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Coffee Talk (Tampa)
Fifth Third is fourth...
...In terms of deposits among banks doing business in Michigan, and local bank analyst Richard X. Bove says that's bound to catch up with Fifth Third Bancorp.
The Cincinnati holding company, which has entered the Gulf Coast region with a marketing splash this year, is still a Rust Belt kind of bank, Bove points out.
Fifth Third is in third place for deposits in Indiana and its home state of Ohio.
That means the slow and steady decline of American automobile manufacturers, especially General Motors Corp., is going to stunt Fifth Third's growth eventually.
The saving grace is that Cincinnati is perceived to be where the American end of the Japanese auto-making industry is centered, according to Bove.
Fifth Third's foray into Florida is proving expensive. After acquiring the parent of First National Bank of Florida, Fifth Third is spending big on advertising and locations.
Despite all that, Bove is raising his 2006 earnings forecast for Fifth Third by a nickel to $3.38. His rating on the stock: "market perform."
Rock on
Speaking of cultural creatives, the Tampa Bay Technology Forum is tuning up for its fourth annual Tampa Bay Tech Jam.
The musical jam session was staged in Tampa's trendy SoHo neighborhood last summer, if Coffee Talk's memory serves it right. This year, the jam is moving to the possibly even trendier Channelside District.
Local tech entrepreneurs, their roadies and their groupies will be throwing back beers and barbecue at Stumps Supper Club, the Southern-themed restaurant in the Channelside shopping and imbibing mall. The date is Aug. 10, with musical sets running from 6 to 10 p.m.
The geeks' battle of the bands, which features a silent auction, will benefit a program that makes computers available to youngsters at local Boys & Girls Clubs.
This ain't L.A.
Creative Tampa Bay, a 2-year-old group promoting tolerance as a means to grow the local economy, has gotten another reminder that it has a lot of work to do.
When a Hillsborough County librarian briefly put up a book display for Gay and Lesbian Pride Month, the local news media knew right where to go for incendiary commentary.
Hillsborough commissioners Jim Norman and Ronda Storms obliged. They demanded that library officials be dragged in for a stern lecture.
Creative Tampa Bay offers a different perspective in its latest electronic newsletter.
The group is inspired by author Richard Florida, whose research proclaims that cities that embrace creativity and individuality spawn more high-value businesses. In particular, the author says he has found a strong correlation between regional economic success and cities with large homosexual populations.
Florida-born Scott Taylor, a local public relations consultant who is gay, says he was somewhat reluctant to return to his native state from Los Angeles because of official policies against gay adoption and same-sex unions.
"This is not a state that embraces diversity or celebrates inclusion," Taylor writes as a Creative Tampa Bay commentator.
Taylor says he moved back to Tampa anyway, partly because of groups such as Creative Tampa Bay. "But how much can we achieve when our elected officials use their bully pulpits to condemn gay man and lesbians?" he laments.
It's who you know
Relationships go a long way in the banking and real estate industries, and JMC Communities, one of the Tampa Bay area's top buildings of luxury condominiums, proves that's true. Just recently AmSouth Bank and Bank of America committed $170 million in financing to JMC's Sandpearl Resort, Spa and Residences, a mixed-use condo-hotel project in Clearwater Beach.
Over the years, AmSouth has financed JMC's Belle Harbor, Mandalay Beach Club and Minorca condo projects. Bank of America has financed the Bellamy on Bayshore, Florencia and the Meridian on Sand Key.
The financing for Sandpearl clears the way for construction of 117 luxury condos, a 253-room hotel, a 11,000-square-foot spa and fitness center and 10,000 square feet of meeting space. Work should begin in August.
Paris for president
It looks like Clinton Paris did such a good job as president of the George Edgecomb Bar Association this past year he was re-elected to second term. Paris, a litigator with GrayRobinson's Tampa office, will oversee the African-American lawyers' group in 2005-'06.
Rolex goes after counterfeiters
Rolex Watch USA Inc. has sued two Pinellas County residents, accusing them of selling fake Rolex watches on the Internet.
In a 52-page complaint, the company's Fifth Avenue New York lawyers, with the help of Tampa's Bavol Judge PA, accuse Charles Earle of Clearwater and Jean Dario of Tarpon Springs of trademark infringement and counterfeiting.
Earle, owner of World Mail Direct Inc., and Dario, who allegedly have several aliases, along with numerous John Does named in the complaint, sell the knockoffs on as many as 70 Web sites for hundreds of dollars, far less than the cost of an authentic Rolex.
The federal lawsuit, filed June 3 in Tampa, accuses the two of trademark infringement and counterfeiting, cybersquatting, unfair competition and related charges.
Less farmland
Agricultural acreage in Hillsborough County has dwindled in the past decade, but farming still creates 20,122 jobs locally and annual sales of $667 million, officials say.
The county has 2,969 farms, encompassing 229,875 acres, according to a study by the Hillsborough County Economic Development Department. That's 128,204 less acres used for farming in 2003 than in 1996, says Stephen Gran, manager of the Agriculture Industry Development program for the Hillsborough Economic Development Department.
County officials say the study shows that agriculture, including tomatoes, strawberries, orange groves, cattle and fish farms, has an economic impact of $1.4 billion annually on the local economy. Coffee Talk wonders if that number is overstated?
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