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Coffee Talk (Sara/Mana edition)Rock bottom pricing and E3Just prior to the recent 2004 Electronic Entertainment Expo, Infinium Labs Inc. of Sarasota released prices for its new Phantom gaming system - a pricing setup more akin to the Internet service provider market than the typical video-game console pricing.Infinium is offering the Phantom Receiver with controllers free-of-charge in exchange for a two-year basic subscription to Phantom Gaming Services, currently priced at $29.95 a month. Basic math puts the price of owning the system for two years at about $719, excluding tax. In addition, the gaming service requires the user to have access to a broadband ISP of at least DSL speeds, which probably adds a minimum of $30 to the monthly price. Infinium is also offering a direct console purchase price of $199, with $8 deducted from the monthly service price over two years. Not all games will be covered under the basic service price; newer and higher profile games will be available for a premium price.Compared to the normal console price paradigm, the Phantom is likely more expensive. Microsoft Corp.'s Xbox and Sony Computer Entertainment Inc.'s Playstation 2 both currently retail for about $150, while Nintendo's GameCube is below $100."This year we are focusing on gamers," says Kevin Bachus, president of Infinium Labs. "And that is a more affluent group. E3 was tremendous. The response we got (for our gaming service) was just overwhelming. I would say by any measure it was an unbelievable success." In early August, the company plans to announce its publishing partners and launch games for its service.Asked about the possibility of exclusive games for the system, Bachus says that isn't the Phantom market's focus. "Overall there is not a lot of difference between (the Playstation 2 and the Xbox)," Bachus says. "What people who buy those systems care about is: What games does it have, and how do they look when I play them? The appealing thing about the Phantom is mainly the convenience." But at the same time, he says the new method of game delivery could naturally lead to games only available on the Phantom.Creative contrastThere was a Richard Florida moment in Tampa on May 17.On the same day that homosexual couples began getting legally hitched in Massachusetts, six gay and lesbian couples were turned away at the Hillsborough County courthouse when they came courting a marriage license.Hmmm. They allow gays to marry in an oasis of technological innovation. They don't in the middle of back-office backwater. What could that mean?Florida is a best-selling author who has inspired a new economic-development movement. The Carnegie-Mellon University professor prescribes tolerance and livability over tax subsidies for cities struggling to be the next Silicon Something.One barometer used by Florida to gauge the probability of his favorite demographic, highly educated 25- to 34-year-olds he calls "the creative class," putting down roots is how receptive a community is to gays.Oh-oh. As the local same-sex couples found out, the Tampa Bay area has a ways to climb on Florida's creative-class scale.That was never more obvious than two days after the courthouse snub. A year-old group called Creative Tampa Bay unveiled a study entitled: "The Young and the Restless: How Tampa Bay Competes for Talent."The Bay area, despite the sand and the surf, is not a destination for the next generation of American entrepreneurs. For those who've been paying attention, the study presented a familiar litany of negatives from focus-group interviews.Lifeless, pedestrian-unfriendly downtowns. (Or, in the case of Sarasota, city centers that are hostile to the entertainment diversions of young people.) A lack of ethnic and racial diversity. Suspicion of newcomers and new ideas.Bad things happen as a consequence. Nine out of 10 graduates from Sarasota's Ringling School of Art and Design, which helped fund the study, flee the Bay area with their diplomas and their cutting-edge ideas after commencement.Creative Tampa Bay co-founder Deanne Roberts, a former chamber of commerce chairwoman, exhorted a May 19 luncheon gathering to stop the regional brain drain. Among her suggestions: revitalize urban cores, improve public transportation and market the area to college graduates as well as retirees.Many of the 20- and 30-somethings interviewed for the study were in the audience. They asked most of the questions of the authors, economist Joseph Cortright and radio host Carol Coletta.But there was evidence of a communication disconnect between the Baby Boomer consultants and their subjects.One older questioner was brave enough to declare her cluelessness by asking: What was cool about riding a dirty subway system? One of the consultants proceeded to try to answer the question in the context of coolness.A 30-something sitting at Coffee Talk's table later explained that practicality, not coolness, was the issue. She and her friends just think it's better for the economy and the environment in the long run if they took a streetcar to work instead of a Hummer.University Parkway boomCould University Parkway get any busier and more developed? Talk to Dr. Don Harvey of University Health Park and you will know the answer is an emphatic yes.Harvey, an emergency room physician, has watched as the medical development, which he partly owns, on University Parkway east of U.S. 301, grew to two large medical office buildings. In the next five weeks, construction will start on a third 27,411-square-foot medical office building. The new $5.9-million facility is slated for completion in July or August of 2005. Plans are being drawn up to build another three medial buildings on the 18-acre site, with a surgery center intended for the fourth building."All of the existing buildings are 100% leased," Harvey says. "The third is about 80% leased. We will have eight medical units in the new building."Tenants already committed to the project include Eye Associates, a sleep center and two pediatric specialty groups. The first two buildings are owned by Harvey, Dr. Andre Renard and several other physicians. The next four buildings will be partially owned by the Sarasota-based general contracting firm W.G. Mills Inc., which also plans to build The Villages of University Groves surrounding the medical complex.According to Harvey, the more than $100 million multiphase Villages of University Groves is scheduled to start in about four months. The development is the brain child of Howard Camp, vice president of business development for W.G. Mills who brought in other W.G. Mills principals: Walter G. Mills, CEO, and Lemuel Sharp, president. The project will feature a mix of retail, restaurant and mini-storage space along with condominiums and apartment units.
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