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Reuben Ben-Aire, CEO and president of our Technology Innovation Awards winner MadahCom Inc., needs to find new employees. Quickly.
"If you would ask me my biggest concern today: It's hiring people," he told Coffee Talk. "We would like to hire 10 people today."
The company, which currently employs about 60 people, is seeking employees at every level, from installers to high-tech programmers. He says the company's demand for installers of its security system in war zones is so great that the company is paying a whopping $5,000 a week. Ben-Aire's company, which provides public warning systems for homeland security, is expected to grow by $15 million in 2005.
Argus awards dinner
The Argus Foundation is preparing again to honor a pair of Sarasota's business greats. This year the business organization is presenting Lifetime Achievement Awards to past Ringling School of Art and Design president Arland Christ-Janer and contractor/developer Ronald Specter, who is being honored posthumously. The event is being held at 6 p.m. on Thursday, Nov. 10 at Serendipity at The Country Club of Sarasota, 3600 Torrey Pines Blvd., Sarasota.
In addition to Janer's lengthy tenure as president of Ringling and before that New College, he has also played a significant role in revitalizing the North Tamiami Trail as one of founders of Gateway 2000. Specter is best known for developing the iconic and at the time controversial Wachovia Plaza at 1800 Second Street in downtown; he was also instrumental in consolidating the city and county fire departments. Prior to his death, while Specter was battling cancer he was actively engaged in keeping Sarasota County governments offices located downtown.
The cost to attend the dinner is $95 per person and reservations are required. Argus is also offering opportunities for friends of the honorees to print notes in the program. Contact Sharlene Hillier at 365-4886 for more information.
Luxury residential broker John R. Wood expands to Fort Myers
John R. Wood Realtors, a Naples-based luxury residential brokerage firm, has set its sights on Fort Myers and plans to open its first office there in a few weeks.
"We've seen Fort Myers change a lot and become a luxury market," says Philip Wood, the brokerage's president and chief executive officer.
The office will be located at the corner of Summerlin Road and San Carlos Boulevard and will open in about two weeks. Initially, 50 agents will work out of the office. Wood says the office's location will help agents sell properties in places such as Fort Myers Beach, Sanibel, Gulf Harbour and Cape Coral.
The news comes on the heels that another luxury real estate firm, Michael Saunders & Co. in Sarasota, is also expanding to Fort Myers. Saunders' office will be located near the corner of Summerlin and Pine Ridge roads.
What's in a name?
Far be it for us to be critical, but we have questions about the new name for Sarasota News & Books. Coffee Talk has heard the bookstore's new owners, Derek Filcoff and Thomas Coelho of The Real Estate Law Firm, plan to rename the store One Three Four One.
The new name of the landmark store – which will also serve as the new ownership name – references both the bookstore's address on Main Street in downtown and will be used to brand certain sections of the store, including the coffee shop and art gallery.
Filcoff and Coelho purchased the business assets of the bookstore from Dick and Caren Lobo, while another group, Bon Eau Enterprises LLC, purchased the seven-story 30,000-square-foot Palm Tower of Sarasota that houses the bookstore for $6.6 million.
Quay updated
Irish American Properties has unveiled more specifics and renderings for the proposed Sarasota Quay redevelopment. At a neighborhood meeting, Quay officials described the proposed project as a maximum of 120,000 square feet of retail, 25,000 square feet of office space, 270 hotel units and 725 condominium units. The project description also suggested that the Quay ownership is in discussions with the owners of the Hyatt to acquire rights over the hotel's southern parking lot and other property.
Older and richer men like the economy
Consumers in the Southeast are more optimistic about the future of the economy than elsewhere in the country, according to a recent survey by RBC Financial Group.
In our region, older and wealthier men are the most upbeat.
RBC, a unit of the Royal Bank of Canada with retail banking operations on the Gulf Coast, says men who are 45 years or older in the Southeast are more likely to rate the economy as strong. So are college graduates and those who belong to a household with annual income of at least $75,000.
But even in the sunny Southeast, economic optimism is beginning to fade. Perceptions about the economy slipped in every category of the RBC survey between June and September.
"Our customers and the communities we serve throughout the Southeast continue to be positive about the economy," says Scott Custer, president and chief executive of RBC Centura Bank. "But the hurricanes and high gas prices have understandably made people more skeptical about the future."
Unhealthy state of medical insurance
Employer-provided medical insurance is doing a slow disappearing act in Florida, according to a new report from the Economic Policy Institute.
Five years ago, 52.9% of private-sector wage and salary employees were covered by a workplace-based health insurance policy. By last year, the coverage level had fallen to 51.9%. That figures out to be about 52,000 Florida workers who have lost their workplace-based medical insurance since 2000.
The Sunshine State is not alone. The insurance coverage losses in Arkansas and Virginia were above 6 percentage points, in keeping with a general national trend.
Across the country, the institute notes "a distinct shift from insurance coverage through the private sector to insurance coverage through the public sector, particularly for children."
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