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Coffee Talk (Tampa)
Tampa Bay: 'Don't Worry! We are almost there!'
The Tampa Bay area does not figure in the top 10 office markets, according to the latest survey of the National Association of Realtors.
But nay, it does not bother Mike Davis, senior director at Cushman & Wakefield of Florida, who has brokered or co-brokered 30 million square feet of commercial real estate transactions with a value of about $2.5 billion.
He has his own way of looking at the Tampa Bay area market and the way it has progressed over the years. And he says it's fast catching up to become a top-tier city like New York, San Francisco and Boston.
Instead of a 1, 2, 3... ranking system, he has a three-tier structure to judge Tampa's performance over the last few years: tertiary, secondary and primary.
And based on the interest among institutional investors, he says, Tampa is now on the secondary tier, moving up from the tertiary. "We will be on top soon," he says.
Perhaps we ought to take him seriously. After all, he was this year's Tampa Bay area's top producer, for which he was awarded the Pinnacle Award by the Florida Gulf Coast Association of Realtors Inc.
Curiously missing
Pinellas-Pasco Circuit Judge George Greer was a hot commodity May 6 at the Clearwater Bar Association's 44th annual Law Day luncheon. Well-wishers huddled around to congratulate him on the association's newly created George W. Greer Judicial Independence Award.
The association's board of directors designated Greer as the award's namesake because of his work in the Terri Schiavo dispute. Rather than bend to public opinion, Greer adhered to the rule of law in his decisions that led up to the removal of Schiavo's feeding tube.
Well-wishers included George Felos and Deborah Bushnell, the Dunedin solo practitioners who represented Schiavo's husband, Michael, during his years-long fight to allow his wife to die.
Coffee Talk didn't see any of the lawyers who represented Schiavo's parents, Bob and Mary Schindler. Of course, the bar association kept secret the announcement of the award until Clearwater attorney Wally Pope, one of the association's past presidents, presented the first Greer award to Pinellas-Pasco Circuit Judge W. Douglas Baird.
Different approach, same vision
Douglas R. Beath doesn't find economic statistics to be a good way to predict the future direction of global commerce.
The vice president of research at H.C. Wainwright & Co. Economics Inc. says price data is a better predictor.
"Economic statistics are usually lagging indicators," Beath told a meeting of Tampa Bay area financial analysts, investment advisers and portfolio managers earlier this month.
Instead, Beath studies the historical prices of precious metals, U.S. Treasury bills, foreign currencies and industrial commodities and uses that knowledge to spot trends that could foreshadow where world markets are headed.
When he is done, however, Beath is saying many of the same things as others who use unemployment figures or other supposedly dated data.
Beath, who previously worked at Merrill Lynch & Co. and Chemical Bank, says economic growth will be good but will slow during the next 12 months. Inflation will pick up, despite the Federal Reserve continuing to tighten the money supply. The stock market is probably going to be flat. The dollar as well as oil prices will decline.
At least the experts are coming to the same conclusions, even if they take different routes to get there.
Hyde Park Capital adds Williams
A small Tampa investment bank continues to bring in local stars to add luster to its growing operation.
Hyde Park Capital Partners LLC has named Jerry Williams to be a director of its capital advisory board. Williams sold his Tampa investment firm to Robert W. Baird Inc. in 1991 and served as a local senior vice president for the Milwaukee securities dealer until 1999.
Williams joins Tampa attorney Bill McBride on Hyde Park Capital's advisory board. McBride, the 2002 Democratic gubernatorial nominee and former Holland & Knight LLP managing partner, chairs the board.
Hyde Park handles merger activities and the finance needs of companies throughout the Southeast from offices in Tampa and Charlotte.
Joining the parade
The banking unit of a huge Orlando-based real estate and finance outfit is the latest bank to open up shop in Sarasota.
CNLBancshares Inc., with $500 million in assets, is moving into space at the former Arthur Andersen complex off Fruitville Road with what President and Chief Executive C. Michael Collins says is an experienced banking team with local ties.
Collins has picked up two bankers with extensive experience in Sarasota from competitors that recently went through mergers. Mauro A. Harto is leaving BB&T, which bought Republic Bank, to be executive vice president for residential lending. Larry O. Berkery is coming from RBC Centura, which bought Provident Bank, to be CNLBank's senior vice president for commercial real estate.
Both Collins and Berkery worked at Barnett Bank of Southwest Florida during the 1990s.
CNLBank will emphasize real estate lending, insurance and wealth management as it moves beyond Orlando into other metropolitan areas in Florida.
With operations in Orlando, Jacksonville and now Sarasota, Collins has his eye on the Tampa Bay area next. "While we know where we want to be, when we get there is dictated by the availability of talent," says Collins.
CNLBank doesn't plan an extensive network of branch offices. Collins says couriers and the Internet can serve its clientele of mostly business owners.
Unlike a community bank, CNLBank is backed by the resources of a $15 billion parent headed by real estate investment mogul James M. Seneff Jr.
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