THE ARTS MEAN BUSINESS
From music to sculpture to paintings, the arts are growing in Northwest Florida. But is everyone cashing in?
how Drones are ShiftING From War use to Peacetime
14 ways to boost the morale of your staff
deja brew is Roasting Up That Perfect Cup of Joe
2015 report: Tallahassee business journal
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850 Magazine December 2014 – January 2015
IN THIS ISSUE Taking On A Challenge Cory Godwin (left) and Rhonda Skipper broke the Walton County Tax Collector’s Office out of a rut, teaching staff how to work more efficiently, be more accountable and build customer trust. The result was a 2014 Governor’s Sterling Award.
850 FEATURES The Business of the Arts 32 Students with an education rich in the arts have
R ewarding Sterling Performance 40 The Florida Sterling Council rewards extraordinary
photo by Matt Burke
higher GPAs and standardized test scores, lower dropout rates and even better attitudes toward community service. But when they graduate and decide to move into this competitive industry, those who survive will be those who are the most resourceful. By Zandra Wolfgram
performance in government agencies and businesses that have gone the extra mile to provide excellent customer service while totally engaging workers in a productive, cost-saving environment. Learn some of what Northwest Florida’s award winners have done. By Jason Dehart
On the Cover: Artist Andy Saczynski poses in his Santa Rosa Beach gallery. Photo by Matt Burke
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850 Magazine December 2014 – January 2015
Illustration by Rebecca Sumerall (18) and photo by Matt Burke (106)
IN THIS ISSUE
106 Departments
Corridors
THE 850 life
BAY
15 Larry Sassano is traveling the country and the world to promote Northwest Florida to business interests.
18
CREATING RESULTS
18 The economy is improving, and it’s time to expand your business. Where to grow? Think globally.
In This Issue 10 From the Publisher 13 Letters to the Editor 16 News and Numbers 104 Sound Bytes 122 The Last Word from the Editor
WI-FILES
22 850 was proud to help sponsor this year’s Gulf Power Economic Symposium, and we hosted a Twitter Chat about how best to improve our region’s economy.
HUMAN ELEMENT
24 Looking for ways to boost sagging staff morale? Here are 14 suggestions to get you started.
Special Section Deal Estate
101 What’s trending, what’s selling and what’s hot to buy in Northwest Florida.
MANAGEMENT STRATEGIES
28 What will happen to your business if something happens to you? We have some tips on succession planning.
Business Speak
46 After nearly 30 years writing about business news for Fortune magazine, Andy Serwer has learned more than a few interesting things.
106 Deja Brew Coffee Shop in Panama City Beach makes sure its coffee beans are fresh roasted — and some even come from owner Jerry Williams’ own Costa Rican farm.
CAPITAL
110 Tallahassee’s favorite eyeglass super store — The Hour Glass, a business gamble that paid off for two local entrepreneurs and their investors.
EMERALD COAST
112 The behind-the-scenes story of Raimund Herden, the visionary behind Bluewater Bay who has lived the American dream.
FORGOTTEN COAST
116 The Gulf Unmanned Systems Center in Carrabelle is working with government, industry and academia on air and subsea drones.
I-10
118 Hoping to jump onto the coattails of the post-recession tourism boom, Northwest Florida’s rural counties have joined forces to promote their region to visitors.
Special Report
49 Tallahassee Business Journal
Who is moving to Tallahassee, where are the growing hotspots, what jobs are being created and where is entrepreneurism flourishing? Find out that and more in the annual Tallahassee Business Journal.
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December 2014 – January 2015
850 THE BUSINESS MAGAZINE OF NORTHWEST FLORIDA
Vol. 7, No. 2
President/Publisher Brian E. Rowland
EDITORIAL Director of Editorial Services Linda Kleindienst Senior Staff Writer Jason Dehart Staff Writer Chay D. Baxley Contributing Writers Lynda Belcher, David Bruns, Tisha Crews Keller, Kathleen Haughney, Kathleen Laufenberg, Rebecca Padgett, Todd Patkin, Gray Rohrer, Lori Saczynski, Florence Snyder, Dustin Terry, Zandra Wolfgram Editorial Interns Mikaela McShane, Katie Mueller, Megan Williams Production Specialist Melinda Lanigan CREATIVE Creative Director Lawrence Davidson Production Manager/Network Administrator Daniel Vitter Senior Art Director Saige Roberts Art Director Jennifer Ekrut Publication Designers Shruti Shah, Rebecca Sumerall Advertising Designers Jillian Fry, Amanda Hartsfield Staff Photographer Matt Burke Contributing Photographers Lawrence Davidson, Colin Hackley/Visit Florida, Thomas Goebel, Scott Holstein, Tristin Kroening, Janice LeCocq, Richard Phibbs, Kansas Pitts, Kay Meyer, Andrew Wardlow/Visit Florida SALES, MARKETING & EVENTS Director of Marketing and Sales McKenzie Burleigh Director of New Business Daniel Parisi Ad Services Coordinator Lisa Sostre Account Executives Rhonda Murray, Darla Harrison, Tanya Heath, Lori Magee, Tracy Mulligan, Linda Powell, Paula Sconiers, Chuck Simpson, Alice Watts, Drew Gregg Westling Marketing and Sales Assistant Christie Green OPERATIONS COrporate client relations specialist Caroline Miller Events AND SPECIAL PROJECTS Coordinator Leigha Inman Staff accountant Josh Faulds Accounting assistant Tabby Hamilton Receptionist Tristin Kroening
WEB Digital Services Manager Carlin Trammel Digital Services Coordinators Jennifer Ireland, Rebecca Padgett Digital Services Producer Chelsea Moore 850 Business Magazine 850businessmagazine.com, facebook.com/850bizmag, twitter.com/850bizmag, linkedin.com/company/850-business-magazine Rowland Publishing rowlandpublishing.com SUBSCRIPTIONS A one-year (6 issues) subscription is $30. To purchase, call (850) 878-0554 or go online to 850businessmagazine.com. Single copies are $4.95 and may be purchased at Barnes & Noble in Tallahassee, Destin and Pensacola and in Books-A-Million in Tallahassee, Destin, Ft. Walton Beach, Pensacola and Panama City and at our Tallahassee office. 850 Magazine is published bi-monthly by Rowland Publishing, Inc. 1932 Miccosukee Road, Tallahassee, FL 32308. 850/878-0554. 850 Magazine and Rowland Publishing, Inc. are not responsible for unsolicited manuscripts, photography or artwork. Editorial contributions are welcomed and encouraged but will not be returned. 850 Magazine reserves the right to publish any letters to the editor. Copyright December 2014 850 Magazine, Inc. All rights reserved. Reproduction in whole or part without written permission is prohibited. Member of three Chambers of Commerce throughout the region.
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From the Publisher
They Have to Eat Too
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Then, all of a sudden, pens moved quickly, cash was left on the tray, they all rose from the table and “scurried” quickly out of the dining room. I knew that a bad thing had just happened. When the server came back to the table, I asked her for a moment. “Can you tell me what they left you for a tip?” I inquired, as I figured they had each spent about $50 for their meal. Turns out the cash lady left $1. The credit card ladies each left $1.50. I looked at the server in total amazement, and she told me that it happens a lot in the off-season. She shrugged her shoulders and said things work out in the long run. What a great attitude, I thought — especially in light of her explanation that when it comes to the IRS, the dinner eaten by those three ladies actually cost the server money. That definitely caught my attention. When I returned to Tallahassee, I called my good friend, Andrew Reiss, owner of Andrew’s Capital Grill and Andrew’s 228 as well as a 40-year veteran of the restaurant industry and past president of the Florida Restaurant and Lodging Association. He told me that he must report to the IRS the value of food his restaurant serves each year and, of course, the claimed wages and tips of his servers. Now I understand what the server at Capt. Anderson’s was telling me. Say she served $150 in food to those three women and say the IRS factors in a 15 percent tip — it adds up to $22.50 in estimated income. Instead, she got $4. So, she will pay tax on the $18.50 she never received — and the restaurant will be responsible for payroll taxes on the same. For all of you out there who eat, drink and live life “large,” I ask you to remember this story. Next time you are out for a meal, take care of your server so he or she can support their family and eat, too.
Brian Rowland browland@rowlandpublishing.com
Photo by SCOTT HOLSTEIN
America eats out to the tune of more than $680 billion a year, and in Florida the restaurant industry is expected to report $34.7 billion in sales for 2014. At the beginning of the year, there were approximately 899,000 Floridians who made their living in the 38,717 eating and drinking places in the state. By the end of the year, the employment rolls were expected to grow by 15 percent. In other words, this is big business. Recently, while visiting Panama City Beach for our newest project of developing and publishing the new quarterly visitor lifestyle magazine for the Panama City Beach Convention and Visitors Bureau, I decided to pause and have dinner at one of the area’s landmark seafood restaurants, Capt. Anderson’s, which has turned the serving of fine seafood into a science. Many of the wait staff have been with the restaurant for decades and support their families by bringing the best of the Gulf to their guests’ tables. On this night, I was seated where I could look out on a vista of fishing boats as they unloaded their catch of the day and also down at the table below, where three middle-aged ladies were dining. I was curious to observe their food presentations and their interactions with the server. They put the server through her paces, and when the check arrived they then asked for separate checks. At this point, I knew I was in for some entertainment and decided to watch their exit strategy. In about 10 minutes, the server returned with their three checks (it takes time to do the dinner audit), which they studied intently to ensure they did not pay for one more hush puppy than they ordered. One of them put cash on the tray while the other two put down their credit cards. When the server returned, their “OCD” conditions began to spike. On the tray were many brand new dollar bills, and the individual who had paid with cash began rubbing them together, bringing them down to her purse and then back up again to the tray, time and again. The other two who had paid with credit cards stared intently at their checks for well over two minutes without picking up the pen. At that point, not a word of communication passed between them, nor was there any apparent eye contact among the three.
VIDEO VERIFIED INTRUSION DETECTION BY
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850businessmagazine.com Twitter Chat
After Governor Scott’s inauguration, we will be hosting an 850 Twitter Chat on Jan. 8. Follow us on Twitter (@850BizMag) and be ready to join in on the discussion about Northwest Florida’s future.
Pinnacle
EXTRA CONTENT ONLINE ONLY
Award Nominations The Business Magazine of Northwest Florida is now accepting your nominations for the 2015 Pinnacle Awards. These awards honor women in our region who exhibit exceptional leadership abilities in their field, are active in their communities and serve as outstanding mentors to others. Winners will be featured in our October/ November 2015 issue.
Video! » Domi Station is an entrepreneur center that was created to help build community and give startup businesses a home. At Domi, entrepreneurs are provided with a space to let their business develop. Check out this video to get a tour of this inventive and inspiring space.
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Video! » Business of Art: North Florida artist Andy Saczynski was commissioned by the Immaculate Baking Company to hand paint a 40-foot billboard from scratch. Check out this “real time” video of Saczynski’s four-day folk art “wall dog” challenge in downtown Minneapolis.
Dave Barfield (Pinnacle Awards) and Carlin Trammel (Domi Station)
Sign up for more info Want
FROM THE MAI LBAG I really enjoyed the October/November issue. I liked the Rick Scott/Charlie Crist article and, of course, the gun show article. However, I particularly enjoyed The Last Word. It reminded me so much of when I started as a professional lobbyist representing a “man’s issue” and the comments and behavior with which I had to deal. In the early 1960s, when I started shooting competitively (rare for women at the time), they underestimated me. By the time I made it to national level competition, they knew I was a natural and they resented me. It was not until I started using my talents to protect their gun rights that they started to appreciate and respect me. I ran track in junior high and high school, so I was teased for having “football legs.” Covering them was never a problem for me. :-) Thanks for the memory jog. Marion Hammer Executive Director, Unified Sportsmen of Florida
Really enjoyed reading the 2014 Pinnacle
Award Winners article. (October/November 2014)
Elizabeth Blackwell Redfearn Tallahassee
The inaugural Pinnacle Awards luncheon was held at Tallahassee’s Capital City Country Club on Tuesday, Aug. 19. The event honored 10 women from across Northwest Florida, each of whom has excelled in her chosen area of business. Daniel W. Uhlfelder Law Firm was proud to be a sponsor and support such a worthy cause in our community coordinated by 850 — The Business Magazine of Northwest Florida.
Make your rst move the right move HIRE A LICENSED REAL ESTATE PROFESSIONAL Verify state licenses at www.MyFloridaLicense.com. Unlicensed activity is against the law. Report unlicensed individuals to DBPR by calling the Unlicensed Activity Hotline at 1.866.532.1440, online or on the DBPR Mobile app.
Daniel W. Uhlfelder Law Firm Santa Rosa Beach
Do you have a story idea for 850?
Know a business or a business leader who deserves to be profiled? Noticing certain trends in business that you would like to learn more about? Do you have business questions you would like a professional to answer? Want to tell Northwest Florida about promotions, honors and special happenings in your region? Please send your suggestions/questions/news to Editor Linda Kleindienst at lkleindienst@rowlandpublishing.com. Follow 850 Business Magazine on Facebook, Twitter and LinkedIn. Join the 850 Business Magazine Group on LinkedIn, and start a conversation!
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Do you know an outstanDing woman Business LeaDer? 850 — The Business Magazine of Northwest Florida is looking for your help in recognizing women in our region who have demonstrated outstanding leadership skills in their businesses and communities. PINNACLE
AWARDS
HONORING THE OUTSTANDING WOMEN
Nominations are now open at 850businessmagazine.comBUSINESS LEADERS OF NORTHWEST FLORIDA Ten women will be selected to receive the 2015 Pinnacle Award — women of character and integrity, our leaders, mentors and community servants. These honorees will be profiled in the 2015 October/November issue of 850. Nominees must be a private sector business owner, CEO, primary manager or top executive in their companies. Nominees must have: 1) demonstrated professional excellence and outstanding leadership in her business or profession; 2) actively participated in civic and/or business-related organizations; 3) served as a mentor to others.
PINNACLE AWARDS HONORING THE OUTSTANDING WOMEN BUSINESS LEADERS OF NORTHWEST FLORIDA
SponSored By
For additional sponsorship opportunities, contact McKenzie Burleigh at mburleigh@rowlandpublishing.com 14
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Executive Mindset
) Life The (850 S urvive and Thrive
The Economic Orchestrator Larry Sassano, Santa Rosa Beach President, Florida’s Great Northwest
L
8
2
5
1. How do you relax? Go for a
jog; read a good book; play golf; play video games; ride my bike; and take my wife out for a nice, quiet, romantic dinner.
2. For a surge of energy:
Jogging, because it frees up my thoughts and allows me to put everything into focus.
3. Apple or Android? Apple
6. What’s on your nightstand? Three books; a flash-
light; bottled water; a lamp; and a green coaster from my wife that has a special message.
7. Most perfect place in all of Florida’s Great Northwest: Our upstairs, screened-in porch that overlooks the Bay — very peaceful.
8. Fly or drive to the vacation destination? Almost
4. Last “Ah-Ha” moment: Always the last guest I interviewed on my monthly “Florida’s Great Northwest” TV show.
always fly; this way we get to spend more time at our final destination.
5. To recharge the soul: Play-
9. Leadership rule to live by:
ing golf; running; playing my guitar; singing.
Photo by Matt Burke
Don’t prejudge anyone, and do a better job of listening.
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10. Fave gadget of any kind: The bluetooth that is installed in a car; this way you can focus on driving.
11. Splurge-worthy item: I purchased a designer leather jacket, very nice. 12. Resume entry that provided the most wisdom:
Teaching middle school students after I graduated from college — now that was a learning experience I will never forget.
arry Sassano is passionate about Northwest Florida. This has served him well in his career, with stints as development cheerleader for Okaloosa County and the state at large through the Florida Department of Commerce. He joined Florida’s Great Northwest as president in 2012. From this vantage point, Sassano works with communities in the 16-county area to help orchestrate economic development in the state’s most postcardworthy landscape. In his role, he works with local economic development organizations, chambers of commerce, developers, elected and education leaders and workforce development agencies to strategize diversification of the local economy — to perhaps move beyond military, agriculture and tourism into the coveted segment called business manufacturing. Sassano knows a thing or two about both the unique economy of Northwest Florida and private business. His background includes marketing and economic research, as well as a family-owned men’s clothing company with a presence in Ohio and Florida. Drawing upon these experiences, he is leading Florida’s Great Northwest on to great things. — Tisha Crews Keller
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Executive Mindset
Business Arena Manufacturing by the Numbers
The Florida Scorecard on Manufacturing Florida’s little-recognized manufacturing industry has a significant impact on the state’s $800 billion economy, contributing $1 out of every $20. A report released last summer by the Florida Chamber Foundation puts the spotlight on manufacturing’s contribution to the state while warning that, “A healthy, robust and growing manufacturing sector is a key component to growing Florida’s position as a global hub. As larger ships consider where to dock, our ability to fill those ships will be one of the fundamental considerations to whether those ships dock in one of Florida’s 15 seaports or somewhere else on the Atlantic seaboard.”
Manufacturing Florida
All Jobs
53, 286 $ 41, 140 $
The industry’s average annual salary in Florida is $53,286 — almost
30 percent higher than the average annual state wage of $41,140.
18,000 9,000+ The number of manufacturers that Florida is home to, employing
300,000 Floridians.
The number of new private-sector, high-wage jobs the industry created from 2010 to 2012.
Over the past 10 years, Florida’s manufacturing output* has remained consistent within a range of .6% of the state’s GDP.
5.5% high in 2007
4.9% low in 2013
*Manufacturing output refers to the total inflation-adjusted value of output produced by manufacturers.
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How Does Florida Stack Up?
47 Florida’s national rank in manufacturing’s share of the state’s economic activity.
40 Billions of dollars in economic activity manufacturing produced in 2013
Source: Florida Chamber Foundation The Florida Scorecard is located at TheFloridaScorecard.com. Each week a scorecard is produced that takes an in-depth look at a specific statistic.
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Executive Mindset
Creating Results Expanding through Exporting
Looking To Grow Your Business? Turn your eyes to the world
By Linda Kleindienst
F
ounded in 1956, Pensacola’s Bell Steel has provided structural steel fabrication for projects around the world, from Greenland to Thailand to Egypt to Peru, including 100 overseas U.S. embassies and military installations.
While it began its foray into exports by partnering with the military, the company has branched out to other projects over the years — and an estimated 30 percent of its sales are now attributed to its export business. CEO Randy Bell’s keen eye for new business has been part of the company’s overseas success. “I like to vacation in the Caribbean. Each place I go to I get in a rental car and drive around looking for building projects and contractor contacts. I call them when I get back home — and I get one or two jobs each time,” Bell told the Gulf Coast Trade Alliance’s World Trade Conference earlier this year. Statistics show that companies choosing to get into the export business experience 15 percent faster growth, pay 15 percent higher wages and realize a 12 percent higher profit than those companies that don’t. And, consider this: Nearly 96 percent of consumers live outside the U.S. Two-thirds of the world’s purchasing power is in foreign countries.
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“If you’re not thinking internationally, you have a failing business plan,” says Gray Swoope, Florida’s secretary of commerce and CEO of Enterprise Florida. The export business for Florida companies was a bright spot during the Great Recession. Indeed it was the only sector of the Florida economy that continued to grow (by double digits) and thrive. And now more attention is being paid to the increasing overseas demand for American-made products and services coming from a growing middle class in countries like India and China. India’s middle class is estimated at 350 million people — more than the population of the U.S. “Our emphasis is moving from finding clients for existing exporters to export diversification and putting more companies into the export business,” says Manny Mencia, Enterprise Florida’s senior vice president for international trade and business development. “Fortynine percent of the manufacturing sales in Florida are going to an international client. Nationally, it’s only 20 percent.” U.S. exports to Hong Kong alone grew by 40 percent last year. Some of that increase comes in agricultural products. “We’re witnessing rapid economic development,” said Florida Agriculture Commissioner Adam Putnam. “As
incomes expand, so does the diet. And that’s an opportunity for Florida agriculture. When incomes rise, people can afford the higher quality ag products we offer.” The state’s $4 billion ag export business supports 100,000 jobs. Last year Florida products were exported to 170 countries, with South Korea being the state’s fast growing market, increasing by 43 percent in the past five years. The state sells $6 million in horses each year to South Korea for its budding racing industry. Florida is already home to 60,000 exporting companies — and 96 percent of them are small businesses, according to Michael Myhre, CEO and state director of the Florida Small Business Development Center Network. Just thinking about a foray into the export business can be overwhelming. But a major key to success lies in research — and then knowing where to go to get help. “Exporting is a marathon, not a sprint,” Andrew East, CEO of Alternate Energy Technologies in Green Cove Springs, said at the International Days Conference sponsored by the Florida Chamber of Commerce last spring. “You should do in-depth research. It’s important to understand the cultural and religious practices and the legal framework
in the country you want to export to. In some countries, it’s more like a relationship than a contract. It’s more like a marriage, while in the U.S. it’s more like speed dating.” For those interested in exploring the idea of going into the export business, an important thing to remember is that you don’t have to go it alone. State and federal agencies are more than willing to help businesses expand their global footprint by organizing trade missions to countries around the world and setting up meetings with businesses interested in making a deal. The U.S. Department of Commerce has a presence in countries around
Illustration by Rebecca SUmerall
the world. For a small fee, Commerce employees in those countries can do market research for American companies looking to expand globally and set up contacts for one-on-one meetings. Those meetings can be arranged during trade missions organized by Enterprise Florida, which has international offices and produces the Florida Export Directory, designed to bring buyers together with Florida providers of goods and services. If you’re ready to take your business global, the Florida Small Business Development Center Network can connect you with international trade specialists who provide one-on-one consulting, help in developing a
customized export marketing plan and some training. The export marketing plan, which the SBDC provides in partnership with Enterprise Florida and the U.S. Commercial Services, can cost as little as $500 while providing: readiness assessment, industry analysis, market analysis with target market recommendation, a review of overseas trade opportunities and an action plan. To qualify for SBDC help with a plan, a company’s products must be at least 51 percent U.S. content, the company must have been in business a minimum of two years and have five or more full-time employees and $500,000 to $10 million in annual sales.
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Creating Results
Steps to Export Success from the U.S. Small Business Administration
Greater Pensacola Chamber
A competitive advantage for your business Our programs and services are designed exclusively to help you connect with our network of more than ϭ͕ϮϬϬ ŵĞŵďĞƌ ŽƌŐĂŶŝnjĂƟŽŶƐ͘
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Contact Mike: 850.864.2727
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December 2014 – January 2015
Where To Get Help ▪▪ Trade Information Center, a U.S. Commercial Service resource: export.gov ▪▪ Enterprise Florida, Inc.: eflorida.com ▪▪ Florida Export Directory: floridaexportdirectory.com ▪▪ Office of International Trade, Small Business Administration: sba.gov/oit ▪▪ Official Export Promotion Magazine, U.S. Department of Commerce: thinkglobal.com ▪▪ Small Business Development Center Network: FloridaSBDC.org (In Northwest Florida, the SBDC has offices in Tallahassee, Fort Walton Beach and Pensacola.)
Some Financial Tips ▪▪ Before you decide to export your goods or services, you want to consider payment terms. ▪▪ Can you afford the loss if you are not paid? ▪▪ How long have the buyers been operating, and what is their credit history? ▪▪ Are there reasonable alternatives for collecting if the buyer doesn’t pay? ▪▪ If shipment is made but not accepted, can alternative buyers be found? ▪▪ How will the payment terms affect your cash flow?
Some Common Trade Problems
CONFIDENTIAL EXPERIENCED PROFESSIONAL
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▪▪ Determine if your business is ready to begin exporting. (You can take an online self-assessment at export.gov, provided through the SBA.) ▪▪ Get counseling. The federal government provides free counseling services to help small businesses obtain expert financing and locate business opportunities overseas. ▪▪ Develop an export business plan, setting specific goals and milestones to success. ▪▪ Conduct market research to learn your product’s potential. ▪▪ Find buyers. Some of this can be done through trade missions or trade shows. ▪▪ Investigate financing opportunities.
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▪▪ ▪▪ ▪▪ ▪▪ ▪▪ ▪▪ ▪▪ ▪▪ ▪▪
Tariff and customs barriers Service barriers Standards, testing, labeling or certification barriers Rules of origin Government procurement contract barriers Intellectual property protection problems Excessive government requirements Excessive testing or licensing fees Bribery
Source: U.S. Small Business Administration, Enterprise Florida, U.S. Commercial Service, U.S. Department of Commerce
CHRIS MCCALL Senior Advisor, McCall Commercial – Counts Real Estate Group 850 Magazine advertiser since 2013
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works for us “Several businesses, developers and investors have reached out to us as a result of our ad. We are proud to be a partner of 850 Magazine.”
We are a full-service commercial real estate brokerage firm specializing in investment sales, brokerage, leasing (office, retail, industrial, land) and development services and consulting. We work throughout Northwest Florida, and 850 helps keep us in the know about what is going on in the region. We have been advertising in 850 because it can be found in most Northwest Florida businesses, and it introduces us to the clients that we want to serve — businesses that are relocating or expanding within Northwest Florida as well as those seeking investment properties. Although we have only been advertising for a few months, several businesses, developers and investors have reached out to us as a result of our ad. We are proud to be a partner of 850 Magazine and feel Northwest Florida will be one of the best areas to invest in real estate over the next 20 years.
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P R O U D LY P U B L I S H I N G 8 5 0 M A G A Z I N E S I N C E 2 0 0 8 | ( 8 5 0 ) 8 7 8 - 0 5 5 4 | r o w l a n d p u b l i s h i n g . c o m 850 Business Magazine
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Executive Mindset
Wi-Files Growing the Economy
Northwest Florida’s Next Move Twitter Chat On Thursday, Sept. 25, @850BizMag hosted a discussion about how businesses in Northwest Florida can help grow the economy of the region. This chat was held with Gulf Power to engage the region in a dialogue leading up to the 2014 Gulf Power Economic Symposium on Oct. 12–13 at the Sandestin Golf and Beach Resort in Destin.
on throughout Northwest Florida. The key is telling our story. #NWFLNextMove
The questions and answers posted during Twitter chat are posted below.
@850BizMag A2: Many great opportunities lie ahead for the region. It's going to take much cooperation to not miss out on them. #NWFLNextMove
Question 1 Q1: What does Northwest Florida need to do in order to bring more business to the region? #NWFLNextMove 850 Business Mag, @850BizMag
@850BizMag Promote the strong workforce to companies outside the region #NWFLNextMove
environment are key components of this region and its success. #NWFLNextMove Gulf Power, @GulfPower
Gulf Power, @GulfPower
@850BizMag reply to Q1. I believe we need to have a stronger skilled workforce and ready to go sites. We need to invest now for the future. McKenzie Burleigh, @KenzieBurleigh
FGNW, @FGNW
@850BizMag Cleaning up the environment for more tourism opportunities at the beaches and cities. #NWFLNextMove Jennifer Ireland,
@850BizMag A1: The NW FL region should look for more opportunities to invest in R&D which would encourage innovation. #NWFLNextMove Carlin Trammel, @stormspeed
@J_Ireland1
@J_Ireland1 @850BizMag The beaches and our
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Advanced Technology Center at Gulf Coast State College. Lots of innovative stuff there. #NWFLNextMove
@stormspeed @850BizMag Check out the
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Question 2 Q2: What do you think the economic outlook is for the Northwest Florida region? #NWFLNextMove 850 Business Mag, @850BizMag
@850BizMag A2: To bring people to NWFL and have them take advantage of the great things the region has to offer. #NWFLNextMove Jennifer Ireland, @J_Ireland1
There actually are a lot of innovative things going
Gulf Power, @GulfPower
Carlin Trammel, @stormspeed
@850BizMag A2: Full of potential. The NWF region is old enough to go through a rebirthing era and revamp its appeal & customer attraction. Chelsea Moore, @cmm10t
Question 3 Q3: What should be the game plan for growing a highly skilled workforce in Northwest Florida? #NWFLNextMove 850 Business Mag, @850BizMag
@850BizMag we must continue to invest in strong
@850BizMag partner with neighboring counties to define a brand for the region in order to attract more econ. dev. #NWFLNextMove Tiffany T.M.H., @tifftenn10
Question 5 Q5: Do you think Northwest Florida gets enough state support? Should there be more state or local incentives? #NWFLNextMove 850 Business Mag, @850BizMag
@850BizMag Q5: Northwest Florida has a harder time gaining recognition. Working together as a region helps overcome this. #NWFLNextMove FGNW, @FGNW
thriving Downtowns like @ TLHDowntown & dwntwnPensacola Millennials want to live work & play Tallahassee Downtown, @TLHDowntown
@850BizMag We need to better connect job seekers with resources and employers qualified candidates, like over at @CareerSourceCR! Nicole Avenue PR, @NicoleAvenuePR
Connect students with local employers to learn about career opportunities in NWFL #NWFLNextMove Andrew, @andrewhrhodes
@850BizMag A3: Additional professional training opportunities and careerbased resources in NW Florida's rural communities #NWFLNextMove Lynda MoultryBelcher, @wordsinflight
Question 4 Q4: What risks are you willing to take to improve your county’s economy in 2015? #NWFLNextMove 850 Business Mag, @850BizMag
@850BizMag A4: We need to work with others even if their ideas are
uncomfortable. We all want solutions to the same problems. #NWFLNextMove Carlin Trammel, @stormspeed
@850BizMag A4: Risk personal gains by identifying the regional goals & work toward that together. #NWFLNextMove McKenzie Burleigh, @KenzieBurleigh
@850BizMag A4: Increasing aid to those in need and helping them find jobs around Tallahassee. #NWFLNextMove Jennifer Ireland, @J_Ireland1
@FGNW @850BizMag Especially since we compete with Georgia and Alabama for prospects. #NWFLNextMove Gulf Power, @GulfPower
@850BizMag There's many local & state initiatives to support #entrepreneurs, but they do a poor job of communicating them. #PR #NWFLNextMove Nicole Avenue PR, @NicoleAvenuePR
@850BizMag It's a bright future. However the more legislative connects the better — can provide funding for growth. #NWFLNextMove Tiffany T.M.H., @tifftenn10
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Executive Mindset
Human Element
Boosting Morale and engaging employees
Revive Wilting Engagement What your employees are dying to hear from you By Todd Patkin
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Executive Mindset
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hat were your last 10 or 15 employee conversations like? Chances are, they included phrases like, “I need you to finish that project by the end of the day,” or, “I’m putting you on the Brown account,” or, “How much longer do you think it’ll take to finish that PowerPoint?”
After all, you can’t run a business without addressing these types of issues. And chances are, unless they were delivered in a, shall we say, forceful tone of voice, your employees don’t mind hearing pertinent instructions and questions. So why does their morale seem to be, well, wilting? The problem might not be what you’re saying, but what you’re not saying. The good news is, with a few
“I need your help.” The age of rule-with-an-iron-fist, topdown leadership is fading fast. More and more, organizations in all industries are realizing that there’s an almost magical power in the synergy of teams. Your employees all have unique skill sets, experiences and ideas — so tap into them! The next time you’re facing a difficult decision or brainstorming options, ask your team for help. They’ll appreciate that you treated them as valued partners. “How is your family?” The truth is, people don’t care how much you know (or how good you are at your job) until they know how much you care. Your employees will be more loyal and more motivated if they feel valued as individuals, not just as job descriptions. So get to know each team member on an individual basis and incorporate that knowledge into your regular interactions. “I noticed what you did.” Every day, your employees do a lot of “little” things that keep your company running smoothly and customers coming back: refilling the copier with paper when it’s empty, smiling at customers after each transaction, double-checking reports for errors before sending them on. Unfortunately, in many organizations, these everyday actions are taken for
well-chosen words, you can nurture employee relationships and help their engagement blossom. In the midst of the everyday chaos of running a business, leaders often don’t think about what they could or should say to motivate their employees. Often, they assume their employees know how they feel. Usually, though, that’s not the case. There are certain phrases your employees really want to hear from you. Some have to do with affirmation; others center on encouragement, reassurance, respect, gratitude or trust. When you verbalize these things you will notice a big change in your employees’ motivation, commitment and productivity.
granted, which (understandably) has a negative effect on employee morale. “Thank you.” Yes, your employees may crave recognition for doing the mundane parts of their jobs, but that doesn’t mean that they won’t also appreciate a heartfelt “thank you” for bigger accomplishments. Make sure that you praise and acknowledge your people in a positive way more often than you criticize them. That’s because negative feedback tends to stick in most people’s memories longer, so you need to counterbalance it. “Hey, everyone — listen to what Riley accomplished!” Everybody loves to be recognized and complimented in front of their peers. So don’t stop with a “mere” compliment when an employee experiences a win — tell the rest of the team, too. “What would you like to do here?” Sure, you originally hired each of your employees to do specific jobs. But over time, your company has grown and changed — and so have your people. That’s why it’s a good idea to check in with each one of them periodically to ask what they’d like to be doing. You might be surprised to learn, for instance, that
your administrative assistant would like to be included in the next marketing campaign design team. Annual performance reviews might be a good time to discuss this topic with your employees. Whenever possible, keep job descriptions within your company fluid and allow your people to have a say in matching their skills to the company’s needs. “I have bad news.” You certainly don’t mind sharing good news with your employees, but bad news is a different story. Your instinct might be to play down negative developments, or even keep them to yourself entirely. Nevertheless, your employees deserve to hear the truth from you as soon as possible. They aren’t stupid and will be able to tell when something is “up” — even if you don’t acknowledge it. By refusing to share bad news, you’ll only increase paranoia and anxiousness — neither of which is good for engagement or productivity. “That’s okay. We all make mistakes. Let’s talk about how to fix this.” In business, mistakes are going to happen. And in many instances, the impact they have on your company revolves around how you as a leader handle them. Sure, lambasting an employee who has dropped the ball may make you feel better in the short
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Human Element
term, but it’ll negatively impact that employee’s self-confidence, relationship with you and feelings for your company for much longer. When your employees have made an honest mistake … take a deep breath and remind yourself that the employee feels very bad already, and that yelling or lecturing won’t change the past. Focus on figuring out what went wrong and how to keep it from happening again. “You deserve a reward.” Simple things like gratitude, respect and autonomy make people far more happy than, say, big salaries and corner offices. But there’s no denying that more tangible rewards like bonuses, vacation time, prime parking spaces, benefits and more have their place in raising employee engagement. When resources allow, look for ways to reward your employees for their hard work. Remember, nobody wants to work for a Scrooge! “Here’s how our company works and where we stand.” In many companies, employees in sales don’t know much about what’s happening in accounting. Likewise, the folks in accounting aren’t really familiar with how things in the warehouse work … and so on and so forth. Helping your employees make connections regarding how your company works from top to bottom will streamline internal processes, reduce misunderstandings and promote team spirit. “What do you think?” Maybe you’ve never put much emphasis on the thoughts and opinions of your employees. After all, you pay them a fair wage to come to work each day and perform specific tasks. As a leader, it’s your job to decide what those tasks should be and how they should be carried out, right? This unilateral approach to leading your team sends the impression that you’re superior (even if that’s not your intent) and also contributes to disengagement. Make your employees feel like valued partners by asking them for their opinions, ideas and preferences. “This task is in your hands — I’m stepping back.” Most micromanaging leaders don’t set out to annoy or smother their employees. The problem is, they care and want to make sure everything is done just so and that no balls are dropped or opportunities missed. The problem is, excessive hovering can give employees the impression that you don’t trust them or have faith in them — a belief that actively undermines engagement.
Todd Patkin is the author of “Finding Happiness: One Man’s Quest to Beat Depression and Anxiety and — Finally — Let the Sunshine In,” “Twelve Weeks to Finding Happiness: Boot Camp for Building Happier People” and “Destination: Happiness: The Travel Guide That Gets You from Here to There, Emotionally and Spiritually.” For nearly two decades, he was instrumental in leading his family’s auto parts business, Autopart International, until it was bought by Advance Auto Parts in 2005. One of his most reliable growth strategies, he reports, was proactively nurturing his employees’ attitudes about their jobs by engaging them in conversation. Now, Patkin translates that experience into consulting with organizations to help them build corporate morale and promote greater productivity. 26
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Now is the Time Prepare Your Business to Sell FREE Confidential, No Obligation Consultation 850.424.7541
4481 Legendary Dr., Ste. 101, Destin ECBrokers.com | 850.424.7541
Season 5 Free Preview Screening & Soirée Tuesday, December 16 7 p.m. to 8:30 p.m. WSRE Jean & Paul Amos Performance Studio
SUNDAYS 8PM BEGINNING JAN 4
Pensacola State College 1000 College Boulevard, Pensacola wsre.org wsre ws re org Be among the first to view the Crawley household’s return to PBS for Downton Abbey’s fifth season. Watch the first full hour on the big screen and enjoy light refreshments and door prize drawings. Add to the fun by dressing as your favorite character from the upstairs elite or downstairs domestics!
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Executive Mindset
Management Strategies Business Succession Planning
Sell, Gift or
Buy-Sell? Planning for succession of your business interest By Dustin Terry
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usiness succession planning — what is it? One of the important decisions a business owner must face is when and how to step out of the business. In short, business succession planning. Do you expect to retire from your business? Do you have a plan in place? What would happen to your business if you were to die today? Do you have children you hope to bring into the business? These are questions only you can answer, and your answers will lead you and your financial and legal advisors to a course of action. When you develop a succession plan for your business you have two basic choices: sell or give it away. Once you choose, you can structure your plan to go into effect during your lifetime or at your death.
the occurrence of an event specified in the agreement, such as your death, disability or retirement. A buy-sell agreement can help you to solve the problems inherent in attempting to sell a closely held business. When you structure your agreement, you can tailor it to your needs.
Transferring your business interest with a buy-sell agreement You can transfer your business interest with a buy-sell agreement, a legal contract that prearranges the sale of your business interest. It allows you to keep control of your interest until
A buy-sell agreement provides a ready buyer for your interest When the triggering event occurs, the buyer is obligated to buy your interest from you or your estate. The buyer can be a person, a group (such as co-owners), the business itself or a
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With a buy-sell agreement, you choose the events requiring a sale When you draft your buy-sell agreement, you establish the triggering events, meaning those events under which the sale can or must happen. Common triggering events include death, disability or retirement. Other events like divorce or bankruptcy can also be included as triggering events under a buy-sell agreement.
Executive Mindset
combination. You (or your family or estate) are spared the task of trying to find a buyer when you are ready to sell. Price and sale terms are prearranged A major function of the buy-sell agreement is the establishment of the pricing mechanism for the sale of the business interest. The payment method is typically also determined at the time the agreement is drafted. The major sale negotiation is conducted at a time when there is no pressure to sell. This eliminates the need for a fire sale when you retire, become ill or die; and it may result in greater overall fairness in the deal. A buy-sell agreement can interfere with other estate planning Once you are bound under a buy-sell agreement, you can’t sell or give your business to anyone except the buyer named in the agreement without the buyer’s consent. This could restrict your ability to reduce the size of your estate through lifetime gifts of your business interest, unless you carefully consider and coordinate your estate planning goals with the terms of your buysell agreement. Sell your business interest The major benefits when you sell your business interest are control and cash. You keep control of your interest or business assets until you are ready to let go, and you decide how much or how little you want to sell. Selling allows you to receive cash (or convertible assets) and choose the timing When you sell your business interest or assets, you receive cash (or assets you can convert to cash) that can be used to maintain your lifestyle or pay your estate expenses. You can choose when you want to sell — now, at your retirement, at your death or at some point in-between. You can sell your interest during your lifetime and receive cash to use for your retirement, a
Illustrations by Rebecca Sumerall
new business venture, or that trip around the world you’ve been putting off. When done at your death, an asset sale can provide cash for your estate to use in paying your final expenses or for distribution to your beneficiaries. A limited market means a sale could be difficult There is often no market for the sale of a closely held business, which could make finding a buyer for your interest difficult. Some assets, such as equipment, may have a specialized use or a short time frame of technological usefulness. If your business is a service business, it may be hard to find a buyer for intangible assets such as your customer list. The level of competition in your geographic area or business field could also affect your ability to find a buyer. When the sale occurs after your death, your family or estate may be at a distinct disadvantage when negotiating with a potential buyer. The interested buyer can be expected to try to take advantage of your family’s need for cash to settle your estate expenses and offer a price that is below a fair market value. A buy-sell agreement might be the solution to prevent this from happening because it guarantees a buyer for your interest. Size of business interest, estate could make sale difficult The larger the size of your business interest, the more difficult it may be to find a buyer with access to sufficient cash or credit on short notice. In addition, the larger the size of your business relative to your entire estate, the greater the need for cash to settle your estate expenses. Again, transferring your business interest with a buy-sell agreement might help you to solve these potential problems. Smaller business interests are not without their own problems. Buyers may be reluctant to purchase a minority interest because such an interest doesn’t carry with it the ability to control the business.
Succession Planning in the 850 – What Sells? As a Fort Walton Beach business broker, Mike Goleno — owner of Sunbelt Business Brokers of Northwest Florida — has defined his career by helping local entrepreneurs get the most out of their businesses when it comes time to sell. According to Goleno, deciding on an endgame well before you’re prepared to bow out can have a monumental effect on your profit margin if and when you’re ready to sign on the dotted line. For those looking to sell in the distant future, it’s never too soon to present your product in a favorable light. “Less than 10 percent (of my clients) will come in and ask, ‘What should we be doing to make sure our business is most sellable?’” explained Goleno. The fortunate few who do ask, though, receive two major pieces of advice: Profitability and ease of ownership sells. “Make sure that (your company) doesn’t just depend on you,” he emphasizes. “Make sure that someone else can step in and run the business, and that when you leave it doesn’t fall apart because it’s too dependent on you. If you’re working 80 hours a week — you shouldn’t be. No one wants to step into a position like that. Make your business so it will be desirable to step into and run by not having extreme hours or having so much need for the owner to be right on everything that it can’t function properly.”
850 Business Magazine
— By Chay D. Baxley
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Management Strategies
Transfer your business interest through lifetime gifts You can transfer your business interest through lifetime gifts by doing just that — making gifts during your lifetime. You can choose to make smaller gifts of portions of your business interest over a period of time or make a gift in total at your retirement. Lifetime gifting reduces the value of your estate and could lower your estate taxes A lifetime gifting program removes the value of the business from your estate as you make gifts to the recipient. The benefit to you is a reduction in the value of your total estate, thus the possibility of lower estate taxes at your death. Not only do you remove the value of the gift itself from your estate, but you also remove the future appreciation on the gift and taxes that would be associated with the gain. Lifetime gifting allows you to take advantage of the annual gift tax exclusion, which may help you reduce total gift and estate taxes You could make gifts of unrestricted stock
over a period of time by arranging the gifting program to maximize the annual gift tax exclusion, which allows you to gift up to a certain amount per donee each year ($13,000 in 2012; $14,000 in 2013) without incurring federal gift tax (although you may have to pay state gift tax). The benefit to you is a taxfree, systematic reduction in the size of your estate. When you make gifts of portions of your stock, you ultimately pay less total gift tax than if you made one large gift, thanks to the valuation discount. Lifetime gifting requires you to give up spart or all of your business As you make gifts of your business interest, you might also be giving up some of your ownership control over the business, while the recipient of the gift gains control. If you have co-owners, your relative percentage of control will diminish. If you are the majority stockholder, it might take a long time before you are in a position of significantly less control. If you hold equal ownership with co-owners, it may not take long before you become a minority shareholder.
Transfer your business interest at death through your will or trust If you wish to keep control of your business until your death and transfer your interest to someone at that time, you could transfer your business interest at death through your will or trust. This method of business succession can be effective when the intended receiver of your bequest is currently active in your business and would be able to carry on the business activities.
FROM ENTRY TO EXPERIENCED, PROVIDING THE TALENT YOU NEED CareerSource Chipola serves Jackson, Calhoun, Holmes, Liberty and Washington counties An Equal Opportunity Program. Auxiliary aids and services are available upon request to individuals with disabilities. All voice numbers can be reached by persons using TTY/TDD equipment via Florida Relay Service at 711.
careersourcechipola.com | 850.633.4417 (local) | 800.382.5164 (toll free) 30
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THIS IS Will provisions can authorize the continuation of your business A will provision can direct the executor of your estate to continue your business for a specified period of time or purpose, thus granting permission to carry out activities that otherwise may not be allowed. If the business is continued, the executor may be held personally liable for losses of the business. Caution should be taken by authorizing the executor to incorporate the business, which may limit liability to the activities of the continued business. After your death, the business can be maintained until your family can take control and continued income from your business can be provided to your family and heirs. With a living trust, you can see your continuation plan in action A living trust would allow you to make a revocable transfer of your business interest, providing you with the opportunity to see your continuation plan in action while you are alive. You can see your successor management operating the business while you are afforded continued control and input. This gives you the chance to be completely satisfied with your decision before it becomes irrevocable at your death.
THATplace Where the kids had as much fun jumping into the waves as they did jumping into their bunk beds.
This is the place the kids still talk about, where they played in the surf all day and swam in the indoor pool after dinner every night. There was so much for them to do between the beach, the pools and the Kids’ Club, they never would have slowed down if not for the bunk beds in our suite! Left to them, we’d return to this place every vacation. Maybe we will.
A living trust can provide income to you or your heirs Depending upon the structure of your living trust, you may receive an income from the trust during your retirement until your death. At your death, the business may provide income to your family or heirs or the business can be maintained until your family or heirs can take over. Use of a trust can be efficient and private When you establish a living trust, it requires you to organize your property during your lifetime. In doing so, your assets are transferred at death in an orderly fashion as you intended and not at the discretion of the court. The use of a trust will be less expensive overall because your assets pass from the trust directly to the people you designate to receive them, avoiding the costly probate court process. This would be considered a private transaction, keeping the transfer free of any publicity. Choosing the right type of succession plan The various succession strategies can be used to achieve specific goals for your business interest. Depending upon your particular situation, one or more of these tools may be appropriate for you. The tricky part is, how do you decide? Take a look at the decision tools created to help you analyze and compare the various business succession strategies. Once you have narrowed down your choices, meet with your attorney and tax or financial planner to develop your personal business succession plan.
+1 800 367 1271 | +1 850 267 9500 HiltonSandestinBeach.com #HiltonSandestin #ThatPlace
Dustin Terry is the managing partner of Clear Harbor Wealth Management located in Destin. He specializes in actively managed investment strategies and retirement income planning for individuals and businesses throughout Northwest Florida. 850 Business Magazine
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arts mean business
The growing pains of Northwest Florida’s art scene
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Story By Zandra Wolfgram
Matt Burke
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Some say art is the food of the soul. But if you are in Target in Destin, you can say that some food is art, or at least packaged that way. If you are hungry for cookies, you can grab up a bag of Immaculate Chocolate Chip Cookie mix and All Purpose Flour and feast your eyes on the striking folk art of Santa Rosa Beach artist Andy Saczynski prominently displayed on the package. Perhaps this opportunity tastes even sweeter because Saczynski didn’t even realize his panther and butterfly paintings were purchased by marketing executives at the 2013 Slotkin Folk Festival in Atlanta. He just knew they loved his art and didn’t haggle over the asking price. Fast forward just nine months, and the Niceville native is a household name. Well, at least in household cupboards. Saczynski, 37, is new to merchandising his art and has only been a professional artist full time since March 2013. But like his vivid, dimensional artwork, he quickly turned heads by being Voted Best Artist on the Emerald Coast (2012 and 2013) and
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named Best Artist of the Year (2013) by the South Walton Tourist Development Council. Chris Nolan, a painter from Havana, Florida — located 14 miles north of Tallahassee in Gadsden County — brushed a series of her paintings with a little entrepreneurial spirit when she launched a campaign on Kickstarter.com, a portal to solicit public funding for new ideas. To help offset framing expenses, she created and posted a video of her project called Outside the Box seeking $1,500 to frame her abstract paintings for a show at the Gadsden Art Center last spring. With a less than rosy economy, Nolan turned to this unconventional funding source to put her budget in the pink after a friend gave her an article about it. “I figured it couldn’t hurt. It is very difficult to sell art right now. The average person may have money in their pocket, but they still have that financial memory, so they are holding on to it,” she says. But Kickstarter isn’t the only avenue for this resourceful 60-year-old artist-turned-teacher-turned-artist again. Nolan discovered she can post up to 25 paintings free on a co-op website called artistsites.org. Still, while cyberspace is a cost-effective tool for sales and marketing it does have drawbacks. “The Internet is almost a full-time job in itself, and it’s pretty saturated,” she says. “You can’t just put up a website and not have a blog to promote it these days.”
Matt Burke Photo Courtesy of Immaculate Baking Company
Claiming she’s too old to “traipse to art festivals,” Nolan is keen on cooperative online resources such as artspan.com. It costs $12–$18 a month to join, but artists can gain visibility and sell their work — something Nolan hopes to do when she has the time and inclination. Until then she researches the art scene wherever she goes. A recent trip to Sarasota was not encouraging. She met a gallery owner who told her that just five years ago, his art gallery was one of 15 and now there are just five. Finding the ResourCes Art for art’s sake is nourishing for the spirit, but … one look at Panama City artist Paul Brent’s vast merchandise collections empire and you quickly surmise that art is also nourishing some bottom lines … by the billions, no less. So why aren’t art organizations’ bankrolls as flush as those of established artist entrepreneurs like Brent? If art organizations generate $8 for every dollar that local, state and federal governments invest in them, why do so many seem to still be flailing? And if they have such great right-brained board members, why are they in constant fundraising mode? Well, as most things in any business, it comes down to resources — financial and human. And simply put, most art organizations don’t have enough of either. It didn’t help that in 2013–14 Florida experienced a 73 percent reduction for its matching arts and cultural grants program administered by the Florida Department of State’s Division of Cultural Affairs. There is funding, but many local artists and art organizations do not seem to be aware of where or how to access it. Lori Saczynski, who is married to Andy and handles the business side of Andy Saczynski Gallery, said despite being “tech savvy” and online quite often, she is not aware of any agencies or funding sources. “We wouldn’t know where to begin to find them,” she says. This is surely frustrating for journalist Brenda Shoffner, a longtime arts advocate and features editor for the Northwest Florida Daily News, who has a unique perspective from her perch as an appointed member of the Florida Council on the Arts, a seat she’s held for nearly two years.
Despite penning numerous columns about state-level resources over the years, the low participation level from the Northwest Florida area remains a disappointment to her because she knows how vibrant the art scene is. Marketing “I never cease to be amazed Strategies at the talent here in fine and (Opposite) Andy Saczynski paints away in performing and visual arts,” the second floor studio she says. of his Santa Rosa Beach art gallery. (This page) After 20 years of covering Havana artist Chris the arts scene, Shoffner also Nolan has turned to costknows that local artists are effective cyberspace to market her work. not “singing for their supper.” In fact they are buying groceries and more. “Artists are making their home here, they are setting up businesses and raising families here,” she says. (And all across the country, too, to the tune of a $135.2 billion industry.) But the arts were not always alive and thriving in the region. Shoffner grew up in the area in the 1970s, and she remembers having to drive to Pensacola or Panama City to see a Broadway tour production. Today, being tasked with publishing the Showcase calendar each Thursday, she is keenly aware of just how many art events take place year-round. “It’s always astonishing to me when people complain about the arts in our area,” she says. If anything the vast growth has led to a glut of art events from time to time, leaving Shoffner wishing there was more cooperation among art organizations to better organize and schedule all the offerings. Still, despite some losses (the Emerald Coast Concert Association shut its doors after 53 years, and local visual artist Don Sawyer is closing his Destin studio gallery and moving out of state), Shoffner remains optimistic about the future and points to new organizations popping up. “The performing arts in particular are just blossoming,” she says. Nathanael Fisher is one. He and his wife, Anna, founded Emerald Coast Theatre Company in 2012. Being new to the business end of the arts, Fisher has been proactive in seeking information. In June his application was selected along with just 23 others by the Florida Division of Cultural Affairs to participate in a hands-on workshop presented by the leaders of the Creative Capital Foundation. Fisher said his goal was to “absorb valuable skills and
From the Heart The Immaculate Baking Company brand features the work of folk artists, like Andy Saczynski, on its packaging. They say, “We not only love the images, but deeply respect the integrity of the self-taught artists who create them. Why? Because like our approach to baking, folk art is the very definition of handmade: simple, pure and from the heart.”
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and glad-hand any and all potential donors — including Mike Huckabee at a Rotary breakfast — Hull has become a passionate “voice” for the local arts community to anyone willing to listen. “It’s the industry I represent. I want to be an advocate and champion for the Emerald Coast,” she says. “And, who knows, maybe even on a state level one day.” Hull’s modus operandi is leading by example. And hers is one to follow. MKAF has more than 300 members, a diverse board full of engaged profes-
David O’Connor/RISD
training” in order to develop his “artistry as a theater director and playwright.” The 43-year-old also reached out to senior art organization leaders for guidance. Mattie Kelly Arts Foundation (MKAF) CEO Marcia Hull answered the call. MKAF is nearing its 20th anniversary, and after serving as CEO for 15 of those years Hull, 60, is a savvy executive and considered a sage in art industry circles. After numerous trips to the state capital to defend grants, lobby political leaders
Dr. Jane Chu Named NEA Chair This past summer the U.S. Senate confirmed Dr. Jane Chu as chair of the National Endowment for the Arts (NEA). Chu was the president and CEO of the Kauffman Center for the Performing Arts in Kansas City, Missouri. Before joining the Kauffman Center in 2006, Chu served as fund executive at the Kauffman Fund for Kansas City, vice president of external relations for the Union Station Kansas City and vice president of community investment for the Greater Kansas City Community Foundation. She holds degrees in visual arts, piano performance and piano pedagogy,
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an MBA, and a Ph.D. in philanthropic studies. Nonprofit Connect in Kansas City recently named her their Nonprofit Professional of the Year. Since 1965, the NEA has awarded over $5 billion in grants across all 50 states via local, state and federal partnerships. Each grant dollar on average is matched by $9 of additional investments. The NEA is the largest annual national supporter of the nonprofit arts in the United States. All together, the nonprofit arts industry and its audience is a $135 billion industry employing 4.1 million Americans.
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sionals and solid financials. Still, with just a two-person staff Hull works tirelessly to continually solicit funds, recruit board members and, if necessary, “clean the restrooms.” What is Hull’s secret to success? Strategic planning. “We have an annual planning meeting, and out of that is a document that is essentially our business plan,” she says. “It’s our bible.” The “bible” leads Hull and her board for the year. MKAF produces two signature events — the Concerts in the Village in the summer and the Festival of the Arts in the fall. They also supplement art education in the schools with year-round outreach through the All Kinds of Art program. Art Happenings “We measure (Left) The new chair of the National results of everyEndowment for the thing we do and Arts is seasoned arts executive Dr. Jane look at the ROI. Chu of Kansas City; We monitor ev(Opposite) For nearly ery event finan20 summers, the Mattie Kelly Arts Foundation cially. In fact, I has staged an outdoor probably spend summer concert series in Destin. more time on the numbers than anything else,” she says. “I have to. As a CEO, I am a fundraiser. We run our non-profit as a business. It may not make a profit, but it is a business.” And when operated successfully, the arts translate into a desirable place to live and work. And that lures even more businesses. So much so that in January 2009, the Florida Chamber of Commerce identified quality of life as a key component to Florida’s economic recovery. The Chamber specifically cited arts and culture as a way to attract business and improve quality of life for Floridians. Hull recalls the arts push a few years ago. Perhaps the focus at the state level is what motivated local participation in a five-city tour of the Florida League of Cities called “Culture Builds Florida Communities” that included a stop in Fort Walton Beach for a session held at the Northwest Florida Ballet in March 2011. Just six months later, in September, the Okaloosa Economic Development Council was inspired to put the arts on the agenda for a
Kansas Pitts
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high profile roundtable symposium called a “Salute to Arts & Tourism” for the first time; Hull was seated on the panel. But those high profile events are not the first time leaders convened to discuss the arts. Shoffner recalls a daylong symposium on the arts held in Navarre in 1996. But, little came of that either. Over the past 15 years, despite her efforts to attend workshops, forums and panels in order to speak up and out about the arts, little has resulted from it. “Nothing happens,” she says. “It would be great if we could work better together.” For this arts advocate the stakes for the arts couldn’t be higher. “Quality of life is a strategy. It’s not a luxury,” Hull says emphatically. But no matter what the political climate, or how many grants she’s denied, Hull’s personal mission remains clear. “We just have to promote the arts. It’s our responsibility to our community to give it a sense of place. I just can’t imagine living anywhere without arts and culture. And who would want to?” And then there are the future generations of artists to consider. Jason Hedden, 37, an associate professor of theater at Gulf Coast State College in Panama City, bases much of the advice he gives his students in the classroom on his real-life experience as an actor and director. While in graduate school at The Ohio State University, he researched, authored and performed in a new play. What started as a 10-minute assignment became a one-man passion
project play called “Resurrecting Van Gogh” that he continues to develop today. The story is based on the life, work and writings of Andy Martin, a medical student and oncology patient at Tulane University, who conducted groundbreaking research on sinonasal undifferentiated carcinoma (SNUC), an extremely rare form of cancer that eventually took his life in 2004. Hedden has found keen interest and support for his new work within the niche industry of health care; the play has been staged in concert with art therapy programs in Ohio, New York, California and Florida. “This particular project has had more doors open than anything I’ve ever worked on, and I think it’s because I’m not knocking on the same doors as everyone else … I went in the back door. I was knocking on the door of Art Therapy for Cancer Patients. I’ve learned to consider non-traditional avenues, and now I’ve started to do that for other projects,” says Hedden. And those “paths not taken” apply also to fields of study within the arts. Opportunities abound beyond traditional majors. At GCCC, for example, you can study applied theater, which Hedden describes as “basically every type of theater except the most common.” This degree may place an actor on the path of theater for social change and link to social work. Hedden points to online programs that offer a Masters of Art degree in health care and focus on things like art therapy.
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is Good for You Students with an education rich in the arts have higher GPAs and standardized test scores, lower drop-out rates and even better attitudes about community service … regardless of socio-economic status. Schools in highpoverty areas that developed arts-integrated curricula showed improvement in reading and mathematics. At-risk youth participating in the arts increased their ability to communicate effectively, complete tasks and showed a decreased frequency of delinquent behavior. 78 percent of health care institutions providing arts programming, such as Sacred Heart on the Emerald Coast’s Arts in Medicine program, do so because of their healing benefits to patients — shorter hospital stays, better pain management and less medication. Source: Florida Division of Cultural Affairs
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In August, Immaculate Baking Company commissioned local artist Andy Saczynski to hand paint a 40-foot-long billboard in downtown Minneapolis.
How to Be a Professional Artist in 12 Steps By Lori Saczynski When I was pregnant with our fifth child, Andy told me that he wanted to be a fulltime artist. I objected, saying there’s a good reason the term “starving artist” exists. I couldn’t fathom how he was going to support our family of seven as a full-time artist, but he was determined. Slowly but surely, his dream also became my dream, and I have done my best to help him along the way. Within 2.5 years of declaring his career intentions, Andy’s part-time hobby became a full-time profession. And guess what? We aren’t starving! I’m not necessarily an expert, but if you want to know how to be a professional artist, I’m happy to share what’s worked for us.
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Follow Your Heart Make what you like. Don’t just make what you think people will buy. Stick with your vision and your creativity. When your heart is in your work, it will always turn out better.
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Look for Good Deals on Materials Try to keep your expenses low. You can find “oops” paint at Home Depot and Lowe’s for a fraction of what paint usually costs. Also, every time we make a purchase at Michaels, a 40 percent off coupon is printed with our receipt. Use those coupons to buy canvas or expensive paintbrushes. Andy prefers wood over canvas, and he can usually find what he needs at Home Depot or Lowe’s in the scrap bin. He’s also been known to drive by construction sites and ask if they have any wood they’re going to throw away. Don’t be embarrassed — it’s smart to save money.
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Document Your Work I take a digital photo of every piece of art Andy creates. The file names include the name of the art and the dimensions. There are many ways to document your work, but this has worked best for us.
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Price Your Art Pricing your art is one of the most difficult tasks. I would suggest visiting multiple galleries or searching for original artwork online. How do you feel your art compares to the competition? My thought is that comparable art quality should have comparable pricing. Also, take in to consideration how long the piece took to make and how much you spent on materials, then do the math. Let’s say a piece took 10 hours from start to finish and your materials cost $100. If you slap on a $500 price tag, would you be satisfied making $40/hour? It’s really up to you to find your sweet spot.
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Get Online Do not depend only on social media. You want customers all over
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market is, then think about which charities those people might support. Donate a piece of art to those charities’ silent auctions. Second, participate in art festivals. Not only will you get good exposure, you will get to meet a lot of new people who may become good customers. Plus, you’ll probably sell a lot of art! A warning, though: People like to haggle at festivals. Put a little wiggle room in your prices and prepare yourself mentally that some people are downright rude. Try to not take it personally, and stand firm on your pricing when you don’t feel like negotiating. Remember, this is your career, not a yard sale. Respect your work, even when others don’t.
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the world to find you. You need an Internet presence. Get a Web site. Buying a domain name is cheap, and WordPress makes building a site fairly easy. Don’t depend on social media, but don’t ignore it, either. Social media is a great way for people to discover you, share your stuff and communicate with you. Pick a few platforms, and start building your presence. So far, our experience has been best with Facebook and Instagram because they’re the most photo-heavy. Play around and see what you like.
Get Your Work in Galleries Visit galleries. Meet the gallery owners. Pursue gallery representation. Most galleries take a big percentage (like 50 percent), so you’ll need to adjust your pricing accordingly. When you’re selling enough to pay your bills and then some, consider opening your own gallery. This is risky, but the payoff is huge. Were we scared to open a gallery? Of course. Do we regret opening a gallery? No way. But we learned how to swim before we surfed. Which leads me to #11 …
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Keep Track of Sales You can get fancy with QuickBooks or stay simple with Excel, but do something! You need to find a way to keep your income and expenses organized. I’d suggest calling an accountant to find out what all you can write off for tax purposes. Save your receipts!
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Don’t Forget to Collect Sales Tax Don’t forget to collect sales tax and report it at the end of each month. It’s the law. Do you like jail? No? Then don’t break laws. If the government finds out you’ve been making sales and not reporting them, you will have to pay the sales tax regardless if you collected it or not. You know what’s worse than paying sales tax? Paying another person’s sales tax. So, be smart and make sure you know what the tax rate is where the transaction occurs, collect that money and then give it to the government in a timely manner.
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Accept Credit Cards Do you want to sell art for a lot of money? Well, guess what? Most people don’t carry two grand in their wallet, nor do they carry a checkbook. Make sure you have the ability to accept payment with plastic. A good place to get started is Square.
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Donate and Participate If you want to get your name and your work out there, there are two great ways. First, donate your art to charities. Consider who your target
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Don’t Quit Your Day Job Before You’re Ready When Andy decided to be a full-time working artist, he didn’t do it overnight. He kept his day job and made art at night and on the weekends. He participated in some festivals. He donated art to charities. He got in a gallery. He learned how to swim. As art sales went up, his “day job” hours went down. It went from 10/90, to 50/50, to 90/10, and so on. This process took 2.5 years until his old job was completely phased out in March 2013. He was officially surfing! Now he’s living his dream of being a professional artist, but it didn’t happen overnight. Dreams take a lot of time and a lot of work.
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Keep Making New Art Andy is always growing as an artist. When we compare his current work to stuff that he did a year or two ago, he’s noticeably improved (and sales have also improved). I know that will continue to happen as time goes on. As with anything in life, if you keep working on it and keep moving forward, you are bound to improve. While you’re working and improving, you will face rejection and disappointment, but don’t give up. If the transition from hobby to career takes awhile, don’t be discouraged. Let it motivate you to continually improve. If your dream is to be a professional artist, you CAN do it. This article was first published as a blog post on artbyandyski.com on Nov. 9, 2013.
Watch the “real time” video at 850BusinessMagazine.com
Janice LeCocq
Hedden recently was hired to use his acting chops in a role-play workshop attended by real estate sales professionals looking to sharpen their communication skills with clients. He is providing private consultation for a Panama City woman eager to be more confident in her job by overcoming her acute fear of public speaking. There’s an old adage that says the “squeaky wheel gets the grease.” Nearly 75 percent of all visitors to Florida attend some kind of cultural art event across the state each year. And when they visit, culturalminded tourists spend more money than non-cultural visitors and twice as much as local attendees. Pensacola does not need to be convinced of the marketing might of the arts. They are “packaging” all of the arts and culture offerings in the area during a two-week time period in November to drive up off-season visitation. “To me this should be one of our greatest message points. I don’t think it’s been done in the past, yet it could really drive our business,” says Visit Pensacola President Steve Hayes. And the South Walton Tourist Development Council sees the opportunity, too. In an online community survey of about 1,200 people, 52.8 percent said they’d like to see a multi-purpose cultural facility, which landed it No. 8 on a 12-point list of possible capital improvements. Lower on the list, at No. 11, is an art and history museum, favored by nearly 30 percent of those polled. The Arts are Good for Beyond tourism, which certainly is big business for a destination like Florida, there is also the industry ▪ Over 57 million people itself to consider. It is not attend arts and cultural events the largest employer, but in Florida each year. according to the Florida ▪ 74.9% of visitors to Florida Office of Cultural Affairs participate in cultural activities. there are nearly 65,000 arts-related businesses that ▪ Cultural visitors spend employ more than 217,406 more than twice as people across the state. much as local attendees. That’s pretty squeaky. Throughout 2014, the ▪ Florida’s cultural tourists Florida Division of Cultural spend more than tourists Affairs is undertaking an not attending cultural events initiative to develop a new ($631 versus $457). strategic plan. The current plan is called Culture Builds Florida’s Future and is viewable at florida-art.org/about/strategicplan. But they are soliciting input for a new plan that will guide the Division through 2020. One of the ways they are collecting feedback is through “listening sessions.” For more information on how to participate in one, or host one, contact Gaylen Phillips at gaylen.phillips@dos.myflorida.com.
Photo Courtesy of Immaculate Baking Company (billboard)
Tourism
Pyramid is in the Business of Building Independence, Confidence Celebrating 20 years this year, Pyramid Inc. (pyramidinc.org) is a 501C(3) corporation committed to serving individuals with severe disabilities. Pyramid operates six centers in five cities across Florida — Pensacola, Fort Walton Beach, Panama City, Tallahassee (two locations) and Tampa. It is perhaps best known for its unique arts program, which offers a full range of visual and performing arts, catering to each student’s level of ability and interest. The Pyramid Players perform across Florida and in Georgia and Alabama. Pyramid’s artists exhibit from St. Petersburg, Tampa and Orlando to the Panhandle. Their work is on display from South Florida to Chicago and beyond. The program currently serves nearly 700 adults. In addition to the arts, Pyramid offers therapeutic repositioning, physical/nutritional and behavioral assistance, peer counseling, sensory integration, social and lifemanagement skills training and a variety of educational classes designed to increase their independence. To book a performance by the Pyramid Players, call the Tallahassee office at (850) 671-1690. For information on the nearest Emerald Coast location in Fort Walton Beach, call (850) 862-7139.
Several support art organizations dot Northwest Florida (Cultural Arts Alliance, MKAF, Okaloosa Arts Alliance and the Northwest Florida Arts Council, for example), and while they all claim missions that support the arts, no one organization appears to represent the entire region. Perhaps artists along the Emerald Coast would ultimately be best served if the string of art organizations found a way to band together to create a collective “voice” which together may be stronger, louder. Until then, art entrepreneurs like Andy Saczynski will likely keep cooking up eye-catching entrepreneurial business ideas. And maybe they will whet the appetites of “fat” funders hungry for tasty, new ideas.
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Next Level Taking Business to the
A slow recovery is forcing businesses to work more efficiently. The Florida Sterling Council points the way. By Jason Dehart
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Seeking Excellence Rhonda Skipper and Cory Godwin (left) agreed it was time to break the Walton County Tax Collector’s office out of its rut.
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The Governor’s Sterling Award is a stepping stone to the national Baldrige Award, explained John Pieno, president of the Florida Sterling Council. “In order to get national recognition with Baldrige, you have to have been completely recognized as a role model at the state level. So that’s what we are. However, unlike Baldrige, and a lot like other states that do this, we have these five entry-level tools that are self-assessment tools that organizations can use,” Pieno said. Companies engaged in the Sterling model don’t necessarily have to grasp for the brass ring. They are free to choose what level of assessment and improvement they think is best for their company. What’s important is the value they take away from the process. “It’s not about every organization applying for the award,” said Dione Geiger, Florida Sterling Council executive director. “We know that not every organization is going to want to go through an award process to this extent. We can offer them some of our resources, offer them some of our tools, our training, and let them get started getting to understand that value.” In the case of the Walton County Tax Collector’s office, the staff and management decided to go the distance. It started when Cory Godwin came to work in 2005. Godwin, the chief deputy tax collector, used to work for the Florida Department of Corrections back in the 1990s, and part of his work for that 27,000-employee agency involved being introduced to the Sterling model. At the time it was widely adopted by many state agencies under the direction and leadership of Gov. Chiles. “Fast-forward to 2005. When Miss Skipper was elected tax collector, I made a decision to leave the DOC and come onboard with her. Essentially, (Sterling) was the model I was familiar with and one that was proven to have produced results even in an organization as large as corrections,” he said. The staff started to incrementally implement the Sterling method of self-assessment and analysis. There are seven categories in this matrix of evaluation: leadership; strategic planning; customer focus; measurement; analysis and knowledge management; workforce focus; operations focus and results. Skipper said the first thing her office had to do was build trust among the employees and change the That’s-the-way-it’s-always-been-done/We-don’t-do-itthat-way mindset. “We wanted to put a process in place that would better the overall organization. And sadly the environment
Photo by Matt Burke
Change is good. Complacency is bad. Ask Rhonda Skipper, Walton County Tax Collector. You see, Skipper — no stranger to how government operates — had a problem. It’s a problem that’s not limited to government agencies, however. It could apply to any private business as well. The problem was, her tiny office — 32 staff members — was stuck in a rut. “It was a very traditional culture, and it was 45 years of doing things the same way. There was absolutely no structure or work processes, policies or procedures. I guess you could say it was organized chaos,” a brutally honest Skipper said. It was time for a change. In 2005, the agency put the wheels in motion that would eventually earn it the 2014 Governor’s Sterling Award, the second highest achievement a company can reach in the Sterling improvement process. (Right above it on the list is the Governor’s Sterling Sustained Excellence Award, a way for Governor’s Sterling Award recipients to hold onto their status as a “role model” and example for others.) Established in 1992 during the administration of Gov. Lawton Chiles, the Florida Sterling Council is an independent not-for-profit corporation supported by the Executive Office of the Governor. (Although two of its highest honors carry the governor’s title, the company isn’t political and doesn’t endorse candidates.) The Florida Sterling Council has seven unique assessment tools designed to take your organization or company through various levels of evaluation, enabling you to prioritize improvement objectives. They are all based on the Sterling Criteria for Organizational Performance Excellence and the Malcolm Baldrige National Criteria for Performance Excellence. The Sterling Council increases its value to businesses by hosting an annual conference designed to inspire business leaders to reach for the next level of efficiency and productivity. The event, which usually draws up to 500 business leaders from across the state, is considered a “one-stop shop” for education, information and inspiration. At the end of the conference select businesses are recognized for best practices, a Team Showcase Champion is selected and the winner of the Governor’s Sterling Award for performance excellence is announced.
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had become such that there was no trust from the employees or even the people that we serve,” she said. “We’re very proud of the fact that you don’t have to be a large organization to do great things.” Kara Stallings, director of administration, said it wasn’t so much about the award as it was validation. It showed them that they were on the right path. “It’s not about the management model itself but combining the manner of culture change with the model. That’s what makes us unique,” she said. Governor’s The changes brought about Sterling Award past by the Sterling assessments rerecipients from sulted in incredible employee Northwest Florida satisfaction, Godwin said. 1994 “The private sector can offer ▪ Monsanto Company, incentives that we can’t, but we Nylon Fibers Division, have been successful in rallyPensacola ing a group of people around ▪ Sacred Heart Hospital, this larger sense of purpose and Pensacola makes it more than just about license plates,” he said. “We are 1999 really here to continuously seek ▪ Florida State Hospital, opportunities to serve others. Chattahoochee We want to add value to the community. It makes it a little 2003 bit easier to get up in the morn▪ Boeing Special ing and show up bright and early Operations Forces when you’re doing it because it’s Aerospace Support more about the purpose than Center, Ft. Walton what we do and how we do it.” One important improve2007 ment made as a result of inter▪ Landrum Professional action with Sterling analyses Employer Services Inc., was in how the agency dealt Pensacola with its customers — and when it comes to a tax collecting agen2014 cy, there are many customers ▪ Fort Walton Tax with different needs and wants. Collector’s Office “We certainly knew who our customers were and had put together feedback and two-way communication at every one of those touch points where we deal with customers,” Godwin said. “But one of the things they suggested was a segmentation of that. It’s not enough to just say that they’re customers. Some of our customers are motor vehicle users, drivers, hunting and fishing enthusiasts. We have automobile dealers who are part of that customer base. (We had) to really do a lot more analysis of who those customers are. Each one of their needs is different. We may think we’re addressing customer satisfaction, but we may have a segment that we’re not meeting their needs if we don’t ask.” Once that “segmentation” was put in place, and employee mindset was changed, customer satisfaction rates skyrocketed to 99 percent, he said. 44
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“I think the critical component was specifically targeting our communications to those individuals. In other words, to speak to them about what’s important to them, as opposed to the traditional approach of mass communication to all of them,” Godwin said. But Sterling wasn’t the only resource the tax collector took advantage of, Godwin said. Advice was sought from private companies as well. “We owe a debt to the people in the private sector because we reached out to best practice partners like Zappos and Chick-Fil-A,” he said. “We’ve reached out to those folks because they were recognized as best in class, and we were amazed at how open they were. We continue to look at the private sector as to how we can improve what we do. We have a standing Best Practices team, and they spend their whole year bringing back innovative ideas from the private sector. Most of the ideas come from the private sector.”
Scanning the Horizon
It doesn’t necessarily mean your company is in trouble when you introduce the Sterling Model to the workplace. In the case of FBMC Benefits Management, the largest benefits specialists in the United States, it was a matter of re-examining processes and long-term planning. Again, it was the need to rise above complacency. The company was established in 1976 as a nationwide third-party administrator of tax-favored benefit programs; pre- and post-tax benefits for private and public employees; administered Section 125 plans; and Flexible Spending Account programs. “Most companies don’t start looking for how to get better until they’re in trouble. That wasn’t the case for us. We were not in trouble, and we weren’t declining,” said Barbara Hinson, a senior manager and an in-house Florida Sterling Master Examiner. It was Hinson who started the company’s Sterling initiative. “What we were looking for was a model that could take us to the next level of excellence, a model that we could grow within and that would grow with us.” FBMC started its Sterling journey in the early 2000s, and in 2010 the company’s wellness program earned the Florida Sterling Quality Achievement Award. Company President David Faulkenberry is a Sterling Council board member and the council’s secretary/treasurer. Overall, “we were in a good trend but we wanted to improve. We wanted to constantly put an infrastructure in place to where we evaluated ourselves and came up with new ideas and new areas to focus on,” Faulkenberry said. In essence, you can’t know where you’re going unless you know who you are and where you’ve been, Hinson said. Sterling provided the matrix for making those evaluations. “We were not looking for a model that told us what to do. We were looking for a model that says,
you figure out who you are and here are some attributes that you could use if you choose to in order to continue to get better. And so that’s what we did,” Hinson said. “We found that this really was a model that worked for us. We know who we are, we know what we have to do for our customers, we know what we have to do for our employees and we know what we have to do for our business.” And that means looking beyond the bottom line. Actually, it involves understanding why the bottom line is the way it is, good or bad. Hinson said that most companies before the late 1970s and early 1980s didn’t really look at what was driving their financials. They just looked at the bottom line. That was the case with FBMC as well. But things change, and philosophies have to change in order for a company to remain relevant. “We were where other companies were. We were looking at financials, primarily,” she said. “It became quite apparent that there were things that were just as important as the financials. Financially you can’t get where you want to be if you don’t have other systems driving it. So that really became evident to us as well, and we started adding other components to our measurement system. Looking at our processes, looking at our people, looking at our customers, looking at customer satisfaction.” It’s perfectly understandable that a company has to know it has money in the bank first and foremost, Faulkenberry said, but making sure the bills are paid is still just one barometer of any company’s health. “At the end of the day all of the checks have to clear the bank,” he said. “You have to have money to do that, but that is a microcosm of the whole organization. So in my opinion what the Sterling Process does, among other things, is it causes you to ask why your financial statements are where they are. What is happening within the organization to result in the results on your financial statements? Why is your bottom line what it is, and what’s driving it?” These are very important and relevant questions to ask as a company moves into the future. These evaluations and assessments are also critical components of the Sterling process. “That leads to a pretty rigorous internal evaluation about your organization’s leadership capabilities, management capabilities, your operational capabilities, how well you focus on the customer and what they are asking … are you even asking the customer what is important to them?” Faulkenberry said. “It puts together a whole framework to answer that ‘why’ question around the overall performance of a company. To me one of the greatest benefits of Sterling is it really forces you to answer that ‘why.’ ” The best thing about the Sterling process is, it doesn’t say a
The City of Tallahassee’s underground utilities department was named 2013 Team Showcase Champion by the Florida Sterling Council in May for excellence in implementing a nitrogen reduction program. This effort is part of the city’s commitment to reach a higher treatment level known as Advanced Wastewater Treatment. “The AWT project has been extremely successful and is a
company has to do this, or must do that, in order to succeed. It just provides a list of actions that you could choose to take if you want to be world-class in leadership, Hinson said. The other great thing about Sterling is it can be “personalized” in such a way that employees and staff can have a greater sense of buy-in. “We learned that it was somewhat confusing to some of our employees when we made reference to Sterling a lot, so we decided we would personalize the process and give it a name that we chose and use the concepts,” Hinson said. “You’re not doing Sterling work, you’re doing FBMC work using the management model that FBMC has chosen to use. And so that really helped also to support the journey and keep us on track to where we are going.”
The Age of the ‘New Normal’
It’s enough to make a business owner cringe, this idea being promulgated that the national economy isn’t going to get any better. That this is the economy we’re stuck with, that it isn’t recovering nearly as much as we’d like it to. Whether that’s really the case or not, business leaders have been forced to come to terms with this new reality. Part of that reality involves doing more with less. Working “smarter,” not “harder.” “We’re not going to go back to larger staffs and more workers. So we have to learn to work smarter, and we have to continue to improve efficiency of operations and not overwork the staff we have through making sure the work they do is done once and done well,” Geiger said. “We have to have good quality and we have good recognition systems for the employees. Again, this is even more important: We come out of a recession, the workforce has shrunk a lot of companies and it’s not going to grow back up unless you’re adding new markets. So, how do you do it better?” Again, that’s a question best answered by the Sterling model. Within the model are ways of examining processes for cutting out waste and improving product quality. One of the best tools for doing that is “Six Sigma,” a standard coined by Motorola years ago, Geiger said. “Six Sigma is all about managing and eliminating defects in your processes, and there are different standards and classifications for Six Sigma,” she said. “What Six Sigma brings to the table is something we call Define, Measure, Analyze, Improve and Control. And it’s a very formal management process for improvement that helps you eliminate defects and to drive higher levels of performance. And that’s what it’s all about. Any work you do, even service organizations adopted this, it’s about managing your process to eliminate defects and rework.”
true testament to Tallahassee’s environmental commitment to protecting our drinking water and natural treasures, such as Wakulla Springs,” said former Mayor John Marks. “By significantly reducing nitrogen levels, we’re helping improve the water quality of the region’s lakes, streams, underground waters and springs because nitrogen fuels the growth of algae and other noxious plants.”
Underground Utilities General Manager Mike Tadros credited city leaders for their vision and staff for its hard work. “This is a great tribute to the dedication of our employee wastewater treatment team, as well as the continued support from city leadership,” Tadros said. “It is just one more example of what makes us the No. 1 public utility in America.”
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Executive Mindset
Business Speak
Richard Phibbs
Mixing Business and Politics
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Executive Mindset
Taking Care of Business Longtime Fortune magazine editor Andy Serwer serves up his thoughts on business, politics and our economic future By Linda Kleindienst
A
ndy Serwer was always more interested in writing about business than practicing it, so after earning his MBA at Emory University in Atlanta he went on to the Columbia University Graduate School of Journalism in New York. It didn’t take him long to realize he had made the right decision. “Business journalism at that point was really not at all hot and was real back water. And the business journalism class was real small,” Serwer, longtime managing editor of Fortune magazine, said in an interview with 850 during a recent visit to Tallahassee. “Some of the students were saying things like, ‘These companies, man, they just exist to, like, make profits.’ I looked around and thought I just might have a leg up on these guys, I understand things a little more than they do. And that’s what did it for me. I realized I already had an understanding of (the business world). It was great.” Serwer got an internship at Fortune in 1984 that turned into a full-time job in 1985. He left the magazine in August after nearly 30 years, the last eight as managing editor
— chalking up one of the longest tenures in that job in decades. During that time he had a bird’s eye view of Wall Street, watched the country fall into and crawl out of three recessions, saw Fortune magazine and its website climb to a combined audience of more than 13 million, met presidents and corporate giants and international celebrities. In earning the 2000 Business Journalist of the Year honor from TJFR Business News Reporter, he was touted as “perhaps the nation’s top multimedia talent, successfully juggling the roles of serious journalist, astute commentator and occasional court jester.” Under his leadership, Fortune saw its ad revenues rise by 6 percent in the first half of 2014 — even as scores of magazines across the country were either folding or cutting their size. Looking back, he now says, “It was a great run. I saw a lot of change and met a lot of incredible people. It was amazing.” He also learned a lot of lessons, made a lot of observations and saw dramatic changes in the world around him, including in the fast-changing business of journalism.
850: What was your first job at Fortune? AS: It was called reporter. There were writers and reporters. The writer would interview and the reporter would take notes. You (the reporter) started off fact checking. That was all you did. You learned to question everything. You have a glass. Is it a glass of water?
People often think it’s worse than it is. This recovery has been a little difficult because employment is lagging. But even that’s improving. Housing is improving. Energy prices have improved. Interest rates are low. There are all kinds of concerns always. Europe is terrible. Unemployment is high (because) you’re
Is there water in it? How do you know it’s water? You were taught to question every single thing that the writer wrote. We had to fill in the blanks a lot, too. 850: What’s your attitude about today’s economy? AS: The economy is better than people think it is.
competing with (places like) Pakistan. Political threats like ISIS are always a problem. (But) we’ve seen an incredible energy revolution in the U.S. We have such incredible advantages in the U.S. We have the greatest technology and industry on the planet by far, the greatest university system by far, the best rule of law by far. There’s a lot to be very positive about in the U.S.
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Business Speak
AS: That’s a huge, vexing problem. The causes are pretty obvious, but the solutions are difficult. We’re living in a global marketplace and you’re not protected. If you earn $50,000 and someone can do your job overseas for $25,000, you’re in trouble. And that’s not going away. And the manufacturing base here continues to decline. And those are the secure, wellpaying union jobs. We have problems in education and everyone knows we need to spend money in education, but people seem to be reluctant to do that. The deficits that cities and states are facing are problematic. We need to take a look at pensions we’re paying city and state employees. Does it make sense to be firing teachers to pay the pensions of retired teachers? Is there a way for us to actually cut back on pensions of the people who deserve the pensions but who are going to have to feel the pain a little bit? If your pension is $100,000 a year, well maybe it should be $85,000 a year. And can we have that conversation and affect that change to take that $15,000 times a million so we can educate young people so they can have sustainable jobs? That’s
a huge order, but if we don’t do that, what are we going to do?
warming, but I think we’ll be able to address those things.
850: What about today’s political climate?
850: Where do you see us going now that the Great Recession is behind us?
AS: I find the political discourse frankly depressing. There is one word and one phrase you can’t utter any more. The one word is “compromise.” And the phrase is, “I’ve changed my mind.” If you are a politician, you can’t say those two things any more. That’s crazy to me. You should be able to say proudly: “We are from different sides of the aisle, but we got it done. We compromised.” Or, “I talked to her. She explained to me. She told me things I didn’t know. So I changed my mind.” 850: What do you see happening with economic policy? AS: Quantitative easing, we’re winding that down. It was to prime the pump to transition us. We’re going to take away that cheap money and see if we can make it. We’ve got to be able to make it. I think we will. We were on easy money survival. I’m pretty optimistic. The thing that bites you in the butt is never the thing you think it’s going to be. It shouldn’t be the end of quantitative easing that throws us into recession. The energy boom was something that no one saw. The political dysfunction and income inequality coupled with loss of middle class manufacturing jobs are the big problems vexing the economy. There’s other things like immigration and global
AS: The biggest change of our lifetime is the Internet revolution, the technology Internet revolution. It keeps unfolding in front of our eyes. We’re living it and it makes everything so unsettling and so exciting at the same time. It’s very, very hard to predict, and every time a business thinks it cannot be disrupted by the Internet the Internet proves them wrong. I was talking to some bankers who said, “Well, they’re always going to need banks, right?” Well, maybe not. For young people, smart phones control everything from airline reservations to reading to banking to shopping to driving. It’s hard to even imagine. With banking, for instance, people do peer-to-peer lending on their phones, in the future they’ll be using virtual currencies and phones to pay for things, so who needs a bank if you’re not going to need cash? 850: What types of businesses will remain the same? AS: I talked to a guy recently who was doing strip malls. And I said, “Strip malls? That’s interesting. That’s not a very good business.” But his whole strategy is that his tenants cannot be disrupted by the Internet — dentists, pet care, headquarters for a lawn service. Will the
Serwer’s Keys To Success: » » » » »
Strong Ethics Practice Public Speaking Show Up Work Hard
Internet be able to fix your teeth? Probably not in our lifetime. It’s pretty obvious, but it’s pretty mysterious. It’s got everybody thinking. Warren Buffett’s thinking about this at Berkshire Hathaway. Jamie Dimon is thinking about it at JP Morgan. The CEO at Proctor and Gamble is thinking about it. Muhtar Kent at Coca Cola is thinking about it, about how social media is talking about Coke’s products. Sure they’re making drinks and sodas, but the Internet is changing their business. There is more change now than there was in the early part of my career. I’m always interested in this idea of accelerating change. It’s unsettling. It’s definitely not slowing down. It changes our behavior — that’s the interesting thing. Where technology and behavior intersect. That’s what we’re experiencing and feeling now. 850: What’s next for you? AS: Possibly write a book, teach, do something completely different, like TV programming or a documentary. Mostly I’m taking a breather after working for 29 years. I’ll be visiting my older daughter in Spain and taking some road trips.
Andy Serwer was in Tallahassee in early November to serve as moderator for the second annual Power Forward Speaker Series presented by First Commerce Credit Union and the Florida State University College of Business. Guest speaker for the event, which was co-sponsored by 850 Business Magazine, was Steve Wozniak, a co-founder of Apple. At the end of the event, Serwer took time to tweet a selfie of himself and the “Woz.” 48
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Andy Serwer/Twitter
850: What about the growing disparity between the haves and have-nots in the U.S.?
An 850 Business Magazine Special Report
Tallahassee 2014-15 | Bu si n e s s Jou r n a l
Tourism | Real Estate | The MagLab | The Airport Innovation Park | CollegeTown/Gaines Street Student Start-ups | Population Trends | Finding Help Choose Tallahassee | Downtown Tallahassee
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TABLE OF CONTENTS
33 Budding entrepreneurs have a place where they can find help to start a business — from legal and accounting advice to a mentor willing to listen.
27 President/Publisher Brian E. Rowland EDITORIAL Editor Linda Kleindienst Senior Staff Writer Jason Dehart
13 S tudent Startups
Turning collegiate brainpower and passion into success at The Jim Moran Institute for Global Entrepreneurship.
Staff Writer Chay D. Baxley Production Specialist Melinda Lanigan CREATIVE Creative Director Lawrence Davidson Production Manager/Network Administrator Daniel Vitter
16 I nnovation Park
This special incubator is designed to turn cuttingedge university research into real world businesses and jobs.
Art Director Jennifer Ekrut Advertising Designers Jillian Fry, Amanda Hartsfield Staff Photographer Matt Burke SALES & marketing Director of Marketing and Sales McKenzie Burleigh Director of New Business Daniel Parisi Ad Services Coordinator Lisa Sostre Account Executives Rhonda Murray, Darla Harrison, Tanya Heath, Lori Magee, Tracy Mulligan, Linda Powell, Paula Sconiers, Chuck Simpson, Alice Watts, Drew Gregg Westling Marketing and Sales Assistant Christie Green
22 Th e MagLab
Jeffrey Whalen is cooking up some of the finest crystals in the world, trying to make money with science.
27 P opulation Trends
The fastest growing age group in Tallahassee is 65-plus and, economically, that can be good news.
29 C hoose Tallahassee There’s a major drive to attract retiring baby boomers to Tallahassee.
Creative. Print. Solutions.™
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33 R eal Estate
Local experts say that the county’s real estate market is experiencing a resurgence after the downturn of the Great Recession.
34 T ourism
College sports and the Florida Legislature bring lots of tourists to town, but the county’s tourism promoters say there is plenty more to do and see in the area.
41 Th e Airport
Getting an international designation will likely bring in more air carriers, open more air routes and bring international freight business to Tallahassee.
45 C ollegeTown/Gaines Street Creating a hipper
scene near the universities for students and young professionals is part of a plan to retain young talent after they graduate.
48 Downtown Tallahassee A revitalization and transformation of downtown Tallahassee is shifting the focus away from lobbyist offices to places like Cascades Park, where there’s plenty for the family to do, new nightspots and eateries.
On the Cover: This miniature city (approximately 4" wide x 5" tall) was printed on a MakerBot Replicator 2X printer by one of the members of Domi Station, Tallahassee’s new business incubator focused on early stage startups. Photo by Matt Burke.
Photos by Scott Holstein (29) and courtesy of NAI Talcor (33); Cover photos by Matt Burke (Curry and Frame) and Carolyn Allen (signs)
8 F inding Help
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8 5 0 . 2 2 4 . 3 0 0 7 | W W W. T A R G E T C O P Y. C O M
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Domi Ventures
F i n di ng H el p
Incubating New Business Domi Station is where entrepreneurial minds meet
B
arbara Wescott had been in the business of renting vacation homes in faraway Maine but wanted to start a business of her own. Needing legal and accounting advice — and even basic tips on how to start — she wasn’t sure where to begin. Ryan Kopinsky wanted to create a cool idea but needed a little help. William McCluskey planned to return to Boston to kick off his startup company but then realized he’d be competing against so many others there might not be an appetite for his idea. Today, the three are amiable companions, helping to cross-pollinate ideas while developing their own entrepreneurial aspirations at Domi Station, a converted warehouse on Railroad Avenue that is Tallahassee’s new business incubator focused on early-stage startups. The public-private incubator and co-working space, run by Domi Ventures and funded by Leon County, Florida State
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University and private venture capital, has only been open since April, yet it is already a home to or resource for about 35 startups, according to Lucas Lindsey, community manager. Projects range from hurricane software to streamlined shopping with Google Glass, nanotechnology and 3D printing. “Domi Station is much more than a cool work space,” said County Administrator Vince Long. “It’s the front door for area residents, university students and like-minded entrepreneurs to access the collective resources that exist within our community.” Domi (Latin for home) Ventures was born the night Micah Widen and Jake Kiker were sitting in a pub at The Manor at Midtown. They were introduced by a mutual friend, Jay Revell, executive director of the Tallahassee Downtown Improvement Authority. Widen, whose wife was getting her doctorate at FSU, wanted to start another company. Kiker knew the county needed an incubator.
By Linda Kleindienst They talked until 3 a.m. and incorporated two weeks later. As Widen and Kiker were co-founding Domi Ventures along with partners John Vecchio and David Lawson, they were holding meet-ups with interested people to test the market. The county, meanwhile, was simultaneously developing its own idea for an incubator. But while the county had a place and some of the money, Domi Ventures had the know-how. Miraculously, the two joined forces. The result: Domi Station (located in a warehouse built in 1858 that had been used by the supervisor of elections) quickly became a reality. “At first we wanted to make sure we had enough critical mass. But we even had two kids from Florida International University come up to our first meeting,” said Widen, CEO of Domi Ventures. Added Kiker, “We just got larger and larger. At first, I think it was just curiosity. It was like, ‘Are you folks for real?’ ”
Watch a video tour of Domi Station at 850BusinessMagazine.com
Matt Burke
Open less than a year, Domi Station is already home to a host of budding new businesses incorporating a wide variety of technologies. Opposite: More than 250 people attended Domi Station’s grand opening on May 22, 2014, which was cohosted by Leon County and Florida State University. Shown here is the co-working space.
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Help for Existing or Relocating Business Need business help and don’t know where to look? There’s a new resource in town: AERO, the Alliance of Entrepreneur Resource Organizations.
Matt Burke
The coalition of public agencies and community nonprofit organizations has formed a website designed to answer most any question a business might have. BigBendBiz.com, funded by The Jim Moran Institute for Global Entrepreneurship at the FSU College of Business, has compiled a list of resources for anyone who wants to start a business, existing businesses that need help and businesses interested in relocating to the area.
Those interested ranged in age. Wescott is 51, Kopinsky is 24. Some were students, some worked in local software companies. Some were already working on startups, some just had an idea. After being accepted into Domi Station, they were connected to accounting, legal and market research services and, perhaps most importantly, mentors. Local businesses offered pro bono
Topics include incubators; education and training; financial resources; mentoring; networking; and operations.
services, setting up regular business hours to meet with the budding entrepreneurs. Mentors from throughout the business and university community have given freely of their advice to those hoping to make it big in business. Domi Station is open 24 hours a day, seven days a week. There’s almost always someone working. “It’s a very collaborative atmosphere,” Widen
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explained. “We’re encouraging people to take ownership and to help grow the community.” Barbara Wescott is hoping to do just that. She has developed a program to establish a universal reward point program that small businesses could opt into to reward loyal shoppers. “I’m confident I have a great idea, but it’s just trying to put all the pieces together,” she said. “I didn’t know where to go, what to do. I needed help with patent advice, accounting and to talk to a mentor.” So far, she’s gotten that. Her business, called Point Catcher, will soon have a small launch in Tallahassee to see how it works and to smooth out any kinks. Ryan Kopinsky, the founder of FSU’s TechNOLEgy student organization, is a Ph.D. candidate in robotics at FSU and co-founder of Shop X. A major advocate of Google Glass, he wanted to create a cool app. He got an idea from Widen’s wife but needed help developing it. He met that person, John Perkins, at a Domi event, and they worked on a shopping list app. The app (accepted by Google and dubbed App No. 52) allows a user to make a shopping list directly on Glass by voice command, with items sorted by category. It knows, for instance, that “2 percent” means milk. “It’s my first app, and it came out of a brainstorm session (hosted by Domi Ventures),” Kopinsky said. “It took us four months from the idea to the launch.” William McCluskey was headed to Boston to work on his startup, Proper Channel, when the folks at Domi Ventures convinced him to take another look at Tallahassee. He did and decided to stay after realizing there are so many startups in Boston that “people aren’t hungry for your idea.” Proper Channel, he explains, is about taking the pain out of bureaucracy by being a “visual wiki” that helps explain to people things like how to get a travel visa to China or apply to college or navigate the local driver license bureau. In his blog he explains, “Our secret is telling people exactly what they need and putting it in front of them in a simple to use format.” McCluskey said that one of his goals is to supercharge Florida, “and they’re doing everything right here. It’s more of a true community. You get real involvement, connection.” To be an “ideal candidate” for Ryan Kopinsky, founder of FSU’s the incubator, a TechNOLEgy student organization, is working on a Google Glass app. company would have two or more founders, be committed full time, have technical and business talent, be based in or plan to relocate in Tallahassee, have domain expertise and have performed competitive due diligence. If selected, the companies have four months of free co-working space, introductions to investors and a wide range of resources. “There need to be more places like this,” Kiker said. “The rising tide is what we’re looking for. People can launch companies here cheaper than in Miami or Orlando. I want Tallahassee to be a viable and attractive option.”
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Student Start - Up s
Seminole Student Startups Tallahassee’s unique compilation of collegiate brainpower and passion makes it a safe haven for student startups By Chay D. Baxley
Tristin Kroening
T
he business-minded students of The Jim Moran Institute for Global Entrepreneurship at Florida State University have been called a great many things. Idealistic? Sure. Driven? Most of them. Intelligent? Of course. Inexperienced? Naturally. And passionate? Unequivocally, yes. This shared characteristic is no happy accident, though. According to Jim Dever, senior lecturer and Entrepreneur in Residence at The Jim Moran Institute, passion was the deciding factor for admission into the college’s competitive entrepreneurship major. For Dever and the other faculty members who sifted through more than 100 applications to fill their 40 sophomore seats in the early days of fall 2014, passion was weighed more heavily than anything else — including past work experience. “Without passion,” emphasized Dever, “you can’t be an entrepreneur. It’s just as simple as that. You have to have passion, and these kids understand that.” Dever knows a little bit about passion himself. After selling nearly a dozen companies by the time he was 41 years old, he decided to go Each year the College back to school at the of Business at Florida age of 50 to earn his State University hosts the Sophomore bachelor’s degree. Experience, an By the time he had expo featuring new turned 60, Dever companies. Ben Spangler (left), is an had been awarded owner of lifestyle his PhD. Now, at 65, brand company Hunt he commutes from and Venture with his brother Jeremy and Panama City to friend Jared Jackson. Tallahassee at least two days a week to make sure his entrepreneurs-in-the-making are well attended to. “I love it,” he confided. “To be able to work those young people and to watch their enthusiasm and to see their passion. This group that we selected this year is just a phenomenal bunch of kids. They’re just jumping out of their skin.”
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during any given semester) are instructed not only on theories and the principals of business, but also on the logistics of an ever-changing career path. Over the three years they spend in the major, these pupils are taught how to obtain a patent, how to incorporate their company and what trends to look for to ensure success.
From professional apartment cleaners to companies focused on funky sock distribution for a good cause, the student startups cultivated throughout FSU’s brick corridors are full of promise. Students enrolled in the entrepreneurship major (no more than 120
Thomas Goebel
Wavelet
Jim Dever, Entrepreneur in Residence at The Jim Moran Institute for Global Entrepreneurship, (right) and Nick O’Donnell, student and budding businessman.
For senior Nick O’Donnell, the information he’s obtained in the classroom has been priceless. In fact, it’s helped him launch his own innovative startup — an artistic, scientific and even technologically savvy approach to gift giving, a company he calls “Wavelet.” Wavelet (think wavelength combined with bracelet), O’Donnell shared, will transform voice recordings obtained via a yet-to-belaunched website into a permanent and lasting memory on … jewelry. “The sound waves that result from their voice,” explained a visibly excited O’Donnell, “I can take that and make it into a custom piece of jewelry that they can take and give to the person. It’s like giving your unique voice to the person and saying something really special to them.
“If seven billion people said, ‘Happy birthday’ or ‘I love you,’ in theory it would look different all seven billion times. What that does is makes everyone’s voice almost like a fingerprint. It makes everyone’s voice unique.” O’Donnell hopes to have his company operational before his graduation day in May 2015. But he isn’t the only ’Nole with big ideas. In recent years, The Jim Moran Institute has attempted to diversify student startups on campus — offering more assistance and guidance to all majors unilaterally. Initiatives like the InNOLEvation™ Challenge, which encourages all students to come up with a fully functional company, are opened to all currently enrolled FSU students. It’s a step towards diversity that the current class of instructors is exceptionally proud of. “I think it broadens the scope when you get students from different backgrounds and different perspective,” applauded Tim Kinney, associate lecturer and director of Student Engagement for The Jim Moran Institute. “And it broadens the startups on campus. “There’s a lot of little (compartments) of entrepreneurial activity around campus.
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Matt Burke
Frame hit commercial success with an ad for American Express. Shown are founders (left to right) Bryan Zhang, Adam Braun and Patrick Gines.
We’re trying to bring all of those together so we can make the whole bigger than the sum of the parts.”
Frame This Arguably one of the most interesting and successful student startups to pass through Florida State’s doors in recent years, Frame — a production company with big city talent, not to mention clients — had almost nothing to do with the university’s College of Business. The founders of Tallahassee-based Frame, Adam Braun, Patrick Gines and Bryan Zhang, are three pals who met at FSU’s prestigious College of Motion Pictures. Fresh out of school in 2012 with a teaming portfolio, these three doe-eyed entrepreneurs made the sale of a lifetime — a commercial for American Express. It was a gig that kick-started their career. With such an impressive accolade on their resume, they could have easily landed a Hollywood job. But they wanted something different. “I think everyone wants to do what they love,” theorized Braun, Frame’s managing director. “But it’s not even just doing what you love. If you can do what you love, that’s great. But if you can do what you love with people you love, that’s even better. And if you can do what you love, with people you love, in a place that you love, then that’s an awesome opportunity. I think that’s what Tallahassee was for all of us. “There’s people that we care about here, that we’ve had friendships with. And now we get to make movies with them, and for them, in a city that has grown on all of us.” These guys, along with their groundbreaking creative company, are in Education Attainment Tallahassee to stay. in Leon County “We started some(persons age 25-plus) thing up for the purpose of constantly creating content that we can be ▪H igh School graduate proud of,” explained or higher: 92.0% Gines, creative director ▪B achelor’s degree or of Frame. “That can get higher: 46.8 % better and better as we do Source: U.S. Census Bureau more and more work.”
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Innovation Park
Innovation Park is an impressive ode to all things science and innovation, hosting a wide variety of research programs that are being commercialized. 16 / 2014–15 Ta l l a h a s s e e B U S I N ESS J O U R N AL
Sparking Innovation How cutting-edge research turns into jobs
J
ust one turn off the virtual esplanade to Florida State University’s Doak Campbell Stadium is a similarly impressive ode to all things science and innovation. In fact, as much stained-glass homage as Doak pays to football, Tallahassee’s Innovation Park quietly provides to the pursuit of research and sustainable invention. The 208 acres adorned with oaks and Spanish moss are a testament to the city’s quest for enduring and science-based development activities. Set aside by special charter in 1978, Innovation Park seeks to be an incubator for cutting-edge university research and the private-sector translation of those advances to real-world application. The Leon County Research and Development Authority (LCRDA) is the legal entity and state special district that oversees the development. Ronald J. Miller Jr., executive director of the Leon County R&D Authority/Innovation Park, says the strength of the concept is the fact that the universities involved — Florida State University, Florida A&M University and Tallahassee Community College — combined with the City of Tallahassee, Leon County and the community at large are all represented on the LCRDA’s board of directors. Currently there are 17 buildings in the park, of which LCRDA owns five. The majority of the tenants are university-affiliated. There are also federal and state agencies, such as the U.S. National Park Service and the Florida Department of Transportation. In all, there are about 40 acres of undeveloped land within the center’s bounds, which allows for substantial growth over the next century.
photos by Matt Burke
Building a New Navy and Beyond One of the most renowned tenants at Innovation Park is the FSU Center for Advanced Power Systems (CAPS). This center was organized to research all types of power systems technologies. With an emphasis on electric utility, defense and transportation technologies, CAPS is uniquely suited for
By Tisha Crews Keller
its projects for the U.S. Navy and the U.S. Department of Energy. The center’s research team includes scientists, faculty, engineers and students that are focused on developing sustainable power systems and energy storage capacity. From superconductivity to high-power magnets, the center’s potential influence ranges from an all-electric navy to magnet-assisted high-speed rail technology. At the core of the CAPS model, though, is a “dual-use” focus. Staff tries to take the broadest approach to developing new technology so that it may catch in its net the common solutions to closely-related problems across military, industry and utility sectors.
Paper-Thin, But Carbon-Strong You probably know the FSU High Performance Materials Institute (HPMI) as a main developer of “Bucky Paper” carbon nanotube network technology. You’d be right, but the vast applications of this typewriter-era “carbon paper” cousin are truly astounding. Bucky Paper is a thin black film that harbors amazing properties such as high-strength (used by the U.S. Air Force as aircraft coating and components); energy storage (exploited by Innovation Park neighbor Bing Energy); and electromagnetic shielding (for use in cell phones and satellites, for instance). There Bucky Paper, are over 25 different produced at the FSU types of the product, High Performance but they all rely on the Materials Institute, is already being unique “tube-like” used by the quality of carbon U.S. Air Force. bonds created in 1985 by Nobel Prizewinning scientists Harold Kroto, Robert Curl and Richard Smalley. HPMI has taken Bucky Paper to the next level in terms of practical use. Recently, the production capabilities at HPMI have improved the potential output of the product to sheets six-inches wide by five feet per minute. The institute owns a patent on its
unique production process, which is really only constricted by the amount of square footage available for the lab. This high-volume production allows the institute to provide research and application design for the National Science Foundation, the U.S. military and others. In fact, associated with this technology alone, HPMI has $1.4 million in National Science Foundation (NSF) grants and a State of Florida Center of Excellence and Commercialization Grant valued at $250,000. In addition to the carbon nanotube technology, HPMI provides its expertise to grants and projects for the U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs ($4.4 million), working on prosthetic sockets to make them more lightweight and easy to move. Prototypes of these joints will deliver soon to the VA, which is an exciting development for both HPMI and the prosthesis community. Structural health monitoring is another area in which HPMI is heavily invested. Grants from the U.S. Air Force and the NSF direct
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the institute to develop sensors that are imbedded in a material (such as concrete or composite) to alert when microscopic stress fractures are developing. Technology such as this could one day save bridges from collapse or airplanes from catastrophic loss. In all, HPMI houses over $10 million in research and development equipment alone. The center holds 18 active research grants — six of which are NSF, which is very high for one institution. The 17 professors and 90 students that make up HPMI are continually on the cusp of something extraordinary.
In the Spirit of the Organic Act A little-known but still incredibly relevant partner of Innovation Park is the Southeast Archeological Center, National Park Service, U.S. Department of the Interior. The Southeast Center is the one specialized archeological research facility in the Southeast territory of the National Park Service. This low-key powerhouse of research and learning provides technical and curator assistance to the 66 national parks and the public in the nine-state area, from the Caribbean to Louisiana to Kentucky and North Carolina. Thanks to the Organic Act of 1906, all cultural resources in the U.S. must be preserved unimpaired and such preservation must include considerations of longterm issues, including auditory and visual
impacts of development on a historic site. This means that when a business or park wants to add a new building, the Southeast Archeological Center must evaluate the impacts of the improvement on existing parks and even those yet unexplored. Only 4 percent of set-aside federal lands have been surveyed. Climate change will greatly impact the National Park Service and our cultural heritage. The archeologists in Innovation Park work tirelessly to identify the risks, challenges and unique properties of each site and make the difficult recommendations about what to preserve and what can be left to the elements. Director David Morgan, Ph.D., RPA, says his staff of 50 that includes archeologists, museum specialists and a curator makes these decisions on a daily basis. The center moved to Tallahassee in 1966 for the valuable partnership afforded by FSU’s Anthropology Program. The university has since abandoned (and then partially reopened) its program, but the Center remains and has expanded its partnership to other universities in the southeast. It moved to Innovation Park in 1995 and pumps $2 million to $4 million into the local economy each year. The Archeological Center serves as repository for more than 9.5 million archeological resources and artifacts and 250,000 archival documents ranging from the assassination site of Martin Luther King Jr. to the Battle of Gettysburg.
Matt Burke
Development impact on historic sites located anywhere in the Southeast is investigated by the Southeast Archeological Center, which is located in Innovation Park.
Projected Employment Growth By Industry in Leon County (2013 to 2021) Total All Industries: 9.2% ▪ Construction: 25.2% ▪ Education and Health Services: 17.0% ▪P rofessional and Business
Services: 15.4%
▪ Leisure and Hospitality: 11.4% ▪O ther Services (except
government): 10.9%
▪ Financial Activities: 10.7% ▪ Retail Trade: 9.4% ▪ Transportation and Warehousing: 8.1% ▪ Wholesale Trade: 6.6% ▪S elf-Employed and Unpaid Family
Workers: 5.6%
▪ Local Government: 5.2% ▪A griculture, Forestry, Fishing
and Hunting: 3.6%
▪ State Government: 3.4% ▪ Manufacturing: 3.3% ▪ Federal Government: -1.4% ▪ Information: -2.6% Source: Florida Department of Economic Opportunity.
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Morgan and his professionals regularly broker partnerships with private and public entities for the preservation of historical evidence and cultural resources. Many private businesses employ their own archeologist to ensure compliance with the Organic Act and the 1966 National Historic Preservation Act, as well as to preserve any archeological evidence that may impede future development at a site. The National Park Service is at the forefront of the preservationist movement and has a strong external stewardship program, providing technical assistance to these professionals at state agencies, non-profits and the business sector.
“Companies that are incubated in a location tend to stay and create jobs there. It’s truly an exciting time at LCRDA and Innovation Park.” — Ronald J. Miller Jr., executive director of the Leon County R&D Authority/Innovation Park
An Eye Toward the Future Like most economic development programs, the LCRDA would love to attract new businesses to the Park, but it is a discerning landlord. The LCRDA would like to attract more private-sector organizations interested in collaborating with the university researchers and focused on research and development activities.
Miller explains that there are several new potential projects for the Park. “The LCRDA is working on a new initiative,” he said. “If successful, it will create opportunities to attract many high-tech startup companies to the Park.” Indeed, Innovation Park has an innovative plan of its own underway. The Tallahassee
business community is excited and motivated to build an entrepreneurial base that will support new businesses and job creation. Currently, the LCRDA is working on a feasibility study for building a wet lab business incubator in the Park. “The incubator will help startup businesses that require specialized equipment, facilities, mentoring, access to capital and support services,” Miller explains. “These businesses would commercialize new technologies that are coming out of our universities.” In addition, options for expansion at the site include an extended-stay facility for visiting researchers, meeting space, a restaurant or café, trails and improved signage onsite. Long-term, this is a great goal for the LCRDA and its stakeholders — beyond just Innovation Park. “Companies that are incubated in a location tend to stay and create jobs there,” Miller says. “It’s truly an exciting time at LCRDA and Innovation Park.”
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Innovation Park is home to: Bing Energy Inc.
Florida Distance Learning Consortium
BUC Technologies, LLC (Better Universe and Citizens Technologies)
Florida State University Applied Superconductivity Center
Center for Advanced Power Systems (CAPS)
Florida State University Center on Better Health and Life for Underserved Populations (BHL Center)
Center for Advancement of Learning and Assessment (CALA) Center for Biomedical and Toxicological Research and Hazardous Waste Management (CBTR)
Florida State University Office of Intellectual Property Development & Commercialization (OIPDC) Florida State University Research Foundation Inc. Florida Virtual Campus
Florida State University Enterprise Resource Planning (ERP) Florida State University Foundation Inc.
Center for Ocean, Atmospheric Prediction Studies (COAPS)
Florida State University High-Performance Materials Institute
Danfoss Turbocor Compressors Inc.
Florida State University Human Subjects Committee
Department of Agriculture and Consumer Affairs Bureau of Seafood and Aquaculture FAMU Center for Plasma Science and Technology Florida Center for Interactive Media (FCIM) Florida Center for Reading Research (FCRR) Floriday Cybersecurity Institute (FCI) Florida Department of Transportation (FDOT) Structural Research Laboratory
Florida State University Information Technology Services (ITS) Florida State University Institute for Energy Systems, Economics, and Sustainability (IESES) Florida State University Institute for International Cooperative Environmental Research (IICER)
Infrastructure Marketing Group, LLC Learning Systems Institute (LSI) Leon County Research & Development Authority nanoStrata Inc. National High Magnetic Field Laboratory National Park Service Southeast Archeological Center Northwest Regional Data Center Office of Intellectual Property Development and Commercialization (OIPDC) The Small Business Development Center (SBDC) at FAMU Team Simulations
Left to right: Commercial Lender Steven Lohbeck, Credit Specialist Jonathan Woodard, Market President Robert Vice, Commercial Banking Assistant Michael Brown, Commercial Lender Tony Vila and Branch Market Manager Tom Stitely.
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The MagLab Chemist Jeff Whalen holds a vial of EuO, europium oxide, one of the crystals he makes and markets at Specialized Crystal Processing Inc.
The Crystal Connection With help from the MagLab and the Tallahassee business community, a new high-tech business begins to bloom By Kathleen Laufenberg
J
effrey Whalen is a master chef, but you won’t find him cooking in an upscale Florida restaurant. Whalen, a chemist at the National High Magnetic Field Laboratory, is the Julia Child of synthetic, high-tech crystals — i.e., solid materials (such as quartz, salt and other minerals) with atoms arranged in special patterns. The 32-year-old is so good at it that, two years ago, he launched Specialized Crystal Processing with MagLab physicist Theo Siegrist. Since its inception, their company has morphed from a desk in Whalen’s home to 2,500 square feet of donated warehouse space in a Tallahassee industrial park. Although in its infancy, it has one employee, engineering student Francisco Trujillo, and a clear goal to be the leading American supplier of crystal products. “We do things here to try to make money with science,” Whalen said recently, as he gave a tour of the business facility. Half of his warehouse space is still unfurnished, a reflection of how challenging it is to get a start-up off the ground. Yet without the help that he’s received, it would still be just a dream. “I could never have started my own business, and taken on this kind of risk, without the help of the MagLab and the local business community,” said Whalen, whose wife is expecting their second child. “But because of all that help, it’s finally coming together.”
Tallahassee businessman Kim Williams — a successful, savvy and community-oriented entrepreneur — said he donated the warehouse space to Whalen because he believes in him. He first met the young scientist when Whalen competed for seed money for the crystal business before the Leon County Research and Development Authority. Whalen won two such seed grants and was awarded $15,000 each time. “Start-ups are tough, and Jeff is grossly underfunded for what he’s trying to do,” said Williams, who owns Marpan, a solid waste and recycling company. “But he’s a really smart young man, and I think his company will bear fruit in the future.” 22 / 2014–15 Ta l l a h a s s e e B U S I N ESS J O U R N AL
National High Magnetic Field Laboratory
It Takes a Village
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Greg Boebinger, the MagLab’s director, agreed. “Jeff is that rare breed of scientist who understands enough of the science to know what materials are interesting, and understands enough about the materials to grow the actual crystals, and understands enough about the technology and marketplace to know when he really has a good product,” Boebinger said. “We’re 100 percent committed to giving scientists like Jeff what they need to pursue their vision, and we have the institution, the expertise and the educational mission to do it.” In addition to $30,000 in seed grants from the Leon County R & D Authority, the company crystal also received a $15,000 grant from the Florida State University Foundation. Much of that money, Siegrist said, was used to pay overhead and buy production equipment, such as the special ovens needed to cook the crystals at the volcanic temperatures of 1,000 degrees Celsius (that’s 1,832 degrees Fahrenheit!). “His business proposal is exactly what we want to see: research that’s developed here in
“We’re 100 percent committed to giving scientists like Jeff what they need to pursue their vision, and we have the institution, the expertise and the educational mission to do it.” — Greg Boebinger, MagLab’s director Leon County being commercialized here,” says Kristin Dozier, a Leon County commissioner and chair of the R & D Authority’s Board of Governors. “We feel like that is so important, keeping companies where the research actually happens.” There’s another aspect to the crystal company many find appealing: If successful, it would become the first American supplier
of some important crystals. One of Whalen’s creations — doped triglycine sulfate, or “Dee-Lat” — will compete with a crystal made only overseas. If Whalen can break into that locked-down market, his small crystal company would compete in the global market.
Growing the Crystal Company In addition to the high-tech “Dee-Lat,” Whalen also grows a crystal with a more friendly user name: europium oxide, or EuO. This second crystal is used primarily by university researchers interested in spintronics. Spintronics uses the quantum properties of an electron’s spin to store memory. “Spintronics is sort of a buzz word right now, but the ongoing research with this material is very real,” Whalen said. “It’s supposed to be the thing that will one day make our computers faster, smaller, better — and then maybe our computers will be able to cook us breakfast or something fancy like that.” A batch of 100 shiny EO crystals — a typical order size — would fill a tablespoon. Part of Whalen’s business plan, however, is
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National High Magnetic Field Laboratory
to offer them a reliable, repeatable, properly characterized, quality-controlled crystal at a competitive price.” Whalen and Siegrist are also looking into producing several other specialized crystals with clearly defined markets. For that, Whalen is building relationships with investors in order to take their company to the next phase.
It’s an Exciting and Scary Time
Francisco Trujillo, a FAMU-FSU College of Engineering student and the general manager at Specialized Crystal Processing Inc., works with crystals using a glove box at the MagLab.
to make the crystals bigger, which should increase the demand for them. But no matter the size, he said, there’s a market and a real need for them. Researchers typically must seek out a colleague to get their EuO — which is difficult to make.
“The only option is to have a friend who knows how to make them,” he said. “But when you’re a physicist, if you’re doing experiments on crystals that have had no quality control, that brings into question the validity of the experimental results. We want
“Managing the stress and anxiety that results from taking risk is very difficult,” Whalen said. “You have to have determination, and you have to have faith that you know what you’re doing — but it’s harrowing!” Fortunately, the MagLab remains a big supporter. “Even when the company was just a vision, the MagLab has always been our idea-generation and incubation site,” Whalen said. “My employment there is probably the most key critical enabling factor in me getting this company moving forward. Without it, I don’t think I could have taken the risk.”
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population Tren ds
Baby Boomers Booming Tallahassee/Leon County seeing an increasing number of 65-plus residents By Jason Dehart
Scott Holstein
T
he population of Tallahassee/Leon County might be slowing down a bit, but the population of older residents is increasing, according to analysts. Since 2010, the population aged 65-plus has increased by 15 percent while the population ranging in age from birth to 65 has remained virtually the same, said Ed Young, census liaison for the Tallahassee/Leon County Planning Department. Specifically, the 65 and over population grew by about 4,000, but the under-65 population lost an estimated 1,000 people. It’s hard to say exactly why this is happening. Residents could either be “aging in place,” or migrating to the county thanks to recent initiatives promoting Tallahassee as a place for baby boomers to retire. “Anecdotally, I think there has been an increase in retirees. The exact total effect needs to be determined, but I think the effort to bring retirees here is positive,” Young said. The number of Leon County residents who are 65 and older is expected to more than double by 2040. This is slightly above the projection for the state of Florida as a whole for the 65-plus crowd. Young said that, historically, the change in overall population was consistent between 1970 and 2000. But starting in 2000 it slowed down a little bit, and the projection of slowing is continuing through 2040. “These are just projections, but they have proven to be reliable over the years in gauging our population,” he said. The population of Leon County grew 1.9 percent per year between 2000 and 2010, in
Leon County has the smallest percentage of residents over the age of 65 in Florida, but that’s the area’s fastest growing age group.
contrast to the 2.2 percent per year rise experienced in the 1990s. Analysts predict the county will grow only 0.9 percent per year through 2020. Leon County’s population increase of 1.9 percent per year added 36,035 residents between the 2000 and 2010 Census, with 85 percent of the growth occurring within the city. By contrast, this growth rate was 55 percent between 1990 and 2000. Meanwhile, the enrollment in Leon County’s three largest institutions of higher learning grew by more than 12,000 in the 1990s and more than 11,000 in the 2000s. These numbers have also slowed slightly since 2010. Speaking of youth, Leon County has the second highest percentage ▪2 013 estimate: of population between the ages of 18 and 24 in 281,292 the state at 21.8 percent, behind Alachua County, ▪U nder 18 years: and the smallest percentage aged 65 and older at 17.2 % 10.7 percent in the state of Florida. ▪1 8 to 64: 74.7% “Overall, it’s not a sky is falling scenario but it ▪6 5 and over: 8.1% is slowing down. Is it a concern? I don’t think so,” ▪2 020 projected: Young said. “It’s slowing down but there are areas 296,800 of the country that aren’t growing. I don’t think Source: U.S. Census Bureau; we’re atypical for the state. Florida isn’t growing, City of Tallahassee it’s slowing down (too).”
Population — Leon County
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C hoose Tallahassee
While their old neighbors are still shoveling snow and braving icy winds in New Hampshire, Bill and Cathy Campbell are enjoying (free) amenities of sunny Florida.
Choose Tallahassee Courts Retiring Northerners Studies show Baby Boomers bring entrepreneurial spirit, economic gold By David Bruns
C
athy Campbell was at the pharmacy when her cell phone rang with the area code 850. Breathless with excitement, she ran to her car to answer. So she was staring at a 14-foot snowbank when she learned she’d be moving to Tallahassee. “It was very exciting,” she said later. “I really didn’t want to be looking at that snowbank anymore.” It’s official: The winners of Choose Tallahassee’s “Home Free” contest, Bill and Cathy Campbell, formerly of New Boston, New Hampshire, have traded their snow shovel for sunshine. The Campbells moved into their Betton Hills home in August, 11 months after
Choose Tallahassee launched its first-in-thenation contest. The Campbells weren’t new to the South. They’d lived for 18 years in Atlanta, where husband Bill worked for The Weather Channel. But they’d been living in New Hampshire long enough that they were ready to trade in that snow shovel. “I have nothing against New Hampshire — it’s just cold,” Cathy says. “Sometimes we live our lives, and we’re just breathing. I want to be ‘breathless’ with activities.” Did she ever get her wish. Not only did the family move to Tallahassee in August, they also hosted their younger daughter’s wedding here on her first weekend. Was it exhausting?
“I don’t think I got out of bed for two days after everyone left,” Cathy says with a laugh. Her daughter chose Maclay Gardens on the strength of a glowing recommendation from Cathy and Bill, plus the fact that family members were in Tallahassee anyway to help with the move. In classic Tallahassee style, their daughter was married beneath a giant moss-draped live oak. Fran Buhler, associate pastor at First Baptist Church, volunteered to conduct the wedding and Choose Tallahassee volunteers helped with other aspects of the happy occasion. Helping newcomers get settled here is a role that Choose Tallahassee’s Red Carpet Task Force specializes in. Among Boomer 2014–15 Ta l l a h a s s e e B U S I N ESS J O U R N AL
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relocation initiatives nationally, only Choose Tallahassee offers volunteer hosts to connect newcomers to community resources, information and those insider tips that smooth anyone’s move to a new town. “If you need someone to call to ask a question, that’s very important — especially if you haven’t moved in years,” Cathy says. The last few months have been a whirlwind of activity, as the Campbells have settled in. As winners, the Campbells received $2,000 a month toward their housing expenses, plus dozens of other prizes: a one-year family membership to a local golf club, tickets to both Florida State and FAMU college football and basketball games, meals at Tallahassee restaurants, season tickets to the Tallahassee Symphony Orchestra and membership to the Osher Lifelong Learning Institute. “It gets us up and moving, which is great. I love to be active, and so does Bill. There are so many things in Tallahassee, it’s just amazing,” Cathy says. Even the August heat felt welcoming. “When you have a 14-foot pile of snow in front of you, you kind of appreciate the hot weather.” Recruiting relocating Boomers is catching on in states and communities across the nation, and for obvious reasons: Gray is the
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new gold. A new AARP study shows that the 50-plus population sustains $429 billion in direct, indirect and induced impact on the Florida economy. Relocating Boomers also can bring entrepreneurial spirit. The same AARP study shows that about 15 percent of Floridians ages 50-64 are small-business entrepreneurs, compared to 11 percent of the 25-49 age group.
“The idea is simple: Tallahassee is a very welcoming and hospitable place. The contest is a way to sum all of that up in a few words — a free year of retirement.”
— Ken Boutwell, co-chair of the Choose Tallahassee initiative While Florida has no organized statewide effort to recruit relocating Boomers, other states are cashing in, including Tennessee
and North Carolina. On the other end of the issue, New York business and state leaders are so worried about their older residents moving south that they’ve started a concerted effort to keep them in the Empire State. The Campbells may be the only Boomers in America to have won so big. Organizers say they know of no other Boomer-relocation contest anywhere in the nation on a similar scale. “The idea is simple: Tallahassee is a very welcoming and hospitable place. The contest is a way to sum all of that up in a few words — a free year of retirement,” said Ken Boutwell, co-chair of the Choose Tallahassee initiative. If the idea was simple, implementation took work. Led by Rick Minor, former chief of staff for Tallahassee Mayor John Marks, volunteers put in hundreds of hours to create and conduct the “Home Free” contest. They wrote and obtained legal review of contest rules, organized judging panels, set up socialmedia campaigns to publicize the contest, sought out media coverage, took in more than 200 entries and managed a three-stage selection process. And for the contest winners, “it’s a dream come true,” says Cathy. For more information, go to choosetallahassee.com.
^ƚĞĂƌŶƐ tĞĂǀĞƌ DŝůůĞƌ ŝƐ Ă ĨƵůů ƐĞƌǀŝĐĞ ůĂǁ Įƌŵ ǁŝƚŚ ŽǀĞƌ ϭϭϬ ĂƩŽƌŶĞLJƐ ĂŶĚ ŽĸĐĞƐ ŝŶ DŝĂŵŝ͕ &Žƌƚ >ĂƵĚĞƌĚĂůĞ͕ dĂŵƉĂ ĂŶĚ dĂůůĂŚĂƐƐĞĞ͘ &ƌŽŵ ƐŵĂůů ƐƚĂƌƚͲƵƉ ǀĞŶƚƵƌĞƐ ƚŽ ƐŽŵĞ ŽĨ ƚŚĞ ůĂƌŐĞƐƚ ŵƵůƟŶĂƟŽŶĂů ĐŽƌƉŽƌĂƟŽŶƐ ŝŶ ƚŚĞ ǁŽƌůĚ͕ ǁĞ ĂƌĞ ƉƌŽƵĚ ƚŽ ƌĞƉƌĞƐĞŶƚ ŵĂŶLJ ŽĨ ƚŚĞ ďƵƐŝŶĞƐƐĞƐ ƚŚĂƚ ŚĂǀĞ ĐŽŶƚƌŝďƵƚĞĚ ƚŽ &ůŽƌŝĚĂ͛Ɛ ŐƌŽǁƚŚ͘
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Tallahassee Expansion tĞ ĂƌĞ ĞdžƉĂŶĚŝŶŐ ŽƵƌ ĐĂƉĂďŝůŝƟĞƐ ŝŶ ƚŚĞ ƐƚĂƚĞ ĐĂƉŝƚĂů͘ >ŽĐĂƚĞĚ Ăƚ ƚŚĞ ĐƌŽƐƐƌŽĂĚƐ ŽĨ ŐŽǀĞƌŶŵĞŶƚ ĂŶĚ ĐŽŵŵĞƌĐĞ͕ ŽƵƌ ƐĞĂƐŽŶĞĚ dĂůůĂŚĂƐƐĞĞ ƉƌŽĨĞƐƐŝŽŶĂůƐ ĂƌĞ ƌĞĂĚLJ ƚŽ ŚĞůƉ LJŽƵ ĚŽ ďƵƐŝŶĞƐƐ ŝŶ &ůŽƌŝĚĂ͘ tĞ ĂƌĞ ƐƚƌĂƚĞŐŝĐĂůůLJ ƉŽƐŝƟŽŶĞĚ ƚŽ ŽīĞƌ ĨƵůůͲƐĞƌǀŝĐĞ ĐŽƵŶƐĞů ƚŽ ĐůŝĞŶƚƐ ĨƌŽŵ ƚŚĞ WĂŶŚĂŶĚůĞ ƚŽ ƚŚĞ <ĞLJƐ͕ ĂŶĚ ďĞLJŽŶĚ͘
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Real E state
Real Estate Resurgence By Chay D. Baxley
W
hen Tallahassee’s real estate agents and commercial brokers are hustling, the rest of the city can rest assured, big things are on the horizon. According to Ed Murray, founder of NAI TALCOR, it’s only a matter of time before flux in the real estate world reaches the rest of the city’s professional sectors. “My advisors and brokers over here are already lining up work for next year,” explained Murray in late 2014. “Phones are ringing. We’re incredibly busy. We’re usually at the front end. When we’re busy, there are usually good things that will come behind us. We’ll lead the way, then there’ll be engineers, then architects, then builders and developers. And then, doors open.” And when that happens, job creation, as well as overall economic growth for the region, is never too far behind. For 2015, Tallahassee’s commercial market is set up for another year characterized by expansion and new infrastructure. The continued development of Tallahassee’s CollegeTown district is certain, with new boutique businesses and loft-inspired student living complexes, as well as luxury alumni condominiums, maintaining their momentum.
Fascination with and investments in the city’s up-and-coming Midtown area are also expected to continue. The recent addition of hospitality, service providers and rental space will make the pending completion of new residential options within Midtown — such as two separate communities developed by The Naumann Group, Windsor Trace and the Brownstones at Midtown — all the more exciting for current and future residents. Tallahassee Mall, located on North Monroe St., is undergoing an entire renovation highlighting fresh retail and rental opportunities that are set to be unveiled later this spring. Referred to by local real estate gurus as Tallahassee’s next great frontier for commercial space, experts are advising would-be investors to stay tuned-in to this budding area. Overall, a healthy dose of cautious enthusiasm is the tone of Tallahassee’s real estate market. Even office space — generally the last thing in a recovering market to sell — is beginning to move. “It’s gotten much, much better in the last couple of years,” emphasized Murray, on Tallahassee’s current real estate climate. “Right now it’s very good.”
The Onyx is under constructon now on the 400 block of West College Avenue. It will be a six-story complex, with ground floor retail space. It is a large urban project with incredible potental to bring a lot of upscale retail to the campus/ downtown area.
Comparing Income and Housing Costs Leon County’s Median Family Income Estimate — 2014 ▪T allahassee: $64,800 ▪ F lorida: $56,100
Leon County July 2014 Median Home Price: $182,000 Source U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development
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Tourism
Sports and Politics Are Tallahassee’s Big Draw for Tourists But more are coming to savor the region’s natural wonders By Gray Rohrer
T
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director of Visit Tallahassee, said the area wasn’t hit as hard as other parts of the state more heavily reliant on tourism since Tallahassee typically draws in visitors within driving distance rather than air travelers. “I think during the recession people stayed close to home and we’re a drive market, so we did okay,” Daniel said. “We weren’t as damaged by the economic downturn as some destinations.” As the economy has rebounded — aided in no small part by head coach Jimbo Fisher rebuilding FSU back into a top-quality program, leading it to a national championship last year — ticket sales have boomed.
Kansas Pitts
allahassee isn’t known for being a top draw for tourists, but Florida’s capital city attracts throngs of visitors each year mainly due to the two things it is known for: Florida State football and that other preeminent combat sport, politics. Every fall, members of the Seminole faithful travel to Tallahassee to attend services at the temple of Doak. They stay in hotels, bulk up on tailgating equipment, get decked out in garnet and gold and dine out; activities which pad Big Bend-area revenues. To take advantage, Visit Tallahassee, the tourism development arm of Leon County, targets fans in sports-related and other media outlets, focusing on the less-appealing games on the schedule. Matchups against the Citadel, Wake Forest and Virginia are harder tickets to sell than games against higher-ranked Sports, especially opponents Notre Dame and home football Clemson or the rivalry game games, are a big money generator against Florida. for Tallahassee “When the schedule is businesses, helping released it is typically a big rush to fill local hotels and restaurants. of bookings. Usually the big games fill up very quickly,” said Bo Schmitz, general manager of the Four Points by Sheraton hotel, adding that rooms for the weekend home games against Notre Dame, Clemson and Florida were booked full since June. Like the rest of tourism-heavy Florida, Leon County’s revenues took a hit when entertainment dollars spent by consumers became scarce at the onset of the Great Recession in 2008. But Lee Daniel, executive
FSUâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s stellar 2013 season helped pack Doak Campbell stadium for each home game, with many fans coming from out of town.
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According to the FSU Athletics department, an average of just over 30,000 season tickets were sold during the 2000s. In the 2014 season, 49,000 season tickets were sold. Business owners have noticed the surge, as the hospitality, retail and other industries have benefited as well. “(FSU home games) are one of the main demand generators in town,” said Schmitz, a member of the Leon County Tourism Development Council. In spring, 160 Retail sales also skyrocketed. The FSU legislators, their team store sold $500,000 in merchandise the aides, lobbyists and day after FSU defeated Auburn in the national political onlookers crowd the halls championship — their best ever sales day. of the Capitol for And the impact of the team’s success is felt the two-month far beyond one season’s fans. The number of legislative session. admissions tours of the FSU campus sought by prospective students climbed dramatically. After football season ends, Tallahassee welcomes a new class of visitors each spring. In addition to Seminoles, this class includes Gators and Hurricanes; even Knights and Bulls. The swarm of 160 legislators from across the state — as well as their aides, hordes of lobbyists and special interest representatives — swells the city’s population during the 60-day legislative session that begins in early March and ends in May. The hub of activity around the Capitol bleeds out into downtown restaurants, hotels and businesses. “That period (during session) tends to be a completely different environment here in Tallahassee,” Schmitz said. “Downtown just has a buzz
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to it. It completely changes the landscape of the downtown. You just have a lot more bodies.” The highly seasonal nature can wear on local business owners. Downtown businesses must make the most out of the session and hunker down for the lean months of the year. Campus-area businesses must survive the hibernation of students during the summer. But Schmitz says that’s changed in recent years as more developments sprout up around the city and the economy rebounds. “It’s a much less seasonal destination than it was three years ago,” he said. There’re also more attractions in the Big Bend area besides football and an oddly-shaped Capitol building. Daniel’s group promotes the area as a destination for nature hounds and outdoors enthusiasts looking to enjoy Wakulla Springs, Apalachicola National Forest and the Big Bend’s seemingly endless nature trails. Targeted ads in traditional media outlets as well as social media sites like Twitter and search engine-oriented campaigns are driving more direct sale packages, he added. “Tourism (in Tallahassee) is a lot more than what a lot of people think it is, which is just football and the legislative session,” Daniel said. Visit Tallahassee is also looking to promote more of the city’s night life, restaurants and culture, and will — Lee Daniel, executive have a big push this spring director of Visit to highlight two new special Tallahassee events as part of the festival season: Word of South, a music and literary festival, and the Southern Shakespeare Festival, which is making a return after a hiatus of a few years. The area also has other big draws, like Springtime Tallahassee, the Maclay Gardens State Park and historical museums like the Old Capitol building detailing the capital’s rich (and often sordid) political heritage. The slow upswing of the economic recovery is finally taking hold, Daniel said, with more people willing and able to spend entertainment dollars in town. According to Visit Tallahassee, the area hosted more than 2.7 million visitors last year who spent about $900 million. “We’re in a real uptick right now,” Daniel said. “Tourism is a big economic driver for us.”
“Tourism (in Tallahassee) is a lot more than what a lot of people think it is, which is just football and the legislative session.”
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Scott Holstein
The Ai rport
A Whole New Plane of Service
International status would spur major changes By Jason Dehart
T
allahassee Regional Airport could become an international airport in the near future. If that comes to pass, Tallahassee could reach a whole new level of service, becoming a designated international port of entry and opening the door to many positive changes. According to Chris Curry, the airport’s director, changes could begin this winter. “The advantage of it is that we can now go
out to attract commercial airlines that would fly to leisure destinations initially,” he said. “We could also process corporate business jet aircraft and private pilots that are coming from international destinations directly into Tallahassee without having to stop at other ports of entry for clearance. The other side is it allows the airport to go out and attract companies that may be interested in bringing in international freight.”
By gaining international status, Tallahassee’s airport could attract more and different types of commercial service and seek out international freight companies to locate here.
Officials would also look at establishing a foreign trade zone on different parcels of the airport, which would allow a company located at Tallahassee to bring in parts from an international location without being charged duties and taxes until those parts are fully assembled into a product. “So we think the integration of those two projects can help us with the development of more than a thousand acres of property located at the airport,” Curry said. “And as a side note, Capital Circle will be expanding from two lanes to six lanes in front of the airport. That would provide a seamless connection to Interstate 10, especially for trucks or freight.” Meanwhile, other upgrades are already in the works, including the modernization of the 2014–15 Ta l l a h a s s e e B U S I N ESS J O U R N AL
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terminal’s interior, its facilities and Chris Curry, the airport’s new amenities. The project includes new director, has great flooring (up to the TSA checkpoint), new expectations for the kiosks, new food and beverage concesfuture growth of the airport and the land sions and upgraded airline ticket counthat surrounds it. ters, just to name a few. One of the most important changes will be a built-in community identity that immediately lets travelers know they have arrived in Florida’s capital. But most importantly, officials are working feverishly to reduce fares and provide direct flights to popular destinations such as New York, Washington D.C. and Fort Lauderdale. Curry said he and Tallahassee City Commissioner Scott Maddox are talking to carriers such as JetBlue, Frontier, Spirit, Allegiant and current carriers such as Delta, American and Silver Airways. “So, when you look at this day and time in Tallahassee, you have the Gaines Street initiative, you have FAMU Way and you have Cascades Park. So the feeling is the city is really taking a progressive approach to developing the infrastructure for the future,” Curry said. “And the airport is a critical piece of that. The other part is with the land we have available, and the academic institutions we have within the city, it’s certainly exciting to try and bring industry to Tallahassee and create employment opportunities with such an educated workforce that’s readily available.” Curry, the former executive director of the Collier County Airport Authority, came to the Capital City in January and is looking forward to taking the local airport beyond its “regional” status in a direction that offers a greater reach. “You relish being in an environment that’s progressive and contributing to an airport that you feel has potential,” he said.
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NEXT: Destination as an International Port of Entry • Re-brand as Tallahassee International Airport • Future Foreign Trade Zone • For commercial airlines, an International Arrival Facility could generate 10,000 to 20,000 additional passengers annually within five years • Major terminal improvements — new retail, food and beverage concessions in 2015
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Matt Burke
Collegetown/Gai nes Street
Building the ‘Cool Factor’ New projects appeal to young professionals and sense of community
I
n the middle of the Great Recession, Tallahassee targeted two areas for growth that had lay dormant for years. Now, the CollegeTown and Cascades Park areas are beginning to sprout. CollegeTown is a bustling strip of mixed-use commercial/residential development featuring bars, restaurants and apartments located between Madison Avenue and Gaines Street near the FSU campus. A stone’s throw away from Doak Campbell Stadium, the idea for CollegeTown began in 2008 when the FSU Boosters, which owned the land, began looking for ways to improve it. Dotted with abandoned warehouses and used mainly as parking lots during FSU home games, the patch of land sat moribund and decrepit. Will Butler, president of Real Estate Insync, the development firm that would oversee the first phase of CollegeTown, called
the area “dilapidated.” His client, the FSU Boosters, began looking for ways to improve the land. “’There’s got to be a higher and better use for this property,’” Butler recalled Boosters CEO Andy Miller saying. Now, the area has the beginnings of a connected, walkable strip of condominiums, shops and bars that provides the simulacrum of an urban lifestyle while retaining the charm of a Madison Social (above) has traditional college become the campus. anchor of a Students flock to rejuvenated area known as CollegeTown, and CollegeTown, a game day crowds “cool” section of are drawn in as town with bars, eateries and well. The Madison clothing stores. Social bar and restaurant has been the lynchpin of the area’s early success, packing in throngs of people even during
Matt Burke
By Gray Rohrer
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Matt Burke
Tallahassee’s down time in the summer months. USA soccer games during the World Cup were standing room-only affairs. Though other businesses have not fared as well (one sushi restaurant has already folded up), CollegeTown is still a hub of activity — and it’s only in its first phase of development. The stage at the Butler said the first newly opened phase was designed to Cascades Park has become attract the co-eds, but a hot spot for later phases adding entertainment possible hotels, grocery near downtown. stores and condo complexes will target the young professional demographic. In other words, giving graduates a reason to stay after receiving their sheepskin. “I think Tallahassee is increasing its cool factor,” said Kyle Touchstone, executive vice president of the Tallahassee-Leon County Economic Development Council. “I think most young professionals want to be somewhere that’s cool, that’s walkable.” But Touchstone also noted providing jobs for new graduates is essential to prevent the annual exodus of brains to Miami, Orlando, Tampa or other points beyond.
CollegeTown has also spurred development in nearby areas. New apartment and parking garage structures are being built in and around the campus area. Hiring and spending have been boosted; part of the desired spillover effect. “I really believe this is Tallahassee’s future. It’s beginning just as a student experience, but
it truly is Tallahassee growing,” said Butler. For the downtown crowd, the city had a different idea for a walkable diversion. Cascades Park is located on 24-acre patch between Lafayette Street and Suwannee Street, where Smokey Hollow, the famous neighborhood that was home to many preeminent African-Americans, once stood.
whir of traffic and the bustle of the Capitol and state agency buildings. Aided by a 1 percent sales tax increase approved by voters in 2000, the Cascades Park area is part of Tallahassee’s Blueprint 2000 plan to spur development and growth around the city. Coming on the heels of the redevelopment of the adjacent Franklin Road area, Tedder has high hopes for more improvements in the vicinity. “I think you’re going to see an incredible transformation of that area,” Tedder said. He added that homes in the area are selling faster and property values are rising, despite occasional complaints from some residents about the noise during concerts. The amphitheater, once just another feature of the park, could be a “revenuegenerator for our community,” according to Tedder. But local officials know the burgeoning success of the CollegeTown and Cascades Park areas could be fragile and must be maintained in order to be sustained — especially if additional development is to spurt in neighboring areas — to prevent the eventual neglect and decay that once left the lands to lie fallow for so long.
Meanwhile, new developments along Gaines Street with an eye toward connecting CollegeTown to downtown are in the works. “We can’t stop investing in ourselves. We can’t forget about our existing business base,” said Touchstone. To do that, Tallahassee has to keep and build upon its “cool factor.”
Scott Holstein
The fate of the land for the park was a source of contention for decades after the city bought the land around Smokey Hollow in the 1960s but left it bare. When it wasn’t barren, the land was used as a “garbage dump,” according to Wayne Tedder, director of the Tallahassee-Leon County Planning Department who oversaw the development of Cascades. He now says the park, which seeks to honor the character, look and feel of the old neighborhood, has provided a sense of catharsis for those who remember the legacy of Smokey Hollow. “To be quite honest with you, it’s sort of a healing,” Tedder said. “We tried to capture that feeling and bring back the neighborhood for them.” The park consists of a playground, running and biking trails, a large pond centered on a spouting fountain (that also functions as a drainage area during rainy seasons) and a 3,500-seat amphitheater. There’s also an area for kids with 73 mini water spouts erupting out of the ground, dubbed the “Imagination Fountain,” that puts on a light show on weekend nights. It’s all interlaid with brick and provides a realm of relative peace and quiet that seems miles away from the nearby
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Downtown Tallahassee
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Downtown Transformation Focus is on something for everyone
By Kathleen Haughney
Photos By Matt Burke (Tucker Dukes) and Lawrence Davidson (Level 8)
O
ver the past few years, Tallahassee development professionals have been working diligently trying to transform the sleepy downtown ruled by government and political offices into a destination for both work and play. And, they might finally be starting to see the payoff. “I think downtown Tallahassee has come a long way in the last 10 years,” said lobbyist Jon Costello, who recently opened up the burger joint Tucker Dukes with his partner and longtime friend Brian Cartenuto. “Now, there’s a bit of buzz.” The core section of downtown from Tennessee to Gaines Street and Franklin Avenue to Bronough Street is still dominated by lobbying, law and public relations firms. But area officials are seeing signs of growth around the edges that are making them hopeful. Across the country, city planners and development directors have seen the millennial generation shun the suburbs and move back to downtown areas. And Tallahassee has been no different, said Jay Revell, executive director of the Tallahassee Downtown Improvement District. “Across the country, millennials are wanting to live closer to bars, restaurants, parks, and we’re seeing that locally,” Revell said. “We’re trying to create a scenario where there’s something for everyone downtown.” But with many areas of downtown locked down by government and political businesses and a few bars and restaurants that cater to the capitol crowd, Revell and other city development officials began looking at the edges of downtown for bigger developments. City officials focused on developing the area around Gaines Street, now known as CollegeTown, which has attracted a slew of new restaurants and stores like Urban Outfitters and a bar called Madison Social. They also built up an area called Cascades Park off of
Tucker Duke’s (opposite page and above) serves up some of the best burgers in town while Level 8 (above right) at Hotel Duval is one of the hottest nightspots in the downtown area.
East Lafayette and East Gaines streets with trails, picnic spots and an outdoor stage for concerts. And many believe that those developments will only buttress downtown. Rick McAllister, president and chief executive officer of the Florida Retail Federation, a private interest organization advocating for the business community, said he was “bullish” about the area surrounding the capitol. Though he’d still like to see more of a mix of businesses — more retail options — to complement the business offices, he believes the condos built in Klemen Plaza in the early 2000s and the developments in CollegeTown and Cascades Park will push more people downtown, he said. And that will encourage more investment and a desire for retail that didn’t previously exist. Just prior to the commercial real estate market plummeting, the Retail Federation purchased $4 million worth of property on Duval that it hoped to turn into a multiuse facility. They held off on the plans while the economy steadily improved.
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Matt Burke
The federation spent another $4.5 million this September to purchase the building it has occupied on South Adams Street, and McAllister has been fielding inquiries about the original investment. “So, we have almost $9 million invested,” McAllister said. “That should tell you what we think about downtown.” That’s not to say there hasn’t been development in the traditional downtown area in the past few years. Since 2009, two new hotels have opened in the downtown area — Aloft and Hotel Duval. Hotel Duval includes a popular rooftop bar called Level 8 and a Shula’s 347 Grill. Another hotel, the Doubletree on Adams Street, is undergoing a substantial renovation. A downtown food truck court was established on Wednesdays at 725 S. Bronough Street. Plus, a new clothing boutique for women opened within the long-standing Nic’s Toggery
50 / 2014–15 Ta l l a h a s s e e B U S I N ESS J O U R N AL
on Monroe Street and a Walgreen’s opened up at the corner of Monroe and Tennessee streets. Costello and Cartenuto’s Tucker Duke’s opened at the tail end of August. Tucker Duke’s has seen long lines since it opened. The location “just drew people in,” Costello said. “Downtown is primarily dominated by government,” he said. “But the people I work with up at the Capitol need to eat somewhere.” But attracting businesses is only one part of the Downtown Improvement District’s plans, Revell said, adding the city also needs to invest in smaller projects that can go a long way in enhancing the quality of life in the area. For example, bike racks were installed downtown as a way to help the many cyclists, particularly ones who work in delivery for area restaurants. Previously, they had to find an open post or area that could accommodate a bike lock.
Jay Revell of Tallahassee’s Downtown Improvement District and Allen Thompson, director of the Downtown Experience, enjoy a moment on a downtown swing.
And earlier this year, the Knight Creative Communities Institute and the Downtown Improvement District partnered to launch the Porch Swing Project. KCCI had built swings at Lake Ella as part of a project to improve that area, but Revell loved the idea and wanted to have them downtown and throughout the city. Currently, there is one on Adams Street in front of the Greenburg Traurig offices, but Revell hopes more will be installed throughout the city. “We want to have these cool porch swings everywhere,” Revell said. If you would like to study the Downtown Improvement District’s strategic plan, you can find it at tallahasseedowntown.com/our-workmake-downtown-work-better.
Wishing you a Happy Holiday Season! Viralkumar Bhanderi, MD
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Scott Tetreault, MD
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1600 Phillips Road, Suite 300 | (850) 877-8166 2626 Care Drive, Suite 200 | (850) 219-5830 2014–15 Ta l l a h a s s e e B U S I N ESS J O U R N AL
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RESIDENTIAL COMMERCIAL INVESTMENT BROKERAGE EXPERTS
Realtors Listed left to right
Carol B. Waugh REALTOR®, Broker-Associate 850.545.7366
Robby Turner
REALTOR®, Broker-Associate CRS, GRI, CLG, ATP/DPE 850.933.9035
Patti Ketcham
Haley Pearson REALTOR® 850.766.8872
REALTOR®/General Manager CRS, GRI, ITI, CLG, e-PRO, AHWD 850.321.2111
REALTOR®, Broker-Associate GRI, GREEN, CLG, SRES 850.212.7753
Clay Ketcham
Brett Ketcham
Gail Mobley Loveless
Rebekah Smith, Esq.
REALTOR®/Broker/Owner CRS, GRI, ITI, CLG, FMS, e-PRO, MRP, AHWD 850.545.5314
REALTOR®/Broker/Owner (State Certified General Appraiser) – MAI, SRA, CCIM 850.544.2275
REALTOR® 850.544.2274
Will Shepherd
REALTOR® SRES, GREEN, CLR, WCR 850.544.5477
Leah Chapin
REALTOR® 407.970.5675
MOVING YOU TO THE NEXT LEVEL Over 30 years in business | Over 175 years combined experience | Licensed in Florida & Georgia | ketchamrealty.com 52 / 2014–15 Ta l l a h a s s e e B U S I N ESS J O U R N AL
Deal Estate It’s Just Business TALLAHASSEE
Magnolia Grove at the southwest corner of Magnolia Drive and Park Avenue East. Retailers slated to be in this development include Starbucks, Blaze Pizza, Smashburger, Mattress One, Oishii Bento Pan Asian & Sushi, Which Wich and Stanton Optical. The property was recently sold to the Ferber Company and closed in August 2014. The 9.27-acre parcel will also include a 134-room, Home 2 Suites by Hilton hotel, with a targeted opening for the 2015 football season. The Ferber Company is a privately held development and investment company headquartered in Ponte Vedra Beach.
» North American Properties and Uptown
Matt Burke
» The Ferber Company is developing
Boston Proper, Destin
Rental Properties have announced plans for the development of Stadium Centre along the Gaines Street Corridor. The Centre will include three mixed-use retail and residential developments, which will have an economic impact of $17 million and create more than 150 jobs, according to the project developers. The Deck, which is the flagship property of the Centre, will be located at the corner of Gaines and Gay Streets. The Block is situated just to the west of The Deck. The Axis will be at the corner of Woodward and St. Augustine.
DESTIN
» Making Awesome, a Tallahassee-
» Meritage medical spa has opened in Coastal Skin Surgery and Dermatology. The Miramar Beach-based operation is accepting appointments for a variety of services, including peels, facials, massages, makeup application and more.
based business that offers a co-working space and shared equipment for entrepreneurs, has relocated from its original location at Tallahassee Community College. The business now operates amidst the cooperative of unique businesses at Railroad Square. Members of Making Awesome not only have a space in which to collaborate with other businesses, but can also access a variety of technological resources, such as 3-D printers.
Panama City
» Edge Aerodynamix Inc. is setting up
shop at the Northwest Florida Beaches International Airport. The company is planning to use the space to develop and ultimately test a new type of technology that will result in less drag and an increased ability for aircraft to conserve on fuel. The move not only pumps more than $77 million into the Northwest Florida economy, but also creates 120 new jobs in the region.
» Another retailer has opened up in the newly expanded Destin Commons shopping center. Upscale retail outfit Boston Proper has opened its 13th U.S. location. This is the eighth Florida location. The boutique, which spans 1,880 square feet, offers trendy women’s clothing, accessories and shoes. The Destin Commons location boasts ready-to-wear fall and winter options and will focus on innovative fashions and top-of-the-line seasonal collections.
for part of its operations for the next 30 years. The company, which performs aircraft maintenance and repair, will lease a future aircraft hangar to be constructed on 19 acres adjacent to the Pensacola International Airport. V-T Mobile Aerospace Engineering Inc. is one of the largest maintenance, repair and operations (MROs) in the world. The addition of the company means the creation of at least 300 full-time jobs.
» A partnership between Offshore
Inland Marine and DeepFlex is bringing 200 new jobs to the city-owned Port of Pensacola, where they will construct a testing and manufacturing facility for flexible pipe. The facility, expected to be fully operational by mid-2015, will be built on 3.5 acres of undeveloped port land.
» Picturesque beach settings aren’t
Fort Walton Beach
» Heritage Cycles Harley-Davidson,
under new owners Greg and Diane Cook, is continuing to expand its inventory of Harleys and is eyeing a name change to Emerald Coast Harley Davidson in the near future. The new owners are also looking at expanding the parking lot, opening a riding academy in the Northwest Florida region and opening a Harley-Davidson retail location in Destin for customers interested in short-term bike rentals.
PENSACOLA
» V-T Mobile Aerospace Engineering
the only thing for which Pensacola is well known; it has become a culinary destination as well, with many new restaurants setting up shop downtown and around the famous beaches. The latest culinary offering is Twin Peaks, situated on Bayou Boulevard. The restaurant is perhaps best known as a sports bar with decidedly male-oriented décor. The menu includes signature offerings such as the green chili meatloaf, venison chiliburger and trophy trout. The new location offers a wide array of draft beers and high-definition TVs scattered throughout. It is one of 56 locations found around the country.
Inc. has committed to Pensacola as home
850 Business Magazine
— Compiled by Lynda Belcher
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Deal Estate Just Sold
A Coastal Paradise Getaway We have all been on a beach vacation where we are driving along a coast, see a beautiful, sprawling beach home and think. “Wow, I wish I lived there.” It’s no surprise then that this threestory, 4,342-square-foot beachfront Destin home was scooped up fast by an out-of-state family looking for a vacation getaway. The property is aptly titled Casa de Palmas because it is surrounded by over 50 lush palm trees. Once you make it past the swaying palm trees and into the home’s foyer you are greeted by a stunning view of the Gulf’s emerald waters. If you can pull your eyes away from that view you will notice the 10-foot ceilings, Mexican limestone floors, granite countertops, crown molding and professional decor. The first floor features a spacious kitchen, a wet bar and an elevator carriage. The real gem of the house is the master bedroom on the second floor.
This suite features a balcony, a fireplace, a morning kitchen and not one but two walk-in closets. In total, the home has five bedrooms and four bathrooms. Some of the bedrooms are in a separate guesthouse located above the two car garage. “The decor was elegant, yet tropical, and when a buyer came to visit they could easily envision themselves enjoying the home,” said realtor John Cook of Coldwell Banker. The lucky buyers were from Texas looking for the perfect second home, and they got it. Since the main focus of the house is the coast, there is a private beach walkover, a Gulfside pool, a beachfront patio and multiple balconies. This allows optimal beach view from any and every angle. The patio and balconies are ideal for sunset sipping on a tropical drink. “For awhile, we used the slogan, “What would Jimmy Buffett do?” I often thought that if Jimmy had a place in Destin, this would be it,” said Cook. n
John Cook/Coldwell Banker
Here It’s Always 5 O’clock By Rebecca Padgett
Quick Look Address: 2970 Scenic Highway 98, Destin List price: $2,100,000 Sold price: $2,100,000 Square feet: 4,342 Contact: John Cook, Coldwell Banker, (850) 582-0874
Enchanted Evenings
1830 West 23rd Street, Panama City | 850.785.0910 | thesleepcenter.info Open 7 Days | Mon–Sat 9:00 a.m.–7:00 p.m. | Sun 1:00–5:00 p.m. | Voted “Best of Bay” 11 Years in a Row 102
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Deal Estate Just Listed
An Office Site to See and Be Seen By Rebecca Padgett
We Understand Rural Living Are you searching for a real estate loan for hunting or recreational property, or a home or acreage in the country?
David Valletto/Beck Property Co, LLC
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In an area surrounded by shopping plazas and restaurants, this four-story brick and stucco building stands out on Plantation Road in the best way. The facade is classic with a twist, which attracts attention from neighbors like University Town Plaza and is easily seen from I-10 and I-110. Once you slip through the doors, you are greeted with an impressive lobby that features marble floors and hardwood paneling. The office spaces provide plenty of room for tenants to conduct business. The third and fourth floors provide balcony access and a plethora of windows letting in the Florida sunshine. With top-notch furnishings and recent upgrades, this building is the epitome of professionalism. “It is structurally very sound with appealing features inside and out,” said listing agent David Valletto of Beck Property Company. This office building presents a steady and still growing market, with recent redevelopment in the area by Simon Property Group. The area expects even Address: 7282 Plantation Rd., Pensacola more development to come in the future. Major nearby highList price: $2,590,000 ways allow easy travel for clients Square feet: 42,292 as well as employees. Contact: David Valletto Ample parking is available Beck Property Co, LLC with 172 parking spaces situated (850) 477-7044 on .64 acres. The spacious structure has 42,292 square feet. “It is ideal for an investor or user looking for a solid investment with plenty of upside at a very reasonable price,” said Valletto. The building is listed at an irresistibly low price of $2,590,000. The building was constructed in 1989, and qualified tenants will be considered for improvements. With an ideal location and eye-catching structure this office building won’t stay empty for long. n
Quick Look
www.farmcredit-fl.com | 800-527-0647
Donofro Architects Designing for North Florida
Celebrating 50 years of Architectural service to Marianna and North Florida Architecture | Planning | Interior Design 2910 Caledonia Street, Marianna | 850.482.5261 850 Business Magazine
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December 2014 – January 2015
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103
BUSINESS NEWS
SoundByteS
Capital
variable annuities, fixed life, fixed annuities, group life, long-term care, individual and group disability, as well as group health insurance. Several employees have been promoted to new posts at Thomas Howell Ferguson P.A., a professional accounting, assurance and tax services firm HowelL headquartered in Tallahassee. Chris Howell has been promoted to director, Assurance Services; Micah Kunkel has been promoted to manager, Tax Services; Matthew Walker has been promoted to senior, Assurance Services; and Elaine Sutter has been promoted to senior, Tax Services. Two new employees have been hired in the Tax Services department: Stephen Andrews and Myles Rankin.
New Beginnings
» Celebrating more than 40 years
»
in practice, the law firm of Colodny, Fass, Talenfeld, Karlinsky, Abate & Webb has streamlined its name to Colodny Fass. The firm’s Internet address is now ColodnyFass.com. Stearns Weaver Miller Weissler Alhadeff & Sitterson P.A., has expanded its multidisciplinary Land Development, Environmental and Government Affairs team with the addi- Bouthillier tion of two senior members to the firm’s Tallahassee office. Shareholder Reggie L. Bouthillier and Director of Planning Kenneth B. Metcalf each bring over 20 Metcalf years of experience serving private and public sector clients throughout Florida.
»
» Alexandra
industry for his work with the Property Casualty Insurers Association of America (PCI), attorney G. Donovan Brown is joining Colodny Fass in the Tallahassee office. His practice will concentrate in the areas of legislative, executive and public affairs, insurance regulatory law, administrative law and related matters, transactional law, and corporate counseling and representation.
Aparicio has been officially sworn in as an attorney and has been named an associate at Broad and Cassel law firm, joining the Commercial Aparicio Litigation Practice Group. She was previously a law clerk at Broad and Cassel and held a judicial internship with First District Court of Appeal Judge T. Kent Wetherell, II, in Tallahassee. She holds a bachelor’s in finance from Florida State University and earned her juris doctor from FSU’s College of Law.
» Three new professionals have
» James E. Parker-Flynn has
» Known throughout the insurance
joined the law firm of Carlton Fields Jorden Burt in Tallahassee as an associate. Parker-Flynn practices in the firm’s Government Law and Consulting practice group. Most recently he had an environmental law research and teaching fellowship at Florida State University, where he taught climate change law and policy.
joined the Tallahassee division of Genesis, the Florida-based engineering, planning, landscape architecture and construction engineering and inspection firm. David Hutcheson, P.E., P.S.M, has been brought on as the Tallahassee division manager, James Love and Nicholas Williams as engineering team members.
» Matthew Dixon has joined the H2
» First Florida
Group in Tallahassee as a real estate agent. He will assist property buyers and sellers in Leon, Wakulla, Jefferson, Gadsden and Franklin counties.
Credit Union recently welcomed Jim English as the regional branch director of its Tallahassee market. He will oversee all English six Tallahassee branches, working with First Florida branch managers and team members to enhance their customer service skills, while emphasizing membership recruitment and market share growth. Local financial investment firm AMB has promoted Kimberly Dixon to vice president. Based in the firm’s Tallahassee office, Dixon, who is a general securities representative and a registered investment advisor representative, also holds insurance licenses for variable life,
» Jen Gaviria has joined Capital
City Consulting, bringing nearly a decade of experience with the legislative branch to the government consulting firm.
Local Honors
» Leon County Attorney Herbert
»
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W.A. Thiele, who has served as inhouse counsel for Leon County Government since 1990, was elected by his peers to serve as presidentelect of the International Municipal Lawyers Association (IMLA) for 2014–15. Thiele is the first-ever county attorney to hold the position,
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850businessmagazine.com
and this places him on track to serve as the organization’s president the following year.
» Taproot Creative has received a
Gold Award and a Silver Award from the 2014 W3 Awards, an international competition recognizing outstanding web-based design, content and delivery. The website built for Lucy and Leo’s Cupcakery, a Tallahasseebased small business, won a Gold Award, and the website developed for First Baptist Church of Tallahassee received a Silver Award. Taproot Creative was one of only six Floridabased firms recognized out of more than 4,000 entries.
» Tallahassee
Community College graduate Pamella Butler has received an Alumni Entrepreneur Award from the National AssociaButler tion for Community College Entrepreneurship. Butler was nominated for the NACCE award by TCC, where she earned an associate’s degree in data processing in 1977. She went on to become one of the first Florida State University students to graduate with a Bachelor of Science degree in management information systems. Butler is the CEO of Aegis Business Technologies, an office technology business she has owned and operated with Brad Mitchell since 1997. Aegis has grown from a two-person partnership to one that now employs 16 and serves more than 300 local businesses.
» Michael A. Moody, a litigation
associate in the Tallahassee office of international law firm Greenberg Traurig, has been elected president of the Bankruptcy Bar Association for the Northern District of Florida. As president, Moody plans to focus on strengthening the relationships between the North Florida association and its sister associations throughout the Southeast. The Bankruptcy Bar Association facilitates educational opportunities and helps to strengthen relationships between bankruptcy lawyers within the Northern District and across the state.
» Patti Ketcham,
a member of the Tallahassee Board of Realtors®, was named Florida Realtors® 2014 Education Individual Achievement Award winner. A Ketcham broker-owner of Ketcham Realty Group Inc. in Tallahassee, Ketcham is a past president of the Tallahassee board and a past District 8 vice president of Florida. The Education Individual Achievement Award recognizes an outstanding individual for working with educational
programs or otherwise contributing to the educational activities and needs of real estate professionals at the local, district, state and national levels for the past two years.
» Touchstone Architecture of Tallahassee was recently named as one of the recipients of the American Institute of Architects Intern Development Program Firm Award, which honors those firms dedicated to the training and mentoring of upcoming architects through an extensive internship process.
» Mark E. Holcomb, a partner with
Madsen Goldman & Holcomb LLP in Tallahassee, has been named the Gerald T. Hart Outstanding Tax Attorney of the Year for 2014–15 by the Tax Section of The Florida Bar.
Emerald Coast New Beginnings
» Jerry Maygarden, CEO and
president of the Greater Pensacola Chamber, has been chosen to help oversee and grow the operations of its non-profit arm, the Pensacola Chamber Foundation. A former mayor of the City of Pensacola and state legislator, Maygarden previously served as the chief executive officer for the Baptist Health Care Foundation, as well as a senior administrator and chief development officer for the Baptist Medical System.
» University of
West Florida President Judy Bense has appointed Provost Martha Saunders as executive vice president. In her new capacity, Saunders will not Saunders only continue to serve as the chief academic officer and vice president for the Division of Academic Affairs, but will also be the chief operating officer with oversight over all university divisions.
» Drs. John Riehl and Dr. Jan P.
Szatkowski have joined the Orthopaedic Trauma and Fracture Care team of experts at the Andrews Institute for Orthopaedics & Sports Medicine. Szatkowski comes from Chicago, where he was previously the chairman of orthopaedics at one of the busiest trauma centers in the country, John H. Stroger Jr. Hospital of Cook County.
» Lauren Sage
Reinlie is replacing Mike Ragsdale as editor of 30A’s network of websites and mobile platforms. Prior to joining the 30A team, Reinlie served as Reinlie a reporter and assistant Web editor at Northwest
Florida Daily News, covering South Walton, Niceville, Valparaiso and Northwest Florida’s large military community.
» Cynthia Can-
non has joined the Pensacola office of Beck Property Company as an associate specializing in government services, urban Cannon redevelopment and land use consulting.
Local Honors
» Tricia Carlisle-Northcutt, a Realtor® from Santa Rosa Beach, has been named one of five winners of the National Association of Realtors® Good Neighbor Awards, recognizing those who have made an impact on their community through volunteer work and community service. Northcutt was selected for founding the Children’s Volunteer Health Network, which provides free medical, dental, vision and mental health care to more than 7,000 underprivileged and uninsured school-aged children.
AmeriCorps member Stephen Mahon teaches a student from Lewis Middle School how to measure water clarity during a field trip to Valparaiso’s Florida Park.
» The AmeriCorps program of
PHOTOS PROVIDED BY PROFILED INDIVIDUALS
Northwest Florida State College has been chosen from 50 other Florida AmeriCorps programs as the first-ever Volunteer Florida “Program of the Year.” Okaloosa and Walton counties have an active AmeriCorps team called the Northwest Florida Environmental Stewards. The team is hosted by NWF State College and funded through a grant from Volunteer Florida. The Northwest Florida Environmental Stewards also participate in other environmental restoration activities, such as oyster reef construction, exotic plant removal and community outreach.
» The Walton County Tourist
Development Council has named Juan Adaro as the 2015 South Walton Artist of the Year. Adaro is a contemporary painter, born in Buenos Aires, Argentina, and has been painting for the last 20 years. He is known for his large abstract and life-size portraits that utilize recycled materials and natural textures. The Council also recently honored Jeanne Dailey as its 2014
Van Ness Butler Jr. Hospitality Award recipient for her work in helping to shape South Walton’s tourism industry.
» Richard
Smith, owner of Coldwell Banker United, REALTORS, in Northwest Florida, has received Fifer the prestigious Coldwell Banker® “Preserving the Trust” Award, which is presented in recognition of generosity, leadership and excellence in championing the cause of homeownership. Smith was nominated by his peers and selected from nearly 87,000 network members. He has more than 48 years of experience in real estate and established his company in 1970.
» John Fifer, CCIM of Beck Prop-
erty Company, has been awarded the Certified Commercial Investment Member designation by the CCIM Institute.
» South Walton Beaches Wine
and Food Festival was awarded a Flagler Award in the special events category by Visit Florida at the 2014 Governor’s Conference on Tourism. It’s the second award won by the festival this year. The first was an Award of Distinction from the Florida Public Relations Association at the annual Image Awards ceremony, an annual competition to recognize outstanding public relations programs in Florida.
announced the addition of 7,500 square feet of exhibit and event space slated for debut in March 2015. This addition includes expansion to pre-function space, current restroom facilities and permanent registration areas. The additional space will provide meeting planners more than 23,000 square feet of ballroom and event space on a single level with approximately 10,000 square feet of additional pre-function area to support the three rooms.
Coast Division, serving children and families in Bay County and the surrounding areas. Golder, who was previously executive director of Palmetto Summerville Behavioral Health in South Carolina, is a veteran of the United States Army and the Florida National Guard and was deployed on active duty during Operation Iraqi Freedom.
Appointed by Gov. Scott
» Jimmy Patronis, 42, of Panama
Appointed by Gov. Scott
City, former state representative and vice president of Captain Anderson’s Restaurant, to the Florida Public Service Commission.
» Tina Dorsey, 41, of Niceville, nursing faculty at Chipola College, to the Florida Center for Nursing Board of Directors.
I-10 New Beginnings
Bay
»
The Madison Chamber of Commerce & Tourism Board of Directors has chosen Lisa Frieman as its new executive director. Frieman most recently worked as the fiscal officer for the Senior Citizens Council of Madison County, a position she had held since May 2010. She replaced Cindy Vees, a sixyear employee of the Chamber.
New Beginnings
» Children’s
Home Society of Florida has named 15-year human services leader Sean Golder as executive director of its Emerald
Golder
Compiled by Linda Kleindienst
» Rachael Dan-
nelley, a senior associate, and Yinan Song, an associate, with Warren Averett, LLC, Certified Public Accountants and Advisors, have successfully completed and passed all four parts of the examination to become a Certified Public Accountant.
Dannelley
» Twin Cities
Song Hospital in Niceville has earned The Joint Commission’s Gold Seal of Approval® for its Spinal Surgery Program by demonstrating compliance with The Joint Commission’s national standards for health care quality and safety in disease-specific care.
Local Happenings
» The Hilton Sandestin Beach
Golf Resort & Spa has spent more than $25 million on transformations throughout the meeting space, guest rooms and public areas over the last three years, and in October
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BAY Corridor
Panama City, Panama City Beach + Bay County
Having Deja Brew? From their farm to your cup By Chay D. Baxley
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assion is a matter of principle for business professor turned entrepreneur and farmer Jerry Williams. A retired faculty member at Gulf Coast State College, Williams, 68, is the co-founder of Deja Brew Coffee Shop as well as Roasters Edge Coffee Roastery, both headquartered in a cozy shop steps away from the coastline of Panama City Beach. A longtime coffee connoisseur, Williams said his latest undertaking sprouted from pure demand — a recipe for success, he’ll tell you, needed in any sound business venture. “People kept asking us to open a shop,” said Williams, “so that’s what we did.” Locals got a taste of the Williamses’ brew a decade ago, when he and wife Monique, 56, began roasting their own coffee beans recreationally. Following a successful debut at an office party, requests for the stuff started pouring in.
Start Fresh The fresher the beans, the better the coffee, says Jerry Williams, owner of a coffee shop in Panama City Beach and a coffee plantation in Costa Rica.
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“I got back to my office, and within a halfhour I had four people who stuck their heads in the door asking if they could buy my coffee,” Jerry Williams recalled. For a few years, the couple took to launching a small-scale roasting operation from their garage. It didn’t take long, though, for demand to overtake their supply. The next logical step for the duo was a storefront, and family and friends were invited to get in on the action. Today, Monique’s sister, Linda Cantlebary of Tifton, Georgia, is a partner on the roastery side of things. She often sells their product at her local farmer’s market. When it came time to select a location for the shop, though, there was never any doubt. Panama City Beach was home, and Deja Brew Coffee Shop officially opened its doors on April 25, 2013. “I’ve lived in Panama City since 1973,” shared Williams. “It’s home to me. I’ve watched a lot of things grow. I’ve watched coffee shops come and go for various reasons, but mostly because they didn’t have very good coffee.” According to Williams, there’s a simple cure to the problem that’s plagued his predecessors. The fix, he says, is always in the beans.
Photos by Matt Burke
From Farm To You (Above) Stephanie Trossen serves a freshly made cup of coffee to a customer. (Below) Coffee beans are roasted regularly and sold in the shop or online.
“You have to start off with whole-bean coffee,” he said. “The fresher you can get it, the better it’s going to be.” True gourmets, the Williamses invested in land in one of Costa Rica’s most fertile regions — the Orosi Valley — where they purchased their second home. Shortly afterward, they began farming their own coffee beans with the help of local workers. When conditions and circumstances permit, you can find those very same beans in their storefront (or, conveniently, online). “Costa Rica has eight distinct growing regions,” Williams said. “Even though it’s one country, it’s kind of like eight different countries.” A favorite retreat for them, in 2014 the couple celebrated their 19th wedding anniversary at the farm. And, coincidentally, at an international coffee conference. “Costa Rica is just beautiful,” Monique Williams said. “And we’ve learned the whole process of coffee. From the farm to the cup. That’s one of our favorite phrases, ‘From our farm to your cup.’ ” Logistically, all the beans at Deja Brew can’t come from the Williams farm. To cater to a
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World Travelers Jerry and Monique Williams travel the globe looking for the best coffee beans for their customers, focusing on freshness and quality.
variety of palates, and to protect the quality of their farmland from overharvesting, they roast and stock the beans of several countries. When shopping the globe, they concentrate on freshness and quality, or the “inherent characteristics” of the bean. So far, their dedication has paid off. Now, seven days a week, patrons can enjoy coffee varieties hailing all the way from Guatemala to Kenya, each boasting its own unique flavor. Wherever the beans originate, they’re always roasted on-site. And that’s a promise. “I spent 40 years looking for a good cup of coffee, and I didn’t find it until I started roasting my own beans,” Williams said with a laugh. With an emphasis on quality ingredients and customer service, as well as nearly three decades of experience as a business educator, Williams’ shop is taking off. The former educator admits, however, that in some ways at least, his days of being a professor didn’t fully prepare him for the reality of the business world. Trying to establish a local, as opposed to tourist-based, clientele has been one of the shop’s primary challenges. But according to Williams, that’s nothing a little word of mouth, consistency and local advertising can’t fix. “I guess I didn’t believe myself when I was teaching about how long it takes to get to break-even in profitability,” Williams winced. “Those rules and guidelines I gave out when I was teaching seemingly are holding up.” n
“You have to start off with whole-bean coffee. The fresher you can get it, the better it’s going to be.” co-founder of Deja Brew Coffee Shop and Roasters Edge Coffee Roastery
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Capital Corridor
Gadsden, Jefferson + Leon Counties
Eyeing A Dream The Hour Glass was a dream that started in Chicago and was realized in Tallahassee 16 years later by James and Alice Stephens.
The Hour Glass
Tallahassee’s favorite eyeglass superstore was a gamble that paid off By Chay D. Baxley
J
ames and Alice Stephens realized early on that a smart business model and a keen eye for style could go a long way in this region. Following a whirlwind romance while the two were studying in Chicago — her art, him optometry — they decided to settle in Quincy so that James could open his own practice. It was 1969. After a few years in the business, the pair couldn’t get the notion of an eyeglassinspired-superstore out of their minds. And by the mid-80s, LensCrafters had revolutionized in-house frame creation — making a process that had previously taken weeks to complete doable within a single hour.
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“There’s always a lot of uncertainty,” admitted James. “But we did our homework, and it looked promising.” So promising, in fact, that when James went door to door asking friends and business acquaintances to help finance his idea, he had no trouble getting 20 investors on board. Great customer service, wide selection and a quick turn around were what he was selling. To be a part of this new age medical-boutique-retail combo, the Stephens were asking for $5,000 in cash and a line of credit worth $10,000 from each investor. In retrospect, the plan was faultless. But when James was canvasing for support, skeptics abounded. And eye specialists throughout the Big Bend were opposed to the idea.
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“The optometrists and ophthalmologists would tell their patients, ‘If they make them in an hour, they can’t be right,’ ” recalled James. Despite their warnings, in December of 1985 The Hour Glass Inc. was born. And within three years, all of the investors were paid back in full. “The worst part was trying to think of a name,” joked Alice, the creative force behind the company. Her talents can be seen throughout the corporation, including in the design of their memorable logo and in many of their advertisements. Today, The Hour Glass has three locations, two in Tallahassee and one in Albany, Georgia, and employs 125 people, 75 percent of them full time. Mark Brown is one such staffer, having been with the Stephens for 24 years. Though he has left and subsequently returned three times, he has held every position in the retail and lab sectors of the company.
“I always felt like this was home,” said Brown, who’s now the company’s chief operating officer. Brown isn’t the only one who has stuck with the Stephens throughout the years. At least 20 other members of The Hour Glass team have been there for a decade, and a number of those have been there for two. According to Brown, it’s the FOUR PILLARS Stephens’ loyalty OF SUCCESS that begets loyalty. » Advertising “I think it just » Location speaks to their » Customer Service company, what » Selection they’ve built and who they are that they’ve maintained a business like this so that people wanted to stick around,” shared Brown on the company’s impressive retention rate. Part of their success is due to expertly compartmentalizing their duties. Both James and Alice are acutely aware of where their strengths are — and are able to parcel off tasks, delegating accordingly. “She has a stylistic approach to things, and Doc has more of a business approach,” noted Brown. “The combination of the two of them is what I think built this business.” From day one, taking a creative, cuttingedge approach to advertising, location, selection and customer service has been a part of the company’s foundation. The two Tallahassee locations, one on Lafayette Street just off Apalachee Parkway and the other in the Market Square District, are located near major residential neighborhoods and commercial outlets. As for selection, each Hour Glass stocks 2,500 frames — the largest collection, by far, in the entire region. “They’ve given us the tools to be successful,” explained Brown on the company’s four guiding pillars. “They’ve spent the money on advertising. They’ve given us what we needed as far as products to sell.” But to James, or “Doc” as his staff affectionately refers to him, nothing comes before customer service. You’ll never see an employee of The Hour Glass looking disheveled. And if you aren’t greeted with a
Photos by Matt Burke
Recipe For Success Chief Operating Officer Mark Brown credits a focus on advertising, location, customer service and selection with the success of The Hour Glass.
warm “hello” as soon as you walk through the door, be sure to let James know. It’s his No. 1 pet peeve. “It kills me to have folks come in and not get acknowledged and not get waited on,” said James. Something about their upscale, full-service venture must be catching on, because both The Hour Glass and The Hour Glass of Albany have been featured in 20/20, a national optical magazine, as one of the nation’s Top 40 optical retailers. They’ve also been a Best of Tallahassee winner for 11 consecutive years, often winning multiple titles and awards. For the Stephens’ part, the local and national recognition is overwhelming. “We’re tickled to death about it,” beamed Alice. n
THE RAW NUMBERS ▪ Three locations conduct a total of 30,000 eye exams every year. ▪ The company employs 125 people, 100 of them based in Tallahassee. ▪ 75% of the employees are full time. ▪ Each location stocks 2,500 frames. ▪ The Hour Glass has been ranked among the Top 40 optical retailers by 20/20 magazine and has won Best of Tallahassee awards for 11 consecutive years.
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EMERALD COAST Corridor
Consummate Optimist Raimund Herden seated on a hand-carved antique European sofa that he says is “many times over the age of America” in his South Winds home in Bluewater Bay.
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Coastal Escambia, Santa Rosa, Okaloosa + Walton Counties
Living a Dream At home with Raimund Herden, the optimistic visionary behind Bluewater Bay By Zandra Wolfgram
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courtesy of Raimund Herden (Construction)
n 1975 things weren’t looking too bright in America. Thanks in part to the 1973 oil crisis, a severe stock market crash in 1974 and the country’s long-awaited exit from the Vietnam War, the nation was in one of the worst recessions in modern history. Gerald Ford was still finding his footing in the Oval Office after Richard Nixon’s resignation, and some may argue he never quite kicked the economy into gear. Inflation was a whopping 14 percent. And though mood rings were all the rage, no one was in a good one. Except maybe Raimund Herden. Always the consummate optimist, Herden, president of Bluewater Investors Ltd. and one of the original developers of Bluewater Bay, may have been the one humming the Captain and Tennille’s hopeful song of the year “Love Will Keep Us Together.” He was 42 and still spending some of his time in Europe (he was born in Westphalia, Germany). Though happily married to Margot, after a phone call from some real estate business partners in Atlanta, he would soon fall deeply in love for the second time. But not with a woman … with land.
Photos by Scott Holstein
Northwest Florida, namely Niceville, and more specifically what is now Bluewater Bay, took this globetrotter by surprise. “It was so beautiful, so serene, I just fell in love,” he says with a little wistfulness in his blue eyes. Herden immediately saw what many others didn’t — huge potential and his opportunity to live the American dream. He secured funding and capital from both American and European investors and purchased the land “free and clear” for $5.7 million. He would invest even more in infrastructure. Eventually, he would purchase an additional 500 acres for a total of 2,000 acres. Like an intriguing woman, this pretty parcel of untouched land captivated this developer’s mind, heart and imagination for the next 37 years. Herden began development only after carefully canvasing coastal towns up and down the Atlantic and Gulf coasts. Soon after he formed a clear vision of what his dream town would be: a world-class residential resort community. He and his business partners, Jerry Zivan and Dave Weaver,
put a shovel in the ground in 1978 and never once looked back. “It was a great challenge and I was so excited, because it was also so necessary,” Herden recalls. Herden didn’t take the easy road or the fast lane to the finish line, opting instead to carefully and meticulously tuck utility lines underground, preserve green space and plot out each of the 212 streets, one subdivision at a time. He was vigilant about making choices that would create a familyfriendly neighborhood community filled with parks, recreational amenities and as many trees as possible. “There is so much nature here compared to Europe. If there was a beautiful tree, I would move the lot line around it,” he says. A child of the war, Herden didn’t set out to be a developer. Moving around to escape harm left little time for education. So, at 16, when a friend’s father invited him to apprentice with him at a small bank, Herden seized the opportunity and drew strength from his humble beginnings. “It motivated me even more to succeed,” he says. A lifelong learner, Herden devoured college classes in history, art and literature — subjects that interested him. Despite never earning a formal degree, he worked his way to becoming a successful bank executive. Life was his classroom, and he was an eager student. “I believe in knowledge,” he confides. “Knowledge is a currency which you can pay in any country.” Looking back on the early days of the project now, Herden sees his team’s lack of experience as a plus. “If we knew exactly what we were getting into, we may Hands-on Commitment not have done it at Raimund Herden all,” he confesses. pictured in 1993 holding aerated concrete As is his way block. The lightweight with all things alternative to concrete, manufactured by a he commits to, German company, first Herden plowed appeared in North America when used in through and was Bluewater Bay. hands-on throughout the build-out of Bluewater Bay, signing off on plans, employing architectural guidelines, handpicking builders and learning along the way.
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“I maintained tight control. You cannot leave it to the builders or anyone. They are only in it for the money. I had my heart and blood in it,” he says. Avoiding trees was the least of Herden’s hurdles over the years. With large resort developments such as Sandestin Golf and Beach Resort in Miramar Beach and Bay Point in Panama City filing for bankruptcy, Herden’s project was considered a long shot. He fought off naysayers and skeptical city officials, including the Niceville City Council, which turned down his proposal to annex the development. “It’s OK, a lot of people didn’t believe in it, because I did. In fact, I think it is the only development in which the first person that started also finished,” he said with a satisfied smile. A ‘Nice’ Place to Raise a Family Today, nearly four decades later, Bluewater Bay is a desirable resort-style community of neat neighborhoods that are home to more than 10,000 people living in nearly 4,000 homes throughout 30 distinctly different subdivisions. If Bluewater Bay has a Mayberry kind of feel, that was intended. “I believe in neighborhoods. I really do,” Herden exclaims. Not only did he incur additional expense by purposefully designing neighborhoods to look and feel differently from one another, he designed nearly all the streets as meandering cul-desacs. “I did not want straight streets, I wanted them to curve,” he explains as he moves his hand in a wave motion. “As you walk or drive you can look at the trees. This is more expensive, but this good for families, no?” Including Herden’s family of five. Over the years he has lived in three different neighborhoods and currently has a single-story stucco home on the bay in the Sunset Beach neighborhood. Herden is also passionate about family, especially his own. His three children are now grown. Raimund Jr. followed in his father’s footsteps and is an investment banker living in Germany. Katrin is an interior designer in Milan. Christina, the youngest, lives in Bluewater Bay, which allows Herden to see a second generation growing up to enjoy all his hard work. Everyone will gather together this year to celebrate Raimund and Margot’s 50th wedding anniversary. “I’m very family oriented,” Herden says. “It’s important to have a good family and to try to be happy and positive,” he says. Surely it is satisfying for Herden to see 114
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Raimund and Margot Herden
national media such as Bloomberg’s Business Week (January 2012) naming Niceville one of the “Best Places to Raise a Family in Florida.” Clearly, Bluewater Bay has something to do with why Niceville is well, a nice place to live. Making an Impact The fact that 93 percent of the homes are permanent primary residences makes Bluewater Bay a stable community — a success. This tidy town is particularly attractive to retired and semi-retired military looking to enjoy life away from the hubbub of the tourist towns that line the Gulf. Realtor Susan Rood and her family are living proof. Her husband is a retired major in the U.S. Marine Corps. Living in New Orleans when Katrina hit in 2005, they sought refuge in Northwest Florida. After looking for more than a year, the Roods and their five boys settled on a five-bedroom/three-bath home in Parkwood Estates. “We loved the location and the schools,” she says. (Yes, Bluewater Bay has its own pre-K, daycare and elementary school.) Anticipating that families like the Roods would come looking to live the “Florida lifestyle,” Herden’s strategy was to build a variety of home types with a range of price points to attract a spectrum of buyers. According to Rood, it means there is something for nearly everyone. “Bluewater Bay is a community that fits nearly every level of lifestyle. You have apartments for lease, beginner homes and townhomes starting at $150,000, and then you have waterfront mansions from
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$700,000 to more than $2 million as well.” Beyond price point, Bluewater Bay has helped to create a sense of place for the surrounding area. No one would know better than Tricia Brunson. She grew up in Niceville, graduated from the local high school in 1980 and has worked at the Niceville Chamber of Commerce for 17 years, where she now serves as president and CEO. “The growth was huge and it was fast,” she says. In addition to a residential housing boom, Bluewater Bay was the impetus for Niceville’s commercial corridor. “When you add residential you need to have more services and businesses,” Brunson says. “Bringing those residences in was key to the business community, because then you need grocery stores, physicians, drug stores, cleaning companies and so on.” And Herden delivered the goods, literally. Today, business on Highway 20 is buzzing with dozens of restaurants, shops, small businesses and support services. The area even has dedicated police and fire substations. Despite the rapid expansion of the area, Brunson contends that this city still lives up to its “hometown USA” name. “Niceville has always been known for its great quality of life. It’s safe, crime is low and I think that holds true even though we have grown,” she says. Many local leaders like Burdon see Herden as a visionary. “He’s always been someone who is able to focus on the big picture and on what’s important,” she says. “He has great common sense and is able to look at the needs
of a community to decide on his next move.” Plus, she says, “He’s a super nice guy.” He’s also an out-of-the-box thinker when it comes to marketing. The word about Bluewater Bay has spanned the globe, thanks in part to the Emerald Coast International Invitational, a high-end golf tournament Herden created and hosted (with help from his wife and daughter, Christina) at Bluewater Bay for 20 years beginning in 1980. Larry Sassano, president of Florida’s Great Northwest, was leading the Okaloosa County Economic Development Council in 1997 when Herden invited him to join the tournament as a sponsor. They had an immediate connection and have enjoyed a lasting friendship for the last 17 years. “The golf tournament was a prestigious event. Here was an opportunity to meet some international business leaders while playing golf and make them more aware of this area,” Sassano recalls. The attendees were impressed with what they saw, and time on the green translated into local investments. “He’s smart. It’s a recognized quality attraction, because he did it right,” Sassano says. The Final Phase Herden’s personal involvement in Bluewater Bay was always down to the letter, quite literally. Each year he would sit down and write a letter to the homeowners about what was completed. “I tried not to promise anything. I just did it. I didn’t want to disappoint anyone,” he says. His strategy to “under promise and over deliver” worked. He easily earned credibility and the respect of homeowners, the business community and beyond. Though he thought he penned his last letter in 2000
when he unveiled the final residential neighborhood — Magnolia Plantation — soon he will have to get his stationery out once more. The final touches are being made to Superior Residences, a 94-unit resort-style independent living facility on Highway 20 that features a long list of amenities ranges, from a concierge, freshly prepared meals and housekeeping to golf, a pool with a Jacuzzi tub and a day spa. Many of the 15 million Americans eligible for Medicare by 2020 will retire in sunny Florida. The need for facilities that provide assistance to this growing demographic is quite real. For local leaders, it couldn’t come soon enough. Once again Herden has his eye on the horizon and finds opportunity in growing trends. “It’s something that’s been requested of us for years. It’s perfect,” Brunson says. And though Herden has a bit more gray hair these days, Sassano assures that his golfing buddy and mentor is still highly motivated by these kind of passion projects. “He has incredible energy to do things like this,” Sassano says. “And it, too, will be a quality establishment that people will be attracted to, because he’s building it to his standards — as if he were going to retire there.” At 81, after seven presidential terms, Herden has lived his American dream — literally, and while bright eyed and wide awake. Today, the country is still recovering from one of the worst recessions on record, but one person couldn’t be happier when he looks around at his family, his home and his neighborhood community. And he’s still nothing but optimistic about what the future holds. If you are chasing a big dream, heed Herden’s advice: “Do more than people expect, believe in yourself and never ever give up.”
Global Marketing The Marjorie Gray Clubhouse at Sunset Beach was the scene for many a gala reception where executives from luxury brands such as Credit Suisse Private Banking, Rolex, Jaguar, Lufthansa and many more mixed, mingled and conducted business with more than 3,000 guests over a 20-year period during the Emerald Coast International Invitational, one of the creative marketing strategies that helped place Bluewater Bay in the global spotlight.
Bluewater Bay By the Numbers
1978 800 year the first home was built on St. Croix Street
children enrolled in Bluewater Bay Elementary
twenty-five houses sold in the first phase of the first neighborhood
$160,000 the cost of the first stucco-style townhomes with red tile roofs, which sold out before they were completed
five
number of swimming pools
1980 year Marina Cove Village was created, featuring a natural cove and trees dripping in Spanish moss
20 years Bluewater Bay hosted the Emerald Coast International Invitational Golf Tournament
nineteen number of man-made lakes
120
slips in the Marina
$40,000
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forgotten coast Corridor
Gulf, Franklin + Wakulla Counties
Perfect Testing Conditions Bruce “Mac” McCormack says Carrabelle has great demographics and geography for testing of unmanned systems to aid agriculture, aquaculture and homeland safety because most of the land is owned by the state and unpopulated.
Franklin County’s Giant Test Tube Turning weapons into peacetime workhorses By Florence Snyder
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ell phones don’t work in the old bank vault that’s now a conference room for Gulf Unmanned Systems Center in Carrabelle. That’s essential for James Bond-types, along with the government people whose security clearances aren’t quite so romantic, and the entrepreneurs with trade secrets that GUSC’s President Bruce McCormack is working to attract to the unmanned vehicle testing facility he’s building in Franklin County.
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With the aid of private investors, McCormack purchased the old Gulf State Community bank on Highway 98, leased the city-owned Hexaport building on John McGinnis Road and aims to build a full-service facility for businesses seeking to bring the next generation of “unmanned vehicles” to market. And please don’t call them drones, at least not in Franklin County, where McCormack and community leaders see GUSC as a “big,
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giant test tube” in which the drones of war are beaten into the plowshares of peacetime. “Unmanned vehicles on and under water, and on land, as well as in the air, have so many positive purposes to serve,” said McCormack, who spends a lot of time with people in government, business and academia who “tinker with technology and invent things in their garage. We’re the only facility in the country that offers the range of littoral environments in which those vehicles can be tested. We can’t offer deserts and mountains,” he added, although that could change as GUSC develops relationships with out-of-state institutions. McCormack spent most of his professional life in Northwest Florida, where he manufactured combat submersibles for Navy SEALS. As drone technology moved from
By Air and Sea A 4,000-foot paved runway is part of the GUSC complex where new unmanned systems can be tested for use by the military and private industry.
Star Wars to real wars to “a viable means of doing countless dirty, dangerous and dull” peacetime chores, McCormack began to see Carrabelle as much more than “a sleepy fishing village.” The sparsely populated surrounding countryside with its “intertwined river, bay, estuary and Gulf and easily accessible hardwood forest, jungle, swamp and barrier islands” looked to him more like a custom-designed laboratory in which unmanned vehicles could be perfected for use in tough environments. That, along with a small but sufficient supply of quality local lodging and restaurants, convinced McCormack that Franklin County would be attractive to scientists and capitalists looking to test futuristic “gee whiz!” technology against ancient, unforgiving terrain. And it didn’t take much to sell GUSC’s first employees, all of them local residents as required under the terms of the Hexaport lease. Operations Manager Jeff Wren has worked for state agencies charged with protecting the environment since 1996. His portfolio has included oyster harvesting, sea turtle nesting, water quality, weather stations and sediment testing. “I was so happy when Bruce came to town,” said the 20-year Carrabelle Beach resident, who learned from the local newspaper that GUSC was hiring. Wren is especially excited about the possibilities of using unmanned vehicles to improve the health and productivity of
Photos by matt Burke
Florida’s oyster beds, along with the health and productivity of the public and private sector workers who look after them. “We would randomly assess the health of the oyster beds,” Wren recalled of his agency work. “We would pick itty bitty squares of the bed and count oysters by hand. Now it’s possible to survey the entire bed in a fraction of the time. You can see the health of the bed, which helps you figure out how to take care of it.” Taking care of the places that feed people and support small fisheries and farms is close to the heart of Facilities Manager Clint Ivey. He speaks nostalgically of growing up on a farm in South Georgia, where he raised cattle alongside his father and grandfather. Ivey later studied forestry and is excited about the potential for fighting fires and fertilizing farmlands in ways his grandfather could not have imagined. “I just love the challenge,” Ivey said. Drawing on his family experience — selling the farm when it proved impossible to run it at a profit — he is especially enthused to be “on the cutting edge of precision agriculture. “If you can reduce the amount of fertilizer,” Ivey said, “you can raise your profit. With aerial photography of fields and unmanned vehicles to take sod samples, we can tell what fertilizer to use, how much and when. We can measure moisture in the soil and figure out how much more is needed and exactly where to put it. Farming is a tough business. We need more food, and we don’t have any more room to
grow it. With unmanned vehicles and related technology, we have a chance here to help.” Certified public accountant Lisa Spooner, long active in the Carrabelle Chamber of Commerce, hired on as GUSC’s chief financial officer because she sees a chance to “change how Carrabelle looks at the world and how the world looks at Carrabelle.” David Butler, chairman of the Carrabelle Economic Development Council, says the business community is fully supportive of McCormack’s plan. The city, he added, has a good contract with the company and if GUSC succeeds, “there’ll be money down the road.” Chamber of Commerce Executive Director Suzanne Zimmerman agreed, saying, “If it takes off — and I’m sure it will — people from all over the world will be coming here. And once they find us, they will fall in love. Bruce convinced the business community that GUSC would not hurt our environment, which is very precious to us.” McCormack likes to say, “In the Navy, we live or die by teamwork.” But when the team gathers over lunch at the Carrabelle River Marina, there’s no mistaking who the skipper is. He’s especially proud of the fact that everybody is on the marketing team. “We want to grow together with the community, surrounded and supported by likeminded businesses,” said McCormack. “We want to be at the center of an industry that’s high tech and low-key, with a workforce that is well trained and well paid.”
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i-10 Corridor
Northern Escambia, Santa Rosa, Okaloosa + Walton Counties and Holmes, Washington, Calhoun, Jackson + Liberty Counties
Promoting Rural Riparian Tourism Northwest Florida is waiting to be explored By Jason Dehart
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et’s face it. It was pretty doggone cold up North last winter. That meant more snowbirds were heading south to Florida than ever before, and visitation numbers began hitting 100 million for the first time ever. Despite the traffic and population headaches this may cause for certain parts of the state, this is actually good news for the less-travelled regions like the Apalachicola and Choctawhatchee rivers. These are places far from the theme parks, shops and concert venues and appeal to a new wave of tourists eager to reconnect with nature. The Panhandle is an alluring world, and it begs to be explored. The storied Apalachicola River basin alone hosts a wide variety of outdoor opportunities for the ecotourist, from hiking and trekking to fishing, boating and biking. There’s the Big Bend Scenic Byway (220 miles of roads through Franklin, Wakulla and parts of Leon counties), the Florida Trail (a meandering 1,400-mile-long hiking tour of the entire state), the Panhandle Pioneer Settlement and Blountstown’s Sam Atkins Park (“One of the best hidden gems in Calhoun County,” according to
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COLIN HACKLEY/Visit Florida
Lighting the Way Gift Shop Manager Laurel Newman walks to shut the door of the Crooked River Lighthouse as climbing hours come to a close. Crooked River Lighthouse keepers followed daily work and record-keeping procedures so the light would always function.
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Andrew Wardlow/Visit Florida
Blountstown Fire Chief Ben Hall), M&B Railroad Depot Museum and Blountstown Greenway, the Dead Lakes Recreational Area near Wewahitchka, Crooked River Lighthouse and Keepers House Museum & Park, St. George Island (which has famous and consistently top-rated beaches) and Historic Apalachicola (home to the Apalachicola Maritime Museum). New, combined efforts are underway to attract these visitors to places far and away from the theme parks, shops and concert venues. Promoting Northwest Florida’s treasure trove of rural tourism possibilities is so important that eight counties have joined forces to do just that with RiverWay South Apalachicola Choctawhatchee. RiverWay South AC is a rural tourism promotion organization born out of a tristate coalition of watershed counties in Georgia, Florida and Alabama. The Florida spin-off of this coalition was established in 2010 and is Andrew Wardlow/Visit Florida
COLIN HACKLEY/Visit Florida
Living History (Above) The Panhandle Pioneer Settlement in Blountstown has 18 buildings of historical significance, as well as many exhibits and collections. (Below) The cobbler shop is packed with interesting historical items at the Panhandle Pioneer Settlement.
now comprised of eight rural riparian counties — Calhoun, Franklin, Gadsden, Gulf, Holmes, Jackson, Liberty and Washington — along the Apalachicola and Choctawhatchee rivers. The partnership provides many services designed to best promote and encourage economic development through rural, cultural and natural resource tourism in the two Northwest Florida river basins. “RiverWay South strives to offer services that expand and complement the counties’ work in tourism,” said Director Pam Portwood, adding the group is very proactive. “This year alone we have developed an intrinsic resource database and an image library. We have provided leadership training and scholarships to educational programs such as the Southeast Tourism Society’s Marketing College,” she said. “We held a fall media tour where we brought in some travel writers to the regions and got some great articles out of that. We have
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developed tear-off maps … that really show off and promote the incredible resources we have in this region.” Other projects currently in the hopper include some self-guided itineraries that will be showcased on the organization’s website and promoted via welcome centers. The idea is to get people to get away from Interstate 10 to explore the lesser-traveled paths throughout the river basins. “And then last but not least we held a highly successful agritourism workshop, where we brought in a nationally recognized expert,” Portwood said. “There is lot of interest in agritourism in this region.” Already, folks from the far corners of the nation have decided to not just visit here, but take up permanent residence as well. Homer Hirt, president of RiverWay South AC, recalled that a few years back he talked to a cave diver from Montana who was traveling down to Central Florida to cave dive. Apparently, the diver didn’t like what he saw down south, so he came to Jackson County to dive in its springs. That was all it took, Hirt said. “He went back home, sold his business and came back and bought a home — and he is probably the top cave diver in the country. One year he had someone from each state in the Union come through here, and 15 foreign countries. He had people from Germany coming in for two or three weeks at a time. Now that’s a destination tourism spot if there ever was one. That indicates what we have here, and I’m very proud of that,” he said. The whole idea of a multi-county approach to promoting tourism is that the rural tourism doesn’t start, or end, with any one county, according to Pam Fuqua, executive director of the Jackson County Tourist Development Council. “We say, ‘If you go to the beach, cool off at Florida Caverns.’ We want to enhance visitors’ stay because visitors don’t know boundaries,” she said. “And you know we have so much culture and heritage and tourism, and we want people to see that this is part of Florida, too. Florida is not just about the beaches.” Fuqua said all of the county partners have learned a great deal about promoting rural tourism, and each will have its own strategy. She said Jackson County’s officials plan to increase digital advertising, 120
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conduct more market research into where visitors are coming from and target advertising efforts in those areas. Jackson officials are also very excited to be the first county in Florida to host a traveling exhibit titled “Florida Before Statehood.” Sponsored by the Museum of Florida History, the display consists of 11 panels that discuss European exploration and journeys for the past 500 years. The display will be set up at the historic Russ House in Marianna.
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“It ties in with the Viva Florida program, and we’re so excited to have it because Jackson County is launching the Spanish Heritage Trail,” she said. In general, rural tourism is all about showcasing rural life, which is great, but the ultimate goal is putting “heads in beds,” according to advertising guru Judy Randall. “Isn’t that why we do this? We love Northwest Florida, but we have to make money, too,” said Randall, president and CEO
Andrew Wardlow/Visit Florida
Eco Adventures (Left) Paddleboats are available for rent at the Jackson Blue Spring Recreation Area near Marianna. (Above) James Draker prepares to exit the water after scuba diving, also at the Jackson Blue Spring Recreation Area.
Andrew Wardlow/Visit Florida
of Randall Travel Marketing Inc., a company whose primary focus is travel and tourism industry research. Promoting rural tourism is going to have the same challenges as any other “conventional” form of tourism, Randall said. The No. 1 challenge of rural tourism is carrying capacity. Is there enough signage? Parking? Bathrooms? Places to eat and drink? The second challenge has to do with getting the locals to buy in to your plans. In order to do that, you have to discover what their “sacred places” are and keep them “pure.” Concentrate instead on promoting other areas that aren’t quite as cherished, she said. “Don’t prostitute your sacred places,” she said. “But, what are the places that you do want to show off?” Another challenge is orientation. Visitors new to the area need to know where they can find these places. They need to know where the rivers are, the outfitters, the boat ramps. When it’s not entirely clear how to get somewhere, that’s a detriment to promoting rural tourism. “Millions of people flow through I-10 in Northwest Florida every year. You have to get them off the Interstate. Cast your net. Get those people,” she said. 850 Business Magazine
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The Last Word
There’s a famous line in the movie “Field of Dreams” that nearly everyone knows, even if they never saw the film.
LINDA KLEINDIENST, EDITOR lkleindienst@rowlandpublishing.com
Photo by kay Meyer
It’s often misquoted, of course, but everyone pretty much gets the general drift. “If you build it, he will come.” Those are the whispered words that Kevin Costner (playing Iowa farmer Ray Kinsella) hears one night as he is walking in his cornfield and sees the vision of a baseball diamond taking shape where cornstalks should be. Most of us know the story from there. The cornstalks get plowed under, the diamond is built and Ray waits. And waits. And waits. Eventually, Shoeless Joe Jackson shows up along with a host of deceased players, including Ray’s father, a catcher and the “he” in the whispered promise. In the end, the fans (who are alive, of course) show up by the hundreds; their cars with shining headlights line the road as they arrive in hopes of getting a chance to watch a game in Ray’s cornfield. “People will come, Ray,” promises James Earl Jones, who plays author Terrance Mann in the film. “People will most definitely come.” And he was right. Now move yourself from Iowa to Florida. Substitute the Northwest Florida Beaches International Airport for the baseball field. And let’s make believe Shoeless Joe is really Edge Aerodynamix Inc. What do you think the chances are that more will come? For those of you who haven’t heard, the big announcement came in late October that Edge Aerodynamix had decided to move its operation onto some of the land surrounding the Bay
County airport. The project will create $77.92 million in capital investment, including land, and 120 manufacturing, research and development, and marketing jobs. The company has also guaranteed it will pay salaries at 150 percent of the average Bay County wage — or $50,000 a year. It is the first big project that is moving onto the hundreds of acres that have been set aside for economic development projects at the airport. Unfortunately, the Great Recession came about the same time the airport opened, so there haven’t been any takers on the property until now. But Edge Aerodynamix wants to move there (from Atlanta) to produce a product designed to generate significant fuel savings for all types of aircraft — and this decision was made after a competitive site search that included domestic and international sites. Park McClellan Jr., chairman of the Airport Authority, was literally beaming the day of the announcement when he said, “We’re confident this is the first of many projects. You need someone to start, and we look forward to more. It means additional business and opportunity.” Well, the cars aren’t lined up yet, but they will be. You have just got to have a little patience and believe. Like Ray. And they will indeed come. Hundreds of available acres. Runway access. For aviation and aerospace companies looking for a home, what isn’t to like?
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