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Coffee Talk
+ Lee development
... in 2014?
Investors betting on future residential land development in Lee County may have to wait a little longer than anticipated, if a recent deal there is any indication.
Consider the contract Alico revamped with Orlando-based residential developer Bobby Ginn. Back in 2005, when everyone still had stars in their eyes, Ginn agreed to buy 4,538 acres in Lee County.
Originally, Ginn's largest payment on that contract would have been due in September 2011. Now, that date has been pushed back three years to September 2014.
More surprising, Ginn did not exercise its option on a second contract and agreed to give Alico a deed in lieu of foreclosure on a third deal. These two latter deals total 980 acres near Florida Gulf Coast University.
+ Are you in?
Ad campaign hopes so
What do a police chief, a bombastic Hall of Fame TV sports personality and the president of an arts and design college have in common?
They are all in. That is, Sarasota police chief Peter Abbot, ESPN college basketball announcer and Lakewood Ranch resident Dick Vitale and Larry Thompson, president of the Ringling College of Art and Design in Sarasota, are all in for the Greater Sarasota Chamber of Commerce's newest ad campaign. In the coming weeks, that trio, in addition to several other faces, will be heard and seen preaching the "I'm in" tagline, the two words chamber executives hope will result in aiding an economic recovery for the area.
The promotions, a run of TV, radio and print spots, are part of Sarasota Tomorrow, the chamber's 10-month-old initiative designed to promote a positive business climate in the greater community.
The chamber hopes the high-end TV and radio ads, assembled by Sarasota-based CAP Creative, will become the public face of what's been a mostly behind the scenes effort that raised $2.6 million for Sarasota Tomorrow. More than 130 Sarasota area businesses and individuals have contributed five-year pledges to the campaign, some as much as $20,000 a year. (The Observer Group, parent of the Review, has contributed $25,000 over five years to the campaign.)
The "I'm in" tag line is a play on the word 'in,' say chamber executives, suggesting everyone, in business and beyond, needs to become involved or get personally invested to help Sarasota survive and even prosper during the economic downturn.
Of course, the downturn wasn't nearly as severe in December, when fundraising began, as it is now. Back then, some local business leaders thought of the campaign as more of a lobbying effort to combat what many perceived to be a growing anti-business and anti-growth sentiment in many communities and neighborhoods. But with the continued slide of the real estate market, and, more recently, the credit and Wall Street crisis, the campaign has taken on a greater sense of urgency.
At a recent press conference announcing the "I'm in" campaign, John Cranor, incoming chairman of the chamber's board of directors, says Sarasota Tomorrow is no longer only about businesses. Now, says Cranor, "it's a broad community initiative."
+ Winning changes everything,
on and off the field
What a difference a year makes at the ol' ballgame.
After years of low attendance, on-field disappointment and mediocre merchandise sales, the Tampa Bay Rays, sans "Devil" and complete with new uniforms, are the story of the year in Major League Baseball. The bandwagon is loaded.
But besides sports performance and mohawk haircuts, it is an emerging business success story and evolving political soap opera as well this year.
Facing a political showdown with city officials and some residents, the team earlier this year withdrew plans for a new baseball park on the waterfront in downtown St. Petersburg, despite a "Build the Ballpark" campaign.
But now, with an American League East championship in hand, that move seems like a long time ago in a baseball market far, far away.
It's truly a new day in Tampa Bay. The Rays have more bargaining power - and much more club value - for a real estate deal that might relocate the club from Tropicana Field to a new open-air, more traditional ballpark in a couple of years. The club may want to strike a deal when its value and fan interest is high.
Ironically, with the on-field success will also come an accounting and management challenge: Keeping a talented team together with salaries - and egos - that are likely to rise.
+ Ayn Rand
for every student
Every student at Florida Gulf Coast University who signs up for the new free-markets course that will be taught there will receive a copy of Atlas Shrugged, the pro-capitalist novel by Ayn Rand.
They can thank BB&T, the North Carolina-based banking company that recently pledged $600,000 to fund the BB&T Distinguished Professorship in Free Enterprise at the Lutgert College of Business. With a 50% match from the state, that amount totals $900,000.
The university will develop a new course for business majors that examines the philosophical basis for free-market economics and the connection between capitalism and economic well-being. Once chosen, the professor will also speak on the topic and start a book club that focuses on free enterprise.
Considering all the anti-capitalist rhetoric in Washington and Tallahassee these days, the university may become an island of free-enterprise thinking.
+ Incumbent congressman
builds big lead in one poll
One of the most contested congressional races in the country taking place in Sarasota and Manatee counties might not be much of a contest after all, if a new poll is accurate.
The poll, commissioned by SurveyUSA, a non-partisan opinion research firm that conducts election issue surveys mostly for local TV stations, pegs U.S. Rep. Vern Buchanan, R-Longboat Key, as a big winner in his re-election campaign against Christine Jennings. The survey, which polled 900 adults between Sept. 30 and Oct. 1, has Buchanan picking up 49% of the vote to Jennings' 33%.
Jennings, a onetime Sarasota banker, ran an unsuccessful campaign for the 13th District seat against Buchanan in 2006. The campaign for the seat, however, didn't end after Election Day, as Jennings contested the close results through a recount, in the courts and through a House of Representatives review. The current campaign, for the seat that includes most of Manatee and Sarasota counties and parts of Charlotte County, has included a flurry of negative ads from both sides.
The poll results show Buchanan, an entrepreneur who founded multimillion-dollar companies in the printing and auto sales industries, doing especially well in cross-party voting: If the election were held Oct. 2, the poll results stated, 19% of Democrats would vote for him. Buchanan is also at or above 60% among people identifying themselves in the following categories: Conservatives, regular churchgoers, pro-life and those who earn more than $50,000 a year.
Buchanan leads Jennings and the Independent party candidate, Jan Schneider, by a 3:2:1 ratio. SurveyUSA, which was founded in 1990 by a former Miami Herald editor and reporter, conducted the poll for WFLA-TV in Tampa and WFTX-TV in Cape Coral.
+ Florida business
hopes to attract neighbors
The Florida real estate market is really hot after all.
At least it is to hundreds of eastern Europeans hoping to capitalize on the combination of the weak U.S. dollar and the rise of Florida foreclosures.
And a pair of Sarasota attorneys, in addition to well-known local real estate executive Ian Black, are hoping to capitalize on those possible buyers, who are coming from places such as Prague, Slovakia and other Central and Eastern European countries and cities.
Black has joined Alan Tannenbaum and Ivo Travnicek, of the Sarasota-based law firm Levin Tannenbaum, in founding Florida Venture Partners, a firm designed to serve as the managing general partner for foreign companies, investment funds and individual investors looking to get a Sunshine State steal.
Travnicek, a Czech Republic native who lived in Indiana before relocating to Sarasota, is the catalyst for the company. He's fluent in five languages, including Czech and Slovak, and has taken several trips back to his homeland and the surrounding area over the past year to meet with possible clients. (See Review, May 2, 2008.)
And Tannenbaum, who specializes in real estate and construction law, spent several years in the 1990s working with an immersion program run by the University of North Florida that brought Czech and Slovak businessmen to Florida.
The Florida Venture Partners trio is making their first official visit to Eastern Europe, including Prague and Bratislava, Slovakia, next month.
+ Goodbye, bulletin boards, Hello, eDean
The days of posters and paper stapled and tacked to cork college bulletin boards outside of class buildings and in libraries and dining halls may be quickly coming to an end, thanks to a two-year-old Tampa technology company.
Electronic Digital Media, which employs 10 people, has installed eDean: Thirty 40-inch LCD screens which broadcast messages at the University of South Florida and two at the University of Tampa.
Installation is pending at Saint Leo University, Manatee Community College and Florida Tech. eDean stands for Electronic Dispatch for Emergency and Academic Notices. EDM President Michael Garcia is a USF grad.
The screens display news, weather, academic calendars, performing arts schedules, social calendars, sports schedules and special event times and locations.
eDean is provided to the universities at no cost. Community businesses support the system with their sponsorship and receive a business message on the displays in return.
Companies can support a local charity by running messages for the charity on the system in exchange for their sponsorship dollars.
eDean was used this past summer when a man with a rifle on USF's main campus caused the university to activate an emergency message on the system. For 30 minutes, students and faculty were alerted on the new display that there was the possibility of danger and to avoid the area outside Cooper Hall and surrounding buildings.
The emergency was cancelled when it was determined that the man carrying a rifle was an ROTC student carrying a practice rifle. The system carrying the alert was immediately updated.
+ Put away the Capeopoly
until next year
Capeopoly, the annual Cape Coral confab that used to draw hundreds of real estate business executives, was suspended this year because of the economic downturn.
At Capeopoly, developers and brokers highlighted new developments in Cape Coral, the biggest city in Lee County. "We don't have much to talk about this year," says Joe Mazurkiewicz, executive director of the Cape Coral-based Council for Progress Foundation Inc.
But in its place, the council is organizing a yearlong series of planning meetings open to the public that it hopes will result in better accommodation of growth when it returns to the city. It plans to present those recommendations to the city at the next Capeopoly meeting in October 2009.
Mazurkiewicz hopes the city will then adopt "reliable, consistent rules and regulations" that will better accommodate growth when the real estate market turns.
Meetings over fondue?
Tired of using the sterile corporate conference room for another monthly sales update meeting?
Garry Smyth wants you to come over, have a glass of wine and unwind for a two-hour dinner conference at The Melting Pot, the Tampa-based fondue restaurant chain, which now features private meeting rooms in its newer locations.
Smyth, 44, is the new national director of brand development for the company. Part of his new initiatives include more business meetings at the 138-location chain. The company also has 31 new locations in development.
Smyth came to the Melting Pot after serving on the creative team for Three J Hospitality in Fort Lauderdale. The company helped develop a 1,300-seat live music venue and a restaurant-bar called America's Backyard in Fort Lauderdale.
Along with learning the company brand and understanding the franchise community, Smyth also wants to increase the power of The Melting Pot's one-million-person customer loyalty program, Club Fondue, through email. Another new initiative will focus on using The Melting Pot for non-traditional special occasions, such as Sweet 16 parties, bringing in a younger market. Anniversaries and older birthdays are already big at the restaurant.
Smyth said the company is comfortable with its reputation as a special occasion restaurant. It doesn't need to cycle customers through its doors a dozen times a year.
"We're a two-hour meal," he says. "It's one we pride ourselves in doing well. If it was something you went to several times a year, the special nature would wear off."
Overall sales have been flat for the first nine months of this year, versus the same period last year - which he sees as positive.
"It is good news, very encouraging for us, in spite of the economic challenges," Smyth says. "Most people still, despite of everything going on in their lives, still celebrate birthdays and anniversaries and we're the choice for that."
BY THE NUMBERS
Gulf Coast Airport Traffic for August
August August YTD YTD
Total Passengers 2007 2008 change 2007 2008 change
Tampa International 1,553,184 1,408,939 -9.29% 13,308,899 12,983,985 -2.44%
Southwest Florida Int. 488,539 448,667 -8.16% 5,784,209 5,488,905 -5.11%
Sarasota Bradenton Int. 99,695 97,760 -1.94% 1,114,483 1,114,873 0.03%
St. Pete-Clearwater Int. 61,134 48,760 -20.24% 523,073 614,036 17.39%
TOTAL 2,202,552 2,004,126 -9.01% 20,730,664 20,201,799 -2.55%
August August YTD YTD
Cargo/Freight 2007 2008 change 2007 2008 change
Tampa International 18,635,840 17,912,568 -3.88% 133,232,713 143,102,462 7.41%
Southwest Florida Int. 3,306,823 2,464,407 -25.48% 26,619,570 22,028,863 -17.25%
Sarasota Bradenton Int. 35,107 32,204 -8.27% 357,756 331,262 -7.41%
St. Pete-Clearwater Int. 5,164,632 2,814,803 -45.50% 39,964,436 29,773,653 -25.50%
TOTAL 27,142,402 23,223,982 -14.44% 200,174,475 195,236,240 -2.47%
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