Relocation plans could sail away

Sarasota County economic officials celebrated a major victory when they lured a DeSoto County life raft manufacturer to move to the county with $650,000 in incentives.

That triumph is now in doubt.

The company, Lake Suzy-based Winslow LifeRaft, promised to hire 175 people when it moved to the Teleflex Marine building in Lakewood Ranch. Winslow builds life rafts for boats and corporate airplanes.

But on Sept. 29 a church based in Branson, Mo. bought the 82,000-square-foot building, which Teleflex vacated last year. (See Commercial Real Estate, P. 18.) The sale stunned Winslow President Gerard Pickhardt. It also left him reeling because the firm's space needs are immediate.

“It's not insurmountable, but it's more than a hiccup,” Pickhardt tells Coffee Talk. “It's a huge challenge for us.”

The challenge, says Pickhardt, is the company needs a unique manufacturing space — more than 75,000 square feet with space to expand to at least 125,000 square feet. It also needs to be in the building within nine months to complete new orders, which makes new construction dicey. The Teleflex building was a near-perfect solution.

Jeff Maultsby, Sarasota County business and economic development manager, says the county is determined to find the right building for Winslow, now with a focus on the North Port area. “I'm still hopeful,” Maultsby says.

Pickhardt, however, is non-committal. He says Dallas and Albuquerque, N.M., are now back in the mix for possible relocation sites. He also signed non-disclosure agreements with Charlotte, DeSoto, Manatee and Sarasota counties.

“We are back to negotiating with all the counties,” says Pickhardt. “Everything is up in the air.”