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Coffee Talk (Tampa)
The Old-Fashioned Way
Alex Sullivan and Adam Schoenbaum have earned their keep the old-fashioned way.
The two can make the argument they're not riding the coattails of their famous forbearers. Alex is the son of Outback Steakhouse founder Chris Sullivan. Adam's grandfather is Shoney's co-founder Alex Schoenbaum.
The up-and-coming entrepreneurs, both 26, expect to break ground in about a year or so on 160 to 200 upscale town homes on the site of the Anchor Bay North mobile home community in Oldsmar.
It's not their first project, but it is the largest.
The two have earned a living of late refurbishing homes and converting apartments into condos. Alex even spent some time learning the real estate business at WCI Communities.
A few weeks ago, the pair closed on a nice addition to the project. They bought about 8.7 acres of waterfront property for $5.1 million. That's a steep increase from the nearly $3.4 million the two paid last December for the 8-acre mobile home park. It's actually a 41% increase in land value just over the past nine months.
The two still have a few wrinkles to iron out. For one, they have some zoning issues to solve. Second, there's litigation.
Sullivan and Schoenbaum seek redress on a defamation claim against a mobile home park resident, who claimed in a Web site posting the new owners misled tenants about their intentions for the park. Then, the homeowners association retaliated with a claim the partners failed to abide by state law that governs redevelopment of mobile home parks.
The spat hasn't softened the partners' outlook.
"It's really going to be a nice project," Sullivan says. "Oldsmar is going through a transition period, and it's going to be up-city. We want to be a part of that."
Coast update: Stock down
Coast Financial Holdings Inc., the Bradenton-based parent of Coast Bank of Florida, will be selling another 2.5 million shares of its common stock for $15.50 a piece.
The Oct. 4 announcement did not excite investors, some of whom decided to dump a few of the roughly 3.8 million shares of Coast already outstanding.
The stock, which had closed at $16.50 the day before, took an immediate nosedive. Within hours of the morning announcement, the shares had shed almost $1 and were trading at $15.55 by noon on higher-than-average volume.
The inability of investment banks Sandler O'Neill & Partners LP and Sterne Agee & Leach Inc. to get anywhere near the original offering price of $17.25 a share shouldn't be a surprise.
The two underwriters had a tough sell. Within the past year, Coast has embarked on an aggressive but costly branch expansion from its home county of Manatee into Pinellas, Hillsborough and Polk counties. The $468 million-asset bank lost 23 cents a diluted share for the first half of this year.
As a result of the offering price adjustment, Coast expects to net $36.7 million, instead of the earlier projection of $40.3 million. Coast stock, which carries the ticker symbol CFHI on the Nasdaq National Market, recently graduated from Nasdaq's Small Cap Market.
He's alone, for now
One of those walking oxymorons, a Republican trial lawyer, is kicking off his campaign for a third term in the Florida House of Representatives.
Kevin C. Ambler will be holding a football-themed fundraising reception in Odessa on Oct. 10, even though he has yet to attract an election opponent from any political party.
Among the "referees" at the event will be Florida House Speaker-designate Marco Rubio of Coral Gables, according to the invitation.
A referee was needed last year, when Ambler barely held on to his seat representing northwest Hillsborough County in the Republican primary. Ambler, 44, of Lutz, beat back a challenge from Carrollwood mortgage broker William H. Bunkley, who lost by fewer than 150 votes.
Bunkley, who lobbies for the Florida Baptist Convention, challenged Ambler's refusal to support a cap on legal fees in medical malpractice cases.
The host committee for Ambler's local fundraiser this month includes Tampa lawyers Michael C. Addison, Stephen J. Mitchell and John F. Rudy II; fellow House members Bill Galvano and Ron Reagan, both of Bradenton, and Jeffrey Kottkamp of Cape Coral; and Florida Senate President Tom Lee of Brandon.
Bankers coming to Bay area
The Florida Bankers Association has chosen St. Petersburg as the site for its first annual Banker Education Expo.
The Renaissance Vinoy Resort and Golf Club will host the two-day conference later this month. The event will focus on compliance, marketing and security issues.
The keynote speaker for the Oct. 26 opening of the conference will be John Tschohl. Dubbed the "guru of customer service," by Entrepreneur magazine, Tschohl is a best-selling author and president of Service Quality Institute.
Locals dot FBA board
Jerry J. Williams isn't the only Gulf Coast banker taking over a leadership post at the Florida Bankers Association.
Williams, who is chairman, president and chief executive at Orion Bank in Naples, was installed as FBA chairman at the association's annual convention last month in Puerto Rico.
But Williams will be joined by a number of other local bankers on the FBA board of directors for the next year. The list of the 2005-2006 directors, in alphabetical order, includes:
Jerry L. Ball of Valrico State Bank; John M. Barrett of First Citrus Bank in Tampa; Charles G. Brown III of Charlotte State Bank in Port Charlotte; Corey J. Coughlin of First State Bank in Sarasota; Tramm Hudson of RBC Centura in Sarasota; and Stephen R. Jonsson of Flagship National Bank in Bradenton.
Among other duties, the directors are expected to play a prominent role in the FBA's lobbying of government. That includes the association's Washington fly-ins, when local bankers visit their congressional representatives.
One of the FBA directors hopes to be greeting bankers from the other side of a Capitol Hill desk in 2007. RBC Centura's Hudson is running to succeed U.S. Rep. Katherine Harris, R-Longboat Key, who is hoping to be Florida's next U.S. senator.
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