850 Magazine Oct-Nov 2010 Issue

The Next Governor An 850 exclusive: Candidates Rick Scott and Alex Sink talk about what they will do for Northwest Florida

The business side of hometown democracy Considering the pros and cons of Amendment 4

The lingering effects of the BP oil disaster Many businesses are still dealing with the spill

Tallahassee Business Journal special section The region is an attractive place to do business

J u d g e d F l o r i d a’ s B e s t W r i t t e n M a g a z i n e b y t h e F l o r i d a M a g a z i n e A s s o c i at i o n 2 0 0 9 , 2 0 1 0

We invite you “Back to the Beach,” where you can Fall Back Into Summer!

Weather during Florida’s fall months is beautiful and nowhere is that more so than in Northwest Florida. The skies are blue, the sunsets are more colorful than anytime of the year, the humidity is light and the Gulf waters are still plenty warm enough to dive right in! Not to mention some of the biggest and oldest festivals take place during the fall months. Come attend, participate or both in one of the many fishing tournaments, concerts, seafood and arts festivals all promoting Florida’s unique culture and cuisine. This is a great time for tourists and residents alike to discover the beauty of Northwest Florida during the fall season and get “Back to the Beach”!

THE FLORIDA RESTAURANT & LODGING ASSOCIATION is among the most influential trade associations in Florida, counting among its members those some of the largest businesses across the state in lodging establishments, restaurants, and thousands of suppliers to the industry. Our mission is to PROTECT, EDUCATE, and PROMOTE Florida’s hospitality industry – which represents a $57 billion industry, 20% of Florida’s economy, $3.4 billion in sales tax revenue, and more than 900,000 employees, making it Florida’s largest employer. FRLA is proud to produce over 150 events each year; including networking dinners, golf tournaments, fishing tournaments, food and wine festivals, educational seminars and much more. In the wake of the Deepwater Horizon Oil Spill that has devastated areas of Northwest Florida, FRLA has led the charge in representing the industry through marketing, communications, tourism briefings, claims procedures, and paid advertisements to let the world know that Florida is Open for Business. For more information, go to www.FRLA.org or call 888-372-9119 to find out how you can get involved.

DESTIN FISHING RODEO Oct 1–31, 2010 The Destin Fishing Rodeo is a non-profit organization that is supported by our members, sponsors, local businesses, and the fishing community. On behalf of our fishing fleet and local community, we welcome you to participate in the best fishing rodeo that you will ever experience. Year after year, our anglers return to catch the big one! Our fishing fleet and community work all year in preparation for your arrival. Come join the fun. Weigh-ins are FREE and open to the public everyday on the docks at A.J.’s Seafood & Oyster Bar from 10 a.m. until 7 p.m. destinfishingrodeo.org

BLAST ON THE BAY/SONGWRITERS FESTIVAL Oct 15–16, 2010 Florida’s Forgotten Coast will once again play host to a group of musicians and songwriters direct from the streets of Nashville. Festival performances will consist of approximately 15-20 musicians who collectively have written hundreds of hit songs from Faith Hill and Ann Murray to Darius Rucker and Diamond Rio. Songwriters attending the three day event will include crowd favorites from last year such as Jillia Jackson, Thom Shepherd and Will Rambeaux just to name a few. With more than double the number of performers, this is certain to be another fantastic time for anyone who appreciates great music. All shows are FREE of charge, or request a minimal donation, and everyone is encouraged to come out and enjoy. Proceeds will benefit the Educational Foundation of the Florida Restaurant and Lodging Association. blastonthebay.com

TASTE OF THE BEACH Nov 4–7, 2010 Taste of THE Beach — an annual food and wine celebration on Northwest Florida’s Gulf Coast – was formed to showcase the area’s beaches, culture and restaurants, paired with unique wine events and a charity auction. As the presenting sponsor, Southwest Airlines will help expand awareness of Taste of THE Beach with a broader regional focus through its daily service to and from the area at the Northwest Florida Beaches International Airport. The charity auction will raise much needed funds for several charities supporting children in critical need. Savor the flavors, sights and sounds of Northwest Florida’s Gulf Coast through Taste of THE Beach. tasteofthebeachfla.com

THE 47TH ANNUAL FLORIDA SEAFOOD FESTIVAL Nov 5–6, 2010 Florida’s Oldest Maritime Event, the Florida Seafood Festival is a two day event annually drawing thousands of visitors to the historic town of Apalachicola in scenic Franklin County. The Festival is held at the mouth of the Apalachicola River under the shady oaks of Apalachicola’s Battery Park. The festival features delicious seafood, arts and crafts exhibits, seafood related events, and musical entertainment. Some of the notable events include Oyster Eating and Oyster Shucking contest, Blue Crab Races, Cooking Contest, Parade, 5k Redfish Run and The Blessing of the Fleet. floridaseafoodfestival.com

THE GREAT GULFCOAST ARTS FESTIVAL Nov 5–7, 2010 The Great Gulfcoast Arts Festival is one of the most highly regarded and popular arts festivals in America. The Festival, a three-day, juried art show, comes to Pensacola’s historic Seville Square. Each year, it draws more than 200 of the nation’s best painters, potters, sculptors, jewelers, graphic artists, craftsmen, mixed-media artists and others who have been gifted with the ability to turn inspiration into art. The Festival features great music on the Main Stage, dance on the Parrish Performing Arts Stage, and authentic craftspeople in the Heritage Arts area. The Children’s Arts Festival features numerous free, hands-on artistic opportunities for kids. The Student Art Show showcases the talents of school students in Escambia and Santa Rosa Counties. Food and beverages are available from a variety of vendors, including some of Pensacola’s best-known restaurants and chefs. ggaf.org

GREAT VISIT FLORIDA BEACH WALK Nov 6, 2010 Florida residents and volunteers alike will organize Saturday to “Share a Little Sunshine” by taking photos and videos of their favorite Florida beach and uploading them to VISIT FLORIDA’s innovative Florida Live site.

Tourists will see real-time depiction of all 825 miles of beautiful Florida beaches to be shared with the world.

The Florida Restaurant & Lodging Association is promoting the event and engaging the hospitality industry to create celebrations for Florida residents and Share a Little Sunshine Fans during the day of the event. sharealittlesunshine.org

FRLA BLUES, BREWS & BBQ Nov 13, 2010 A Dockside Beer Tasting and BBQ Cook Off at Harbor Walk Village. Regional chefs will compete in a spirited and fun competition against the beautiful backdrop of Destin’s historic harbor. Restaurants will compete in several categories and offer samples of creative BBQ styles and signature coastal food. Breweries will offer 25+ refreshing craft beers and cocktails. The fun afternoon will feature “tasting stations” where guests can experience creative world class BBQ, LIVE entertainment, children’s activities, and regional art show. Guest celebrity judges will judge the competition, guaranteed to be a fun and lively cook-off event. Prizes will be awarded to top winners. frla.org

Announcing

850 Business Magazine’s

A business plan competition for college students in Northwest Florida designed to reward new, independent ventures and provide incentives for students to start their business in the region.

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Presented by

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In conjuction with

Florida State University | Florida A&M University Florida State University – Panama City | Northwest Florida State College University of West Florida | Chipola College

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Thank you, readers of Emerald Coast Magazine, for your vote of confidence.

d e s t i n l a w . c o m | t e l 8 5 0 . 8 3 7. 3 6 6 2 | f a x 8 5 0 . 6 5 4 .1 6 3 4 | 4 4 7 5 L e g e n d a r y D r i v e , D e s t i n , F L 4

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850 Magazine • October – November 2010

IN THIS ISSUE UNFLAG G I N G SPI R I T Philip Griffitts, Jr. is one of several coastal smallbusiness owners we talked with to gauge how the oil disaster has impacted Northwest Florida’s economy. Read what he has to say, starting on page 30.

850 FEATURES Care of Business 24 TAn aking 850 Exclusive

Florida voters go to the polls on Nov. 2 to choose their next governor. No matter who wins — Alex Sink or Rick Scott — the state’s new chief executive will bring a strong business perspective to the job. Both candidates have run major corporations with large payrolls and big assets. 850 asked each one to tell us more about what their economic development plans are for Northwest Florida.

Photo by scott holstein

By Linda Kleindienst

he Oil Days of Summer 30 TJust when they thought they had seen the light of an improved economy at the end of a long, dark tunnel, Northwest Florida’s businesses got a gut punch from the Deepwater Horizon drilling disaster that devastated their summer. The tourism and fishing industries have taken the worst hit, but businesses that rely on them to thrive are also suffering.

mendment 4 — 34 AGood or Bad for Business?

Environmentalists support it and Big Business opposes it. So, what exactly does the proposed constitutional amendment promoting “Hometown Democracy” really do? To make the issue a little easier to understand before you walk into the polling booth on Nov. 2, we’ve broken the debate down into some simple pros and cons. By John Kennedy

By Wendy O. Dixon, Zandra Wolfgram, Jason Dehart and Carolyn Devonshire

Cover Photoillustration by Lawrence Davidson and Marc L. Thomas

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850 Magazine • October – November 2010

IN THIS ISSUE

37 In This Issue

Departments

9 From the Publisher 10 Letters to the Editor 110 The Last Word from the Editor

The (850) Life

106 CAPITAL

37 Interactive media developed by a Tallahassee company has been used by police and state agencies and may soon be a boon for business.

THE HUMAN ELEMENT

14 The holidays will soon be here.

Some tips on how to handle giftgiving at the office. By Buddy Nevins

FORGOTTEN COAST

43 The past remains an important part of the present and a reason why tourists still flock to Wakulla Springs Lodge.

LEADING HEALTHY

18 How to promote wellness in the workplace — and what one Tallahassee company, Datamaxx, is doing to help its employees.

By Triston V. Sanders and Lilly Rockwell

BAY

95 The nation’s newest airport has spread its wings and found success despite the recession and the Gulf oil spill.

98 Cleaning up crime scenes may be messy, but it’s also turned into a big business.

I-10

103 Escambia County’s catfish farmers turn to innovation to survive a market flooded with foreign imports.

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business speak

12 Rick Harper, executive director of the Haas Center for Business Research and Economic Development, analyzes the reimbursement plan for businesses stung by the oil spill.

Corridors

EMERALD COAST

11 Jack Kerigan learned early how to make good things happen.

By Linda Kleindienst

special section

2010 TALLAHASSEE BUSINESS JOURNAL Beginning after page 50.

Executive Interviews 41 Tallahassee Chamber Conference Interviews What Tallahassee execs admit when they’re out of the office.

47 Marketing the small-town charm of Port St. Joe has become a passion for Matt Fleck.

850businessmagazine.com

101 Biker chick turned CEO, Michelle Evans goes fast — on the road and in the business world.

106 Credit cards and friends helped Bob Arban launch his own truss-building company in the backyard.

Photos by Scott Holstein

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Rowl Ro wland d Pu Publ blis ishi hing ng works wit ith h yo ou tto o d de esign and produce dynamic c pr prin in nt mate ma t riials that inform, inspire and inc nc citte.

And our creative solutions will sh An how wca c asse e you ur business without strrai aini n ng ni g yo y our ur b budget. Call (8 (850 50)) 87 8788 05 554 5 or or visi vi s t ro r wl w an andp dpub ubli lish shin ing. g.co com m to toda day. y.

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850 THE BUSINESS MAGAZINE OF NORTHWEST FLORIDA

OCTOBER – NOVEMBER 2010

Vol. 3, No. 1

Publisher Brian E. Rowland

Editor Linda Kleindienst

designer Tisha Keller

Contributing Writers Jason Dehart, Carolyn Devonshire, Wendy O. Dixon, Rick Harper, John Kennedy, Linda Kleindienst, Daniel Mutter, Buddy Nevins, Michael Peltier, Lilly Rockwell, Triston V. Sanders, John Van Gieson, Zandra Wolfgram, Kimberley Yablonski, Tabitha Yang

copy editor Barry Ray STAFF PHOTOGRAPHER Scott Holstein Editorial Interns Brandon Neasman, Antonio Rosado, Janeen Talbott

traffic coordinator Carlin Trammel

Sales Executives Lori Becerra, Ryan Burk, Jessica Hathorn, Dan Parisi, Phil LaPorte, Lori Magee, Linda Powell, Rhonda Simmons

online 850businessmagazine.com facebook.com/850bizmag twitter.com/850bizmag

President Brian E. Rowland

Chief Operating Officer Kimberly Howes

DIRECTOR OF Linda Kleindienst EDITORIAL SERVICES

Creative Director Lawrence Davidson ProDUCTION director Melinda Lanigan

Manager of finance Angela Jarvis HR/Administration

CLIENT SERVICE Shannon Grooters REPRESENTATIVE

assistant Saige Roberts creative director Executive Assistant to McKenzie Burleigh the president/publisher ProDUCTION coordinator Carlin Trammel

TRAFFIC coordinator Kara O’Ferrell

Senior designer Tisha Keller

graphic designers Beth Nabi, Marc Thomas, Daniel Vitter

Network Administrator Daniel Vitter RECEPTIONIST Lisa Sostre

Web Site rowlandpublishing.com

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 October 2010 850 Magazine, Inc. All rights reserved. Reproduction in whole or part without written permission is prohibited. Member, Florida Magazine Association and seven Chambers of Commerce throughout the region.

one-year Subscription $24.95 (SIX issues) (850) 878-0554 850 Magazine can be purchased at Books-A-Million, Borders and Barnes and Noble in Tallahassee, Destin, Ft. Walton Beach, Pensacola and Panama City and at our Tallahassee office.

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Proud member Florida Magazine Association and Florida Press Association

From the Publisher

Katie, Brian and Diane: You Could Have Done Better

Photo by David Eggleston

Within hours of the Deepwater Horizon oil rig explosion last April, the nation’s news networks began wall-to-wall coverage of the disaster. This resulted in hundreds of hours of “Gulf oil spill” news being beamed into homes across the nation.

The influence the three major networks and cable news channels have with the American public is immense. Millions of people gather around their television each evening to hear the news of the day.

And often they make major decisions in their lives based on what they hear — and even on what they don’t hear.

Between them, Katie Couric of CBS, Brian Williams of NBC and Diane Sawyer of ABC made nine trips to the Gulf Coast between April and late July to report on the spill and its effects. CNN’s Anderson Cooper remained on site for weeks to report the story.

There is no question that the oil spill will be the story of the year for the Gulf of Mexico’s coastal counties, especially in Northwest Florida. Not only did our beaches suffer the threat of being covered with gooey patches of oil and tar balls, but our economy, our environment and the lives of millions of people were — and continue to be — affected. Indeed, this catastrophic event deserved to be the lead story in national newscasts from the time the rig exploded until the gushing oil well was finally subdued this summer.

But what concerns and disappoints me is that the national media focused primarily on the sensational side of the story, seeming to paint the entire Gulf Coast as an oily mess — and that’s the lasting impression that has been made on the American public.

How many times in the initial days of coverage did we see the same poor pelican, covered in oil and unable to move? How many times did we hear “Gulf oil spill” in a voiceover as the camera panned a grassy ecosystem covered in oil or a white sand beach covered in tar balls? The impression was that the oil was everywhere, when in fact most of Florida’s beaches managed to escape that horror.

I travel to Panama City Beach and the Beaches of South Walton probably twice a month on business. In mid-July, I conducted an

experiment by taking a 4-mile walk along the beach between 5 and 6 a.m., before the cleanup workers or news cameramen got out of bed. On both occasions, not a single tar ball stained the bottom of my feet. Yes, some of our beaches, especially in Pensacola, did see some effects from the oil. But most remained oil-free.

But did the Jones family from Atlanta ever know that? Probably not, because their perception was that the oil had tainted the entire Gulf Coast, from Key West to Mexico. And despite local webcams that streamed images of clean beaches through the Internet to the world, perception became reality to the Joneses and thousands like them. In droves, they canceled their Gulf Coast summer-vacation reservations or opted for the Atlantic Coast instead.

So here we have a region of the country that was economically devastated this year, in part due to the big three networks and their cable cohorts getting the nation to focus on only part of the story.

People lost jobs, and many businesses were damaged beyond repair.

In short, the tourism industry that is the economic engine of Northwest Florida took a catastrophic hit.

What can these media giants do about it now? I am sure the network sales departments are delighted to accept millions of BP’s ad dollars so the region’s counties can try to remove the misconceptions ingrained in the minds of millions of Americans who just don’t understand what is happening here.

But maybe Katie, Brian and Diane, who may have flown to the coast on a corporate jet for a brief stint before returning to their comfortable lives in New York, need to think about what they have not done. The Obama family visited the oil-free waters of Panama City Beach in mid-August, with the president even taking time for a dip in the Gulf. Shouldn’t our media giants consider the same — and feature that story on the nightly news? After all, telling the whole story is part of the job.

The trust the American public has in these media giants should not be taken lightly. They have an obligation to the public — and to a region that saw its economy deeply affected by misperceptions fed by their stories.

If they don’t tell the rest of the story, I’d grade them with a solid “D.”

Brian Rowland browland@rowlandpublishing.com

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FROM THE MAILBAG Your editorial about the U.S. Postal Service in the August/September issue of 850 really struck a chord with me. As a small company whose 25 years of success was built around a business model using targeted direct mailings, I can tell you that we too are feeling the burden. Not only have we had to absorb significant rate increases over the past several years, we constantly struggle with service delivery that has gone from bad to worse. These additional costs would be much easier to accept if postal services were improving, but they continue to decline, even as they announce yet another rate increase. There is no easy or short-term solution that will turn the situation around; we can only hope that some creative and effective ideas, like those you mentioned, will start to bring about positive changes.

Debra J. Taylor, Tallahassee

I really liked what you said about postage.

I’m with you 1,000 percent — seems all government does is stick it to the small business.

Ken Saxon, Tallahassee

While looking through my father’s book on the history of the U.S. Army’s 90th Division, I was reminded that innovations had to be made during World War II, particularly after D-Day, to confront challenges [similar to the current war in Afghanistan]. There was a picture of a tank outfitted with huge wheels in the front of the vehicle whose sole purpose was to explode mines. Other devices were developed and employed to guard against what continues to plague our forces in Afghanistan and Iraq (Bay corridor feature, August/September issue).

It seems, once again, we have a problem learning from history. The cost in dead and maimed soldiers is grievous. The “adaptive and responsive enemy” hasn’t come up with a new idea, but they are certainly taking a dreadful toll that we have been too slow in addressing.

Mark Wilbanks, Tallahassee

CORRECTION The name of Laura Kaiser, CEO of Sacred Heart Health System in Pensacola, was incorrectly spelled in a story that ran in the August/September issue. We regret the error.

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Executive Mindset

) The (850 Life

s urvive and thrive

Ad Man Jack Kerigan, Port St. Joe Owner, Kerigan Marketing Associates

J 7

3

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6

1. Biggest work headache?

It’s the administrative part — the tax filings, billings, collections. But I never met a sales and marketing guy who likes that. We’d rather get out and communicate with a client.

2. Academic prowess? I had

approach to advertising. With him, integrity comes first. Plus, I’ve always admired a guy who can run a business that is closed on Sunday, even if lots of his stores are in mall food courts.

4. Personal hero: My mom.

an academic scholarship to FSU, but I also had a lot of fun there.

My grades were good but not stellar ... I wasn’t celebrated as a Rhodes Scholar. But I got serious in grad school and graduated with a 4.0.

She worked two full-time jobs to raise four boys. She was a nursing instructor at Gulf Coast Community College, and every day when she left that job, she went to work in the emergency room at Bay Medical Center.

3. Business hero: The CEO of

5. Mode of convo: Texting

Chick-fil-A — S. Truett Cathy.

He created the boneless chicken breast sandwich, and obviously he was an innovator in his

Photo by SCOTT HOLSTEIN

with my family, especially my 15-year-old daughter, but mostly phone with my clients.

I wouldn’t text a client.

6. Book or Kindle/iPad: I work on a computer all day. When I sit down to relax, I want to touch paper.

7. How to relax: I like to sail.

I grew up racing Hobie Cat sailboats ... It was a good vehicle to get the girls onboard. Now we have a little catamaran we keep on the beach.

8. Biggest fan crush: The

New Orleans Saints — but not because they won a Super Bowl last year. My last stop on the corporate trail was Community Coffee. I spent a lot of time in New Orleans, where they have passion for life and a not-sogreat football team.

ack Kerigan has never forgotten the professor at Florida State University in Tallahassee who each day urged his students to “make it a great day.”

The message? If you want something good to happen, you have to be an active participant. Kerigan took the advice to heart, and it still serves as his motto.

Now 47, Kerigan cut his teeth in the marketing business with RJR Tobacco and then Community Coffee, but in 2000 he decided to strike out on his own, launching Kerigan Marketing Associates in Baton Rouge, La. His first projects: a local bank and Louisiana’s Audubon Golf Trail.

He has since been recognized as one of FSU’s “Notable Noles” and was named one of the “Top 40 Under 40” by the Baton Rouge Business Report and one of the “20 People to Watch” by New Orleans’ Gambit Weekly.

Wanting his children to grow up around family, Kerigan decided to move back to Florida’s Gulf Coast, opening an office in Port St. Joe. Now he commutes between the two offices to keep tabs on his clients.

“I remember standing in the lieutenant governor’s office in Louisiana and saying, ‘We’re going to be moving to Florida, but I think I can work it out.’ ” Indeed he did.

— Linda Kleindienst

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Executive Mindset

Business Speak Individuals and businesses across the oil-affected region are preparing damage claims to be brought to Kenneth Feinberg and his team at the Gulf Coast Claims Facility. Local government entities are waiting to see if a similar facility will be established to review claims that they will bring representing the additional costs they have incurred and revenues lost since the spill began in late April.

While we don’t yet know what the lasting costs of the spill will be, it is reasonably certain that the short-term economic damage, in terms of cleanup response and lost net revenue to affected individuals, businesses and governments, will be greater than the amount currently available to the claims facility.

The simplest approach to measuring a business’s lost profits would be to compare its profit performance for the oil-affected months to the profits in preceding months. This is what questions 59 and 60 on the Gulf Coast Claims Facility’s claims form appear to ask for. Such an approach has the advantage of being quite tractable analytically. But for tourism-dependent businesses in Northwest Florida, June and July — and for spring break destinations, March — are the months in which net operating income is strongly positive and covers losses made in other months.

Thus, the months immediately preceding the spill are not an appropriate basis for comparison for many businesses.

What about a look back to 2008 and 2009? If the 2008–2009 period were to be one of greater-than-normal profits, with 2010 representing a return to more normal levels, then injured parties on average would be overcompensated relative to their true loss. If, instead, the 2008–2009 period was one of less-than-normal profits, with 2010 representing a return to more normal levels, then injured Floridians would on average be undercompensated relative to their true loss.

The near- to medium-term profit outlook

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R i c k H arp e r , p h . d .

Harper received his doctorate in Economics from Duke University in 1989 and is director of UWF’s Haas Center for Business Research and Economic Development. He served on Governor Jeb Bush’s Council of Economic Advisors from 2001–2006 and is now supporting the economic analysis work of the Florida Senate Select Committee on Florida’s Economy.

for 2010 is better than it was previously.

Some of this improved profit performance is due to changes in the national business cycle as the economy slowly recovers from the Great Recession. Federal Reserve data on after-tax profits for U.S. nonfinancial corporate businesses show profits shrinking from the same quarter in the previous year for nine consecutive quarters beginning in July 2007. However, year-over-year profit growth rates for the last quarter of 2009 and the first quarter of 2010 were measured at 59 percent and 58 percent, respectively.

For Florida, somewhat of the same pattern holds true. For our state’s corporate income-tax revenues to return to their long-run trend levels, they would need to improve by 28 percent relative to recessiondepressed 2009 levels. The Florida Revenue Estimating Conference projected on

Aug. 12, 2010, that net corporate incometax collections for fiscal year 2010–2011 would rise by 21.8 percent from fiscal year 2009–2010 levels. This, along with the projected $810 million, or 5 percent, increase in general revenue from sales tax, is a welcome change. Even as the economy recovers, slowly but hopefully surely, the Revenue Estimating Conference projects that it will be fiscal year 2012–2013 before the state returns to the sales tax revenue of fiscal year 2007–2008.

How can moderate increases in sales, such as 5 percent, be associated with large increases in corporate income, such as 21.8 percent? Most businesses have costs that they must incur regardless of how many customers they have and how much those customers spend. These might include the mortgage on their property, their property taxes, insurance, payroll for key staff, and other costs that don’t vary much with business volume. This means that profits, which can be measured as the difference between revenues and costs, are typically more volatile than overall consumer spending. The food costs that a Florida restaurant saves because it doesn’t have to purchase fish to prepare for diners who aren’t arriving due to oil-induced changes in vacation plans or fears about Gulf seafood might account for only 30 percent of the revenue earned from sale of a seafood meal. A modest change in revenue might then be the difference between profit and loss.

Other differences might reasonably be expected when comparing counterfactual baselines for different regions, different kinds of businesses and different types of revenue streams. But for economic performance to be evaluated against what would have occurred absent the spill, we have to look at where that claimant, whether an individual, a business or a local government, should have been economically in 2010, rather than where it was economically during the Great Recession. n

PHOTO courtesy rick harper

assessing the economic damage

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Executive Mindset

Human Element holiday gifting

Santa, Check Your Bag

It’s fine to share the holiday spirit, but be aware of pitfalls associated with office gift-giving by Buddy Nevins

B

reak out the Chia Pets. Dust off the college team mug. Dig the scented candle out of the closet.

It’s time for holiday gift-giving at the office.

Office gift-giving is as much a part of the holidays as lights in the windows and mistletoe over the doors. But at some workplaces, the practice is frowned upon.

Should your office play Santa or Scrooge?

Most experts say a workplace gift exchange is a fun way to share the spirit of the season. Bringing the holidays into the office

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can be a rewarding morale-building exercise that can pay off well into the New Year.

“Modest holiday gifts make employees feel their work is being recognized. This helps spur teamwork,” said Betsy Bowers, associate vice president for internal auditing and management consulting at the University of West Florida in Pensacola.

Workplace gift-giving takes many forms.

There is the “white elephant” gift exchange, in which employees give a gift they have been given and don’t want. There is the grab-bag exchange, in which employees

850businessmagazine.com

draw a modest gift out of a bag.

Some offices purchase a group gift for the boss. In others, the boss is given carefully chosen individual gifts.

In short, there is no one gift-giving template that is perfect for every workplace.

Bigger enterprises with many employees sometimes have more formalized rules, and some forgo celebrating the holidays as companywide policy. Big businesses, however, are often broken into smaller divisions or branch offices where holiday gift exchanges are allowed.

That is because at a smaller workplace, employees feel more like “family,” Bowers said.

So every December, just before the holidays, Pensacola Association of Realtors Chief Executive Officer Chuck Michaels and his half-dozen employees take an hour or so to share the spirit of the season. Gathering in the office, staffers exchange small gifts costing less than $10 with co-workers whose names they had earlier pulled out of a hat. Michaels treats everyone to a ham and cheese platter.

“It’s a way to share the holidays together,” he said.

GIFTS NOT WORTH GIVING Stay out of (social) hot water by avoiding these work-gifting mistakes:

CASH

The Rules of Gift-Giving The gift-giving scene is repeated at workplaces throughout Northwest Florida and can be enjoyed anywhere, as long as a few rules are followed.

The first rule is that workers shouldn’t feel expected, much less be required, to give or get gifts.

“I do not expect gifts for doing my job,” said Lise Diez-Arguelles, an associate in business communication at Florida State University’s College of Business in Tallahassee.

Even if employers give gifts to employees, “employees should not feel they must reciprocate with gifts to their bosses,” Bowers said.

The second rule is that giving no gift is better than giving an inappropriate gift in the workplace. It is never right to give anything that could be interpreted as demeaning or discriminatory or that calls unnecessary attention to race, color, religion, sex or national origin. Such gifts could violate federal discrimination laws, which prohibit a hostile work environment.

Gifts that are off the table include: Those with a political or religious message.

Holiday gifts that include a cross, a Star of David or other religious references should be avoided because they might offend a coworker. Politically themed gifts also might be upsetting to some, so leave those bobblehead dolls of the president at home.

Intimate clothing and adult-oriented gifts.

That X-rated gift that had your frat buddies roaring with laughter could get you fired. Please note that this includes not only obviously sexual material but also

RELIGIOUS

EXPLICIT LYRICS

ALCOHOL

BATH

movies, artwork and books that some might consider racy.

Watch out for explicit music CDs. Even though societal standards on language have relaxed, if the music has a parental warning, it is probably improper for the workplace.

So leave Snoop Dogg’s latest at home.

Liquor. Unless the workplace is a bar, restaurant, liquor store or nightclub, forget about giving that 12-year-old bottle of Scotch.

Anything that could be interpreted as romantic. Most flowers should be avoided because they can be misunderstood as sexual harassment. Perfume is also out, especially from a male administrator to a female employee.

Items such as soap or body lotions. Those receiving them may believe the gift implies there is something amiss with their personal hygiene.

Humorous items. Be very careful of these.

Leave the whoopee cushions on the shelf.

What seems funny in the store might just leave you looking like a jerk at work.

Cash. Unless everybody at the workplace gets a bonus for the holidays, avoid monetary gifts. Never give your boss cash, as it could be construed as a bribe to get special treatment. It also must be remembered that the IRS considers “holiday gifts, other than cash, with a low market value” as a minor employment benefit that is non-taxable.

But IRS Publication 15-B states that “cash and cash equivalent(s),” such as gift cards or use of a charge or credit card, “no matter how little, are never excludable.”

One variation on a cash gift is to make a donation to a charity in the employee’s name. Jennifer Sadler, public relations manager for Navy Federal Credit Union, which has its largest call center in Pensacola and has several Northwest Florida locations, said her company provides opportunities for its hundreds of employees in Northwest Florida to give gifts to the United Way over the holidays.

Despite the long list of forbidden holiday gifts, you and your colleagues can still enjoy the holidays.

“If a boss gives holiday gifts, they should be for everybody,” said FSU’s Diez-Arguelles.

Bosses shouldn’t play favorites. Those gifts for all employees should be roughly the same. Nothing can destroy the atmosphere

ROMANTIC

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human element

in a workplace faster than when employees believe they are not getting equal treatment.

It is OK to give a classical music lover a CD of the opera while giving a rock ’n’ roll fan a Paul McCartney album because the gifts are perceived as having the same value. But bosses shouldn’t give one golf lover a free day at the country club while giving another a free pass to miniature golf, because they are not equivalent.

Three inexpensive workplace gifts that employees can enjoy include plants suitable for the top of a desk, an isokinetic hand-exercise squeeze ball, or a computer mirror that attaches to the monitor.

The Secret Santa One of the best ways for employees to give gifts to one another is through the “Secret Santa” or grab-bag system, and as with the Pensacola Association of Realtors, even the boss can participate.

Most experts say a workplace gift exchange is a fun way to share the spirit of the season.

Bringing the holidays into the office can be a rewarding morale-building exercise that can pay off well into the New Year.

The grab bag requires everybody to spend roughly the same amount, eliminating feelings that one employee is getting preferential treatment over another. It also removes accusations that an employee is trying to win favors by giving the boss an especially lavish gift.

Don’t ever feel you have to give your boss a gift on holidays, university experts said.

“Business etiquette rules do not require an employee to give a gift to your boss on any occasion,” the University of West Florida’s Bowers said.

“No employee should feel obligated to remember the boss,” agreed FSU’s Diez-Arguelles.

If an employee believes the boss should share in the holiday cheer, business consultant and

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About.com/Women in Business blogger Lahle Wolfe warns that “gifts should be given to honor an existing relationship, not with the intention of hoping to establish a new one. I am completely against giving holiday (or other gifts) at work to try and win your boss’s favor or make up for poor performance on the job.”

Bowers believes a good, acceptable way to give a gift to the boss is by purchasing a group present.

“A group gift gives everyone the opportunity to participate and not have any one employee ‘show up’ co-workers,” she said.

Appoint someone in the office to collect a modest amount of money from each employee.

Don’t pressure anyone into contributing, and don’t tell the boss who contributed and who didn’t, which would create divisions in the workplace. That would be the exact opposite of the unity that holiday gifts should help achieve.

Once the money is collected, decide among yourselves on something appropriate, keeping in mind the gifts you should not give that are listed above. The reality is that employees can’t impress with an expensive gift because your boss most likely makes more money. So the gift should be relatively inexpensive, but genuine and heartfelt.

“Keep the gift simple and stay away from giving personal items,” Bowers said.

One potential idea is to chip in and take your boss to a nice holiday lunch. At some firms, the employees hold a potluck luncheon, treating their boss to home-cooked goodies. A large greeting card signed by everyone is a nice, harmless, inexpensive way of showing that the boss is appreciated.

If the employees can’t put together a group gift, you can give an individual present to the boss if you keep it simple. The gift should be given discreetly — maybe put it quietly on the boss’s desk — to avoid embarrassing fellow workers who didn’t buy anything.

If a card is attached to the gift, avoid writing anything too personal. Avoid promising anything, like “I’ll do a great job next year.” And avoid any language that might seem like an attempt to butter up the boss, such as “You are the greatest boss in the world.”

Always remember that no matter what you give for the holidays, the greatest gift that you can give your boss and fellow employees is free — doing the best possible job all year long. n

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Executive Mindset

Leading Healthy EMPLOYEE WELLNESS

Don’t Sweat the Investment Accumulating evidence shows that wellness in the workplace benefits the employee and the employer by Triston V. Sanders

H

ope Denton was like many workers in America today. She was overweight, diabetic and facing other possible health problems.

However, motivated by her Tallahassee company’s wellness program (and a trip to the hospital), she lost 40 pounds, dropped her insulin shots from four a day to one, and became an inspiration, role model and mentor for other Gates That Open (GTO) employees interested in getting healthier as well. The sales representative is now selling more than automated residential gates. She’s selling health, happiness and hope to other workers in Leon County.

And Denton should have employers across the 850 area code thinking about their own wellness programs.

A 2007 survey by the International Health, Racquet and Sportsclub Association showed that 79 percent of its members felt that the current culture in America, which includes the

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Companies can’t give raises or bonuses, and many are cutting salaries or health care — so they need to do something to help their employees cope with their situations and keep them engaged in their work so they are more productive.

pressures of work, family and finances, makes it difficult for people to exercise regularly and maintain healthy lifestyles. An estimated 89 percent said that if their employer offered the opportunity for them to improve their health in the workplace, they would take advantage of it. So now, many companies across the country, including some in Northwest

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Florida, are implementing wellness programs in the workplace — and they have found that health can equal wealth for business.

“A successful wellness program is a crucial part of any company,” says Amelia Miller, wellness coordinator for GTO. “Studies have shown that healthy employees are more productive, sick less often and have a higher morale. Not only does a wellness program foster unity among employees, it also raises awareness about healthy choices to which employees may not have had access before. A wellness program can be successful with the support of online tools, the government and local resources, regardless of budget or size.”

GTO is so dedicated to this concept that it soon will be offering a fitness and Wii exercise room for its employees.

“Without the continuous support of the upper management ... this room would still be a dream,” Miller says. “It will offer a convenient (and free) place for employees to exercise and improve their overall well-being.

CASE ST U DY

Datamaxx puts fitness within easy reach

photo by scott holstein

It’s the end of another long day sitting in front of your computer.

Eager to log in some miles on the treadmill before crashing at home, you grab your gym bag and head down the carpeted hallway, where a fully-stocked gym awaits. There are two treadmills, elliptical machines, spinning bicycles, weight lifting equipment, cable television and two locker rooms with showers.

And you’re the only one there.

It sounds like every worker’s dream, but it’s reality for the 62 employees of Tallahasssebased software company Datamaxx. The 34,000-square-foot SouthWood headquarters of Datamaxx, which makes software used by law enforcement agencies such as the New York Police Department, offers a number of perks for the staff. Beyond the gym, the building has a 70-seat auditorium

that looks like it belongs on a college campus and a liberal policy towards working from home or bringing pets and children to work.

“The gym was designed exclusively for the use of employees and their spouses,” said Larry Allen, the director of human resources for Datamaxx. “It’s open 24 hours a day, seven days a week.” Allen said founders Kay

Corporate Wellness Coach Continued research indicates that the benefits of an official corporate wellness program are huge for both employees and companies:

It’s rare for businesses of Datamaxx’s size to offer these types of health perks. Many companies cannot afford to invest in a shower or gym equipment, or find a building to lease that offers these types of extras. Even large companies or state office buildings don’t usually offer these types of amenities. Datamaxx was founded in 1991, but when the new SouthWood headquarters was built in 2001, Stephenson and Waters made sure to install a gym.

>> Reduced absenteeism >> Increased productivity >> Improved self-confidence >> Increased health and energy >> Improved morale and camaraderie >> Enhanced creativity and concentration >> Decreased stress >> Reduced turnover >> Decreased injuries and health problems >> Enhanced recruitment >> Decreased workers’ compensation costs — Tisha Crews Keller

Stephenson and Jonathan Waters wanted to help employees stay fit after a day spent hunched over a computer screen.

“It’s very popular,” Allen said. Because the Tallahassee office employs only about 50 people locally, most employees have the gym to themselves during their workouts. “We have some people that come in early in the morning, we have some people that at lunchtime come up and use it since we have TV and we have some people who use it in the evenings or on weekends,” Allen said. “It’s like a private gym – there is so much equipment in there you don’t need a gym membership.”

Career M oves

Corporate wellness is a trend worth watching.

So, too, is it a career sector that’s growing — both as a consultant and as a staff position.

Organizations such as the Spencer Institute (spencerinstitute.com) offer online, self-study courses in Corporate Wellness Coach Certification, which can launch a new corporate position or a career in wellness consulting.

According to Spencer, 50 percent or more of U.S. companies offer some type of wellness program.

Some big-box corporations are included in this statistic, such as Coca-Cola, Coors Brewing Company and Prudential Insurance. These innovative employers report documented savings for the corporate bottom line — to the tune of $500 per year per employee, according to Coca-Cola.

In fact, corporate wellness can help soothe an employee’s mind as well as their body. Research from the 2004 Ipsos-Reid corporate wellness program indicates that the three major (preventable) causes of absenteeism are mental health, stress and interpersonal conflict at work.

The Spencer certification program includes industry-typical skills such as creating a wellness culture, marketing, consumer demographics, legal concerns, health risk assessments and more.

Employee perks at Tallahassee’s Datamaxx include a 24/7 fitness center (above), telecommute options and a blanket OK to bring kids and pets to work.

“At the end of the day, I just walk down to the end of the hallway and I’m ready to go,” Allen said. “If I had to get up and drive, change clothes and go out again after working all day that puts me at 7:30 p.m. before I get home. After awhile, that gets hard to do.”

— Lilly Rockwell

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LEADING HEALTHY

The room has an elliptical machine, yoga and Pilates mats, fitness DVDs, and will soon feature a Wii Fit. The entire company is excited about the fitness room and can’t wait for it open.”

That may sound like fun and games, but all of this talk about wellness is serious business.

As health care costs continue to climb, by 2016 some companies will spend as much annually on health benefits as they see in profits earned.

The Kaiser Foundation’s Employer Health Benefits 2008 Annual Survey says that average premiums for employer-sponsored health insurance for family coverage increased 119 percent between 1999 and 2008. The report surveyed public and private firms and also found that more than half of the companies that offered employee health benefits also offered some form of a wellness program. For the employer, a successful, results-oriented wellness program should yield at least a 3-to-1 return on investment, with some companies showing up to an 11-to-1 return.

domestic violence are out of control. Companies can’t give raises or bonuses, and many are cutting salaries or health care — or at least shifting more of the health care costs to their employees. So they need to do something to help their employees cope with their situations and keep them engaged in their work so they are more productive.

“Teaching and encouraging them to take care of themselves — to eat healthier, manage stress better, become more physically active, quit smoking, manage their finances better, sleep better, etc. — is a win-win situation for both the employee and the employer,” she says.

On the opposite end of the 850 region, Baptist Health Care has a wellness program called “Get Healthy Pensacola.” Baptist spokeswoman Colleen Kirsch says that as a health care provider, the company strives to offer health and wellness for the community’s mind, body and spirit.

“We recognize that healthy living is everyone’s responsibility, and seek to serve as role models, encouraging our employees to lead by

For the employer, a successful, results-oriented wellness program should yield at least a 3-to-1 return on investment, with some companies showing up to an 11-to-1 return.

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Call ((850)) 878-0554 or visit today rowlandpublishing.com today.

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Workplace studies show that indirect medical costs account for more than half of the total health and productivity-related expenditures employers face. Indirect health care costs include: >> Absenteeism from work >> Disability program use >> Workers’ compensation program costs >> Turnover >> Family medical leave >> On-the-job productivity loss (“presenteeism”) In Leon County, a volunteer community initiative called “Working Well” was started to help get the work force healthier. The initiative has been so successful over the past three years that it recently became a not-for-profit organization.

Working Well teaches company members how to design and deliver results-oriented wellness programs to their employees.

The driving force behind the effort is Mary Barley, director of corporate wellness for Gold’s Gym and Women’s World. She says research has also shown that healthy employees are happier, more productive and more engaged — all of which contribute to an employer’s bottom line.

“Due to the economy, stress is at an all-time high and employee morale is at an all-time low,” Barley says. “Substance abuse, depression and

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example and take charge of their health,” she says. “Our wellness program rewards its members for living healthy. In other words, we work on a points system, giving points for doctor’s visits, trips to the gym, participation in community wellness expos/programs, etc. And you can then redeem your points for free food, massages and other things through our vendors. The more you do, the more you gain.”

Employees gain, but so do companies and, in this case, taxpayers. Leon County’s “Wellness Works!” program for its employees already is proving successful and could be a real cost-saver. Based on a return-on-investment calculator and specific demographic information for Leon County, a 5 percent increase in physical activity by its employees could save the community an estimated $13,893,783 per year in medical care, workers’ compensation and lost productivity.

Shelley Cason, Leon County’s Wellness Works! chairwoman, says the program has developed a year-long calendar of events geared toward promoting healthy lifestyle choices.

“We’ve got events scheduled for every month of the year,” she says. “One of our most widely known programs is the ‘Walk Thru Florida’ program co-sponsored by Leon County Cooperative Extension. This is a six-week walking

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leading healthy program that is extended to all city, county and state agencies and adds a bit of competition to the wellness aspect. A healthy work force is a happy work force!”

Another company that’s seeing the benefit of a wellness program is Fringe Benefits Management Company in Tallahassee. It has had a company-sponsored wellness program for more than 10 years. Fringe Benefits actually paid for one of its employees, Glenda Atkinson, to become a Certified Wellness Program Coordinator. She attended the National Wellness Institute’s annual conference in 2009 and will return this year to achieve Wellness Coaching certification.

“This is similar to a ‘biggest loser’ contest except everyone can win and no one is ever voted off,” Atkinson says. “We provide nutrition training programs that are offered on company time, and we pay employees incentive dollars if they are successful in their weight-loss efforts. For every 5 percent weight loss achieved, employees are paid $50.

“We also offer on-site fitness classes three days a week,” she says. “We have personal fitness, yoga and Zumba. Employees who attend at least 50 percent of the classes are reimbursed half the cost of the classes, and employees who attend all of the classes are reimbursed 100 percent.”

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Quantifying the Cost of Physical Inactivity

Want to assess the costs of obesity as it relates to your bottom line?

The scientific evidence is clear: Regular physical activity reduces the risk of developing diabetes, high blood pressure and some cancers. It also lowers blood pressure, helps build and maintain healthy bones, muscles and joints, and promotes psychological wellbeing. And a physically inactive population costs money.

East Carolina University developed a very easy-to-use tool that can provide an estimate of the financial cost of physically inactive people to a particular business, community, city or state. It also provides companion resources and information you need to reallocate resources and plan for healthier workplaces and communities that are more supportive of physical activity. Just go to ecu.edu/picostcalc.

Atkinson said the company has high levels of participation and has made wellness a priority.

Employees have lost weight and developed better eating habits through the nutrition program, quit smoking as a result of the smoking cessation program and smoke-free campus policy, and begun to exercise more frequently because of on-site fitness equipment and classes.

A wellness program could equate to better

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health for employees and therefore more wealth for the company. To find out if such a program will save your company money, check out the East Carolina University’s ROI (return on investment) calculator at ecu.edu/picostcalc. n The “Working Well” initiative is expanding. Any companies in the outlying areas of Tallahassee interested in joining can call Mary Barley at (850) 385-7847 or e-mail her at marybarley50@comcast.net.

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the next governor

Economic

Revivor-in-Chief Repairing Florida’s economy will be ‘Job One’ for Florida’s new governor, no matter who gets elected

By Linda Kleindienst

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F

lorida’s next governor may party on election night, but the next four years will be a far cry from a cakewalk.

No matter who wins on Nov. 2 — Rick Scott or Alex Sink — the new governor will inherit a state with double digit unemployment and facing a multi-billion dollar deficit in the next state budget.

Perhaps then it’s no surprise that both candidates, each coming from a very successful business background, have focused much of their attention and rhetoric on one issue: reviving Florida’s economy.

“This campaign there has been a lot of discussion about where we need to go as a state and how to get there,” said Dominic Calabro, president of Florida TaxWatch, a non-partisan governmentspending watchdog and research organization.

“Look at what both of these candidates have done.

There is an incredibly greater emphasis on results and performance.”

Sink and Scott have each had to meet a payroll while managing thousands of employees and billions of dollars in assets. They have learned how to balance profitability and talent and run a successful enterprise. And both want to help create new jobs.

Republican Rick Scott is a former health care executive who built Columbia/HCA from the ground up with partner Richard Rainwater in the late 1980s. He went from running a chain of donut shops in college to a man in his early 40s running more than 200 hospitals that employed

more than 150,000 people. His personal wealth: more than a quarter of a billion dollars. Now he wants to create 700,000 new jobs over the next seven years.

“I have a plan to provide a business approach to politics by keeping taxes low, limiting job killing regulations and getting government out of the way of small business so they can do what they do best: create jobs,” Scott said.

Scott, who beat Attorney General Bill McCollum in the GOP primary, has been dogged by questions about his private sector background, in particular about the investigation of Columbia/ HCA for Medicare and Medicaid fraud. The company ultimately paid more than $1.7 billion to settle civil suits and fines. Scott was never charged with wrongdoing and resigned. In a debate during the primary, he said, “We should have had more verification ... that’s a lesson I’ll bring to the table.

I’ll take responsibility for things that go wrong.”

Democrat Alex Sink was a banking executive for 26 years, becoming the head of Bank of America’s Florida operations, where she managed $40 billion in customer deposits and supervised more than 9,000 employees in 800 branches. She turned to politics in 2006, winning election to the Cabinet post of Chief Financial Officer. Throughout her business career she was active in the Council of 100, the Florida Chamber of Commerce and Florida TaxWatch. As CFO, the state’s financial watchdog, she oversees approximately 2,000 employees and an annual budget of $200 million.

“Florida can be managed more effectively and efficiently with a common sense business plan,” her website states. “With a business executive behind the governor’s desk, Florida will have a nononsense, visionary leader who understands how to work with Florida’s small businesses, entrepreneurs and working families to create jobs and build a stronger foundation for the 21st century.”

No matter the winner, Sink and Scott’s business acumen is likely to stand them in good stead when trying to figure out where to lead the state.

Each has emphasized the need for economic development programs that will encourage the expansion of existing businesses while bringing new ones to the state. Scott wants to abolish the corporate income tax over the next seven years, saying the freed-up money will create new jobs; Sink wants to provide more corporate tax credits for businesses that quickly produce new jobs.

Both want to tap into the state’s universities to help spur on economic development, with Scott promoting the need to develop technology clusters and Sink calling for faster commercialization of products developed by university researchers.

“With respect to the business pedigree of both candidates, it is outstanding for the business community,” said Barney Bishop, president and CEO of Associated Industries of Florida (AIF), a major business lobby. “What we need first and foremost is somebody who the business community and citizens see as the chief economic development officer of Florida. Both promise to do that.”

While AIF and the Florida Chamber of Commerce have endorsed Scott, both point to the pro-business stances of each candidate — including a promise to streamline state business regulation and not call for new taxes — as a plus for their members.

“No matter what happens in November, we’re guaranteed to have someone coming from the private sector who knows the role government can play in trying to create jobs,” said Mark Wilson, president and CEO of the Florida Chamber of Commerce. “We still have more than 1 million people sitting at home wanting a job. I think people will be ultra focused, not just on the projobs rhetoric, but the details on how we’re going to create jobs.”

TaxWatch has been advising both campaigns and Calabro said each candidate would provide the state with an opportunity to grow through a renewed emphasis on economic development.

“Politicians follow public mood and business leaders lead,” he said. “Florida is in great, great need of leadership.”

The News Service of Florida contributed to this report

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the next governor

RICK SCOTT Hometown: Naples, Fla. Age: 57 Born: Dec. 1, 1952, Bloomington, Ill. Married: Ann Children: Jordan, Allison Military Service: U.S. Navy Higher Education: University of Missouri-Kansas City, Southern Methodist University (law degree) Occupation: Health care executive, investor

Eliminate Florida’s corporate income tax Reduce the 5.5 percent tax on businesses over a seven-year period, saving businesses more than $1 billion. (A 2.5 percent reduction in the first year would amount to about $600 million.)

Reduce school property taxes Cut by $1.4 billion the state portion of ad valorem taxes levied on home and business owners to support public school operations. (The reduction would amount to about $1 per $1,000 of assessed valuation.) The lost money would be replaced by improving the state’s method of collecting sales taxes.

Lower costs Reducing unemployment benefits and lowering worker compensation costs by 35 percent would save businesses billions of dollars.

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photo courtesy RICK SCOTT for governor

7-7-7 Seven steps to creating 700,000 jobs in seven years. This plan is primarily centered on cutting government spending and freeing up billions in tax dollars to help generate new jobs.

It also includes regulatory reform, primarily eliminating some of the regulations that cost businesses big bucks and expediting permits for jobcreating businesses.

850: What are your economic development goals for Florida — and specifically Northwest Florida? RS: My economic development goal for Florida is to make it the No. 1 state in the country for job creation and I will accomplish that through the implementation of my 7-7-7 economic plan — seven steps to 700,000 jobs in 7 years. By reducing regulation, cutting state spending, shrinking state government and eliminating the business tax we will make Florida the obvious choice for businesses looking to relocate and provide an environment that encourages businesses already based in Florida to grow and expand. A strong and growing workforce helps all Floridians.

850: Some regions of the state have begun to diversify their economy, but Northwest Florida is still reliant on tourism. What would you do to help the region diversify? RS: The best thing that government can do to help an economy diversify is create an environment that is attractive to a wider range of businesses. By implementing my 7-7-7 plan, Northwest Florida won’t only be attractive to tourists, it will also be an attractive place to move or start a business. Furthermore, as part of my economic plan we will maximize the intellectual capital we have in Northwest Florida by investing in university research and building business incubators that leverage that research and the region’s resources.

850: Are there any particular industries that you think Florida, especially Northwest Florida, should recruit? RS: I do believe that it makes sense to leverage the military presence and technical expertise in Northwest Florida to attract high tech industries to the Panhandle. As governor, I will nurture new cutting-edge technology clusters — such as the biotechnology cluster in Orlando that, by conservative figures, creates over $7 in economic returns from every $1 invested — a 7:1 return on investment (ROI). I also envision maximizing the impact from university research on the economy by ensuring that each Florida university — and the research conducted by our universities — are connected to the state’s economic development process.

850: Should state government be proactive in helping the Gulf Coast’s tourism industry recover from the after effects of the Deepwater Horizon spill? If so, what would you do?

RS: The state government should do everything within its power to make sure that BP is held accountable for the oil spill. As governor, I will work with the affected communities to ensure they are receiving what they are owed from BP and to let people across the world know that Florida’s beaches are open for business.

nuclear plants, invest in alternative fuels and drill off shore in an environmentally sound way while ensuring Florida’s beaches are protected. What has happened in the Gulf is a travesty, and in my opinion the result of ineffective government oversight and a lack of preparedness. However, we can’t let this disaster cause us to make kneejerk decisions regarding the future of our energy supply. I think it is imperative we understand what went wrong with the Deepwater Horizon disaster and then we can focus on energy independence utilizing all means possible in a deliberate and safe manner.

850: How important is Florida’s higher education system in attracting new high wage jobs to the state – and what improvements would you make to the system? RS: Our higher education system must be a pillar of our economic development model in Florida and as step 5 of my 7-7-7 plan outlines, I will focus on investing in university research, laboratories and business incubators and strive to maximize the impact from university research. By leveraging the research strengths of our state’s universities we can create jobs and retain our talented graduates.

850: Business leaders say Florida’s government doesn’t offer enough tax incentives to attract new business and retain existing business. Do you believe in incentives and would you enhance the current incentives? RS: I believe that the best business incentive is a business friendly environment, and that is what we will create by implementing my 7-7-7 plan, which includes reducing regulation and taxes in order to attract all businesses to Florida. Tax incentives tend to pick business winners and losers. I prefer to incentivize all businesses to come to Florida by making it the most business friendly state in the country.

850: Retirees have always been a job-creating, clean industry that is good for Florida’s economy. But Florida is losing market share of retirees to other states that can compete on home prices and offer better services. What should the state do to help local communities do a better job at attracting Boomer retirees?

RS: I believe that the Boomer retirees look for the same things other people look for when choosing a place to live; they want their community to be safe, clean, prosperous and accommodating. All of those attributes are indicative of a community with a vibrant economy and plenty of jobs. We must also remain a no-income tax state.

850: Would you propose any changes in the current corporate tax structure? RS: Yes, as part of my 7-7-7 plan I will completely phase out the business tax over seven years.

850: Many local businesses, especially retailers, feel they are at a disadvantage because the state does not adequately enforce collection of sales taxes on Internet purchases made by residents. Do you support the Streamlined Sales and Use Tax Agreement or should Florida be more aggressive in its enforcement efforts?

RS: While I support lower taxes, I will support efforts to enforce the collection of taxes we know are owed. I am not convinced the streamlined-tax project will help Florida since states that impose an income tax may not want to be as aggressive in their sales-tax provisions as Florida is. I’m also not comfortable giving the crafting of Florida tax policy to an interstate commission.

850: Northwest Florida’s transportation corridors are getting overloaded, causing a problem during the summer tourist season and for hurricane evacuation. Do you have any specific plans to address the traffic gridlock?

RS: I believe that providing adequate transportation corridors is a core function of government and will support the creation of additional roadways when there is a demonstrated need. In order to fund infrastructure improvements and expansions I will work with the governors of other donor states to maximize our return on the transportation taxes that our residents pay. We can no longer afford to send our gas taxes to Washington, D.C., and only receive a fraction of that money back for our own infrastructure needs.

850: What are your views on solar and other sustainable energy production? RS: I am in favor of diversifying our energy supply and believe that with Florida being the sunshine state we should attract the businesses pioneering the technology to move their operations here.

850: What is your stand on oil drilling off Florida’s coast? RS: Energy independence is not just critical to our economic security, it also is crucial to our national security. We must stop being dependent on other countries for oil. We need to build more

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the next governor

Alex Sink Hometown: Tampa, Fla. Age: 62 Born: June 5, 1948, Mt. Airy, N.C. Married: Bill McBride Children: Bert, Lexi Higher Education: Wake Forest University Occupation: Banker, Chief Financial Officer of Florida

Tie tax incentives to job creation Give corporate income tax credit to businesses planning to create up to 20 new jobs based in Florida over a three-year period. Give Florida companies a competitive edge in winning state contracts.

Tax credits for research and development An example of Sink’s plan is a small tech company with $1,000,000 in revenue that has $200,000 in net income and spends $70,000 on research.

With a 9 percent tax credit, similar to what many other states provide, the company could save $6,300 on its state corporate tax, a more than 50 percent reduction in what it currently pays.

Energy finance districts Already allowed in 14 states, EFDs provide residential, commercial and industrial loans to retrofit properties with energy-efficient systems. Loans are repaid through riders on the owner’s property tax bill. According to the Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory, the demand for new products and installation could create 22,000 Florida jobs over 10 years.

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photo courtesy alex sink for governor

High-tech investment $2 billion of the state’s $130 billion pension fund assets would be used to invest in areas like life sciences, clean energy and aerospace/aviation.

850: What are your economic development goals for Florida — and specifically Northwest Florida? AS: My short term economic goal is to revive our economy and create jobs now. To achieve this goal I have proposed tax incentives for small business to start hiring Floridians, as our small business owners are the life-blood of Florida’s economy.

In the long term, we must remake our economy, including diversifying Northwest Florida’s economy and bringing in more stable and high-paying industries. We must invest in Florida businesses, particularly high-growth startups, and support the innovative industries of tomorrow. For example, by providing the right incentives and focus, Florida can attract industries like homeland security and defense and renewable energy that will bring the sort of sustainable, well-paying jobs Northwest Florida needs.

850: Some regions of the state have begun to diversify their economy, but Northwest Florida is still reliant on tourism. What would you do to help the region diversify? AS: I have a detailed business plan that shows how, as governor, I will remake and diversify our economy. In Northwest Florida, especially, the tragic spill in the Gulf of Mexico was an awful reminder of the risks of relying too heavily only on tourism. As governor, I will provide the right investment and incentives to attract innovative, stable industries to Northwest Florida, with plans like an R&D tax credit and better utilizing our colleges and universities. Tourism will always be important, but by encouraging the growth of these new industries, Northwest Florida can build a stable, prosperous economy for the future.

850: Are there any particular industries that you think Florida, especially Northwest Florida, should recruit? AS: I will work to help Northwest Florida recruit sustainable industries like new and renewable energy, especially biomass, defense contracting and even aerospace. Tourism will be important, but we also must attract the industries of tomorrow to build a strong foundation for the future of our state.

850: Should state government be proactive in helping the Gulf Coast’s tourism industry recover from the aftereffects of the Deepwater Horizon spill? If so, what would you do? AS: The citizens of the Gulf Coast can judge my record as a proactive advocate as their CFO. I believe we must do everything we can to help the residents and small-business owners impacted by the spill.

Our Panhandle residents are struggling with one of the worst recessions in our state’s history, and this disaster could not have happened at a worse time.

As CFO I have focused on bringing relief to our small-business owners, particularly when it comes to navigating the difficult claims process. I have worked to hold BP and the Federal Government accountable for every dime that is owed in claims and have pushed to get this money in their pockets as quickly as possible. I also called for the Legislature to offer specific tax relief and help in the claims process to benefit our small-business owners.

850: What is your stand on oil drilling off Florida’s coast? AS: I have strongly opposed the near-beach drilling proposals pushed by many in

the Florida Legislature, and since the oil spill, I have been calling for a moratorium on any expanded drilling in the Gulf. I was one of the first elected officials to call for a constitutional amendment banning drilling just three to 10 miles off our beaches. The disastrous BP oil spill demonstrated that we must find new energy sources to both protect our natural treasures that are our Gulf Coast beaches and to diversify our economy for the long-term.

850: Business leaders say Florida’s government doesn’t offer enough tax incentives to attract new business and retain existing business. Do you believe in incentives and would you enhance the current incentives? AS: We must keep taxes low and I have proposed new incentives tied explicitly to job creation in our state.

My Business Plan for Florida calls for increased tax incentives for small business and companies that hire Floridians. As governor, I will reward efforts to put more Floridians back to work by giving a new jobs tax credit to businesses creating up to 20 new jobs based in Florida during the next three years. The credit would be based on the employer’s share of federal payroll taxes and the increase in the annual payroll for the new employees. I will also push to defer state corporate income taxes of qualified startup businesses for the first three years. Finally, 37 states currently have R&D tax credits, but Florida does not, and I would work to change that.

850: Many local businesses, especially retailers, feel they are at a disadvantage because the state does not adequately enforce collection of sales taxes on Internet purchases made by residents. Do you support the Streamlined Sales and Use Tax Agreement or should Florida be more aggressive in its enforcement efforts? AS: Right now we have an unfair situation with the collection of sales tax on Internet purchases where mom and pop stores on Main Street are at a disadvantage. However, I do not believe we should do anything to raise taxes in the current economic climate, and would only consider this proposal if we used the revenue collected on Internet purchases to lower overall sales tax rates.

850: What are your views on solar and other sustainable energy production? AS: I like to say that Florida is the Sunshine State because of our beaches and tourists, but we should be known as the Sunshine State because we’re the national leader to capture the power of solar and renewable energy. Solar and other sustainable energies are a tremendous opportunity to create good jobs here in Florida, and that’s why I presented a detailed plan for Florida’s New Energy Future.

As governor, I will be Florida’s economic ambassador to attract new, green businesses to our state. By highlighting the new energy innovations already taking place across Florida, and implementing consistent and supportive policies, I will create the environment needed for these businesses to attract investments and grow. New and renewable technologies present an opportunity to create a more sustainable, diverse economy that Florida needs to succeed in the 21st century and will be a significant focus for me as Florida’s next governor.

And by the way, the leading renewable energy trade

associations in Florida are all backing me because of my renewable energy plans and their ability to grow jobs in Florida.

850: How important is Florida’s higher education system in attracting new high wage jobs to the state — and what improvements would you make to the system? AS: As a proven business leader and the first governor in twelve years whose own children graduated from Florida public schools, I understand the vital link between a vibrant economy, high-paying jobs and a quality education system. My comprehensive, 27-page education reform plan is built on a foundation of higher quality and more accountability.

I will implement a comprehensive education plan focused on child readiness, quality instruction, accountability that measures student performance, investment in our teachers and principals, and getting parents and communities more engaged in our schools. Florida needs a governor who will lead on statewide education reform — by inspiring more local innovation and supporting the spread of best practices to all school districts.

850: Retirees have always been a job-creating, clean industry that is good for Florida’s economy. But Florida is losing market share of retirees to other states that can compete on home prices and offer better services. What should the state do to help local communities do a better job at attracting Boomer retirees?

AS: I will increase efforts to market Florida as a retirement destination nationwide. Florida’s housing prices have fallen more than just about anywhere else in the country, making them an ideal choice for seniors and retirees. I will also incentivize the development of Florida’s medical services industry. With improved health care resources, combined with our climate and Florida’s natural attraction to, and ability to handle, visitors, we can make health care delivery a major “export” industry. Attracting people from around the world to come here for extended treatments can generate immense amounts of capital inflows to our communities.

850: Northwest Florida’s transportation corridors are getting overloaded, causing a problem during the summer tourist season and for hurricane evacuation. Do you have any specific plans to address the traffic gridlock?

AS: The transportation issue is one facing all Floridians, which is why in early August I unveiled my plan to bring Florida’s transportation infrastructure into the 21st century. This plan includes ensuring stable funding of transportation through an increase in federal funding, stopping the raids on Florida’s transportation trust fund and encouraging innovative regional solutions.

Currently, Florida is a “super donor” state for federal transportation funding. I will bring home more of our federal tax dollars by leading a coalition of states, and demanding Florida is at the negotiating table when funding allocations are made. This will allow us to build a more effective and modern infrastructure system for all of our state, including Northwest Florida. n

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BP CLAIMS BP, which transitioned its individual and business claims program to the Gulf Coast Claims Facility in late August, paid out nearly $400 million during the 16 weeks it managed claims related to the oil spill in the Gulf of Mexico.

Claims activity since May 3, when BP paid its first claim, are as follows: Amount Paid..........................................................$399 million Claims Filed....................................................................154,000 Checks Written...............................................................127,000 Calls Received...............................................................166,000

Total Amounts Paid by Category

Wage Loss, Undefined.................................... $157,000,000 Fisherman............................................................... $51,000,000 Rental Property Owner..................................... $48,000,000 Commercial........................................................... $46,000,000 Shrimper................................................................. $30,000,000 Oyster Harvester................................................. $10,000,000 Charter Boat Owner.............................................$8,000,000 Crabber.....................................................................$8,000,000 Real Estate Sales...................................................$4,000,000 Seafood Processor...............................................$4,000,000 Restaurant Owner.................................................$4,000,000 Source: BP

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Oil boom readied on Pensacola Beach

Slick Effect The

While the visible physical impacts of the BP oil leak are minimal in Northwest Florida, the economic damage of the disaster is a dilemma that continues to unfold — and it has cost small business the most.

By Wendy O. Dixon, Zandra Wolfgram, Jason Dehart and Carolyn Devonshire

It was just a matter of time.

When the Deepwater Horizon oil well exploded on April 20 and began spewing millions of gallons of oil and methane gas into the Gulf of Mexico, the people of Northwest Florida knew the toxic mess would eventually drift their way and make landfall. The big questions were when, where and how much?

As they waited, the past six months have been some of the most frustrating ever for Gulf Coast businesses. When waves pushed patches of oil and tar balls onto area shores, fishing spots were closed and those who looked to the Gulf for their livelihood wondered how their future would now unfold. As oil mousse created a toxic odor and mixed with sea grass — the images flashed worldwide via the news media and Internet — hotel reservations were canceled, the jobless rate went up and some businesses teetered on the verge of bankruptcy.

This debacle could not have happened at a worse time of year. The oil approached just as locals were beginning to see the light at the end of the tunnel after a long recession. But the taint of oil — perceived or real — devastated what was supposed to be Northwest Florida’s “season.” And the already fragile economy came close to shattering.

Local businesses are still reeling from the losses that cast a pall over their major income-earning season. Even if all the oil goes away tomorrow, many fear the stigma will last long into the future.

In retrospect, business owners across the region say the public perception fostered by 24-hour news coverage of the spill may have caused more damage than the oil itself.

“The media is one of our major problems,” said longtime Apalachicola oysterman Grady Leavins. “Not bad in most cases, but they

hammered on something so long that you could destroy an industry whether you wanted to or not. They destroyed the tourism industry for the most part.”

And as video of dead dolphins and oil-covered birds filled television screens, fear of the oil reached beyond Florida’s shores, to the consumers who suddenly became wary of eating the shrimp, crabs and fish that the Gulf is so famous for.

By late July, the commercial shellfish and fishing industries were off about 23 percent.

Jerry Sansom, executive director of Organized Fishermen of Florida, said that even though their seafood is perfectly safe to eat, commercial fishermen weren’t able to move their product.

“The problem is the perception that if (seafood) is from the Gulf, it’s dripping with oil. That’s very wrong,” he said.

Adding to the problem, many charter boat captains and fishermen opted to work for BP, deploying booms and skimming oil.

And that often left restaurants without the fresh seafood their menus promised.

Looking back over the past six months, it’s hard to find any aspect of life along Florida’s northwest Gulf Coast that hasn’t been affected.

First Family Promotes Gulf Coast Tourism While enjoying a boat ride aboard Bay Point Marriott’s 50-foot ferry, the Bay Point Lady, the nation’s first family was greeted by a porpoise that swam alongside as they cruised St. Andrew Bay. President Barack Obama, his wife and two daughters had come to Northwest Florida in August to promote tourism. The president raved about the area’s beauty and declared the beach open for

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slick effect

PHILIP GRIFFITTS, JR. | Panama City Beach Chamber of Commerce

Local businesses are still reeling from the losses that cast a pall over their major income-earning season ... many fear the stigma will last long into the future. business, encouraging Americans to vacation in Panama City Beach.

“Today the well is capped. Oil is no longer flowing into the Gulf,” Obama told local smallbusiness owners on Aug. 14. “I’m here to tell you that our job is not finished, and we are not going anywhere until it is. That’s the message that I wanted to come here and deliver directly to the people along the Gulf Coast — because it’s the men and women of this region who have felt the burden of this disaster. They watched with anger and dismay as their livelihoods and their way of life was threatened these past few months.”

Lee Ann Leonard, general manager of By The Sea Resorts in Panama City Beach, met with the president during his visit. By mid-August, the resort chain, which consists of three Gulf-front hotels, a restaurant and a church retreat, had documented more than 1,000 room night cancellations caused by the oil spill, translating into nearly $200,000 in lost revenue. And Leonard was expecting still more losses.

“I was brutally honest about how hard it will be for businesses like mine to make it when the revenue is just not there,” Leonard said. “Certainly, the first family’s visit will help increase consumer confidence, but it will still be difficult. Even if we have a great September and October, it’s not going to make up for a loss in July, during which we charge twice the rate with longer stays because of summer vacations.”

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Coping As Best They Can The calls began as a trickle in late April. The operator of charter fishing boats Lady Em and Fish N Fool saw eight trips a day dwindle to just one a day. By mid-May — a month after the oil began gushing — cancellations caused by guests changing travel plans were flooding in.

“This is peak high season. We are usually fishing hard and often, and now we just have one boat for fishing and one working with BP, but the boat that is available is not booked every day, so it’s a double kick in the teeth — we don’t have the boats and we don’t have demand,” Capt. Mike Eller, a longtime fisherman who has owned and operated Fish Destin since 1991, explained with frustration late this past summer. “Now, 2010 is lost completely as far as I can tell.”

Unfortunately, Eller’s tale isn’t a tall one. According to the Beaches of South Walton Tourist Development Council, reports for May alone showed that room occupancy levels were down 6 percent, rental revenue was down 6 percent, food and beverage revenue was down 16 percent, and revenue from additional products and services sold was down 32 percent. Even in places where oil wasn’t evident, bookings were down significantly throughout the summer.

“If you have a family and a week off, would you even chance it? I wouldn’t,” said Justin McMillan, owner of Journeys of St. George Island. “So I understand.”

850businessmagazine.com

Though Molly Caroline’s is among those suffering reduced numbers, Whipple Van Ness Jones III, the owner of the Seaside boutique shop that specializes in Vera Bradley merchandise, said decreased sales were just the beginning.

“It’s killing us,” Jones said. “It’s a food chain thing. Because sales are down, we’ve had to cut back hourly employees and even let some go.”

Is there a silver lining to BP’s oil sheen? According to boat captain Eller, who is also the copresident of the Destin Charter Boat Association, 99 percent of the local charter companies were contracted by BP as “vessels of opportunity,” charged with spotting oil, watching boom or cleaning up oil. So, what was a bust for many became a boon for select local charter companies.

But even a silver lining fades at some point.

At Destin Seafood Ice Market & Deli, general manager Jay Carmena said sales are down 40 percent compared to last year. Ironically, prices of seafood are up because of shortages caused by fishermen and shrimpers working for BP. To cope, Carmena said, “We’ve reduced expenses, cut back on employee hours and will wait to see how it all works out.” In the meantime, he is spending more time than ever countering concerns over his seafood. “We reassure them that both the state and federal inspectors are out in full force and are checking more stringently than they were before to be sure it’s safe,” he said.

Sparky Sparkman, owner of The Spinnaker Lounge and Beach Club, said he has tried to keep hope alive among his 300 employees.

“You try to put on a bright face for staff because they live and die by the season,” he said.

Perhaps Pam Anderson, operations manager for Capt. Anderson’s Marina in Panama City Beach, put it best when she said simply, “Everyone’s frustrated.”

She compared the spill to a “slow-moving

Photos by SCOTT HOLSTEIN and wendy dixon

YONNI PATRONIS | Captain Anderson’s Restaurant

The first family in Panama City Beach, August 2010

hurricane you have to get through, except this has been going on for months. No one knows how long it will take for the oil plumes at the bottom of deep Gulf waters to wind up on shore.”

Meanwhile, local businesses wait to see the final tally of their summer season — and continue to wonder how much compensation they will get for their losses.

“I don’t see how BP can make everyone whole,” said Yonni Patronis, owner and general manager of Captain Anderson’s Restaurant.

Creative Marketing Philip Griffitts Jr., chairman of the Panama City Beach Chamber of Commerce and owner of the Sugar Sands beachfront hotel, said advance bookings stopped in June when occupancy rates were already down by 20 percent.

So local businesses tried some creative marketing approaches. Many Gulf-front hotels installed live webcams to give potential tourists a close-up view of the oil-free beaches.

“We have a ‘oil-free guarantee’ that the beach will be clean or you’ll be given Shipwreck Island

An Ironic Twist Despite bad press over the threat of oilsoaked beaches, Florida tourism numbers were up for the second quarter of 2010.

Nearly 21 million tourists — 18.3 million U.S. residents and 2.5 million tourists from overseas and Canada — came to Florida for a visit during the three months ending June 30. The bad news: They did stay away from many Panhandle destinations.

Trips to Florida from U.S. residents were up 2.4 percent from the same period in 2009.

Overseas tourism was up 11.9 percent, while Canadian travel markets improved by 10.4 percent.

tickets to enjoy the inland water park,” Griffitts explained.

In South Walton, the Tourist Development Council tried to turn the tide of misperception and lure visitors back to its beaches by spending $1.35 million on a testimonial-driven marketing campaign centered on how to “be” in the Beaches of South Walton.

In early August, the council began offering $250 vouchers for Southwest Airlines tickets or purchases at the Silver Sands Factory Stores to visitors who would spend at least three nights in one of the county’s more than 500 hotel, motel or rental properties.

Gulf Shores, Ala., in mid-July to promote tourism in the region.

“This is a testament to the willingness of local business owners to rise to this challenge,” said Dan Rowe, CEO and president of the Panama City Visitors and Convention Bureau.

Among those sharpening the marketing hooks and battening down the hatches was Capt. Eller, who has owned his company, Fish Destin, for 20 years. He updated the company’s website and made catering to loyal customers a priority.

“We already refocused our attention when the economy took a nosedive,” he said. “We knew what would keep us strong was keeping the clients we did have. I saw this as a young captain: You may not have the nicest boat or the biggest catch, but if you treat people well, you will build a strong clientele.”

Where from Here?

“One way or another, we will be forever changed by the oil spill,” said Chad Hamilton, chairman of the Fort Walton Beach Chamber of Commerce. “The uncertainty as to whether this is a one-year, three-year, five-year or multi-decade impact is what makes this so difficult.”

He cautions that the unknown and the gloomy potential of adverse effects from the oil spill can make it difficult to endure.

the oil leak has been described as a ‘slow-moving hurricane you have to get through, except this has been going on for months.’

“We know many of our loyal visitors have been concerned about the Gulf oil incident, but our 15 beach communities are open for enjoyment, and we’re ready to prove it with this reward,” said Dawn Moliterno, executive director of the Beaches of South Walton.

Many local tourist agencies focused on the positive — in this case, what’s off the beach path — and some areas used big-name entertainment to lure in visitors. The Emerald Coast Convention and Visitors Bureau held a concert series called “Rock the Beach,” starting in June with Kenny Loggins and the Doobie Brothers performing. It was paid for in part through the $25 million that BP gave the state to counter the effects of the oil spill.

And musician, Gulf Coast lover and businessman Jimmy Buffett, who just opened a new Margaritaville Hotel in Pensacola, held a free concert in

“We cannot liken this to the impact of a hurricane because we have a historical perspective on how to recover from a storm,” he said. “An oil spill of this magnitude presents far different threats of damage, many of which may require us to have the endurance to hold on through nature’s repair of the ecological damage.”

Though he expects that tourism will take a couple of years at best to recover, Eller has faith in the beach destination he calls home.

“Mother Nature is very resilient, and so is the economy of the Emerald Coast,” he said.

But for the best outcome, the local businessman believes the entire community will need to take the high road when it comes to local travel.

“I encourage everyone to fill up their car at a BP gas station, because if they go broke, we all lose,” Eller said. n The News Service of Florida contributed to this report.

Source: News Service of Florida 850 Business Magazine

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To Build Or Not? Amendment 4 — which would require that significant changes to local comprehensive plans be approved by voters — is drawing passionate opinions both for and against

By John Kennedy

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S

ure there’s a governor’s race.

A U.S. Senate contest and countless battles for the Legislature and Congress also are dominating Florida’s airwaves and inboxes.

But among the state’s big-ticket campaigns is the one being fought over a constitutional proposal — Amendment 4.

The so-called Hometown Democracy measure that will appear on the Nov. 2 general election ballot has forged an alliance between big business groups, unions and local governments opposing the idea. They warn that the measure, if approved by 60 percent of Florida voters, will bring an economic ice age to the state.

Supporters, including most of the state’s major environmental organizations, counter by saying it is a needed check on political power and runaway growth and simply puts government planning decisions back in the hands of voters.

Amendment 4 would require that changes to local-government comprehensive plans be approved by voters in a local referendum. Simple zoning changes that comply with local standards won’t be affected.

Backers of the measure say the big stuff that can change the landscape and tenor of a community will be forced before voters, thereby giving meaning to comp plans, which are too easily amended by city or county commissioners.

It also would break the stranglehold that critics say developers often have on elected officials, who OK comp-plan changes sought by the same developers who finance their election campaigns.

Builders and developers have already raised millions of dollars to fight the measure, warning it will severely damage Florida’s economy and its ability to respond quickly to new development opportunities. By contrast, supporters are waging a relatively low-budget campaign, helped by such backers as former Gov. Buddy MacKay and dozens of local environmental groups.

Weighing the issue, the warring sides want you to put some things on the scale:

The Vote on Everything amendment would cause Florida’s economy to permanently collapse. If you like the recession, you’ll love Amendment 4.

According to a study conducted by the Washington Economics Group, Amendment 4 will reduce Florida’s economic output by $34 billion annually. Given Florida’s precarious economic climate, that’s the last thing our state needs.

— Florida2010.org

The only reason not to support the Hometown Democracy Amendment is if you like seeing unchecked urban sprawl; if you like to sit in traffic on a road that wasn’t built for the proper capacity in time; if you enjoy seeing wildlife suffer because there isn’t any place else for them to go.

— The Sierra Club

PRO

Supported by: Environmental Groups • The Sierra Club • Florida Hometown Democracy

Direct democracy can work: Voters should be able to make major growth decisions that affect their communities. Supporters ask: Why should voters delegate that decision to the majority of a city or county commission? Giving all city or county voters an opportunity to vote on a proposal also will blunt the power that a select group of residents or neighborhoods might be able to bring for or against a development idea.

Builders have too much power: The organizations fighting Amendment 4 make money off adding more homes and shopping centers in Florida — with critics saying that such moves are sometimes made whether they’re really needed or not. Giving voters a say would at least force big planning decisions out further into the public eye — and loosen the political connection between development and local politicians.

Sensible growth makes sense: Florida’s economy needs to diversify. A declining influx of residents means the state can no longer rely on

CON

its “one-trick pony” — development — to get it out of this lousy economy. Amendment 4 could re-pivot Florida by protecting communities and fostering more innovative economic growth.

The state has lost about 28,000 construction jobs over the past year, and more than 300,000 unsold homes still sit on the market. Yet as soon as Amendment 4 went on the ballot, backers point out that developers were rushing to get state approval for dozens of projects requiring comp-plan changes.

Better development will emerge: If Amendment 4 passes, developers will do what they can to avoid changing comp plans and facing voters. Why go through the added expense and uncertainty of altering the comp plan to add more commercial square feet or housing units?

Instead, projects that comply with existing rules will become the norm because they’re easier to approve. Builders will no longer try to push the envelope. And comprehensive planning for a community actually will work.

Opposed by: Florida Chamber of Commerce • Gov. Charlie Crist • CFO Alex Sink

It’s unworkable: Amendment 4 will possibly force voters to decide hundreds of planning issues a year. Projects will be delayed and financing jeopardized while developers await the outcome of issues to be decided at the next election. Local ballots will become as long as phone books. Faced with complex and technical planning decisions, voters will turn off and just skip over this portion of a ballot. The goal of voters making good, well-considered choices just won’t happen.

It’s costly: In a fragile economy, Amendment 4 will only add to the price of homes or commercial construction. The more hoops that builders must leap through to get a project approved, the more expensive it will be. Political campaigning for project approval also would become an additional cost — one that is ultimately passed on to buyers. The extra upfront cost also could make it tougher to finance a project and raise further ethical concerns when banks are effectively asked to underwrite the cost of a campaign as part of development costs.

It’s not needed: Don’t voters elect officials to make these kind of decisions? And if local politicians do something voters don’t want, can’t residents respond by casting out these elected leaders at the next election? Amendment 4 instills a micro-manager form of democracy on communities — one that critics say busy voters don’t want to face.

It’ll freeze Florida’s economy: Like it or not, Florida thrives on construction. A measure like Hometown Democracy is just the kind of hurdle that could prove too big to climb. It will further stunt building at a time when the industry is struggling most, leading to more layoffs, a lack of development activity, and lower tax collections for local and state governments. With the state already facing a $2.5 billion budget deficit, the amendment could lead to lower real-estate and sales-tax collections. And that likely means fewer dollars going to schools, universities and business-tax incentives that are needed to foster recovery. n

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A NEW MODE OF CONVO Wahi Media’s Glenn Hallam is the mastermind behind the Wahi, an interactive, Internet-based video that tailors itself according to who is watching. Public safety and health organizations are prime users of this new mode of education.

Revolutionary Conversation F or 10 years, Glenn Hallam dreamed of creating the interactive technology he calls “wahi,” short for “Web automated human interaction.” But it took certain advances in technology, namely broadband access and faster, more powerful computers, before the Tallahassee entrepreneur could turn his dream into reality.

Hallam decided the time was right after he moved to Tallahassee about six years ago. Fortified by ambition and confidence in his concept, he sold his existing business, devoted himself to developing his wahi concept and launched the company he calls Wahi Media in the fall of 2006.

Photos by SCOTT HOLSTEIN

Technology company Wahi Media offers its clients a new concept in two-way online communication by john van gieson

Hallam may have had plenty of ambition and confidence when he started the business, but he had no clients. Not one.

“I had dreamed that it would take off right away, to be honest with you,” he said. “It really took us two years for it to begin to catch on.”

What exactly is a wahi? The firm’s website, wahimedia.com, describes it this way: “A wahi is an online, video-based platform that allows you to communicate your message to the masses by simulating human conversation. As the wahi interacts with and learns about the viewer, it begins to tailor its message so that the viewer gets a truly personal experience. At the same time, the wahi

COR R I D OR BY T H E N UM BE R S

4,900 The number of digital media companies in Florida, which employ about 14,000 people. Florida has more than 25,000 information technology companies, employing about 256,000.

Source: Enterprise Florida

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Capital Spotlight

is collecting and storing all of the viewer’s responses in real time, so you can get a feel for your audience and understand what they’re saying in response to your message.”

Hallam, 48, said the wahi concept first occurred to him when he was sitting in a coffee shop in Los Angeles reflecting on his life.

“I had some success, but I didn’t feel like I was contributing in any meaningful way,” he said. “I thought, ‘I just can’t focus on making money.’

“I always had this sense that there was a better way to learn about people. I just had the sense that there was a better way to engage people, to dive into what they need and who they are.

That’s where this comes from, looking for a better way to learn about people and a better way to engage them.

“In this day and age, people multi-task all the time,” Hallam said. “We feel like what we’re doing is forcing you to pay attention. It’s technology, but with a very, very engaging personal aspect to it — and that is our goal.”

Wahis typically offer several parallel tracks, each interacting with a different segment of the audience the client wants to reach. In a gang awareness and prevention wahi Hallam’s business created for the Tallahassee Police

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Department, the targeted audiences are young people, parents, community members and teachers. Each has a different narrator, with Carmen Cummings, a former Tallahassee TV news personality and former aide to U.S. Rep. Allen Boyd, addressing parents. Doc Bailey, a former gang member from Dallas who works in a gang prevention program in Tallahassee, addresses youth.

While the Tallahassee gang video is no longer posted on the Wahi Media website, visitors can view several others there, including a gang-prevention wahi produced for the Tampa Police Department. One of the narrators in the Tampa gang wahi is Florida State University football great Warrick Dunn, who starred at running back for the Tampa Bay Buccaneers and Atlanta Falcons.

Hallam and his family were living in Colorado when they decided to move to Tallahassee. (He earned a doctorate in industrial/organizational psychology from the University of Minnesota.)

His wife, the former Gina Rhodes, is a native of Tallahassee and a Florida State graduate. The Hallams wanted their children — they now have three — to grow up close to their grandparents.

When Hallam started Wahi Media, he had worked in a previous job on executive

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development for a number of big companies, including financial-services company Citigroup.

He thought at the time that big companies would form his client base.

Shortly after starting Wahi Media in the fall of 2006, Hallam hired Jonathan Conrad, who graduated from Florida State with a degree in business management in 2002, as director of client relations. He gave Conrad the responsibility

WHAT’S A WAHI?

Choose your role at the start of the wahi for a customized presentation

The word wahi started out as an acronym, but quickly took on a life of its own. In case you’re curious, wahi stands for Web Automated Human Interaction, but we think wahi rolls off the tongue better.

Wahi Media pioneered the wahi — an online, video-based platform that lets you communicate your message to the masses by simulating human conversation. The wahi interacts with and learns about the viewer, so it can tailor its message to give the viewer a truly personal experience. At the same time, the wahi collects and stores all of the viewer’s responses in real time. So, you can hear and understand how your audience responds to the message.

—wahimedia.com

of recruiting clients for the fledgling business, focusing initially on big businesses. Conrad said Nike and Coca-Cola, among others, showed some interest in the concept but stopped short of engaging the company.

“We’ve talked to hundreds of big companies and have been in the door of a dozen,” Hallam said. “That was how we passed the first year or two. We realized we were overreaching at that point and decided to come on home.”

That’s when Conrad heard Investigator Derek Friend of the Tallahassee Police Department discussing the city’s gang problem on the radio and decided to pitch him on a wahi presenting the issue to gang members and gang-member wannabes, as well as parents, teachers and the community at large. Friend liked the concept, was impressed by the samples he saw, and pitched the idea of engaging Wahi Media to do a gang prevention wahi to his supervisors.

The police department became Wahi Media’s first client, with the company donating its services for the first year to develop a sample product it could use to recruit paying clients.

Friend said the gang wahi worked very well and provided the Tallahassee Police Department with the information it was seeking about gangs and potential members.

“We had about 2,000 responses,” he said.

“Several hundred identified themselves as gang

members or people who were interested in joining.”

Friend said TPD learned from the wahi responses that while there were signs Tallahassee gangs were becoming more sophisticated, local gangs were essentially neighborhood gangs, “separate and unique unto themselves,” and not affiliated with national gangs.

GETTING TO KNOW YOU (Top) A wahi pairs video technology with online surveys to deliver content based on user responses.

Viewers see content tailored to their unique perspective while the wahi collects real-time data from the interactions. (Middle) Hallam uses local actors for the wahi videos, and they are produced in-house at the Wahi Media facility. (Opposite) The Wahi Media team includes, left to right, Gina Hallam, Jonathan Conrad, Glenn Hallam and Mike Copeland.

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Capital Spotlight Hallam writes the scripts for and produces the wahis, which typically take about three months from concept to final product. His talent for writing and producing comes naturally — he was born in Hollywood, Calif., and his brother is a film producer.

Gina Hallam keeps the books and casts the wahis. The other full-time employees are Conrad and Mike Copeland, director of photography.

Hallam said they depend heavily on the services of a number of community providers, including FSU’s College of Motion Picture Arts.

“You have to have actors who are compelling and engaging,” Hallam said, adding that Wahi Media finds many of the actors it uses in the Tallahassee community.

“We’re lean and mean,” he said. “To other business owners, I would say you need to know what you can outsource and what you must keep inhouse. You need to keep costs low.”

Friend said it was a pleasure to work with the Wahi Media team.

“Anything I thought of, anything I wanted to add, they said, ‘Yeah, we can put that in,’ ” he

explained. “They were very good to work with.”

Wahi Media’s clients so far include police departments in Tallahassee, Tampa and Atlanta and state agencies in Florida, Virginia and Nebraska.

The company has produced wahis for teens with sexually transmitted diseases for the Florida Department of Health and on emergency preparedness for the Florida Department of Education. It is discussing proposals with agencies in several other states and, Conrad said, has received inquiries from organizations in countries as far away as Guatemala, Kenya and South Africa.

Hallam said Wahi Media charges $2,000 a minute to produce wahis for its clients, noting that the public agencies it has served so far typically use grants to pay for them. He said the wahis typically run 80 to 90 minutes, but the typical user completes his or her interaction in eight to 10 minutes.

If money is an object, Hallam said, he shortens the overall product to 15 to 30 minutes.

“We tell people, ‘Based on your budget, we’ll make it as short or as long as you would like it to be,’ ” he said.

The Tallahassee Police Department became Wahi Media’s first client, with the company donating its services for the first year to develop a sample product it could use to recruit paying clients.

Hallam and Conrad said their business model is based on what they call “The 4 R’s” — reach, retention, relevance and rapport. Reach refers to engaging viewers over the Internet. Retention is capturing and holding their attention. Relevance means giving the viewers options that interest them and target who they are.

Rapport means “trying to talk to people normally as you do in human conversation. We engage you and learn about your interests and treat you with respect,” Hallam said.

Hallam has trademarked the word “wahi” and applied for patents on the technology. He said he isn’t afraid of competition and assumes that others will attempt to produce products similar to his.

“Our attitude is that competition is good,” he said. “It will make us better, but it will take them time to get to where we are.”

While Hallam said he’s pleased with Wahi Media’s growth, there are business challenges he still needs to overcome. He still wants to market his product to big businesses — and feels that day is coming.

“I think the baby’s up and running, and we look forward to seeing that child grow,” he said. n 40

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experience speaks { Capital Corridor }

What Execs Admit Out of the Office In a completely unscientific poll, 850 Magazine asked business leaders attending the annual Greater Tallahassee Chamber of Commerce Community Conference at the Hilton Sandestin about everything from their e-mail habits and hobbies to thoughts on oil drilling and the governor’s race. Here’s what they had to say:

ON THE RECORD The business leaders we interviewed included (Top row, left to right): Chris Jensen, Jim Hunt, Kimberly Moore, Nick Waller; (Second row) Warren Jones, Tammy Nguyen, Kim Williams, Anneliese Oppenheim; (Third row) Terri Jackson, Matt Brown, Chucha Barber, Mickey Moore; (Bottom row) Bud Wethington, Sean Pittman, Karen Moore, Mark O’Bryant.

Photos by linda powell and dan parisi

Did you carpool to get here or drive alone?

Alone................................................ 35% With spouse.................................. 35% Carpool............................................ 29% With dog.......................................... 1% Do you support oil drilling 100 miles off Florida’s coast?

Yes.................................................... 20% No..................................................... 80% “With the necessary safeguards.”

“Not within 20 miles.” “Not any more!”

Do you view this trip as vacation or work?

Vacation........................................... 0% Work................................................ 67% Both.................................................. 33%

Who is taking care of business while you’re here? “Technology makes it easy to take care of business wherever you are.” “My team.” “My very capable managers.” “Me, by phone.” “Office phones forwarded to Blackberry!”

“Husband.”

Who do you think is the greatest American business person alive? “Colin Powell.”

“Founder of Starbucks.” “Warren Buffett.” “Steve Jobs.” “Richard Florida.” “Oprah Winfrey.” “Lance Armstrong, athlete and business person.” “Small business owners.”

What do you do to relax?

“Travel.” “Golf.” “Drink a beer.”

“Sweat therapy fitness.” “Ride my road bike.” “Cooking.” “Raise orchids.” “Read by the pool.” “Go to a spa.” “Ride motorcycles!”

Who do you think is the best Florida gubernatorial candidate for entrepreneurs? * Alex Sink........................................ 40% Bud Chiles........................................ 7% Rick Scott....................................... 13% Bill McCollum............................... 7% All of the above.............................. 6% None of the above...................... 27%

Do you plan to take a dip in the Gulf while you’re here?

Yes..................................................... 47% No...................................................... 47% Probably............................................ 6% “Sure — and eat seafood!”

“At least my toes.”

What is the best way to help Northwest Florida’s economy improve? “Looking at our area as a region.” “Reduce government regulations.” “Get rid of the perception that we have an oil issue.” “Take advantage of the new Panama City airport.”

This poll was taken before the Aug. 24 primary. *

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Gulf, Franklin + Wakulla Counties

forgotten coast Corridor

spotlight

JUST LIKE OLD TIMES Despite modern trends, the Wakulla Springs Lodge maintains its 1930s charm — right down to the silverware — and remains a naturalist haven for domestic and international visitors alike.

Southern Vernacular Relying on its natural charms and authentic atmosphere, Wakulla Springs Lodge thrives despite a poor economy because it offers travelers rest, relaxation and a bit of history by michael peltier

F

our hours northwest of “The Land That Disney Built” sits another Florida gem, a land that time forgot. Instead of tourism on steroids, where fun is measured in how fast the rollercoaster flies or how far it drops, this oasis just south of the state capital prides itself on a low-tech ambience that harkens back to the days when its just being there was reason enough to come.

And that’s why it continues to thrive.

Welcome to Wakulla Springs Lodge, which hosts about 12,000 guests a year, a popularity that comes without a lot of the traditional advertising

Photos by SCOTT HOLSTEIN

afforded hotels managed by private companies.

Located 13 miles south of Tallahassee, the lodge remains a throwback to a seemingly simpler time when swimming in a crystal-clear spring, taking a boat ride and enjoying the region’s natural beauty were enough to bring such luminaries as the Duke and Duchess of Windsor to this remote cracker region of Florida. Most guests find their way there by word of mouth.

Over the years, the 25-room hotel built by one of Florida’s most powerful men has withstood the test of time by staying true to its roots, an elegantly simple retreat for travelers looking for a

COR R I D OR BY T H E N UM BE R S

20.1 million

The number of visitors to Florida’s State Parks between July 2009 and June 2010 – 1 million fewer than the previous year. But those visits brought the state $52.7 million in entry fees — $9 million more than the previous year because of a hike in fees.

Source: Florida Tribune (fltrib.com)

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respite from life’s hectic pace. In good economic times and bad, it remains popular because of what it is.

“I think Wakulla Springs has survived precisely because it hasn’t changed much — it’s consistently itself,” said Lu Vickers, a Tallahassee-based author and frequent visitor.

Now part of the state park system, the lodge continues to delight its guests, whose comments, logged in guest books located throughout the Spanish-style hotel, easily could have been written 70 years ago.

“Arrived to see mist over the spring in the evening, clouds overhead but leaving,” wrote John and Cheryl, a couple from Spring Hill, Fla., during a recent visit. “Woke and watched dawn over the spring — peace and still water, sun touching the cypress trees. This is a special place and a real piece of old Florida. May it remain so.”

Built in 1937 by the legendary Edward Ball, the lodge faces Wakulla Springs. Every two seconds, enough crystal-clear water is released into the Wakulla River to fill a room as it begins its 9-mile trek to the Gulf of Mexico. On its way, it will pass some of the area’s most pristine habitat, where wading birds, alligators, turtles and other animals thrive under the state’s protection.

Passengers on the park’s fabled boat tours see what visitors saw when the lodge first opened for business, a slice of “real Florida” that avoided the temptation to become a glitzy tourist trap.

“The large property has not been significantly developed, a notable miracle for a place that easily could have been converted into a Silver Springs or Cypress Gardens, twisted into a tacky playground for the reality-challenged,” writes Tracy Revels, author of “Watery Eden: A History of Wakulla Springs.”

“I am always impressed by how the lodge seems “frozen in time,” Revels told 850. “It’s one of the very few places I know of where a visitor could get a sense of how the elite travelled and relaxed in the 1930s and ’40s.”

Most recently renovated in 2001, the lodge has weathered recent economic downturns and continues to draw tourists, business guests and others who hold meetings or family reunions, or even get married in one of the facility’s conference rooms or its outdoor pavilion. Between 50 and 80 employees work at the lodge, depending on the season, with summer being the peak.

Despite a temporary dip in overnight stays, park manager Brian Fugate says day visits are up and reservations are again starting to pick up steam. But as a state park, the lodge’s profitability is not the bottom line.

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“We have folks coming from all across the country and around the world to come and stay with us,” Fugate said. “There are a lot of international guests who spend time here.”

From Nomads to Captains of Industry Believed to have been inhabited by pre-Columbian natives up to 15,000 years ago, the spring tempted speculators and developers to tap the region for commercial gain since the early 1800s.

The area’s remoteness, however, would prove too much for even the most determined promoter for more than a century. Efforts to make the spring a tourist attraction languished for decades as the property along the Wakulla River changed hands, at times for as little as $10 cash.

Edward Ball would change all that.

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Virginia-born to genteel but modest means, Ball was a furniture salesman when he met Alfred du Pont, the estranged heir to a family fortune. Du Pont married Ball’s sister Jessie, his third wife, in 1921 and brought his new brotherin-law into his growing Florida business empire.

Ball came to the Florida Panhandle in the 1920s and began buying huge tracts of timberrich land. The purchases would culminate in the creation of the St. Joe Paper Co. in 1936. During his travels for St. Joe, Ball would often purchase tracts himself that the company’s board of directors would not, a sideline career that would prove prophetic. It wasn’t until June 1934 that Ball would form Wakulla Springs Inc. and begin purchasing land along the Wakulla River.

When du Pont died in 1935, Ball became trustee of the du Pont estate, then worth

in the 1950s as it served as the underwater backdrop for such films as “The Creature from the Black Lagoon” and two sequels.

Politicians also flocked to the lodge. Among other things, Ball, one of the state’s most powerful men, was a kingmaker. Considered the power behind the “the Pork Chop Gang,” a group of rural North Florida politicians who ran state politics for decades, Ball held political fundraisers at the lodge, and more than a few hopefuls launched their candidacies from under its roof.

But Ball’s overriding reason for building the lodge was as a place of personal refuge that reminded him of his Virginia upbringing, Revels said.

“It was somewhere that he came to relax, but he also liked to show it off,” Revels said. “ There was something in Ball that demanded he try and turn a profit on any place he owned.

Hotel Maintains Its Subtle Appeal

HARKENING BACK (Clockwise from top left) The dining room at the Lodge remains nearly untouched since mid-century, including decór and menu; Visitors take a boat ride along the Wakulla River and interact with hundreds of native animals; The entrance to the historic Lodge; Swimming and diving in Wakulla Springs is a cold refreshment for generations of tourists.

$34 million. He immediately turned his attentions to Wakulla Springs and the lodge, and construction material began arriving there that year. At last, the spring was to become a bona fide vacation destination.

Ball apparently spared little expense. The Moorish-inspired lodge, said to have cost more than $75,000 to build, was made of stucco and roofed in red tile. Ball imported marble from around the world but relied most heavily on Tennessee marble, the pink tones of which still grace the floors, stairs, guestrooms and public changing rooms surrounding the spring.

Other amenities included a 70-foot marble countertop in the lodge’s gift shop and soda fountain. An Art Deco elevator still scoots guests to the second floor. The hotel was opened to guests in September 1937.

The lodge quickly became the place to be for celebrities and was used for a series of “Tarzan” movies and Army training exercises during the 1940s. The state springs and lodge would continue to be the Hollywood of Northwest Florida

The lodge’s high-beamed lobby continues to showcase Aztec and Toltec designs first commissioned from a German painter living in Wakulla County who was said to have done work for Kaiser Wilhelm. An enclosed porch facing the spring was roofed in cypress and also remains unchanged.

Scattered around the lobby are marble checkerboard tables, complete with oversized checkers stacked or scattered across the table tops. A single large-screen television, the lodge’s only TV, sits amid comfortable couches that round out the décor, which has otherwise changed little.

“The lodge has been here for more than 70 years,” manager Fugate said. “We try to maintain it as best we can to reflect that heritage.”

Such attention to detail goes down to the silverware and china, the patterns of which are identical to those used when the lodge was built.

Guest rooms also retain porcelain ceiling-lamp fixtures, sinks and deep, water-logging tubs.

“A lovely old lodge, not ritzy, but just comfortable and clean as it should be,” writes Margie Rebben, a guest from Apollo Beach. “We love the ‘old’ hotels, the Biltmore, the Hotel del Coronado. God bless you for not allowing this sanctuary to get modernized.”

Following Ball’s death in 1981, the property was transferred to the Nemours Foundation, formed after the death of Alfred du Pont to operate children’s health facilities in Florida. Board members quickly discovered that the property was not a profit-making venture, even with the lodge. In 1986, the state of Florida purchased the site and other Wakulla River acreage from the foundation for $7.15 million and has been operating the lodge ever since.

Restaurant Retains the Menu, If Not the Prices Another permanent fixture of the lodge is the restaurant. Serving breakfast, lunch and dinner, the restaurant, like the park and lodge itself, tries to emulate the past while adding some nice modern touches. White linen tablecloths lay the canvas for such traditional Southern evening meals as liver and onions, fried chicken, braised pork shanks, prime rib and other steak cuts from off the grill.

The dinner menu includes other Southern traditions such as deep-fried oysters, shrimp, and locally caught seafood complete with sides of fried okra, mashed potatoes or cheese grits.

While the 1946 menu touted many of the same entrées (a porterhouse with all the sides went for $2), some of the items now have a more distinctly modern face.

While iceberg lettuce and cucumber with French dressing was enough to dazzle the table following World War II, the modern salad includes a few new touches, including alfalfa sprouts and a host of dressings on the side. Missing from the modern menu are such 1940 standards as kraut juice and buttermilk. County lawmakers in the 1970s also allowed for the addition of beer and wine.

Poised for Another 100 Years As customers lined up for boat tours of the spring and a few diners headed into the restaurant for breakfast in early August, one visitor sat down to flip through a voluminous scrapbook highlighting the lodge and park’s history going back decades.

During his ownership of the Park, Edward Ball fought to keep it from becoming a gaudy “honky-tonk” of an attraction like those that had begun springing up farther south at other parks established in the mid-1900s.

He appears to have succeeded, which historians say was no small feat given the trend in Florida by other developers such as Dick Pope (Cypress Gardens) and Newt Perry (Silver Springs and Weeki Wachee) to exploit natural surroundings. Instead, the lodge and surrounding park remain a haven for tourists from around the globe.

“Wakulla persists because it is democratic,” Vickers, the Tallahassee-based author, says. “It welcomes everyone from French tourists in Speedos to country boys in cut-offs, from the timid who can only put their toes in the water to the wild ones who back-flip off the high dive. In the end, it takes everyone’s breath away.” n

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experience speaks { FORGOTTEN COAST Corridor }

WHO: Matt Fleck

Selling Small-Town Charm M

AGE: 44 INDUSTRY: Redevelopment YEARS IN BUSINESS: 19

In Port St. Joe, Matt Fleck is leading the rebirth of a ‘real’ Florida community by buddy nevins

att Fleck, who loves to sail, scuba dive and fish, has found the perfect place to do all three. Now his job is to introduce thousands of others to the place he calls paradise — Port St. Joe. Fleck, 44, is executive director of the Port St. Joe Redevelopment Agency, which is in charge of morphing the early 20th-century mill town into a 21st-century destination for anyone seeking an escape from the big city.

He says the 3,700-resident community sells itself. “Port St. Joe is a ‘real’ place,” Fleck said. “When there are so many cookie-cutter developments across Florida that try so hard to create a quaint, small-town atmosphere, it’s very refreshing to discover a place that has always had that charm.”

Fleck isn’t a small-town native. “Port St Joe is

Photo by SCOTT HOLSTEIN

definitely the smallest town I have ever lived in,” he said.

A lifelong Floridian, he was born in Melbourne, on the state’s Atlantic coast. His family moved to Tallahassee when he was a teenager.

“When I was in high school, I thought I wanted to be an architect,” Fleck said. “But after working with an architectural firm during junior college, I realized that what I really wanted to do was to build.”

Because of good grades, Fleck got a Bright Futures scholarship from the Florida Lottery. He also got a merit scholarship from the Association of General Contractors of Northwest Florida. Those two grants enabled him to enroll at the University of Florida.

“I still had to work full time to pay the rent,

and there were lots of night classes, but I graduated with high honors from the University of Florida with a bachelor’s degree in building construction,” said Fleck, whose first job out of college in 1991 was construction project manager of development for the West Florida Cancer Center in Pensacola.

He began managing the design and construction of a wide range of developments across urban Florida — in Tampa, Orlando, Fort Lauderdale, Boca Raton and Naples. He helped build offices, industrial projects, utility infrastructure and military facilities. He helped build multifamily residential complexes, shopping centers and marinas. And there were health care projects, which is where he met his wife, Karie, while working on a Pensacola hospital.

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Mark A. Demont and Paul V. Watts, COO Electronet Broadband Communications

RE AL CUSTOMERS . RE AL ISSUES . RE AL SOLUTIONS .

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Mark A. Demont

3 4 1 1 C a p i t a l M e d i c a l B l v d . Ta l l a h a s s e e , F L | 2 2 2 . 0 2 2 9 | w w w. e l e c t r o n e t . n e t 48

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“She was in nursing school, and I was a hotshot project manager building hospitals,” Fleck said. “We connected instantly with common interests and our shared love of the Florida coastal lifestyle.”

In 2005, Fleck had an offer that would combine the unique coastal lifestyle of the Forgotten Coast with the chance to develop a mixed-used complex in Port St. Joe. “The St. Joe Company offered me the opportunity to manage the major redevelopment of the former paper mill site here in town into a worldclass destination including marinas, residential, retail, restaurants and parks integrated into the fabric of the existing historic town,” Fleck said.

But when the real estate market tanked in the recession, the project was put on the shelf.

The town was struggling.

Originally an industrial and shipping town with a deepwater port and lumber mills that employed thousands, Port St. Joe had fallen on hard times in the 1990s when the main mill closed.

But the town still had a lot going for it.

There is history. Nearby are the ruins of “old” Port St. Joe, the site of Florida’s biggest city in the 1830s, and a state museum and park where Florida’s first constitution was drafted in 1839.

There also are beautiful beaches and all kinds of other recreational possibilities. And the town is filled with quaint, sturdy buildings and plenty of vacant land near downtown.

Port St. Joe needed somebody who could improve on its attributes and tell its story.

Fleck and his ideas for revamping the town were already known from his work on the defunct project. He not only had a wide range of experience with development, he also respected what was special about Port St. Joe. Rather than see him leave, the Port St. Joe Redevelopment Agency board hired him as executive director in late 2008.

“I recognized the opportunity to implement at least some of the redevelopment concepts that I had already invested so much effort into,” Fleck said.

The redevelopment agency emphasizes the aesthetics of the waterfront town. Over the past few years, about $325,000 was granted to private businesses to overhaul their buildings and signage.

The refurbishing of U.S. Highway 98, which threads through the heart of town, began early in 2010 with the help of the Florida Department of Transportation. Turn lanes are being improved, and easier access is being provided to the downtown and waterfront. The DOT also provided

ON THE RECORD Has there been any resistance to redevelopment, and if so, why?

The only resistance to our redevelopment efforts has come from a couple of narrow-minded county commissioners who don’t feel they get any benefit from our efforts in their part of the county ... The good news is that the Port St. Joe Redevelopment Agency is part of the city government and not the county, and the Port St. Joe City Commission is much more progressive and pro-business.

How big a factor is tourism in Port St. Joe’s future? With the recent addition of another hotel, and local B&Bs, it’s become much easier for weekend getaways. Historically our tourist markets have been Tallahassee, Atlanta and Birmingham, but that has been changing rapidly in the past two years to include states like Texas, Michigan, Missouri and Ohio. With the recent opening of the new international airport in Panama City, including affordable flights on Southwest Airlines, we expect our target markets to increase tremendously.

It’s 2020 and I am visiting Port St. Joe. What will I see? That’s pretty tough to forecast in such a turbulent economy, but I would expect to see a lot more residents here as new visitors are discovering this wonderful place every day. It might be more important to recognize what you probably won’t see, like high-rise condo buildings or big-box retailers. The community here is pretty protective of the small-town atmosphere and not likely to give in on their strict height restrictions.

Talk a little about your passion for great coffee and your coffee business. Once you get hooked on freshroasted, 100-percent arabica coffee, it’s really hard to drink anything less. My wife and I decided to start a micro-roasting company a couple of years back so that we and our friends would always have great coffee. We buy only the highest-quality green coffee beans in bulk, imported from Africa, Costa Rica, Columbia and Indonesia. We roast the beans to order to ensure freshness, and we sell wholesale to coffee shops in the region as well as through the Internet on ForgottenCoastCoffee.com.

{ forgotten coast Corridor }

beautification grants of more than $580,000.

Palms were planted. Decorative benches and lighting were added. Storm drains were improved. Sidewalks were redone, and brick paver crosswalks were added.

The Port St. Joe Redevelopment Agency also partnered with Progress Energy to bury existing power lines in parts of the downtown area.

The idea is that if downtown is spruced up, it will attract more tenants. The hope is that the changes will entice drivers along busy U.S. 98 to stop, visit, shop and eat.

There also is a new city commons, additional parking and a monument to the millworkers who are such a big part of Port St. Joe’s history.

Another big change is the opening earlier this year of Sacred Heart Hospital on the Gulf. The $38 million, 25-bed hospital has an around-theclock emergency room, surgical and imaging facilities, and a helipad to transport trauma and critically ill patients. The land was donated by The St. Joe Company, and Gulf County voters approved a half-cent sales tax to support indigent care at the hospital.

“Parents and pre-retirees alike have to consider access to quality health care when choosing a place to live,” Fleck said. “I am proud to say that I played a significant role in closing the deal to bring Sacred Heart to Port St. Joe … we got this one right.”

A town does not turn around overnight, and Fleck said he is in it for the long haul. He and his wife — she is the operating-room manager at the new hospital — love the Forgotten Coast amenities, especially the boating. They own an EndeavourCat 34 catamaran and spend a great deal of time on the water. They also own an Internet-based gourmet coffee business, which could be a small-scale model for the type of eco-friendly economic development that Port St. Joe hopes to attract.

All that caffeine keeps Fleck pumped up for the seemingly endless job of selling Port St. Joe. There are meetings with prospective business owners and real estate brokers. There are deals to work out, proposals to sift through, grants to complete, budgets to prepare and, in the end, a whole town to convince that redevelopment is on the right track. It is a small community, so Fleck ends up talking about redevelopment on the sidewalks, in the shops, at restaurants and even at the marina.

Everybody gets the same message: “It’s not hard to sell the potential of this place with its combination of great boating, great beaches and small town charm,” he said. n

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W el c o m e letter

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TA L L A H A S S E E B U S I N E S S J O U R N A L A publication of the Economic Development Council of Tallahassee/Leon County, Inc.

Welcome!

On behalf of the Greater Tallahassee Chamber of Commerce and the Economic Development Council of Tallahassee/Leon County, Inc. (EDC) we invite you to experience the 2010–2011 Tallahassee Business Journal.

We are so proud of what will surely become a valued resource for those looking to learn more about our diverse business community, as well as those looking to celebrate how far we have come.

You most likely know that Tallahassee is home to the Florida Legislature, two state universities and one of the largest community colleges in Florida. However, throughout this journal you will learn so much more about the “quiet giants” found within our business community, as well as more about the rare balance of personal and professional opportunity available in the Tallahassee area. Page after page, you will be enveloped in stories about the continued success of so many of our area’s businesses, as well as the emergence of exciting start-ups.

We hope that the Tallahassee Business Journal will pique your interest in our community and how the Chamber and EDC can help you and your business excel, despite serious economic and environmental challenges.

Together, our organizations serve the needs of the thousands of businesses that make their home in our region by provid-

ing them with opportunities for growth, expansion and long-term success. We are committed to building a stronger community by supporting the businesses that drive our economy, volunteer for worthy causes, contribute to our non-profit organizations and provide the goods and services we rely on every day.

The Greater Tallahassee Chamber of Commerce is a membership organization that nurtures a thriving business environment and provides the opportunity for small businesses to grow. Our mission is to encourage members to learn from each other by sharing ideas and to help them stay abreast of what’s happening in their community while learning about state legislative issues that may affect their business.

The EDC is a public/private partnership that connects local government, education and businesses to nurture existing industry, develop entrepreneurial opportunities and attract innovative companies to the area. The city, county and more than 100 private investors are committed to creating jobs and building a stronger business community. The EDC is aggressively serving the needs of regional employers and creating opportunities for our graduates and our children to stay in Tallahassee. We are doing that through assisting with product development, research, marketing and

Sue Dick

Beth Kirkland

special incentives, as well as giving technical and business assistance.We have also established and oversee industry sector initiatives designed to strengthen the competitive advantage of our region.

So grab a cup of coffee, kick up your feet and settle in for an informative read that will have you saying, “I didn’t know that,” to the very last page.

Thank you,

Beth Kirkland, CEcD Executive Director Economic Development Council of Tallahassee/Leon County, Inc.

Sue Dick President Greater Tallahassee Chamber of Commerce and the Economic Development Council of Tallahassee/Leon County, Inc.

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TA B L E O F CO N T E N T S

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TA L L A H A S S E E B U S I N E S S J O U R N A L

10 Business Incentives 16 Health Sciences & Biotech 22 Transportation & Infrastructure 25 Aviation 29 National Defense Cluster 33 International Business Development 37 Research, Development & Universities 41 Quality of Life 43 Area Vital Statistics

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BUSINESS INCENTIVES

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TA L L A H A S S E E B U S I N E S S J O U R N A L

Made in Tallahassee

Tax incentives, access to transportation and trained work force bring in new business

danfoss turbocor

When Danfoss Turbocor Compressors was looking to relocate its Montreal headquarters and manufacturing plant to the U.S., it was courted by many but zeroed in on Tallahassee as its new home.

Not only did the city offer a highly educated work force, close proximity to major seaports (to distribute its product worldwide) and economic incentives — it also worked with the company to address its specific needs, even going so far as to establish

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a new training program to prepare local workers for the expected infusion of highwage jobs.

Another major plus: the availability of engineering graduates coming out of nearby Florida Agricultural & Mechanical University and Florida State University and close proximity to the National High Magnetic Field Laboratory and its research capabilities.

“We needed to support our growth and to bring in competent and skilled people and create a new generation of

entrepreneurs who could take us to the next step. FSU was an opportunity to create that pool of talent,” said Ricardo Schneider, CEO and president of Danfoss Turbocor, which manufactures energy efficient commercial air-conditioning compressors in a 65,000-square-foot facility in Innovation Park. “We run oil-free, so there is no friction. It was logical that we get closer to a high level of research in magnetic technologies.”

Beth Kirkland, executive director of the Economic Development Council of

Incentives Available for Expanding or New Businesses LOCAL INCENTIVES City of Tallahassee/Leon County Targeted Business Program Offers incentives to new and existing businesses that create valueadded jobs within the city and county, rewarding businesses that will diversify the economy, are suited to the local business mix and will generate revenue growth from the sales of goods and services outside the local economy. The program also seeks to reward businesses that locate in designated target areas for economic growth and development; that build environmentally sensitive projects; and that do business with other local businesses.

Funds awarded under this program would be used to reimburse 1) up to 100 percent of the cost of development fees and 2) a portion of the capital investment of the business project based on ad valorem taxes paid.

Community Redevelopment Agency The Tallahassee CRA, created in 1998, consists of more than 1,450 acres of residential, commercial/retail and industrial land uses, all conveniently located near the heart of downtown Tallahassee. Included within the boundaries of the redevelopment area are (1) 13 neighborhood communities; (2) seven major commercial/retail areas; and (3) numerous mixed-use areas. In addition, the area borders parts of Florida Agricultural and Mechanical University and the Florida State University. Extensive city infrastructure, including water, sewer, electricity and gas, are available throughout the redevelopment area.

Emergency Concurrency Relief Program The city has established a program that allows for a 50 or 75 percent reduction in concurrency fees for projects that have been determined by staff to “provide a public benefit.” The fee reduction is implemented in the concurrency agreement, which also lays out the specific “public benefit” for each project. This program is currently set to expire on Dec. 31, 2010. Redevelopment projects have been determined to provide a public benefit, as have projects that create new jobs.

STATE INCENTIVES Qualified Target Industry Tax Refund Program Pre-approved applicants who create jobs in Florida receive tax refunds of $3,000 per net new full-time equivalent Florida job created; $6,000 in an Enterprise Zone or Rural County. For businesses paying 150 percent of the average annual wage, add $1,000 per job; for businesses paying 200 percent of the average annual salary, add $2,000 per job.

New or expanding businesses in selected targeted industries or corporate headquarters are eligible.

Quick Response Training Program Designed as an inducement to secure new value-added businesses to Florida as well as provide existing businesses the necessary

training for expansion. Through this incentive, Florida is able to effectively retain, expand and attract employers offering high-quality jobs. The program is flexible and structured to respond quickly to meet the business’s training objectives. Workforce Florida, Inc., the state’s public-private partnership created to coordinate job-training efforts, administers the program.

Enterprise Zone The Tallahassee/Leon County Enterprise Zone is nearly 20 square miles in size. New businesses that want to locate there, or existing businesses that want to expand jobs, equipment or square feet, can earn a monthly credit against their state corporate or sales and use tax for wages paid to new employees.

Also available: a state sales tax refund on equipment that costs $5,000 or more and is being used exclusively in the enterprise zone; a sales tax refund on building materials purchased for new construction or renovation of existing buildings; a corporate tax credit for a company that establishes five or more new jobs; property tax exemption for child care facilities; tax credits for businesses that donate to approved community development projects.

Economic Development Transportation Fund (Road Fund) Designed to alleviate transportation problems that hinder a specific company’s location or expansion decision.

Urban Job Tax Credit Program The program provides tax credits to eligible businesses that are located within the 13 Urban Areas designated by the Governor’s Office of Tourism, Trade and Economic Development and hire a specific number of employees. In the Tallahassee Urban Area, the credit is $1,000 per qualified job and can be taken against either the Florida Corporate Income Tax or the Florida Sales and Use Tax, but not both.

Incumbent Worker Training Program The Incumbent Worker Training Program is funded by the Federal Workforce Investment Act (WIA) and administered by Workforce Florida, Inc. Through this program, Florida is able to provide training to currently employed workers to keep Florida’s work force competitive in a global economy and to retain existing businesses.

High Impact Performance Incentive Grant Once recommended by Enterprise Florida, Inc. (EFI) and approved by the Governor’s Office of Tourism, Trade and Economic Development, the high impact business is awarded 50 percent of its eligible grant upon commencement of operations and the balance of the awarded grant once full employment and capital investment goals are met.

Capital Investment Tax Credit Used to attract and grow capital-intensive industries in Florida, it is an annual credit against the corporate income tax for up to 20 years in an amount up to 5 percent of the eligible capital costs generated by a qualifying project.

For further information, contact the Economic Development Council of Tallahassee/Leon County (850) 224-8116 or TalEDC.com

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Communities across the country are competing for new business and they’re getting more aggressive and creative in how they position their areas to attract outside companies.

Tallahassee/Leon County (EDC), said the company’s relocation to the region has been a “huge success” because it has brought in more than 170 jobs that pay well above the median wage for the area. She said it has also showcased the value of local educational assets, has brought contracts to local manufacturing companies (Global CNC Solutions and TeligentEMS) and attracted industry partners to open offices in Tallahassee. Schneider estimates that the company’s presence has created at least another 170 jobs in the community through its network of suppliers.

To help in its relocation, the company also received some tax incentives, including bonuses for creating high-tech jobs.

Rick McCraw, community redevelopment coordinator for the city, estimates Danfoss Turbocor will receive about $28,000 in

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refunds this year, with the state providing about 80 percent of that total.

In short, said Kirkland, it is “a model economic development project.”

Communities across the country are competing for new business and they’re getting more aggressive and creative in how they position their areas to attract outside companies. So too have Tallahassee and Leon County.

“This (economic) crisis has elevated people’s willingness to attract new business and we’re trying to use the whole value of the region to bring business in,” said Cecilia Homison, CEO of Florida Commerce Credit Union and a member of the EDC’s board. “What I’ve seen in the last year, more than any other, is a real emergence of the desire to cultivate business.”

Since businesses can now cherry pick

where they want to go, local economic development experts have worked to zero in on what makes the Tallahassee region a good choice, providing extra incentives along the way.

“We work to try to make sure there is space available for the need that would come here. And incentives can find themselves in the form of subsidized rent or constructing a building for someone, which recently happened at the airport with CICEFT, a cable assembly company,” explained Kim Williams, EDC chairman and president of Marpan Supply.

But bringing in outside companies isn’t the only focus of the region’s economic development efforts. Local businesses that want to expand — or are willing to invest in projects designed to remove blight — can also benefit from existing programs.

According to Kirkland, since 80 percent of new jobs come from existing industry “it’s very important to have a strong business retention and expansion program.” The First Focus on Local Business program aligns all the local resources needed for one-stop shopping that helps an employer seek anything from technical assistance to facilities to workforce training.

The Community Redevelopment Agency has funded incentives (which require a dollar-for-dollar match from the business owner) that range from $800 to replace a business’s awnings to $150,000 to buy parcels of land, said McCraw. It will provide up to $50,000 for commercial façade improvement; among recent beneficiaries are the Crepe Vine and Bella Bella restaurants.

Florida Commerce Credit Union is using facade improvement money to update a rundown building in downtown Tallahassee on College Avenue that it plans to open soon as a new branch. And Homison said the city also mitigated 50 percent of the impact fees and helped expedite the permitting for another new branch of the financial institution that just opened at the intersection of Thomasville Road and I-10 – in time for the credit union’s 70th anniversary.

“The city did an amazing job of supporting us,” she said.

The EDC is also launching projects

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Since businesses can now cherry pick where they want to go, local economic development experts have worked to zero in on what makes the Tallahassee region a good choice, providing extra incentives along the way.

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based on successful programs elsewhere in the county, among them an incubator program similar to those run by the University of Florida and University of Central Florida that help small businesses emerge from local research institutes and high-tech private sector companies. Another initiative, fashioned after a successful Colorado program, will help those second-stage businesses pair up with the needed resources to reach the next step in their development as a stand-alone company.

“We realize that bringing jobs and relocating businesses here helps all of us.

Whether they come to Summit East or other office parks is not as important as the fact they are coming to Leon County,” said George Banks, general manager of Summit East, the new eastside office park located off I-10.

Summit East has already built out 300,000 square feet and just got permitted for another 800,000. When trying to bring in new tenants, Banks said he works to sell them on the resources available in the region.

The city’s work at making the area more attractive for business in 2007 helped it win recognition by Expansion Management, a national trade publication, as one of “America’s 50 Hottest Cities” for companies to relocate. Out of 362 metro areas across the country, Tallahassee was among only five in Florida to make the list.

“Tallahassee has special skills. Up to 48 percent of the population has a college degree. It is a very well-educated town,” said Schneider of Danfoss Turbocor.

“It’s also not a typical mid-size town. It is the capital and FSU is a large university.

There is a lot of cultural and social life. It is a good place to raise kids and to have a high quality of life.”

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h e a lt h s c i e n c e b i o t e c h

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TALLAHASSEE B U SINESS J O U R NAL

Synthesis and Synergy Nurturing a growing biotechnology and health care cluster

As a graduate student in chemistry at Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Greg Dudley remembers walking by a half-dozen labs on his way to school that catered to biotechnology and drug companies. These synthesis labs sold organic molecules that biotech and pharmaceutical companies used to develop drugs and other products.

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So Dudley was surprised to find, after moving to Tallahassee in 2002 to work for Florida State University as a chemistry professor, that Florida didn’t have any drug synthesis companies like the ones he had seen so frequently in Boston.

Synthesis companies are key to development of a thriving biotechnology or pharmaceutical industry because they provide

the essential ingredients to make drugs.

It’s expensive for one company to develop the organic molecules needed for drug development, but if several companies can rely on one to develop the active ingredients used in drug development, it saves those companies money.

“Biotechnology and health care is a robust industry,” Dudley said. “It’s relatively

recession-proof because people always get sick. I’m all in favor of Florida investing in the biotechnology industry. And I thought it would be an interesting idea for a company.”

Biotechnology is the popular girl of the economic development world, the industry that all cities and counties are working hard to woo, seeking a long-term commitment.

And Tallahassee is no exception.

It’s sought after because it’s seen as an industry that produces high-paying jobs and

focused on health sciences jobs because of the area’s strong medical industry. Biotech or health sciences firms interested in moving to or starting a firm in Tallahassee could take advantage of state and local tax incentives.

It’s not just Tallahassee business leaders that want to see the health and biotechnology industry grow. Many area high schools and colleges offer programs intended to train more students for the biotechnology and health work force.

Tallahassee Community College offers

FSU has launched its own programs to help grow biotechnology and health sciences start-ups in the Tallahassee area.

In 2009 Dudley enrolled in Chem​preneurs, a new program started by FSU that matches undergraduate business students with chemistry faculty to work on the development of business plans based on ideas developed by the faculty members. This program is run through the Jim Moran Institute at FSU's business school.

“Halfway through the semester it became

will continue to grow as health care becomes an increasing priority for Americans.

But it’s tough to lure biotechnology jobs because it’s such an in-demand industry and requires the right mixture of tax incentives, skilled workforce and infrastructure.

The Economic Development Council of Tallahassee/Leon County, Inc., is trying to attract biotechnology firms, but it’s also

an associate’s degree in biotechnology, though it is currently re-assessing the program after only three students enrolled in a four-year period. “Many of the traditional areas of biology and applied biology are recognizing the importance of biotechnology,” said Frank Brown, the Dean of the Math and Science Division at Tallahassee Community College.

clear to us that every biotech hub we looked at there were a bunch of contract synthesis companies,” Dudley said. “But in Florida there was not. Today there are 150 biotech or pharmaceutical companies registered with Bio Florida, but none of them were contract synthesis companies.”

Spying a great opportunity to start a business, Dudley helped incorporate the

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Biotechnology Companies in Tallahassee DiscovRx Headquartered at Innovation Park in Southwest Tallahassee, DiscovRx is researching and redesigning all-natural oils in skin creams for babies and children.

Florida Custom Synthesis Located at Florida State University’s Entrepreneurs Building in Northwest Tallahassee, Florida Custom Synthesis makes the organic molecules needed in drug development.

Animal Genetics Tallahassee’s longest-lasting biotech firm, Animal Genetics does DNA testing on animals, from horses to dogs and birds. The company tests for disorders, proper breeding and can even determine the family lineage of a prized horse.

Biofront Started in March 2010 by Jason Robotham, Biofront develops Hepatitis C diagnostic testing kits. These kits will help researchers studying Hepatitis C at universities or pharmaceutical companies.

Source: Florida State University, Tallahassee Democrat

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Biotechnology is the popular girl of the economic development world, the industry that all cities and counties are working hard to woo, seeking a long-term commitment — And Tallahassee is no exception. company in 2009. It is now run by Doug Engel and Timothy Kinney, though Dudley is a scientific adviser. Florida Custom Synthesis found the right lab space through FSU’s Entrepreneurs Building on Commonwealth Blvd. in Northwest Tallahassee.

Already, Florida Custom Synthesis has clients in Florida and as far away as California. Dudley said the company is already starting to turn a profit. “(Drug or biotech companies) are going to be designing what they think are the new treatments,” Dudley said. “We are the ones providing the fuel for their testing process.”

Tallahassee doesn’t have the thriving biotechnology and health sciences industries that cities such as Boston, San Diego and the Raleigh-Durham area have, but it shows promise.

One biotechnology company has been here since 1992. Animal Genetics, which started as Avian Biotech, was founded by Dr. Siwo de Kloet, a retired professor of biological science at FSU who had studied animal genetics.

De Kloet wanted to focus on bird DNA sexing and disease testing. Determining the sex of a bird isn’t easy. Prior to DNA testing, birds had to undergo surgery to determine their sex. Thanks to genetic testing, the sex can be determined after the bird’s owner mails in a few feathers. It’s much less invasive and less expensive for the bird’s owner.

Animal Genetics is now run by Siwo’s son, Arne de Kloet.

Arne de Kloet said Animal Genetics has since expanded to include an office in the United Kingdom and testing on dogs and

horses, though it is still the largest private provider of genetic tests for birds in the world. Animal Genetics handles more than 90,000 tests annually.

The company tests everything from genetic disorders and infectious disease testing to what the offspring of two animals would look like.

“It’s all kinds of different issues with these animals,” said Arne de Kloet. Animal Genetics, which employs around 20 people in Tallahassee, works frequently with breeders, especially race horse owners, who want to test for performance abilities.

“Another popular thing is DNA profiling,” Arne de Kloet said. “Determining the parents and lineage of a fowl is very popular.”

“We do that with a registry that requires

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each horse to have a DNA profile,” he said.

This helps horse breeders compare results from across the world. “If you are buying a horse for a quarter-million dollars, you want to make sure they have the lineage they claim it is. There’s lots of cases where they claim it’s from a particular stallion and we discover it’s not,” Arne de Kloet said. Dog breeders have a similar interest in determining what dogs to breed together to produce the best result. Animal Genetics can test if there are genetic disorders so two dogs with the same genetic abnormality aren’t bred together.

“We can help with color, too,” Arne de Kloet said. “If somebody wants to breed only chocolate labs or black labs we have the potential to tell them which parents to breed in order to get what they are looking for.”

Genetic testing on animals is still new.

“When we started we were one of the first to offer genetic services to the public,” Arne de Kloet said.

He said more biotechnology companies in Tallahassee would help his business. “We need more bio tech companies that don’t rely on Wall Street. Those companies can come and go pretty quick.”

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Though Tallahassee has had some success with biotechnology companies such as Animal Genetics, it is also known regionally for its health care and there are many education and work-force training programs geared toward the health industry.

FSU has a College of Medicine and Florida Agricultural & Mechanical University has a College of Pharmacy and Pharmaceutical Sciences. Tallahassee Community College has also created the Ghazvini Center for Health Care Education, which will feature cutting-edge technology such as a simulated patient care unit. Early next year Tallahassee Memorial HealthCare will open a cancer center and the Red Hills Surgical Center, a new outpatient facility that is a joint venture between the hospital and local surgeons.

And Capital Regional Medical Center recently opened a 24-hour clinic in nearby Gadsden County.

Home to two hospitals and a thriving medical industry, Tallahassee is the perfect home for health care companies.

Similar to biotechnology, which often focuses on drug development, health sciences is a field that is only expected to grow in demand. But before businesses look to

Statistics on Florida Biotechnology ›B iotech employment in Florida rose 18 percent from 2001 to 2008. ›A biotech job pays on average $55,264 a year in Florida. ›F lorida is 6th in the nation for biotech jobs with 27,960. ›F lorida is 14th in the nation for bioscience venture capital investments at $810 million.

Source: Battelle and BIO, the Biotechnology Industry Organization

relocate or expand in Tallahassee, there must be a highly trained work force in place.

One local high school has taken dramatic steps to ensure Tallahassee has a trained medical work force. At Wakulla High School, there is a medical academy that students apply to be in. Students still take their normal courses, but in addition participate in medical academy classes that teach them about the bio-medical field.

TALLAHASSEE IS KNOWN REGIONALLY FOR ITS HEALTH CARE. THERE ARE MANY EDUCATION AND WORK-FORCE TRAINING PROGRAMS GEARED TOWARD THE HEALTH INDUSTRY.

Classes start with an introductory course in bio-medical research, and throughout the program students learn about anatomy, physiology and develop an in-depth knowledge of the health care system and its occupations. By the time students graduate, they are ready to sit for the certified nursing assistant exam, which is taken at Wakulla High.

“They learn about everything from giving CPR to first-responder techniques,” said Sarabeth Jones, a career specialist for Wakulla High and coordinator of the program. “It’s designed to prepare students for entry-level employment or advanced training.”

Students also shadow people working in the medical industry and help work at health care clinics, ensuring the students get handson practice. Jones said the program is popular with students, but there are academic standards that must be met. A student has to apply to be in the academy and must have a grade-point-average of 2.5.

Once in the academy, a student has to maintain a 2.7 GPA. Currently, Wakulla High has 200 students enrolled in the academy, with 30 graduating each year. “They get to a certain point in their senior year in which they have to put in a certain number of hours at clinics,” Jones said. “They work an actual shift and participate.” A clinic could be giving flu shots or health screenings.

“Health care is not going away,” Jones said. Many recent graduates of the medical academy acquired jobs right away. 

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Crossroads of Commerce

Bring on the freight. We can handle it. Tallahassee’s geographic location may seem isolated at first blush, but the capital city’s economy stands poised to take advantage of an excellent system of highways and rails.

“I think our region is in very good shape in terms of economic development, and its attraction for the movement of goods and

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people,” said Rob Palmer, projects director with Our Region Tomorrow, a 10-county organization focused on fostering regional collaboration.

The Tallahassee-Leon County region has about 271 miles of principal highways and 343 miles of other roads that serve as major transportation corridors for travel within the central Panhandle region,

according to the Capital Region Transportation Planning Agency’s (CRTPA) Regional Mobility Plan.

According to the plan, up to 43,500 vehicles pass through the Tallahassee section of I-10 per day, making it the most heavily traveled corridor in the region. It is the primary east-west route between the port cities of Jacksonville and Pensacola.

“We’re blessed to have Interstate 10.

The improvements coming to I-10 and those that have recently occurred position us for outstanding east-west travel through the region,” Palmer said.

Peripheral highways see significant usage as well. These roads include State Road 61, State Road 63, U.S. Highway 27, U.S. Highway 90, State Road 267 and U.S. Highway 319. These, and others, carry between 6,501 and 27,000 vehicles per day in and out of the Tallahassee region. They shuttle people and freight to Georgia, down to the Gulf, and all points east and west.

Railroads, too, play a pivotal role here. CSX Transportation has a main rail line that runs east and west through Leon County, and carries commodities such as non-metallic minerals, chemicals and coal.

Several short-line carriers connect with CSX at strategic north-south points such as Panama City and Perry. Rail shipments serve various distribution centers and warehouses throughout the region, but some say rail is under-utilized here.

“We’re working with the railroads to see how they can (better serve the area),” said Harry Reed, executive director of the CRTPA. “There is a tremendous amount of rail capacity in this region. Florida’s rail is not completely used to its fullest capacity.”

That means Tallahassee has much to

photo by LAWRENCE DAVIDSON

Tallahassee competes in a global economy via road and rail

recommend it to the business looking to move into this region.

“Tallahassee has a great position for where it’s located and there are so many factors in its favor, not the least being the capacity of roadways and rail systems,” said Mark Llewellyn, president of Genesis Group, a civil engineering and development company and chairman of the Economic Development Council’s Transportation & Logistics Industry Sector Roundtable. “We’re right between Pensacola and Jacksonville. Atlanta to the north of us, and there are ports in Panama City and even a smaller version down in Port St. Joe. Location-wise, we’re really well positioned.”

Palmer said the area has “tremendous capacity” because the infrastructure hasn’t been overwhelmed, and leaders have done a good job of understanding local assets and aligning various interests.

“Our ability to leverage our infrastructure — whether it’s communication or energy or natural environment — into the direction related to our economic development initiatives is key to our success,” he said. “We can’t rest on our laurels. We have to look at every opportunity as to how we can leverage it and connect it so there is a multiplier effect.”

However, we can’t afford to be caught behind the eight ball. Looking statewide, there are changes coming in other corridors that will have a huge impact on Tallahassee.

The most notable problem, Llewellyn said,

is the fact that Interstate 75 is quickly running out of room.

“It’s quickly becoming over-capacity,” he said.

“Miami is working hard to expand its port, so more goods will be coming in there. The only route to move them north is up the Turnpike to I-75, and maybe along the I-95 corridor. Both of those are heavily at capacity. The Tampa port is being expanded and Jacksonville is being expanded, so how are those goods going to be moved? There’s got to be another north-south route for them to get on, if it’s by truck or by train.”

One possible solution could be a new toll road between Tampa and points east of Tallahassee. Suncoast Parkway/State Road 589, a new road opened within the last five years, runs north from Tampa between U.S. Highway 19 and I-75 and ends in Crystal River. Time will tell if that new road extends all the way up to North Florida; if it

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Our firm has deep local roots. Since 1976, we’ve offered fullservice representation to our clients ranging from small businesses and major international corporations to individuals and families.

In helping our community and clients, we strive to make Northwest Florida a better place to live, work, and play.

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ATTORNEYS RECOGNIZED AS “LEGAL ELITE”

Kenneth B. Bell, Appellate Practice William E. Bond, Jr., Commercial Litigation Jeremy C. Branning, Civil Trial Dennis K. Larry, Civil Trial Bruce D. Partington, Construction Scott A. Remington, Commercial Litigation

ATTORNEYS RECOGNIZED AS “UP AND COMERS”

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FLORIDA SUPER LAWYERS Super Lawyers recognizes attorneys from more than 70 practice areas.

“Rising Stars” recognizes attorneys who are 40 or under, or who have been practicing for 10 years or less.

ATTORNEYS RECOGNIZED AS “SUPER LAWYERS”

Robert D. Hart, Jr., Business/Corporate W. Christopher Hart, Real Estate Dennis K. Larry, Personal Injury Plaintiff Bruce D. Partington, Construction Litigation Harry B. Stackhouse, Tax

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does, it will only add to Tallahassee’s range of mobility. That’s an important draw for business, Reed said.

“It’s been my experience (when businesses look to relocate) the big things they look at are education, transportation and quality of life,” he said. “They want to know where their future work force is coming from, how smart they are, and if they have a distribution center. They want to make sure your transportation infrastructure is functioning well.”

Llewellyn said there’s nothing wrong with how Tallahassee’s roads handle local traffic.

the area has 'tremendous capacity' becausE ... leaders have done a good job of understanding our assets and aligning various interests.

While most commuters in bigger cities like Tampa and Jacksonville find themselves stuck in miserable rush hour conditions, “capacity on (our) highways is exceptional compared to other parts of the state,” he said.

That’s a characteristic that businesses can take advantage of now, said Palmer.

“Industry doesn’t have to wait. Tallahassee has capacity now,” he said.

Meanwhile, the city continues to make improvements in its infrastructure to keep it on a competitive edge.

“The reality is Tallahassee is certainly open for business and (there are) lots of opportunities for any type of business to come here and thrive,” Llewellyn said. “Tallahassee has done a good job recently of addressing roadway capacity issues, with work on Capital Circle and constructing Blair Stone Road. Now, they’re taking dramatic steps in the Gaines Street corridor to make it a friendlier corridor for pedestrians and business. With that project, and with FAMU Way, that’s a major investment in that part of town. That will bring the universities and student populations together. I think it will go a long way.” 

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Catching the Winds of Change

PHOTO COURTESY FLIGHTLINE/HONDAJET

Tallahassee Regional Airport’s future flies on the wings of opportunity

Evolution. It’s the key to survival in the aviation industry these days. Two aviation executives, Bob Van Riper and Michael Clow, know firsthand that change and progress are essential to economic development, especially at Tallahassee Regional Airport.

“There are a lot of opportunities to grow,” said Van Riper, vice president of sales for HondaJet Southeast, a Flightline Group

company located in the general aviation section of the city-owned airport. “There’s a saying that Mac and Danny (Langston), owners of Flightline Group, say and that is, ‘The only way to predict the future is create it.’”

Clow, the airport’s capital program administrator, calls the airport a regional asset with great new improvements on the way that’ll better serve the 700,000 passengers

who go through the Ivan Munroe Terminal every year.

“Our market area is a 32-county region, about a 100-mile radius,” he said. “We have 2,500 acres, two all-weather runways and all the things that you need to run a really nice airport.”

The airport is located seven miles southwest of Tallahassee’s central business district. Aside from the all-weather runways, the airport boasts full-length parallel taxiways, three general aviation aprons (areas for loading, unloading, fueling and maintenance), and aprons for commercial and cargo aircraft. Runway 9-27 and Runway 18-36 are 8,000 and 6,070 feet long, respectively. Due to its “strategic” location in sunny Florida, the airport boasts more than 350 days of Visual Flight Rules (regulations under which a pilot can visually control an aircraft) conditions every year.

The airport is host to a variety of air operations, from commercial flights (provided by four major carriers) to cargo transportation and general aviation. Because it’s in the state capital, the airport is a hub for business travelers from all over the world.

According to Talgov.com, the Tallahassee market area covers a population of more than 1.4 million and includes Tallahassee, 11 neighboring Florida counties and 12 southern Georgia counties. Tallahassee Regional Airport accounts for 32 percent of air passenger travel in the Northwest Florida region.

Clow said that aside from the hundreds of thousands of passengers that go through the 160,000-square-foot Ivan Munroe Terminal every year, about 2 million people pass through its doors when the meet-andgreet types and other folks are counted.

The airport is the home to more than 40 businesses, including six rental car companies, FedEx, Million Air (an FBO services provider), HondaJet Southeast and SouthEast Piper. About 750 people work at 2010–11 / TA L L A H A S S E E B U S I N E S S J O U R N A L / 25

A highly skilled workforce is the heart of a strong manufacturing team‌

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photo by scott holstein

the complex, which has a direct economic impact of $102 million.

“That’s what the people who work here get paid,” Clow said. “And counting all the direct and indirect multipliers, the total economic impact is more than $377 million and affects almost 4,000 jobs in the Tallahassee/Leon County community.”

Van Riper, chair of the Economic Development Council of Tallahassee/Leon County's Aviation/Aerospace Industry Sector Roundtable, said Flightline’s family of companies currently consists of not only HondaJet Southeast and SouthEast Piper but Flightline Technical Services, Piper Parts Plus, Flightline Aviation Consulting and Flightline Development Corporation.

“Our focus is aircraft sales, aircraft maintenance and the development of facilities here at the airport,” he said.

One of Flightline’s biggest projects that opened in 2009 is the company’s Regional Service Center, a 26,000-square-foot hangar/office complex. The center houses Flightline Technical Services.

“It’s a great facility, a big step up for maintenance services,” Van Riper said. “It turned out to be exactly what we wanted … and it has drawn additional business to our technical services there.”

Flightline’s goal is to sell high-performance personal jet aircraft through its HondaJet and Piper dealerships, but the poor economy has delayed the introduction of two new planes. First delivery of the HondaJet — the car company’s first

air operations include commERCIAL flights, cargo transportation and general aviation. aviation venture — is expected in 2012.

The PiperJet, a new single-engine jet currently in development, was previewed in Tallahassee in 2008 but first deliveries are slated for 2013.

HondaJet was delayed somewhat, Van Riper said, because of supply problems.

“That’s across the aviation industry,” he said. “Some companies have gone out of business or reduced production, and suppliers are having a hard time keeping up with demand.”

The delays have caused Flightline to reconsider the timeline for some of their local projects, which include a state-of-theart HondaJet dealership “showroom.” The showroom will be built “as soon as we start delivering aircraft,” Van Riper said. That will be around 2012, about the time the company expects its PiperJet offering to be certified. All of these new developments at the “old terminal” section will happen in an aviation business park development called Compass Pointe.

“With the economy slow, things are definitely slow in aviation but we still see the opportunities in the future that are going to

be big for our business,” Van Riper said.

Meanwhile, officials said the airport hasn’t been sitting idly waiting out the recession. Taking advantage of a fast-track, put-people-back-to-work program, officials embarked on a complete overhaul of the Munroe Terminal and its environs.

Also, a Comprehensive Plan amendment will soon be approved allowing more development, and the city is working with the EDC to set up a Community Redevelopment Agency district at the airport.

The Comp Plan change will open a lot of doors for the airport, according to Kim Williams, chairman of the Economic Development Council.

“It basically allows them to build greater density at the airport,” he said.

Clow said the amendment is a welcome change because they’ve reached the limit of what the Department of Community Affairs says they can do. He said the amendment will change the airport’s designation from a Development of Regional Impact to Government Purpose/Government Operation, and at that point, “There are a lot of things that will all of a sudden open up that we can do at the airport.”

That’s not to say great things haven’t already happened at the airport. Outside, they’ve completed — or are in the process of finishing — about $7.5 million worth of projects. These include improvements to the apron near the old airport terminal, improvements along Capital Circle Southwest and to the internal road network, new signage and improvements in the airport’s maintenance complex.

Inside, the terminal is undergoing its own multi-million dollar renovation. Two new emergency generators have been added, which means if the city goes dark, all airport functions will continue. Also, in late June, work crews were busy replacing all of the automatic doors at the terminal and upgrading the airport security system.

There’s more to come, in the form of a five-year plan with some major projects that’ll cost roughly $80 million. Most of that money will go toward two important runway projects. The north-south runway is going to be re-paved and extended to 7,000 feet to accommodate another big project — the 8,000-foot east-west runway is going to be completely reconstructed and improved.  2010–11 / TA L L A H A S S E E B U S I N E S S J O U R N A L / 27

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Wings and Weapons Aviation research and defense industries cluster around the Tallahassee region

photo courtesy general dynamics

Tallahassee has seen the future

— and it’s cutting-edge aviation research and military systems. Multi-discipline research centers abound in the capital city, and factories hum along the outskirts producing war material needed on the frontlines.

The North Florida region has much to offer these scientists and engineers. Good year-round weather, a business-friendly environment, land availability and outstanding universities contribute to the overall attraction.

Syn-Tech Systems/FuelMaster, General Dynamics, St. Marks Powder, Chemring UK and TeligentEMS all have offices or manufacturing facilities here and are important national defense industries.

Doug Dunlap, president and CEO of Syn-Tech Systems/FuelMaster, said Tallahassee’s educated work force has much to offer high-tech companies. His company, which has been here for 20 years, produces automated fueling computers for large fleet operators, including the city of Tallahassee.

They also build automated munitions handling devices for the U.S. Air Force.

“There is a work force with above average education and capability. We hire electrical engineers, business and computer science graduates from Florida State University and Florida Agricultural & Mechanical University,” he said.

Syn-Tech/FuelMaster employs 160 people in Tallahassee, Dunlap said. The company markets nationally and 99 percent of its revenues come from outside Tallahassee. Additionally, one of the company’s major sub-contractors, TeligentEMS, is in Havana, Fla. “Therefore, our economic impact is much larger than most businesses located here and servicing customers here,” he said.

Adding to this mix is a host of premier aerospace research and education institutions that test the envelope of new designs,

M1A2 ABRAMS TANK, GENERAL DYNAMICS

materials and energy. FSU’s High-Performance Materials Institute (HPMI) develops futuristic materials like “buckypaper” that may be the key to stronger, lighter and safer aircraft (and automobiles), and the FAMUFSU College of Engineering promotes education in the fields of science, technology, engineering and mathematics.

“The prestige and opportunities of FSU brought many of the HPMI researchers to Tallahassee,” said W. Frank Allen, operations director of the Institute. “The talent pool in the area is a major incentive. In addition to the knowledgeable students produced by FSU and FAMU, several military installations are in the area, which offer relatively young, disciplined professionals leaving the military service.”

The FSU researchers who established HPMI started working with composites and nanotechnology about 17 years ago, Allen

said. The lab itself was officially established in 2006. Last year, the Institute moved into a $21 million, 45,000-square-foot facility called the FSU Materials Research Building. This new facility offers state-of-the-art nano-material research infrastructure and equipment valued at more than $6 million.

Allen said HPMI takes an active part in promoting Tallahassee as the place for new industries to locate.

“We frequently welcome and meet with industry representatives who are considering locating in the region,” he said. “We note all the resources HPMI has to offer, as well as promote the university and the region.”

Tallahassee also has recently become the nexus, or integration point, of several previously isolated engineering disciplines.

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“mechatronics” (the integration of mechanics and electronics) and energy have existed as separate disciplines and are usually researched independently at various institutions around the world. As a result, there’s not much synergy between them because they’re physically isolated from one another. However, the new multipurpose lab being built for the Florida Center for Advanced Aero-Propulsion (FCAAP) and other science labs will change that.

The 60,000-square-foot building will cost between $22 million and $25 million.

Called the Aero-Propulsion, Mechatronics and Energy Building at FSU, the center will house 50 grad students and scientists and play a huge role in studying advanced materials as well as training a new generation of engineers.

“We want to eventually become a leader in applied technology. We also want to become a think tank,” said Farrukh Alvi, FSU engineering professor and director of FCAAP. Founded just two years ago, FCAAP is charged with developing the technology for next-generation aircraft.

Research conducted here might lead to

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Tallahassee also has recently become the nexus, or integration point, of several previously isolated engineering disciplines. aircraft with “clean” drag, capable of carrying cargo with very little carbon dioxide discharge while reducing noise pollution.

The loud, constant noise of jet fighters in particular has become a health concern for the military, and health care costs for treating hearing loss are high.

If you think this is all about flying retirees to Miami more quickly and stealthily, think again. There is a serious national defense aspect to this research, as evidenced by some of its funding partners. The FCAAP is funded in part by aviation giant Boeing, and by the government’s elite defense and

intelligence organizations: CIA, NASA, the U.S. Air Force, and DARPA (Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency). Funding also comes from Siemens, Hewlett Packard, Pratt & Whitney, Lockheed Martin and General Electric. Research partners include the University of Florida, Embry Riddle Aeronautical University and the University of Central Florida.

FCAAP’s mission puts more emphasis on the “aero” aspect of “aerospace” because of the changing role of our nation’s space program.

“We are painfully aware of the shift in the space paradigm,” Alvi said. “We’re shifting toward more commercial launch programs.”

Alvi and FCAAP won’t be alone at the new facility, which will also be home to the FSU Energy and Sustainability Center, the Institute for Energy Systems, Economics and Sustainability and the FSU Center for Intelligent Systems, Control and Robotics.

Alvi said Florida is the place to be for such research. “Florida has a very large aerospace footprint,” he said. “Florida has to make sure it remains a factor in aerospace.”

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Global Connectivity

Tallahassee businesses doing well in international markets

The folks at H.B. Sherman Traps are spreading the word everywhere. For 55 years the small family-owned company has sold proprietary metal rodent traps to domestic customers, but in recent years they’ve gained popularity among international customers.

So has King Arthur’s Tools, another local family business that has customers worldwide. Arthur Aveling makes and sells a wide range of power saws and grinders developed for working with wood, plastics, ice, fiberglass and even taxidermy specimens. His company has been in business in Tallahassee for 20 years, and over the past decade has accrued dealers and distributors in 14 different countries, as well as retail customers in 50 countries.

They’re just two Tallahassee companies that have breached the connectivity barrier and gone global – proving that local entrepreneurs can do big things with the help of technology and some good old-fashioned person-to-person contact.

“Our marketing is word-of-mouth,” said Sandra Screws, director of overseas operations for Sherman Traps. “Customers come to us, which is wonderful.”

Aveling said he and his employees enjoy the educational challenge of doing business on the world stage.

“We have a map of the world, and the U.S., and what my employees love doing is sticking a pin in a new place that we are dealing with,” he said. “It’s filling up. They get a big kick out of it. I’ve given my people an education on international time zones, currencies and foreign languages because they’re all local but have to deal with people overseas.”

Sherman Traps have been commercially available since 1955 and the company moved to Tallahassee in 1976. According to their website, they’ve earned a great reputation “as the most effective live animal traps available today.” They can catch a wide variety of small fur-bearing critters, from shrews, voles, mice and rats to flying squirrels and chipmunks. Professional researchers from Japan, South America, Africa and Israel have come to depend on these devices to safely and humanely capture their quarry, which are then used in environmental and

ecological studies.

Screws said the company’s international market developed over time; their first, and oldest, customer is in Tokyo.

“But now we have distributors in many different countries,” she said. “We have 11 good distributors.”

News of Sherman Traps’ quality may travel by word of mouth, but nowadays that kind of marketing is done via the Internet — a vital tool in today’s global economy. The company has had an online presence for about 10 years now.

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“I think the main reason why our international business has grown is because we are online, because of the Internet,” she said. “That’s definitely the main reason.

That makes it ever so much easier.”

In the pre-Internet days, Screws said, they used to get a lot of “snail mail.” A lot of letter orders were processed. Then orders were faxed in. Today, there’s e-mail. The changing technology has really made life interesting for the small staff, most of who are part-time, she said.

“I used to only work here two days a week, and now work four days,” she said.

“I don’t even think we realized at first how much our international customers would look for us on the Internet. At first our web page was aimed at domestic customers, and now we are redoing our web page with a section for our international customers… to make it easier for our international customers to place an order.”

The improved website for Sherman Traps may also have a feature useful for keeping track of the number of unique “hits” or business inquiries. This data could be helpful in future marketing efforts. Screws said the U.S. Department of Commerce and the Economic Development Council of Tallahassee/Leon County (EDC) like to keep tabs on where their product is going.

“They ask me what countries we ship to, what new countries, and I get to go through everything and find what new countries have contacted us,” she said.

Over at King Arthur’s Tools, Australia native Aveling said his first international business came as a result of attending a trade show in Philadelphia in 1998. He was given the name of a contact in Norway, who invited him on a cruise for woodworking craftsmen. Aveling took along 400 products he developed for the European market, and tested them while on the cruise.

“In 10 seconds I knew it would be a winner. We sold out of product in five days on a 12-day cruise,” he said. “It was an instant hit, and we have been selling into Norway ever since.”

That opportunity led to meeting other people from around the world. He soon had clients and dealerships in the United Kingdom, Japan, Australia, and other countries.

“I have been to each one, and I know our dealers and distributors personally,” he said. “That’s how we break into the international market. King Arthur’s Tools doesn’t just build tools, we build relationships. If there is one thing we really

developed over the years it’s very strong relationships with our customers, dealers and distributor network.”

Aveling’s international ventures benefited recently from a collaboration with the EDC’s International Business Development Program. With this help, King Arthur’s Tools was able to expand into markets throughout the Caribbean.

“We also sell in South America, Brazil, Mexico, Costa Rica, Chile, Venezuela and Argentina — all out of this little place on Hartsfield Road in Tallahassee,” he said.

Kara Palmer, coordinator of the international program, said its purpose is to help Tallahassee businesses think globally by equipping them with the tools and resources needed to do business overseas. Palmer said the IBD program offers educational sessions, one-on-one visits to companies that are already in foreign markets, as well as those who may have thought about expanding into foreign markets but may not have had the right resources.

“We have offered three series of

educational sessions including exporting, international financing, e-commerce, importing, foreign direct investment and documentation. Along with a high level session on international business protocol,” she said.

“Additionally, the IBD program wants to build and maintain an online international business development database to quantify and document the number and types of international business development activity via metrics, along with an online calendar of events via the Economic Development Council’s website,” Palmer said. The website will also provide additional resources including links to appropriate and knowledgeable support organizations.

“The EDC has conducted several consular visits, specifically from countries with mutual business interests identified by key stakeholders, including Spain, Argentina, Canada and France,” she said. “Our goal is for the community to see all the international opportunities Tallahassee has to offer and in turn think globally.” 

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The Future of Business

Universities join with research and development organizations to give Tallahassee an edge on the future

NATIONAL HIGH MAGNETIC FIELD LABORATORY

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a research scientist at Florida State University made a series of colorful photographs of beers, wines and cocktails through the National High Magnetic Field Laboratory using a high-powered microscopic. The psychedelic images they produced were once used for a collection of neckties, but were forgotten after necktie sales dried up.

Fifteen years later, a business research analyst with FSU discovered the photographs and decided it was time to dust them off and sell them as wall art. Lester Hutt founded BevShots in 2009 and in 11 months has already made $20,000 in revenue.

“One of the reasons I felt it was best for a local start-up is it didn’t require much startup capital, like a drug would,” Hutt said.

“You’d spend tens of millions of dollars just to find out if it’s worth pursuing. All I needed to figure out was marketing.”

BevShots is an example of the commercialization success that local universities such as FSU and Florida Agricultural & Mechanical University have had. Universities consider commercialization an important priority because it generates licensing revenue. If a researcher, faculty member or student has an invention, trademark or copyright, the university can take a chunk of the fees earned from the use of that intellectual property.

But it’s extraordinarily challenging for universities to take an idea and develop it into a successful, moneymaking product because many companies and other investors are wary of putting money into something that has a good chance of failing. To help overcome those problems, the Economic Development

Council of Tallahasse/Leon County, Inc., recently launched the Entrepreneurial Excellence Program, funded through a $450,000 grant from the U.S. Small Business Administration, to create jobs by incubating small businesses, particularly by commercializing research done at local universities.

FSU has had success in generating money from licensing revenue. In the mid-1990s FSU Chemistry Professor Robert Holton developed a way to more easily administer an anti-cancer drug called Taxol. That deal alone generated millions for the university and has allowed the Office of Research and Commercialization at FSU to develop a program intended to produce more market-

ready inventions.

The Grant Assistance Program (GAP) awards $250,000 each year to FSU researchers who have presented the best idea for a potential product. Each award is capped at $50,000. A committee of local business members and business school faculty determine the awards. In the five years this program has existed, it has spawned several startup companies.

One such company is Biofront, a start-up founded in March 2010 that develops Hepatitis C diagnostic testing kits. Biofront President Jason Robotham said the kits will help researchers studying Hepatitis C at universities or pharmaceutical companies.

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CR MATTHEWS & HAWKINS, a well regarded and well-known law firm based in Destin, wanted a new brochure to show potential clients its depth of knowledge about the region and the breadth of its legal experience.

Hoping for a fast turnaround, the firm approached a traditional advertising agency but was put off by a time-consuming intake process and the fact they couldn’t get a faceto-face meeting with a high-level agency executive.

At his first meeting with the principals of Matthews & Hawkins, President Brian Rowland told them, “I’m here and I’m all ears.” After that, our staff carefully listened to what they wanted and we were convinced that Rowland Publishing was uniquely positioned to give the lawyers exactly what they were seeking.

In the traditional model, an ad agency tells clients what they ought to be doing. But we think one of the biggest attributes we have is the innate art to listen, understand and then produce what the client wants.

While clients might not always be able to articulate exactly what they’re looking for, our method is to ask questions and then provide them with some examples.

Then they tell us what they like — and especially what they don’t like — and it helps us zero in on what they really want. After all, this is their business and their brand and we want them to have ownership from the outset.

In the case of Matthews & Hawkins, the firm’s principals knew they wanted a “nontraditional” digest-sized brochure featuring an animal species that could be considered symbolic of the firm and the region.

When we were kicking ideas around, everything pointed to the Florida Panther — its strength, its intelligence and the fact that it’s both rare and beautiful. For Northwest Florida, it was the only choice.

The making of the brochure was the first step in what would become a total re-branding process for the firm.

We looked at their logo and suggested they consider redesigning it. That meant new letterhead, business cards, envelopes … everything to go with a new look. It also meant redesigning the firm’s website and signage and an extensive photography shoot to update photos of the firm’s personnel.

It started as a need for a brochure and it evolved into a complete rebranding of the entire law firm — a process that would take about a year to complete. During that time, the lawyers and other employees of the firm were “hands-on involved” in the decision-making process, right down to picking the exact color of the logo design. They wanted to exercise their creativity, and we supported them wholeheartedly.

We engaged them, we earned their trust and we all enjoyed the creative back-and-forth. We also think Matthews & Hawkins felt very well taken care of. ■

“We think one of the biggest attributes we have is the innate art to listen, understand and then produce what the client wants.”

CAPTURING THE PANTHER Over the course of two days, our team of two professional photographers and a videographer set up camp at the Florida Museum of Natural History in Tallahassee during the morning hours to capture this iconic image of the panther. This image, processed using Adobe Photoshop Lightroom 2, was shot using a Canon 300mm f/2.8L USM lens mounted on a Canon EOS-1D Mark III body.

The exposure was 1/640th of a second at f/4.0 and ISO 800, fast enough to stop the motion of the ever-pacing panther.

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“Initially our goal is just to market to researchers but the actual technology could be expanded to meet the needs of clinicians as well,” Robotham said. He worked with FSU Biology Professor Hengli Tang to develop the detection kits. Beyond the start-up capital from GAP funding, he also received $40,000 worth of lab equipment by setting up shop in FSU’s Entrepreneurial Building on Commonwealth Blvd.

Robotham, who was working as a postdoctoral fellow at FSU’s biology department, said the opportunity to start Biofront was an ideal career move. “I’ve been in Tallahassee for 10 years now,” Robotham said. “I’ve seen a lot of friends and scientists leave because they didn’t have opportunity here.” He praises FSU for creating an environment, through the GAP program, where people could stay.

“I’m really excited,” Robotham said.

“I’m blown away by how helpful the research foundation and the Economic Development Council have been. Everybody is excited and pushing for these types of efforts. We’re overwhelmed by the amount of support.”

Officials with the FSU Office of Research

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and Commercialization say it’s challenging to commercialize inventions and the GAP program’s early success is remarkable.

Kirby Kemper, the vice president of the FSU Office of Research, touted the job opportunities that programs like GAP bring.

“Before, you might have gone and worked for General Motors and you figured you got to work there your whole life,” Kemper said.

“Now everybody outsources everything. And so the number of job openings in large companies continues to dwindle.”

Kemper said this opens up more entrepreneurship opportunities. “You can start your own company here and make a success of it,” Kemper said.

Thomas Painter learned about entrepreneurship when he started his own engineering firm in 2008. Called CICEFT, an acronym for “cable in conduit engineering fabrication and test,” the company makes component parts for specialty, high-performance magnets.

Painter is a research associate at the National High Magnetic Field Lab. “I’ve always had an interest in being an

“I’m blown away by how helpful the research foundation and the economic development council have been. We’re overwhelmed by the amount of support.” j. robotham, president, biofront

entrepreneur and so I have been strategizing with my business partner for quite some time on how we could commercialize this technology,” Painter said. Their customers would be other research institutions and universities. “We submitted a proposal to Oak Ridge National Laboratory representing the U.S. contribution to this national project,” Painter said. “And we ended up getting it.’

This is good news for CICEFT because it meant its product was ready for the market and in demand. CICEFT has already had considerable success, winning a $5 million federal contract thanks to assistance from the the Economic Development Council of Tallahassee/Leon County. This contract will be used to provide components to an international fusion energy project.

This project may help lead to an alternative energy source that could provide an unlimited source of clean, carbon-free electricity.

Painter now has two full-time employees and three part-time employees at CICEFT. Like Robotham, he is happy to have found a way to stay in Tallahassee and continue doing what he loves. At the same time he has created new jobs to keep other engineers employed.

Both FAMU and FSU have also expressed interest in commercializing non-traditional areas, such as art and the social sciences. “In my mind, it’s capturing the intellectual assets of the faculty and staff and students, whether it’s an invention falling under patents or whether it’s a copyright or trademark,” said Tanaga Boozer, the acting director of the Office of Technology Transfer, Licensing and Commercialization.

Boozer said her office does more than just try to make money for FAMU from inventions. She said a good commercialization office helps recruit faculty, improve research and generate local businesses. “A lot of people believe that research inherently is important and there is value,” Boozer said. “But the research has shown that publications of data don’t stimulate in the same way that patents do.” 

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A Place to Call Home Tallahassee may be a good place to do business, but it’s a great place to live

For starters, Mother Nature has blessed the area with seasonal weather.

Unlike further downstate, Tallahassee has refreshing autumns with color and falling leaves as well as winters — very mild winters.

Many outdoor activities, such as golf, hiking and biking can be enjoyed year round.

Promoters have described Tallahassee as the place “where spring begins.” And what glorious springs they are. The “season” starts with the blooming of Japanese Magnolias in February, soon to be followed by dogwoods, azaleas, crepe myrtles and magnolias that

fill the region’s emerald woods, parks and gardens with magnificent color. Summers can get hot and humid, it’s true, but there are still plenty of ways to enjoy the sunny days. No matter how hot it is, a plunge into the 70-degree waters of Wakulla Springs will take your breath away.

Perhaps the ultimate iconic Tallahassee image is its shady canopy roads hugging the region’s rolling hills. The paths of several local roads follow trails created centuries ago by American Indians, which were later followed

by Spanish explorers and American settlers.

Now, the tops of the trees from both sides

of the road meet, creating a topiary canopy made all the more beautiful by tendrils of Spanish moss that adorn the branches.

The historic routes are a picturesque look at Tallahassee’s rich history and include Indian mounds, sites from the antebellum period (including the beautifully preserved Goodwood Museum and Gardens) and former hunting estates. Of particular note is Mission San Luis. More than 300 years ago, Spanish missionaries and settlers coexisted with native Apalachee Indians on this site near Florida State University. Five structures have been recreated there and are populated 2010–11 / TA L L A H A S S E E B U S I N E S S J O U R N A L / 41

KLEMAN PLAZA

with historically dressed interpreters who give visitors a living history experience.

Tallahassee also has several sites of significance in Florida African American history, including the Knott House, site of Florida’s first reading of the Emancipation Proclamation; Florida Agricultural & Mechanical University, one of the oldest historically black universities in the nation; and the John G. Riley House, now a museum dedicated to preserving African American history and culture.

It’s hard to quantify, but Tallahassee has that famed Southern hospitality in abundance. People are nice. They’ll always say “hi” when they pass you on the sidewalk.

Cashiers usually smile and make eye contact. And chances are someone will let you in if you’re trying to merge into traffic.

Because it’s home to three major college campuses and the seat of state government, Tallahassee offers educational, cultural and recreational opportunities usually not found in a city of its size.

Tallahassee has a booming college culture. On home-game weekends, the city is abuzz and the Seminole and Rattler football fans are sporting their team colors and school spirit. And plans are afoot for “College Town,” an entertainment, shopping and residential area that will better link the city with local universities.

But the city is not totally geared toward the young folks. If you don’t live close to the campuses, you’ll hardly know students are here. And there’s nightlife geared toward “grown folks.” With its wine bars and eclectic mix of homegrown restaurants, Midtown 42 / TA L L A H A S S E E B U S I N E S S J O U R N A L /

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is fast becoming a magnet for those who have outgrown the young crowd scene on the Tennessee Street “strip.”

For those who enjoy an active, outdoor lifestyle, Tallahassee offers options galore, including a nationally award-winning recreation department with organized team sports for all ages, as well as dozens of parks, pools and bike and walking trails. Several golf courses and tennis facilities are open to the public. Also, Lake Jackson and nearby rivers and the Gulf of Mexico give plenty of opportunities for boating and fishing.

The area is a regional shopping hub, with malls and several shopping centers.

You’ll find most of the national chain stores here, as well as a healthy collection of locally owned specialty shops.

The area traditionally votes pretty heavily in favor of Democratic candidates. But Tallahassee is Florida’s political nexus, and Republicans make up the majority of the Legislature. So, however you’re ideologically inclined, you’ll find kindred spirits here.

Because it’s the capital city, Tallahasseans can take advantage of seat-of-government resources such as the Florida Museum of History, the State Library of Florida ... even the state Capitol itself. Actually, there are two: the domed and canopied “Old” Capitol, which now serves as a museum of Florida political history, and the 22-story “Tower of Power,” where history is made at least 60 days a year during the legislative session.

Whatever your pleasure, Tallahassee has an abundance of artistic activities — from the high culture of the Tallahassee Symphony to

the do-it-yourself music-making at a drum circle in the Railroad Square Art Park.

FSU is nationally known for its arts programs, and each year the university averages more than one concert, play, opera, dance or other type of performance per day. But its splashiest offering is 7 Days of Opening Nights. The entire city is invited to enjoy the event (usually lasting more than seven days), which gathers some of the greatest talents from throughout the arts world to perform at a cornucopia of events each February.

Finding a place to live in the capital city is easy, whatever your pleasure. There are suburban neighborhoods throughout, with personalities ranging from the elegant estates of Golden Eagle to the planned-toperfection SouthWood community to the eclectic mix of free-spirited homes in Indian Head Acres, where the streets are called “nenes.” While Tallahassee was affected by the recent recession, property values didn’t drop as dramatically here as they did in other parts of the state because of the stability of the area’s job base.

The newest additions to the housing mix are high-rise condominiums, offering urban living in the downtown area, which is in the midst of evolving from a strictly business zone to a lively urban center with the addition of Kleman Plaza. Nearby projects designed to enhance the look and feel of downtown include Cascades Park, the Gaines Street promenade and The Arts Exchange.

Just about everyone would be happy to call Tallahassee home. Visit. Enjoy. Stay. 

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Tallahassee by the Numbers Population, 2009 (estimate): 265,714 Population % Change: April 1, 2000 – July 1, 2009, 11 percent Leon County Population by Race/ Ethnicity, 2008 Non-Hispanic White – 60.4% Non-Hispanic Black – 31.3% American Indian – 0.3% Asian/Pacific Islander – 2.6% Hispanic – 4.6% Two or more races – 1.4%

Work Force, 2008 Private wage and salary – 62% Federal, state or local government – 33% Self-employed – 5% Income: Median household income, 2008 – $47,318 Per capita income, 2006 – $33,216

Households and Families, 2004 Types of Households: Families – 46.6 % Non-family households – 53.4% Age Distribution of People: 15 to 19 – 11.9% 35 to 44 – 11.9% 20 to 24 – 20.7% 45 to 54 – 10.95% 25 to 34 – 15.9% 55 to 59 – 3.4%

60 to 64 – 2.5% 65 to 74 – 4.1% 75 to 84 – 3.1% 85+ – 1.1%

HOUSING Home Sales: There were 1,171 sales of detached homes in Leon County during the first eight months of 2010: Median price/square foot – $110 Average price/square foot – $107 (In southeast Tallahassee – $103, in northeast Tallahassee - $118) 2010 Average Sales Price: 6/10 – $226,650 5/09 – $256,271 5/08 – 208,222 2/08 – $204,252 5/07 – $199,944 5/03 – $145,713 Employment, 2008 Top Industries: Educational services – 25% Public administration – 17% Retail – 11% Professional, scientific, management – 12% Arts, entertainment, recreation – 9% Finance, insurance, real estate – 7% Construction – 6% Information – 2% Transportation, warehousing, utilities – 3% Manufacturing – 2%

Business Ownership, 2002: Total number of firms – 19,194 Black owned – 9.3% Asian owned – 2.9% Hispanic owned – 2.8% Women owned – 28.2% EDUCATION Educational Institutions Barry University – bachelor’s, master’s Embry-Riddle Aeronautical University – associate, bachelor’s, master’s Flagler College – bachelor’s Florida Agricultural & Mechanical University – bachelor’s, master’s, professional, doctorate Keiser University – associate, bachelor’s, master’s Florida State University – bachelor’s, master’s, professional, doctorate ITT Technical Institute – associate, bachelor’s Lively Technical College – associate Tallahassee Community College – associate, certificate programs Education Level, 2008 Graduate or professional degree – 17% Bachelor’s degree – 24% Associate degree – 8% Some college, no degree – 21% High school diploma or equivalent – 21% Less than high school diploma – 9% High School Graduation Rate, 2008 – 81 % Sources: U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics, U.S. Census, diversitydata.org, Trulia.com; Greg Lane, member, Tallahassee Board of Realtors MLS Committee

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BAY Corridor

Panama City, Panama City Beach + Bay County

spotlight

Taking Flight

Northwest Florida residents are hoping a new international airport near Panama City can help counteract the effects of the Gulf oil spill and a tough economy by zandra wolfgram

A

fter more than a decade of planning, Panama City’s new international airport has seen friendly skies in its first months of operation. And its success is giving area businesses hope that their economic slump may soon be over.

With the help of 36 daily flights, passenger numbers at Northwest Florida Beaches International Airport have far exceeded expectations: The summer’s traffic was three times what the old Panama City-Bay County International Airport saw last year.

A big reason for the uptick is Southwest Airlines, which is offering flights on Boeing 737s from the new airport to Nashville, Tenn.;

Photos by SCOTT HOLSTEIN

Baltimore-Washington, D.C.; Houston; and Orlando. Airport officials also report that Delta’s passenger traffic at the new facility, which opened May 23, is up 20 percent over 2009, and that two of that airline’s daily flights are via comfortable MD-88 jet airliners. In June, the first full month of operation, airport traffic rose to 83,181 passengers, compared to 28,268 for the same month last year at the old airport.

Randy Curtis, executive director of Northwest Florida Beaches airport, said the actual numbers exceeded all of their expectations. “We ran several scenarios of forecasting passenger traffic and we went with a conservative increase of 3 percent. For June alone, the traffic jumped to

COR R I D OR BY T H E N UM BE R S

No. 1

Business Facilities magazine has ranked Panama City No. 1 on the list of Top 10 Metro Areas (with a population of less than 200,000) for Economic Growth Potential .

The reason? The new Northwest Florida Beaches International Airport, which has 1,300 acres for future development, and West Bay, one of the nation’s largest master-planned communities.

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194 percent over last year,” he said. Though the projections were set before Southwest committed to coming into the market, Curtis said Southwest’s presence goes beyond passenger quotas.

“Southwest’s arrival resulted in major competition and airfare reductions,” he said. Curtis also indicated that all of the new destination markets were performing well, but that traffic in and out of Chicago, which stops in Nashville before continuing on to Chicago, appeared to “really surprise everybody.”

Despite threats to the area’s pristine beaches from the Deepwater Horizon oil disaster, many local businesses say the new airport has already become a catalyst for economic development in the region.

But Daniel Petree, dean of Embry-Riddle Aeronautical University’s College of Business, warned that the increase may be short-lived. While Northwest Florida’s tourism industry took a big hit after the massive oil spill, the cleanup effort produced a sharp increase in travelers because of the news media, BP workers and government officials flocking to the coast.

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“The Panhandle has been unusually busy,” Petree said. “That’s a blip that would have to come out of the data before you could begin to see if projected traffic for that airport holds up.”

What does hold up, according to Mark A. Bonn, professor and director of the Dedman School of Hospitality at Florida State University, is the brand loyalty of the destination’s drive market. He predicts it will be this segment of visitors rather than fly-in guests that will be the first to shore up tourism.

“Having witnessed two oil spills while living in Texas in the 1980s, I can attest to the fact that tourism was slow to recover and the visible appearance of oil on the beaches deterred beach visitors. As long as no oil appears on our Florida beaches, I would expect the Northwest Florida drive market to be more resilient given their long history of patronizing this region. As with any disaster, perception becomes most important to manage. Word of mouth and testimonials work the best in these situations because the general public places much more value in these sources than with other types of media. If the region can

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develop strategies that will adopt these tactics, the 2011 summer season should come back to at least levels seen in 2008–2009,” said Bonn.

Most area residents and business leaders are optimistic that the new airport will burnish Northwest Florida’s reputation as one of the premier vacation destinations in the Southeast.

With 14 million annual visitors equating to $3.9 billion in sales tax revenue from restaurants, shops, water sport outfits and thousands of resort, hotel and beach cottage rental accommodations along the Emerald Coast, the potential upside for the tourism industry is significant.

As the area’s largest vacation rental company with nearly 3,000 accommodations along the coastline, ResortQuest has experienced firsthand what increased air service could mean for the region. However, general manager Lino Maldonado insists that it’s not just about lowered fares and increased capacity.

“We’re seeing the first of many changes of quality of air service in the region,” he said. “As a company that spans the entire region, to see the area go from small and regional to offering

rendering courtesy norhtwest florida beaches international airport

bay Spotlight

{ bay Corridor }

A VISION GAINS GROUND (Clockwise from top left) The new Northwest Florida Beaches International Airport includes all post-9/11 security requirements and boasts modern conveniences for the plugged-in traveler. The original rendering (center) was the beginning visual reference for the project.

international air service, it is very exciting.”

With 65,000 square feet of meeting space, Sandestin Golf and Beach Resort is one of the largest convention resorts on the Emerald Coast.

Approximately 60 percent of its room nights are booked annually by corporate and association groups holding meetings and conventions. John Russell, senior vice president of operations for the resort, said the new airport has enabled Sandestin’s sales team to increase its efforts in new target markets, such as Baltimore and Washington.

Russell gives the airport sole credit for attracting some of the resort’s new clientele, including 4,540 room night bookings already slated through 2013.

“It absolutely has had a positive impact,” he said. “We contracted a major piece of business in Nashville that would not have come without that airport.”

Paul Wohlford is vice president of sales and marketing for The Resort Collection, which operates nearly 50,000 square feet of vacation rental space. He agreed that the airport has already had a major economic effect.

“The new airport has tripled the traffic into and through the Panama City Beach area with the additional flights,” he said. “We have booked several groups in the fall that had accessibility

challenges in the past but can now get here on direct flights.”

About a month before the Northwest Florida Beaches International Airport opened with much fanfare, the oil spill occurred. Many businesses along the pristine beaches of Northwest Florida feel that the disaster has muddied the waters of the airport’s true economic impact. Nicole Scott of Have Travel Memories travel agency in Fort Walton Beach said that any upside her business may have enjoyed has been dampened by the spill.

“It really has overshadowed the new airport, which is really sad,” she said.

Marketing director Traci Stokes said cash registers have been ringing at Destin’s Silver Sands Factory Stores, the largest name-brand designer outlet on the Emerald Coast. But while the airport could be a factor, she said its direct economic impact hasn’t yet been measured. Still, Silver Sands is looking forward to the promise of new shoppers — a bonus Stokes says the entire coast can cash in on.

“The increased level of accessibility to our market that the new airport offers is certainly a benefit to all area businesses,” she said. “It provides our loyal, repeat visitors with a convenient new way to visit us and opens up the doors to many new visitors from across the country and the world.”

cities served by Southwest, as well as some of the flight crews.

“It’s been nice to have guests in from larger cities who are used to having fine dining choices and appreciate what we are doing at Firefly,” he said.

Mike Bennett, managing partner for The Towne of Seahaven, didn’t wait for the visitors to come to Panama City Beach. In May, he took a trip aboard Southwest to Houston with a few other business and tourist leaders to promote the new service.

“I questioned several boarding customers whether it was a first-time visit for them to the Florida Panhandle, and about 40 percent said yes,” Bennett said. “So even with two difficult issues surrounding our business — a weak economy and the oil threat — I believe the Southwest edge is lessening those threats and boosting business, especially in the longer run.”

Meanwhile, in what might be one of the best business outcomes, the closest competitive airport to Northwest Florida Beaches International Airport has not seen reduced passenger traffic.

Michael Stenson of Northwest Florida Regional Airport, located in Valparaiso, said his airport is holding its own. Bucking a national trend of decreased air travel, and despite a downturn in the economy and tourism due to the oil spill, Stenson said the Valparaiso airport is doing “pretty

Most area residents and business leaders are optimistic that the new airport will burnish Northwest Florida’s reputation as one of the premier vacation destinations in the Southeast.

Laurie Olshefski, the owner of Shimmering Seas Jewelry & Gifts, located in both Seaside and Pier Park, said that since the opening of the new airport, she has heard positive comments about the facility and the ease of traveling. She ventured that visitors “plan on coming back more frequently, which to me means more tourist dollars to be spent in our area.”

Jim Musicaro, owner of Carrabba’s Italian Grill in Panama City Beach, said he has been happy to see some of those tourist dollars and new faces already.

“I have seen many parties stop at my restaurant after picking people up at the airport,” he said. “I’ve also had many other people say that they flew in from places like Boston, New York and various other places that seem new to me.”

Dave Trep, owner of Firefly restaurant in Panama City Beach, said he has also seen a little extra business from passengers arriving from the new

good” to remain even with last year. He said that in May, Delta Airlines increased seats at Northwest Florida Regional Airport by 10 percent over last year and continues to grow. And American Eagle, with direct service to Dallas, was running at 90 percent of capacity.

“We never really lost passengers to Panama City because we’ve had better fares and other airlines,” Stenson said.

With a 30-year lease from Eglin Air Force Base, Northwest Florida Regional Airport plans to keep its focus on the military and defense contractors, as well as marketing to the 6,000 newcomers associated with the F-35 Joint Strike Fighter aircraft that will be stationed in the area.

“We will continue to be aggressive with existing new service and look to expand to new destinations,” Stenson said. n The News Service of Florida contributed to this report.

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ARMED AND READY Jerry (left) and son Adam Turner turn mishap into profit in the bio-hazard cleanup industry. Destin-based Advanced Bio Treatment handles myriad toxic and sensitive cleanup jobs.

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Coastal Escambia, Santa Rosa, Okaloosa + Walton Counties

EMERALD COAST Corridor

spotlight

Masters of Mayhem

It’s dirty work, but cleaning up crime scenes, meth labs and other hazardous sites is no match for these experts at Advanced Bio-Treatment by daniel mutter

“ It’s a dirty job, but somebody’s goT to do it! When disaster strikes, we clean up the mess.”

So reads the business description on Advanced Bio-Treatment’s Facebook page.

When deaths occur in a business or home, hazardous waste is left behind, creating a dangerous environment for future tenants. An ordinary maid service can usually make the area appear clean on the surface. However, it takes a professional to properly remove the dangerous molds, bacteria and bloodborne pathogens that can lead to sickness and even death.

And that is where Jerry Turner steps in. In 2003, after reading a magazine article that piqued his interest, he decided to launch Advanced BioTreatment (ABT), which has been providing crime-scene and biohazard cleanup services throughout the United States ever since. Earlier this year, Turner was named No. 12 in CNN’s “Off the Wall” ways to make money. He ranked first on a similar AOL list in 2007.

The hazardous-waste cleaning business — which tackles everything from murder-scene and meth-lab cleanup to contagious-illness decontamination and pet-odor removal — has proven to be lucrative. With movies such as “Cleaner” and “Sunshine Cleaning” promising big paydays, companies have popped up across the country in hopes of making a quick buck.

“The last few years, you’ve had so much interest in this industry,” says Turner, president and owner of ABT, who recently moved to Destin to expand his Florida business. “People mistakenly think they can start this business up and make $100,000 a year, just like that. That may have been true seven years ago, but it’s not true now.”

When ABT got its start, crime-scene cleaning companies were generally unheard of.

Photo by SCOTT HOLSTEIN

“I was reading a magazine and saw an article about a company out of Chicago that did this and realized it really fit my skill set,” says Turner, who was a police officer for six years and ran his own insurance company for three before starting ABT. “Having been a police officer, I knew about dealing with evidence and forensics, and having been in the insurance industry was helpful since most insurance policies pay for what we do.”

Turner began the business much like many others in the industry: by attending classes in biohazardous waste cleanup and learning from the pros already doing the job.

“When I first got started, I did a lot of research just on cleaning up bloodborne pathogens,” he says. “Believe it or not, at that time there just wasn’t that much out there. I went to two different crime-scene cleaning companies who actually put on classes.”

After attending the classes and researching similar crime-scene cleaning businesses for 90 days, Turner closed his insurance business and borrowed $50,000 to start ABT. “You cannot go into it with $3,000 and a one-week class,” he says. “You have to be fully capitalized.”

ABT grew, eventually expanding its services to 26 states. Turner began placing managers at central locations from Florida to Wisconsin so that they would be available to respond to any situation.

“When I hired my managers, I wasn’t really set up with a classroom area to teach them,” he says. “So I went to a couple of different companies that had professional training facilities and sat through the classes myself to make sure I liked what they were teaching before I sent them.”

ABT’s business model consists of several fulltime state and regional managers placed at central locations. To keep the overhead down, work

vehicles and various cleaning supplies are kept at local storage facilities, allowing ABT to answer a call virtually anywhere as quickly as possible.

When ABT receives a call for a job, it goes to a third-party calling center, which sends the job information via text message to all managers. The closest manager then gathers his or her team, which often includes retirees or others who can quickly respond to the job site.

Under each manager is a team of part-time cleaning technicians who are trained by managers on the job.

“After they’ve been on five or six jobs, we’re going to have them trained pretty well to where now they understand why they do certain things and why it’s important to do it,” Turner says. “We do, at minimum, an annual screening to teach our employees what this stuff means and why it’s important to do it.”

Despite the gruesome nature of the business, there has been no shortage of workers. Turner admits, however, that it takes a special person to deal with the unique challenges of the business.

“Life and death are just a part of the whole thing, you know,” he says. “So it doesn’t affect

COR R I D OR BY T H E N UM BE R S

1,913%

The 3-year growth of H2 Performance Consulting in Pensacola, earning the company the ranking of #139 on Inc. magazine’s 2010 list of the fastest-growing companies in the nation.

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EMERALD COAST Spotlight

me really, emotionally, and that’s true for about 25 percent of the people out there.”

Most of the scenes that Advanced Bio-Treatment works require those few people that aren’t bothered by the experience.

“I can remember a case in North Florida where a victim took his own life with a high powered rifle,” says Howard Carroll, southeast regional manager. “After the first shot was unsuccessful, the fellow apparently walked around for two hours trying to figure out what to do before he shot himself for the final time.

The tech had to check every room in the house for contamination.”

Safety is the manager’s ultimate goal when taking employees on cleanups. Before each job, the manager walks the scene to look for any potential falling hazards or unsafe zones to work in. He is then able to come back to the crew with a plan of action.

Turner says that ABT goes beyond normal protocol when it comes to safety.

“We have a code of safe practices that was modeled after some of the largest employers in the world,” he explains. “We take what we do very, very seriously, so we do things that other companies don’t do in order to stay as safe as possible.”

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One of the biggest challenges of a crime-scene cleanup business is advertising the company to clients. When incidents occur, most people have no idea that there are businesses that handle the mess afterward. They naturally ask the first responders whom to call.

“It’s unique because you have to have people who will refer you, and in some cases they have a little bit of a conflict of interest — they’re told that they are not allowed to recommend a particular business,” Turner says.

ABT works to get its name out to the first responders, in hopes that the company will be mentioned when work needs to be done.

“Sometimes you crack the egg, sometimes you don’t, when it comes to getting people to recommend you,” Turner says. “But most people in that type of business, whether they’re an emergency medical technician, firefighter or police officer, if someone asks them for help, they are inclined to give it.”

Turner spends more than $7,000 a month just on advertising, in order to get the company’s name and reputation out to the public.

“To be perfectly honest, that’s the toughest part about my business, advertising,” he says.

“With more companies popping up each year,

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the competition is stiffer than ever, so name recognition is key.”

Another important aspect of biohazardous waste cleanup is making sure you have proper insurance coverage.

The hazardous-waste cleaning business — which tackles everything from murder-scene and methlab cleanup to contagious-illness decontamination and pet-odor removal — has proven to be lucrative. With movies such as “Cleaner” and “Sunshine Cleaning” promising big paydays, companies have popped up across the country in hopes of making a quick buck.

“These smaller companies may have a $250,000 liability policy, but if you don’t do a job properly and somebody gets sick with hepatitis, for example, that’s completely worthless because you are facing a half-million-dollar claim,” Turner says.

There are thousands of invisible hazards that cover job scenes. Hepatitis, staph infection and E. coli can contaminate a home or business and get left behind for future tenants. Bodily fluids can also lead to unsafe molds and funguses, often resulting in odors that can linger for years if not properly treated.

“In one room you have around 400 different types of surfaces with different molecular makeups, different pore sizes,” Turner says. “Even the paint on the wall, even if it’s all flat paint, there are different brands with different molecular makeups and different pore sizes. So different things will work on different surfaces. You have to understand that.”

ABT may be known as a cleanup company, but most of its work actually focuses on deconstruction.

“The reality of it is, certain things just can’t be removed,” Turner says. Sections of wall, floor and ceiling are all often removed in order to rid the area of future mold or odor. Any waste also must be removed properly so as not to cause any hazards for neighboring properties.

Earlier this year, Turner told the Northwest Florida Daily News that “what we do is kind of weird, but it is a job where I get to help people on a daily basis.” n

sure shot

{ emerald COAST Corridor }

WHO: Michelle Evans AGE: 39 INDUSTRY: Hospitality YEARS IN BUSINESS: 11

Motorcycle Maven

Blazing a new path in business, and in life by zandra wolfgram

Photo by SCOTT HOLSTEIN

M

ichelle Evans defines herself in many ways: a mother of a 20-year-old, a fun-loving fiancée, a passionate start-up business owner — and a biker girl. And although she’s not much for labels, the following definition trails her e-mail signature: Biker Girl: n. A girl, woman, who rides motorcycles of any brand or origin. She is not afraid to take control of her destiny, or to take risks. She is gifted with a strong desire for adventure and fun, and finds both atop a bike. Biker Girls are not the property of anyone but themselves, and will not be intimidated by social mandates of what girls/ladies/women should and should not do.

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At 39, the petite, blue-eyed blonde is a self-professed tomboy who grew up riding mopeds and racing go-karts. When she grew up, the Tallahassee native joined a local motorcycle-riding club and become an active volunteer. A state-level officer in the Florida club invited Evans to create an alternative to Daytona’s annual Biketoberfest celebration for Northwest Florida.

Evans spent time riding along the Florida coast and settled on Mexico Beach as the location of choice for the event.

“I really had to sell it,” she said. “There aren’t many hotels that want to welcome a bunch of motorcycle riders.”

The event was coined The Party in the Panhandle. After the first year, 2006, the host hotel, the El Governor, hosted a barbecue for the group, and soon locals began posting signs welcoming them back each October. The event continues to sell out each year, with proceeds going to St. Jude’s Children’s Hospital. Today, millions of dollars have been raised for the charity by bike clubs across the country.

Evans isn’t afraid to kick things into high gear or operate at one speed — as long as it’s fast. The Tallahassee native, who calls the Okaloosa County town of Shalimar her “home base,” worked in banking for a few years before shifting into hospitality. She quickly rose through the ranks, holding finance positions in various hotels and resorts. In 2008, she co-founded Premier Island Management Group, a resort management company in Pensacola Beach.

Now, with two businesses under her biker belt, the hospitality executive is revved up about realizing one of her longtime dreams — owning a motorcycle resort.

The opportunity fell into her path, so to speak.

While mapping out a motorcycle road trip, she stumbled upon The Lodge at Copperhead. Located 80 miles north of Atlanta, Copperhead is a scenic, 40-acre resort community located in the Appalachian Mountains near popular motorcycle routes such as the Dragon’s Tail, Cherohala Skyway and Blue Ridge Parkway.

On the bike trip, she and her fiancé, Anthony Cassulo, learned Copperhead was going to auction.

“We ended up falling in love with it and bought it,” she said.

The couple is marketing to a niche of riders who seek an elevated lodging experience.

“We want Copperhead to be the Ritz Carlton of motorcycle resorts,” Evans said. “There isn’t anything like this in the country that we know of.”

An unpaved road is of no concern to an

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TALKING SHOP WITH MICHELLE EVANS

What kind of motorcycle do you ride? I ride a 2009 Harley Davidson Street Glide.

I have just the one, but my fiancé, Anthony, has five, and I ride all of his, too.

What is your favorite bike-ride route? So far, it would have to be Little River Canyon in North Alabama. However, there are many Georgia roads. And as soon as I recoup from recent surgery and get back on my scooter, I hope to make some new favorites.

What is the best business advice you have received? Don’t let your emotions get the best of you in tough situations.

Give three words to describe you. Charismatic. Loyal. Street-smart.

What has been your biggest challenge in launching a start-up company?

Overcoming the perceptions and culture created by prior owners.

What did you learn about yourself? I do actually have patience.

What was your biggest setback, and how did you overcome it?

The economic downturn. We haven’t overcome it yet but have streamlined our business and operated more efficiently to allow us to continue until improvement comes.

What do you enjoy most about what you do? The smiles on the faces of my customers and employees.

What would people be surprised to know about you? I didn’t graduate from high school. I got a GED and then went on to graduate Florida State University, cum laude.

What is your favorite form of communication? E-mail. Because I’m a business owner. I work at times others don’t.

What are your business pet peeves? Useless e-mail is at the top of the list.

Finish this sentence: What the world needs now is ... To take stock in educating our children. I am reminded every day how our children are graduating high school and college without being able to spell, write neatly or speak correctly.

In your free time when you are not riding your bike, what are you doing?

I love the water and doing anything on it. I also like to sit and catch up with close friends over a glass of wine. Of course, I love to travel and have done some, but not nearly enough.

adventurous spitfire like Evans.

“I’m passionate about blazing a trail that others like me want to go down,” she said. She also is passionate about providing great experiences.

“Copperhead is an opportunity for me to create a place where everyone feels welcome.”

What are the secrets to a smooth ride to success?

“I’m very goal-oriented. I set my sights on something and pour my heart and soul into it,” she said.

“In this day and age, I don’t think you see that level of commitment any more, whether it is related to business, relationships or friendship.”

Though Evans admits female executives are few and far between in the hospitality and banking fields, she is convinced that being a woman

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is actually a benefit when navigating a maledominated industry.

“My skills have balanced those of male counterparts,” she said. “My ability to communicate and relate to others has kept me from remaining under the glass ceiling.”

For Evans, being dependable shouldn’t be underrated.

“Whether you are male or female, what you do is what matters,” she said. “My homeowners can count on me; they know if I say I’m going to do something, I do it. And when I solve a problem for them, they carry my flag, and that opens other doors.”

Whether it’s an open door or open road, Michelle Evans is ready to go full speed ahead. n

I-10 Corridor

Northern Escambia, Santa Rosa, Okaloosa + Walton Counties and Holmes, Washington, Calhoun, Jackson + Liberty Counties

spotlight

PIECE OF THE ACTION Vernon Hiebert processes minutes-old catfish filets at his Walnut Hill fishery.

He battles declining prices and constant competition from imports in an industry that prides itself on quality.

Fishing for Marketshare As imports take up a larger market share, catfish farmers have been forced to innovate or jump ship by tabitha yang

W

hen Vernon Hiebert got into the catfish farming business more than a decade ago, he never dreamed he would one day be cleaning his own fish and selling them directly to local customers. The Walnut Hill farmer got into the business as the market for American-grown catfish was taking off, and he was raising thousands of pounds of catfish to sell to the local fish processing plant. He had constructed five catfish ponds and was receiving 75 cents per fish from the plant. At the time, the price of catfish feed was only $200 per ton.

Photos by SCOTT HOLSTEIN

“Back then, it was pretty well profitable,” he recalled. “(But) right now, the feed’s $400 a ton, and we’re still getting 75 cents for a fish.”

Libby Johnson, Escambia County’s agriculture extension agent, says one of the reasons the feed price has doubled is because the price of soybeans has gone up, and soybeans are one of the key ingredients in the feed. On top of that, foreign exports have taken off, and fish processing plants are now importing fish from China, Vietnam and other countries. Those countries are able to produce the fish at a lower cost, which means bigger profit margins for the processing

COR R I D OR BY T H E N UM BE R S

38.6 million The total pounds of catfish raised in the U.S. and sold to processors in June 2010.

Average price per pound: 78.9 cents Source: U.S. Department of Agriculture

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I-10 Spotlight

COMMITMENT TO QUALITY Hiebert transfers catfish from his outdoor pond to an indoor, filtered pool three days before harvest. This unique system prepares the fish for processing.

plants. But it’s bad news for American catfish farmers who have seen a plummeting demand for their products.

Catfish Farming Past Its Heyday About six years ago, the Walnut Hill area in northern Escambia County had about 2,000 acres of ponds where a number of farmers were growing catfish. But the combination of higher feed prices and cheap imported fish has been lethal for most of those farms. According to Hiebert, the only farmers who remain are himself, John Loewen and Steve Hiebert.

“The reason I stayed in it is because I started marketing my own product,” Vernon Hiebert said. “I sell right to the local public right here, and I’m getting away from the processing plant.”

By skipping the catfish processing plant, which essentially serves as a middleman between the farmers and grocery stores, Hiebert is able to make a bigger profit. He sells whole catfish for $1.55 per pound, or $1.85 per pound if you want him to clean it for you. Hiebert also has devised a system for “purging” the fish, putting them in a tank of filtered water for three days to rid them of any “off” flavors they might have acquired from being in an outdoor pond with thousands of other fish.

“Catfish is notorious for off flavor,” he said.

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“You come out here and get a fish out of each one of my ponds, and each one’s going to taste different. And what changes your taste is your algae bloom.”

Dan Dobbins, a biologist for the Florida Fish and Wildlife Conservation Commission, said things work similarly in the wild — a catfish caught in a river may taste different from one caught in a neighboring lake.

“Catfish are opportunistic. They basically take what they can get,” he said. “Wild fish, you don’t know what they’re eating. And that can have an impact on how they would taste.”

Purging farmed catfish in a tank of filtered water ensures a good-tasting fish that’s perfect for frying, grilling or serving blackened. So far, Hiebert’s strategy seems to have worked well.

“I get people who come and tell me, ‘I hope you never go out of business, because this is where I want to get my catfish,’” he said proudly.

Most of the farmers who haven’t changed their marketing strategies have gone out of business. Loewen, the other main catfish farmer in Walnut Hill, said that many of the men who had been raising catfish — and growing crops such as corn and soybeans on the side to make ends meet — ended up abandoning the business and moving away or taking other jobs.

“One man is doing carpenter work. Another

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moved to Kansas, he’s doing painting. They just found other kinds of work,” Loewen said.

With the tough market, Loewen hasn’t had an easy time of it the past few years. He said he has stayed in the business this long out of sheer “bullheadedness.”

“Farmers are optimists, I guess,” he said. “They keep thinking, ‘Well, next year will be better.’”

But Loewen said he’s just about ready to hang up his hat and call it quits. He plans to farm for another year or so and then retire. Learning how to raise the fish and send them to the plant took education and perseverance. Loewen, Hiebert and other catfish farmers had to learn how to keep their catfish ponds at the right oxygen levels, keep the pond water at a pH of 7, and fend off the algae and bacteria that could kill their entire stock of fish.

Aerators keep the oxygen levels in the ponds at around 3 or 4 parts per million. If oxygen levels get too low, the fish will die. So the farmers have a special computerized system that measures the oxygen levels in the water. When the levels get too low, they turn on their aerators, special machines that add oxygen to the water.

Nitrite and ammonia levels in the pond also need to be constantly monitored. Keeping a balance ensures that the fish will stay healthy. A small amount of copper sulphate is often added to the water to prevent too much algae from growing and then dying in the pond. An algae die-off causes ammonia levels to go up, which can be deadly for the fish.

Even with keeping close tabs on the water temperature, chemicals, algae and bacteria, there still are times when the fish end up dying off. Loewen said he has had to take three of his 11 ponds out of production, because earlier this year he had a problem with the system controlling his aerators. The fish weren’t getting enough oxygen. About a 10-percent loss of the total number of one’s fish is an industry standard.

Regulating the Industry The amount of chemicals that farmers can add to their ponds to control algae and bacteria growth must adhere to state guidelines, said retired catfish farmer George Carpenter, former president of the now-defunct Northwest Florida Catfish Association. Carpenter said that when catfish farming got started in Florida about 15 years ago, the state convened a group of professors, doctors and other experts who drew up best-management-practice documents to regulate the farmers’ activities. The purpose was to make sure farmers did not expose their fish to chemicals that would be dangerous to

humans if ingested.

Carpenter said the farmers are required to keep careful records of the chemicals they add to the ponds, recording what types along with the frequency and amounts used. Farms undergo inspections by state inspectors twice a year to make sure they are complying with state standards.

He confided that he is personally wary of eating fish imported from overseas, because other countries’ farming regulations are not as stringent, and foreign farmers sometimes use dangerous chemicals on their fish in order to raise them more cheaply.

“The USDA (U.S. Department of Agriculture) says they do a check (on the fish),” he said. “They do, but they do not have the personnel to cover all of it. A lot of times, we would find out that some of these chemicals were in the fish that really shouldn’t be consumed by the general public.”

Carpenter said he has written to the USDA before to urge it to take more stringent precautions to make sure imported fish are safe to eat.

Nevertheless, he has yet to see any steps taken to tighten controls on imported foods, and the United States continues to import inexpensive fish raised overseas.

Mark J. Katzenstein, M.D.

Michael L. Yandel, M.D.

Joseph A. Pedone, M.D.

Juan Carlos Zarate, M.D.

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Quality Heart Care Since 1991

Looking to the Present (and Future) In the meantime, American farmers like Hiebert are doing what they can to stay in business by marketing their fish directly to the public.

The oil spill in the Gulf of Mexico has helped his business a little, in that a few of his customers have said they were coming to him because they didn’t want to eat fish caught in the Gulf waters.

But Hiebert said he hasn’t seen that the spill has had any effect on the price the fish processing plant is willing to pay. Mostly, he’s trying to make ends meet by concentrating on his directto-consumer sales and doing more marketing.

“Northescambiacounty.com did a story or two online for me,” he said, mentioning that he also has done some television and newspaper advertising. “And then word-of-mouth. Once people try (the fish) and eat them, they tell their friends.”

Farmers have conflicting opinions as to whether they think the catfish market in Florida will ever recover.

“As far as I’m concerned, the catfish industry in Florida is coming to an end, because of competition,” Loewen said.

But Carpenter, when asked whether he thinks the Florida catfish business will recover, says confidently, “Oh yeah, it has to.” Nevertheless, “we don’t know how long this crisis is going to be.” n

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experience speaks

{ I-10 Corridor }

WHO: Bob Arban AGE: 60 INDUSTRY: Construction YEARS IN BUSINESS: 25

From Humble Beginnings

Fairness, honesty and hard work lay the foundation for a successful business by kimberley k. yablonski

W

hen the company Bob Arban worked for was sold 25 years ago, he decided it was time for him to take the plunge into the entrepreneurial world. He started his own truss construction company, opening the doors — or, more precisely, the barn doors — for Arban & Associates in his own backyard.

“I got into the truss business in 1971 in Fort Lauderdale,” Arban said. “I was a young fellow, 20 years old, and I followed the industry.

I jumped from job to job, getting promotions along the way.

“In 1985, I was working for a company in DeFuniak Springs, and they sold out,” he said.

“I always had it in the back of my mind that I wanted to own and operate my own truss company. My wife, Jonice, and I got to talking about starting our own business. I told her, ‘I’m not getting any younger.’

“We went to the bank, used our credit cards and started the company in the barn behind our

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house with $4,000. Friends and relatives helped us. We operated out of the backyard for about two years.”

When Arban went to the bank with his business plan, “I wasn’t prepared for the banker to ask me how much I wanted,” he said with a laugh.

Located in Ponce de Leon, about six miles north of Interstate 10 in Holmes County, the company has long since moved on from that backyard birthplace to greener pastures. Around 1989, Arban & Associates relocated to State Road 81 on a 40-acre parcel of land the couple had purchased some years earlier.

Arban’s company creates mostly wooden roof trusses for home builders, as well as some steel trusses for commercial use and floor trusses. He supplies builders in Northwest Florida and southern Alabama.

The workers’ craftsmanship is the unsung hero of construction. It doesn’t contribute to the visual aspect of a home; it is the backbone of the structure.

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“A lot of people don’t realize that although trusses are a hidden item, they are one of the most important aspects of a house. Without those trusses, the house is going to fall,” Arban said.

Now 60 years old, in recent years Arban has taken more of a back-seat role in the day-to-day operations.

Born in Savannah, Ga., Arban grew up in northern Alabama until the family moved north to Michigan, where he stayed until he graduated from college. At that point, he had had enough of the cold weather and moved back south, to Fort Lauderdale. He got a job working the third shift in a factory. A friend of his was going to the unemployment office to see about work, and Arban decided to tag along. Admittedly not planning to apply for a job, he was scruffy-looking, with a beard and jean shorts. But once at the office, Arban asked if they had any openings for a draftsman. The employment lady hesitated and said yes, they did, but that she thought the company was looking for someone more clean-cut.

Photo by SCOTT HOLSTEIN

“I told her, ‘Just give me the damn phone number,’” Arban said. “I went home, cleaned myself up and applied for the job at this truss company. They didn’t want to hire me at first, but I told them to try me out part time for a couple of weeks. I think I earned $2.65 an hour. It worked out, and I was hired full time. I stayed there for a year and half.”

Only one of the couple’s four boys is in the family business. Arban’s stepson, Tony Alford, along with longtime employee Ed Bowers, who has been with the company for 17 years, primarily run the company.

“They have been with us long enough to know want we want and expect, and we don’t have to hold their hands,” Arban said. “They are the backbone of the company.”

Arban has always placed a lot of stock in his employees. When he and his wife were trying to decide on the name of the company, Arban initially wanted it to start with “Associates” and then “Arban.”

“It felt like that was our biggest asset,” he said. “Without the associates, we have nothing.

When I say associates, I mean customers and employees. Without them, I’m an average guy.

I’m nothing special.”

Skip Miller, who owns and operates Key Lime Construction LLC, a home-building company in Valparaiso, Fla., has been using Arban &

Associates trusses exclusively for about 13 years because they are “very honest and dependable and a great business partner.”

“They are very easy to work with as far as design,” Miller said. “When the inevitable problems arise on the job, they are very easy to get ahold of. They are very professional and realize time is money.”

Over the years, Arban & Associates has grown steadily, at first adding a 6,000-square-foot building. Later, it doubled the size of that structure and added another 12,000-square-foot building, as well as more front-office space. In all, the company has approximately 28,000 square feet of warehouse, office and manufacturing space.

Despite continued growth, Arban & Associates took a hit just as most construction businesses did when the economy went south.

“It has impacted the company pretty hard as far as the number of houses we are able to do in a week’s time,” said Ed Bowers, co-manager of the company. “Overall, production is off quite a bit.

Instead of overseeing two or three guys, I’m now doing their roles. This year is a little better than last year by about 15 percent. Last year was the worst year.”

Prior to the economic downturn, the company employed 30 people in the production department and seven employees in the sales and front

office. Now, there are six employees in production and two running the front office.

During the downturn, Arban said they did not have to do a massive layoff. Instead, as the workload slowed down, a lot of employees decided to move on to other things on their own. One young man, for instance, was in the National Guard and decided to take an opportunity to go overseas with the Guard.

Today, Arban said the company is “doing more than surviving” despite the economic climate.

“In the boom years, you get to rockin’ along and everyone is busy and everyone is making a lot of money, and you don’t realize how much money you are wasting,” he said. “Prior to the recession, our biggest challenge was controlling the growth.

This has been good for us to become more efficient. It has helped a lot of people in the industry in that respect.”

Through his almost 25 years in the business, Arban has weathered many changes and learned some valuable lessons.

“We’ve tried to minimize our mistakes,” he said. “Our biggest mistake was when the boom started, we weren’t quick enough to jump on that wagon. We had the ability to repay money, so we were probably a little too conservative back then.

If I had the advantage of hindsight, I would have jumped on that wagon sooner.” n

Taste of the region Business luncheons. Celebratory dinners. Deal-making cocktails.

A sampling of the best fare the region has to offer.

A GUIDE TO FINE DINING IN NORTHWEST FLORIDA

Magnolia Grill FORT WALTON BEACH

TOM & PEGGY RICE, PROPRIETORS

(850) 302-0266

www.magnoliagrillfwb.com 850 Business Magazine

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Compiled by Linda Kleindienst

in recognition of his “significant, tangible” leadership contributions to the Tallahassee community for more than 25 years. And the Godfrey Smith Past Chairmen’s Award was given to Thomas for his “significant contributions to the business community before, during, and after” his tenure as Chamber chairman.

CAP I TAL Local HAPPENINGS Boys Town North Florida has appointed Paul Sullivan, the Tallahassee city/area president of BB&T, to its board of directors.

Former House Health Care Services Policy sullivan Committee staffer Chris Schoonover has joined Capital City Consulting.

Charlie Liem has been named Secretary of the Florida

Department of Business and Professional Regulation.

Scott Ross, a former deputy secretary, has joined Floridian Partners, LLC, as an associate in the public affairs and lobbying firm’s Tallahassee office.

Women on a Mission to Earn Commission, a networking organization geared towards women, has named Marilyn Angelena as director of its Tallahassee chapter, which meets at Food Glorious Food in Betton Place 11:30 a.m.-1 p.m. the first and third Thursday of each month. Founder and CEO of Women News magazine, Angelena also is the national sales director of Absolutely Dominate, a company that offers Internet marketing services for small businesses.

A.J. Smith, a career law enforcement officer, has

been appointed membership director of the Florida Deputy Sheriffs Association.

Department of Juvenile Justice Chief of Staff Kelly Layman has left the department to become the new communications and development director for the Florida Board of Governors.

New Names Because of its growth and expansion Administrative Professional Services & Solutions, which offers education and training to improve staff performance and effectiveness, has taken on a new name — Crump & Associates.

The Tallahassee Sonitrol franchise of Stanley Convergent Security Solutions, Inc., was one of 11 Sonitrol franchises named in the 2010 SDM 100, an annual ranking of the 100 largest security companies in the United States.

A campaign to help Tallahassee families shape up their personal finances was recognized as the top PR program in the state of Florida for 2010. The prestigious Dick Pope All Florida Golden Image Award was presented to Salter>Mitchell for its work on the Florida Commerce Credit Union weLiveFIT! Challenge campaign and was one of seven awards earned by the Tallahassee-based firm during the Golden Image Awards ceremony hosted by the Florida Public Relations Association.

FASTSIGNS International franchisee Jeff Herig, of Tallahassee, was recently honored by the International Franchise Association with its annual Franchisee of the Year Award.

SouthWood Golf Club, the award-winning Fred

Couples and Gene Bates designed course owned by The St. Joe Company and managed by Billy Casper Golf, is ranked No. 25 among Florida’s best publicaccess courses by GOLF Magazine.

The Florida Society of Association Executives has recognized Eleanor Warmack, executive director of the Florida Recreation and Park Association in Tallahassee, as its 2010 Executive Member of the Year.

Focus on TCC and FSU Arrowhead Advertising, the Florida State University student advertising team, placed in the top 10 in the National Student Advertising Competition of the American Advertising Federation for the fourth consecutive year.

Tallahassee Community College has officially

The Tallahassee office of NuBarter and SC-based Barter Brokers International have joined forces, All the offices will eventually be run and managed under the NuBarter brand.

opened its Advanced Manufacturing Training Center, which is envisioned as a unique training resource for local manufacturing and industrial businesses and will provide customized skills training for existing and emerging workforces.

Local Honors Tallahassee Magazine was honored by the Florida Magazine Association with a third place Charlie Award in the “Best Overall” category for magazines under 20,000 circulation. Editor Rosanne Dunkelberger and her r. dunkelberger daughter Mary won a writing award for “Teen Spotting,” an article about teen fashions.

The Florida State University has selected Tom Jennings to serve as the school’s first vice president for University Advancement. He will oversee the FSU Alumni Association, FSU Foundation and Seminole Boosters.

Linda Kleindienst, editor of 850 Magazine and Direc-

tor of Editorial Services for Rowland Publishing, has been elected to the Florida Magazine Association’s Board of Directors.

John M. Hogan of Capital Health Plan and John Perry Thomas of Thomas Howell Ferguson were recently

honored with special awards by Leadership Tallahassee and the Greater Tallahassee Chamber of Commerce. Hogan received the Lifetime Leadership Award

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Jeanette DeDiemar, the executive director of inte-

grated marketing and communications at the University of Wisconsin Oshkosh, will succeed Frank Murphy, as FSU’s assistant vice president for University Relations and director of communications.

James Carson, FSU’s Payne & Charlotte Hodges

Midyette Eminent Scholar, has been named chairman of the Department of Risk Management/Insurance, Real Estate and Legal Studies in the Florida State University College of Business.

An article published in the Journal of Real Estate Finance and Economics — a top academic journal for scholarly papers on real estate finance — places FSU’s real estate program at No. 2 in the world for faculty research published in the three core academic real-estate journals from 1973 to 2008. Previous ranking: 26.

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The Tallahassee Memorial HealthCare Board of Directors and the Florida State University College of Medicine are pursing a joint internal medicine residency program for the Big Bend region that would be housed at Tallahassee Memorial’s main campus and could begin accepting applications for resident physicians as early as fall 2011.

Talent Lives Here, an initiative of the Knight Creative Communities Institute 2009–2010 Catalyst Class, is aimed at encouraging talented college graduates to stay in Tallahassee. The prorgram is a partnership between KCCI, the Greater Tallahassee Chamber of Commerce, FSU, FAMU and TCC to help local organizations develop internship programs for area college students.

Legal Affairs Twelve Holland & Knight lawyers from the Tallahassee office have been named by their peers to the 2011 edition of “The Best Lawyers in America.” They are: Martha W. Barnett — Administrative Law, Bet-theCompany Litigation, Commercial Litigation, Government Relations Law, Tax Law; Elizabeth L. Bevington — Advertising Law, Commercial Litigation; Lawrence N. Curtin — Environmental Law, Natural Resources Law; Frederick R. Dudley —Trusts and Estates; James M. Ervin, Jr. —Corporate Law, Tax Law; Stephen H. Grimes — Appellate Law, Bet-theCompany Litigation, Commercial Litigation, Criminal Defense: White-Collar; Jerome Hoffman — Advertising Law, Antitrust Law, Commercial Litigation, Health Care Law; David Bruce May, Jr. — Energy Law; Morris H. Miller —Health Care Law; Shannon Hartsfield Salimone —Health Care Law; Lawrence E. Sellers — Administrative Law, Environmental Law, Water Law; Karen D. Walker —Administrative Law, Commercial Litigation.

Ten Tallahassee lawyers recently earned Florida Bar board certification, the highest evaluation of attorneys’ competence and experience in areas of law approved for certification by the Supreme Court of Florida. Those newly certified are: Timothy P. Atkinson, State and Federal Government and Administrative Practice; Edward Thomas Bauer, Appellate Practice; Donna E. Blanton, State and Federal Government and Administrative Practice; Tracy Lee Cooper, Appellate Practice; Thomas Leroy Duggar, Marital and Family Law; James McClung DuRant Jr., Real Estate; Glen P. Gifford, Criminal Appellate; Kenneth Brian Hayman, State and Federal Government and Administrative Practice; Patricia Nelson, State and Federal Government and Administrative Practice; Daniel H. Thompson, State and Federal Government and Administrative Practice.

Appointed by Gov. Charlie Crist Warren Emo, 57, of Tallahassee, president of Emo Architects Inc., to the Board of Architecture and Interior Design.

Daryl D. Parks, 42, of Tallahassee, attorney and presi-

dent of Parks & Crump LLC, to the First District Court of Appeal Judicial Nominating Commission.

B AY Local Honors

Summit Bank, N.A., of Panama City, has earned the

highest rating for strength and stability from BauerFinancial, Inc., in Coral Gables, the nation’s bank rating firm. Earning Bauer’s coveted 5-Star Superior rating indicates that the bank, established in 2008,

photoS by DAVID EGGLESTON and courtesy boys town north florida, gulf power and pensacola bay area chamber of commerce

SoundBytes BUSINESS NEWS

is one of the strongest banks in the country.

A local foursome who won the Panama City Fellowship of Christian Athletes golf tournament — and then went on to win the FCA regional in Tallahassee — will compete for the statewide title in November during play at TPC Sawgrass. The team includes: Pat Perno from Beef O’Brady’s, Mike McQuire and Jason Wihite from Teco Gas and Todd Neves from Neves Media.

Coast Products was a winner in the Newcomer

category (for new-to-Florida companies that began operations in 2009) of the 2010 Governor’s Business Diversification Awards. The awards recognize successful job creation and distinctive community and investment efforts.

E MERALD C OAST Local Honors The Northwest Florida Coast Chapter of the Florida Public Relations Association recently named Walton County Sheriff Michael Adkinson as its “Person of the Year” for his use of public relations principles and contributions to the Walton County community.

Gulf Power received the Business-Education Partner-

ship Award from STEMflorida, a collaborative partnership funded by Workforce Florida to address STEM (science, technology, engineering and math) talent development, based on the company’s partnership with West Florida High School of Advanced Technology.

The Gulf Power Foundation has awarded a $200,000 grant to the University of West Florida to help equip the Electrical Engineering “Power Lab” and fund the curriculum.

The Pensacola Bay Area Chamber of Commerce was recognized at the 2010 STEM Business and Education Conference for leading the Northwest Florida Next Generation Learning Community, which coordinates the region’s business, education, and workforce development organizations in regional career academy implementation.

Pen Air Federal Credit Union has earned the highest

5-Star Superior rating for strength and stability from BauerFinancial, Inc., the nation’s leading independent bank and credit union rating and research firm.

Kathleen Logan, a Gulf Breeze author and consultant, and co-author Betsy Smith, have won a nation-

al award for their self-help book “Second Blooming for Women: Growing a Life that Matters After Fifty.”

Randy Wise Homes’ custom home in Niceville — the

Braziel Residence in Swift Creek — has been certified

by Gulf Power as an EarthCents Home for an energyefficient design and won the company an Aurora Award and a Grand Aurora Award for Best Energy Efficient Home from the Southeast Building Conference.

Colleen Kirsch of Baptist Hospital has been awarded

the President’s Award by the Pensacola Chapter of the Florida Public Relations Association. Laura Lee of the Pensacola Bay Area Convention & Visitors Bureau received the Member of the Year award. At the FPRA state conference, Michael English of Cox Media, the Pensacola chapter’s president-elect, was honored as the first recipient of the Joe Curley Rising Leader Award.

Four area lawyers have earned The Bar’s highest evaluation of attorneys’ competence and experience in one or more of the 24 areas of law approved

Interventional cardiologist Luther Carter has joined Baptist Health Care & Cardiology Consultants. Vascular surgeon J. Christian Allmon, M.D., has joined Baptist Medical Group. Baptist Health Care has hired David Dupuis as the new facility/property manager.

BURROUGHS

The Emerald Coast Conference Center has promoted Lindsay Gowing to the position of events supervisor.

teel

Michelle Tommey has joined Arbor Wealth Manage-

for certification by the Supreme Court of Florida.

They are: Kris Elliott, Elliott Law Firm (Gulf Breeze), Admiralty & Maritime Law; John Cottle, Becker & Poliakoff (Fort Walton Beach), Civil Trial; John C. Beroset, Beroset & Keene (Pensacola), Criminal Trial; Timothy Michael O’Brien, Levin Papantonio Thomas Mitchell Echsner Rafferty & Proctor P.A. (Pensacola), Civil Trial.

Promotions, Changes and Hirings The Gulf Power Board of Directors has named Scott Teel as vice president and chief financial officer and Michael L. Burroughs as vice president of generation and senior production officer.

Neal Wade has been named as senior vice president,

economic development, for The St. Joe Company.

He will be responsible for development of VentureCrossings Enterprise Centre, the region’s largest commercial development located adjacent to the newly opened Northwest Florida Beaches International Airport.

James N. Hizer is the

new chief executive officer of the Pensacola Bay Area Chamber of Commerce.

ment, LLC as client services manager.

Local Happenings Coldwell Banker Commercial United, REALTORS® has re-organized its sales organization for the Florida Panhandle and South Alabama. The new Eastern Region is located in Destin at 4458 Legendary Dr., Suite 100. Team members include: Jeff Burns, Greg Clauson, Charles Noonan, and Philip Sherrill. The Pensacola office on Spanish Trail and the Gulf Coast Support Center, previously on Palafox Place, have consolidated offices and are now located at 4475 Bayou Blvd.

Southern Wine & Spirits of Florida will be opening a

re-distribution center in Freeport. Southern recently closed on a six-acre parcel in Phase I of the Walton County Industrial Park.

Legendary Marine has become a Marquis Yacht sales

and full service center for the Northern Gulf Coast.

Granger Properties, LLC, has announced the arrival

of hhgregg, Inc. to the Pensacola area. Hhgregg has taken a long-term lease on the property located at 1210 Airport Boulevard, a 33,805-square-foot former Linens-N-Things building that stood vacant for more than two years.

Appointed by Gov. Charlie Crist Alan B. Bookman, 62, of Pensacola, attorney with Emmanuel, Sheppard & Condon, to the First District Court of Appeal Judicial Nominating Commission.

Hilton Sandestin Beach Golf Resort & Spa has named Matthew Price as director of sales.

HIZER direct Hancock Bank’s commercial banking initiatives in the Destin and Fort Walton area as commercial market president for Okaloosa and Walton counties and as regional commercial manager for Okaloosa, Walton, and Bay counties.

Bruce Vredenburg will

Kay Phelan was recently installed as new chapter

Gregory Wood, 48, of Pensacola, self-employed den-

tist, to the Practitioners Prescribing Patterns Advisory Panel.

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president of the Northwest Florida Coast Chapter of the Florida Public Relations Association. Other new members of the board of directors are: Jami Anderson Ray, president-elect/membership; Tracy Louthain, APR, accreditation and certification; Stacey Brady, finance; Lori Leath Smith, communications/PR; Valeria Lento, professional development; Jessica Proffitt, time and attendance; and Carley McMillian, secretary.

Local Happenings

New officers of the Pensacola Chapter of the Florida Public Relations Association are: president, Gordon Paulus, APR, Gulf Power Company; immediate past president, Karen Szulczewski, APR, Better Business Bureau of Northwest Florida; president-elect/ vice president membership, Michael English, Cox Media; secretary, Auriette Lindsey, Pensacola Little Theater; vice president, finance, Kris Thoma, United Way of Escambia County; vice president communications, Natalie Smith, Waterfront Rescue Mission; vice president programs, Stacey Kostevicki, Studer Group; vice president toolbox, Dina Justice, Justice Marketing Group; vice president image awards, Laura Lee, Pensacola Bay Area CVB; vice president networking, Whitney Vaughan Fike, Fiesta of Five Flags; vice president accreditation and certification, Caron Sjöberg, APR, CPRC, Ideawörks.

TEAM Santa Rosa Economic Development Council, Inc. has received $175,000 from the U.S. De-

Clearwire Corporation, a leading provider of wire-

less broadband services and operator of the largest 4G network in the country, is expanding its East Milton customer care service center facility at the Santa Rosa Industrial Park. The expansion of 500 jobs adds $15 million in annual payroll to Santa Rosa County’s economy, for a total of $30 million in annual payroll to the county from this company.

partment of Agriculture that will enable TEAM’s Revolving Loan Fund Committee to offer loans to local farmers desiring a transition to specialty crop production and to other rural entities, including Panhandle Fresh Marketing Association. Agriculture is one of Santa Rosa County’s top industry sectors.

Appointed by Gov. Charlie Crist

Alice G. Pate, 50, of Graceville, registered nurse with

Jackson County Health Department, to the Campbellton-Graceville Hospital Corporation.

To include your business news, simply e-mail us at editor@850businessmagazine.com.

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The Last Word

Thanks to all of you who have embraced our effort to help business interests in Northwest Florida better communicate with each other. Hopefully, you’ve learned something interesting about others who live and work in our great region of the state and, somewhere along the way, maybe even picked up a few tips on how to make your business run better or become more profitable. (If so, please don’t hesitate to let us know.)

I’m proud to announce that this summer — for the second year in a row — 850 was honored with a first-place 2010 Charlie award from the Florida Magazine Association as the Best Written Magazine in the 50,000-circulation and under category.

We were also honored this year with a second place award as the Best Overall Magazine in the 20,000-circulation and under category. (Last year, in our first year of publication, we took first place, so we’ll have to try harder next year!) Kudos for this go out to many, but most especially 850’s lead designer, Tisha Crews Keller, and staff photographer, Scott Holstein.

Wow. What accomplishments for a new publication.

Thanks to Publisher Brian Rowland, who had the foresight to see the need for a magazine that focused on the business of Northwest Florida and the fortitude to kick it off even as the Great Recession loomed on the horizon.

Our aim at 850 is to bring you information that is relevant to you and your business. That’s why we selected the governor’s race as the topic for our cover story in this issue.

The Nov. 2 general election marks the first time in recent history that Florida’s business leaders have the option of choosing one of their own to lead the state — no matter which political party’s candidate they vote for. Alex Sink and Rick Scott both have a wealth of private business experience that will bring a no-nonsense approach to a state budget likely to be reeling from a $2.5 billion deficit next year.

Scott and Sink know what it takes to run a business — both have signed the front side of a paycheck — and a state government presents many of the same challenges as a major corporation. As TaxWatch President Dominic Calabro so aptly observed, both

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candidates know that, “Business leaders have to perform good to look good while politicians think they just have to look good.”

Hopefully our story will give you, as a business leader, a little better overview of where the candidates stand on issues that are important to you.

As we begin our third year, we have some big plans. One of our most exciting ventures kicked off with the new school year this fall, when we announced the 850 Business Magazine’s Collegiate Entrepreneur Invitational. By the time you read this, undergraduates in our region’s public universities and colleges will hopefully be busy putting together their proposed business plans to compete for a $5,000 grand prize and a meeting with local venture capitalists. The winner will be featured on the April cover of 850.

This contest is our way of encouraging the dreams of the budding entrepreneurs who will become tomorrow’s business leaders in our region. Our goal is to reward new, independent ventures and provide incentives for students to start their business in Northwest Florida. If you know an undergraduate who may be interested, have them check out the entry requirements on our website, 850businessmagazine.com.

I’d also encourage you to submit your story ideas about happenings in our region — or suggestions for established as well as upand-coming business leaders we should consider profiling in the pages of 850. And, if you have tidbits of news to share, including awards, hirings and promotions, please send them our way for inclusion in our Sound Bytes section.

To our readers, I again give our thanks for welcoming 850 into your offices and homes. Here’s to another exciting year!

LINDA KLEINDIENST, EDITOR lkleindienst@rowlandpublishing.com

photo by scott holstein

That old adage about time is absolutely true.

It flies. And it’s hard to believe that, with this issue, we are kicking off 850’s third year in print.

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