April 26 issue

A PR I L 26 - M AY 2 , 2013 | T H R E E D O L L A R S

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

Power Lunch | The Lucky Pelican serves seafood fare with flair. PG.23 P A S C O • H I L L S B O R O U G H • P I N E L L A S • M A N AT E E • S A R A S O TA • C H A R L O T T E • L E E • C O L L I E R

GRAB and GO Developers go to battle with Pasco County over what a judge calls an ‘abusive and coercive’ use of power. PAGE 10

Mike Kass | DEVELOPER

David Smolker | ATTORNEY ECONOMY

HIRING

REAL ESTATE

Gulf Coast Engine

Picking Personnel

Strength in Numbers

As nonagricultural employment rises statewide in March, Tampa Bay leads the way, adding the most jobs in Florida since March 2012.

PAGE 6

The recession has made finding good people even tougher. An awardwinning HR consultant shares how she navigates hiring in the new economy.

PAGE 8

TECHNOLOGY

HOMEBUILDING

High Voltage

First Mover

Voalte readies for big growth as hospitals become more comfortable with using technology to communicate.

PAGE 7

Independent appraisers work together to protect a market increasingly infiltrated by large brokerages.

PAGE 12

The Lutz Lake Crossing shopping center sells for $10.55 million. 18

NEWS

Villages of Manasota Beach land sells for $36.4M discount. 20

Corporate Report

Tampa International Airport’s board adopts a new master growth plan to meet future capacity and guide expansion in facilities and services.

PAGE 16

Fort Myers Pep Boys building brings $3.43 million. 22

3$*(

15 Your brand’s reputation is important. Learn how to defend it.

85356

DON’T MISS

When it comes to buying land for development, it’s better to be early.

Mark Wilson’s timing is paying off.

PAGE 8

TOP DEALS

1 0O\Y Q][ Â’ &%% $$

$#

MEMBER FDIC

2

BUSINESS OBSERVER | APRIL 26 – MAY 2, 2013

BusinessObserverFL.com

Vol. XVII, No. 16

A DIVISION OF THE OBSERVER MEDIA GROUP

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

Beautiful Professional Office Space, Osprey

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Turn-key Restaurant in Downtown Office Building

Managing Editor / Kat Hughes, khughes@BusinessObserverFL.com Deputy Managing Editor / Mark Gordon mgordon@BusinessObserverFL.com Editor-Lee/Collier / Jean Gruss jgruss@BusinessObserverFL.com Research Editor / Sean Roth sroth@BusinessObserverFL.com Web Editor / Amanda Heisey aheisey@BusinessObserverFL.com Editorial Design / Nicole Thompson nthompson@yourobserver.com

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LEE COUNTY

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3ALES s ,EASING s 0ROPERTY -ANAGEMENT s WWW 3UNCOAST36. COM

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Team Optimus | Ric Del Vizo (941) 928-0737

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

He raised his hand and over the desolate earth he traced in space the sign of the dollar.

Ayn Rand, Atlas Shrugged 110756

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$$

APRIL 26 – MAY 2, 2013 | BUSINESS OBSERVER

BusinessObserverFL.com

CoffeeTalk

3

Local CEO goes bald — for a cause Bouchard Insurance CEO Doug Bishop has something in common with Tampa Bay Rays Manager Joe Maddon: Both have shaved their heads in support of cancer research.

Bishop’s shave took place April 10, part of the Tampa Bay Cut For a Cure Charity Challenge. Bishop, joined in head-shave with his 9-year-old son, Nate Bishop, designated the funds raised from the shave to the Vinny Lecavalier Foundation. Lecavalier is a center for the NHL’s Tampa Bay Lightning, and a longtime supporter of local children’s charities.

“I love the concept,” Bishop, based in Clearwater, tells Coffee Talk. “It was a great experience, for a great cause.”

Cut for a Cure had raised $389,362 through April 23. More than 70 players, coaches and staffers with the Rays, including Maddon and owner Stuart Sternberg, shaved their heads for the cause during spring training. Other local executives who have had their heads shaved for the cause include Tommy Sudderth, with battery distribution firm Safe-Start; St. Petersburg entrepreneur Mark Sembler, whose family runs a prominent local development firm; and Gary Harrod and Chad Harrod, father and son with Harrod Properties, a Tampa-based commercial real estate firm.

Bishop says one of the most touching parts of the experience, past the

Re-Imagine

Endearing

COURTESY

Bouchard Insurance CEO DOUG BISHOP gets his head shaved for Cut for a Cure. donations, is cancer patients from All Children’s Hospital in St. Petersburg were the ones who did the actual shaving. Says Bishop: “I’m looking forward to doing it again next year.”

For more information on Cut for a Cure visit fastercure.org.

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Artis, the center formerly known as Phil It’s been more than a year since Myra Janco Daniels retired from the Naples Philharmonic, but big rebranding changes are afoot at the cultural mecca she built.

Daniels, a former advertising chief executive FILE who was one of MYRA JANCO Naples’ most sucDANIELS cessful fundraisers, founded the Philharmonic in 1982 and built it into a $127 million complex of an orchestra, performing arts hall and art museum.

EST. SARASOTA 1978

The Phil, as it’s affectionately called, hosts the top performing artists and Broadway shows, especially during the busy spring season. It now enters its 25th season.

Now under the direction of Kathleen Van Bergen, the Phil has been renamed Artis — Naples. The name was chosen after 10 months of research with the help of New York-based firm Berliner Benson.

The organization says the new name better reflects the wide variety of artistic presentations at the center. Artis creates and presents more than 300 events a year in various arts, including performance and visual. Of those, fewer than half are musical concerts.

See COFFEE TALK on page 5

LEE COUNTY: SPRAWL CAPITAL OF THE U.S. 214,000-strong labor force.

Granted, the think tank looked at every metro area of the country to identify broad demographic shifts.

It wasn’t designed as a sophisticated analysis of the Fort Myers area.

But you can bet that government bureaucrats and environmentalists in Lee County are going to wave the report in their quest to halt the construction recovery. The building industry should be prepared to counter those arguments.

102272

Here’s more ammunition for the anti-growth crowd.

The Cape Coral-Fort Myers metropolitan area had the largest increase in the share of jobs located more than 10 miles outside downtown from 2007 to 2010, according to the Washington, D.C.-based Brookings Institution.

Brookings’ recently published report on the phenomenon of job sprawl says that’s a bad thing. It uses all sorts of buzzwords about “sustainable” and “inclusive” urban-core growth that largely ignores the realities of suburban life in Florida. For starters, tiny downtown Fort Myers couldn’t even begin to handle the region’s

4

BUSINESS OBSERVER | APRIL 26 – MAY 2, 2013

BusinessObserverFL.com

topstories from BusinessObserverFL.com Bern’s farm to become Wawa The former Bern’s Steak House 8-acre organic farm is being redeveloped into a new Wawa convenience store and a professional soccer team practice field.

In 2012, Bern’s Steak House said it planned to stop farming the plot at 5702 W. Waters Ave., which provided produce for the well-known Tampa restaurant, and instead planned to farm a smaller lot nearby.

In October, the Laxer family sold a 0.9-acre portion of the farm to Tampa-based developer RMC Property Group for $1.45 million. Construction work has since started on that portion of the site for the new convenience store, says Cory Hopkins, who works in development for RMC Property Group.

At the same time, the Laxer family is developing the remainder of the Waters Avenue and Benjamin Road property and more into a 10.5-acre practice field for the Tampa Bay Rowdies. David Laxer is one of the owners of the sports team.

The private practice field is scheduled for completion in a little more than a month.

quote of theweek

“”

Anytime you develop a piece of land, it’s always a lot of quid pro quo with the county.

It’s always give and take. But this was just take.

Mike Kass | Developer, Hillcrest Property, Pasco County SEE PAGE 10

what do you think?

SARASOTA-MANATEE

Disco queen’s home nets $2.85 million The Charlotte County waterfront home where the late pop singer Donna Summer lived for five years was sold for $2.85 million.

Summer bought the home in 2007. The home was initially listed on the market for $3.2 million in February.

The four-bedroom, fourbathroom home, in a private, gated enclave, was built in 1950 and has since undergone numerous updates. The home now includes open beam ceilings, a large covered veranda, an open patio overlooking a pool and a sunning porch on the west side that faces the Gulf of Mexico.

A boathouse and dock are also connected to the property.

Summer, who suffered from lung cancer, died last May.

Broker wins bid to sell prominent space Local commercial real estate firm Ian Black Real Estate won a bid for exclusive rights to list properties for sale on the mixed-use side of a proposed downtown Sarasota parking garage.

Would you support efforts to crack down on panhandling in your community?

Vote at BusinessObserverFL.com

The $7.3 million public garage project, on State Street, is still in the design phase.

Sarasota city officials have debated several aspects of the garage, though it’s likely to have more than 400 parking spots and a mix of commercial and retail space. The garage would replace the existing public parking lot on State Street.

City officials hope to have the design and engineering approved by the end of 2013.

CHARLOTTE-LEE-COLLIER

Airport traffic points to recovery More than 1.1 million passengers passed through Southwest Florida International Airport in March, a record month for the growing airport and further evidence of the economic recovery.

The March passenger record represents an 8.9% increase over the same month one year ago as airlines added more flights and larger planes. The number of takeoffs and landings also rose 5.2% in March compared with March 2012.

Year to date, passenger traffic is up 7.5% compared with the first three months of last year.

More than 7.3 million pasLast week’s question:

Do you support collecting sales tax on online sales?

sengers passed through the Fort Myers airport in 2012. That compares with nearly 1.3 million passengers passing through Sarasota Bradenton International Airport and 16.8 million through Tampa International Airport last year.

HMA to lease Ocala hospital The trustees of Marion County Hospital District selected Health Management Associates to begin exclusive negotiations for a long-term lease of the 421bed Munroe Regional Medical Center in Ocala.

Naples-based Health Management’s lease of Munroe Regional Medical Center will be done in partnership with Shands Hospital, the University of Florida’s affiliated teaching hospital.

Munroe Regional will become part of Health HMA’s network in Florida, which currently includes 23 hospitals, and will have a statewide clinical affiliation with the Shands Hospital.

HMA, through its subsidiaries, operates 71 hospitals with approximately 11,100 licensed beds in non-urban communities located throughout the U.S.

40% Yes 60% No

110992

TAMPA BAY

APRIL 26 – MAY 2, 2013 | BUSINESS OBSERVER

BusinessObserverFL.com

CoffeeTalk

5

FROM PAGE 3

Tech entrepreneurs hope for big opportunity

One of the biggest who’s who events of the year for technology startups, TechCrunch Disrupt NY 2013, will have a Sarasota connection.

That will be through opprtunity.com, a firm that aims to become a digital matchmaking service for businesses.

The idea, says co-founder Janis Krums, is to connect people with like-minded business needs and backgrounds to each other using their LinkedIn profiles. The site is free for now, while in beta testing, but the founders hope to eventually make money off the service.

“We’ve had a really good response,” Krums tells Coffee Talk. “We have done well with small business owners and entrepreneurs.”

The firm next hopes to do well at

TechCrunch Disrupt. The conference, scheduled for April 27 to May 1, is a coming-out party of sorts for tech startups worldwide. Opprtunity.com, says Krums, who founded the firm with Sarasota entrepreneur Bill Jula, will be part of an event called Startup Alley. That’s where conference organizers invite 100 companies to pitch business models and concepts to venture capitalists, angel investors and fellow startups.

Krums, who, like Jula, has started several tech businesses, has been in the spotlight in the New York area once before for his technology prowess and good timing. That was on Jan. 15, 2009, when he was a passenger on a Staten Island ferry and witnessed US Airways Flight 1549 make a now-famous emergency landing in the Hudson River. Krums took a picture of people being rescued and tweeted it with this message: “There’s a plane in the Hudson. I’m on the ferry going to pick up the people. Crazy.”

That picture was viewed 40,000 times on twitpic.com within hours, and many newspapers nationwide ran the picture on the front page the next day.

CEO summer camp: No bugs!

For one group of kids this summer, camp won’t involve bug spray, roasting marshmallows on the fire or playing pool games.

At the CEO Academy at Florida Gulf Coast University organized and underwritten by Junior Achievement, entrepreneurial teens will learn the basics of how to start and operate a successful business.

With the guidance of entrepreneurs and professors from the Lutgert College of Business, these teens will learn to develop a comprehensive business plan over a week in June. At the conclusion of the camp, there will be a competition to determine the best business plan and each student on the winning team will receive a $1,000 college scholarship.

The judges of the competition will be entrepreneurs and business executives who have been named to the Junior Achievement Business Hall of Fame. Ju-

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nior Achievement is a nonprofit organization that helps educate children about economics and entrepreneurship.

The deadline to apply is May 1 and is open to any high school junior or senior from Charlotte, Collier or Lee counties.

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SECOND CITY SHOWS THE WAY

WaVE founder LINDA OLSON

COURTESY

Olson says she has a long list of questions for each organization, with a focus on seeking strategic advice.

That ranges from the risks and opportunities with starting angel funds and angel investor networks to how to best corral tech investors from other areas, like commercial real estate or restaurants.

-

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110865

Some of the people behind Tampa Bay WaVE, a nonprofit that helps connect technology companies with capital, local experts and other resources, are heading out for a national tour.

The idea, WaVE founder Linda Olson says, is to meet with technology incubators and accelerators in other parts of the country, to see how they do it. The first stop is scheduled for Chicago, from April 28 to April 30.

Olson says other cities will likely be added later in the year.

The WaVE contingent includes Olson, former Florida gubernatorial candidate Alex Sink and Kelly Bousman, a senior vice president at AVI-SPL, a Tampa-based video communications firm. Sink is on the board of the Florida Next Foundation, a nonprofit organization for entrepreneurs and small businesses, which has an office in WaVE’s downtown Tampa center.

The group plans to chat with a bevy of technology support organizations and investor groups in Chicago. The list includes the i2A Fund, a startup technology investment entity, and 1871, a young entrepreneur incubator named for the Great Chicago Fire of 1871 that led to a citywide rebirth.

6

BUSINESS OBSERVER | APRIL 26 â&#x20AC;&#x201C; MAY 2, 2013

BusinessObserverFL.com

BY THE NUMBERS

economicsnapshot

3.3% Employment The Ocala areaâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s employment growth in March, compared with March 2012. It was the highest in the state, followed

by Tampa Bay, at 3.1%.

7.7 million (Florida statewide) 7.6 7.5 7.4 7.3

1

7.2 Mar. 2012 Apr. â&#x20AC;&#x2122;12

The Tampa Bay areaâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s rank in the state in terms of year-over-year job growth in March.

The area added 35,900 jobs compared with March 2012.

3 The number of areas out of 22 statewide that posted a loss in employment for March compared with March 2012.

May â&#x20AC;&#x2122;12

June â&#x20AC;&#x2122;12

July â&#x20AC;&#x2122;12

Aug. â&#x20AC;&#x2122;12

WHAT THE DATA SHOW Total nonagricultural employment estimates for March for the major metropolitan areas of the Gulf Coast. The data are not seasonally adjusted.

WHAT IT MEANS The Tampa Bay area continued to be the job-creation engine of the region, growing its employment by nearly 36,000 jobs over the year ending in March. In fact, Tampa-St. PetersburgClearwater added the most jobs of any metro area of the state in that period, besting Miamiâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s 34,300 new jobs. Job growth further south remained more sluggish, and Punta Gorda even showed a slight drop in employment. Statewide, employment grew by 140,200 in March a 1.9% annual percentage increase.

FORECAST The Tampa area is showing the most economic vitality on the Gulf Coast as employers boost staffing. So far, employers further south have been more cautious about hiring even though some surveys indicate many have planned to boost employment.

Hospitality and residential real estate are recovering and will encourage employers to hire additional staff to keep up with demand. Some employers are reporting difficulty finding qualified staff as their ranks were decimated during the downturn.

Sept. â&#x20AC;&#x2122;12

Oct. â&#x20AC;&#x2122;12

Nov. â&#x20AC;&#x2122;12

Dec. â&#x20AC;&#x2122;12

Jan. â&#x20AC;&#x2122;13

Feb. â&#x20AC;&#x2122;13

Mar. â&#x20AC;&#x2122;13

MARCH EMPLOYMENT AREA

% ANNUAL CHANGE

EMPLOYMENT

TampaSt. Petersburg

1,190,700 3.1%

SarasotaBradenton Punta Gorda

250,700 1.2% 43,000 -0.2%

Cape CoralFort Myers

214,000 1.0%

Naples

121,500 1.0% Source: Florida Department of Economic Opportunity

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APRIL 26 – MAY 2, 2013 | BUSINESS OBSERVER

infocus | technology |

T

he path Voalte took to become a creative destructor in the mobile health care communications industry was initially a disadvantage.

That’s because the Sarasota-based firm, which uses smart phones to allow nurses and hospital employees to communicate with each other, was way ahead of its time, Voalte President Trey Lauderdale says. Most of the clients it targeted for business — hospitals and medical centers — weren’t ready to make such a seismic shift in 2009 and 2010, when the firm was a startup. Even today, some hospitals cling to a 1990s form of internal communications: beepers and pagers.

Says Lauderdale: “We were too early in a laggard market.”

That hitch, however, is no longer a weakness.

In fact, Voalte, which stands for voice, alarm and text, and is pronounced like “volt,” is poised to make a massive leap in employees, sales and market share. And that market, mobile health care communications, is likewise in a big growth mode. The industry, what insiders call mHealth, is projected to grow 684% within six years, from $1.3 billion in 2012 to $10.2 billion by 2018, according to Transparency Market Research.

Voalte declines to release annual revenues, though in previous interviews executives have said the company is around $10 million a year in sales. Lauderdale, in a mid-April interview, says Voalte grew sales by four times last year, and he expects to grow at least that much this year. The firm’s client list includes hospitals nationwide, where nurses text info and data to each other and supervisors, through Voalte’s network.

BusinessObserverFL.com

BY MARK GORDON | DEPUTY MANAGING EDITOR

Healthy

Returns

An innovative local firm that helps hospital employees communicate better, and faster, is in a new stratosphere of big growth.

“”

If we don’t outinnovate ourselves, someone will out-innovate us.

Someone out there can throw a bunch of money at this and come up with a better solution.

But we won’t let that happen. Trey Lauderdale | Voalte, Sarasota

On employees, meanwhile, the firm plans to nearly double its payroll, from 70 to about 130 by the end of 2013. The company will also move into a larger office, on Fruitville Road near Interstate 75, likely within the next few months.

“We are looking at tremendous growth,” says Lauderdale, who came up with the idea for Voalte in 2008, when he was a student in the entrepreneurship program at the University of Florida Warrington College of Business. “We could be the next Philips Healthcare or GE Healthcare. This has the potential to be that big.”

Voa lte nonetheless faces some looming threats.

For starters, overseeing growth and operations is a new position for Lauderdale, even though he founded the firm. That task had belonged to Rob Campbell, a prominent semi-retired local entrepreneur who once ran the company that created Power Point.

Lauderdale met Campbell at UF. The veteran businessman was a guest lecturer in a class where the budding entrepreneur was a student. Campbell

MARK WEMPLE

TREY LAUDERDALE is president of Sarasota-based Voalte, a mobile health care communications firm. He says the firm is primed for big growth in 2013, when it expects to go from 70 to about 130 employees. liked Lauderdale’s idea and business plan so much he joined the company.

Campbell then held the CEO post at Voalte until March, when he amicably left, Lauderdale says. Campbell, who remains a shareholder in Voalte, says the timing was right for a leadership change.

“Voalte is in great shape with strong financial backing, a stellar customer base and solid management,” Campbell says in statement. Campbell did not return calls for comment. “I am confident that Trey will take the reins and continue to make Voalte a success.”

The next challenge at Voalte, more

of a constant hurdle, is recruiting top employees. While many businesses on the Gulf Coast deal with that, the issue is especially acute at Voalte because of its fast growth and its specialized high-tech software needs.

The firm recently hired a full-time in-house recruiter to find employees, and Lauderdale says even that’s grown too big for one person.

Voalte, finally, must spend a good deal of time fending off bigger competitors. That goes even for behemoths like Cisco and Avaya that haven’t yet gotten into the mobile health hospital and nurse communications niche.

Lauderdale says to that end Voalte has two engineering teams: One works mostly on current issues, while the other works almost exclusively on future versions of the software.

That’s also why the company’s recent capital raise, $6 million in fall 2012, went mostly toward research and development.

“If we don’t out-innovate ourselves, someone will out-innovate us,” says Lauderdale. “Someone out there can throw a bunch of money at this and come up with a better solution. But we won’t let that happen.”

— Follow Mark Gordon on Twitter @markigordon

7

8 infocus | hiring |

BUSINESS OBSERVER | APRIL 26 – MAY 2, 2013

BusinessObserverFL.com

BY JEAN GRUSS | EDITOR/LEE-COLLIER

Find good people

Human resource professional of the year Sandie Peterson says the recession changed the way she considers job candidates.

A

s the economy continues to recover, business owners are increasingly turning their attention to hiring.

But many talented people left Florida in search of jobs elsewhere over the last five years, one of the legacies of the real estate recession.

So it pays to listen to human-resource specialists like Sandie Peterson, human resource manager and consultant with the accounting firm of Markham Norton Mosteller & Wright in Fort Myers.

Peterson, who was recently named human resource professional of the year by her peers with the Southwest Florida affiliate of the Society for Human Resource Management, echoes a common refrain among business owners these days. “I have a hard time finding qualified people,” she says.

Because Peterson works for an accounting firm, she’s helped more than 40 companies with human resource services ranging from legal compliance to writing policy manuals and mentoring supervisors. “I’m doing a lot of placements right now,” she says.

In particular, there’s strong demand for qualified technicians, medical staff and even construction supervisors. “A lot of good people moved on and got out of the area, so the pool is not great,” Peterson says.

But the improvement in real estate prices is creating opportunity for those who have been stuck geographically because they owed more than their homes were worth.

They can now sell their homes and move for a job. “Mobility is improving,” she says.

Peterson cites her own experience selling her home in Cape Coral in November. She sold her home in six days for the full asking price.

A graduate of the University of Missouri with a degree in psychology, Peterson says there’s no magic formula to determine whether a person will be a good fit in a company. “There are always surprises,” she says.

ED CLEMENT

SANDIE PETERSON, human resource manager and consultant with Markham Norton Mosteller Wright & Company, says many job candidates are looking for employment stability.

The challenge now is that the recession has changed the careers of many professionals in ways that might have been drawbacks years ago. For example, many people have had to change jobs numerous times recently because of economic circumstances,

infocus | homebuilding |

not because they can’t be loyal to one organization. “You can’t even go by longevity,” Peterson says. “Everything just turned upside down.”

Peterson says she used to ignore any resume where past employment lasted fewer

BY JEAN GRUSS | EDITOR/LEE-COLLIER

Land advantage

Mark Wilson was an early buyer of premium lots in Naples and Sarasota, but it’s paying off today.

B

etter to be early than late.

Mark Wilson may have been early when he acquired the remaining home sites at two signature luxury communities in 2009 and 2010: Mediterra in Naples and The Founders Club in Sarasota.

But Wilson raised cash in 2008 by selling 20% of his company, London Bay Homes, for $17.5 million to an undisclosed private investor. That cash came in handy when opportunities arose to buy premium lots at steep discounts during the downturn.

“The good news is we bought at the end of 2009,” says Wilson, president of London Bay. While the residential real estate recovery didn’t get under way in earnest until 2011, it’s now in full bloom in luxury markets such as Naples and Sarasota. “Both markets are good,” says Wilson, whose homes start at $600,000.

Meanwhile, rival homebuilders who waited are now scrambling to find lots in prime locations that have spiked in value.

“The private-equity guys didn’t start until 2010,” Wilson says.

Wilson declines to share his own firm’s revenues, but he says London Bay sales rose 60% from 2011 to 2012 and may rise another 50% this year. At Mediterra, for example, builders wrote $50 million in contracts in the first quarter, already half of the $100 million they sold in all of 2012.

Most of Wilson’s buyers pay cash for luxury homes. Many of them are entrepreneurs who are looking for a second home on the Gulf Coast. “The wealthy guy still in business is finding it’s a good time to buy,” he says, noting that 20% of buyers are Canadian.

Because of strong demand and declin-

than three years. Now, she says some of these people may be great candidates. “They’re looking for stability,” she says. “They have a stronger desire to succeed sometimes.”

Peterson says she’s had success finding qualified candidates from Southwest Florida Works, a public-private organization that provides career counseling and training.

“That is a great resource for employers,” she says.

For example, Peterson was recently scouting for medical technicians and found them through that organization. “They found grant money for training,” she adds.

To find good people these days, Peterson says she likes to have lengthy conversations.

Above all, she seeks drive and passion for the job, even if their resumes are loaded with more experience than a job requires. “I’m not afraid of people who are overqualified,” she says.

Peterson says an initial interview might last 20 minutes, but a follow-up with a promising candidate could last an hour.

“You ask them to tell you stories,” she says.

She paints workplace scenarios for prospects and asks them how they would handle it. “I need someone who is a problem solver,” she says.

Questions Peterson likes to ask include: Are you a morning or afternoon person?

How do you plan for tomorrow? How would your peers rank you on timeliness? “I just get to know them,” she says.

Peterson looks for strong work ethic. “If I see someone from the Midwest, it makes me look twice,” she says. “If someone sends me a cover letter, they get a second look.”

Peterson always performs a criminalbackground check on every candidate and she speaks with references, whom she has found can be brutally honest. “I’ve eliminated five to 10 people based on references,” she says.

Follow Jean Gruss on Twitter @JeanGruss

NANCY DENIKE

MARK WILSON, the president of London Bay Homes, says he’s been able to raise prices on the luxury homes he builds because of rising demand and falling inventories. ing inventories, Wilson says he’s been able to raise home prices 10% this year. But some of that has been offset by inflation in labor and materials. For example, dry-

wall prices spiked 30% in January, he says.

“Our trade partners are reaching capacity,” Wilson says. “Having a good estimating department is critical right now.”

Wilson raises cash from private investors such as wealthy individuals or family investment offices to build speculative luxury homes, generating returns in the high teens to 20% range. Wilson’s Mediterra and Founders Club acquisitions were his first forays into larger-scale development, and the company still has more than 100 lots on which to build. “We’ve got excellent land positions,” he says.

Now, Wilson is scouting future opportunities for Naples-based London Bay, which has operated for 22 years. “We’re definitely looking at what we’ll do five years from now,” he says. “The bargains are gone.”

While Wilson has only acquired developed lots in the past, he’s now considering buying raw land, particularly in tight markets such as Naples and Sarasota. “I don’t think there’s an alternative,” he says.

The lack of large tracts of developed land could steer Wilson to building condominiums or townhomes, too. “It’s definitely in the mix as a consequence of us running out of land,” he says.

Wilson is also investigating other areas of the state. He says he’s intrigued by areas of the Florida Panhandle near the new airport in Panama City. Orlando is also appealing.

Still, while Wilson says the outlook for housing is promising through 2015, he’s cautious about the likely prospects of another real estate downturn. He speculates another downturn within the next four to seven years is likely because of economic cycles, though it probably will not be as severe as the most recent one. “Can you manage through another down cycle?” he asks himself.

Follow Jean Gruss on Twitter @JeanGruss

APRIL 26 â&#x20AC;&#x201C; MAY 2, 2013 | BUSINESS OBSERVER

BusinessObserverFL.com

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10

BUSINESS OBSERVER | APRIL 26 – MAY 2, 2013

BusinessObserverFL.com

LAW

BY MARK GORDON | DEPUTY MANAGING EDITOR

MARK WEMPLE

Tampa-based developer MIKE KASS, left, sued Pasco County over a land preservation ordinance. His attorney in the case is DAVID SMOLKER, right. Two judges have agreed that the county’s ordinance is unconstitutional.

‘LONG and COSTLY’ G

Two court rulings powerfully rebuke a Pasco County land development ordinance. A federal judge called the county’s action an ‘abusive and coercive misapplication of governmental power.’

ulf Coast real estate developers Mike Kass and George Karpay didn’t seek a fight with Pasco County.

But their hesitancy to battle the government, in what’s now become a six-year-and-counting legal saga, was trumped only by their sense of right and wrong.

Kass, a Tampa-based attorney with the firm Kass Shuler, says Pasco County officials violated his and Karpay’s private property rights with a 2005 ordinance called the Right of Way Corridor Preservation. Karpay, a prominent Tampa area developer and homebuilder, who died April 8 at 83 years old, likewise thought the move was illegal.

Two court rulings, the most

recent one handed down April 12, agree that Kass and Karpay’s constitutional rights have been violated. So much so that Tampabased U.S. District Court Judge Steven Merryday used language in his ruling that calls the county’s action akin to being a bully. In another part of the decision, he calls the ordinance a “prolix, opaque, and overbearing” rule.

“Preferring to avoid the payment of ‘just compensation’ after acquiring the necessary land by eminent domain, Pasco County has hatched a novel and effective but constitutionally problematic idea, a most uncommon regulatory regime,” Merryday writes on page one of a 52-page ruling.

Merryday concludes with this passage: “This ordinance is an unmistakable, abusive, and coercive

misapplication of governmental power, perpetrated to cynically evade the Constitution. The ordinance cannot stand.”

The Pasco County ordinance set up a system where landowners and developers, if and when the county asks for it, would allot — the county calls it donate — some of their property for future roads. Only then would the county approve the development for the unused parts of that particular parcel.

The purpose of the ordinance, county officials say, was to save the county, one of the fastest growing in Florida in the early-2000s, from charging developers high impact fees for new roads. The county also made the ordinance part of its comprehensive plan that supports development through 2025.

Pasco County Administrator John Gallagher referred questions on the lawsuit and the latest ruling to Chief Assistant County Attorney David Goldstein, who only responded to the Business Observer in an email. “Conditioning development approval on the dedication of right of way is constitutional, and has been upheld by the U.S. Supreme Court,” writes Goldstein.

“It’s a common practice for most local governments in Florida.”

‘CONSTITUTIONALLY OBNOXIOUS’

Several developers, though, consider the ordinance the epitome of a land-grab.

And to Kass, who co-owns 16 acres off State Road 52 and Old Pasco Road, a few miles west of Interstate 75 in central Pasco County,

EXECUTIVE SUMMARY Business. Hillcrest Property, Pasco County Industry. Commercial real estate, development Key. Developers behind the Hillcrest project sued Pasco County over what it says is an illegal land-grab. Two judges have agreed with the developer’s claims.

APRIL 26 – MAY 2, 2013 | BUSINESS OBSERVER the right-of-way preservation was an abomination. Kass and Karpay intended to build a 147,000-square-foot, Publix-anchored shopping center on the land — a project under the development entity Hillcrest Property that never moved forward. The initial proposal for the shopping center dates back to 2001, after Kass and Karpay, through Hillcrest, paid about $11 million for the land.

But the project stalled, Hillcrest alleges in the lawsuit, because Pasco County, through the ordinance, required Kass and Karpay to give back between 50 and 140 feet for future road expansion. The Florida Department of Transportation, which isn’t a defendant in the Hillcrest suit, later sought another 90 feet of road from the developers.

“”

Anytime you develop a piece of land, it’s always a lot of quid pro quo with the county.

It’s always a give and take. But this was just take.

BusinessObserverFL.com

11

Dade City

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Hillcrest Property

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BEFORE

AFTER

Mike Kass | Developer, Hillcrest Property, Pasco County

BITTERSWEET VICTORY

Merryday’s ruling, further, is a reaffirmation of a March 9, 2012 decision written by U.S. Magistrate Judge Thomas McCoun. That judge, in reviewing the case before it proceeded to Merryday’s courtroom, called it like Kass and Karpay saw it: An end-run around eminent domain laws.

“Hillcrest was required to dedicate a portion of its property fronting State Road 52 to the county free of charge…” writes McCoun. “To avoid such unfairness and injustice the 5th and 14th Amendments (as well as Article X, section 6 of the Florida Constitution) dictate that the government compensate landowners when it confiscates See PASCO page 14

COURTESY

The top rendering shows what developers contend their proposed project looked like prior to being subjected to Pasco County’s Right of Way Corridor Preservation ordinance. The second rendering shows what the developers say the project would look like after the preservation ordinance is applied.

BIG DAYS U.S. District Court Judge Steven Merryday, who recently handed Pasco County officials a blistering defeat in a land-use lawsuit (read his comments on the case on page 14), has presided over several prominent Gulf Coast cases.

A onetime attorney with Holland & Knight in Tampa, President George H.W. Bush appointed Merryday to his seat on the bench, in U.S. District Court for the Middle District of Florida, in 1992. Cases Merryday has been involved with include: • An ongoing widespread mortgage fraud and house flipping case that included 20 defendants in the Sarasota-Bradenton region and hundreds of millions of dollars in illgotten gains; • A lengthy legal dispute over the future of the Colony Beach & Tennis Club, a world-renowned resort on Longboat Key that filed for bankruptcy in 2009; • The 2007 trial and sentencing of Rafael Angel Rondon, dubbed the Band-Aid Bandit because he covered a mole on his face with a bandage when he robbed banks. Authorities contended Rondon robbed nearly 40 banks, from Gainesville to Sarasota, and he was convicted of six of the heists. Merryday sentenced Rondon to 149½ years in prison; • Parts of the case of Steve and Marlene Aisenberg, Tampa parents charged with concocting a story about how their infant daughter was kidnapped from her crib in the middle of the night. The baby girl, reported missing in 1997, has never been found and charges against the couple were ultimately dropped due to insufficient evidence.

— Mark Gordon

87801

The ultimate result, Hillcrest contends in court documents, is the ordinance would cut out 4.3 acres of the development, or 28% of the total acreage. That would make the project impossible to build, which is why the land sits empty today.

“Anytime you develop a piece of land, it’s always a lot of quid pro quo with the county,” says Kass. “It’s always a give and take. But this was just take. They wanted to take the right of way without any compensation and regardless if there was any need for it.”

So Kass and Karpay, led by Tampa attorney David Smolker, sued Pasco County in 2010. The plaintiffs sought two remedies from the court: compensation for the land impacted by the ordinance and a reversal of the ordinance. “I’ve been practicing in this area since 1982,” says Smolker, wellknown in statewide legal circles for his land-use law work, “and I’ve never seen anything this constitutionally obnoxious.”

The next step in the case will be a hearing in front of Judge Merryday, scheduled for April 25. Attorneys on each side will likely discuss financial damages with the judge. In his April 18 email, Goldstein says it’s too early to talk about a possible appeal or even revoking the ordinance because a judgment hasn’t been entered yet.

Smolker, however, is hopeful Merryday’s ruling will be the force that pushes Pasco County to reverse course.

“It’s been a long and costly case,” says Smolker. “This (recent decision) is a huge step forward.”

12

BUSINESS OBSERVER | APRIL 26 – MAY 2, 2013

BusinessObserverFL.com

COMMERCIAL REAL ESTATE

BY JEAN GRUSS | EDITOR/LEE-COLLIER

a wider

REACH

GERI and RICHARD ARMALAVAGE are now the chairwoman and CEO, respectively, of Valbridge Property Advisors.

NANCY DENIKE

Forty-two appraisal firms banded together to counter the growing influence of commercial real estate brokerages. Valbridge Property Advisors is now headquartered in Naples.

O

n a spring day in 2011, a mysterious ema i l popped into Richard Armalavage’s inbox.

The message was from Stephen Bullock, a Boston appraiser he had never met. Armalavage says he’s gotten his share of business pitches over the decades he’s been in business in Naples, but they’d never amounted to much.

Still, Bullock had an intriguing proposal: To build a national network of independently owned appraisal firms to counter the growing influence of appraisal firms owned by national commercial brokers.

Armalavage found the email curious enough that he agreed to fly to Boston to meet with Bullock and 18 others who had responded positively. Still, he had bought some Red Sox baseball tickets just in case the meeting didn’t rise to his expectations.

That initial meeting turned into what would become Valbridge Property Advisors two years later, the nation’s third-largest appraisal firm with 600 employees in 59 offices from California to Florida.

Richard Armalavage is the CEO and his wife, Geri Armalavage, is chairwoman of the board and the headquarters is now in Naples. The new company was formally launched in March.

Bullock says he decided to create Valbridge after viewing sophisticated software used by the large commercial brokerage firms. “They’d

spent $4 million developing it and it greatly accelerated the time and hours an appraiser used to make a report,” he says.

“We felt like there was a shift going on in the industry,” says Michael Twitty, senior managing director with Valbridge in St. Petersburg.

“With the downturn, we were having to compete with firms that we never used to have to compete with.”

The 42 firms that agreed to form Valbridge now have the wherewithal to fund big investments in technology. “We have a very strong push toward productivity-enhancing tools and software,” Bullock says. “It was the biggest motivator for firms joining.”

Valbridge adopted the franchise model, selling territories to wellestablished and reputable appraisal firms. Valbridge executives decline to cite the required initial capital investment, but Armalavage acknowledged it approaches seven figures in total. “We hope to expand overseas, and we could accommodate another dozen or 15 offices in the U.S.,” says Bullock.

Robert Beaumont, Valbridge’s chief financial officer, says the plan is to compete head-on with large commercial real estate bro-

“”

kerage firms. “Wherever CBRE and Cushman & Wakefield are, we will be too.”

FIRST MEETING IN BOSTON

In late 2010, Bullock spent two months compiling a list of the best independent appraisal firms in the U.S. “If I didn’t recruit the best firms, there would be nothing special,” he reasoned.

The idea was to have appraisal firms own a share of Valbridge yet retain control of their own independent appraisal companies.

Bullock himself would be an equal owner in Valbridge even though he had founded the company. “In late February 2011, I began sending out emails with a brief overview of the business plan,” he says.

Beaumont was the first to respond. The Orlando appraiser whose firm is Beaumont, Matthes & Church, says he was immediately struck by the idea. “I saw the same trend that many of us did,” he says, namely that commercial brokerage firms were taking a growing share of the business and appraisers had to make big investments in technology to remain competitive.

Beaumont agreed to attend Valbridge’s first planning meeting with 17 other firms in Boston in June 2011.

Wherever CBRE and Cushman & Wakefield are, we will be too.

Robert Beaumont | Valbridge Property Advisors

AT A GLANCE Company: Valbridge Property Advisors Headquarters: Naples CEO: Richard Armalavage Office locations: 59 Total staff: 600 Staff appraisers: 145 Website: www.valbridge.com “I’d never been to Boston, so I said what the heck, if nothing else I’ll see Boston,” he recalls.

The first meeting proved to be a success. “We sat there the first day for 13 hours,” says Richard Armalavage, whose firm, Armalavage Valuation, has operated in Naples since 1987. “We all anticipated leaving, but none of us did.”

At one point, 20 committees made up of various firms were drafted to help put together the company.

“Knowing what I know now, I might not have done it again,” laughs Bullock. “It’s a grueling process. We were kind of naïve at first thinking we could snap our fingers and be a national firm overnight.”

A NATIONAL REACH

Appraisal firms have traditionally operated independently because of the local nature of the business. After all, appraisers have deep knowledge of a local territory or specialty, but because of potential conflicts of interest they generally steer clear of partnering with real estate brokers or banks.

EXECUTIVE SUMMARY Company. Valbridge Property Advisors Industry. Appraisal Key. Independent firms collaborate to remain competitive.

APRIL 26 – MAY 2, 2013 | BUSINESS OBSERVER But large national commercial real estate brokerage firms have increasingly taken business from local appraisal firms by creating separate appraisal divisions.

Because of their reach, they win business appraising multiple buildings in different locations. For example, a large retailer might need appraisals on several hundred buildings in multiple states and finding a qualified appraiser in each location would be inefficient.

Now Valbridge executives say they can act as the single point of contact for a company that needs a portfolio of many buildings appraised. Plus, every appraisal report will have an identical format.

“Not only are we getting a seat at the table for large portfolio assignments, but by making those investments in technology, we’re driving down our costs to be more competitive and taking market share from less efficient appraisal firms,” says Bullock.

The undisclosed investment in technology is substantial, Bullock says. “None of us could afford to make it individually,” he says.

It’s a work in progress. Although the company formally began operations in March, the technology continues to evolve. For now, the company’s intranet system allows each firm to refer business to one another. “Bob Beaumont and I have exchanged countless jobs,” says Twitty, whose own firm operates as Entreken Associates in St. Petersburg. “To me the biggest value is the existing client base we already have, not the prospective portfolio work.”

For example, one of Twitty’s specialties is appraising marinas. A Valbridge colleague in Arizona recently asked him for help to evaluate a marina on a lake formed by the Colorado River.

Bullock estimates that larger firms that are part of the Valbridge system could see a 20% increase in business while smaller firms could see their volume double. “We are the third largest in our sector, but our goal is to be the best,” says Bullock. “If we didn’t all believe we could do that, we wouldn’t have stuck together through this long process.”

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of APRIL 30

PORT OF CALL: Paul Anderson, Tampa Port Authority director and CEO, will be the speaker at a Greater Tampa Chamber of Commerce meeting. The event will run from 7:30 a.m. to 9 a.m. at the University Club of Tampa, 201 N. Franklin Street, Suite 3800, Tampa. Cost is $35 for members and $40 for others. For more information visit ANDERSON 813-276-9402.

MAY 3

ECONOMIC DEVELOPMENT: Jim Stikeleather, chief innovation officer for Dell Services, will be the keynote speaker at the Economic Development Summit. The event will run from 9 a.m. to 5 p.m. at the Manatee Performing Arts Center, 502 Third Ave. W., Bradenton. Cost is $85 per person. For more information visit eventbrite.com/ event/5693908634#.

MAY 6-7

FLORIDA MEDICAL DEVICE SYMPOSIUM: Dr. Jeffrey Shuren, director of the U.S. Food and Drug Administration’s Center for Devices and Radiological Health, will be the keynote speaker at a meeting of the Florida Medical Manufacturers Consortium.

The two-day event will be held at the Hilton Carillon Park, 950 Lake Carillon Drive, St. Petersburg. For more information visit SHUREN floridamedtech.com.

events

MAY 7

MEETING PROS: Jennifer Gilbert, founder of Save the Date; Deborah Borak, director of global accounts at ConferenceDirect; James Hogg, faculty member of the Rosen College of Hospitality Management; and Lenn Millbower, a 25-year veteran of Walt Disney World operations, will speak at the Tampa Bay area chapter of Meeting Professionals International. The event will run from 11 a.m. to 7 p.m. at the Tampa Convention Center, 333 S. Franklin St., Tampa. Cost is $49 for members and $65 for others.

For more information visit TampaBayMPI.org.

MAY 9

TECHNOLOGY VISION: Prudence Kuai, chief information officer for Florida Blue; Massoud Sedigh, chief information officer for World Fuel Services; Julian Walshaw-Vaughan, chief technology officer for EA Sports; and Dusty Williams, chief information officer for Planet Hollywood, will discuss technology growth.

The Tampa Bay Technology Forum event will run from 11 a.m. to 1:30 p.m. For more information visit tbtf.org.

MAY 14

13

LEGISLATIVE REPORT: State Rep. Heather Fitzenhagen will speak at a Real Estate Investment Society meeting to discuss the Florida legislative session.

The lunch will run from 11:30 a.m. to 1 p.m. at the Pelican Preserve Clubhouse, Treeline Ave. at Colonial Blvd. Fort Myers.

For more information FITZENHAGEN visit reis-swfl.org.

MAY 16

RISING REAL ESTATE: The Collier Building Industry Association will hold an industry panel discussing the Southwest Florida real estate market.

The meeting will start at 5:30 p.m. at the St. John’s Life Center, 625 111th Ave. N., Naples. Cost is $25 for CBIA and Naples Area Board of Realtors members. For more information visit cbia.net.

MAY 21

LEGISLATIVE REVIEW: The Greater Tampa Chamber of Commerce will hold a meeting with state legislators from Hillsborough County to discuss the outcome of the 2013 legislative session.

The meeting will run from 11:45 a.m. to 1:30 p.m. at the Embassy Suites Hotel Tampa-Downtown, 513 S. Florida Ave., Tampa. Cost is $45 per person and $50 for others. For more information visit tampachamber.com.

JUNE 4

ECONOMIC SUMMIT: Anirban Basu, chief economist for the Associated Builders and Contractors, will be the keynote speaker at the CREW Tampa Bay’s annual economic summit. The event starts at 11:30 a.m. at the Sheraton Riverwalk Tampa, 200 N. Ashley Drive, Tampa. For more information visit crewtampabay.org.

JUNE 6 AND 7

REAL ESTATE SUMMIT: Jeb Bush will be the keynote speaker at the Urban Land Institute’s statewide real estate summit at The Ritz-Carlton, 280 Vanderbilt Beach Road, Naples. Cost is $395 for private sector ULI members. For more information visit uliFloridaSummit.org.

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Federal Judge Steve Merryday held little back when he handed down a decision April 12 in a lawsuit that pitted developers against Pasco County. At stake was the constitutionality of Pasco County’s Right of Way Corridor Preservation: County officials claim it’s part of a smart-growth plan, while the developers, Mike Kass and George Karpay, say it’s an unconstitutional end-run around eminent domain laws.

Merryday wholeheartedly agreed with the plaintiffs, Kass and Karpay, who are behind Hillcrest Property. Here are experts of Merryday’s 52-page ruling: • The ordinance is “…both coercive and confiscatory in nature and constitutionally offensive in both content and operation.”

• “The Ordinance requires Pasco County to deny the landowner’s development permit and to forbid development of the land adjoining the new transportation corridor unless the landowner ‘dedicates’ (conveys in fee simple) to Pasco County – for free – the land within the new transportation corridor.

In other words, to avoid the nettlesome payment of ‘just compensation,’ the Ordinance empowers Pasco County to purposefully leverage the permitting power to compel a landowner to dedicate land encroached by a transportation corridor. In Pasco County, if there is no free dedication, there is no permit.

• “As the Pasco County Attorney proudly MOVE FORWARD

Despite the outburst, Kass says he and Karpay would have rather avoided the lawsuit entirely.

The developers say they pleaded with county officials, starting in 2006, in a series of meetings, conferences and sessions. The county, at least in the wording of the ordinance, provides several ways to appeal a corridor preservation decision.

declares, ‘The right of way preservation ordinance drafted and defended by this office (which is one of only a few in the state) saves the County millions of dollars each year in right of way acquisition costs, business damages and severance damages.’ This bully result is effected by threatening to deny every proposed new use of private land, from medical clinic to beauty parlor, from restaurant to bait shop, and by coercing everyone, great and small, rich and poor, popular and unpopular, unless the landowner completes the mandatory ‘voluntary’ dedication of real estate.”

• “In sum, the Ordinance discriminates based on economic aspiration. Against the class of landowners who never attempt to develop, Pasco County will acquire land by eminent domain, beginning when and if Pasco County needs the land. A landowner without need of a permit enjoys the protection of condemnation and receives the ‘just compensation’ guaranteed by the Constitution. A landowner who aspires to develop property and who aspires to a permit for a grocery store, a doctor’s office, an apartment building, or the like faces an immediate confiscation of land. For these landowners, a last but forlorn hope for just compensation is in Pasco County’s prolix, opaque, and overbearing Ordinance. Further, these landowners’ just compensation But Kass says he and Karpay were met with consistent resistance from county staff and officials. The developers then sought to get out of the project by selling the land. But the combination of the recession and word getting out about the ordinance in the developer community made that effort futile.

So in 2010 the developers decided to move forward with the lawsuit. Kass and Lewis estimate Hillcrest has spent more

is an elusive contingency, held for ransom by a committee methodically acquiring property at a steep, aggregate discount.”

• “Pasco County has enacted an ordinance that effects what, in more plainspoken times, an informed observer would call a ‘land grab,’ the manifest purpose of which is to evade the constitutional requirement for ‘just compensation,’ that is, to grab land for free.

“Viewed more microscopically, Pasco County’s Ordinance designs to accost a citizen as the citizen approaches the government to apply for a development permit, designs to withhold from a citizen the development permit unless the citizen yields to an extortionate demand to relinquish the constitutional right of ‘just compensation,’ and designs first and foremost to accumulate – for free – land for which a citizen would otherwise receive just compensation.

“Aware undoubtedly of the brazenness of the Ordinance, Pasco County has garnished the Ordinance, has disguised the Ordinance, has planted in the Ordinance a distraction, using the familiar phrase ‘roughly proportional’ or ‘rough proportionality,’ words intended to evoke the soothing reassurance… words intended to deploy aggressively the foggy notion that if the words ‘roughly proportional’ appear in a scheme to regulate land, the scheme is constitutional. Not so.” than $500,000 pursuing the case, including $100,000 in new site plans to comply with the ordinance.

The latest developments, while not the end of the case, represent a sense of vindication for the Hillcrest team. Lewis says the ruling reassures that it pays to do things right.

“We play by all the rules, and we pay our fair share,” says Lewis. “I’m proud we held the county accountable for this.”

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private property for public use under the power of eminent domain and when it regulates private property under its police power in a manner that effectively deprives the owner of the economically viable use of his property.”

Adds McCoun: “Here, the county has purposefully devised a land-use scheme which sanctions, indeed commands, in all instances within its purview and without individualized consideration, the dedication of such private property without compensation as a condition of development approval or permit.”

But the decisions, in at least one sense, are a bittersweet victory because of George Karpay’s recent death, says Dale Lewis, a vice president with the Karpay Co. The Tampa-based firm is behind dozens of developments, including retirement homes in Fort Myers and multiple housing communities in Hillsborough and Pasco counties.

Karpay, also well known in the Tampa community for his philanthropy in arts and education, died unexpectedly while on a Mediterranean cruise with his wife. Lewis, who worked closely with Karpay on the Hillcrest project, says the ruling would have meant a lot to him.

“He absolutely believed the county was wrong,” says Lewis. “He thought (the ordinance) was totally inappropriate.”

Smolker recalls Karpay’s passion on the issue got the best of him one day early on in the lawsuit, during a deposition with Pasco County attorneys. Smolker says Karpay’s anger grew with each question from opposing attorneys, until the then 80-year-old developer snapped.

He says Karpay took out a pocket-sized U.S. Constitution from his side jacket pocket and slammed it on the table in response to an attorney’s question.

“Have you ever read it?” Karpay reportedly asked the attorneys as he admonished them for their entire line of questioning. Karpay continued: “Have you ever even heard of it?’”

THE JUDGE SPEAKS

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APRIL 26 â&#x20AC;&#x201C; MAY 2, 2013 | BUSINESS OBSERVER

brandstorm

BusinessObserverFL.com

15

BY JAMES R. GREGORY | CONTRIBUTING COLUMNIST

Focus your message The reputation of your company is one of its most important assets.

Tracking and measuring it can help you stay ahead of your competition.

Today, when it comes to your companyâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s reputation, which audience matters most: Customers? Employees?

Investors? Media?

The correct answer is they all matter. Any individual from any of these audiences can have a huge and immediate impact on the reputation of your company.

For Publilius Syrus, quoted below, his reputation was indeed more valuable than money. It was the difference between slavery and freedom. His story is as interesting as the maxims he wrote.

In the first century B.C., he was a Syrian slave brought to Italy. He earned his freedom the old-fashioned way â&#x20AC;&#x201D; by humoring his master with his intelligence. What is known of him today is a series of one-sentence maxims, of which No. 108 is my personal favorite.

For business, the concepts are the same, but the scale is somewhat different.

Think of the damage caused to a companyâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s reputation when a critical blog becomes viral. One example is the customer who made and placed a video on YouTube of the FedEx driver throwing a computer monitor over a

â&#x20AC;&#x153;â&#x20AC;?

fence. Remember it? The video went viral overnight.

When most companies would have gone to the bunkers, FedEx responded quickly and aggressively. It responded in a like fashion on YouTube with a FedEx spokesman who expressed his own outrage of this unacceptable behavior by a FedEx employee, and it did so while maintaining the employeeâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s privacy. It met with the customer and resolved the issue to the customerâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s satisfaction. This action

by FedEx reached multiple audiences simultaneously with a highly focused response.

The crisis was confined and cooled quickly.

Think about all the audiences that are most important to your business.

Of these audiences, which one is the most critical audience in your business today? Do you know how these various audiences feel about your company? Are those perceptions changing over time?

Are there new dynamics at play that have the potential to impact your brand? Are there new competitors in your marketplace? Are new products being introduced by competitors be-

fore you can react? How is the economy impacting your business? Are you vulnerable to a viral-type crisis?

Do you have a crisis recovery plan in place?

One way to keep your finger on the pulse of your reputation is by conducting annual benchmark tracking research with all of your critical audiences and against all of your major competitors. Brand-tracking market research will help you see how reputation dynamics can change over time and how they are impacted by changing market conditions and events both within and outside of your control.

This intelligence will provide you with the kind of insights that allow you to prioritize your audiences and to adjust your messages so your communications, whether they are advertising, public relations, social media, investor relations or some other form of communication, have the most impact.

When you focus a highly targeted message on a highly targeted audience, you have the best chance of having a positive result â&#x20AC;&#x201D; whether the goal is to generate more revenue, get Wall Street to support your stock price or simply bolster your corporate

James R. Gregory is founder and CEO of CoreBrand (corebrand. com), a global brand strategy, communications and design firm headquartered in New York, with offices in Los Angeles and Tampa.

He helps clients develop strategies to improve their corporate brands and profitability. Gregory is credited with developing pioneering and innovative tools for measuring the power of brands and their impact on a corporationâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s financial performance. He has written four books on creating value with brands: â&#x20AC;&#x153;Marketing Corporate Image,â&#x20AC;? â&#x20AC;&#x153;Leveraging the Corporate Brand,â&#x20AC;? â&#x20AC;&#x153;Branding Across Bordersâ&#x20AC;? and â&#x20AC;&#x153;The Best of Branding.â&#x20AC;? Contact him at: JGregory@corebrand.com. reputation.

Prioritizing your audiences to give your communications the most focused impact at the right time is how your message can break through the clutter of all the competitors who are also communicating at the same time.

So, what are the business lessons to be learned from Publilius Syrus?

By knowing his most important audience, and by focusing on convincing his master that he was worthy of special attention and treatment, Publilius Syrus was able to get the master to take dramatic and highly unusual action that made all of the other successes of his life possible.

Knowing your audience and focusing your message can move mountains.

(941)

A good reputation is more valuable than money. Publilius Syrus, Maxim 108

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BusinessObserverFL.com

John Neal buys summer golf card program

BY SEAN ROTH | RESEARCH EDITOR

Tampa International Airport board adopts new growth plan

Big Summer Golf Card Holdings LLP, a new company formed by John Neal and Charles Varah representing the Pasold family, has purchased the Big Summer Golf Card program.

Operating for more than 20 years, the Big Summer Golf Card, founded

by Linda Talbot, has provided golfers with summer golf at discounted pricing throughout Floridaâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s southwest, south and central regions. More than 100 golf courses participate in the program, which reaches about 17,000 golfers in the Florida market. â&#x20AC;&#x153;What is especially appealing is that the Big Summer Golf Card has provided a stable, contract-driven, summer golf marketing program, which has been a lifeline for many area golf courses and an important revenue source during the, traditionally, quieter period of May to October,â&#x20AC;? Varah says in a news release.

Neal is president of Lakewood Ranchbased custom home building company John Neal Homes.

The Hillsborough County Aviation Authority Board has unanimously voted to move forward with an updated master plan for Tampa International Airport.

The update outlines a 20-year blueprint for growing the airport based on Federal Aviation Administrationapproved passenger projections.

The new master plan calls for a consolidated rental-car facility connected by a people mover to the main terminal, connections to regional transportation networks, a new international terminal and a security-screening checkpoint in the main terminal.

The plan suggests delaying construction of a north terminal, proposed in the 2005 master plan, until passenger volumes reaches 25 million a year. The airport served nearly 17 million passengers in 2012. â&#x20AC;&#x153;The beauty of this plan is that it takes a measured approach to capital investment so we can expand incrementally as passenger demand dictates,â&#x20AC;? Tampa International Airport CEO Joe Lopano says in a news release. â&#x20AC;&#x153;It also takes advantage of the airportâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s

Tampa Electric files with PSC for 10% rate increase in 2014 Tampa Electric Co. has filed a formal request with the Public Service Commission to raise its electricity rates.

Typical commercial and industrial customers would see increases of about 6% and residential rates would grow about 10% starting in January 2014.

Tampa Electric is seeking about $135 million in higher rates, or an increase of $10.41 a month â&#x20AC;&#x201C; or 35 cents a day â&#x20AC;&#x201C; for the average residential customer who uses 1,000 kilowatt-hours (kwh) a month.

If approved as filed, the average residential bill would be about $113 a month, which the company says is still

5% below the national average.

The company says a residential customer who uses 1,000 kWh a month currently pays $102.58 a month. â&#x20AC;&#x153;There is never a good time to raise rates, but even with this increase, Tampa Electric bills would remain among the lowest in Florida,â&#x20AC;? Gordon Gillette, president of Tampa Electric, says in a release.

The PSC is expected to hold hearings about Tampa Electricâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s request later this year, and is expected to vote on the issue by the end of the year.

ground-breaking original design that offers plug-and-play expansion by building a new airside attached to the main terminal. And by putting off construction of a north terminal, weâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;re preserving valuable land for growth far into the future.â&#x20AC;?

Work on the first phase of the master plan is scheduled to begin immediately and be completed by 2018. It includes expansion of the main terminal to the east and west, as well as construction of the consolidated rental car facility near the airportâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s entrance, connected to the main terminal by an automated people mover. The 1.3-mile line will

PR survey shows social media spending up In a recent report, Osprey-based market research and business consulting firm Burton-Taylor International Consulting LLC says 2012 global spending for public relations information and software was up 4.41% compared with 2011, to reach $1.99 billion.

The report also shows that social media is the fastest-growing area of spending for PR professionals. Almost 60% of respondents expect their spending on

serve not just rental car customers, but also economy parking garage users, passengers on public transportation, commercial and personal vehicles at a new curbside at the rental car facility and airport employees.

The airport suggested expanding the people mover south to a proposed multi-use center in the Westshore Business District, offering a one-stop trip from Interstate 275 to Tampa International Airportâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s main terminal.

The airport anticipates funding the $2.5 billion master plan projects through revenue bonds, grants and through public/private partnerships. social media tools to grow in 2013. â&#x20AC;&#x153;Since the economic meltdown in 2008, there has been much greater emphasis on transparency and tighter controls on information distribution,â&#x20AC;?

Douglas Taylor, managing partner of Burton-Taylor, says in a news release. â&#x20AC;&#x153;Client interest in online visibility, especially via social media, is also boosting growth.â&#x20AC;?

The survey results say HootSuite and Radian6 currently top the list as PR practitionersâ&#x20AC;&#x2122; primary social media providers.

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*Must be owned and controlled by one or more of the following individuals/groups: veteran, active-duty military, reservist or National Guard member or a spouse of any of these individuals/groups, or a widowed spouse of a service member or veteran who died during service, or of a service-connected disability.

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BusinessObserverFL.com

17

84363

APRIL 26 – MAY 2, 2013 | BUSINESS OBSERVER

18 commercial real estate | TAMPA BAY | BusinessObserverFL.com

BUSINESS OBSERVER | APRIL 26 – MAY 2, 2013

BY SEAN ROTH | REAL ESTATE EDITOR

1

3 1

LAW FIRM ON DEED: Robert D. Barcley PA, St. Petersburg

2

Cincinnati’s Phillips Edison buys Lutz Lake Crossing

PLANS, DESCRIPTION:

BUYER: Lutz Lake Station LLC (Phillips Edison Arc Shopping Center Operating Partnership LP), Cincinnati SELLER: IRT Capital Corp. II PROPERTY: 19211 and 19255 N. Dale Mabry Highway, Lutz PRICE: $10.55 million PREVIOUS PRICE: $3 million, August 2000 and $937,500, July 2001 LAW FIRM ON DEED: Robinson Bradshaw and Hinson, Charlotte, N.C. PLANS, DESCRIPTION:

sale. Other tenants include Jan’s Wine and Boos, Subway, The UPS Store, Majik Touch Cleaners, Allure’s Nails & Spa, Capri Pizza & Pasta, Great Clips and Rice N Roll.

The property was purchased from Equity One Inc. along with the 72,590-square-foot Publix at Seven Hills shopping center.

These acquisitions bring the real estate investment trust’s total portfolio to 39 properties in 16 states, with an aggregate purchase price of $486.3

million.

The purchase entity Lutz Lake Station LLC mortgaged the Lutz Lake Crossing property to KeyBank National Association for $10.75 million.

2 Brother-sister investors buy Colony House Apartments BUYER: Ray Joseph Enterprises Inc. (principals: Bryan Brezic and Cheryl Pippin), Hillsboro, Ore. SELLER: Colony House of Tampa LLC PROPERTY: 4332 W. North B St., Tampa PRICE: $1.27 million PREVIOUS PRICE: $550,000, March 1996

3

COSTAR

Ohio Panera Bread franchisee plans new restaurant, retail buildings BUYER: Covelli Florida Properties Inc. (principals: Albert Covelli and Robert Fiorino), Warren, Ohio SELLER: John and Karen Doherty PROPERTY: 6001 W. Waters Ave., Tampa PRICE: $1.48 million PREVIOUS PRICE: $2.07 million, March 2006 LAW FIRM ON DEED: Carey O’Malley Whitaker & Mueller PA, Tampa PLANS, DESCRIPTION:

102777

Cincinnati-based Phillips EdisonARC Shopping Center REIT Inc. purchased the 64,986-square-foot Lutz Lake Crossing neighborhood shopping center for $10.55 million.

The price equated to $162 per square foot. That figure is higher than the two-year average price per square foot for retail space ($146) in the Tampa Bay area, according to the CoStar Group.

Anchored by a 44,270-square-foot Publix grocery store, the retail center was 86% occupied at the time of the

Ray Joseph Enterprises Inc., a purchase entity led by Bryan Brezic of Bradenton and his sister Cheryl Pippin of Beaverton, Ore., purchased the 20-unit Colony House Apartments for $1.27 million.

The price equated to $63,250 per unit.

Built in 1965, the Colony House Apartments, located in Tampa’s Westshore Business district, were renovated in 2007. The development contains eight one-bedroom/one-bath units and 12 two-bedroom/one-bath units.

It includes a separate on-site laundry facility and off-street parking.

Casey Babb and Luis Baez in Marcus & Millichap’s Tampa office represented the seller and Earle Hyman and Nicholas Meoli in the firm’s Encino, Calif., and Tampa offices represented the buyer.

“Colony House was purchased by a 1031 exchange investor and the transaction went very smoothly after previously falling out of contract twice,” Babb says in a press release.

“1031 exchange investors are back in the market in a big way, which is a very good sign since it means people are selling properties at substantial gains and need to buy replacement properties to defer taxes.”

The Business Observer was unable to contact the buyers for comment prior to deadline.

Ray Joseph Enterprises Inc. mortgaged the property to EverBank for $759,000.

Warren, Ohio-based Covelli Enterprises LLC purchased a 7,740-square-foot restaurant building for $1.48 million.

The price equated to $191 per square foot. That figure is higher than the two-year average price per square foot for retail space ($146) in the Tampa Bay area, according to the CoStar Group.

The building, located on an outparcel to a large retail center at the northwest corner of Waters Avenue and the Veterans Expressway, was formerly a Don Pablo’s restaurant and a Super Asian Buffet.

Covelli Enterprises, the larg-

est franchisee of the Panera Bread restaurant chain, plans to tear down the existing building and construct a freestanding 4,400- to 4,800-square-foot Panera Bread restaurant with a drive-thru and patio. It will also develop an adjacent 3,600-square-foot building with room for three retail tenants.

Colliers International Tampa Bay has been hired to market the retail units.

The new buildings are scheduled to open late this year or early 2014, according to Vikki Kaiser, director of marketing and public relations for the Covelli Family Limited Partnership.

Covelli Enterprises was created by former McDonald’s franchisee Sam Covelli in 1998 to develop and manage the franchise rights of Panera Bread locations in the northeast Ohio, western Pennsylvania, West Virginia and West Palm Beach. According to its website, it owns more than 200 restaurants and is the fifth-largest restaurant franchisee in the nation. In 2011, its gross sales revenues surpassed $400 million.

APRIL 26 â&#x20AC;&#x201C; MAY 2, 2013 | BUSINESS OBSERVER

â&#x20AC;˘ Mattress Warehouse of Clearwater Inc. leased 4,954 square feet of retail space at 13240 66th St. N., Largo from Grand Bay Commercial Inc. Linda West of The Ross Realty Group Inc. represented the landlord. â&#x20AC;˘ Regus leased 16,072 square feet of office space at One Urban Centre, 4830 W. Kennedy Blvd., Tampa. Deana Beer represented the landlord and Brent Miller represented the tenant, both of Jones Lang LaSalle. â&#x20AC;˘ D. M. Ward Enterprises leased 3,200 square feet in Strawberry Plaza at 1800 Jim Redman Parkway, Plant City from Kendall Pavilion. John Stoner of The Ross Realty Group Inc. represented the landlord. â&#x20AC;˘ Serio DeLa Cruz and Frank Acuna leased 2,400 square feet in Strawberry Plaza at 1800 Jim Redman Parkway, Plant City from Kendall Pavilion. John Stoner of The Ross Realty Group Inc. represented the landlord. â&#x20AC;˘ The Pinellas County School Board of Education has selected Walbridgeâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s Florida Group for two school upgrade projects totaling $11.3 million. Walbridge was awarded construction manager-at-risk contracts for a $10 million HVAC replacement project at Tarpon Springs Middle School and a $1.3 million renovation of the Pinellas Technical Educational Center at St. Petersburg Preschool Childrenâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s Center. â&#x20AC;˘ Charles Clifton has opened a new commercial real estate brokerage firm Charles M. Clifton LLC. Clifton has previously owned and managed general construction, and later, real estate brokerage firms. He most recently completed 15 years with Coldwell Banker

Colliers International hires top medical office broker Juan Vega, one of Floridaâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s top commercial real estate professionals in the medical office and corporate services niche, has joined Colliers InternaVEGA tional Tampa Bay, Central & Southwest Florida as managing director of office and medical services.

Vega handled the leasing of more than 750,000 square feet of medical space over the past three years and brokered more than $20 million in sales this past year.

Vega was previously with Cassidy Turley, where he served as a senior vice president and was the top producing broker in the westcentral Florida region.

Commercial. â&#x20AC;˘ Randy Thibaut and William Rollins of Land Solutions Inc. handled the sale of Naples Organic Farm, a 3,085-acre farm one mile east of State Road 29 in Hendry County in Labelle for $3.1 million. Bill Eshenbaugh of Eshenbaugh Land Co. was the referral broker. The transaction also earned Eshenbaugh the 2012 ALC-to-ALC (Accredited Land Consultant) Networking Award for the largest national referral for a transaction by sales volume at the 2013 National Land Conference in Las Vegas. â&#x20AC;˘ Palmetto St. LLC purchased a 4,259-square-foot church facility and

s "ULK SALE OFFERING OF ACRES CONSISTING OF LOTS s !!! ,OCATION NEAR 3OUTHWEST )NTERNATIONAL !IRPORT s %XCELLENT 6ISIBILITY AND EASY ACCESS s (IGHWAY &RONTAGE s :ONED !IRPORT #OMMERCE /FlCE &LEX 3PACE s "ULK SALE PRICED AT SQ FT

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â&#x20AC;˘ Frank Boullosa of Ross Realty Group Inc. won the 2012 Overall Deal of the Year and the Retail Deal of the Year awards at the Florida Gulf Coast Commercial Association of Realtors Inc.â&#x20AC;&#x2122;s 2012 Pinnacle Awards. The Overall Deal of the Year was for the short sale of a 430,000-square-foot regional mall. â&#x20AC;˘ Michael Mele, of Marcus & Millichapâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s Tampa office, handled the sale of Oxford Storage, a 46,750-square-foot self-storage facility in Fern Park for $2.2 million. The property featured 420 storage units, 169 of which were climate-controlled and 33 parking spaces.

1. Attorneys provide legal counsel. Title agencies cannot.

2. Attorneys represent you. We look out for your best interests before, during, and after the closing.

3. Attorneysâ&#x20AC;&#x2122; fees for closings are similar to the fees of title agencies.

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CBRE arranged $15 million in permanent financing for Crossroads Shopping Center, a 341,682-square-foot, retail center in St. Petersburg. This loan was a refinance of a mortgage originally placed in 2004. The new loan is structured around the current market rate, two years prior to its original maturity.

Michael Strober, Donald Jennewein and Amanda Valenti of CBREâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s Debt and Equity Capital Markets Group handled the transaction on behalf of the owner.

The center is currently 100% occupied by a strong mix of national and local tenants, including Home Depot, Toys â&#x20AC;&#x153;Râ&#x20AC;? Us, T.J. Maxx, West Marine, Ross Dress For Less and Office Depot.

THREE reasons why you should choose an Attorney over a title agency to close your real estate deal:

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CBRE handles refinance for Crossroads Shopping Center

Buying or Selling a Home or Property?

ATTENTION INVESTORS

email us at

4.6 acres of land at 2045 Palmetto St., Clearwater from Faith Family Outreach Church Inc. for $575,000. Carol Warren and Jim Parke of Colliers International Tampa Bay represented the seller. â&#x20AC;˘ Blinds by Design Enterprises purchased a 13,500-square-foot retail facility at 465 Central Ave., St. Petersburg from Joseph Paniello for $510,000.

Kevin Yeager of Colliers International Tampa Bay represented the buyer. â&#x20AC;˘ Dollar Tree Stores Inc. leased a 9,530-square-foot-retail space in Van Dyke Commons at 17623-17695 N. Dale Mabry Highway, Lutz from I-Star Financial. Lisa McCaffrey of Colliers International Tampa Bay represented the landlord. â&#x20AC;˘ Government Development Center LLC leased a 5,200-square-foot office space at 111 S. Belcher Road, Clearwater from Ocean Properties of Clearwater LLC. Carol Warren and Jim Parke of Colliers International Tampa Bay represented the landlord. â&#x20AC;˘ AECOM Technology Corp. leased 7,054 square feet in One MetroCenter in Tampaâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s Westshore Business District.

The lease, negotiated by Taylor & Mathis Director of Leasing Angela Odell, brings the office buildingâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s occupancy to 90%.

AECOM is a global provider of professional technical and management support services. â&#x20AC;˘ RMC Property Group has been awarded the exclusive listing assignments for four retail properties in St. Petersburg. The firm has been hired to market the 113,093-squarefoot Coquina Key Shopping Plaza, 119,000-square-foot Suncoast Plaza, the 52,120-square-foot grocery-anchored 34th Street Crossing and the 23,442-square-foot St Pete Plaza.

19

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CLOSE THE DEAL. PROTECT THE CLIENT.

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BusinessObserverFL.com

SM

20 commercial real estate | SARASOTAâ&#x20AC;&#x201C;MANATEE |

BUSINESS OBSERVER | APRIL 26 â&#x20AC;&#x201C; MAY 2, 2013

BusinessObserverFL.com

1

Beker State Park

Gabbert-led investor group buys Villages of Manasota Beach land

Palmetto Holmes Beach

BUYER: BMG Three LLC (principal: William Merrill III), Sarasota SELLER: Larry Hyman as assignee for the benefit of the creditors of Villages of Manasota Beach LLC PROPERTY: 2401 Englewood Road, a portion of east Stoner Road and additional land, Englewood PRICE: $5.03 million PREVIOUS PRICE: $14.28 million, $14.04 million, $8.87 million and $2.69 million, October 2005 LAW FIRM ON DEED: Icard Merrill Cullis Timm Furen & Ginsburg PA, Sarasota

Parrish

Lake Manatee Lower Watershed

Bradenton

Bayside Gardens

Upper Myakka River Watershed

Sarasota

Myakka City

Osprey Myakka River State Park

PLANS, DESCRIPTION:

An investment group led by Jim Gabbert of Gabbert Investments Group LLC purchased most of the vacant land for the proposed Villages of Manasota Beach development at State Road 776 and Manasota Beach Road for $5.03 million.

The price equated to $6,700 per acre.

The sale included 750 of the 785-acre development site after 35 acres was removed from the foreclosure process prior to the sale. Starting with a purchase in 2005, the previous owner Villages of Manasota Beach LLC had proposed creating a community of 1,450 residential units along with 25,000 square feet of commercial space. But following the real estate crash nothing was developed, and the owners faced a mortgage foreclosure judgment by IberiaBank for $41.43 million.

Gabbert says he and the other owners plan to start working on a zoning plan for the property as part of the Sarasota 2050 Comprehensive Plan, but have no set schedule to develop it. â&#x20AC;&#x153;They are not in a hurry,â&#x20AC;? says attorney Bill Merrill of Icard Merrill Cullis Timm, who represented the purchase group. â&#x20AC;&#x153;Their intention is to plan out the property. They are surrounded by development. [Homebuilder] Pat Neal owns a project to the south. Thereâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s Thomas Ranch to the east.â&#x20AC;?

2 Kirchbergerâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s investor group buys Toledo Blade buildings BUYER: Golden Key Properties LLC (principal: Andreas Kirchberger), Port Charlotte SELLER: SOF-VIII-FT Park of Commerce North Port LLC

BY SEAN ROTH | REAL ESTATE EDITOR

Venice

1

North Port

2 3

Myakka State Forest

Engelwood

PROPERTY: 1060 N. Toledo Blade Blvd., 1001 Gateway Ave., 3205, 3255, 2750, 2715, 2735 and 2785 Commerce Parkway and 1000 and 1060 Executive Ave., North Port PRICE: $1.15 million PREVIOUS PRICE: $712,400, March 2001; $641,000, June 2005; and $600,000, June 2006 LAW FIRM ON DEED: Henderson Franking Starnes & Holt PA, Fort Myers

handled the transaction and is marketing the buildings for lease. â&#x20AC;&#x153;We expect to lease them up very rapidly,â&#x20AC;? he says. â&#x20AC;&#x153;Right now thereâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s a small medical training facility there, a real estate company, title company and a law office. They were bank owned and the problem has been that banks donâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;t want to lease their properties, they just want to sell them. We closed a week ago, and Iâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;ve had no less than a dozen calls on that property already.â&#x20AC;?

The vacant space is listed for $9 a square foot net with $2.20 common area maintenance. Tenant improvement incentives are also being offered.

Kirchbergerâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s investor group recently purchased the 24,000-square-foot Placida Plaza and additional development land in Rotonda West for $825,000.

Real Estate with Real Attitude

Chicagoâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s Beidler family buys three North Port commercial buildings

SELLER: 1050 Corporate Avenue Holdings LLC PROPERTY: 1050 Corporate Ave., North Port PRICE: $775,700 SELLER: 1001 Corporate Avenue Holdings LLC PROPERTY: 1001 Corporate Ave., North Port PRICE: $465,500

CRE 96968

C O N S U LTA N T S

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3

BUYER: Corporate Ave LLC (principal: Francis Beidler III), Chicago SELLER: 2529 Commerce Parkway Holdings LLC PROPERTY: 2529 Commerce Parkway, North Port PRICE: $809,000

Meet Randy Mercer. When you employ his 30-plus years of experience, you get just that, his experience. Heâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;ll shut the door, the phones, the pad and the pod. Heâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;ll listen to your needs, your plans and your goals - what you want, donâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;t want and why. No guesswork. Then his team goes to work.

Now, thatâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s the right attitude for your success! s "UYING 3ELLING s !SSET -GMT s 6ALUE #REATION s 0ROPERTY -GMT

ETC. â&#x20AC;˘ Jason Honea leased 2,000 square feet of retail space at 4333 S. Tamiami Trail, Sarasota from Alex Struzzeiro.

Barry Seidel of American Property Group of Sarasota Inc. represented the landlord and Marcia Cuttler of American Property Group of Sarasota Inc. represented the tenant. â&#x20AC;˘ Halifax Sarasota LLC dba The Herald Tribune leased 4,036 square feet of office space at 8713 State Road 70 E., Bradenton from 8515 SR 70 LLLP. Susanne Stovall of ICORR Properties represented the landlord and Diane Lawson of Sperry Van Ness Commercial Advisory Group represented the Herald Tribune.

PLANS, DESCRIPTION:

An investor group led by Andreas Kirchberger purchased the eight office buildings in Toledo Blade Professional Center for $1.15 million.

The price equated to $32 per square foot. That figure is lower than the twoyear average price per square foot for office space ($115) in the Tampa Bay area, according to the CoStar Group.

Built in 2007, the buildings included 36,000 square feet of total space with 25,400 square feet of undeveloped interior (grey shell) space, according to broker Paul Forsberg of HG Real Estate Services of North Port. Forsberg

$2.05 million.

The price equated to $25 per square foot. That figure is below the two-year average price per square foot for office space ($115) in the Tampa Bay area, according to the CoStar Group.

The property included 34,363-square-foot, 33,563-squarefoot and 15,000-square-foot office buildings. The two smaller buildings were constructed in 2000 while the largest building was built in 2003.

The Beidler family already owns and operates Enterprise Business Park and Cross Bayou Industrial Park in Pinellas Park, according to Frank Beidler III, and felt the North Port property would be a similar fit to its portfolio. â&#x20AC;&#x153;By all the statistics itâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s in a fine area in which properties such as this sort have been recovering,â&#x20AC;? Beidler says.

The three buildings were all previously owned by an affiliate of Bank of America NA. The bank foreclosed on them in late 2010.

The new owners plan to rename the three buildings the North Port Industrial Park.

The smallest building is currently fully leased to Atlantic Teleconnect Inc. The remaining buildings are 35% and 2% occupied. Other tenants include Unique Manufacturing, Total Air Solutions LLC, Nanuet Lathe Inc., Commercial Appliance Parts & Service Inc., Aerocare Holdings Inc. and Benchmark EnviroAnalytical Inc. The Beidler family charged John Connell, general manager of Enterprise Business Park, with oversight of the new park. David Harvey will handle the on-site management and leasing of North Port Industrial Park.

PREVIOUS PRICE: $3.92 million, January 2006 LAW FIRM ON DEED: Quilling Selander Lownds Winslett & Moser PC, Dallas PLANS, DESCRIPTION:

Chicagoâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s Beidler family purchased three office buildings in the North Port Park of Commerce for a total of

â&#x20AC;˘ Westwater Construction Inc. reports it had record consecutive quarters with $25.2 million in sales between the fourth quarter and the first quarter. The contracts are made up of mostly single-family custom homes.

CEO Mark Miller says that interest in new custom homes has picked up steadily since 2011 as inventories of quality new product have dwindled, driving up demand. â&#x20AC;˘ Fredric Jacobs and Babette Bach leased 2,630 square feet at 240 S. Pineapple, Suite 700, Sarasota from 240 S. Pineapple â&#x20AC;&#x201C; Office Sarasota LLC for five years. Jag Grewal of Ian Black Real Estate handled the transaction. â&#x20AC;˘ Totally Wicked E. Liquid USA leased 2,182 square feet of retail space at 4114 S. Tamiami Trail, Sarasota from Robbins and Robinson Partnership LLC. Anthony Migliore of Executive Property Management represented the landlord and Janet Lincoln of Coldwell Banker Commercial NRT represented the tenant. â&#x20AC;˘ Brandstand America Inc. purchased an office/warehouse building at 221 Blue Juniper Blvd., Venice from Venice Park LLC for $285,000. Jim Walter of Richardson Kleiber Walter Jim Walter Broker Inc. represented the seller and Lucy Martinez of Keller Williams represented the buyer.

APRIL 26 – MAY 2, 2013 | BUSINESS OBSERVER

BusinessObserverFL.com

commercial real estate | TRANSACTIONS | DEEDS/MORTGAGES The following real estate transactions more than $1,000,000 were filed in Charlotte, Collier, Hillsborough, Lee, Manatee, Pasco, Pinellas and Sarasota county courthouses. The information lists the seller, buyer, amount of sale, mortgage and lender, if available, address and book and page of the document.

CHARLOTTE COUNTY Richard Linder sold to Real Sub LLC, $4,700,000, supermarket, 4265 Tamiami Trail, unit A, 2169643.

Hiren and Dipal Patel and JVRNK LLC vs. JVRNK LLC et al. sold to Maui Investment Group LLC, $2,700,000, in SEC 8-40S-22E, 2170088.

COLLIER COUNTY Villas of Capri Naples LLC sold to Capri K Tic LLC and Capri W Tic LLC, $13,970,000, Assumption of Mortgage: $8,190,740.67, Fannie Mae, multifamily, 7725 Tara Circle, Naples, 4816609.

Harley-Davidson Motor Co. Operations Inc. sold to Chrysler Group LLC, $7,000,000, Mortgage: $10,000,000 and $7,000,000, Citibank NA, race tracks, 5301 34th Ave. S.E., 4817264.

Charles Robert Marcum sold to Auto Enterprises LLC, $3,500,000, retirement homes or miscellaneous residential, 1100 Galleon Drive, 4819398.

Castello Centre Inc. sold to TFF Commercial Rental Properties LLC, $1,550,000, office building, 5025 Castello Drive, 4818749.

Petro Realty Annex sold to Mywat LLC, $1,500,000, light manufacturing, 168 Commercial Blvd., Naples, 4818537.

Tampa Owner LLC, $32,200,0000, Mortgage: $25,760,000, Berkadia Commercial Mortgage LLC, multifamily residential, 4747 W. Waters Ave., Tampa, 2013120888.

17623-17695 N. Dale Mabry HWY-Lutz LLC sold to Van Dyke Commons LLC, $30,009,166, Mortgage: $22,387,000, Citigroup Global Markets Realty Corp., shopping center, 17623-17695 N. Dale Mabry Highway, vacant commercial, 17461 N. Dale Mabry Highway, Lutz, 2013123098.

W2007 BRV Realty LP sold to Leeward Strategic Properties Inc., $15,750,000, hotel/ motel, 4817 Laurel St., Tampa, 2013132122.

GI Tampa Realco LLC sold to Tampa East Hotel Holdings LLC, $12,500,000, Mortgage: $12,500,000, Bank of America NA, full-service hotel/motel, 10309 Highland Manor Drive, Tampa, 2013116568.

Tampa Palms Lodging Associates LLP sold to PBS Tampa Hotel LLC, $4,000,000, extended stay hotel/motel, 5396 Primrose Lake Circle, Tampa, 2013128105.

Big Toy Storage of Tampa LLC sold to U-Haul Co. FL, $3,050,000, mini warehouse, 11915 N. 301 Highway, Thonotosassa, 2013118232.

Inland American St Florida Portfolio II LLC sold to ARC SBPCYFL001 LLC, $2,732,691.81, financial, 13502 N. Florida Ave., Tampa, 2013123154.

Ferman Premier Finance LLC sold to Tampa Family Health Centers Inc., $2,525,000, auto dealership, 302 W. Fletcher Ave., Tampa, 2013122790.

SouthFork East Properties LLC sold to Jen Florida IX LLC, $1,925,000, vacant acreage, 82.51 acres, north of County Road 672, Riverview, 2013130611.

21

BY SEAN ROTH | REAL ESTATE EDITOR

$1,280,000, office, 315 S. Plant Ave. and vacant commercial, 211 W. Hyde Park Place, Tampa, 2013127347.

Citrus Park Investors LLC sold to CPI Ryan 1 LLC, $1,100,000, Mortgage: $12,200,000, MidFirst Bank, a portion of 1.98 acres, between Easy Street and Upper Tampa Bay Trail, 2013130809.

LEE COUNTY Lee County Real Estate Holding LLC sold to Quantum XV Developments (USA) Inc., $2,080,000, restaurant or cafeteria, 10040 University Plaza Drive, Fort Myers, 2013000075264.

ABC Liquors Inc. sold to Platinum Holdings 2012 LLC, $1,950,000, Mortgage: $1,248,600, Bank of America NA, store, 21720 S. Tamiami Trail, Estero, 2013000078497.

Roberts Hotels Fort Myers LLC sold to FM Investco LLC, $1,600,000, hotel or motel, 9200 College Parkway, Fort Myers, 2013000076711.

M&I Regional Properties LLC sold to Olive Laguna Drive LLC, $1,590,661, vacant residential, 6.78 acres, 14640, 14660, 14670, 14680, 14690, 14700, 14710, 14720, 14730, 13740, 14750, 14751, 14760, 14761, 14761, 14771, 14781 and 14801 Laguna Drive, Fort Myers, Redus Florida Commercial LLC sold to Gulf Coast 26501 LLC, $1,362,500, store, 26501 S. Tamiami Trail, Bonita Springs, 2013000070186.

Gateway Commerce Partners LLC sold to Arborwood CDD Holdings Inc., $1,300,183.46, grazing land, 236.6 acres, 12005 Commerce Lakes Drive, Fort Myers, 2013000078155.

Bob Evans Farms LLC sold to Eisele Investments LLC, $1,150,000, Mortgage: $977,500 and $172,500, Bank of America NA, restaurants or cafeterias, 9500 Marketplace Road, Fort Myers, 2013000069471.

Seth R. Heller of Heller & Co. Inc. sold to Sophia’s Italian Village Development LLC, $1,200,000, Mortgage: $960,000, Venture 11 LLC, community shopping center, 3545 Pine Ridge Road, 4820368.

Amy Childress, individually and as trustee of the Childress Family Trust sold to PM Franchise Holdings LLC, $2,229,690, Mortgage: $1,560,000, First National Bank of the Gulf Coast, fast food, 2101 W. Baker St., Plant City, 2013120991.

GB 31 Ltd. sold to Lennar Homes LLC, $1,085,000, lots 26-32, Runaway Bay Replat, 4819571.

John and Karen Doherty sold to Covelli Florida Properties Inc., $1,475,000, restaurant, 6001 W. Waters Ave., Tampa, 2013127341.

HILLSBOROUGH COUNTY

Swann Avenue Development LLC sold to Nicholas Peters, $1,345,000, lots 15 and 16, block 54, Beach Park, unit 7, 2013124142.

MANATEE COUNTY

Fund VIII QO Tampa LLC sold to Inwood Park

Mary Ann Stiles sold to Platinum Bank,

Property Reserve Inc. sold to Suburban Land

Camelot Trace Limited Co. sold to NolanZastrow Inc. (30% interest) and Richard Nolan (70%), $1,210,000, multifamily, 4920 Chiquita Blvd. S., Cape Coral, 2013000076806.

301 Park LLC sold to Englewood Bank & Trust, $1,034,000, office, 301 Park Ave., Boca Grande, 2013000078871.

Reserve Inc., $3,381,891.21, single-family, mobile home and agricultural land, 5220 and 5240 Moccasin Wallow Road and 10250 Gillet Road, a portion of Buckeye Road and Moccasin Wallow Road, Palmetto, 02464-5008.

PASCO COUNTY Inland American St. Florida Portfolio II LLC sold to ARC SBHDNFL001 LLC, $1,959,800, financial institutions, 14207 Fivay Road, Hudson, 8849-3465.

PINELLAS COUNTY None

SARASOTA COUNTY OB Florida CRE Holdings LLC sold to Rosalyne Holdings LLC, $4,500,000, 35, 805, 849, 881, 913, 1335 and 1340 Florida Ave., 626, 712, 716, 800 and 900 Cocoanut Ave., 1340 Rosemary Lane, 1317 and 1341 Boulevard of the Arts and an additional portion of Florida and Cocoanut avenues and Rosemary and May lanes, Sarasota, 2013045177.

NAP Bee Ridge LLC sold to Rebecca Jane Rauenhorst, as successor trustee to the Linus W. Hewit Revocable Trust, $3,015,000, commercial neighborhood, 8300 Bee Ridge Road, Sarasota, 2013045120.

Branch Banking and Trust Co. sold to Sarasota County Public Hospital District, $3,000,000, various lots, Hillview Park Medical Complex condominium, 2013043947.

Tarpon Center LLC sold to Gulf View Marina Holdings LLC, $1,310,000, Mortgage: $525,000, BankUnited NA, general commercial, 996 Laguna Drive, Venice, 2013043372.

SOF-VIII-FT Park of Commerce North Port LLC sold to Golden Key Properties LLC, $1,150,000, planned commercial development, 1060 N. Toledo Blade Blvd., 1001 Gateway Ave., 3205, 3255, 2750, 2715, 2735 and 2785 Commerce Parkway and 1000 and 1060 Executive Ave., North Port, also known as buildings 1, 2, 14, 15, 16, 17, 18 and 19, Toledo Blade Professional Center, 2013043999.

Bee Ridge Manor Associates LLC sold to Sun Coast Group Holdings LLC, $860,000, office, professional or institutional, 2937 Bee Ridge Road, Sarasota, 2013043596.

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22 commercial real estate | CHARLOTTE-LEE-COLLIER |

BUSINESS OBSERVER | APRIL 26 â&#x20AC;&#x201C; MAY 2, 2013

BusinessObserverFL.com

BY SEAN ROTH | REAL ESTATE EDITOR

Port Charlotte

Rotonda West

Punta Gorda

Fort Myers Shores

Fort Myers

2

Lehigh Acres

Cape Coral

1

Sanibel

San Carlos Park Immokalee

Baker Custom Cabinets, trust buy Naples warehouse building

Naples Park

3

SELLER: Petro Realty Annex PROPERTY: 168 Commercial Blvd., Naples PRICE: $1.5 million PREVIOUS PRICE: $2.2 million, November 1999 LAW FIRM ON DEED: Thomas E. Moorey Esq., Fort Myers PLANS, DESCRIPTION:

A company affiliated with Myles Strohl Living Trust purchased a 40,000-square-foot flex building in Airport Industrial Park for $1.5 million.

The price equated to $38 per square foot. That figure is below the two-year average price per square foot for industrial space ($50) in Southwest Florida, according to the CoStar Group.

The former Naples Shutter building featured 37,500 square feet of warehouse space and another 2,500 square feet of office/showroom space. The two-story building was built in 1990 and occupies a 2.27-acre parcel.

Bill Young of CRE Consultants handled the transaction.

Baker Custom Cabinets & Millwork Inc., which occupies the building, is also part of the new ownership, Young says. Baker Custom Cabinets & Millwork sold the property to P. Richard, Jon and William Ware and Ralph McNaughton dba Petro Realty Annex in late 1999 for $2.2 million. Calls to the company for comment were not returned prior to deadline. â&#x20AC;&#x153;This is one of the largest manufacturing spaces in Naples,â&#x20AC;? Young says. â&#x20AC;&#x153;This will allow them to control [many] of their own fees.â&#x20AC;?

COSTAR

Miamiâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s David McDonald Trust buys Fort Myers Pep Boys building BUYER: David McDonald, as trustee of The David McDonald Trust Agreement, Miami SELLER: Cole PB Portfolio II LP PROPERTY: 4797 S. Cleveland Ave., Fort Myers PRICE: $3.43 million PREVIOUS PRICE: $3.05 million, March 2008 LAW FIRM ON DEED: Kutak Rock LLP, Scottsdale, Ariz.

PLANS, DESCRIPTION:

The David McDonald Trust purchased a 22,225-square-foot Pep Boys store for $3.43 million.

The price equated to $150 per square foot. That figure is higher than the

Bonita Springs

BUYER: Mywat LLC (Myles Strohl Living Trust), Naples

2

1

Golden Gate

Marco Island

Ochopee

two-year average price per square foot for retail space ($140) in Southwest Florida, according to the CoStar Group.

Constructed in 1994, the building occupies a 2.69-acre site. Pep Boys has a long-term triple net lease on the property, which obligates the autoparts company to pay for the buildingâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s insurance, real estate taxes and maintenance.

The Miami-based trust acquired the property from the Cole Credit Property Trust II, which has owned it since early 2008.

Marketing materials for the property say the $3.43 million purchase price equated to a payoff ratio based on income (capitalization rate) of 7.5%.

The trust mortgaged the property to 1st National Bank of South Florida for $2.08 million.

ETCâ&#x20AC;Ś â&#x20AC;˘ Novrooz Properties LLC purchased 3,200 square feet of retail space at 2730 Tamiami Trail, Port Charlotte from Tamarock Inc. for $164,000. Ronald Struthers of Coldwell Banker Commercial NRT handled the transaction. â&#x20AC;˘ United Family Banking Corp. purchased 2,500 square feet of office space at 3151 Cooper St., Units 55 and 56, Punta Gorda from Clear Channel Broadcasting Inc. for $81,000. Ronald Struthers PA of Coldwell Banker Commercial NRT represented the seller and Gerard Lafosse-Marin of Lafosse Realty represented the buyer. â&#x20AC;˘ RC Airport Radio Road LLC purchased a former gas station property at 151 Airport Road S., Naples from Florida Community Bank NA for $340,000.

David Stevens of Investment Properties

3

Dental Expressions buys building, plans move, expansion BUYER: Expressions Realty LLC (principals: Dr. Ramon Padilla and Solymar Santiago-Norat), Naples SELLER: Shanard Enterprises LLC PROPERTY: 5052 Tamiami Trail N., Naples PRICE: $2.1 million LAW FIRM ON DEED: Law Office of Stuart A. Thompson PA, Naples PLANS, DESCRIPTION:

Dental Expressions, the Naples dental practice of Dr. Ramon Padilla, purchased a 7,216-square-foot office building for $2.1 million.

The price equated to $233 per square foot. That figure is higher than the two-year average price per square foot for office space ($120) in Southwest Florida, according to the

COSTAR

CoStar Group.

The practice has announced plans to expand into the space sometime in the fourth quarter. â&#x20AC;&#x153;[W]e will be basically doubling our square footage, increasing the number of â&#x20AC;Ś treatment areas,â&#x20AC;? Michelle Tucker, office manager for the dental practice, wrote in an email to the Business Observer. â&#x20AC;&#x153;The current tenants will be out this summer, and then we will begin the â&#x20AC;&#x2DC;conversionâ&#x20AC;&#x2122; process.â&#x20AC;?

Dental Expressions currently leases space at 5050 Tamiami Trail N., Suite A, Naples.

The purchase entity Expressions Realty LLC mortgaged the property to First American Bank for $1.68 million.

Corp. handled the transaction. â&#x20AC;˘ Mikeâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s Auto Glass leased 5,000 square feet of industrial space in Briarwood Industrial Park at 15790 Chief Court, Fort Myers from Hartley Briarwood Property LLC. Fred Kolb, of Colliers International Southwest Florida represented the tenant. â&#x20AC;˘ Hiss Dental Management LLC purchased a 2,025-square-foot medical office at 12601 World Plaza Lane, Fort Myers for $180,000. Steve Cunningham and Adam Palmer of LandQwest Commercial handled the transaction. â&#x20AC;˘ Expressions in Design Inc. leased 7,500 square feet of industrial space at 4227 Enterprise Ave., Naples from 4227 Enterprises Ave. Ltd. Biagio Bernardo of CRE Consultants handled the transaction. â&#x20AC;˘ Paragon Naples LLC leased 22,050 square feet of retail space in the Pavilion Shops at 871 Vanderbilt Beach Road, Unit 18, Naples from Equity One. The property will be used for a Paragon Theater. Gary Tasman and Doug Olson of Cushman and Wakefield, Commercial Property Southwest Florida LLC handled the lease. â&#x20AC;˘ Rx Care II LLC leased 3,000 square feet of retail space at 13020-13028 Livingston Road, Naples from Livingston and Pine Ridge LLC. Patrick Fraley of Investment Properties Corp. handled the transaction. â&#x20AC;˘ Fall Safe Solutions LLC leased 6,875 square feet of industrial space at 5591 Zip Drive, Fort Myers. Jim Boback of Boback Commercial Group handled the transaction. â&#x20AC;˘ Carrier Enterprises LLC leased an 8,800-square-foot industrial building at 129 Commercial Blvd., Naples from B&D Associates. Tim Schneider of CRE Consultants represented the tenant â&#x20AC;˘ Naples Redevelopment Co. leased 2,153 square feet of office space at 400 Fifth Ave. S., Suites 203-205, Naples from Goglio Inc. Fred Kermani of CRE Consultants handled the transaction. â&#x20AC;˘ Tri-City Electrical Contractors Inc. leased 2,220 square feet of office warehouse space at 216 Waldo Ave. N., Unit 1, Lehigh Acres from Lehigh Industrial Property LLC. Jim Boback of Boback Commercial Group handled the transaction. â&#x20AC;˘ Key Largo Boats of SWFL LLC leased 2,460 square feet of retail space at 4419 Del Prado Blvd. S., Suites 1 and 2, Cape Coral from Forty Four Nineteen LLC. Tiffany Cleland of Boback Commercial Group handled the transaction. â&#x20AC;˘ Cecelia M. Hill LLC leased a 8,000-square-foot office at 24451 Sandhill Blvd., Units A, B and C, Punta Gorda from Cow Palace Inc. Ronald Struthers of Coldwell Banker Commercial NRT handled the transaction. â&#x20AC;˘ Henkel Real Estate LLC purchased a 5,280-square-foot warehouse at 2409 Market St., Fort Myers from CNL Bank for $115,000. Jennifer Horne of Re/Max Realty Group Commercial Division and Michael J. Frye of the Frye Commercial Group at Re/Max Realty Group of Fort Myers represented the seller. Stu Silver of Silver & Silver & Silvers Inc. represented the buyer. â&#x20AC;˘ Marlene Flores Diaz purchased a bank-owned 2,100-square-foot office/ warehouse condominium at 300 Leonard Blvd. N., Unit 7, Lehigh Acres, from Land Holdings LLC for $73,000. Theresa Blauch-Mitchell of Boback Commercial Group handled the transaction. â&#x20AC;˘ Doctorâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s Choice Home Care Inc. leased 5,063 square feet of office space at 6224 Whiskey Creek Drive, Fort Myers from Hole Montes Inc. Greg Stuart of Re/Max Realty Group Commercial Division and Michael Frye of the Frye Commercial Group at Re/Max Realty Group of Fort Myers represented the tenant. Richard Clark of Lee & Associates represented the landlord.

APRIL 26 – MAY 2, 2013 | BUSINESS OBSERVER

BusinessObserverFL.com

out of the office | POWER LUNCH |

Lucky, and Good

23

BY MARK GORDON | DEPUTY MANAGING EDITOR

The Lucky Pelican has become a go-to spot for employees and business executives in east Manatee County.

RESTAURANT: Lucky Pelican Bistro ADDRESS: 6239 Lake Osprey Drive., Sarasota, 34240 PHONE: 941-907-0589 WEBSITE: www.luckypelicanbistro.com RECOMMENDED BY: Alisa Bennett, co-owner of People at Play, a Bradentonbased heavy construction equipment playground for adults.

RESERVATIONS: Not required.

PARKING: Ample, though spots fill up fast during the peak of the lunch hour.

ONE-HOUR LUNCH TEST: Passed.

Service is fast and attentive. Waiters come back frequently to check on drinks and food. Staff is friendly and interacts, and jokes, frequently with guests.

ABOUT

SEE AND BE SEEN: Guests at lunchtime run the gamut, from retirees in golf attire to employees and executives from the companies that fill the nearby corporate park, including Neal Communities and FCCI Insurance Group.

PRIVACY: Some booths in the back corners are the best for quiet deal making and conversations. Tables in the middle tend to get loud, quickly.

AMBIANCE: The friendly atmosphere leans toward a beachfront seafood restaurant, with blackboard specials.

FOOD: The starters and sides portion of the menu is seafood-themed, with bacon-wrapped scallop poppers for $8.95;

LORI SAX

JIM POITRAST opened Lucky Pelican Bistro in Lakewood Ranch in 2007. a shellfish bar with oysters, shrimp and clams; and smoked fish spread for $5.95.

One of the more popular salad items is the Lucky Pelican: mixed greens, goat cheese, cucumbers, roma tomatoes, red onion, croutons, artichokes, carrots and herb vinaigrette for $6.25.

The sandwich and burger side of the menu is eccentric. It includes: Senor Oscar fish tacos with Baja sauce, pumpkin seeds, lime, cilantro and cabbage for

$8.95; Leo’s Gulf Oyster Po Boy for $10.95; Molly’s Crunchy Chicken Picatta with olive/caper mayo for $7.95; and Teddie’s California Club with turkey, bacon, lettuce, tomato, avocado, provolone and aioli on grain for $8.75.

Finally, there’s the Lucky Pelican staple: Salty’s Ale battered fish and chips, for $11.95.

Power Lunch columns are occasional reviews of restaurants recommended by executives in cities on the Gulf Coast, from Tampa to Naples. To read reviews of other restaurants, visit BusinessObserverFL.com.

restaurant in Cape Cod before he and his family relocated to Florida, opened Lucky Pelican in September 2007 with his wife, Beth Poitrast. It has since become one of the more popular eateries in east Manatee County, both for lunch and dinner. “It’s been phenomenal,” says Poitrast. “We are extremely busy.

We are very pleased with how it’s going.”

OWNERSHIP: Jim Poitrast, who ran a

Review date: April 2013

40% OF OUR READERS

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

{Get Results PASCO HILLSBOROUGH PINELLAS MANATEE SARASOTA CHARLOTTE LEE

MAY 17 Special Issue:

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Recognizing the top entrepreneurs on the Gulf Coast

Advertising Reservation Deadline: May 9 Our lineup of 2013 special issues offers an entire year of opportunities to advertise and reach Florida’s Gulf Coast business leaders. To receive more information or our editorial calendar, contact Diane Schaefer at 941.362.4848.

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COLLIER

BUSINESS OBSERVER | APRIL 26 – MAY 2, 2013

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24