Coffee Talk: Horizon Mortgage Co. president N. J. Olivieri spent most of his working days in the month leading up to Thanksgiving in a Sarasota courtroom, intently involved in the lengthy and complicated trial between various partners who built the Ritz-Carlton hotel in downtown Sarasota. And while a jury ultimately awarded Olivieri $1.85 million, the trial might as well have been a root canal. Cancel the call to the coroner: Pineapple Square is not dead. Tampa-area politicos and economic development officials were in full chest-thumping mode this week, claiming another victory in the ongoing effort to bring cutting-edge research and technology to the Sunshine State. The latest entry is SRI International, a Menlo Park, Calif.-based research firm that plans to open a marine science research facility in St. Petersburg.American Banker, the leading banking industry trade publication in the U.S., feted Orion Bancorp's Jerry Williams at a gala at the Pierre Hotel in New York City on Nov. 30.There weren't any surprises in the inaugural report on the ups and downs of the real estate market put together by the University of Florida's Center for Real Estate Studies.Ed Morton, the former chief executive officer of not-for-profit NCH Health Care System in Naples, lashed out at for-profit hospitals during an academic lecture at Florida Gulf Coast University recently.
