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Coffee Talk (Sara/Mana)
Rodriguez's encore
Sarasota developer Henry Rodriguez is expected to unveil his next real estate project in the next several weeks. Rodriguez, who's known for bringing a Wal-Mart Supercenter to Osprey, is focused primarily on developing a 40-acre mixed-use Bay Street Village project next to the existing supercenter site.
Although he declined to identify the exact location - because of concern for area residents and local organizations that have not yet been informed - Rodriguez would say only that he's planning a new urbanist community larger than Bay Street Village.
Preliminary plans call for as many as 1,800 multifamily townhouses/single-family homes and about 350,000 square feet of commercial space (office, retail, religious or civic space).
"I really don't want to talk about it too much until I get feedback from local residents," Rodriguez says. "I can tell you that it is in the urban services district and would be utilizing utilities that are currently underutilized.
"This project will be one of the finest communities - if not the finest community - in Sarasota County. It will share the same (pedestrian-friendly village) characteristics of Bay Street Village just on a larger scale."
Rodriguez expects to start construction on the new development in about three years.
Bay Street Village, planned for the east side of U.S. 41 from Bay Street to Old Venice Road, is envisioned as 64,000 square feet of commercial property, a county library and 532 residential units in a mixture of condominiums, townhomes and courtyard apartments.
We're No. 1
Does the Tampa Bay area have more white-collar crooks than anywhere else in Florida?
That appears to be the word from Safe at Work, a coalition of business and law enforcement officials who advise Florida employers on protecting their work forces and property.
The coalition, which includes Florida Attorney General Charlie Crist's office, hired a Florida State University professor to calculate the local effects of business crime for 20 metropolitan areas in the state.
Guess who came out on top?
White-collar crime cost businesses in the Tampa-St. Petersburg-Clearwater metropolitan statistical area almost $2 billion last year, according to Tim Lynch, director of FSU's Center for Economic Forecasting and Analysis.
We even beat Miami, which had to settle for second place. Lynch figures white-collar crime cost Miami about $139 million less than it did in the Bay area. Finally, South Florida has some good news to report about crime.
Lynch is merely projecting the impact of business crime, using what Safe At Work calls "the best available statewide and national data on the costs of crime to employers."
Still, his guesstimates should give the average Florida business owner pause. The folks in the suites appear to be stealing you blind - usually through asset misappropriation, bribery and fraud, says Lynch. The criminal inclinations of the suits and pantsuits cost nearly as much as the grunts out back on the dock.
In the Bay area, for example, the blue collars and others rang up $2.11 billion in costs from their 2004 criminal activities. The white collars managed to cost their employers $1.98 billion.
Sarasota made a contribution to Florida's corporate crime wave. White-collar criminals in the Sarasota-Bradenton MSA cost their companies $491 million last year, if Lynch's numbers are to be believed.
Hooter en Espanol
Sarasota-based Nuevo Advertising Group and Provident Advertising and Marketing are designing a Hispanic marketing plan for the restaurant chain Original Hooters, which operates 16 Hooters locations.
In their first joint venture, the advertising agencies are working on incorporating Hooters into the first Spanish-language broadcast of the Tampa Bay Storm arena football team.
According to Pedro Perez, vice-president of sales and marketing for Nuevo Advertising Group, the firms' next focus will be on putting together the Hooter's first Spanish language Web site aimed at the Hispanic community.
Aside from the language change, the new Web site will also feature greater diversity in its models/Hooters Girls and other cultural differences, Perez says.
Hooters is looking for much the same demographics that it attracts in other ethnic/cultural groups, principally males ages 18 to 45. Nuevo and Provident also plan to develop Spanish language/ Hispanic-oriented Hooters merchandise and signage.
"These restaurants are already attracting Hispanics; this will just make these customers more proud to patronize these locations," Perez says. "It will be done very tastefully. It is much more about integration and presenting a much wider message. In Tampa alone, Hispanics have $7.2 billion in buying power."
Kolter weighs options
After acquiring the three-acre former Metropolitan property at U.S. 41 and Gulf Stream Avenue in downtown Sarasota, Toronto-based Kolter Property Co. appears to be taking its time digesting its new purchase.
Mary Kay Willson, a Kolter Property vice president, told Coffee Talk the developer will divulge the new plan for the condominium development this summer.
Asked about the possibility of integrating a commercial component into the project, Willson says the developer doesn't want to completely rule out the possibility, but it's not included in the development plan so far. However, a hotel-condominium is highly unlikely.
"We should be moving into sales in the fall," she says.
Kolter is talking to neighbors, including The Ritz-Carlton, Sarasota, to work out "relationships that would be mutually beneficial," she says.
Restaurateur buys Fumble In
Miles and Mindy Millwee, owners of Hillview Grill and Madfish Grill restaurants, purchased the Bradenton icon Fumble In Sports Pub & Grill, 2505 Manatee Ave. E., Bradenton, for $990,000.
"It's a great location; it's a nice building and a nice piece of real estate," says Miles Millwee. "We are really just planning to fix it up a little. We are going to work on the food quality and the ambiance. But it is not going to change all that much. It is going to remain the same neighborhood family restaurant that developed such a local following."
Jim Hansen, of Re/Max Properties, represented the former owner, Fumble In Inc., and Rico Boeras PA, of Preferred Commercial Inc., represented the buyers.
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