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03/04/10
Ad Fed recognizes locals with ADDYsAd federation recognizes locals with ADDYs The American Advertising Federation – Suncoast chapter has released its list of local ADDY Award winners. The annual award recognizes creativity and achievement in advertising. Local gold winners will advance to one of 14 regional competitions and, if they win there, will move on…
03/04/10
Hunt & Associates buys 83 condominiumsHunt & Associates buys 83 condominiums BUYER: Hunt & Associates 03 LLC (principal: Jack Hunt Jr.), Kenmore, NY SELLER: FL-Windsor Imperial Holdings LLC PROPERTY: 3675 Broadway, units A1, A3, A4, B1, B2, B4, B6, B7, B8, C1, C2, C3, C4, C2, C3, C4, D1, D2, D3, D4, E1, E2, E3,…
03/04/10
Brookfield fund buys Fountain Square I, IIIBrookfield opportunity fund buys Fountain Square buildings BUYER: BREOF BNK3A Memorial LP (Brookfield Real Estate Opportunity Fund), New York City SELLER: Chase Bankcard Services Inc. PROPERTY: 4900 Memorial Highway, Tampa PRICE: $27.75 million PREVIOUS PRICE: $3.5 million, September 1994 BUYER: BREOF BNK3A Independence LP (Brookfield Real Estate Opportunity Fund), New…
03/04/10
St. Pete business owners buy apartmentsSt. Pete business owners buy apartments BUYER: CPN Holdings LLC (principals: Thien, Catherine, Ha Thuy and Peter Nguyen), St. Petersburg SELLER: Gabby Properties LLC PROPERTY: 550 50th Ave. N., St. Petersburg PRICE: $1.37 million PREVIOUS PRICE: $2.5 million, May 2005 TITLE FIRM ON DEED: Seminole Title Co., Seminole PLANS, DESCRIPTION:…
03/04/10
Aldi develops Port Richey storeAldi develops Port Richey store BUYER: Aldi Florida LLC, Haines City SELLER: Cay Cinema LLC PROPERTY: 6815 Cinema Drive, Port Richey PRICE: $1.56 million PREVIOUS PRICE: $1.1 million, October 2008 LAW FIRM ON DEED: Preston O. Cockey Jr. PA, Tampa PLANS, DESCRIPTION: Batavia, Ill.-based discount grocer Aldi USA purchased a…
03/04/10
Joneses buy Capri Inn, plan rehab, rebrandingJoneses buy Capri Inn, plan rehab, rebranding BUYER: Capri Inn at Siesta LLC (principal: Don and Elena Jones), Sarasota SELLER: Bonus Properties Inc. PROPERTY: 6782 Sarasea Circle, Sarasota PRICE: $995,000 PREVIOUS PRICE: $1.93 million, October 2005 LAW FIRM ON DEED: Charles H. Ball & Associates PA, Sarasota PLANS, DESCRIPTION: Don…
03/04/10
Oettinger Davidoff Group moves headquartersOettinger Davidoff Group moves headquarters The Oettinger Davidoff Group has announced plans to relocate its headquarters to a 100,000-square-foot building in Pinellas Park. The company will bring 90 new jobs paying 150% of the average annual wage to the area. The company, which imports cigars from the Dominican Republic and…
03/04/10
Sam’s Club buys land in Riverview Bell PlazaSam’s Club buys land in Riverview Bell Plaza BUYER: Sam’s East Inc., Bentonville, Ark. SELLER: DD Riverview LLC PROPERTY: on Big Bend Road west of U.S. 301, Riverview PRICE: $5.2 million PREVIOUS PRICE: $7.5 million, November 2006 LAW FIRM ON DEED: GrayRobinson PA, Tampa PLANS, DESCRIPTION: Bentonville, Ark.-based Sam’s Club…
03/04/10
Condo Capital buys, resells 53 unitsCondo Capital buys, resells 53 units BUYER: CCS-Bel Mare LLC (principals: Peter Wells, Sharon Eshima and Marcel Arsenault), Louisville, Colo. SELLER: The Huntington National Bank PROPERTY: 140 Riviera Dunes Way, various units, Palmetto PRICE: $6.4 million LAW FIRM ON DEED: Stearns Weaver Miller Weissler Alhadeff & Sitterson PA, Tampa PLANS,…
03/04/10
Valrico Express Oil owner buys Lithia Pinecrest buildingsValrico Express Oil owner buys Lithia Pinecrest buildings BUYER: Bloomingdale Express Inc. (principals: Scott and Malinda Webster), Riverview SELLER: Tampa Brandon Express LLC PROPERTY: 3231 Lithia Pinecrest Road, Valrico PRICE: $1.12 million PREVIOUS PRICE: $650,000, March 2005 TITLE FIRM ON DEED: Executive Title of Florida Inc., Brandon PLANS, DESCRIPTION: Scott…
03/04/10
Urfer opens dealership, plans building on U.S. 301Urfer opens dealership, plans building on U.S. 301 BUYER: Centec Equipment LLC (principal: Jack Urfer), Sarasota SELLER: Declan and Mollie Huber PROPERTY: east side of U.S. 301 south of Whitfield Ave., Sarasota PRICE: $1.95 million LAW FIRM ON DEED: Henry P. Trawick PA, Sarasota PLANS, DESCRIPTION: Jack Urfer is opening…
03/04/10
Starwood Land Ventures buys 5,000-lots, modelsStarwood Land Ventures buys 5,000-lots, models BUYER: SLV Reflection Isles LLC, Lakewood Ranch SELLER: Tousa Homes Inc. (debtor in possession) PROPERTY: lots 36-39, 92-95, 98-101, 272, 273, 404-423 and 536-547, Reflection Isles in Lee County PRICE: $2.52 million BUYER: SLV Reflection Lakes LLC, Lakewood Ranch PROPERTY: a portion of tracts…
03/04/10
Lee’s Conservation 20/20 makes $36-million purchaseLee’s Conservation 20/20 makes $36-million purchase BUYER: Lee County, Fort Myers SELLER: C-Hack LLC and Keystone Creek LLC PROPERTY: 11400 Luckett Road Extension, 9601 and 9901 State Road 82 and additional land, Fort Myers FUTURE PRICE: $36.26 million PLANS, DESCRIPTION: Lee County commissioners have approved the $36.3-million purchase of 1,213…
03/04/10
Collier Enterprises delays Big Cypress plansCollier Enterprises delays Big Cypress plans Naples-based Collier Enterprises says it will delay permitting for the Town of Big Cypress in order to participate in a new Habitat Conservation Plan being created by a coalition of conservation organizations and Collier County landowners. The plan will provide protection for multiple species…
03/04/10
Lee County lays a goose eggCommercial construction in Lee County can only be described using this cliché: Full stop. For the second month in a row, Lee County issued no permits in February for construction of new commercial buildings. At the peak, Lee County issued record permits for the construction of commercial buildings worth $318.6…
03/04/10
Amendment means unemploymentState unemployment could rise to nearly 15% or more should Amendment 4, the so-called “Vote on Everything” or “Hometown Democracy” amendment to the state constitution, pass in November. The amendment calls for voters to approve all local government proposed comprehensive plan amendments, which many people see bringing development to a…
03/04/10
Powerbrokers want in on weak banksFormer Federal Deposit Insurance Corp. chairman Bill Isaac, a Longboat Key resident and local businessman, apparently smells opportunity amid the carnage in the banking industry. Several industry publications, including The American Banker and SNL Financial, reported late last month that Isaac is heading up a dream team of industry executives…
03/04/10
Philly CEO touts the steady approachThere’s more to professional baseball than the nine-inning game. There’s the business of baseball. Major League Baseball teams earned more than $6 billion in revenue last year. And there is the charity aspect. It was the latter that brought one of the biggest names in the business of baseball to…
03/04/10
Economic crocuses begin to emergeFor the last two years, Gary Jackson’s monthly economic reports have spelled doom and gloom in graphic detail. As director of the Regional Economic Research Institute at Florida Gulf Coast University in Fort Myers, it’s Jackson’s job to track various measures of the area’s economic health. Every month, he sends…
03/04/10
Gov. Crist’s Ouija board budgetState Rep. Trudi Williams, R-Fort Myers, has some words of advice for Gov. Charlie Crist and his proposed $69.2 billion budget: “The first thing I would tell Gov. Crist is ‘forget about it.’” Crist’s proposed budget adds $2.7 billion to last year’s budget though multiple revenue sources that remain uncertain.…
03/04/10
CorrectionA real estate brief on the Asolo Theatre buying a new production center in the Review’s January 22-28 issue should have said that Kimberly Rogers is with CB Richard Ellis.
03/04/10
TXT MSG 4 $REVIEW SUMMARY Company. Interop Technologies Industry. Telecommunications Key. Own the technology to lead the competition. John Dwyer looks like a genius today. But when he started a small company in Fort Myers called Interop Technologies in 2002, the texting revolution was in its infancy. Who would have thought that so…
03/04/10
One Big Litter BoxREVIEW SUMMARY What. Panther habitat costs spread wide and deep. Issue. Will a required economic study help defeat the Panther habitat lawsuit? Impact. Critical habitat designation on top of other burdens could cripple the region’s economy permanently. A couple of hundred large cats could yet doom Florida’s economic future. Property…
03/04/10
Move to growLem Sharp and a few other executives at Sarasota-based construction firm W.G. Mills decided in 2008 there was only one way to deal with the recession. Attack it. Sharp, president of W.G. Mills, says the consensus opinion within the firm was to grow any way possible, even if that meant…
03/04/10
Election-year stimulusFred Pezeshkan is already looking ahead to 2011 because the construction industry will face another tough year before a recovery is in sight. Pezeshkan, the chief executive officer of Kraft Construction in Naples, the second-largest construction firm on the Gulf Coast, is one of the shrewdest and well-connected executives on…
03/04/10
Rise UpTom Wessel’s self-named construction firm was one of only a few Gulf Coast contracting firms to gain revenues in 2009. In fact, the company grew 51% last year, from $5.3 million to $8 million. The seven-employee firm also moved into a new headquarters in Lakewood Ranch in 2009. But don’t…
03/04/10
Beyond minority growthFor most companies, a backlog of $85 million in work would represent an exceptional year of business. But for Jose Morales, that total misses the mark. “Our goal was 90,” he explains. That impressive total demonstrates his company’s ability to continue to do work during a down economy. For his…
03/04/10
Consistent ContractorJohn Kavula may not realize it, but his company has a lot in common with Google. It’s not that they’re in the same industry — Kavula runs an electrical contracting firm. Nor is his $30 million business quite the same size as the Google behemoth. But both companies invest heavily…
03/04/10
Band togetherThe economic downturn has taught countless management lessons, but among them is the fact that no one can go it alone. Sunshine Structures, a Lehigh Acres-based commercial-construction firm that specializes in concrete buildings, teamed up with LJB three years ago, an engineering firm in Dayton, Ohio. Together, they’ve bid on…
03/04/10
Government Digest 03/05/10Unemployment hike delayed TALLAHASSEE —Shortly after convening, the Florida Legislature unanimously approved a bill pushing off a scheduled major increase in unemployment compensation tax rates. (See “Jobs Killer,” Dec. 18, 2009.) Gov. Charlie Crist then signed it into law. Many businesses would have seen unemployment tax increases of nearly 1,100%…
03/04/10
Promise Them Anything!“Services” are largely intangible and experimental. This intangibility makes the “product” development process more complex. In fact, marketing professional services main distinction is that “production” occurs at the point of sale. This means that the concept of “inventory” is largely irrelevant, and suggests that consumers probably have a more difficult…
03/04/10
Bankers want to lend, but issues loomBankers want to lend money, but another issue looms As President Barack Obama pushed his latest government-funded way to get the economy rolling in a March 2 speech — this time it’s the Small Business Lending Fund — a room full of bank executives in Sarasota were talking about what…
