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Coffee Talk (Sara/Mana edition)
Behind The Donaldis dumpster dive
If the Advertising Federation of the Suncoastis next guest speaker were to promote the event you would sure want to see it. It would likely feature a mixture of people, such as Donald Trump, Bob Dole, the Osbournes or Sean Connery, along with humor and inventiveness.
On Dec. 2, the Ad Fed will host Jimmy Siegel, vice chairman and senior creative director of BBDO in New York, at an 11:30 a.m. luncheon at the University Club in the Bank of America Building, 1605 Main St., Sarasota. Siegel, who joined the firm in 1979 as a junior copywriter, is one of the creative minds behind Trumpis garbage romp for Visa, transforming Charlie Sheen into his father, Martin Sheen, and several of the Pepsi Twist, AOL and Office Depot ads.
Siegel also conceived the iSmarter Investorsi campaign for Charles Schwab, which won a Silver Lion at Cannes. And consumers chose it as one of Americais most popular campaigns, according to USA TODAYis weekly iAd Meteri survey.
Siegel will discuss iCelebrities in Advertising.i No surprise there.
Cost is $17 for members and $20 for others. Call (941) 360-8444 by Nov. 29 to make reservations.
Love thy neighbor
Itis not often you hear government officials praising developers. In local politics, the two get along as well as fighting cats. But in a recent discussion with Sarasota County Commissioner Shannon Staub on new urbanist and 2050 villages, talk turned to Henry Rodriguez.
Rodriguez, the developer who sold Osprey property for a Wal-Mart Supercenter, filed a site plan to develop 60,000 square feet of mainly retail boutiques and more than 532 residential units at Bay Street Village and Town Center next door. Rodriguez is known for using a community-responsive and neighborhood-meeting intensive development planning style.
Staub heaped nice words on Rodriguez, saying, iA planning commissioner told me that iHenry uses eLove they neighbori as the overlay. Thatis about right.i
The Right Price
Could the Sarasota Quay project get any larger? The rumor mill says yes and developers are looking south.
Patrick Kelly, of Irish American Properties, confirmed there is some truth to rumors that his company is buying the land for The Metropolitan at U.S. 41 and Gulf Stream.
iWe are in discussions with The Met,i Kelly says. iNothing has been finalized though. We would love to have that property to develop on.i
However, Richard Zipes, the planned developer of The Metropolitan, president of Omni Development Co. suggests otherwise.
iIf we are o itis news to me,i he says. iPaddy is a wonderful guy though.i
Asked if he would sell for the right price, Zipes says, iYou know the answer to that.i
In search of noise
Ray Villares, co-owner of GravityFree Internet Business Solutions and a significant force on the Sarasota Chamber of Commerce, has found his new home o in St. Petersburg.
Villares, 29, asserted that he wasnit leaving Sarasota o he plans to still lease a room in the city from a friend four nights a week o but says his choice of St. Petersburg was primarily based on the cityis nightlife.
iI wanted a little more noise,i Villares says. iI wanted to get out of my house and into more downtown living. St. Peteis downtown is much more vibrant than ours. Thereis more diversity, more noise.i
Then there is the bang for the buck element. Villares was able to purchase a new condo with hardwood floors, two blocks from the water and a block from the Bayfront for less than $250,000. Although, the view is of the music venue Jannus Landing, Villares says it plays into the downtown vibrancy heis looking for.
So what does Villaresi move mean for GravityFree? Nothing, really. In the long-term, through Villares says that the growth of the company will likely force it to move out of the city.
iHopefully we will be relocating to Lakewood Ranch,i Villares says. iRight now three fourths of our people live outside of Sarasota. We will probably have our headquarters in Sarasota County, but in the worst case it would be on the Manatee County side of Lakewood Ranch.i
Villares says the single biggest reason for relocating GravityFree is the cost of living in Sarasota and its impact on recruitment.
iIive lost two developers to Jacksonville this year,i Villares says. iWhen they can live 45 minutes outside of a big city and make more money, itis a hard sell. The creative class is (also) not sold on sun and sand; they want a place to go out.i
But those moves do not mean Villares has changed his mind about Sarasota. iI love Sarasota,i he adds, explaining he still plans to remain closely involved in the community and with the Chamber of Commerce.
Last month, Villares was awarded the 2004 Sarasota County Chamber of Commerce Chairmanis Cup. The award is presented to an individual who best represents the leadership and community service philosophy of the chamber.
Venom ER
Nothing like calling on a snake doctor to make your case. But thatis exactly what lawyer Karen Wasson did earlier this month in a medical malpractice trial against two Bayfront Medical Center physicians.
Wasson represents Lakewood Ranch couple Victor and Maria Lema, whose 2-year-old son, Derek, died in 2000 after being bit by an eastern diamondback rattlesnake in the familyis backyard.
Wasson put Dr. Sean Bush, host of the Venom ER reality show on the Animal Planet, on the stand. Bush, an emergency room doctor in South San Bernardino, Calif., testified that only 10 people die each year from snakebites.
Bush contends the boy died from low blood pressure not treated quickly enough.
The Lemas are suing Bayfront and Drs. Anthony Acosta and Steven G. Epstein in Pinellas-Pasco Circuit Court. Closing arguments were scheduled for Nov. 18.
Wasson of Jacobs & Goodman PA in Altamonte Springs was up against defense attorney Kenneth Beytin of Tampais Burton Schulte Wekley Hoeler Robbins & Beytin.
Etc...
i Bill Couch, one of the bedrocks of the Sarasota Chamber of Commerce, is retiring. The chamber plans a retirement party for Couch, senior vice president since 1983 and past interim president, on 6 p.m. Dec. 1 at Michaelis On East, 1212 East Ave. Sarasota.
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