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Coffee Talk (Sara/Mana)
More important than money?
Sarasota Business Center is pushing a summer special that's just a little different from the typical real estate promotion. The company is pushing office/warehouse-suite sales this July with the added inducement of a free cruise for two to a destination of the buyer's choice.
"People are definitely calling in," says Courtney Milligan, director of marketing for the center. "The deal just started on Monday (July 18) so we don't have any contracts yet, but we definitely have more calls than normal."
Milligan estimates that prospects are up by more than 25% since the center announced the offer. "We were trying to think of something more creative," Milligan says. "Usually, we just offer cash incentives. I think this is really motivating people that may have been thinking of buying to begin with, business owners who may have been waiting for their leases to expire. I think giving people something like $2,000 off the purchase price doesn't really make people (close) the purchase. I think the idea of a cruise just sticks with people a little more."
The company has two business park locations - at Interstate 75 and Fruitville Road and I-75 and Jacaranda Boulevard near Venice.
Arena alive?
Ever since a construction stoppage earlier this year killed the possibility of the Lakewood Ranch hockey arena opening for the 2005 hockey season, rumors have circulated that the project was dead. Larry Kish, senior vice president of DVA Sports, suggests good news for the project could come as soon as next week. He told Coffee Talk that barring a catastrophe work likely would start again in September. "We're alive," Kish says. "But there is still a lot of work to do between now and (next week)."
L-3 gifts $100,000 to USF
L-3 Communications Aviation Recorders has contributed $100,000 to the University of South Florida Sarasota-Manatee for the Crosley Campus Center scheduled to open in fall 2006. In recognition, the college says the second-floor lobby will bear the company's name.
"The convenience of having USF Sarasota-Manatee here in our own community provides the opportunity for businesses like ours to grow," says Bruce Coffey, president of L-3. "It is important for area businesses to have access to a local pool of college graduates." L-3 currently has two USF students in its internship program.
Matching funds under the Alec P. Courtelis Facility Enhancement Challenge grant from the Florida Division of Colleges and Universities brings the value of the gift to $200,000.
L-3 is leading manufacturer of black-box recorders for airplanes, boats and other vessels and other equipment.
Attention: Medical malpractice attorneys
Almost 15% of Florida physicians who answered recent queries from regulators could not provide state-required proof that they can pay a medical malpractice claim.
In May, the Department of Health quietly released the results of an audit of 577 randomly selected physicians from a group of MDs who renewed their two-year licenses to practice medicine in Florida between 2002 and 2004. The department says the sample represented about 3% of all doctors renewing during that period.
Forty-seven physicians did not respond to two letters from the state Board of Medicine. Of the rest, the board determined that 457 physicians were in compliance with the financial responsibility requirement.
With certain exceptions, doctors must have professional-liability insurance, an escrow account or letter of credit to show they can pay a civil judgment.
Physicians who practice without insurance, known in the profession as "going bare," are required to post notices in the reception areas of their offices to inform patients.
There were 57 doctors going bare of those who responded to the audit. But Board of Medicine auditors found just one physician who wasn't notifying patients of the MD's no-insurance status when the inspectors visited offices.
Where discrepancies or deficiencies were found, the auditors referred those physicians to a consumer services office for further review and possible discipline.
No housing crisis yet
Richard Bove has weighed in on the much-debated housing bubble.
The Pinellas Park-based banking industry analyst is rather sanguine about the situation, saying the severity of home prices and predicted dire consequences of them is overblown.
"For the vast majority of home owners, current housing prices are not a problem," writes Bove, taking a national perspective.
Using data from the National Association of Realtors, Bove says home mortgage costs have only recently spiked above 20% of median family income. That's quite low when Bove looks back over the last 25 years.
Principal and interest costs were much higher as a percentage of median family income in the early 1980s. Mortgage costs were up near 40% of family income. That was due to a combination of two factors inherited from the 1970s: a run-up in housing prices and soaring interest rates.
In recent years, we are experiencing similar price appreciation but have yet to endure a reappearance of double-digit mortgage rates.
That's why the Punk Ziegel & Co. analyst insists home prices are still comparatively affordable in many of America's hottest real estate markets.
With median family income currently at $56,719 a year and the median price for a single-family home at $203,800, Bove calculates mortgage rates would have to climb to 8% before the typical household couldn't afford a 30-year fixed-rate loan with a 20% down payment.
The average rate for a 30-year fixed mortgage was 5.66% during the week that ended July 14, according to Freddie Mac.
Joining big lobby
A Sarasota bank executive is taking a more active role in advocating for his industry.
Charles Murphy, president and chief executive of the Bank of Commerce, has signed up for a tour on the government relations council of the American Bankers Association. The $234 million-asset Bank of Commerce celebrates its fifth birthday in September.
The bank council, more than 100 executives from banks of various sizes, meets twice yearly to chart the association's strategy for pushing its agenda on Capital Hill. Fortune magazine recently named the bank association as one of the 25 most powerful lobbies in Washington.
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