Mold Makers

The commercial real estate downturn ripped the business life out of John Smelser.

He owned several buildings in the Sarasota-Bradenton market, and he leased space to a variety of tenants. Everything from warehouse to industrial to office. But the recession, he says, forced him to cut rents by up to 70% — when he could find tenants. “It was real bad,” he says. “I had to reinvent myself and get into something more profitable.”

Smelser found his answer in an unlikely place: Plastic injection mold manufacturing.