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Results for:

  • For Subscribers Only
  • By Jim Stinson |
  • April 30, 2024
Police forces get aggressive, creative to recruit officers

Law enforcement agencies across the region look to find and retain new officers with a heightened sense of urgency.

  • Florida
  • For Subscribers Only
  • By Mark Gordon |
  • January 29, 2024
Florida exec finds new life purpose after being confronted by gunman

John Miles accomplished quite a lot in business and the military before he turned 50. Those wins are mere pit stops as he executes on his next big life mission: helping others find their purpose.

  • Tampa Bay-Lakeland
  • For Subscribers Only
  • By Kat Wingert |
  • September 18, 2023
Observer Media Group executive editor, co-owner Lisa Walsh dies at 69

Lisa Walsh was a pillar in the Sarasota-Manatee community; a trusted and devoted wife, mother, grandmother, sister and daughter; and the backbone of one of the most successful media companies in Florida.

  • Manatee-Sarasota
  • For Subscribers Only
  • By Louis Llovio |
  • February 14, 2025
Captiva's South Seas moves forward as fight with neighbors continues

The resort's owners are readying to open a new beach front restaurant as it goes before Lee County to win approval for a plan opposed by some locals.

  • Charlotte–Lee–Collier
  • For Subscribers Only
  • By Louis Llovio |
  • April 13, 2023
Retailers shift mindset — and sometimes size — but continue to grow across Florida

Retailers have been expanding across the region to meet the demand that comes with the population spike.

  • Commercial Real Estate
  • For Subscribers Only
  • By Beth Luberecki |
  • September 4, 2024
$80M Naples hotel to target 'nearly' five-star travelers, locals

A Key West investment firm built a high-end hotel on its home turf. A second one is because the company is "intoxicated with the strength of the Naples hospitality market."

  • Charlotte–Lee–Collier
  • For Subscribers Only
  • By Elizabeth King |
  • May 14, 2024
Sarasota business owner sent to prison for real estate fraud

Jose “Jay” Manuel Santiago, who owned Santiago & Sons Construction in Sarasota and was an HOA president, is involved in two separate fraud cases.

  • Manatee-Sarasota
  • By Louis Llovio |
  • January 16, 2026
40 years after first hotel sale, 'Queen of Clearwater Beach' is still making deals

Local commercial real estate broker Gi Gi Gillis keeps selling hotels along the Pinellas County beaches as her firm looks to grow.

  • Tampa Bay-Lakeland
  • For Subscribers Only
  • By Jean Gruss |
  • November 2, 2012
Burger Hustle

Tom Monaghan became the Pizza Tiger when he built Domino's Pizza into a delivery giant. Now he's aiming to do the same with hamburgers.

  • Strategies
  • For Subscribers Only
  • By Business Observer Staff |
  • March 21, 2008
Commercial Real Estate Briefs

Lee County 20/20 buys 36 acresFort Myers investors buy former Taco BellSeneca Petroleum buysTre Amici buildingSpirit Finance company buys Fort Myers buildingWest Palm developer buys retail plazaBradenton investors buy All U Can StorageLux-Art Silks builds new warehouseSarasota's Jump Dance relocates to Lakewood RanchWeichels, Fullers buy McSwiggins Pub buildingWeichels, Fullers buy McSwiggins Pub buildingSun Development & Management Corp. plans SpringHill SuitesHirschy, Servant investors redevelop bowling alleyEntrepreneurs buy apartments

  • Charlotte–Lee–Collier
  • For Subscribers Only
  • By Brian Hartz |
  • June 30, 2022
Crypto curious: Academics, bankers, entrepreneurs look to the future of money

When it comes to bitcoin and cryptocurrency, proceed with caution. But there’s no denying its growing economic importance and influence.

  • Finance
  • For Subscribers Only
  • By Business Observer Staff |
  • August 17, 2007
Coffee Talk

Sarasota company hopes to shine in India: Sarasota-based cartridge valve manufacturer Sun Hydraulics has a good grip on at least six global markets, from Korea to Germany.Lee County: Anotherday, another tax: Not a week goes by in Lee County that county government doesn't dream up another tax on builders.Cold storage creates trifecta for Sarasota warehouse: The latest tenant for the Meridian Distribution Center, a 950,000-square-foot warehouse facility on Clark Road in south Sarasota, is especially apropos, given the sweltering Gulf Coast summerAnother public company going private: First, there was Outback Steakhouse. Now, St. Petersburg-based Catalina Marketing is headed to the private companies club.Nightline dumbs down Ave Maria: Ave Maria, the new town being built in eastern Collier County around the newest Catholic university, has been getting lots of national publicity lately opening to new residents, students and faculty.Good guys sometimes lose: Ethical companies don't always win, even when their employees do the right thing.Call the sign shop, again: MacDill Federal Credit Union, an institution of sorts in the Tampa area financial services industry, is changing its name to Grow Financial Federal Credit Union.Kottkamp bashes Hometown Democracy: Gov. Charlie Crist has been notably absent from the raging debate over the Hometown Democracy movement that seeks to put every major land-use change in Florida on the ba

  • News
  • For Subscribers Only
  • By Business Observer Staff |
  • December 14, 2006
Coffee Talk

What's the future for Source Interlink? Sarasota County is considering nearly tripling its impact-fee assessments on new developments, despite the sluggish housing market.MarineMax, left out of Boating Industry magazine's annual top 100 listCoffee Talk realizes, obviously, that no one who reads the Review can be categorized as a bad boss. Still, the results of a Florida State University study on the employee-employer relationship are telling, in terms of what it means for employee performance and retention.Here's another indication that Florida's growth is pushing inland: Naples-based TIB Financial is opening a TIB Bank branch in Sebring. Gary Hoyle expected to be busy when he announced plans earlier this year to take the Peach's Rise and Dine breakfast/lunch concept national on a franchising basis.

  • News
  • For Subscribers Only
  • By Business Observer Staff |
  • January 26, 2007
Coffee Talk

Health Management Associates sent a clear message to the private-equity vultures circling the Naples-based hospital chain: Back off. Steven Kossoff, principal of Clearwater's Meridian Development Group paid $7.3 million for Lakeland Interstate Business Park in September 2005. It was his firm's first investment in Florida after relocating to the state from Buffalo, N.Y.t's no surprise that companies in Florida lack easy access to venture capital. Still, it's disconcerting to realize last year's VC funding in the Sunshine State dropped to its lowest level in more than a decade.The strategy of knowing your customers, making sound asset and loan decisions and going after condo association deposits might not be exciting, but in the case of Sarasota-based People's Community Bancshares, it sure has been profitable: The bank is regularly one of the top performing community banks in the Sarasota market.It wasn't a good week to be either an executive or a shareholder - or both - with Bradenton-based Coast Bank.

  • News
  • For Subscribers Only
  • By Business Observer Staff |
  • February 9, 2007
Corporate Report

Verizon FiOs demand driving new local hiringTigris Pharmaceuticals gets $16 million in financing Consejo announces settlement with HMAGulf Coast Builders Exchange elects officers NeoMedia, Gavitec agree on acquisitionGlobal Imaging Systems buys California businessColdwell Banker Realtor heads FARQuality Distribution lowers 2007 projections

  • Industries
  • For Subscribers Only
  • By Business Observer Staff |
  • April 6, 2007
'Best Year Ever'

Rising interest rates boosted income at Bank of Tampa, which had as much as 36% of its deposits in checking accounts in 2006. As for real estate loans, the bank has a lower percentage than other community banks.

  • Entrepreneurs
  • For Subscribers Only
  • By Business Observer Staff |
  • December 14, 2007
Coffee Talk

Lee County imposes moratorium: Incoming Lee County Commission Chairman Ray Judah had some explaining to do when he appeared before a group of builders and developers recently.Shells goes to the Middle East: It's not where you normally hear about international expansion.Construction firm looks forward to next year: T. Craig Campbell, president of Palmetto-based Zirkelbach Construction, uses phrases like "cautiously optimistic", "hopeful" and "still watching pennies", when predicting what kind of year the company is looking at in 2008. Commercial brokers seek access to TICs: If the National Association of Realtors has its way with federal regulators, some commercial real estate brokers will have another way of making money next year.WCI gets reprieve from lenders: WCI Communities got a one-month extension from lenders to Jan. 7 to renegotiate the terms of its loans. So what?Homebuilder celebrates the holidays with sales: November turned out to be a pretty good month for Lakewood Ranch-based homebuilder Neal Communities.Tampa to get Ritz-Carlton: For years, city and tourism officials have lamented that the Ritz-Carlton's flag hasn't flown over Tampa.

  • News
  • For Subscribers Only
  • By Business Observer Staff |
  • March 14, 2008
Coffee Talk

For Sale: Fort Myers City Hall: City Hall is for saleBroker goes 'green' with incentives: Diane Lawson, a commercial real estate broker and developer with Sarasota-based Abbey Realty & Management, is especially keen on green for St. Patrick's Day this year.Tribridge grows through acquisition: Tampa-based Tribridge started 10 years ago as a firm that helped companies make better use of technologyChico's new blame: Foreclosures in key statesGold Coast taps another beer:One of the Gulf Coast's largest beer distributors has won a small victory in the area's beer battles by buying the rights to sell Rolling Rock beer in Sarasota and Manatee counties from a competitor.Laser brings design into focus: The Tampa office of planning, engineering and surveying firm Wade Trim is betting on the future buy using a high-tech measurement tool that may become an industry norm.Naples attorney defends National Century execs: Naples attorney Brian Dickerson has been spending a lot of time in Ohio. He may be there for a while and it's not because he's snowed in.

  • News
  • For Subscribers Only
  • By Adam Hughes |
  • January 28, 2005
Real Estate Briefs (Sara/Mana edition)

Stratland Homes buys 305 acresInvestor buys Rosin Way Office ParkMacDill Federal Credit to start new branchSarasota sign business to move to Bee RidgeSMR applies for permit for commercial subdivision

  • Manatee-Sarasota
  • For Subscribers Only
  • By Adam Hughes |
  • January 28, 2006
Out of the, Mainstream into Success

Brothers Michael and Steven Peel started Gulfstream Homes in Naples with a small loan from a wealthy relative in 1998. Today, their company builds homes in some of the most exclusive communities in Southwest Florida.

  • Entrepreneurs
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