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Coffee Talk
+ Homebuilder adds commercial component
Coffee Talk smells a trend brewing. On Nov. 10, we reported on Sarasota-based luxury homebuilder John Cannon's plans to open a commercial construction business, partly to make up for decreasing revenues stemming from the residential building slump.
Now Britton Williams of Bradenton-based Bruce Williams Homes is entering, or at least returning, to the commercial fray. Just like Cannon, Williams is a past finalist for the Review's annual Entrepreneur of the Year Award and well respected in the Gulf Coast homebuilding community.
The firm will officially be called BW General Contractors. Williams says it's not so much a new firm as it's a return to an old one: In the mid '80s, for a period of about five years, the company was split down the middle between commercial and residential building. Its commercial focus was mostly in Pinellas and Hillsborough counties, working on a range of projects, such as industrial parks, dental offices, restaurants and car dealerships.
During the past 15 years, the company has focused primarily on residential building, save for a few in-house projects, such as its Bradenton design center. The focus on residential was timed well with the market boom, and the company grew significantly the first few years of this decade, as did many of its peers. Revenues increased 86.5% from 2003 to 2004, from $47.9 million to $89.2 million. It increased another 13.6 % in 2005, to $101.4 million.
Williams declined to give specifics on what commercial projects the firm plans to take on, saying he's close to finalizing some deals.
Williams says a return to commercial building would have happened regardless of the residential market slump, adding that he recently hired some new managers with this division in mind. Still, he concedes, "there's no question we hope it does pick up the slack from residential."
PEOs shine in Sunshine State
A recent report shows that Bradenton professional employer organization Gevity HR is the largest PEO in Florida and the third largest in the country.
But the report sheds more light on Florida's dominance in the industry.
Ten of the top 25 PEOs in the country are in Florida, and four of the top 10, ranked by gross revenue, are in the Tampa Bay area, including Gevity, FrankCrum Inc. of Clearwater; and SCI Cos. and Advantec, both of Tampa, according to Los Altos, Calif.-based Staffing Industry Analysts Inc.
Gross revenue at publicly held Gevity increased 10.8% in 2005 to $4.77 billion and net revenue increased 4% to $608,797 in the same period. (Gevity stock trades on the Nasdaq.)
There are about 700 PEOs in the nation, but only 18 have 18,000 or more worksite employees.
Top Florida PEOs by Net Revenue
Employer Net Revenue Net Revenue Percentage
Company clients '04* '05* change
1. Gevity, Bradenton 8,226 $585,481 $608,797 4%
2. SCI Cos., Tampa 740 $121,000 $156,000 28.9%
3. FrankCrum Inc.,
Clearwater 2,700 $111,842 $129,064 15.4%
4. Oasis Outsourcing,
W. Palm Beach 1,809 $67,498 $73,936 9.5%
5. AlphaStaff Group
Inc., Miami 566 $63,449 $81,961 29.2%
6. Selective HR
Solutions, Sarasota 1,350 $52,944 $60,227 13.8%
7. Advantec, Tampa 512 $35,390 $35,885 1.4%
8. Landrum Professional
Employer Services,
Pensacola 518 $51,505 $54,159 5.2%
9. Progressive Employer
Services Inc., Sarasota 1,326 $20,738 $29,163 40.6%
10. The Nelco Cos.,
Bradenton 1,000 n/a n/a n/a
Source: Staffing Industry Analysts Inc. *Thousands.
+ No more 'poppycock' on Gulf drilling
Members of Florida's largest nonprofit business group, Associated Industries, spoke at a Nov. 17 public hearing before the U.S. Interior Department's Minerals Management Service, urging the government to open two million acres in the Gulf of Mexico to oil and gas drilling.
"Despite the recent decrease in gas prices, sticking our head in the ocean mud and unilaterally denying ourselves access is not going to help us decrease our foreign dependence on oil nor is it going to deliver us to the promised land of renewable energy," says Barney Bishop, president/CEO of Associated Industries of Florida.
The pro-business group says an October poll shows that two-thirds of Floridians favor drilling in the eastern Gulf of Mexico.
"Wholesale natural gas prices have more than tripled over the last five years, causing financial hardships to businesses and households across Florida," Bishop says.
The solution, he says, is to increase the energy supply "to tap into the proven supply of energy in the Eastern Gulf waters, in a safe and environmentally sound manner."
The group also supports the building of more nuclear energy plants, all forms of green energy, including solar, wind, biomass, hydrogen and wave action technology and increased ethanol production.
In the meantime, the country needs more fossil fuel, he says, adding that to think that green energy, also called alternative energies, will see in great production in the near future is "pure poppycock."
"The bottom line is, we need fossil fuel," Bishop says. "Not because it is the best alternative, but because it is the best alternative that we have right now."
+ Is the worst over for real estate market?
Inventory is up 180% from a year ago and sales are down, way down, but the Pinellas Realtor Organization says the housing market is stabilizing.
To support this stance, the group says month-to-month comparisons show no significant increases in the number of houses and condos for sale since the first quarter of this year.
Residential sale prices remained relatively steady throughout 2006 in the range of $199,900 to $223,500. And single-family home sales volume increased 4.5% in October from the previous month.
However, year-to-year comparisons remain much lower.
"Still, it is not realistic to compare recent sales prices with that of last year's booming market: we need to take a long-term approach to analyzing prices, which are now becoming more sustainable," states the most recent report by the 8,000-member association.
All this is great news for people looking to buy a home. Not so great for Realtors and sellers.
Association members are concerned about the property tax and insurance crises that are "weighing heavily on consumers and the housing sector," states the report.
The group urges state leaders to act quickly to provide relief.
+ Gates Foundation picks up WCI shares
Carl Icahn isn't the only billionaire acquiring shares of Bonita Springs-based homebuilder WCI Communities.
Apparently, so is Microsoft Founder Bill Gates.
The Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation Trust bought 887,000 shares of WCI, or 2.1% of the shares outstanding, for about $15.5 million. Gates' charitable foundation acquired the shares of several other builders, too, recent securities filing show. These included Beazer Homes, Lennar and Pulte, among others.
The Gates foundation has a $32 billion endowment, including $1.6 billion from the first installment of the $40-billion gift from legendary investor Warren Buffett.
The shares of WCI shot up 19% over the three days following the news that Icahn and the Gates foundation had purchased shares of the struggling homebuilder.
+ Money people set to make more money
Finance chiefs and other top executives responsible for complying with federal accounting requirements are in line for some hefty raises in 2007, a leading staffing services firm reports. Top bankers, information technology managers and auditors will also have thicker wallets and purses.
The survey, complied by Menlo Park, Calif.-based Robert Half International as part of its annual survey guide for the finance and technology fields, reports public companies continue to grapple with the process behind meeting the Sarbanes-Oxley Act accounting rules.
"Because of the limited supply of skilled accounting professionals, employers today are offering premium compensation to attract and retain top talent," Robert Half International CEO Max Messmer says.
Robert Half International staffing and recruiting managers conducted the survey throughout 2006 by speaking with employers and employees nationwide. Among the findings:
• Salaries for chief compliance officers with large companies - $250 million-plus in annual sales - will go up an average of a 14.4%, to yearly salaries of $132,500 to $181,250;
• Internal audit managers of large companies will see base salary raises of 5.8%, to an annual salary range of $77,500 to $101,500;
• Senior information technology managers at large companies will receive average starting salaries of $85,000 to $114,500 in 2007, up 5% from 2006.
• Senior managers and directors of midsize accounting firms will receive average starting salaries of $82,000 to $120,000 in 2007, up 7.6% from 2006.
For a free copy of the 2007 Salary Guide, go to www.roberthalf.com or call (800) 474-4253.
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