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Coffee Talk (Tampa)
Northbound
It appears Equity One Inc., a North Miami Beach shopping center owner, sees much more potential for revenue growth in the northern part of the Tampa Bay area. The publicly traded real estate investment trust shifted some of its investment focus into Pasco County from Manatee County over the past nine months.
Earlier this year, the REIT bought 155 acres east of the Suncoast Parkway on State Road 54 for $12.6 million. It proposes a mix of retail, office and residential in the fast-growing area that includes Lutz and Land O'Lakes.
Meanwhile, Equity One divested 177,128 square feet of retail in Ellenton's North River Village for nearly $14.9 million. Of 18 investment properties from Collier to Pasco counties, it no longer has a presence in either Manatee or Sarasota counties.
Urge to merge?
A sudden spike early this month in options trading of AmSouth Bancorp has stock analysts thinking merger.
The potential partner most talked about is another Alabama bank, Regions Financial Corp.
The two banks, both based in Birmingham, hold more than $5 billion in deposits on the Gulf Coast, about 6% of the market from Pasco to Collier counties.
SNL Financial, a Virginia research firm, first publicized the rumor in an online news dispatch Nov. 4. Reuters reported that more than 3,500 AmSouth calls traded that day. The average daily volume is fewer than 300.
The calls entitle holders to purchase AmSouth stock for $25 a share before Nov. 15. The stock, which had been changing hands for around $25.50 before the merger talk, closed Nov. 8 at $26.64.
Although the $15.4 billion market capitalization of Regions tops AmSouth's $9.3 billion, the latter's chairman, C. Dowd Ritter, could be the one running a combined institution. Regions CEO Jackson W. Moore, 56, suffered a stroke in February and is still recovering.
Windfall for lawyers, consultants
Six professional firms would reap $728,000 in fees from the state's proposed purchase of 74,000 acres of Babcock Ranch, an environmentally delicate property bordering Charlotte and Lee counties.
The $350 million sales contract, which received preliminary approval from Gov. Jeb Bush and the Florida Cabinet on Nov. 8, shows who is involved and how much they're likely to get if the deal goes through. They include:
• Johnson Engineering of Fort Myers, $300,000 for survey work;
• Gunster, Yoakley & Stewart PA of West Palm Beach, $150,000 for legal services;
• URS Corp. of Tampa, $103,000 for environmental services;
• Ard, Shirley & Hartman PA of Tallahassee, $100,000 for legal services;
• Mirabella, Smith & McKinnon of Tallahassee, $50,000 for consulting work; and
• Akerman Senterfitt of Miami, $25,000 for legal services.
Tech upgrade at city hall
Tampa Mayor Pam Iorio is taking time out of her schedule to sit down with local tech entrepreneurs to talk about fostering innovation.
Iorio will hold what is being billed as a "town hall meeting" under the joint auspices of the Greater Tampa Chamber of Commerce's tech council and the Tampa Bay Technology Forum. The Ybor City event is scheduled for Nov. 29.
The first-term mayor is bound to be more familiar with the world of high technology than her predecessor.
Ex-mayor Dick Greco frequently confessed during his eight years in office that he wasn't sure how to turn on a personal computer. That probably didn't impress many tech executives, either ones here or others thinking about relocating to the Cigar City.
Planting seeds
Hospitality industry professionals such as Casey Gonzmart, chairman of Tampa's Columbia Restaurant Inc., know the value of having a good working relationship with area colleges. That's why he and several other Tampa Bay area hospital industry professionals have joined with St. Leo University to create the Industry Liaison Council.
The program offers job-networking opportunities for students enrolled in the private university's business school and a potential source of labor for the area's hospitality industry.
The council includes some savvy professionals. Anthony Menna, president of Clearwater's Menna Development & Management, attended the group first meeting earlier this month.
Participants included Andre Callen, president of HI Development Corp.; Ken Pierce of K-Force Professional Staffing; and Christiane Laubner, the Wyndham Westshore's sales manager. Members of the council elected Brian Quinn, Intercontinental Hotels' regional vice president, as chairman.
Pelican brief
An Iowa company is coming to the rescue of southwest Florida's troubled Pelican National Bank, which is operating under regulatory supervision.
Pelican's Michigan-based holding company is merging with a unit of Stark Bank Group Ltd. The Fort Dodge, Iowa, company is paying $6 in cash for each of the 4.5 million common shares of Pelican Financial Inc. that are outstanding. Stark Bank Group will also spend another $4 million for a class of convertible preferred stock.
The total sale price for Pelican Financial is around $31 million.
On Sept. 1, the U.S. Comptroller of the Currency entered into an agreement requiring Pelican National to take eight steps to shore up the 8-year-old Naples bank's capital position. A recent regulatory examination found an undisclosed number of rules violations.
Besides Naples, Pelican National has retail offices in Bonita Springs, Cape Coral and Fort Myers, along with a loan office in Sarasota.
Pelican Financial reported a loss of $544,039 for the first six months of this year, versus a $231,641 loss for the same period in 2004. Shareholder equity declined by nearly $600,000 during the first half of this year.
The bank reported assets of $204 million on June 30, down from $258 million a year earlier. The merger is expected to be completed before April of next year.
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