World, based on the popular sets and TV show. There will be a new ride there that combines 3-D computer animation with 4-D atmospheric effects; • Expansion of Legoland Water Park with Build-A-Boat, where kids can build and race Lego boats. “It’s been exciting to see Legoland expand almost every six months,” says Winter Haven Chamber of Commerce President and CEO Katie Worthington. “But this is obviously a huge announcement. The addition of 166 hotel rooms will have an enormous impact on our community.”

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Here’s something you don’t see very often: A party at a community bank to celebrate a customer paying off a loan. But that’s what happened at Preferred Community Bank in Fort Myers. In the lobby recently, staff presented its first Perseverance Award to Duane and Valerie Chamberlain, owners of All Ways Electric, an electric commercial contractor in Fort Myers. “This is a special thing because it’s a company that really got hit hard during the downturn,” says Todd Rinehart, senior vice president and senior lending officer at Preferred Community Bank. In addition to a plaque noting their survival of the recession, Rinehart handed the Chamberlains a large manila envelope with eight promissory notes for collateral the couple pledged during the downturn to keep their business open. “I have two houses in here, trucks, vans,” Valerie Chamberlain says clutching the papers. “I gave

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Tampa commercial real investors to purchase assets in estate broker David Sobelless desirable locations with man, a national expert in lower real estate values,” Sobelnet leases, where the tenant man states in the SEC filing. “In pays some or all property our estimation, this leaves an expenses, in addition to rent, opportunity to purchase prime senses a shift in the niche net lease real estate assets that market. are not being sought out by In an effort to get ahead of SOBELMAN institutional owners. With the that shift, Sobelman seeks vast amount of similar REITs to raise $20 million for a new Real currently seeking assets that provide Estate Investment Trust, Tampa-based an immediate return, we believe that Generation Income Properties. Shares many assets are being overlooked.” are being offered at $5 each, and there Generation Income Properties is no minimum purchase. The REIT targets only investments in the top 20 is one of the first nationwide to suchighest density U.S. cities. Sobelman, cessfully file under the Securities and in a statement separate from the SEC Exchange Commission’s Regulation filing, adds the company believes its A+, according to a statement. The new “low leveraged approach to acquirregulations, under the 2012 federal ing properties clearly differentiates JOBS Act, allow for what’s essentially a itself from its colleagues in the same mini-IPO. industry as well as other public net Sobelman’s strategy with Generalease REITs.” tion Income is to zig where others in A Sarasota native, Sobelman worked commercial real estate zag. That for the travel and logistics planning particularly goes for competitors team in the White House during Bill who might have over-reached in the Clinton’s presidency before he got into current market rebound, and are too real estate. He launched the Tampa short-term focused. office for Reston, Va.-based Calkain “We believe there is a current trend Cos. in 2006, and in 2010, with Calkain to purchase U.S. net lease properties President and CEO Jonathan Hipp, he that provide the highest return poswrote “The Little Book of Triple Net sible, which in our estimation causes Lease Investing.”

BUSINESS OBSERVER | MARCH 25 – MARCH 31, 2016

BusinessObserverFL.com

CoffeeTalk

datasnapshot

FROM PAGE 5

What problems currently plague your allowance for loan and lease losses (ALLL) process?

Gators score innovation points After nearly two years of secret meetings and slow progress, Sarasota business and economic development officials could finally celebrate a major achievement: A unique and ambitious economic development initiative and partnership with the University of Florida that holds potential for both area students and businesses. Several prominent leaders, including UF President Kent Fuchs and UF College of Engineering Dean Cammy Abernathy, attended a March 21 lunch in Sarasota that officially kicked off the program, called the Innovation Station. “For approximately the last 18 months we’ve been trying to make this a reality,” Jeff Maultsby, Sarasota County Director of Business and Economic Development told the Sarasota Observer, sister paper of the Business Observer. UF’s Herbert Wertheim College of Engineering will oversee the program, and the Sarasota version is the first of what the school hopes will be several more stations statewide. From UF’s end, the program is a way to showcase its workforce, research and intellectual property in front of businesses and entrepreneurs. For example, Erik Sander, executive director of the University of Florida Engineering Experiment Station, told the audience at Monday’s launch that next month UF engineering students will conduct a drag race of drones powered

by the human mind. “We’re going to bring that here,” Sander told Sarasota business leaders. “We’re going to make that happen” for Sarasota middle and high school students. In Sarasota, the Innovation Station, officials hope, will be another opportunity to reverse “brain drain,” when high-talent students leave the community. There are other benefits, including possibly landing new tech businesses in the area and creating a pipeline that connects State College of Florida with UF. That would allow students to spend two years at the smaller school before transferring. The Innovation Station is scheduled to open next fall, with a director and two program coordinators, according to a grant agreement with Sarasota County. The $3 million budget will come from a combination of organizations. Sarasota County will put in $1 million over five years, and UF will cover another $1 million. The Sarasotabased Charles & Margery Barancik Foundation is the lead philanthropic partner and awarded a five-year, $980,000 grant, according to a UF statement. The Gulf Coast Community Foundation, based in Venice, made a one-year grant of $63,000.

See COFFEE TALK page 23

CORRECTION The name of Scott Michael, virologist at Florida Gulf Coast University in Fort Myers, was spelled incorrectly in a story in the March 18 Business Observer.

It is primarily calculated by one or two people.

67.31%

It is a cumbersome process that requires time commitment.

41.75%

We use legacy spreadsheets.

37.22%

None of the above/happy with current process It’s been done the same way for years, without improvements.

23.95% 19.90% SOURCE: SAGEWORKS

Count on Changes The banking industry, preparing for new Financial Accounting Standards Board rules coming late this year, crystallizes a conundrum many business face: the danger of too few people who know what to do. In banking, some rule additions are on the way in the internal process regarding allowance for loan and lease losses. Raleigh, N.C.based data firm Sageworks polled more than 600 attendees at a recent industry conference, including bankers and credit union executives, to gauge the core anxieties that loom with the changes. More than two-thirds, 67%, of the respondents say merely one or two

people from their entire organization handle their allowance process, according to the Sageworks report. “This could be viewed as a limitation if those few individuals left the institution or were elsewhere assigned — the experience would be lost, and the process may not be easily replicable,” the data firm states in the release. At least four of 10 respondents, 41%, believe the process is too cumbersome, the reports shows, while 37% say using legacy spreadsheets is a big current issue. And 19% say another issue is lack of innovation, in that the process has been done the same way for years with no improvements.

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MARCH 25 – MARCH 31, 2016 | BUSINESS OBSERVER

infocus | strategy |

BusinessObserverFL.com

BY TRACI MCMILLAN BEACH | CONTRIBUTING WRITER

Pedal Power

MARK WEMPLE

ERIC TRULL is program director for CycleHop, which launched Coast Bike Share in Tampa.

Bike share programs aren’t just for college towns. For one business, the Gulf Coast is fertile ground for expansion.

or more than 20 years, CycleHop focused on consulting and operations assistance for bike share programs nationwide. Now the company has bolder ambitions. That includes running bike share programs, not just consulting. The city of Tampa was the guinea pig for the expansion, with a 10-year contract without requirements for taxpayer money. The company has since opened bike share programs in Orlando, Phoenix, Ottawa, Vancouver and several cities in California, including Beverly Hills, Santa Monica, North Hollywood and San Ramon. It has grown from one employee in Florida to more than 150 across the country. With Tampa Mayor Bob Buckhorn’s support, and a partnership with manufacturer Social Bicycles, CycleHop officially launched Coast Bike Share in December 2014. The model is partially designed for riders, through different price packages, to use the bikes for what the industry calls the last mile — places public transportation might not serve. Coast Bike

Share in Tampa ranges from $8 and hour to $15 a month, or $79 for an annual membership, which includes 60 minutes a day. In its first year in Tampa, Coast Bike had 15,700 riders make 45,858 trips that covered 130,000 miles. With 300 bikes, the company opened 30 stations spanning Channelside, Ybor City, Davis Island, Hyde Park and downtown. Curtis Hi xon, Tampa’s dow ntow n park, was the most popular bike station. The bike share industry is less than six years old in the United States. Some bike share programs failed in early days, CycleHop Program Director Eric Trull says, because they adopted Europe’s pricing models. “People realized that wasn’t working, so we made it more user friendly,” adds Trull. The company recoups some money from ridership, Trull says, a bit more than a bus system typically does, which tends to be around 40-60% of operational costs. CycleHop makes more money from partnerships with local businesses and sponsorships, he says.

Part of CycleHop’s pitch to cities is access to data through the bikes. CycleHop partners with manufacturers that build bikes with GPS and other technology to provide detailed information on how each bike is used. In New York, Washington, D.C. and Chicago, for example, bike share programs have a “smart dock but dumb bike,” Trull says. “They know if the bike was ridden, but don’t know what happens in between.” With ride information coming from the bike itself, Coast Bike Share’s data can help measure use of bike lanes or specific areas, like the expanding Tampa Riverwalk. For new markets, the company looks at population density, with a goal to insert a station every quarter to half a mile. Connectivity to infrastructure is also important. Coast Bike wants to expand to Tampa Heights and Westshore, in addition to launching in Sarasota and Bradenton. The company is also scheduled to go before the St. Petersburg city council in April, hoping for a fall launch to coincide with the new water ferry system to

If you hit a roadblock, just keep pushing and get over it. Eric Trull | CycleHop

Tampa. “We’re emphasizing that last mile, transportation Florida style by bike and boat,” Trull says. Internally, there have been some lessons learned going back to the Tampa launch. It was delayed nearly 12 months while the group worked to secure funding and finalized manufacturing of an untested product. “We knew it was the best product, so it ended up working better for everyone in the end,” says Trull. “If you hit a road block, just keep pushing and you’ll get over it.”

SPOKE UP The benefits of a bike share program are far-reaching, says CycleHop Program Director Eric Trull. That ranges from health in the office to a new kind of one-on-one meeting. Here’s how users can ride: n Check out a bike using the mobile app and a credit card. The mobile app provides a pin attached to a specific bike; n App monitors time and mileage of the rider, along with gas and energy savings; n Rider can take breaks by using the attached lock or end the trip by returning the bike to a hub location.

8 infocus | commercial real estate | BusinessObserverFL.com

BUSINESS OBSERVER | MARCH 25 – MARCH 31, 2016

BY JEAN GRUSS | EDITOR/LEE-COLLIER

ED CLEMENT

PHIL PUGH of Pugh Realty Group says luxury storage condos are in demand because people are looking for a secure place to store their expensive vehicles and other valuables.

His Other Place Luxury storage condos are popular with people who want to store their expensive recreational vehicles, sports cars or any other valuables.

f you own a million-dollar recreational vehicle, you can’t park it under a tree. Besides, if you live in a deedrestricted community, the association may nix the idea of letting an RV sit in the driveway. But choices are often limited, mostly ramshackle rental storage units or someone’s empty warehouse or lot. Sometimes these storage alternatives are located in industrial neighborhoods on the outskirts of town, far from anyone’s home. Phil Pugh’s partners had a better idea. They built luxury storage condos near U.S. 41 and Immokalee Road in North Naples called My Other Place that average 1,000 square feet with security cameras, air conditioning and room for plumbing.

These units are cavernous. Fourteen-foot doors roll open at the touch of a remote-control button. Some are as wide as 22 feet with 20-foot ceilings and sprinkler systems throughout. “It’s hurricane proof,” says Pugh, whose consulting and real estate firm, Pugh Realty Group, has become the expert in the burgeoning area of luxury condo storage. The second phase of the luxury storage project recently sold out and units there averaged $179,000. “It was a market that wasn’t served,” says Pugh, who notes that it would cost about the same sum to add on to an existing residential garage. The third phase of the project will be completed next year and will have 32 units. “I’m starting

It was a market that wasn’t served. Phil Pugh | Pugh Realty Group

a preferred waiting list,” says Pugh, who is marketing the project. Don’t call them man caves, though. “This is not a party place,” Pugh says. The term “man cave” has become popular as men seek out warehouses where they can entertain friends and buff their sports cars away from home. “It’s not a man cave. It’s not a bar. You can’t live here,” Pugh says. Municipalities have strict zoning laws that segregate commercial uses. For example, it would be unusual for a municipality to agree to allow a storage facility to let its tenants have a bar inside their units. Besides, Pugh says, customers of My Other Place don’t want other tenants to treat it as a bachelor pad. “Our customers do not want people drinking,” he says. Indeed, privacy is a big issue. That’s because tenants store valuable cars and other things in their units. “We’re zoned for storage,” Pugh says.

Because the facility draws from a five- to seven-mile radius, Pugh says it’s important to locate such luxury storage condos close to residential areas with the right demographics. Pugh sells residential real estate, too, and that gives him insight into how to market and target buyers, some of whom are seasonal residents from northern states and need to store valuables in the summer. That’s why Pugh is planning to launch sales on another similar project in Fort Myers called Vehicle Fortress, which is located near Southwest Florida International Airport off Treeline Avenue. Vehicle Fortress will have 170 luxury storage condos for sale. They’ll range in size from 600 square feet to 1,400 square feet and cost between $95,000 and $150,000. “Vehicle Fortress needs to tap that market,” Pugh says. Follow Jean Gruss on Twitter @JeanGruss

MARCH 25 – MARCH 31, 2016 | BUSINESS OBSERVER

infocus | commercial real estate |

BusinessObserverFL.com

BY MARK GORDON | MANAGING EDITOR

Work It The co-working trend doesn’t have to be only a big-city thing. An entrepreneur believes the ‘burbs are also ready for it.

LORI SAX

KEITH PANDELOGLOU hopes to open his business venture, CoworkLWR, by October.

eith Pandeloglou is so confident in the future of the co-working space model, he quit his six-figure sales job to start his own business in the industry. Pandeloglou is doing that with CoworkLW R, in Lakewood Ranch in east Manatee County. Pandeloglou spent the past six years with the Lakewood Ranch office of national human resources consulting firm TriNet. First he worked in IT, and then he oversaw a sales team that grew from three to 75 people under his leadership. He left in January to start CoworkLWR and a consulting firm for entrepreneurs and startups, UTC Venture Group. Pandeloglou realizes this is far from a sure thing, given how new the model is to the area. Lakewood Ranch, while a hub for Sarasota-Manatee companies, also doesn’t have the mass of businesses and people where co-working spaces traditionally thrive. “I made more money last

year than any other year in my career,” says Pandeloglou, 34. “And with this I will probably lose money for the first two years.” CoworkLWR is a work in progress, but the general model, monthly memberships, follows companies such as New York City-based WeWork or Naplesbased VentureX. The CoworkLWR office will be Wi-Fi connected, and Pandeloglou plans to have a conference room and a recording studio for videos and other multimedia projects. Members can also get a business address and packaging services. There are three membership options: $10 a month, a community membership, gets you workspace access for one day; the next level, espresso, gets one day a week plus discounts on the conference room and sound studio for $50 a month; and the highest level, partnership, gets 24-hour unlimited access to the workspace and all other services for $250 a month.

Pandeloglou is confident the rates for his model will work, particularly if he gets enough partnership-level clients. Says Pandeloglou: “I think the market is ripe for something like this.” Pandeloglou hopes to have office space leased, around 2,000 square feet, for CoworkLWR by mid-spring and open by October, after renovations. He seeks a place on Town Center Parkway, a strip of Lakewood Ranch that consists mostly of office buildings. He’s already invested $35,000 into the venture, and plans to spend around $100,000 in total. CoWorkLWR targets mostly white-collar professionals who work from home or have multiple out-of-the-office appointments for partnership-level memberships. That could be a patent attorney with his own practice or a salesperson. Geographically, Pandeloglou aims for the area in east Manatee County between State Road 70 and University Parkway.

He hopes to maybe even snare some clients who live in the area and are tired of commuting from east Manatee to downtown Sarasota. Pandeloglou started several businesses while growing up in New Jersey, from building a computer for a teacher to buying gum at Wal-Mart and reselling the packs to other kids for a profit. While he says his time at TriNet was lucrative and educational, he looks forward to doing something more entrepreneurial again. He’s also excited about his plans for some guerilla-style marketing to find clients for CoworkLW R. That includes sending a salesperson into area Starbucks locations to chat up independently working people about CoworkLWR. He also bought a Toyota Prius he intends to drive around town wrapped with CoWorkLWR’s logo. “This is a hyper-local business,” he says. “I want it to be a place the community owns.”

I made more money last year than any other year in my career. And with this I will probably lose money for the first two years. Keith Pandeloglou | CoworkLWR

Follow Mark Gordon on Twitter @markigordon

10 infocus | commercial real estate | BusinessObserverFL.com

BUSINESS OBSERVER | MARCH 25 – MARCH 31, 2016

BY JEAN GRUSS | EDITOR/LEE-COLLIER

ou may have read that Michael Carr Sr. is retiring. Not so fast. Carr Sr., who has been a fixture in the commercial real estate business in Naples for more than three decades, isn’t leaving Coldwell Banker Commercial NRT. “I’m good for another five to 10 years, so watch out,” he says, digging into a healthy salad topped with grilled chicken at Shula’s Steak House, his favorite business lunch spot inside the Naples Hilton. Carr’s son, Michael Carr Jr., is taking over the management of Coldwell Banker Commercial’s Southwest Florida office and its staff of 18 people. Carr Jr. has worked alongside his father at Coldwell Banker Commercial since 1989, when he left the New York City advertising world and started selling and leasing retail and office buildings in Naples. Carr Sr. says he’ll continue selling and leasing industrial space as he’s always done. “I could sell forever,” he says. “I’m not leaving the business.” Carr Jr. says Coldwell Banker Commercial’s ambition is to boost its presence in Lee County, where it closed an office during the real estate downturn. “We’re already in South Lee, but we need to get back into Fort Myers and Cape Coral,” says Carr Jr. “We need to have a more significant presence.” Collier County has less commercial land available, higher taxes on new construction and less inventory of empty space than its northern neighbor. “There’s two or three times more activity up there,” Carr Sr. says of Lee County. “That’s the problem with Collier, we’re just running out.” Despite climbing rents and rising values, no developer is willing to build a speculative building because of the high costs of land and construction. “The fixed costs are too high,” Carr Sr. says. Carr Sr. estimates only 2.9% of the industrial space in Collier County is vacant and gross rents are north of $10 a square foot. It costs $100 a square foot to build an industrial building in Collier. “Plus, we have impact fees down here that are out of sight,” he says. “We have not built a single spec in Collier in six years,” Carr Sr. says, noting that an industrial building that might sell for $40 a square foot in Tampa sells for three times that in Naples. Both Carrs say they’ve noticed a slowdown in commercial real estate activity recently, but they don’t expect the current growth cycle to end soon. “A lot of people are holding their powder until they see what happens with the election,” Carr Jr. says. “They’re being a little more cautious now.” Carr Sr. has seen his share of economic ups and down since he came to Naples in 1978 to establish a plumbingsupply business. He got into real estate after realizing he’d make more money leasing and building industrial space for contractors and sold his plumbing business in 1986. “I was making lots of money in real estate and putting it in my plumbing-supply business, where it promptly disappeared,” he chuckles. Follow Jean Gruss on Twitter @JeanGruss

I’m not leaving the business. Michael Carr Sr. | Broker associate | Coldwell Banker Commercial NRT

ED CLEMENT

MICHAEL CARR JR. has taken over as managing broker of the Southwest Florida region for Coldwell Banker Commercial NRT from his father, Michael Carr Sr., who remains as broker associate.

Switch

Carrs

Michael Carr Jr. takes over the management of the Coldwell Banker Commercial NRT office in Southwest Florida from his father and plans to boost its presence in Lee County.

MARCH 25 – MARCH 31, 2016 | BUSINESS OBSERVER

infocus | tourism |

BusinessObserverFL.com

BY BETH LUBERECKI | CONTRIBUTING WRITER

Stay Sharp LORI SAX

JON REECHER is the general manager of the Gasparilla Inn & Club in Boca Grande, which recently completed a $3.5 million expansion project.

Even businesses with successful histories can use upgrades. A $3.5 million project is the way there at one storied resort.

he Gasparilla Inn & Club already had a lot of things going for it — a hundredyear history, an idyllic island location in Boca Grande and a reputation as a service-oriented, luxury lodging option. With the addition of its new Sharp House, it looks to become an even more appealing place for multigenerational family vacations and couples’ getaways. Named in honor of the inn’s late former ow ner, Bayard Sharp, the six houses sit just steps from the inn on a piece of property Sharp always wanted to build on. (A villa that had been on site was torn down to make room for the houses.) Ranging from 2,300 to 3,850 square feet, the newly constructed dwellings have either three or four bedrooms along with bathrooms for each bedroom, a full kitchen, washers and dryers and two living spaces in most cases.

The first Sharp House opened in December 2014, and the other five were rolled out periodically after that. An improved national economy contributed to the inn’s decision to undertake the more than $3.5 million project. Another factor: The 131 rooms in its main building and cottages typically sell out quickly during the holidays and high season. “We felt that our infrastructure could handle another 22 rooms and thought it was a good time to make the move,” says Jon Reecher, general manager of the inn. W hile the houses provide g uests w it h more room to spread out, they retain plenty of the Old Florida charm associated with the inn. There’s a yellow paint job with white trim, just like the main inn building, and there are porches to enjoy the island breeze. Their upscale, coastal decor features sooth-

I think our biggest challenge is to keep up with the expectations of our guests, and I think we do a pretty good job with that.

Jon Reecher | general manager | Gasparilla Inn & Club

ing beachy shades like blue and green, and guests have full access to all of the inn’s amenities, including a choice of meal-plan options. “They’re very family friendly,” says Reecher. “And they’d be great with four couples. In October and November, we’ve had four couples rent them for golf getaways.” The inn has marketed the new houses through its annual magazine, social media and other PR efforts, and Reecher says bookings have been brisk during the holidays and spring social season. Rates for the fourbedroom houses run as high as $2,310 a night at those times. (Rates drop to about $1,800 a night for the four-bedroom houses and $1,340 to $1,530 a night for the three-bedroom ones during the fall, late spring, and early summer.) People have been renting them anywhere from three days to three weeks. “We have no problem selling them this time of year,” he says. “And we have lots of room

options for guests to choose from.” There a re some i l lust r ious na mes a mong t he i n n’s former guests, including Henry Ford, T homa s Ed ison, Katharine Hepburn, a nd G eorge H.W. Bush’s family. They were drawn to Gasparilla Island (located partially in Charlotte County and partially in Lee County) and its village of Boca Grande for many of the same reasons folks are today. And the inn’s rich history is one thing that draws both guests and curious day-trippers to the site. Reecher and his staff work hard to balance the inn’s past with the needs of today’s travelers. So while old-school activities like bingo still prove popular, the property also offers things such as a modern spa and fitness center to keep up with the times, and has updated its marina and golf course in recent years. “I believe guests come to this inn because it is 100 years old, and they have a certain expectation of service, food quality and room product,” says Reecher. “We do everything we can to keep that up to standards. I think our biggest challenge is to keep up with the expectations of our guests, and I think we do a pretty good job with that.”

BUSINESS OBSERVER | MARCH 25 – MARCH 31, 2016

BusinessObserverFL.com

COMMERCIAL REAL ESTATE

BY K.L. MCQUAID | COMMERCIAL REAL ESTATE EDITOR

MARK WEMPLE

St. Petersburg has become known for mixing residences with commercial space and entertainment venues — a goal many cities have tried to achieve but have failed to fully execute.

Mixed-Use

MECCA W

St. Petersburg has blended live/work/play elements into a cohesive urban experience that is drawing raves — and investment.

hen We st Pa l m Beach-based Kolter Group LLC officially broke ground earlier this month on its One St. Petersburg hotel and condominium project, it capped a renaissance decades in the making for the Pinellas County city. At 41 stories, One will be St. Petersburg’s tallest building when completed next year. The project will contain 253 luxury condominiums —priced starting at $600,000 — a 174-room Hyatt hotel and 17,000 square feet of retail space, within walking distance from the city’s famed Beach Drive retail strip. Kolter officials say they were drawn to St. Petersburg’s downtown by a mix of amenities and a lifestyle that has been carefully cultivated over years by city support and zoning, public and private investment and a desire

to integrate living and working. “If you look at the menu of things you want for a development site, there’s not much missing in St. Petersburg,” says Bob Vail, president of Kolter’s urban division. “And it’s happening. We don’t have to talk about what’s coming in the future — it’s there now.” Of all the Gulf Coast cities that have aspired to create live/ work/play environments in their cores, St. Petersburg has become a model, encouraging residential development and entertainment options alongside traditional offices and government uses. The result has been a 24-hour city with some 2,500 new residential units built or unveiled in the past three years, vibrant restaurants and craft brew pubs, new and reinvigorated retail offerings like a Publix Super Markets-anchored center and the upscale Sundial complex — home to Locale Market,

a Muvico theater, Ruth’s Chris Steak House and merchants like Jackie Z Style Co. and Tommy Bahama — and flourishing cultural amenities from a pro soccer team to museums. Like One, of the new projects planned or under construction, half are mixed-use hybrids that marry residences with retail or lodging or office space. Mayor Rick Kriseman, in marking One’s construction start, says St. Petersburg has become “a pinnacle for contemporary downtown living. We are creating an urban core that invites you to live, work and play all year round.” That achievement hasn’t been lost on other Gulf Coast developers. Tampa Bay Lightning owner Jeff Vinik, who together with Cascade Investment LLC has a $2 billion plan to transform the Channelside district in downtown Tampa, noted St. Petersburg’s revival at a talk last year. Speaking to a Suncoast Tiger

Bay gathering at the St. Petersburg Yacht Club in December, Vinik described Tampa as “America’s next great urban waterfront district.” “We’re standing in America’s current great waterfront district,” Vinik told the group, referring to St. Petersburg. Though city planning to preserve waterfront parkland set the stage for the city to thrive, much of the energy has been generated by new residential development downtown, in projects like the 18-story 330 3rd St. South residences; the four-story Beacon 430; and the 13-story Salvador. Those developments were fueled, in part, by land that had been more affordable than in downtowns such as Naples, Sarasota or Tampa. And more apartments and condos, many containing retail or offices or other uses, are in the offing. Most notably, David A. Mack Properties LLC and Greenfield

MARCH 25 – MARCH 31, 2016 | BUSINESS OBSERVER

Project Snapshot Here are a few of the residential developments recently completed or coming soon to downtown St. Petersburg.

25 2nd St. N. Status: Permitting Condos: 243 units, 41 stories 2ND AVE.N Hotel: 170 rooms, 13 stories

HERMITAGE

700 1st Ave. S. Status: Under construction Stories: Eight Apartments: 348

CENTRAL AVE. 2ND ST.

275

Tropicana Field 4TH AVE. S

175

banization nationwide, changing demographics and t he emergence of a “creative class,” which has prompted businesses to follow younger workers to city centers. At the end of 2015, St. Petersburg’s downtown office vacancy rate stood at 7.3%, the lowest it has been in two decades and among the lowest along the Gulf Coast. Many major office buildings downtown, including the Morgan Stanley Tower and the City Center building, are fully committed. “More companies are understanding what’s happening here and, as a result, they want to be here,” says Alan DeLisle, the city’s development administrator. “It’s added to the sense that St. Petersburg is a very unique and aesthetic place.” If projects being planned now reach fruition, that aesthetic could be further enhanced in the years to come. Most notably, city officials are pushing ahead plans to redevel-

H D R

ONE

375

I VE

5TH AVE. N

DR. MLK JR. ST.

Partners unveiled plans for a 35-story tower containing 306 residences downtown to commence by the end of the year. Miami-based American Land Ventures says it will do a second apartment building downtown, as well, and Kucera Properties, owner of the 27-story Priatek Plaza, hopes to build as many as 300 apartments on a site adjacent to its 300,000-square-foot office tower. “There’s tremendous excitement because of all the residences,” says Kevin Yeager, a senior associate with commercial brokerage firm Colliers International Tampa Bay, who specializes in St. Petersburg. “It’s not the same city as even five or six years ago.” City officials say the seeds of St. Petersburg’s renaissance were planted decades ago, when decisions were made to preserve the waterfront visible from Beach Drive as parkland, buy land for a University of South Florida campus and protect the city’s street grid system. Officials also instituted a financial incentive program to attract cultural venues, allowed greater density to encourage new residences and encouraged mixed-use projects. From there, private developers rehabilitated the former Vinoy hotel and opened up 400 Beach Drive, a residential tower, which spurred further development. In 2012, entrepreneur Bill Edwards, who has invested in the Mahaffey theater and Al Lang Stadium dow ntow n, began resurrecting the Sundial retail complex with a host of new tenants. “There was a package of amenities that slowly were put in place, and zoning allowed mixed-use, which helped drive private and other ancillary development,” says Dave Goodwin, the city’s planning and economic development director. Meanwhile, St. Petersburg has also benefitted from re-ur-

BusinessObserverFL.com

op the city’s derelict waterfront Pier. If current plans hold, construction could start next year on a mix of new attractions and amenities. Design firm ASD and New York-based Rogers Partners, together with Ken Smith Landscape Architects, earlier this month unveiled renderings that envision a splash pad, boat docks, green space, an observation building and education center and fishing areas at the Pier. At the same time, the city is promoting the development of “districts” to further economic development. An “Innovation District,” anchored by a new 220,000-squarefoot Johns Hopkins University research center, would cluster life sciences and medical-related uses. To the west of downtown, near Tropicana Field, the “Edge District” and “Grand Central District” are emerging, benefitting from an increasingly crowded and expensive down-

BEACON 430

450 3rd St. S. Status: Recently completed Stories: Four Apartments: 325

NEW PIER AND APPROACH 800 2nd Ave. N.E. Status: Demolition/ design

N 1 / 4 MILE

We don’t have to talk about what’s coming in the future — it’s there now. Bob Vail | president of Kolter Urban town core. Even so, developers say downtown St. Petersburg has yet to peak. “St. Petersburg is experiencing something of a triple-witching hour,” Kolter’s Vail says. “For us, the timing was very good because there was a lack of similar inventory, local infrastructure was superb and we were able to secure an incredible site, an entire city block, that gave us a lot of flexibility to move forward. “And on top of that, the city was ver y supportive of the type of project we wanted to do downtown.”

TROP TURNABOUT

KEEP IT DIFFERENT

St. Petersburg officials were expected to learn March 25 what private developers envision for a redeveloped Tropicana Field site, when master plan proposals are due for review. City officials in January issued a “request for qualifications” to attract developers and ideas for the 85-acre site west of St. Petersburg’s downtown. The 85-acre swath, where the Tampa Bay Rays play home games, has been criticized for stunting redevelopment in the area, in large part because its massive surface parking lot creates a barrier between the stadium itself and downtown. Since the end of last decade’s recession, St. Petersburg’s downtown has undergone a renaissance that has increased residents, entertainment venues and enhanced cultural sites. But much of that investment has been clustered downtown, near the city’s waterfront, and little has bled outward toward the Tropicana Field site. A trio of new residential and retail projects have been proposed near the stadium, but none has yet to move forward. City officials hope redeveloping the Tropicana Field site could lead

It sounds like the back-story to a sitcom: High school buddies quit good-paying jobs to stay in their oncebeleaguered hometown, and against all odds, help change city zoning laws and open a brew pub. But that story is reality for St. Petersburg natives Nathan Stonecipher and Steve Duffy. In 2013, the duo, a banker and construction project manager, respectively, opened Green Bench Brewing Co., one of what’s now several thriving brewpubs in and around downtown St. Petersburg. The founders say St. Petersburg, from officials down to planning department staffers, embraced their concept and were allies in the startup process. “I think the city recognizes what small businesses have become to the area,” says Stonecipher. “They are doing everything in their power to keep them coming.” Stonecipher says he and Duffy had multiple meetings with zoning department employees to go over the ramifications of changing the

to a new stadium for the Rays and a reinvigorated neighborhood. “The vision for the property is to create a sustainable, world-class, mixed-use, high intensity, vibrant, connected and walkable district,” the city’s request said. Developers are also expected to include in their proposals ideas for “high quality public spaces and streetscapes” and public art to foster a “notable and enduring place” incorporating green technology. City officials are expected to award a redevelopment contract sometime this summer. “It is a unique opportunity that rarely exists in this country,” St. Petersburg Mayor Rick Kriseman said in January, adding the proposals could be “transformative” for the city by pushing the boundary of downtown farther west. At the same time, Kriseman

unveiled a deal with the team that calls for the Rays to contribute $24 million annually to the city, help fund master planning efforts and provide as much as $1 billion if the Rays exit St. Petersburg altogether. “One of the most difficult things to do in regards to redevelopment in an urban area is land assembly,” says Jim Cloar, a downtown revitalization consultant with the Tampa chapter of the Urban Land Institute, a real estate and planning organization. “For the city to have that much land is really an opportunity.” Cloar adds that the site could “capitalize and build on all the momentum that already exists on Central Avenue in the city” and promote both pedestrianization and a tying together of a nowfragmented street grid. — K.L. McQuaid

laws. Some zoning staffers even joined Stonecipher and Duffy on tours of other brew companies and tasting rooms, including Cigar City in Tampa. City officials ultimately granted the Green Bench duo a special zoning exception. “The city has been looking for ways to stay on this trend,” Stonecipher says. The city embraced Stonecipher and Duffy so well that in a twist, local regulations were the least of their anxieties. The list of worries instead included finding the right space; creating floor plans; negotiating leases; finding equity partners; finding a head brewer; buying equipment; and building the inside of the facility. Stonecipher and Duffy invested nearly $1.5 million to open Green Bench. Stonecipher says he’s one of many like-minded people in St. Petersburg when it comes to the city’s new vibe. Says Stonecipher: “We have a lot of entrepreneurs who aren’t afraid of taking a risk and doing something differently.” — Mark Gordon

BusinessObserverFL.com

REAL ESTATE

BUSINESS OBSERVER | MARCH 25 – MARCH 31, 2016

BY JEAN GRUSS | EDITOR LEE/COLLIER

Minto’s MARKET Minto Communities is boosting its presence on the Gulf Coast with a massive residential project in eastern Collier County.

ED CLEMENT

MICHAEL BELMONT, president of Minto Communities, is planning a 10,000-lot residential development in eastern Collier County.

ome days, it seems Michael Belmont lives in his GMC Yukon on Interstate 75. Belmont is the president of Minto Communities, a Florida homebuilder with a Canadian parent that has built homes on the east coast of Florida for nearly four decades. But in a stroke of good timing, Minto opened an office in Tampa in 2008 and made some shrewd acquisitions at the bottom of the market. It snapped up discounted land in Sun City Center in south Hillsborough County and Perico Island in Bradenton, now called Harbour Isle on Anna Maria Sound. Belmont didn’t stop there. He continued south down I-75, buying lots at Lakewood Ranch, Bonita Isles in Bonita Springs and Tw inEagles in Naples. Then, in 2013, Minto closed on its biggest deal on the Gulf Coast: the $68 million acquisition of Sabal Bay, 2,416 acres off U.S. 41 in Naples from Collier Enterprises. Renamed The Isles of Collier Preserve, the development is close to selling 200 homes a year there for an average price of more than $680,000. Now, Minto is making an even bigger investment in Southwest Florida. Once permitting is completed, the company plans to buy enough land from Collier Enterprises in eastern Collier County to build 10,000 lots and 2 million square feet of commercial space, enough to fill nearly 35 football fields. Initially, the plan is to develop a 4,000-home, age-restricted community with a golf course, parks and a town center with shops in an area once called Big Cypress. “With the demographics and the amount of people moving to Florida, it’s one of the best opportunities,” says Belmont. “We’re very invested in Florida.” Minto’s Florida operations have rebounded smartly from the recession. The company sold 720 homes last year with total sales of $350 million, up 10% from 2014. “We expect to see the same pace for the next several years,” Belmont says. Look ing a head, Belmont says Minto owns or controls 15,000 lots. “That sets us up for continuing development and homebuilding,” he says. COLLIER PUSH The Florida homebuilder, whose parent, Minto Group, is privately controlled by the Greenberg family of Canada, had the wherewithal to acquire land during the recession thanks to longtime relationships with banks that financed its developments. For example, Minto bought lots during the downturn in the retirement Mecca of Sun City Center in South Hillsborough where it has been selling 120 homes a year. Now, there are only 170 homes left to sell there. “Sun City was a great commu-

EXECUTIVE SUMMARY Company. Minto Communities Industry. Development Key. Baby boomers continue to drive the housing market on the Gulf Coast.

MARCH 25 – MARCH 31, 2016 | BUSINESS OBSERVER

nity for us,” Belmont says. But Minto didn’t spare expenses when it acquired the land that is now the Isles of Collier Preserve for $68 million, where it is building 1,600 homes on 2,400 acres. The move sealed Minto’s role as a significant development force on the Gulf Coast. Minto’s success at the Isles was immediate. It opened the community for sale in February 2014 and sold 124 homes that year. In 2015, it sold 186 homes there. Belmont says the company has been able to raise prices there about 8% to 12% since opening, and prices have averaged $680,000. In fact, the Isles of Collier Preserve has proven to be more successful than some expected. In just two years, it ranked fourth among all communities in Southwest Florida with 171 annual housing starts, according to market tracker Metrostudy. “The conventional wisdom a couple years ago was they wouldn’t be able to achieve the kind of velocity at these kinds of prices,” says Ross McIntosh, a longtime land broker in Collier County. “That’s a testimony to their planning and execution.” BIGGER PLANS But Minto has bigger plans for Collier County. Together with Collier Enterprises, Minto is in the permitting phase of Rural Lands West, a 10,000-lot com-

BusinessObserverFL.com

We’re very invested in Florida. Michael Belmont | President | Minto Communities

munity with 2 million square feet of commercial space next to Golden Gate Estates at Oil Well Road. Formerly called the Town of Big Cypress in eastern Collier County, the first homes there could be ready by 2018. Mi nto’s t i m i ng is good. “Grow th is heading out to the east,” says Russell Weyer, president of Real Estate Econometrics in Naples. “They’re all heading toward Ave Maria and there’s a lot of land there. By the time they get it permitted and getting stuff in the ground, the growth will start to get there.” Weyer estimates 6,000 people a year move to Collier County, which has a population of about 350,000 people and has enough room for 900,000 people if those areas east of Interstate 75 get built. “We’re just one-third of the way there,” he says. The new town of Ave Maria near Immokalee has established eastern Collier County as a desirable place to live. “Ave

Maria has blazed the trail and validated the whole idea of living east,” says McIntosh. In fact, Ave Maria is now the top-selling community in Southwest Florida, according to the latest counts by market tracker Metrostudy. Ave Maria had 316 annual housing starts and 280 move-ins, the firm says. Interestingly, Minto will start its Rural Lands West project with a 4,000-home age-restricted community. “It’s a market demographic we’re very comfortable with,” says Belmont. As The Villages in Central Florida has proved, retirees will move to rural areas if necessities such as health care and shops are present, says McIntosh. “In my opinion, people will not choose to live on Oil Well Road if they can afford to live closer in,” McIntosh says. “That will change once Oil Well Road becomes its own place.” The big driver, of course, is the baby boom generation that’s retiring in record numbers because they can sell their homes up north and move to Florida. “The baby boom bubble has arrived,” McIntosh says. “We’ve been talking about it forever, and now it’s here.” POSITIVE OUTLOOK Belmont says the favorable economic conditions and the wave of retiring baby boomers mean the real estate cycle in Florida isn’t nearing the end.

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“I think we’re still in the midinnings of the game,” he says. Belmont says the home buying winter season started off slowly, partly because of warmer weather in northern states. But he says sales have picked up again in recent months. Many buyers pay cash for their homes and the buyers aren’t speculators. Those who finance home purchases have to meet more stringent criteria, which also may keep builders from overbuilding. Although the company owns or controls 15,000 lots in Florida, Minto has diversified throughout the state. Besides projects in Southwest Florida, Minto is planning an age-restricted golf community of 3,400 homes in Daytona Beach and another 4,500-home communit y in western Palm Beach County called Westlake. “We don’t try to overextend and we’ve been in good markets,” Belmont says. For now, Minto is well positioned with its land bank. Belmont sounds cautious about the current prices of land for future development. “Land has gotten a little expensive and maybe not in the right areas,” he says. While the national economy may be slowing, Florida continues to be a desirable destination. Belmont says he’s generally not worried about the possibility of overbuilding. “We’re not sensing it in any of our markets right now,” he says.

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BUSINESS OBSERVER | MARCH 25 – MARCH 31, 2016

BusinessObserverFL.com

STRATEGIES

BY MARK GORDON | MANAGING EDITOR

MARK WEMPLE

PATRICK BISMUTH runs Lily’s Promise, a residential nursing home care business that operates two homes in the Sarasota-Manatee region. This home is in east Manatee County.

The Promise With his mom’s legacy close by, entrepreneur Patrick Bismuth brings an agile approach to the crowded senior living sector.

he lump-in-the-throat poignancy of working with seniors who suffer from dementia or Alzheimer’s disease has been front and center in Patrick Bismuth’s business life since 2009. It ranges from conversations w it h a 90-yea r-old woma n about long-ago deceased love ones to buying sweatpants with a drawstring for an elderly man who struggles with incontinence. In t his work, Bismut h, a onetime IT consultant who ran his own business working with Fortune 500 companies worldwide, sees a significant business opportunity. It comes through Lily’s Promise, a residential senior care company. One five-bedroom house in Sarasota, east of Interstate 75 near Laurel Oak Country Club, opened last yea r. A not her house in east Manatee County, in GreyHawk Landing near

Lakewood Ranch, is scheduled to open later this spring. If the first two homes prove successful, Bismuth, 50, hopes to open three new homes a year in the region going forward. Bismuth has already invested nearly $1 million of his personal savings in Lily’s Promise, mostly to buy the homes. In addition to the investment, Bismuth has also regularly confronted his biggest obstacle: industry understanding and acceptance. Florida laws, through the Department of Elder Affairs and the Agency for Health Care Administration, oversee family care homes in private residences. The homes are maxed out at five residents per house, but otherwise follow rules for bigger competitors. Yet the idea of a home for seniors smack in the middle of a residential neighborhood can be jarring to residents, and can also project what Bismuth calls a false sense of un-sophistication. “There is a stigma attached with small homes that

make it hard to market directly to the consumer,” Bismuth says. “They env ision sma ll homes being less professional.” Lily’s Promise is a counterintuitive venture in multiple other ways. Part of the model, for instance, to pay higher wages with a smaller patient-to-caregiver ratio, runs counter to the pack-‘em-in model prevalent in senior care. Lily’s Promise also makes a point to seek out patients with a higher medical acuity, people who can be more difficult to work with. Because of the high-end model and tougher patients, Lily’s Promise only accepts private pay residents, with no Medicare or other programs. “We want to take the residents who fall through the cracks of assisted-living facilities,” says Bismuth. “It’s smart business, but it’s also necessary for society.” OPEN SPACE Another differentiating fac-

tor in Lily’s Promise is going small at all. A current senior living industry trend, particularly in memory care, is to build a series of complexes that make up a neighborhood. That replaces the old way, of building large towers that house residents in dorm-style quarters. Either way can be costly: Construction of a senior living home runs up to $250 a square foot. Bismuth says his housing costs are considerably lower, around $120 to $130 a square foot. But Bismuth will spend more on labor. The industry average is around 33% of revenues go toward payroll. At Lily’s Promise, says Bismuth, his labor costs are closer to 60% of revenues. The company has seven caregivers, mostly certified nursing assistants, and four managers. Bismuth, in an effort to attract top CNAs, upped the standard starting wage, from around $9.75 an hour to $10.50 an hour. He also offers caregivers a 10% bonus for meeting work attendance and

EXECUTIVE SUMMARY Company. Lily’s Promise Industry. Senior living, real estate Key. Company seeks to build a brand in a niche sector of senior living.

MARCH 25 – MARCH 31, 2016 | BUSINESS OBSERVER

care goals. Bismuth paid $350,000 for the 2,400-square-foot house in Sarasota and $450,000 for the 3,000-square-foot house in Manatee County. He’s spent at least $100,000 more on renovations and upgrades. The floor plan of a home is a big part of what drives the home-buying decision for the company, says Kim Brownstein, head of business development for Lily’s Promise. Open space is essential for both residents and caregivers. “It’s nice to be able to see everything at once,” says Brownstein. T he Gre y haw k L a nd i ng home, with residents expected to move in by May, is a standing example of the high-end approach Bismuth covets. The décor is Florida Keys style, with neutral colors and soft tones. The kitchen is open, with space for multiple employees to prepare meals. “The residents are spending a lot of time indoors,” Bismuth says. “So why not make it as luxurious as possible?” Other parts of the home have been modified, to meet with industry safety codes, senior living facility regulations and common sense when working with a memory loss population. “Even though we are a small footprint, we have the same rules,” Bismuth says. Door w ay s, for ex a mple, were enlarged to make room for wheelchairs. The home also has a high-tech alarm system, with a voice-activated announcement when an un-

authorized door opens. The bolt on the front door is commercial grade. The expense is a business necessity, say Lily’s Promise executives, in a niche of senior living where residents walking out unwittingly is a major worry. “We go above and beyond to make sure our residents our safe,” says Bismuth. TURN AROUND Bismuth’s strategy with Lily’s Promise comes mostly from two areas: his entrepreneurial background and life lessons learned his mom. The entrepreneur side started back in his native Montreal, when a 7-year-old Bismuth went door-to-door sel l i ng boxed cereal his dad bought in bulk. He later moved to California, where he earned an M.B.A. from UCLA’s Andersen Business School. By the time he was 28 he was running his own IT consulting business, traveling worldwide for clients. In 2000, then living in Ohio, Bismuth got into real estate and built a company that bought and rehabbed apartment complexes. It was through that work that in 2008 Bismuth took over operations of a struggling 200unit retirement community in Columbus. He helped turn the complex around, and in doing so found a new life passion: working with elderly. He had relatives in the Sarasota area, and, with the obvious demographic lure of the region to his industry, he decided to open Lily’s Promise.

BusinessObserverFL.com

We want to take the residents who fall through the cracks of assisted-living facilities. Patrick Bismuth | Lily’s Promise.

His passion, he says, also comes from his mom, Lilian Sarfati, who Bismuth says was “always more concerned for those in her care than herself.” Farsati, who didn’t suffer from Alzheimer’s or dementia, died in 2012. Lily’s Promise is named after her.

at a stage in life that makes them a fit for Lily’s Promise. Another challenge, past marketing, is to create systems and processes that will save time and costs when the business expands beyond two homes. Bismuth has already begun to address that, from payroll software to grocery deliveries. Bismuth believes there’s a way to maintain the personal touch Lily’s Promise strives for without neglecting the systems that make a bigger operation successful. “You have to duplicate your systems well,” he says, “otherwise you waste too much time.” Bismuth, so far, is both the numbers guy and the one who helps out w it h operations, branding, hiring and everything else, down to fetching Amazon packages and mail. His mom’s legacy and his business spirit motivate him to push forward on Lily’s Promise. “We’re excited about making a difference,” he says. “We are excited about helping people who have no other place to go.”

‘PUSH FORWARD’ Bismuth says out of multiple startup challenges, one is something many new businesses in a crowded marketplace face: proof the model works. “We have an idea of a concept,” says Bismuth. “We don’t know how we fit in.” Brownstein, who worked in memory care and senior living in Ohio and relocated to Florida for Lily’s Promise, visits other area senior living facilities to introduce the business. Through those relationships and other marketing efforts, Brownstein and Bismuth aim to get in front of their target audience — adults in their mid40s through mid-60s. Those are people who might have parents

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commercial real estate

BUSINESS OBSERVER | MARCH 25 – MARCH 31, 2016

BusinessObserverFL.com

Large land tracts coming Many of the region’s more active homebuilders have been assembling land for new communiK.L. ties for more MCQUAID than three years now. But that isn’t stopping land owners from bringing larger holdings to market now to try to take advantage of the area’s continuing recovery. In Lee County, the Stolle Ranch is being offered for sale for more than $27 million. The more than 2,755acre North Fort Myers land is designated for a masterplanned community and contains a pair of proposed I-75 interchange sites, according to marketing materials from Land Solutions. To the east of Lee, Land Solutions also is selling a nearly 3,340-acre tract in LaBelle, for more than $66 million. And in Sarasota County, Toronto-based homebuilder Lindvest is hoping to sell a 450-acre tract on Fruitville Road — one of the largest land offerings in the past decade — for more than $32 million. That land is entitled for more than 900 residences and up to 100,000 square feet of commercial space. “The market is ripe and many sellers don’t want to miss their chance to take advantage of the current market cycle,” says Ryan Sampson, principal at Eshenbaugh Land Co., a Tampa brokerage firm that specializes in land sales. “The question is how many buyers are out there for those large tracts.” Sampson adds that many homebuilders are teaming up with private equity funds and other non-traditional lenders for capital. As a result, buyers may be more willing to shoulder greater risk in buying property and keeping it off their balance sheets for future development. Sampson notes too that landholders of 800-plus acres in Sarasota and Pasco counties could list them by the end of the second quarter.

Risk pays off for spec project Naysayers bet Compark 75’s plan to add 130,000 square feet of speculative space to the Pasco County market in early 2014 wouldn’t end well for park owner Morgan Family Ventures and developer Ross Kirk. But roughly a year after delivery, the Wesley Chapel park is 100% leased. That success has prompted Morgan and Kirk to start a 57,000-square-foot spec project in the 60-acre park. That building will be finished this summer, Commercial Asset Partners Realty agent Heidi Tuttle-Beisner, who handles the park’s leasing, recently told a meeting sponsored by the Pasco County Economic Development Council. Compark, on Interstate 75, is slated to contain 700,000 square feet at build-out.

COURTESY PHOTO

The sale of 501 E. Kennedy Blvd. in downtown Tampa caps a flurry of Class A office transaction activity over the past two years. Leasing officials say pending vacancy, lower rental rates and proximity to future public transportation modes bode well for the future of the 35-year-old tower.

A Value-Add Play A pending vacancy could only enhance the value of a 19-story, downtown Tampa office building.

t $42 million, last month’s sale of the glass-skinned office tower at 501 E. Kennedy Blvd. would have been significant under any circumstances. But the 19-story tower’s sale is also distinctive in that it may be the last major office building to trade hands in downtown Tampa for the next three to five years, brokers say. “The timing was certainly right,” says Dale Peterson, a senior vice president at services and brokerage firm CBRE Inc., who sold 501 E. Kennedy together with the firm’s Chris Lee, in Miami, and a team of others. “The building is in really spectacular shape, downtown Class A space has been on fire, and the sale was significantly below replacement costs,” he adds. “And this could very well be the last major office building in downtown Tampa to trade this cycle.” The February sale of the roughly 300,000-square-foot building, to a partnership between New York-based Angelo Gordon & Co. and Equitable Real Estate Partners, of Boca Raton, followed deals on the Bank of America Plaza; One Tampa City Center; SunTrust Financial Centre; Wells Fargo Center; and Rivergate Tower down-

Anything that moves will gravitate to that building. Dale Peterson | CBRE Inc. Senior Vice President

town in the past two years. Investors have gravitated to downtown skyscrapers in response to a growing U.S. re-urbanization trend, Southwest Florida’s white-collar job growth and a lack of new inventory. Downtown Tampa, for instance, has not had a new office tower debut since 1992. Even more extraordinary, 501 E. Kennedy sold despite — or perhaps because of — the pending vacancy of an anchor tenant, law firm Fowler White Boggs P.A., which is merging with Buchanan Ingersoll & Rooney. When Fowler White exits 501 E. Kennedy on March 31 for space in the nearby SunTrust building, vacancy in the 35-year-old tower will jump from roughly 16% to 47% — leaving all or a portion of five floors and about 130,000 square feet available. At that rate, 501 E. Kennedy will have more available space than any other downtown Tampa office building. Still, new owner AG EREP East Kennedy Owner LLC seems undeterred by the looming empty space. “If ever there was a time to have 100,000 square feet available, now is the time,” says Mercedes Angell, a senior director with the Tampa office of commercial brokerage firm Cushman & Wakefield, which has been retained by the new owners to lease the building. “The new ownership recognizes that rents are increasing and the vacancy rate downtown is in the single digits.” Angelo Gordon and Equitable also will be able to take advantage of more than $1 million in improvements made by previous owner SCIP 501 LLC, a partnership between the Silver

Cos. and IP Capital Partners, both of Boca Raton. Together, Silver and IP Capital installed an “amenity f loor” on the second floor of the building, with an 1,800-square-foot fitness center and conference facility able to accommodate 75 people at a time. The pair, which acquired the building in early 2014 for $30.36 million, also spent money to upgrade the building’s air conditioning system, its roof, elevators and lobby. Angell says Angelo Gordon and Equitable are considering their own capital improvements, which could include a new ground-floor restaurant. Officials from Angelo Gordon declined comment, and Equitable President Allen de Olazarra could not be reached because he was traveling out of the country. Despite the investments, 501 E. Kennedy’s rental rates are expected to range from $23 per square foot to $28 per square foot — well below the $30 per square foot rate other downtown Class A Tampa properties are seeking. The space occupied by Fowler White, an original tenant, will be gutted once the firm leaves and upgraded to more modern standards. Angell says the building is ideal for tenants who want or need to be close to Tampa’s City Hall or circuit or federal courthouses. “This is a value-add play,” CBRE’s Peterson says. “It’s well-positioned now. Anything that moves will gravitate to that building, and the deal was hotly contested. I think there were a lot of groups that wished they would have stepped up. So there are a lot of positives.” – K.L. McQuaid

commercial real estate

MARCH 25 – MARCH 31, 2016 | BUSINESS OBSERVER

Q&A |

BusinessObserverFL.com

BY K.L. MCQUAID | COMMERCIAL REAL ESTATE EDITOR

Demographically, younger people are relocating here, professionals are coming, so we’re becoming a more year-round environment. same time, from a real estate perspective, they’re a low cap rate property. Given Southwest Florida’s predominant demographics, is online shopping having a significant impact on bricks-and-mortar retailers? Online shopping is a major phenomenon here and everywhere, and I think it’s only going to become a more important part of everyday life going forward. Look at banks. Banks are closing their drive-thrus and in some cases branches altogether as paper money is used less and less. At some point, with technology, I think we’ll stop using paper money altogether. At our business, we don’t go to the bank to make deposits anymore. We scan checks with the technology they provided us. So the people who I think should be concerned about that trend are CVS and Walgreens. There’s no reason to go to a pharmacy if Amazon can deliver your drugs to you in a timely manner. By the same token, I think you’ll see the Publixes of the world get more into grocery delivery. But that phenomenon won’t cripple the market in the tri-county area, because there are still people who will want to shop and touch things, and get things right away. And in Southwest Florida, more people tend to have a lot of time and money, relative to other places, so that bodes well for traditional shopping, to a degree. LORI SAX

What headwinds, if any, do Southwest Florida retailers face? I think we’re totally dominated by the economy at large. If the national economy does well, or the state’s economy is doing well, we do well. If not, when the economy is down, we’re down.

BARRY SEIDEL President and Founder American Property Group of Sarasota Inc. Sarasota

especially Publix-anchored centers. They often go into markets before many would think they are ready. Another phenomenon we’re seeing is vertical retail, especially in Sarasota. And demographically, younger people are relocating here, professionals are coming, so we’re becoming a more year-round environment.

Barry Seidel started American Property Group of Sarasota Inc. three decades ago, after running a series of restaurants and other businesses in Philadelphia. The commercial brokerage firm, which handles retail, office, industrial, hospitality and land transactions, focuses on Sarasota, Manatee and Charlotte counties. Today, the firm has grown to 12 employees, including Seidel’s wife, Leslye, and their sons, Adam and Brian. In Sarasota, American Property Group also has been involved in some of the most notable retail transactions in recent years, including bringing national restaurant chain Ruth’s Chris Steak House to Sarasota.

What are you seeing that differs from previous cycles? The bull in the China closet in this area is the Mall at University Town Center and Benderson (Development Co.). The company has changed the landscape, and everything they touch seems to turn to gold because they do what they say they’re going to do, they do it well and people respond. The other big trend this go-round is Amazon, though we’re not yet sure what the impact of their new humongous warehouse in Ruskin is going to be. But they’re a behemoth and something to be concerned about.

W hy is competition among grocery chains heating up, and why are there so many new entrants into the market? Trader Joes and Whole Foods and Fresh Market and Sprouts and others are coming because this is a relatively wealthy market and people are willing to spend more money on groceries than in many parts of the country. And different stores go for different niches. Whole Foods is hoping to attract a different shopper than Publix. It’s like the difference between a Cadillac and a Chevy. They’re both cars, will get you where you want to go, but at different price points. Even with all the competition, though, Publix is a major player in the market, the dominant player, and it would take a lot to really hurt them.

Non-traditional retail growth, from Wawa to Starbucks, is dominating the landscape. What’s driving that trend? Pharmacies, particularly CVS and Walgreens, used to be in shopping centers. Now, they’ve adopted a concept of “best corners,” and their stores are sold like a bond to be a part of investors’ portfolios. And it makes sense because they are very sellable properties. But for that, they need to have independent locations. The same is true for Starbucks and others now. The concept is double-edged. It creates a more valuable entity for the consumer, with drive-thrus, and it’s a better marketing tool for the user. At the

What are you anticipating for the region’s retail market for the balance of 2016? A lot of I think what’s impacting us is the upcoming presidential election. People seem less likely to want to do things, make investments and such, because they’re anxious about who the next president is going to be and what their policies will be. If capital gains laws change, for instance, that would be a game changer that would affect real estate. I think more people should try to sell properties now through 1031 (tax-free) exchanges to position themselves for whatever may happen next year.

Describe Southwest Florida’s retail landscape at this point in the current cycle. I think it’s vibrant, it’s busy, there’s lot of construction going on, people are moving here, and whatever is being built is filling up. There are a lot of new people coming to the tri-county area we focus on, namely Sarasota, Manatee and Charlotte counties. Downtown Sarasota is especially busy. Developers are buying hundreds of acres of land all over the three counties for new residential developments, and as a result, we’re seeing shopping centers sprout up in the more populated sections of the three counties,

20 transactions |

BUSINESS OBSERVER | MARCH 25 – MARCH 31, 2016

BusinessObserverFL.com

DEEDS/MORTGAGES The following features the top real estate transactions of more than $1 million filed in Charlotte, Collier, Hillsborough, Lee, Manatee, Pasco, Pinellas, Polk and Sarasota county courthouses. The information lists the buyer, seller, address, property type, amount of sale, previous price and date, if available.

HILLSBOROUGH Buyer: Manor at Harbour Island LLC Seller: AMP/CPL-THP Adjacent Property LLC Address: 402 Knights Run Ave., Tampa Property Type: Office building Price: $12,010,748.48 Previous Price: $2,500,000, February 2013

CHARLOTTE Buyer: Great Neck Grace LLC Seller: Port 41 LLC Address: 1391 Tamiami Trail, Port Charlotte Property Type: Vacant commercial Price: $3,100,000 Previous Price: $2,450,000, May 2015

Buyer: SOHO Real Estate Holdings LLC Seller: 533 Howard Holdings LLC Address: 533 S. Howard Ave., Tampa Property Type: Strip stores Price: $10,550,000 Previous Price: $5,300,000, October 2010

Buyer: Feck Properties LLC Seller: Englewood Beach House LLC Address: 2504 and 2510 N. Beach Road, Englewood Property Type: Residential units Price: $3,000,000 Previous Price: $1,500,000, April 2009 COLLIER Buyer: Tilden Fundamental Waverley Place Apartments LLC Seller: Benchmark Waverley Places Associates Limited Partnership Address: 5374 Hemingway Lane W., Naples Property Type: Multifamily units Price: $28,100,000 Previous Price: $13,900,000, April 2000 Buyer: Naples2016 LLC Seller: 2014 Naples Associates LLC Address: 2511 Pine Ridge Road, Naples Property Type: Orphanages Price: $9,100,000 Previous Price: $2,500,000, February 2015 Buyer: PSI Atlantic Naples FL LLC Seller: Wilford Inc. Address: 1414 Rosemary Lane, Naples Property Type: Commercial building Price: $3,325,000 Previous Price: $1,312,500, January 1995

Buyer: Collier Tampa USF II LLC Seller: Adagio Apartments LLC Address: 3600 E. Fletcher Ave., Tampa Property Type: Apartment units Price: $6,000,000 Previous Price: $4,350,000, September 2007 LEE Buyer: AMCAP Bonita LLC Seller: AAG Bonita Springs LLC Address: 3300-3360 Bonita Beach Road S.W., Bonita Springs Property Type: Community shopping center Price: $52,000,000 Previous Price: $38,000,000, January 2010 Buyer: CTR Partnership LP Seller: PH Fort Myers Realty LLC Address: 1896 Park Meadows Drive, Fort Myers Property Type: Retirement homes Price: $5,650,000 Previous Price: $2,953,500, June 2013 MANATEE Buyer: 120 Ethel Road West LLC Seller: BW 70 Lorraine LLC Address: 14510 E. State Road 70, Bradenton Property Type: Convenience Store Price: $3,500,000 Previous Price: $1,200,000, December 2014

corporatereport | TAMPA BAY

Nonprofit names full-time CEO Gulf Coast Jewish Family & Community Services announced Sandra Braham as its president and CEO, effective March 21. Braham has more than 20 years of leadership experience with nonprofits, most recently serving as CEO of the Young Women’s Christian Association, according to a statement. In that role, she led 450 employees and managed an annual budget BRAHAM of more than $30 million. In her new role as CEO of the GCJFCS, Braham will be responsible for overseeing more than 500 staff members and working with 67 different programs across 37 Florida counties. Braham replaces interim president and CEO Eric Feder, who held the position since January 2015. Feder took over as interim CEO following the death of the organization’s previous CEO, Rochelle Tatrai-Ray, in 2014. “We took our time, conducted a thorough process and vetted several qualified candidates GCJFCS board chairman Jay Miller says in a statement. “Dr. Braham was chosen unan-

LEASES

BY STEVEN BENNA | STAFF WRITER

PASCO NONE PINELLAS Buyer: Rose Realty of Hackensack Inc. Seller: Tarpon Springs Florida RE LLC Address: 912 E. Tarpon Ave, Tarpon Springs Property Type: Fast food restaurant Price: $3,200,000 Previous Price: $900,000, December 2015 Buyer: North Sunrise Motel II LLC Seller: Old St. Pete Development LLC Address: 419 Third Ave. N., St. Petersburg Property Type: Hotel/motel Price: $2,266,000 Previous Price: $940,000, February 1996 Buyer: Morada Holdings LLC Seller: A&P Properties LLC Address: 1030 Clearwater-Largo Road N., Largo Property Type: Apartment units Price: $1,400,000 Previous Price: $1,500,000, September 2006 POLK NONE SARASOTA Buyer: Christopher Dubs Seller: Joseph and Shirley Tocco Address: 317 Casey Key Road, Nokomis Property Type: Hotel Price: $2,750,000 Previous Price: $2,750,000, March 2000 Buyer: Main & Fruit LLC Seller: 100 North Washington LLC Address: 100 N. Washington Blvd., Sarasota Property Type: Office building Price: $2,100,000 Previous Price: $1,094,400, February 2004

TAMPA BAY ¡¡ Midwest Hose & Specialty Inc. leased 50,000 square feet of space at 4920 Frontage Road, Lakeland from RS Land Development Inc. Scott Peek, Jared Bonshire, David Perez and Timothy Callahan of Cushman & Wakefield facilitated the transaction. ¡¡ Advantage Industries LLC leased 3,000 square feet of space at 5555 W. Linebaugh Ave., Tampa from Real Capital Holdings. Dennis Bush of RMC Ross Realty handled the transaction. SARASOTA-MANATEE ¡¡ Gulf Tile Distributors of Florida Inc. leased 1,469 square feet of retail space at 1415 First St., Unit 1012B, Sarasota from Golden Arrow First St. Sarasota LLC. Michael Saunders & Co. agents DeLieto & Associates handled the transaction. ¡¡ Customer Computer & Networking Solutions leased 1,700 square feet of office space at 1201 W. Sixth Ave., Unit 210, Bradenton from HJB Properties. Ben Bakker of Michael Saunders & Co. negotiated the transaction. ¡¡ Jubilee Real Estate Corp. leased 1,500 square feet of office space at 2708 Fruitville Road, Sarasota from 2700 Fruitville LLC. Michael Saunders & Co. Agents DeLieto & Associates handled the transaction. CHARLOTTE-LEE-COLLIER ¡¡ The Salvation Army leased 28,814 square feet of retail space at 4506 Del Prado Blvd. S., Cape Coral from One at a Time LLC. Biagio Bernardo of CRE Consultants and Robert Evans of Evans & Wagner negotiated the transaction. ¡¡ Supercuts Inc. leased 1,995 square feet of retail space at 7335 Radio Road, Unit 107, Naples from Berkshire Equity LLC. Mike Concilla and Jeff Clapper of Equity Inc. handled the transaction.

BY STEVE BENNA | STAFF WRITER

imously by our internal audiences who are impressed with her proven leadership, her desire to contribute to a healthy internal culture and her willingness to advocate on behalf of the communities we serve.”

Chain partners with analytics company Tampa-based drive-thru restaurant chain Checkers partnered with customer analytics firm Buxton to identify nationwide growth opportunities, a statement says. As a client of Buxton, Checkers & Rally’s will receive a customized real estate model delivered through Buxton’s Web-based platform. With the platform, the restaurant chain will analyze potential sites, run traffic reports and create market expansion scenarios. Checkers & Rally’s currently has more than 800 restaurants nationwide. “Checkers & Rally’s achieved our best growth in more than 15 years since Checkers and Rally’s merged in 1999, and we’re prepared to continue our aggressive growth,” says Jennifer Durham, the chain’s chief development officer. “We look forward to integrating the insights from Buxton’s analytics into our development strategy.”

SARASOTA-MANATEE

Swimming organization lands leader Dawson Hughes has been named CEO of U.S. Masters Swimming, a nonprofit that promotes health, wellness, fitness and competition for adults through swimming. Hughes joined the Sarasota-based organization from the Orange Bowl Committee, where he was vice president of business development for six years, according to a statement. He started his sports career as an employee of Major League Baseball, directing ticketing efforts for the San Diego Padres and Kansas City Royals. Hughes’ tenure begins March 28. He takes over for Bill Brenner, who has been interim CEO since December. Brenner replaced Rob Butcher, who led a 60% surge in membership at the organization in the last decade, taking it from 40,000 to 64,000 people. CHARLOTTE-LEE-COLLIER

Wealth firm opens new office Siena Wealth Advisory Group announced a new office in Naples, which marks its first expansion outside Long Island, N.Y. The office, according to a statement, is at 780 Fifth Ave. S. It is Siena’s first Florida office and second nationwide, joining the group’s branch in

Melville, N.Y. Siena Wealth Advisory Group is a private practice of Ameriprise Financial Services Inc.

Pest control giant expands Massey Services, an Orlando-based pest prevention company, has opened a second service center in Port Charlotte, a statement says. Massey’s first Port Charlotte office opened in November 2011 and offers pest, termite and landscape services to more than 6,000 customers in the area. The new service center, at 17303 Abbott Ave., will offer GreenUP landscape and irrigation services to the greater Port Charlotte market. Massey also announced the opening of service centers in Panama City and north Atlanta. Massey Services is the fifthlargest pest prevention company in the country and the largest privately owned one. The company serves more than 488,000 customers throughout Florida, Georgia, Louisiana, Texas, South Carolina and Oklahoma.

MARCH 25 – MARCH 31, 2016 | BUSINESS OBSERVER COMMENT from page 3 the U.S. There isn’t just one winner. In fact, if left alone, without any government intervention on either side of international trade, both sides would win. Think of it this way: When you buy groceries from Publix, you have a trade deficit with Publix. But you don’t mind, because you are able to buy what you want with the capital you earned by applying your labor elsewhere. And Publix in turn benefits from its sales to pay its employees, shareholders and tax man; to invest its capital in new enterprises in Florida and elsewhere; to continue serving its customers. Everyone wins. Such is the case with unfettered international trade. TARIFFS’ LOSERS It’s only when governments become involved, or especially, when businesses seek favors from their government, that international trade creates losers. Take Trump’s 45% tariffs that he would impose. He wants to punish the Chinese and others — governments and specific companies — for not opening their markets to U.S. competition; for dumping goods at below-market costs on the U.S.; and for lowering the value of their currencies to make their goods less expensive and ours more expensive. He sounds tough and appealing. But there are significant costs. For starters, if he punished all three actions, the big losers would be the American consumers. The prices of what we wanted and liked from China and Japan would go up, lowering American consumers’ spending in those countries and on other goods and services they might otherwise have purchased here in the U.S. Trump believes the tariffs would shift manufacturing jobs back to the U.S. But in all likelihood, even if manufacturing shifted back to the U.S., the shift would not cause the prices of those goods to be as low as they were when manufactured in China. That’s why the manufacture of those goods shifted to China to begin with — the cost of manufacturing in the U.S. caused prices to be too high. Indeed, which is the root of the issue (more on that below). Altogether, Trump’s tariffs would create a lot of losers. Not only U.S. consumers, but also all of the employees at the targeted Chinese manufacturers, whose orders would shrink, and all of the businesses from whom those employees purchased their own goods and services. In fact, seldom does anyone discuss — especially in China and Japan — how damaging those governments’ policies are to their own people when they protect their businesses by closing markets; when they subsidize manufacturers; or when they lower the value of their currencies. Those governments are enacting those policies with the intent of keeping people employed. But those are the classic policies of benefiting the few at the expense of the many. We have our own instance of that here in Florida with sugar. The U.S. government imposes quotas and tariffs on foreign sugar to keep the Florida sugar industry in business. It makes no economic sense: Why should American consumers pay higher sugar prices than they otherwise would to misallocate consumers’ and taxpayers’ dollars in an uncompetitive business? That’s what China and Japan are doing to their own people. But what about all those manufacturing jobs lost in the United States? What about companies such as Carrier, or even Sarasota-based Sun Hydraulics, which manufactures and distributes hydraulic products in the U.S., Europe and Asia? Aren’t they the poster children of Donald Trump’s trade tirades? The losers in our trade deals? To one extent, you can say they —

FLORIDA & TRADE EXPORTS BY STATE, 2015 Dollars in billions

1. Texas............................ $251.1 2. California....................... $165.3 3. Washington...................... $86.3 4. New York......................... $80.5 5. Illinois............................. $63.4 6. Florida............................ $53.8 7. Michigan.......................... $43.1 8. Ohio............................... $50.7 9. Louisiana......................... $49.2 10. Pennsylvania.................. $39.4 FLORIDA’S LARGEST TRADE PARTNERS 1. Brazil.............................. $18.6 2. China................................ $9.2 3. Colombia........................... $8.2 4. Japan................................ $6.9 5. Chile................................. $6.7 International trade and investment in 2015 accounted for about one-sixth of the state’s economic output. n Enterprise Florida estimates that international trade — primarily exports of goods and services, along with employment by foreign-owned companies — supports more than 1 million jobs in Florida. n The Business Roundtable estimates international trade, including exports of goods and services plus imports, accounts for 2.4 million Florida jobs. n More than 61,000 Florida companies export, accounting for roughly 20% of all U.S. exporters. This is the second-largest number of exporters in the U.S. after California. n More than 95% of Florida exporters are small and medium-sized enterprises with 500 or fewer employees. n The U.S. Department of Commerce reports that, on average, companies that export grow 15% faster, pay 15% higher wages and are 12% more profitable than those that do not export. n Employment in the seaport industry is one of the fastest growing sectors in the U.S. with a projected growth rate of 20%. n The average annual wage nationally for seaport-related jobs is $54,400 per year. n Florida has 15 seaports: Canaveral, Citrus, Everglades, Fernandina, Fort Pierce, Jacksonville, Key West, Manatee, Miami, Palm Beach, Panama City, Pensacola, Port St. Joe, St. Petersburg, Tampa. n

BusinessObserverFL.com

out of the office networking |

BY JIM JETT | CONTRIBUTOR

The Chamber of Southwest Florida held a panel discussion of tourism and health officials March 1 to discuss the impact of the Zika virus. MISSI THOMPSON, district aide for Florida Rep. Heather Fitzenhagen, and CHRISTINA HARRIS SCHWINN, partner at Pavese Law Firm.

KAREN MILLER, community outreach, ERIC ISERN, engineer, and ROXANNE GAUSE, senior environmental project manager with GHD. LASHEBA TRAVIS, program chair of the biomedical science and natural science at Keiser University, and GARY VERWILT, Realtor at Jones & Company Realty.

Sources: Enterprise Florida, Florida Ports Council

as are all businesses — are victims of capitalism, or what Joseph Schumpeter called “creative destruction.” To stay in business in a constantly changing environment, they are always looking for ways to be more efficient. If the cost of production in the U.S. makes Carrier or Sun less competitive, they have a fiduciary duty to their shareholders (e.g. individuals, pension funds of retirees, etc.) to find alternatives. At one time Sun had a Taiwanese partner manufacturing in China to be competitive. When Carrier announced it was going to Mexico, it cited the U.S. regulatory environment. Trump never mentioned that. Indeed, if there is an antidote to the loss of jobs to foreign manufacturers, Trump should turn his attention first to what is happening here at home. We have lost manufacturing jobs in America in great part because government regulations have driven up the cost of production and cost of labor to the point our companies here are no longer competitive in the global marketplace. Perhaps Trump should look at what’s happening in his second home state. Gov. Rick Scott has spent much of his two terms tearing down the state’s regulatory regimes. And it’s working.

MILTON STERLING, biotechnology specialist at Lee County Mosquito Control, JENNIFER ROTH, biological administrator at the Florida Department of Health, and WAYNE GALE, executive director at Lee County Mosquito Control. TAMARA PIGOTT, executive director, and LEE ROSE, communication manager, both with the Lee County Visitor & Convention Bureau.

22 ceo’s corner

BUSINESS OBSERVER | MARCH 25 – MARCH 31, 2016

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BY JAIME DIDOMENICO| COOL TODAY

The power of people In a competitive industry, it can be tough to differentiate your business. Here are ways to create an organization that attracts and keeps the people who help you stand apart. Several years ago I was asked what were the top three reasons for 500% growth over a six-year period. I simply stated: “the people, the people, the people.” To explain, I need to give you some background. Being in the home service business for 23 years before becoming a CEO/ owner, I saw many ways to run a business. The air conditioning, plumbing and electric service industry is one of the most fragmented businesses in the U.S. The barriers of entry are fairly low: a truck, a license, some inventory and a person who has technical ability. On any given day in Florida, you could spot hundreds of different companies driving around, going to serve customers. There are many different ways to run and operate an HVAC, plumbing and electrical service company. This, along with every owner being different, creates unique “personalities” for companies. The average size of these companies is fewer than 10 employees, and they usually have an owner/ operator who wears many, many hats. So why are some companies, in a highly competitive, fragmented industry, able not only to survive, but thrive? Clearly, it boils down to

people. However, it’s far easier said than done. There are so many variables to the home service business: delivery of technical talent, procurement and installation of parts, warranty of product, service contracts, sales proposals, dispatching and logistics, regulations at the local, state and federal levels, etc., etc., etc. These complications introduce many opportunities for failure, especially a failure to deliver great customer service. When I purchased N&M Heating (now Cool Today) in 2004, my first priority was to attract the best employees through great pay, benefits, training, environment and culture by setting a strong mission with values. I have observed how contractors try to offer the best services by delivering the lowest cost solutions, and not putting much value in people. I decided not to do that by paying for health insurance, setting up a matching 401k, providing company-paid disability, and other non-traditional contractor benefits in addition to great pay. We knew we had to cover these costs, but clearly, if we deliver our intended value, we knew our company would grow. Grow, it did. It grew because of the

Jaime DiDomenico is the president and owner of Cool Today, which provides air conditioning, plumbing, and electrical services in the Sarasota and Tampa Bay areas.

people. It grew because no matter how many ways you could deliver a service, the people who deliver the service drive real value. As a business owner, being selective in your people choices, rewarding them and providing real value to an employee and customer is the only rational decision that should be common in all service companies. Marketing will make phones ring, but only great people will retain customers. Bad processes and systems will hurt a company, but only good people will figure out how to fix processes. Training could be considered a real cost in business, but great people will turn it into a real investment in the business. I’ve seen so many examples in 35 years of how great people will be the only difference maker in a business. So investing in these folks with rewards, recognition and communication by an owner is the only variable to a successful service business. So how do you do this? It has to be a focus of the top leader to make sure each member of his team, regardless of level, knows that he understands and cares about him or her, to properly engage employees in larger companies. Here are some tips: n Always stop, shake a hand, say hi, ask how their day is going. Ask about information you may have acquired that might be of pride for them (a compliment letter, good results, a child graduating, etc.).

n Make sure you send a personal card when you want to make a special note, like a great job in customer service, a special extra effort, etc. n I send a written thank you note on every single employee’s anniversary with a dinner gift card to a nice restaurant. I thank their family as well for their sacrifice for their partner to be in such a time-demanding business. n I have at least two large events a year, bringing the company together offsite. One somewhat formal in early spring, the other for families in fall. n Send a newsletter to entire team monthly. Always respond to online review results with a positive reinforcement. n Make small conversation, and if you find something that is important to them, do a “pay it forward” or a surprise that they won’t expect. It’s those types of surprises that really make them feel important. (example: I was talking to a technician of mine a month or two ago and heard him listening to Andrea Bocelli in his truck. I gave him and his wife tickets for the concert a month later). He sent me a personal picture and thank you, and said his wife will “never forget it.” So to conclude, don’t ever underestimate the power of your people to make your company stand out in a competitive industry. Computers, systems, tools, trucks and marketing are only part of the solution, but the driver in differentiation of growth are the people, the people, the people!

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FROM PAGE 6

IN THE HALL

GEORGE BEASLEY, center, is surrounded by his family, including CAROLINE BEASLEY, the interim CEO.

Radio chief takes leave George Beasley, the spry 83-year-old CEO of Naples-based Beasley Broadcast Group, has been a force in the radio business since he founded the company in 1961. Now his daughter Caroline Beasley, 53, will take over as interim CEO after the company announced George Beasley would be taking immediate medical leave. The company operates 52 stations in 12 metro areas, including Tampa-St. Petersburg and Fort Myers-Naples. George Beasley’s medical leave was disclosed after the markets closed March 19. It cited no reason for the medical problem or how long the medical leave would last. “Out of respect, we will be honoring

his request for privacy and will not be commenting further on his condition at this time,” Caroline Beasley says in a prepared statement. Caroline Beasley, who has until now been the company’s executive vice president and chief financial officer, has plenty of family support. She is the sister of Bruce Beasley, president and chief operating officer, and Brian Beasley, vice president of operations. All three are directors on the board, though George Beasley remains chairman. Caroline Beasley joined Beasley in 1983 and has been executive vice president and chief financial officer since 1994.

A NASA engineer and a Nobel Laureate are among a group of seven inventors recently inducted into the Florida Inventors Hall of Fame, which is at USF in Tampa. The 2016 Hall of Fame Class will be inducted at the Florida Inventors Hall of Fame third annual induction ceremony and gala Sept. 16. Nominees must have at least one U.S. patent and a connection to Florida. “Collectively, the seven 2016 inductees hold more than 90 U.S. patents,” says Randy Berridge, chair of the selection committee. “Among them are representatives of two storied U.S. agencies, a nonprofit research institute and five Florida research universities.” The seven inductees to the Florida Investors Hall of Fame class of 2016 include: ¡¡ William Dalton, founder and CEO of M2Gen, a subsidiary of Moffitt Cancer Center & Research Institute in Tampa. He holds 10 U.S. patents; ¡¡ D. Yogi Goswami, professor of chemical engineering and director of the Clean Energy Research Center at the University of South Florida. He holds 16 U.S. patents; ¡¡ Alan George Marshall, professor of chemistry and founding director and chief scientist of the Ion Cyclotron Resonance program at Florida State University. Marshall holds eight U.S. patents;

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¡¡ Nicholas Muzyczka, professor of microbiology and the Edward R. Koger Eminent Scholar for Cancer Research at the University of Florida. He holds 15 U.S. patents; ¡¡ Jacqueline Quinn, a NASA environment engineer who leads diverse environment chemistry research at the Kennedy Space Center in Cape Canaveral. Quinn holds 12 U.S. patents; ¡¡ Andrew Schally, Nobel Laureate, medical research scientist at the U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs, professor of pathology at the University of Miami and chief of the Miami Veterans Affairs Medical Center Endocrine, Polypeptide and Cancer Institute. The 1977 Nobel Prize winner holds 32 U.S. patents; ¡¡ M.J. Soileau, vice president for research and commercialization and professor of optics and photonics, electrical and computer engineer and physics at the University of Central Florida. Soileau holds 6 U.S. patents. The 2016 Hall of Fame Class will be officially inducted at the Florida Inventors Hall of Fame third annual induction ceremony and gala Sept. 16. Nominees must have at least one U.S. patent and a connection to Florida. The Florida Inventors Hall of Fame was founded in 2013.

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