GULF COAST
NOVEMBER 25 – DECEMBER 1, 2011
Business Review First up:
LOOK ALIVE
THREE DollarS
LEADERSHIP:
STORY ON PAGE 9
Fresh Divots
STAYING A STEP AHEAD
A company that SEE PAGE 12 makes synthetic bodies explores How to create a culture of constant a new market. Page 7
Carl Wakely bagged his pro career, but created a new golf tour to help others.
improvement.
Companies • Trends • Entrepreneurs • CEOs
The Weekly Newspaper for Gulf Coast Business Leaders
Ed Kobel’s dealmaking talents led him to the top of one of Tampa’s fastest-growing real estate firms— and to a family he never knew he had.
Family Matters PAGE 10
GULF COAST BUSINESS BUZZ
+ From rocket docket to rocket market
The Fort Myers area was one of the hardest-hit in the nation for real estate and gave birth to the foreclosure “rocket docket,” the court machine established to quickly clear the massive backlog
winter. The national Realtor group also posted a list of the top 10 turnaround markets and six Florida metro areas are among them: Miami, Orlando, Cape Coral-Fort Myers, Fort Lauderdale, Sarasota-Bradenton and Lakeland-Winter Haven.
+ Holiday season could be cheery
Scrooge might take a vacation this year. That’s the message embedded in the 2011 American Express OPEN Small Business Holiday
Monitor. The survey reports small business owners’ average budget for client/customer gifts is up 82% since 2009, from $455 to $827 in 2011. The average gift budget was $740 last year. The survey also says 43% of small business owners will give their clients gifts this year. Not only are customers in line for pricier gifts, they could see more savings in products and services. On that front, the survey reports 24% of small business owners who responded to the poll plan discounts this holiday season. More than 60% of the respondents who say they will slash
prices plan deeper discounts than 2010, the survey shows. American Express, finally, projects some employees might feel the festive vibes, too: The survey reports 35% of the respondents will throw a holiday party in 2011, with an average budget of $1,029.
+ Tampa chamber revamps STYLE
The South Tampa Young Leaders & Executives, the networking organization for the
See coffee talk on page 3
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COFFEE TALK
of foreclosure cases. So it’s a pleasant surprise to hear from the National Association of Realtors that the Cape Coral-Fort Myers area is one of the top five turnaround markets in the country, along with Boston, Dallas, Los Angeles and Buffalo, N.Y. The association noted that prices for existing homes in the Fort Myers area remain 60% below their highs in 2006 and there’s plenty of inventory to choose from. Yet the news sent local Realtors atwitter and they blogged about it in anticipation of a stronger selling season this
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GULF COAST BUSINESS REVIEW NOVEMBER 25 – DECEMBER 1, 2011
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“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
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Gulf coast Business Review NOVEMBER 25 – DECEMBER 1, 2011
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COFFEE TALK
CONTINUED FROM PAGE 1
South Tampa Chamber of Commerce, plans to drop from nearly 400 members to only 12, according to current chair Ignacio Torano. Torano, a serial entrepreneur who is director of sales for College Hunks Hauling Junk, explains the drop is part of a renewed vision for STYLE. “We wanted to make sure every member wants to be involved and actively participates,” he says. The application process has been changed to ensure every member comes in with a role in the organization. For example, the owner of a graphic design firm was tapped to redesign STYLE’s logo. Dr. Jaime Kulaga, co-chair of STYLE and co-owner of Tampa-based College Foxes Cleaning, explains that this helps the organization and allows the members to showcase their products. “I would rather have 12 members who are engaged in the organization than 400 who come and go,” Kulaga says. Kulaga says the organization doesn’t want to be like similar clubs in Tampa. For instance, an upcoming networking event includes young business leaders performing improvisation at Stageworks Theatre in Tampa. She says STYLE is planning another event for 2012 that would be promthemed. “It would be a throwback,” she says. Despite this mission to stand out from other organizations, STYLE will partner with them as well. According to Kulaga, this is another aspect of the vision she and Torano implemented. It plans to hold an event with Business Buddies and Emerge Tampa at which John C. Maxwell, a best-selling author on leadership, will speak. By partnering with other clubs, members are exposed to even more networking opportunities. STYLE plans to expand its membership to 100 during the next year, and in the process bring a more cooperative feel to the networking industry in Tampa Bay. Says Kulaga: “We want to help our members and other professional organizations to make Tampa better.”
+ Union backers shift Cape Coral politics
The job of Cape Coral business boosters to recruit new business to the struggling city in Lee County just got harder. Union-backed candidates Leonard Nesta Jr. and John Carioscia Sr. won election to the Cape Coral city council Nov. 8, defeating pro-business incumbents Pete Brandt and William Deile.
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+ A Kiss to a successful business
The good times keep on rolling for Sarasota-Bradenton guitar store entrepreneur Scott Cook. The latest hit: He opened a second store full of guitars, and he’s breaking it in Dec. 3 with these guys, Tampa area KISS tribute band Sonic Boom. The band, pictured here, is Bobby Martin as Peter Criss; Ryan Bales as Paul Stanley; Brian Schroeder as Gene Simmons; and Nick Soko as Ace Frehley. The band is part of a planned grand opening celebration noon to 5 p.m. Dec. 3 at the store, which is located at 2111 Cortez Road W., Bradenton. The store, the Sarasota Guitar Company, is the second one Cook has opened in the last two years. It’s an impressive feat considering independent guitar and music instrument stores have mostly gone the way of the cassette tape. Says Cook: “We’re a musician-friendly company with musicianfriendly prices.” The union wins come just as Cape Coral was beginning to get its fiscal house in order under the guidance of City Manager Gary King. Now, King’s job will likely be more difficult as he lost some backing on the city council to bargain hard with city employees and local unions. Cape Coral was one of the hardest-hit cities in Florida in the real estate bust because of rampant housing speculation. Meanwhile, the city had embarked on a massive effort to install new sewers just as the economy was collapsing. Now, with the shift in power, it’s not clear how the city will navigate the fiscal
See coffee talk on page 5
ECONOMIC SNAPSHOT
GULF COAST BUILDING INVESTMENT AUGUST BUILDING INVESTMENT (Sales $ in millions) Annual Area Building Investment Change Sarasota-Bradenton $45.8 12.3% Punta Gorda $12.1 11% Cape Coral-Fort Myers $47.7 7.6% Naples $26.4 6.1% Tampa-St. Petersburg $164.9 5.1%
What it means: Construction continued to post some growth along the Gulf Coast in AuSource: Florida Legislature Office of Economic & Demographic Research gust, besting or matching the statewide annual percentage business. Barring unforeseen economic gain of 5.1%. Some of these increases were due to sizeable commer- and political events, construction’s modest growth should continue through cial projects, such as the Boston Red the winter months. An improved tourist Sox spring-training stadium in Fort season this winter Myers. But homebuilders have started will boost more homes this summer than they did demand. a year ago. Forecast: Tight credit conditions and economic uncertainty continue to constrain the building industries, though residential construction appears to be rebounding better than commercial
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GULF COAST BUSINESS REVIEW NOVEMBER 25 – DECEMBER 1, 2011
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GULF COAST WEEK
College expands offerings
REGIONAL BUSINESS NEWS AT A GLANCE
SARASOTA-MANATEE Local sales strong
The Sarasota residential real estate market reported a solid increase in sales last month, rising nearly 20% year over year. There were 577 property sales in October, according to the Sarasota Association of Realtors. That’s an 18.4% jump over the 487 closings in October 2010. Meanwhile, there have been 4,292 sales in Sarasota in the first 10 months of 2011, a rise of 4.5% over 2010, according to a report from local Realtor Michael Moulton. Moulton’s report also states the market has seen gains at
EXECUTIVE
DECISION What are your predictions for sales this holiday season?
all price points, even properties priced at more than $1 million.
City discusses funding
The city of Sarasota and the Baltimore Orioles are debating how to use $1 million earmarked toward renovations at Ed Smith Stadium, where the team holds spring training. Sarasota City Manager Bob Bartolotta says the discussions are aimed at preventing the disagreement from ending up in court. The city contends the $1 million is to treat contaminated water that’s more than two feet underground the stadium, according to the Sarasota Observer, sister paper of the Business Review. But the Orioles say most of the $1 million set aside for field mitigation should be used to tear up an AstroTurf practice field that doesn’t drain properly. The money should also go toward a new drainage system, the team says.
To vote in this week’s poll question, visit: review.net/decision.
Lee-Collier
Results from last week’s poll:
The Naples Municipal Airport reopened its second runway after expanding it. The $3.6 million project will improve the city’s chances of resuming commercial air service with regional passenger jets. The airport increased the runway’s takeoff distance by 800 feet, enabling regional passenger jets to safely take off with a full load of passengers. Delta commuter jets used to
What do you think the best performing industry will be coming out of the recession? 21% Technology
14% Real estate
50%
Health care
14% Other
Naples runway completed
connect Naples with Atlanta, but the airline pulled out in 2007. In addition, the extra runway will allow private jets to gain more altitude over the airport, increasing safety and reducing noise over the city.
Home prices rise
The median price of an existing home in the Fort Myers area rose nearly 11% to $95,000 in October compared with the same month a year ago, according to the Realtor Association of Greater Fort Myers and the Beach. The association attributed the rise in the median price to an increase in conventional sales, which represented 46.5% of existing-home sales in October. Of the total sales in October, foreclosed homes represented 33.7% of sales and short sales accounted for 19.8%. Meanwhile, the number of sales of existing homes in the Fort Myers area dropped 4.7% to 960 in October compared with October 2010. There are 4,409 homes listed for sale in the area.
JA’s new CEO
Junior Achievement of Southwest Florida, the nonprofit organization that teaches free enterprise to 10,000 students in Charlotte, Lee and Collier counties, has appointed Anne Frazier as president and CEO. Frazier previously served as executive director of Drug Free Collier. She replaces Victoria Stephan, who is retiring Dec. 2 after 12 years with the organization.
THE POWER OF GLOBAL. THE KNOWLEDGE OF LOCAL.
State College of Florida in Bradenton has been approved to offer two additional four-year bachelor’s degrees, one in International Business and Trade, and one in Technology Management. The State Board of Education approved the additional programs. The state also recently approved an SCF request to add new concentrations to its fouryear degree in Health Services Administration. Those new
Junior Achievement volunteers teach children financial literacy, entrepreneurship and work readiness.
tampa bay RNC security funds approved
Congress recently approved $50 million in funding for security at the Republican National Convention, which will be held in Tampa Aug. 27. Tampa Mayor Bob Buckhorn has said $25 million of the funding will go toward hiring 4,000 law enforcement personnel. The House approved the “minibus” funding bill with a vote of 298-121 and it passed in the Senate with a vote of 70-30. It was the first spending bill passed for fiscal year 2012.
nFinanSe files suit
Tampa-headquartered pre paid debit card company nFinanSe Inc. is suing Atlanta-based InComm Inc. for price fixing and violation of a distribution agreement. In its court filing, nFinanSe accused InComm of refusing to dis-
concentrations include programs in gerontology and nutrition. The business and technology programs will be available in fall 2012. With those majors, the school, formerly Manatee Community College, now offers 10 four-year degree p r o grams.
tribute one of its products over fear of price competition. The complaint also alleges InComm refused to comply with nFinanSe’s contractual obligations unless it joined its “Vanilla Reload Network.” Doing so would set a price of $3.95 for customers to add funds to their card. The sealed filing was submitted Oct. 31 to an Atlanta court. If the allegations are true, InComm is in violation of U.S. anti-trust laws for illegal restraint of trade.
Norman charges dropped
Charges against State Sen. Jim Norman, R-Tampa, were recently dropped, says a release from the U.S District Court of the Middle District of Florida. The charges against Norman, a former Hillsborough County commissioner, came as the result of a $500,000 home purchase his wife made with the financial backing of Ralph Hughes, a deceased Tampa powerbroker. U.S. Attorney Robert O’Neill praised the work of investigators, but cited a lack of substantial evidence as the reason the investigation was abandoned.
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Gulf coast Business Review NOVEMBER 25 – DECEMBER 1, 2011
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COFFEE TALK
CONTINUED FROM PAGE 3
+ Bank seeks more growth opportunities
+ No junk rating for Collier County
The fuss over Moody’s recent downgrade of Collier County’s gas-tax revenue bonds should be taken in stride. The credit-rating firm didn’t exactly cast the county into “junk” status. Moody’s only notched down the gas-tax revenue bonds totaling nearly $146 million of debt within the “A” investment grade, from A1 to A2, citing declines in gas taxes raised. In fact, Collier County remains a highly rated bond issuer due to its strong and wealthy economic base, Moody’s says in its most recent analysis. But Collier County politicians shouldn’t dismiss the downgrade outright. It’s an opportunity to reexamine the county’s debt load, cut the county’s expenses and make sure taxpayers pay low interest on the local debt.
+ Task force heads down a long road
A statewide group of political and business leaders assigned to find ways for Florida to save billons of dollars, headed by a Sarasota entrepreneur, is looking hard at highways. But that look, even with the prospective savings, might also bring about a not-sosurprising problem when government tries to cut spending: turf wars. The group, the Florida Government Efficiency Task Force, says the state could save $22 million a year if it consolidated toll collections, according to a report from the News Service of Florida. One chunk Uccello of savings could come from making the Mid-Bay Bridge Authority, in the Florida Panhandle, part of the Florida Turnpike Enterprise. That move would save up to $500,000 a year, says the task force, and maybe $10 million a year on bonds because the FTE’s credit rating is better, the News Service reports. Savings like that, when services shouldn’t suffer, is one of the task force’s objectives. But while it approved a recommendation to fold the Mid-Bay Bridge Authority into
billion in assets, has made several other attempts to grow recently, in Florida and other Southeast locations. The bank was the second-place bidder for The People’s Bank in Winder, Ga., outside Atlanta, in September, for one. It also didn’t win a September bid for The First National Bank of Florida, a $296.8 million-asset institution based in Santa Rosa County, in the Florida Panhandle. Run by George Gleason, a onetime Little Rock attorney who practiced law with Hillary Rodham Clinton, Bank of the Ozarks first entered the Gulf Coast in September 2010. That’s when it assumed $164.6 million in deposits at Bradenton-based Horizon Bank, which Florida banking regulators shuttered after a long survival struggle. American Banker named Gleason Community Banker of the Year in 2010. the FTE at a Nov. 16 meeting, it didn’t call for that kind of change statewide. The task force will, however, request the state independently study potential savings if the Tampa-Hillsborough County Expressway Authority were consolidated into the FTE, according to the News Service. Enter the looming turf war: The News Service reports Bob Rohrlack, president and CEO of the Greater Tampa Chamber of Commerce, says giving the state greater control over tolling systems could be less efficient, not more. Says Rohrlack: “We’re about to endorse something to create bigger government.” But task force Chairman Abe Uccello, a Sarasota-area Realtor and businessman, says folding the toll collection systems together makes sense. “This is not just an example of duplication,” Uccello says in the News Service report, “but of a business model that seems wrong.”
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+ Corrections
• The programs covered by email tracking service Zendio were misidentified in a Nov. 18 story. The correct programs are Microsoft Outlook 2003, 2007 and 2010. The service tracks emails and links. • Tech Data distributes IT equipment for medical offices, not medical devices or dishwasher components as reported in a Nov. 18 article. In addition, Tech Data President and CEO Robert Dutkowsky worked for IBM while in Japan. Advertisement
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Little Rock, Ark.-based Bank of the Ozarks, which entered the Gulf Coast market in late 2010, nearly expanded its local presence last month — part of a larger aggressive growth plan. The bank was one of at least four institutions that placed a bid with the Federal Deposit Insurance Corp. for Clearwater-based Old Harbor Bank, according to research firm SNL. The winning bid went to Boca Raton-based 1st United Bank, which agreed to share $155.6 million in Old Harbor loses with the FDIC. The Florida Department of Financial Regulation closed Old Harbor Oct. 21, citing undercapitalization issues. Old Harbor was almost bought three months earlier, by Lakewood Ranch-based Community Bank, but a deal fell through. Centennial Bank, a unit of Conway, Ark.-based Home BancShares Inc., joined Bank of the Ozarks and 1st United on the Old Harbor bid list, FDIC documents show. The FDIC doesn’t disclose specific bids each bank makes, though the names of the lenders and the bids that didn’t win are listed in random order. Bank of the Ozarks, with more than $4
Member FDIC
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FIRST UP
Queen of Style
Marina Zelner, Queen Grace: ‘Someone has to start a revolution.’
Marina Zelner says department stores and many boutiques ignore the full-figured women’s fashion market. She is seizing the opportunity.
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hy do women’s retailers ignore so many prospective customers? When they do, smart entrepreneurs such as Marina Zelner step in. Earlier this year, she launched a Naples-based company called Queen Grace that creates fashion designs for full-figured women. Zelner says most women wear larger sizes than those stocked at department stores, and most fashion boutiques don’t carry plus sizes, except for a few specialty stores. “They’re missing out on a huge segment of the population,” says Zelner, 39. The fashion media industry in the U.S. is partly responsible for this state of affairs, promoting thin models in glossy magazines. For example, “Vogue Italy” published photos of her plus-size fashions but the U.S. edition of the magazine hasn’t yet. Meanwhile, mannequins on display in many department stores and women’s clothing boutiques are much thinner than average women. Racks of plus sizes are usually relegated to the back of these stores and customerservice representatives aren’t trained to help plus-size customers. Zelner immigrated to New York City from St. Petersburg, Russia, when she was 16 years old, eventually earning an M.B.A. and master’s degree in human resource management and industrial organizational psychology. After stints at AT&T and Johnson & Johnson, she and her husband moved with their children to Naples to run a commercial real estate business in September 2001.
Marina Zelner started Queen Grace, a Naples-based fashion design company that targets full-figured women. Following her divorce three years ago, Zelner decided to start a fashion design company for plus-size women because of her own challenges of finding fashionable clothes. “It was a secret passion,” she says. “I’ve always collected vintage fashion.” Zelner researched the market for more than a year before launching her company. “If I didn’t take this risk, I would have regrets,” she says, with a faint lingering Russian accent. Zelner says she’s invested $400,000 in the business and doesn’t expect profits for another two years. “I started with my savings,” she says. She hopes to net $1 million by the third year in business. It’s not easy to break into the business, in part because the plus-size market continues to be a taboo subject in fashion circles. “Someone has to start a revolution,” she smiles. But the fact is that the majority of women are size 14 or larger and many stores don’t cater to them. Well-tailored clothes for larger women are hard to find because most designers don’t make fashionable clothes for that demographic. “You can’t just add more fabric,” she says. Zelner says she and her staff of half a dozen employees design the clothes specifically for full-figured women and
Courtesy
oversee the work by a clothing manufacturer in Los Angeles. She supplies specialty boutiques and sells direct to consumers online. “Department stores need to see we’re here to stay and have the capital to be here,” she says. To market her clothes, Zelner participates in fashion shows and courts bloggers who write unbiased reviews and steer customers to her website and social media pages. Queen Grace fashions do especially well with LatinAmerican and African-American customers. “They’re more open and accepting of their sizes,” Zelner says. In addition, plus-size fashions are gaining more acceptance than in the past. One sign of that is plus-size models now command greater salaries than before. “There’s a lot of movement in this industry,” she says. Queen Grace is not a real person, but is a name that’s designed to evoke Old World sophistication, elegance and beauty regardless of size, Zelner notes. Zelner’s long-range plan includes opening stores, though financing the growth of these would be challenging. She won’t actively seek investors or other ways to raise capital until the company can prove its value. “If it’s going to take another 20 to 30 years, the least I can do is offer people options,” she says. —Jean Gruss
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Gulf coast Business Review NOVEMBER 25 – DECEMBER 1, 2011
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Mad Science
Christopher Sakezles, SynDaver Labs: ‘We’ve gone from tissues to body parts to synthetic people.’
Animal Replacement Technologies created synthetic tissue for medical testing. The fauxmuscle technology has now grown into full bodies that are doubling the renamed firm’s sales. Sakezles earned a Ph.D. in polymer science from the University of Florida, he is excited to bring his product to academia. Sakezles was lured to the university life because he saw an opportunity for new business. The first step was to get geographically close to a university, so SynDaver moved to Tampa in 2009. But the firm’s artificial cadavers, which cost roughly $40,000, proved so popular they reached campuses across the U.S. Sakezles says his firm started pushing its faux-flesh creations at trade shows for this purpose in fall 2010. SynDaver still receives a majority of its business from medical firms, roughly 70%. But the remainder streams from sales to universities and the military, which is new for the company. Sakezles’ synthetic bodies are a fresh fixture for military medics, as well. The company previously supplied tissue for ballistic testing, but now the firm’s offerings help military medics train for battlefield situations. “Any experienced medic will tell you they’ve been pretty pissed off with what they had to train with,” Sakezles says. He compares the products his competitors offer to Barbie dolls, saying they aren’t composed of the life-like tissue of SynDaver’s products. “The fact that they expect someone to put an IV in this thing is absurd,” he says. And the company is doing what it takes
Mark Wemple
Christopher Sakezles is pictured operating on one of SynDaver Labs products. His firm recently stepped into academia with its synthetic cadavers. to maintain its position in the industry. “We’re filing patents on specific aspects (of the technology),” Sakezles says. Although Sakezles will not disclose sales figures, he says the company is doubling revenues every nine months. SynDaver currently employs just more than 30. “Odd as that seems, it’s just the beginning for us,” Sakezles says. The firm offers models of premature
babies and fetuses as well as obese adults, says Sakezles. And he has big plans for the evolution of his synthetic man. The mannequins SynDaver manufactures already have the ability to dilate their pupils, but Sakezles anticipates uncanny strides for his technology, such as using living cells in his creation. Says Sakezles: “We’ve gone from tissues to body parts to synthetic people.” — Alex Mahadevan
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tepping into SynDaver Labs is a jarring experience. Non-human parts floating in jars adorn shelves and employees walk about in scrubs covered in substances that could be with confused with human blood. The freaky scene proves SynDaver’s President and Chief Technology Officer Christopher Sakezles succeeds in his aim to produce life-like cadavers for a myriad of research purposes. Indeed, Sakezles isn’t a mad scientist bent on re-creating the human form for evil purposes. His firm recently broke into the university system, providing practice bodies for campuses such as Harvard, Columbia and Stanford — posh company considering he moved the firm’s headquarters in 2009 from Sarasota to Tampa to get closer to USF (See Business Review Oct. 31, 2007). The firm was once known as Animal Replacement Technologies and specialized in providing synthetic tissue and human parts for Fortune 500 companies to test medical products. In 2008, Sakezles changed his company’s name to SynDaver Labs to reflect the move from tissue to total body. In the past, Fortune 500 companies, like Johnson & Johnson, would order a piece of tissue, or at most, a faux limb on which to test its products. “The tissue is made primarily of water — like us,” Sakezles says. And as a researcher at heart,
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GULF COAST BUSINESS REVIEW NOVEMBER 25 – DECEMBER 1, 2011
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Ross McIntosh, Collier County land broker: ‘My impression is the worst is behind us.’
FIRST UP
Nancy DeNike
Ross McIntosh says a recent rash of land deals in Collier County indicates a revival of the residential real estate business in the Naples area.
Development Deals
Collier County may be at the forefront of new residential development projects as inventory dwindles and demand increases.
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n a presentation to the Collier Building Industry Association recently, land broker Ross McIntosh drew gasps when he showed a slide with this headline: Our Incredible Shrinking Universe. In 2008, the slide showed, there were 252 builders in Lee and Collier counties. This year, the count is 108. But as bad as the last five years have been for residential builders and developers, Collier appears to be poised for a recovery. McIntosh’s conclusion: “My impression is the worst is behind us,” he says. McIntosh points to several reasons for optimism: • The top 10 builders in the area have pulled twice as many single-family building permits so far this year compared with all of 2010. • Private-equity firms such as Angelo Gordon and Mount Kellett Capital Management have invested millions of dollars buying existing developments at a discount. • Cameratta Development recently sold
community development district debt for a new residential community. • Upscale homebuilder Toll Brothers is planning a new residential development. “Suddenly, there are development deals,” says McIntosh. “We haven’t seen a project started from scratch in five years.” The spread between buyers and sellers of residential land has narrowed, McIntosh says. In particular, banks are now better equipped to deal with land they’ve acquired in foreclosure with their newly formed special-assets divisions. “Now there’s a method,” says McIntosh. Naples-based Stock Development is among the pioneers of this new wave of development with two new projects in Naples on land the company acquired from banks that foreclosed. Others include large publicly traded homebuilders such as Lennar, which is acquiring the failed Treviso Bay development in east Naples after Wachovia foreclosed on the property. Most of the land deals so far have been financed by private equity, but McIntosh
pointed to the reemergence of community development district debt as a positive sign. With this kind of financing, a developer sells bonds to investors to pay for roads, sewers and other infrastructure. But the collapse of the residential real estate business also resulted in substantial investor losses, and this form of financing has been nonexistent until now. “The documents are written differently now,” says McIntosh. “The disclosures are in larger print.” McIntosh cited data from market tracking firm Metrostudy that indicates there is only a two months’ supply of finished vacant homes in the Lee and Collier areas. “We need to build some lots,” he says. “One builder has told me they’re able to raise prices.” McIntosh isn’t overly concerned about foreclosures. “It’s no longer the assault that is used to be,” he says. Banks are managing foreclosures better, making deals with borrowers where it makes sense and expediting short sales. —Jean Gruss
Gulf coast Business Review NOVEMBER 25 – DECEMBER 1, 2011
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FIRST UP
Tour Time A golfer who discovered his entrepreneurial swing, mostly by accident, now hopes to prove his business acumen. His sport will be the driving force.
T
he developmental golf leagues that dot Florida, the minor leagues of the sport, were quite the nomadic existence for Carl Wakely. A Sarasota resident, Wakely, 27, was making trips to Orlando, West Palm Beach and far-flung places in between three or four times a week. The grind paid little, unless Wakely played near-perfect golf, many times under intense pressure. That rarely happened. So in early 2010, Wakely, a native of Wales, gave up the tour life. But he didn’t give up golf. Wakely, instead, launched his own tour — an unusual step for a young golfer. A year and half later, Wakely’s creation, the Sarasota-based West Florida Golf Tour, has become a popular and viable option for golfers statewide, even nationwide. “It started off pretty happenstance,” says Wakely. “But now it has turned into something pretty big.” Open to men and women, the tour holds a series of events from one to three days on courses from Tampa to Naples. Courses include the Founders Club in Sarasota; the Ritz-Carlton Members Golf Club and Lakewood Ranch Country Club in east Manatee County; Old Corkscrew Golf Club in Estero; and River Hills Country Club in Tampa. The tour has awarded $554,397 in prize money in the first 18 months, winnings that come from membership fees, event entry fees and sponsorships. One-day events cost a golfer $170, two-day tournaments cost $340 and a three-day event is $450. An integral differentiating factor for the West Florida Golf Tour, says Wakely, is those event fees are less than most other tours. Wakely says the goal is to hold events
Mark Wemple
Christian Bartolacci and Carl Wakely run the West Florida Golf Tour, a series of events on courses from Tampa to Naples. Courses include the Founders Club, in Sarasota, where this picture was taken. so golfers can move up in the sport and possibly make the next level, such as PGA Qualifying School. The tour, he says, isn’t for golfers who seek a onetime big payday. “There has never been a tour like this on the west coast of Florida before,” says Wakely. “The (other) tours are high stakes gambling. Ours is low stakes gambling. You’re not going to get rich on ours, but you’re not going to burn through your money.” Professional golfers who have played in recent West Florida Golf Tour events include top-ranked women’s golfer Brittany Lincicome and Robert Gamez, a threetime PGA tour winner. Gamez has told Wakely the tour is the perfect place for him to keep sharp while the PGA is in its off-season. Younger competitors who have played on the tour in-
clude Andrew Giuliani, son of former New York City Mayor Rudy Giuliani, and James Leadbetter, son of wellknown golf instructor David Leadbetter. Regular tour players range in age from 15 to 62, says Wakely. The average age is 25-58, a bracket that includes Wakely, who grew up a soccer player, not a golfer. But when he was 14, Wakely says he realized he was good at golf and pursued that sport. He later played golf at Virginia Tech. Wakely still plays golf, but the business of the West Florida Golf Tour now comes first. “This isn’t what we thought it would be when we started out,” says Wakely. “But it just grew. We want this to be the hub. We want this to be the place to go.” — Mark Gordon
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GULF COAST BUSINESS REVIEW NOVEMBER 25 – DECEMBER 1, 2011
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Commercial real estate
by Sean Roth | Real Estate Editor
All in the Family It wasn’t patronage that landed Ed Kobel at the head of DeBartolo Development LLC, one the Tampa Bay area’s largest family-owned companies; it was fate, success and hard work. But his genes sure didn’t hurt.
at a glance DeBartolo Development LLC, Tampa Commercial properties owned: 45 Total square footage of all commercial owned: 9.3 million (As of Oct. 5) Mark Wemple
Ed Kobel, president and chief operating officer of Tampa-based DeBartolo Development LLC
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irty-two years ago, Ed Kobel set out with a Veterans Affairs loan and a healthy dose of ambition. Never knowing his father and raised by a single mother in a blue collar Pittsburgh neighborhood, the 21-year-old had just returned to civilian life from four years spent in the Army. With slim savings, Kobel used the government-backed loan to buy a Colorado apartment complex. From that single property, Kobel was able to amass a portfolio of more than 80 apartment buildings. And that was just the start. Over the next few decades, Kobel would create a development company responsible for more than $300 million worth of property before spearheading the growth of a company double that size. Through his time in commercial real estate, Kobel also came to learn the name of Ed DeBartolo Sr., best known as the father of the American shopping mall. What Kobel didn’t know, was that DeBartolo, who died in 1994, was also his father, and Kobel would eventually lead the family’s real estate business, DeBartolo Development LLC. Today, Kobel is chief operating officer and president of the real estate firm, one of the largest in Tampa Bay. DeBartolo Development LLC holds $1.8 billion in developments and land, and has managed to grow its assets significantly since the start of the recession.
Ed Kobel, president and chief operating officer of Tampa-based DeBartolo Development LLC: ‘With 31 years of relationships coast to coast, we’re at the top of the funnel drinking from a fire hose.’
Gaining momentum
Kobel’s real estate path begin back in the early ’80s, in Colorado Springs, Colo., where he completed his last Army assignment. It was there he built his first apartment business. Kobel would parlay the equity from one building to finance the next, which he says allowed him to purchase them with little or no cash down. “That was how I first met my wife, Becky,” Kobel says. “She managed a title company, and I kept going in and out building my business. She became my first employee.” When he sold his apartment properties, he kept the mortgage note on many of them, which, based on the high interest rates at the time, generated a large personal income. Kobel says even then he was attracted to development. He named his first company Kobel Development even though it didn’t technically develop anything. “When you think about taking ideas and raw land and coordinating with architects, builders and tenants to come up with a project that meets with the desirability of the market, it sure was attractive,” he says. After selling his apartment properties, Kobel looked for a mentor who could help him get into the development business. He found Ed Rudolph Jr., a developer who was working on the Olympic Training facility in Colorado Springs.
Gulf coast Business Review NOVEMBER 25 – DECEMBER 1, 2011
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Kobel says he felt drawn to the former Olympic speed skater because of his business acumen and character. After interviewing with several other developers, Kobel, who was 22 at the time, finally landed a meeting with Rudolph. “I told him I would work for free,” Kobel says. “Some days I would get his car washed or other things like that, but I could also sit in on any meeting I wanted to.” Kobel says Rudolph taught him the development business by example. Eventually, Rudolph suggested that Kobel purchase a shopping center Rudolph had previously owned. Kobel took the deal. He purchased the center for $3.2 million and, after stabilizing it, sold it for a profit of nearly $4 million. It was the start of Kobel’s new company, Trinity Development. Over the next several years, Trinity Development would develop or redevelop more than $300 million worth of retail real estate. The Colorado Springsbased firm amassed offices in Denver, Phoenix and Chicago, and ultimately sold off all of its real estate assets. In 1995, Kobel’s background led him to into a partnership position with a DeBartolo Property Group affiliated company, Fortis Advisors, in Scottsdale, Ariz. It was with
Added capital DeBartolo Development LLC’s current acquisition strategy requires easy access to lots of capital. Even with the ability to leverage the DeBartolo family fortune, to capture the coming opportunities in distressed real estate, the firm started looking for deeper pockets and partners. Since 2007, DeBartolo Development has provided the real estate and construction know-how to Forge Capital’s financial background through the joint firm Community Reinvestment Partners II (CRP II). The more than $85 million joint-venture fund, with money raised from Regions Bank, SunTrust and TIAA-CREF, invests almost exclusively in community redevelopment areas and primarily in grocery-anchored community shopping centers. “We wanted a developer who could be our point person,” says Robert Moreyra, cofounder and managing principal of Forge Capital. “We did another fund back in 2003 with Ram [Development Co.] that was just
the private real estate investment trust, Fortis, that Kobel first experienced institutional fundraising. “We had a chance to go to Wall Street to raise a lot of money,” Kobel says. “Fortis Advisors raised $500 million privately in the ‘90s, which was the energy behind Fortis.” Kobel didn’t know it at the time, but that experience raising institutional-level capital would be hugely helpful in his future task of growing DeBartolo Development after the recession. Fortis was a retail developer — much like the DeBartolo Property Group — but also dabbled in multifamily, office and industrial real estate. During its life, Fortis handled more than $600 million worth of real estate that it sold mainly to large real estate investment trusts. Over that same time period, the DeBartolo real estate businesses were in transition. Edward DeBartolo Jr., Edward DeBartolo Sr.’s son, took the retail development company DeBartolo Realty Corp. public in 1994 as a real estate investment trust. In 1996, it merged with Simon Property Group to create Simon DeBartolo Group Inc., the largest public real estate company in North America at the time, with a total market capitalization of $7.5 billion.
focused in Florida. We wanted to broaden our geographic reach with a second fund, so we partnered with DeBartolo, which is obviously very well known nationally.” Moreyra says that the name recognition alone of having DeBartolo Development involved in the venture has been helpful, as have DeBartolo’s banking relationships throughout the country. One notable exception to the joint venture’s retail focus is the planned Trump Tower site in downtown Tampa. CRP II purchased the 1.67-acre site of the proposed Trump Tower Tampa and the adjacent 67,487-square-foot CapTrust building along with a third partner O,R&L Facility Services a few months ago for $5 million. The fund is expected to increase its purchasing significantly over the next several months as its nears its scheduled investment deadline in 2012. As a side benefit of DeBartolo Development’s work on the planned Trump Tower, the firm has struck a partnership with Clearwater hotel investor/operator the Liberty
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Separate of the public company, the DeBartolo family created DeBartolo Development LLC as the private retail development wing of DeBartolo Holdings, in 2001.
Real estate in his blood
In the same year the DeBartolo family created DeBartolo Development LLC, Kobel got a surprising call from Edward DeBartolo Jr. that would change his life. “Eddie and I found out we were half brothers,” Kobel says. “We both have the same father [DeBartolo Sr.].” Kobel says the call and resulting discussions with a shared acquaintance resulted in the two getting together for a nervous meeting at Shula’s Steak House in Tampa in January 2002. “The DeBartolo family has huge hearts,” Kobel says. “Although obviously the circumstances under which we met were a little strange, the family received me with open arms. It was fantastic. They were extremely gracious and generous.” DeBartolo Jr. describes that first meeting as friendly and mainly focused on the past, his family and his father.
Group of Cos., buying distressed hospitality properties. Punit Shah, president and chief operating officer of Liberty Group, traces the two companies’ relationship back to a chance meeting he had with Kobel over a replacement hotel development on the site. “We had wanted to talk to them about doing the retail for the deal there that didn’t come together,” Shah says. “It turned out that both of our families have roots that go back to Youngstown, Ohio. Eddie DeBartolo Sr. and my father used to own hotels there. Eventually it came up, why don’t we get back into business again?” Shah says Kobel was quickly able to grasp the Liberty Group’s business strategy and that the company has been essential in helping the company to find capital swiftly. “They were able to look at a deal and have feedback on it extremely quickly,” he says. “[Kobel] knows that now is the time to make money. A lot of large developers had huge intentions and got caught up in the recession. [DeBartolo is] aggressive and at the same
See all in the family on page 14 time, cautious.” In 2010, DeBartolo Development opened its partnerships up to individuals with the launch of a private security fund to buy distressed real estate. DeBartolo Opportunity Fund I raised $40 million in capital in nine months. With two apartment complexes, two hotels and a retail center in its portfolio, Kobel says the fund is just one project shy of being fully invested. Bound by U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission regulations, DeBartolo Development was unable to confirm the returns it markets to investors, except to say that it is above the S&P average return of 11%. Earlier this month, the firm also announced a new partnership with Glencoe, Ill.-based luxury residential firm Optima Inc. for a large mixed-used development in Chicago. Asked about how the family-owned company transitioned to having to report to investors, Kobel says it has been easy. “We didn’t change,” he says. “We treat them like family.”
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GULF COAST BUSINESS REVIEW NOVEMBER 25 – DECEMBER 1, 2011
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strategies by Mark Gordon | Deputy Managing Editor
‘Eradicate Entitlement’ Sandy King, Symbiont Service Corp.: ‘We are all about leadership and training here. I’d like to think we’re a step ahead of everyone.’
Sandy King is owner and president of Englewood-based Symbiont Service Corp. The firm sells and installs geothermal pool heating systems and air conditioning units statewide.
Lori Sax
The recession doesn’t have to mean the death of employee training and development. One Gulf Coast firm deep in survival mode shows the way, with stellar results.
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sales rep at Sandy projects $6.3 million in King’s pool-heating REVIEW SUMMARY 2011 annual revenues. The and air conditionfirm holds a niche position Business. ing firm, Symbiont Service within a niche industry. It Symbiont Service Corp., Corp., approached her one sells and installs geothermal Englewood day late last month with pool-heating systems and Industry. Pool heating a burning desire to learn air conditioning units stateand air conditioning Spanish. wide. It has done work in Key. Firm places a The new saleswoman’s termore than 30 Florida counpremium on employee ritory includes Miami, so ties, and clients include sevtraining and in one sense it was a logical eral Gulf Coast YMCAs and development. aspiration. Still, learning a dozens of parks and condo second language isn’t in the complexes. training manual for most The company says its proGulf Coast installation and service firms. prietary and trademarked geothermal King’s response: She quickly got online systems, created by King’s father and comand ordered Rosetta Stone Spanish. The pany founder, Roy King, are more efficient online language education software cost and environmentally friendly than tradi$534. “We are all about leadership and tional gas-powered pool-heating pumps. training here,” Says King. “I’d like to think The Symbiont system uses water from a we’re a step ahead of everyone.” well, lake or cooling tower to heat Freon. King has indeed created a bastion of sales The water goes back into the ground after and management training at Englewood- heat is absorbed. based Symbiont, a 40-employee firm that The training and development incuba-
tion, meanwhile, comes not only in second languages, but in a variety of mandatory seminars and classes. Offerings range from Dale Carnegie self-improvement classes to Ownership Thinking sessions, which are based on a book of the same name that preaches personal responsibility in the workplace. Run out of a 4,000-square-foot facility, Symbiont also holds internal lunch-andlearns and maintains a leadership development library of books in its conference room. The 2011 employee training budget, says Symbiont Finance Director Rick Krieger, was $32,500 — $812 per employee, on average. The Dale Carnegie classes, which only one or two employees attend a year, cost $1,500 per person for 12 weeks. The training budget further covers paid time for employees for some day classes and certain travel expenses. Symbiont, for example, will pay for gas or provide a company car for employees to drive from the
Executive Lessons Even executives who pride themselves on constantly learning to become better leaders can almost always find ways to improve. Sandy King, president and owner of Englewood-based Symbiont Service Corp., a geothermal pool heating systems and air conditioning firm, lives by that conviction. For example, King, whose company has 40 employees, says hiring the right people for the right jobs is a struggle. For at least one recent hire, King says she got the skills part right, but the culture fit was a failure. King blames an over exuberance to hire and grow too fast. “My hiring practices need work,” says King. “I need to hire slower.” — Mark Gordon
Gulf coast Business Review NOVEMBER 25 – DECEMBER 1, 2011
Charlotte County headquarters to the Dale Carnegie training centers, either in Sarasota or Fort Myers. The company-wide emphasis on training, says King, has played a major role in the company’s recession survival efforts. Symbiont grew about 20% a year in the boom, through 2007, when it peaked at $6.8 million in revenues. It since dropped to less than $6 million, though King expects this year will be up, slightly. The training has also created a company culture of spiffy sayings that promote teamwork and accountability. A recent gem King especially loves: eradicate entitlement.
Decreased profits
Moreover, King says the commitment to training has essentially produced a company of employees who value systems in every nook of the business. That works because King says she has learned that when companies have a breakdown, “nine out of 10 times it’s not human error, it’s a system error.” For instance, King, through Krieger, recently learned employees who make up the installation crews, people who travel statewide to worksites and regularly stay overnight, were earnestly over-tipping. Sometimes, according to reimbursement receipts, the employees were tipping 28% and 30% per check when they ate at roadside restaurants. “A lot of mistakes are people just not paying attention,” King says. “But when you have 40 employees that can add up pretty fast.” King reined in the generosity with a game called tip the cow, from a concept she learned at Ownership Thinking. Now employees who travel get 12 make-believe cows per quarter, with a goal to tip a cow over each week by completing three steps. The employee must turn in all receipts; have tips that don’t exceed 15.5%; and post average meals for the week that don’t exceed $25, including tax and tip. If an employee tips 10 cows in a quarter, he or she is eligible for a baseball hat
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at a glance
Symbiont Service Corp. Year 2007 2008 2009 2010 2011
Revenues $6.8 million $5.6 million $6.14 million $6.1 million $6.3 million
% growth -18% 9% -4.9% (projected)
prize — and the pride of winning. For other prizes, the firm has prepared Monday breakfast for all the employees and attended a minor league baseball game. All the games and programs follow the same mission: to increase profitability. King says that philosophy would be welltimed in any economy, but it’s pitch-perfect these days. “Our costs have grown,” King says, “but our profits haven’t.” One profit program the company just started is PAMB: Profitable Action — Mutual Benefit. It’s an amped up version of the tipping game, designed to get every employee hyper-focused on a company first mindset. (See sidebar, right.)
Business decisions
But even though King is an outsized proponent of training and development, she’s not going for growth on self-help alone. She has made some recent business decisions she hopes will hone Symbiont’s competitive advantage. For one, the firm recently spent at least $500,000 to buy a directional boring rig, a move King is especially excited about. The machine enables the company to install pipes and cables underground — the crux of setting up a geothermal system. The firm previously contracted out the work, but this past summer, King decided to buy a rig and hire an employee to run it. “Now,” says King, “we do it all in-house.” That boast, adds King, matters because other firms that bid against Symbiont have to use an army of subcontractors. King says Symbiont can do the entire job with
its own employees. King also recently hired a salesperson to pursue more business in air conditioning, both the traditional kind and geothermal approach. The pursuit is working: Symbiont recently won two jobs for geothermal air conditioning, one in Sarasota County, at an RV resort and campground, and another one on Anna Maria Island. At less than $750,000 in annual sales, the overall air conditioning business still pales when held up against geothermal pool heating, says King. But she expects that sales figure to at least double next year. King, overall, strives to combine the best business decisions with the best training, so she can comfortably make projections like that. King actually goes through all the training the employees do. But back in college, at the Florida Institute of Technology in the early 1980s, King never saw herself in the family business.
Figure it out
Roy King founded the business in 1974, when he bought an air conditioning service and repair firm in Englewood. He had just moved his family to the region from Cincinnati. King invented a geothermal system in 1983, mostly to keep employees busy in the winter, when few customers need AC work or installation. The firm installed its first geothermal system for a pool at the Japanese Gardens in Englewood. It has since installed the systems on more than 1,000 pools in Florida, from the Keys to Florida State University in Tallahassee. In 1984, Sandy King, who was an oceanography major at FIT, helped her father with an updated version of the original Symbiont GeoThermal Pool/Spa Heater. King went to work for the company a few years later. By 1996, Symbiont had eight employees and was closing in on $1 million in annual sales. King bought majority ownership of the firm that year from her parents. And soon after that, King began to take classes, read books and do anything to gain business and industry knowledge. “Since
13
I went to school for oceanography,” says King, “I’ve had to learn things to figure this out.” And now, with revenues going back up, King has targeted a new goal for herself and Symbiont’s employees: to become a $7.5 million company. Of course, personal development will always be a primary goal for King, no matter how big Symbiont becomes. “I wish,” says King, “I had more time and capital to do more training.”
Alphabet Attack To its customers on the outside, Symbiont Service Corp. is a firm with a focus on geothermal pool heating and air conditioning systems. But inside, the Englewood-based firm has become driven by acronym-named programs set up to create systems and structures that improve the company. Many of the programs are replicable in just about any other field. For instance, the company recently launched PAMB: Profitable Action — Mutual Benefit. President Sandy King says the program, at its core, is “about making profits and doing what’s right for our company.” Specifically, a flyer for the program circulated among employees says profitable action is the idea that “how we spend our time is as important as how we manage our resources.” That side further asks the employee to consider if each action is the most important thing to do, and if and how it will benefit the firm, customers and fellow employees. The flyer then states that “when we take profitable action, mutual benefit naturally occurs. This is really taking ownership of how we handle ourselves in the workplace.” — Mark Gordon
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GULF COAST BUSINESS REVIEW NOVEMBER 25 – DECEMBER 1, 2011
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all in the family from page 11 He says as the two got to know each other the business similarities between Kobel and his late father became apparent. “Genes are genes,” DeBartolo Jr. says. “Ed’s business philosophy and acumen are similar to my dad’s. He has a non-stop attitude and his clock is always running. He’s a dealmaker. Basically, that’s the way my dad was.” The brothers had several more meetings during the next few months and started talking about Kobel moving to Tampa from Phoenix, which he eventually did. In early 2004, the DeBartolo family made Kobel president and chief operating officer of the development company.
Beating the recession
Courtesy
DeBartolo Development plans to break ground next year on Ka Makana Ali`i, a 1.5-million square foot urban mixed-use regional center in East Kapolei, Hawaii with more than 200,000 square feet of office space and two business hotels. waterfront site in Tampa, Mills Park in Orlando and — through a ground lease from the Department of Hawaiian Home Lands — a Kapolei, Hawaii, site for the developer’s largest regional mall, Ka Makana Ali`i. This year, the company and its first opportunity fund, DeBartolo Opportunity Fund I LP, have acquired retail centers in Nashville and Chicago suburbs, three hotels in Florida and high-profile development sites in the Chicago area, Windemere and Orlando. It also started construction on the $39 million, 360unit Andros Isles Apartments in Daytona and the $114 million mixed-use apartment community Optima Center in Chicago. As the market works through its troubles, DeBartolo Development plans to operate its acquisitions, complete its two developments and sit on its raw land assets, with the exception of its Hawaiian retail center. The company expects to name an architect for the decade-long development project soon and break ground in mid-2012. Jamie May, a senior director with the Marcus & Millichap company Institutional Property Advisors in Tampa and a frequent broker of DeBartolo properties, describes the company as a contrarian buyer. “They choose to buy in times like this, and they pay all cash and can close very quickly,” he says. “This is their time to shine. But once the cost to buy properties increases beyond a certain level, they will go back into development mode, where they can again build [projects] for less than they can buy them.” Kobel and the DeBartolo Development staff regularly
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Looking forward, DeBartolo Development LLC President and COO Ed Kobel says it will likely take another three to five years for the real estate market to fully work through its volatility. Along with all of the more common market maladies, Kobel, a well known technophile who uses an iPad to read his research each week, says a large part of the current economic turmoil is sparked by a rapid technology change similar to popularization of the Web in the mid-‘90s. “Through technologies, such as cloud computing, we are doing roughly three times the business with two thirds the staff,” Kobel says. “A lot of people are bashing Wall Street for sitting on cash …. many of those companies are just being singled out for adapting new technology, which requires less people to do the same amount of work.” Bucking the prevailing wisdom, Kobel reports that capital for investments is plentiful now. “I’ve been doing this for 31 years and I’ve never seen this much equity for debit,” he says. “The difference now over the last 10 years is that the money is only available for projects that can been thoroughly underwritten.”
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Today, the 54-year-old Kobel has shaped a vastly different DeBartolo family development from the ones of his father and half-brother. The developer has been transformed into a diversified commercial real estate investor with a growing portfolio of properties and high-profile land for future development. A big key to the company’s current success is that DeBartolo Development pulled back on most of its development efforts before the real estate bubble burst. “We saw that there was too much money going into real estate,” Kobel says. “We could see deals, where we would offer $5 a square foot, and sell, in one case, for $15 a square foot with the land owner getting 25% of the deal and of course, 100% financing.” Heading into the recession, Kobel says the business structure of DeBartolo Development was already particularly suited to ride out the trough. “We weren’t portfolio builders,” Kobel says. “They did selective disciplined deals. The DeBartolo family is one of the largest shareholders of Simon stock; in essence, that’s their portfolio. We would develop [projects] with partners and then sell them off to that partner. We didn’t want to build a huge juggernaut business; our goal was to mitigate risk and provide great returns to the family.” While most of its development competitors are retreating or sitting on their holdings, DeBartolo Development has been aggressively buying apartments, hotels, retail centers and development land and starting opportunity funds and joint ventures with institutional investors and others to buy even more. It has acquired roughly $1 billion in distressed real estate since the recession. Its new collection of land for future mixed projects includes the prominent Georgetown
Gulf coast Business Review NOVEMBER 25 – DECEMBER 1, 2011
CORPORATE REPORT
www.review.net
by Sean Roth | Real Estate Editor
MoneyShow.com survey suggests traders bullish A survey from Sarasota-based investment education destination firm MoneyShow suggests that investors are largely positive for the immediate future for the S&P 500. According to the company’s Traders’ Sentiment Indicator on its website, 49% of active traders are bullish, 22% describe themselves as bearish and 29% have a neutral outlook about the S&P 500 between now and the end of 2011. The company says it marks a dramatic change from the last Sentiment Indicator Survey in June that reported just 36% of traders were bullish and 41% were bearish. Nearly 93% of traders expected to see the Federal Reserve keep interest rates unchanged for the remainder of the year. In June, 41% of traders felt the dollar would fall moderately in relation to other currencies. Now, just 16% reported feeling the same way. Nearly 60% of traders believe the economy will remain about the same for the remainder of the year while 24% believe it will worsen. The MoneyShow.com Traders’ Sentiment Indicator polled 360 active traders from its member list between Nov.7 and Nov.11. The complete findings of the Traders’ Sentiment Indicator are available on MoneyShow.com.
Unilens Vision, secures European distribution deal
15
Largo-based Unilens Vision Inc. has reached a deal with the No. 7 Contact Lens Laboratory Ltd. for it to be the exclusive distributor in the United Kingdom of the Unilens’ C-Vue Advanced
HydraVUE family of silicone hydrogel contact lenses. The No. 7 Contact Lens Laboratory will also distribute the C-Vue Advanced HydraVUE throughout the European Union. “The relationship will allow for our new C-Vue Advanced HydraVUE family of custom silicone hydrogel lenses to be aggressively marketed throughout the United Kingdom and Europe….,” Michael Pecora, president and CEO of Unilens Vision Inc., says in a press release. No. 7 Contact Lens Laboratory is a privately owned manufacturing company, based in Hastings, U.K. The company develops, licenses, manufactures, distributes and markets contact lenses primarily under the No. 7 Contact Lens brand.
ValCom’s TV station adding cities, 2 million homes
My Family TV, a television network owned by Clearwater-based ValCom Inc., has entered into affiliation agreements to place the network in several new markets across the United States. The family-friendly entertainment network, which has already started broadcasting in Hampton, Va., Florence/Huntsville, Ala., and Lake Havasu City, Ariz., has signed agreements to begin broadcasting in Louisville, TriCities in Tennessee and Virginia and Myrtle Beach, S.C.. The network also plans to expand into Knoxville, Tenn., and Bluefield, W.V. The total reach of these new affiliates is more than 2 million homes.
“There is an increasing demand for family-friendly content in the marketplace,” Ken Gibson, vice president of affiliate relations for the network, says in a press release. “Our growth is evidence of this.”
Nature’s Bioceuticals nears start of supplement production
Nature’s Bioceuticals, a Cape Coral subsidiary of Mistral Ventures Inc., is finalizing arrangements to start production of its Breathing Relief Formula. The formula will be marketed as a dietary supplement. “I am extremely satisfied that our new strategy allows us to market this product as a supplement immediately, instead of waiting many years and spending hundreds of millions of dollars seeking FDA approval as a drug,” Robert deZanger, CEO of Nature’s Bioceuticals says in a press release, adding that the company expects to have the product ready for sale within 30 to 60 days. The company expects to have sales of more than $10 million in the first year and to expand from there.
Falls River Group assists in Michigan sale
Naples-based Falls River Group LLC advised Akron, Ohio-based B.W. Rogers in its acquisition of Kalamazoo, Mich.based Industrial Logic Controls for $1.6 million. Falls River Group has helped B.W. Rogers on a total of 15 successful acquisitions. Founded in 1928, B.W. Rogers is a distributor of fluid power, process and electromechanical equipment. Industrial Logic Controls is an integrator and distributor of automation systems and components.
Vista System International wins technology award
Sarasota’s Vista System International
Sunovia LEDs installed on Sarasota’s Ringling Bridge
Sarasota-based Sunovia Energy Technologies and Siemen was awarded a contract from the city of Sarasota to convert all the roadway fixtures over the John Ringling Bridge to Sunovia’s EvoLucia highefficiency light-emitting diode lights. Each conventional high-pressure sodium 185-watt fixture has been replaced with a Sunovia 55-watt LED fixture. The new Sunovia LED fixtures will reportedly reduce energy consumption by 70%, while also increasing roadway visibility. The new LED lights should last for about 12 years, eliminating much of the maintenance costs for the fixtures. recently received the Technology Design award at the Advertising Design Russia 2011 ceremony held in Moscow at the closing of the leading tradeshow Reklama-2011. The ceremony is one of the leading advertising and design events in Russia. It is organized by the Russia’s National Advertising Association. The purpose of the event is “identifying the leaders of the design of the advertising market” and “motivation of the advertising market for the establishment and introduction of innovative technologies.”
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16
GULF COAST BUSINESS REVIEW NOVEMBER 25 – DECEMBER 1, 2011
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commercial real estate SARASOTA-MANATEE
by Sean Roth | Real Estate Editor
MGA to occupy Rutenberg building
BUYER: Ranch Property Holdings LLC (princi-
Marinaccio says the 9-year-old building was built to a “superior standard” by the former owner/homebuilder Arthur Rutenberg. Ian Black and Steve Horn of Ian Black Real Estate represented the buyer. Anthony Homer of Lakewood Ranch Commercial Realty represented the seller and handled the Peace River Water Authority lease. The purchase entity Ranch Property Holdings LLC mortgaged the building to Wells Fargo Bank NA for $1.11 million.
pals: Lou and Ann Marie Marinaccio), Lakewood Ranch SELLER: MCF Florida LLC PROPERTY: 9415 and 9423 Town Center Parkway, Bradenton PRICE: $1.48 million PREVIOUS PRICE: $2 million, October 2010 TITLE FIRM ON DEED: University Title Services LLC, Lakewood Ranch
PLANS, DESCRIPTION: An affiliate of MGA Insurance Group purchased the 12,000-square-foot former Arthur Rutenberg building for $1.48 million. The price equated to $123 per square foot. The Peace River Water Authority recently agreed to lease 7,500 square feet in the building. MGA Insurance Group, which currently operates from a building at 9024 Town Center Parkway, plans to relocate its MGA Property & Casualty department into the remainder of the building. “There’s been a shift in the insurance marketplace away from national companies to local companies that can give local service,” says Lou Marinaccio, the company’s CEO. “We’ve really been absorbing a lot of business from these national companies.” The expansion and department growth are creating several additional jobs, he says.
Sarasota’s Evie’s owners buy ASAP Enterprise building
BUYER: 5377 McIntosh LLC (principal: Michael
Evanoff), Sarasota SELLER: ASAP Real Estate LLC PROPERTY: 5377 McIntosh Road, Sarasota, PRICE: $595,000 PREVIOUS PRICE: $376,000, September 1996 LAW FIRM ON DEED: James V. Stewart Esq., St.
Petersburg
PLANS, DESCRIPTION: Sarasota businessmen and father and son Steve and Michael Evanoff purchased the 11,700-square-foot ASAP building for $595,000. The price equated to $51 per square foot. The building, which previously housed the construction equipment rental company, features 4,500 square feet of office and showroom space. The 14-year-old block and steel building sits on a 2.05-acre site. Michael Evanoff says the new owners
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 Hotel Enterprises of Port Charlotte sold to Charlotte Host LLC, $2,500,000, Mortgage: $4,000,000, Central Bank & Trust Co., hotel or motel, Holiday Inn Express, 24440 Sandhill Blvd., 2052024. Hotel Management of Port Charlotte sold to Charlotte Host LLC, $2,500,000, Mortgage: $1,2000,000, Central Bank & Trust Co., hotel or motel, Hampton Inn, 24480 Sandhill Blvd., 2052026. Federal Deposit Insurance Corp. as receiver for Florida Community Bank sold to Premier American Bank NA, $1,900,000, financial institutions, 1041 El Jobean Road and 1255 Tamiami Trail in Port Charlotte Industrial Park, 2052543. US Acquisition Property V LLC sold to Port Partner LLC, $1,100,000, medical service offices, Panther Hollow Dental Lodge, 19240 Quesada Ave., 2052686.
COLLIER COUNTY Federal Deposit Insurance Corp. as receiver for Florida Community Bank of Immokalee, Florida sold to Premier American Bank NA, $1,480,000, improved commercial, 1390 15th St. N., 4622354. Palmer Ranch LLC sold to Pelican Point at Goodland LLC, $1,225,000, Mortgage: $400,000, Aero Hardware & Supply Inc., vacant commercial, 613 Palm Ave. E., 4623854. FCC Veneta Ltd. fka GBP Development Ltd. sold to D.R. Horton Inc., $1,100,000, lots 12-22, block A, Fiddler’s Creek, phase four, unit two, 4624259.
by Sean Roth | Real Estate Editor
HILLSBOROUGH COUNTY
Hospitality Receiver LLC on behalf of Columbia Properties LLC sold to VWI-Tampa East LLC, $10,150,000, full-service hotel or motel, 10221 E. Princess Palm Ave., Tampa, 2011357923. Sterling Lakes Apartments LLC sold to Focus Sterling Lakes LLC, $9,591,661, Mortgage: $6,454,000, Centerline Mortgage Capital Inc., multifamily residential, 1302 Coopers Town Court, Tampa, 2011358908. Cedar Trace Apartments LLC sold to Focus Cedar Trace LLC, $8,664,266, Mortgage: $5,822,000, Centerline Mortgage Capital Inc., multifamily residential, 2200 Cedar Trace Circle, Tampa, 2011358940. Brandon Palisades Apartments LLC sold to Focus Brandon Palisades LLC, $7,103,908, Mortgage: $4,758,000, Centerline Mortgage Capital Inc., multifamily residential, 512 Camino Real Court, Brandon, 2011358994. Ashley Oaks Apartments LLC sold to Focus Ashley Oaks LLC, $4,634,440, Mortgage: $3,119,000, Centerline Mortgage Capital Inc., multifamily residential, 12745 N. 17th St., Tampa, 2011358957. Mary Haire sold to Brandon Property Managers LLC, $2,781,000, auto dealership, 1207 E. Brandon Blvd., Brandon, 2011363611. BACM 2001 1 Spruce Terrace LLC sold to Suriname Investment Group Inc., $1,732,500, low-income housing tax credit development, 1527 W. Spruce Terrace, Tampa, 2011358557. RJT LLC sold to I.D.P.K. LLC, $1,350,000, warehouse, 6515 N. 50th St., Tampa, 2011355235. Lubna Real Estate Inc. sold to JFC Prop-13 LLC and KIC Prop-13 LLC, $1,214,785, restaurant, 5603 E. Hillsborough Ave., Tampa, 2011353789. Kenneth Carberry sold to Starboard Realty of Tampa III LLC, $1,125,000, Mortgage: $225,000, Kenneth Carberry, $900,000, Fifth Third Bank, fast food, 1501 E. Hillsborough Ave., Tampa, 2011364532.
are not settled on a plan for the building and that it will largely depend on county approvals. The new owners have hired Joel Freedman of the Freedman Consulting Group to do the land planning for the project and William Dobson of RBK Architects Inc. to design it. “We thought it was a good investment,” Evanoff says. “The condition of the building wasn’t bad considering it wasn’t used as completely clean retail space. The outside of the building, [roof] and parking need some work.” The buyers had to move quickly on the purchase of the property because the sale had to close before the end of a liquidation auction of ASAP Enterprise of Sarasota Inc.’s real estate and business assets. Christopher Leonard of Colliers International’s Tampa Bay office and Roger “Biff ” Ruttenberg of Atlas Partners LLC represented the seller and Jon Kleiber from James Buchanan Realty represented the buyer. The agreement calls for the new ownership to take possession of the property in mid-December. The Evanoffs are best known as the owners of Evie’s Family Golf Center, a driving range and miniature golf facility on Bee Ridge Road in Sarasota. They also own four Evie’s Taverns, a valet parking business 1223 Parking Inc. and Skyway Limousine Services.
Demetrios’ Restaurant owners buy South Trail building BUYER: LDJ Holding Co. LLC (principals:
Demetrios and Jennifer Antony), Sarasota SELLER: William Kosmas PROPERTY: 4410 S. Tamiami Trail, Sarasota PRICE: $550,000 PREVIOUS PRICE: $85,000, April 1974 LAW FIRM ON DEED: Judd Ulrich Scarlett
Wickman & Dean PA, Sarasota
LEE COUNTY Caloosa Oaks LLC sold in lieu of foreclosure to Regions Bank, $3,881,488.88, grazing land, 105.15 acres, 23631 Palm Beach Blvd., Alva, 2011000240091. Champagne of Naples LLC sold to DR Horton Inc., $3,266,000, vacant residential, lots 1, 19-24, 40-52, 58-83, 87-132, Banyan Bay Subdivision on a portion of Banyan Bay Boulevard, Fort Myers, 2011000238449. Federal Deposit Insurance Corp. as receiver for Florida Community Bank, Immokalee, Florida sold to Premier American Bank NA, $2,400,000, financial institutions, 1261 Homestead Road N., Lehigh Acres in Sunshine Shopping Plaza, 2011000239996. FTMyers 276 LP sold to AAE Pacific Park Associates LLC, $2,216,000, warehouse or distribution terminals, 5061 Luckett Road and vacant industrial, 5916 Enterprise Parkway, Fort Myers also known as lots 1, 2, 4, 5 and 38, Billy Creek Commerce Center, unit 1, 2011000242902. Palmetto Lehigh I LLC sold to Scaninvest III LLC, $1,730,000, Mortgage: $1,366,988, Thomas Federal Savings and Loan Association, vacant commercial, 400 Dallas St., Lehigh Acres, 2011000239251. S.T. Wooten Corp. sold to Community Asphalt Corp., $1,650,000, mineral processing, 1656016591 Mass Court, Fort Myers, 2011000240515. Lee County Real Estate Holdings LLC sold to Florida SE Inc., $1,400,000, vacant commercial, 2 acres, 10020 University Plaza Drive, Fort Myers in Shops at University Plaza, 2011000241419. Federal Deposit Insurance Corp. as receiver for Florida Community Bank, Immokalee, Florida sold to Premier American Bank NA, $1,300,000, financial institutions, 209 Del Prado Blvd. S., Cape Coral, 2011000239907. DRW Partnership LLP sold to A&K Realty LLC, $1,250,000, one-story store, 15121 S. Tamiami Trail, Fort Myers, 2011000242541. Federal Deposit Insurance Corp. as receiver for Florida Community Bank, Immokalee, Florida sold to Premier American Bank NA, $1,250,0000, financial institutions, 4106 Del Prado Blvd. S., Cape Coral, 2011000239910.
MANATEE COUNTY Bradenton Apartment Properties LLC sold to Focus Bradenton LLC, $4,646,092, Mortgage:
PLANS, DESCRIPTION: The owners of the Demetrios’ Restaurant & Pizza have purchased its 3,083-square-foot restaurant building on U.S. 41 north of Lake Shore Drive for $550,000. The price equated to $178 per square foot. The family-owned restaurant has been renting the building since about 1982, according to manager and business partner Demetrios Antony. “The building just recently became available,” he says. “It was in our lease agreement that we had the first right to buy it.” The acquisition comes at an especially interesting time for the restaurant as the owners are focused on plans to open a new restaurant on University Parkway early next year. “We will be expanding our menu here to match that one,” says Antony. “We’ll be adding items to the menu to accommodate people who are trying to eat more healthy.” Once that restaurant is firmly established, the restaurant owners plan to make some improvements to the U.S. 41 restaurant building. The purchase entity LDJ Holding Co. LLC mortgaged the property to Harry and Olga Nikias for $700,000.
Etc.
• International Performance LLC leased 12,000 square feet of office/warehouse space at 6424 Parkland Drive, Sarasota in Manatee County from Steven P Solomon Enterprises Inc. Jeff Button of Richardson Kleiber Walter Kleiber Button Inc. handled the transaction. • David Hamilton leased 21,875 square feet of office/warehouse space located at 2053 58th Ave. Circle E., Bradenton from Steve Solomon Inc. Jeff Button of Richardson Kleiber Walter Kleiber Button Inc. handled the transaction.
$3,122,000, Centerline Mortgage Capital Inc., multifamily, 3810 E. Fifth St., Bradenton, 02397-1124. MCF Florida LLC sold to Ranch Property Holdings LLC, $1,475,000, Mortgage: $1,106,250, Wells Fargo Bank NA, office buildings, 9415 and 9423 Town Center Parkway, Bradenton, 02397-7553.
PASCO COUNTY Harrison Bennett Property LLC sold to Thornwood Associates LLC, $18,068,800, various non-agricultural land, 5550 and 5714 Jireh Road, 5545, 5730 and 5826 Billmar Road, 5952 and 5836 Curley Road and 31061 State Road 54, Zephyrhills, and additional land, 8612-2466. S.R. 54 Pro Building LLC sold to Algil Realty Co. LLC, $2,800,000, Columbian Mutual Life Insurance, professional service building, 10537 State Road 54, New Port Richey in Fox Wood Commerce Park, 8614-3186. D. G. Zephyrhills LLC sold to D. G. Zephyrhills LLC, $1,969,100, retail store, 36671 State Road 54, Zephyrhills, 8614-1002.
PINELLAS COUNTY M.L. Q-M L. L. LLC sold to Atria Plaza LLC, $2,900,000, neighborhood shopping center, 1846 62nd Ave. N.E., St. Petersburg, 17382-1095. J. Pass II LLC sold to J.E.H. Investment LLC, $2,000,000, Mortgage: $600,000, Boardwalk Place Capital Partners, strip store, 112 and 124 Boardwalk Place, Madeira Beach, 17385-1387. Workman Enterprises Inc. and Gay Products Inc. sold to 520HC LLC, $1,037,500, Mortgage: $1,317,500, Branch Banking and Trust, general office, 520 Howard Court, Clearwater, 17381-2244.
SARASOTA COUNTY Federal Deposit Insurance Corp. as receiver for Peninsula Bank, Englewood, Florida sold to Premier American Bank NA, $1,450,000, planned commercial development, 4300 Aidan Lane, North Port in North Port Gateway East, 2011127547. Bank of America NA as successor trustees of the Marie L. Hoffberg Trust sold to Golden Gate Holding Co. LLC, $1,050,000, Mortgage; $682,500, Community Bank of Co., residential multifamily, 182 Golden Gate Point, Sarasota, 2011129575.
Gulf coast Business Review NOVEMBER 25 – DECEMBER 1, 2011
www.review.net
17
commercial real estate TAMPA BAY by Sean Roth | Real Estate Editor
New Jersey investor buys Tampa Denny’s
says. “We felt it was a very reasonable cap rate [purchase price payoff ratio based on income].” The investment group, which bought the properties through two entities for estate planning, also owns restaurant properties in the Jacksonville area.
Ryland Homes buys church land for new Pinellas community
BUYER: The Ryland Group Inc., Riverview SELLER: Armenian Church of America (Eastern) PROPERTY: 7020 90th Ave., Pinellas Park PRICE: $1.31 million LAW FIRM ON DEED: GrayRobinson PA, Tampa PLANS, DESCRIPTION: National home-
LLC, Hackensack, N.J. SELLER: Lubna Real Estate Inc. PROPERTY: 5603 E. Hillsborough Ave., Tampa PRICE: $1.21 million PREVIOUS PRICE: $814,700, December 2007 BUYER: JFC Prop-15 LLC and KIC Prop-15
LLC, Hackensack, N.J. SELLER: Lubna Real Estate Inc. PROPERTY: 940 Missouri Ave. N., Largo PRICE: $1.23 million PREVIOUS PRICE: $1.7 million, December 2007 TITLE FIRM ON BOTH DEEDS: GRS Title Services
LLC, Scottsdale, Ariz.
PLANS, DESCRIPTION: A New Jersey investment group purchased Denny’s restaurant buildings in Tampa and Largo for a total of $2.44 million. The group purchased a 4,680-square-foot Denny’s restaurant building in Tampa for $1.21 million and a 5,090-square-foot Denny’s in Largo for $1.23 million. The price for both equated to $250 per square foot. Constructed in 1984, the Tampa restaurant building occupies an acre site. The Largo building was built in 1975. The investors purchased the real estate
Costar
as part of a portfolio of three Florida Denny’s properties that also included a Lakeland property, according to Glenn Rocca, manager of the purchase entities. All of the properties were sold as passive investments and are covered by 20-year leases with the Denny’s franchise operator. “This is totally passive income,” Rocca
Etc.
• GSP leased 7,667 square feet at the Airport Business Center on 140th Avenue North in Clearwater from Hallmark Development of Florida Inc. • Cobham leased 4,000 square feet at the Airport Business Center on 140th Avenue North in Clearwater from Hallmark Development of Florida Inc. • Osteoarthritis leased 4,800 square feet at 10575 U.S. 19 N., Pinellas Park from Hallmark Development of Florida Inc.
AmeriLife leases Prestige Place II, renovating, renaming facility AmeriLife, the nation’s largest senior-focused life and health insurance marketing group, has leased the 70,706-square-foot building formerly known as Prestige Place II on U.S. 19 N. in Clearwater from CW Capital Asset Management. The company plans to move its 350 employees into the three-story complex in March. The building will be renamed AmeriLife Place. “This is the space we’ve needed to expand our services as well as our employee base,” AmeriLife CEO and President Timothy North says in a press release. “Despite the economy, AmeriLife has
Wyman, Green & Blalock real estate, Inc.
thrived in recent years, as some similar companies have struggled or even closed their doors. AmeriLife is growing, and we’re spreading our wings.” The lease was for 11 years. Alan Feldshue and Melanie Jackson of Colliers International Tampa Bay represented AmeriLife and Hans Kaunath and Judy Healey of Ciminelli Real Estate Services represented the landlord. AmeriLife is moving from its AmeriLife Towers at the intersection of U.S. 19 and Countryside Boulevard. The company says it was attracted to the new location, at 2650 McCormick Drive, by its
Costar
central Pinellas location, large parking facilities and the ability to customize the building to its needs. The interior of the 24-year-old building is being renovated for AmeriLife.
Since 1908
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SR 64 Mixed Use Development Project. $5,000,000.00 9.74 acres Preliminary site plan approval. Signalized intersection.
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BUYER: JFC Prop-13 LLC and KIC Prop-13
builder Ryland Homes purchased just less than six acres to the south and east of the St. Hagop Armenian Church building for $1.31 million. The property is located across Belcher Road from the existing Bayou Cove community and is north of the Bayou West residential development. The homebuilder plans to develop a community with 22 home sites. “Finding a property that’s contiguous to
put 20 to 25 homes on is very rare, and we felt it was an opportunity to tap into the pent up [residential] demand in Pinellas County,” says Joe Fontana, Tampa division president of Ryland Homes. Ryland is working on the infrastructure for the community and hopes to have a model home there by the first of the year and start sales in January or February. Homes in the community are expected to range in size from 2,500 to 4,000 square feet and start in price at the high $200,000s.
18
GULF COAST BUSINESS REVIEW NOVEMBER 25 – DECEMBER 1, 2011
www.review.net
commercial real estate LEE-COLLIER
by Sean Roth | Real Estate Editor
Massachusetts investors buy U.S. 41 retail building
BUYER: A&K Realty LLC, Nahant, Mass. SELLER: DRW Partnership LLP PROPERTY: 15121 S. Tamiami Trail, Fort Myers PRICE: $1.25 million PREVIOUS PRICE: $565,000, August 1993 TITLE FIRM ON DEED: Atlas Title of S.W. FL
Inc.
A Nahant, Mass.based investment group purchased a 20,602-square-foot vacant retail building for $1.25 million. The price equated to $61 per square foot. Built in 1995, the property is located at the intersection of U.S. 41 and Jamaica Boulevard. The building, which was last renovated in 2009, also features a twobay truck well for semi-truck deliveries and 6,000 square feet of warehouse space. Dan Miller of The Miller Alliance of Re/Max Realty Group represented the seller and Nick Paulus of Invest Realty LLC represented the buyer. “It’s a great building in a phenomenal location on a lighted intersection,” Paulus says. “It should be a nice investment. This was a long process to get under contract. When the tenant moved was when the price got to where we needed it to be.” PLANS, DESCRIPTION:
California investment firm buys Sunbelt Rentals building
BUYER: AAE Pacific Park Associates LLC,
Costa Mesa, Calif. SELLER: FTMyers 276 LP PROPERTY: 5061 Luckett Road and 5916
Enterprise Parkway, Fort Myers PRICE: $2.22 million PREVIOUS PRICE: $1.71 million, May 2010 LAW FIRM ON DEED: Fishman Jackson Luebker, Dallas
PLANS, DESCRIPTION: A Costa Mesa, Calif., limited liability company purchased the 14,800-square-foot Sunbelt Rentals building in the Billy Creek Commerce and Industrial Park for $2.22 million. The price equated to $150 per square foot. Sunbelt Rentals has more than 10 years remaining on its lease on the property, which it has subleased to Layne Christensen. The 10-year-old building, which occupies a 6.69-acre site, features 4,200 square feet of office space. It also includes eight overhead doors and a dock-high loading ramp for semi-truck deliveries. The property’s security system includes motion sensors, door contacts and an audio surveillance system that covers the storage yard area. More than an acre surrounding the building is paved. The property owner is responsible for the roof and structures, but the parking lots and exterior paint cost is shared with the tenant. Sunbelt’s British parent Ashtead
Sunrise limited liability firm buys Palm Avenue marina land BUYER: Pelican Point at Goodland LLC (prin-
cipals: James Inglis), Sunrise SELLER: Palmer Ranch LLC PROPERTY: 613 Palm Ave. E., Marco Island PRICE: $1.23 million PREVIOUS PRICE: $725,000, November 2000 LAW FIRM ON DEED: Woodward Pires &
Lombardo PA, Marco Island
PLANS, DESCRIPTION: A limited liability company led by Jim Inglis of Sunrise purchased 1.68-acre commercial parcel for $1.23 million. The price equated to $729,167 per acre. Inglis, CEO of Sunrise-based Hydraulic Supply Co., declined to comment on the acquisition. The property, which has frontage on Coon Key Pass, also included federal state and local permits for the development of a 19-dock marina, according to the real estate research firm CoStar Group. The sale reportedly includes engineering drawings for 11 60-foot, one 30-foot and seven 25-foot docks.
Group PLC guarantees the lease agreement. Michael Cargile of Voit Real Estate Services represented the buyer.
Etc…
• Iglesia Pentecostal Enhacore, leased 3,600 square feet of air-conditioned light industrial space at 5565 Lee St., units 3 and 4 in Lehigh Acres from Sunshine Plaza Lee Inc. Jim Boback of the Boback Commercial Group handled the transaction. • Jewish Center of Cape Coral Inc., purchased an 8,338-square-foot building at 1716 Cape Coral Parkway W. in Cape Coral in a short sale from RVB Holdings LLC for $650,000. Jim Boback of the Boback Commercial Group handled the transaction. • Roy and Peggy Custer purchased 263.8 acres of land just north of State Road 80 along Fort Denaud Road and Murray Road in Labelle from Land Holding LLC for $550,000. Randy Thibaut and William Rollins of Land Solutions represented the seller. • Dolphin Express Car Wash Inc. purchased the Happy Days Car Wash at 3824 Chiquita Blvd. Cape Coral for $333,100. Bob Brown of Re/Max Realty Group represented the seller and John Ellwood of Miloff Aubuchon Realty Group represented the buyer.
The 64-year-old Hydraulic Supply Co. distributes hydraulic and pneumatic components and systems, hose, fittings and connectors, electronic systems and accessories. It focuses its distribution on Florida, Georgia, Tennessee, the Caribbean and Central America. The purchase entity Pelican Point at Goodland LLC mortgaged the property to Aero Hardware & Supply Inc. for $400,000. • Fitz Design leased 5,964 square feet of industrial space at 3853 Acline Road, Punta Gorda from South West Land Developers. Ron Struthers of CBRE handled the transaction. • One Management Inc. dba Louie the Liquidator has expanded its space by an additional 5,500 square feet at 28250 Bonita Crossings Blvd., Unit B, Bonita Springs from Mer Rouge Properties LLC. The tenant signed a lease in August for 10,100 square feet, which after the addition brings its total space in the building to 15,650 square feet. Gary Tasman and Doug Olson of Commercial Property Southwest Florida LLC, a Cushman and Wakefield alliance member, handled the lease.
• Cardno Entrix Inc. leased 5,992 square feet of space at 13700 Six Mile Cypress Parkway Suite 101, Fort Myers from the Alan Williams & Associates Insurance Co. Cardno Entrix is an environmental and natural resource management-consulting firm. Gary Tasman and Michael Ciccarello of Cushman and Wakefield Commercial Property Southwest Florida LLC handled the lease. • Square One Fort Myers LLC (Square One Burgers) leased 6,032 square feet of retail space in Page Field Commons, at 4977 S. Cleveland Ave., Fort Myers. The Fort Myers location is the first Square One Burgers in Southwest Florida. There is one restaurant in Tampa and two in Sarasota. Tom Strauss and Matt Yaniglos of LandQwest Commercial represented the landlord. • Tropica Designs LLC leased a 4,000-square-foot building and 2.2 acres at 5620 Lee St. in Lehigh Acres from Diversified Drilling Corp. Jim Boback of Boback Commercial Group handled the transaction. • Gr8deal LLC purchased a 2,597-square-foot former bank building at 2455 Tamiami Trail, Port Charlotte for $200,000. Fred Kolb of Colliers International Southwest Florida represented the seller. • Little Hearts Early Learning Center leased 4,815 square feet of industrial space at 1490 N.E. Pine Island Road, Cape Coral. Bill Mankin of Colliers International Southwest Florida handled the transaction. • Iglesia Vida Ministerio International leased 4,815 square feet of industrial space in Central Cape Business Park at 1490 N.E. Pine Island Road, Cape Coral. Bill Mankin of Colliers International Southwest Florida handled the transaction. • Crystal’s Hallmark leased 4,327 square feet of retail space in Coralwood Shopping Center at 2301 S. Del Prado Blvd., Cape Coral. Karen JohnsonCrowther of Colliers International Southwest Florida handled the transaction. • Kings Crown Family Dental leased 2,130 square feet of retail space in Daniels Crossing at 6900 Daniels Parkway, Fort Myers. Karen Johnson-Crowther of Colliers International Southwest Florida represented the landlord. • Paper Lantern leased 2,010 square feet of retail space in Uptown Center at 2700 Immokalee Road, Naples. Karen Johnson-Crowther of Colliers International Southwest Florida represented the landlord. • Dr. Armando Pino leased 2,010 square feet of retail space in Uptown Center at 2700 Immokalee Road, Naples. Karen Johnson-Crowther of Colliers International Southwest Florida represented the landlord. • Goodwill Industries of SWFL Inc. leased 3,750 square feet of industrial space at 4040B Warehouse Road, Fort Myers from BLS Holdings LLC. Stan Stouder, Tim Schneider and Dan O’Berski of CBRE handled the transaction. • Love My Dog Salon and Inn leased 2,100 square feet of retail space at Orange Pine Plaza at 2079 Pine Ridge Road, Naples from PRY of Naples LLC. Mike Concilla of CBRE handled the transaction.
ORTHOPEDIC SPECIALISTS BREAK GROUND ON NEW FACILITY Fort Myers-based Stevens Construction has broken ground on a new 9,102-square foot surgery center for Orthopedic Specialists of Southwest Florida. The building, located at 2565 Cleveland Ave., Fort Myers, will include three operating rooms, step-down recovery, a nurse station, consultation rooms, lounge and administrative offices. Christopher J. Lee Architects Inc. designed the project.
Gulf coast Business Review NOVEMBER 25 – DECEMBER 1, 2011
www.review.net
power lunch
19
by Alex Mahadevan | Tampa Bay Editor
Malio’s: Mangia! Restaurant: Malio’s Prime Steakhouse Address: Sykes Building, 400 N. Ashley Blvd., Tampa Phone: 813-223-7746 Website: www.maliosprime.com Recommended by: Monty Weigel, president and CEO of Northstar Bank. Weigel enjoys the convenience and value of Malio’s, which is located 14 floors below his office. Reservations: Not required, but recommended during busy hours. Parking: The restaurant offers validated parking for the parking garage on North Ashley Street, but guests may elect to valet park on the north side of the restaurant, for the walk from the garage is a bit long and currently littered with Occupy Wall Street protesters. One-hour lunch test: Lunch took just less than an hour. It took approximately 15 minutes to receive the entrée after it was ordered.
Garlic bread, which the menu states is made fresh daily, was provided for free and holds over a grumbling stomach until the meal arrives. Staff sincerity: The servers wear black, matching the darker surroundings. Our server instructed us on his favorite meals and was quick with with a joke soaked in an Italian accent. See and be seen: The crowd is made up mostly of business professionals. Patrons were either wearing suits or sport coats and most were in groups larger than four. Derek Iavarone, owner of Malio’s, has several autographed photos of prominent Tampa figures, including one of former Tampa Bay Buccaneers coach Jon Gruden, and says there is nary a time when a shaker and mover can’t be spotted. The steakhouse is said to be a favorite hangout of Yankees players during spring training. Privacy: The restaurant is made up of two tiers. The upper tier, which has smaller tables by windows overlooking the Tampa waterfront, offers a pri-
ABOUT 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 www.review.net. vate setting; the tables are farther apart and columns separate the windowadjacent tables to keep sensitive conversations unnoticed. The lower tier offers several booths at the front that offer solace for those who would rather see than be seen. The lower tier also contains several tables in the open that sit closer together than those on the second tier. If privacy is your aim, shoot for the upper deck. Ambiance: The setting exudes a modern style with classic overtones. The white tablecloths are reminiscent of a café in Little Italy, while the smooth jazz ringing in the background and modern construction give the restaurant a youthful glow. The glow is a metaphorical one —
Mark Wemple
Derek Iavarone, owner of Malio’s Prime Steakhouse, cites the restaurant’s competitive prices and longevity in the Tampa community for its success. the restaurant is dimly lit, so if you plan to do paper work on your lunch hour, look elsewhere. Food: Iavarone describes Malio’s as a classic steakhouse with an Italian twist. The menu features several salads, steaks and pastas. Entrées hover around $12 and salads at $10. For the more adventurous palate, Malio’s has a blackened tuna sashimi wrap that was delicious and affordable at a price of $14. Lunch for two was about $40.
Ownership: Derek Iavarone is the sole owner of the steakhouse, which he says is successful because of its name’s longevity in the Tampa Bay area. His father, Malio, opened the original location on South Dale Mabry. After receiving a generous deal on the location where it currently stands, the family moved Malio’s into the Sykes building in 2007. Review date: October 2011
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GULF COaST BUSINeSS reVIeW
2012 EDITORIAL CALENDAR JANUARY
GULF COAST
Business Review
THREE DOllaRS
FIRST UP:
• 12 Bold Predictions for 2012 • Commercial Real Estate
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BUYING LOCAL
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COFFEE Talk GULF COAST BUSINESS BUZZ
+ Tough year might end with happy news
This could be a good year for bonuses, despite the recession. In fact, 30% of executives with companies that gave a bonus in 2010 say they plan to give higher bonuses in 2011,
according to a new survey from Robert Half International. Only 14% of the respondents, meanwhile, expect to provide smaller bonuses. Human resource managers, at 42%, were the most optimistic about higher 2011 bonuses. Technology executives followed at 25%, the survey states. Menlo Park, Calif.-based Robert Half, a specialized professional staffing firm, polled more than 1,250 senior executives nationwide from companies that offered employee bonuses in 2010.
+ Elderly focused agency grows up fast
A Sarasota-based think tank that studies the impact of aging on businesses and the community is moving at speeds not normally associated with its subjects. To wit: The agency, the Institute for the Ages, which officially launched last spring, received a $1.2 million funding commitment from Sarasota County officials in July. And earlier this month the institute held a workshop, Innovation for the Ages, that drew a high-powered
group of nationwide researchers, executives and government officials to town. “The progress over the past few months has been extremely satisfying,” says Tim Dutton, the Institute’s interim executive director. “This is a marker of how big this has become.” The institute’s formation rests on the fact that Sarasota County, with 30.5% of its 369,675 people 65 or older, according to 2009 U.S. Census figures, is the oldest large county in the country. That’s out of 3,850 counties. Those demographics were a magnet for people who attend-
ed the two-day workshop Nov. 9-10. “The purpose was to bring these people together,” Dutton tells Coffee Talk. “The idea is to think about how they can do the work better, faster and smarter.” Attendees included cultural anthropologists; a representative from Hallmark; New York City Health Department officials; employees from chemical company BASF; and researchers with the Stanford Center on Longevity. Several other universities sent elderly experts to the workshop, along with RTI
See COFFEE Talk on page 3
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