850 Business Magazine- 2016 December/January

SPECIAL REPORT: Tallahassee Business Journal

15 TIPS HELP YOU MANAGE YOUR TIME CHEF ART SMITH GETS COOKING IN MADISON PROS AND CONS OF CAR LEASING RESPECTING WORKERS’ NEED FOR PRIVACY

A TASTE FOR SPIRITS

From vodka to rum to bourbon, Northwest Florida’s budding craft spirit distillery market is catering to discerning tastes

APRIL 27–30, 2017 Chan Cox of Wine World founded and launched South Walton Beaches Wine & Food Festival in 2013.

A best-in-class event in a world-class beach location makes South Walton Beaches Wine & Food Festival the premier wine and food event in the Southeast.

In addition to the incredible selection of more than 800 wines, South Walton Beaches Wine & Food Festival offers samplings of the world’s finest foods, including cheeses, olives, sushi, charcuterie and, of course, chocolates. The Savor South Walton Culinary Village encompasses a multitude of food tastings, food and wine pairings, and exclusive educational and entertaining seminars from noted industry experts and renowned chefs.

South Walton Beaches Wine & Food Festival benefits Destin Charity Wine Auction Foundation (DCWAF), which is named a Top 10 Wine Charity Auction by Wine Spectator magazine. Destin Wine Charity Auction Foundation supports children’s charities in Northwest Florida, including but not limited to: Children in Crisis, Sacred Heart Hospital of the Emerald Coast, Children’s Volunteer Health Network, Inc., Youth Village, Shelter House, Habitat for Humanity, Children’s Advocacy Center, Emerald Coast Autism Center, Horizons, Food for Thought, Opportunity, Inc., Pathways for Change, Boys and Girls Clubs of the Emerald Coast and AMIKids Emerald Coast.

Recent celebrity winemakers and celebrities include Mark Perrin of Chateau de Beaucastel, Christina Mariani-May of Banfi Vinters and Jean Charles Boisset of Boisset Collection and of course superstar chef Emeril Lagasse.

CELEBRITY CHEF SPOTLIGHT

YOSHI EDDINGS, Harbor Docks

harbordocks.blogspot.com/2013/08/our-beloved-yoshi.html Yoshi was born and raised in Tokyo and worked in her parent’s restaurant where her father trained her on the dishes, how to use a knife, how to sauté and how to use the grill. The small restaurant also had an in-house sushi chef who taught Yoshi the art of sushi making. After she married, Yoshi moved to Destin and began to work at Harbor Docks in 1988. Yoshi became the reason that Harbor Docks added sushi to its dominant seafood menu. She added a sushi bar to the restaurant and since trained sushi chefs in Destin and around the Southeast.

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[ WINE PROFILE [ ZENATO AMARONE 2011, $56.99, (BEST IN SHOW RED 2016) Produced from the best grapes of Costalunga held at St. Ambrose in the Valpolicella Classico zone, a land full of meanings, traditions and food and wine culture. After careful manual selection, the grapes are left to rest in the fruit cellar in small boxes and then gently pressed.

Depending on the vintage, between the last week of September and first of October, strictly manual harvesting takes place. The grapes, after harvesting and careful selection, are left to rest in the loft for a period ranging from three to four months in boxes, taking care of the spacing between cluster and cluster for the proper and best withering. Dried grapes are then crushed and macerated on the skins for 15–20 days at a temperature of 23–25 ° C. The new wine is aged in oak barrels for a minimum period of 36 months. zenato.it/amarone-classico-docg-valpolicella.html

2014 AND 2016 CELEBRITY WINEMAKER

CRISTINA MARIANI-MAY, MORGAN DOUBLE L VINEYARD CHARDONNAY 2013, $41.99, (BEST IN SHOW WHITE 2016) Located near the northern tip of the Santa Lucia Highlands AVA, the vineyard receives brisk afternoon breezes from nearby Monterey Bay. North-south vineyard row orientation allows for optimum sun exposure on the Highlands’ east-facing terraces.

The grapes were picked when the flavor and acid balance was optimal.

Hand-sorted grapes were gently pressed as whole clusters to yield the highest quality juice. The juice was fermented in French oak — 28% new and a combination of one- and two-year-old barrels. Complete malolactic fermentation and lees stirring was conducted to obtain the trademark “Morgan Balance”: creaminess with bright tropical fruit and minerality.

Floral, Fuji apple and walnut aromas are backed by sweet spice of lightly toasted oak. Tangerine, pear and apricot flavors are complemented by a touch of creaminess and elegant, bright acidity. One of the finest food wines, the Double L Chardonnay, will pair wonderfully with seafood and poultry dishes, as well as a buttery steak. morganwinery.com/?method=products.productDrilldown&productID=A5 9794F6-BB88-880A-E8BC-2AB3BDD478CA&originalMarketingURL=pro duct/2013-Double-L-Chardonnay-1-5L

CASTELLO BANFI POGGIO ALLE MURA ROSSO DI MONTALCINO 2013, $29.99 A bright red with raspberry, red berry and stone aromas and flavors.

Medium body, light tannins and a fruity, crisp finish. Racy Rosso di Montalcino. Drink now. banfiwines.com/review/jamessuckling-com-castello-banfi-poggio-alle-murarosso-di-montalcino-2013/

SAVE THE DATE: APRIL 27–30, 2017

Castello Banfi

Banfiwines.com/person/ cristina-mariani-may Cristina Mariani-May is the family proprietor of the internationally renowned Castello Banfi vineyard estate in Montalcino, Tuscany, and co-CEO of Banfi Vintners, a leading U.S. importer of fine wines. The youngest daughter of Banfi Chairman Emeritus, John F. Mariani, Jr., Ms. Mariani-May, together with her cousin James Mariani, represents the third generation of family leadership in the company founded by their grandfather, John Mariani, Sr. in 1919. Soon after completing her studies at Georgetown University and Columbia University’s Graduate School of Business, Mariani-May joined Banfi in 1993. A “pursuit of excellence” serves as a personal mantra for Mariani-May. It extends to every aspect of her work, in particular her family’s wines and nowhere more so than with the Brunellos for which Castello Banfi is renowned.

Alone among producers of Brunello di Montalcino wines, Castello Banfi has conducted groundbreaking research aimed at defining and isolating the finest clones of the Sangiovese Grosso grape.

FOR WINEMAKER & CHEF PHOTOS: SOWALWINE.COM/WINEMAKERS advertisement

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Need help finding your go-to source for pain relief ?

One pain clinic has the solution.

Whether you have sprained your ankle, thrown out your back, or suffered from a severe migraine, more than likely you have experienced at least some level of short-term pain throughout your life.

Unfortunately for some people, however, their pain is not short-lived or temporary —it is a part of their daily lives. The team at Pain Consultants of West Florida helps those suffering from all pain levels.

As one of the few state registered Pain Management practices in Florida, they take a different approach when it comes to treating chronic pain. Instead of traveling to see numerous physicians and other health providers at various locations, Pain Consultants of West Florida brings together pain management specialists—including boardcertified physicians and physical therapists— to offer a comprehensive, one-stop approach to holistic, pain management treatment.

As a patient, your road to pain-free living begins with a thorough consultation and medical examination by a credentialed physician. Once your source of pain is pinpointed, a personalized, multidisciplinary treatment plan is designed for effective, consistent, and long-term relief from pain.

Pain Consultants of West Florida offers physical therapy rehabilitation, neuropathy treatment, injection therapy, cold laser light therapy, and minimally invasive pain procedures.

Regardless of whether you’ve been living with chronic, debilitating pain for years or are just looking to increase mobility in order to do the things you once enjoyed, Pain Consultants of West Florida can make sure you take back control of your life from neck and back pain, arthritis, carpal tunnel, nerve pain, work and sports injuries, and more.

BE PAINLESS, TODAY.

ARE YOU READY TO DEFEAT YOUR PAIN FOR GOOD? Visit bepainless.com or call (850) 494-0000 to find out more and schedule a consultation.

Or visit our main office at: 4624 N. Davis Highway Pensacola, FL 32503

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850 Magazine December 2016 – January 2017

IN THIS ISSUE 850 FEATURES

SPECIAL REPORT

26

T allahassee Business Journal With a newly 35 adopted strategic initiative in hand, Tallahassee

Business of Booze Although craft beer distilleries and wineries have been part of the Northwest Florida economic landscape for years, there’s now a new kid in town — hard liquor. From Gulf Breeze to Destin to Tallahassee, craft spirit distilleries are already producing their special blends or are in the planning stages. Nationally, the business of booze is growing by double digits. The number of small production facilities in the United States has more than tripled since 2007, with the total number of craft distilleries now hitting the highest numbers since Prohibition. By Matt Algarin

and Leon County have embarked on a new economic development drive to bring more business and jobs to the region. Meanwhile, the area’s housing and tourism markets are booming, entrepreneurism is alive and thriving, higher education is providing students with needed job skills and teaching them how to create their own jobs, and hospitals are attracting new physicians to meet the demand for local medical care.

CITY ON A HILL

ALICIA OSBORNE

Betsy Couch is executive director of Knight Creative Communities Institute in Tallahassee.

n the Cover: Camden Ford and Aaron O Barnes co-founded the Timber Creek distillery in Crestview. Barnes, the master distiller, employs custom-made stills from China in producing spirits ranging from coffee rum to vodka that “actually has flavor.” Photo by Dave Barfield

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850 Magazine December 2016 – January 2017

IN THIS ISSUE

110 MANAGEMENT STRATEGIES

I-10

16 Make the most of your minutes. Here are 15 quick tips to help stressed-out professionals better manage their time.

In This Issue 10 14 99 114

Corridors

From the Publisher Business Arena Sound Bytes The Last Word from the Editor

BOTTOM LINE 20 Lots of business executives opt to lease cars for themselves and their company.

How do you find the best deal and what do you need to watch out for?

HUMAN ELEMENT 24 Do you bug them, leave them alone or something in between? An employer’s respect for worker privacy affects stress levels and performance.

16

Special Section DEAL ESTATE

103 What’s trending, what’s selling and what’s hot to buy in the 850? Find out here.

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106 Award-winning celebrity chef Art Smith is opening the Reunion Florida Garden and Kitchen School in a restored antebellum mansion he bought from the local community college in Madison for $450,000.

BAY 108 Kenny Holmes was 14 when his father, Isaac, first put a welder’s helmet on his head and a torch in his hand.

Now, Kenny has inherited a fabrication business whose specialty is charcoal grills on wheels.

EMERALD COAST 110 David Costa Sr. is building a legacy, one franchise at a time. Niceville-based Costa Enterprises owns 21 McDonald’s throughout Northwest Florida, from Navarre to Port St. Joe.

FORGOTTEN COAST 112 James Tinghitella is a man with a passion for sustainable products. He has set up fair trade agreements around the world to purchase the wood he uses to make plank flooring in his Sopchoppy workshop.

PHOTOS BY CHASE YAKABOSKI (110), JORGEN MCLEMAN / SHUTTERSTOCK.COM (16) AND COURTESY OF JT STUDIO (112)

112

Departments

“ This past year, my nursing graduates at the University of West Florida had a 93% pass rate for the National Council Licensure Examination – nearly 10% higher than the national average. When I receive letters from patients and families in the community about the quality of the nurses that I helped mentor, there’s nothing more motivating.

Nothing more rewarding.”

At the University of West Florida, we give you the freedom and support to pursue your passions, helping you create a positive impact in your own life as well as your students.

Learn more about Jill’s story online at:

MakeYourMark.uwf.edu

>> How will you make your mark?

JILL VAN DER LIKE, DNP, MSN, RNC Nursing Skills & Simulation Learning Center Coordinator • Department of Nursing

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When it comes to business, it’s best to...

850 THE BUSINESS MAGAZINE OF NORTHWEST FLORIDA

December 2016 – January 2017

Vol. 9, No. 2

PRESIDENT/PUBLISHER BRIAN E. ROWLAND EDITORIAL DIRECTOR OF EDITORIAL SERVICES Steve Bornhoft EDITOR Linda Kleindienst SENIOR STAFF WRITER Jason Dehart EDITORIAL COORDINATOR Rebecca Padgett ASSISTANT TO DIRECTOR OF EDITORIAL SERVICES Kim Harris Thacker CONTRIBUTING WRITERS Lazaro Aleman, Matt Algarin, Rosanne Dunkelberger, Jackie Gaines, Wayne Hochwarter, Tisha Crews Keller, Rochelle Koff, Karen Murphy, Tabitha Yang EDITORIAL INTERNS Reeves Trivette, Joseph Zeballos-Roig PRODUCTION SPECIALIST Melinda Lanigan COPY EDITOR Barry Ray CREATIVE CREATIVE DIRECTOR Lawrence Davidson DIRECTOR OF PRODUCTION AND TECHNOLOGY Daniel Vitter SENIOR ART DIRECTOR Saige Roberts ART DIRECTOR Jennifer Ekrut PUBLICATION DESIGNERS Charles Bakofsky, Shruti Shah GRAPHIC DESIGNERS Meredith Brooks, Sarah Mitchell DIGITAL PRODUCTION SPECIALIST Chelsea Moore CONTRIBUTING PHOTOGRAPHERS Mike Baggett, Dave Barfield, Michael Booini, Matt Burke, Lawrence Davidson, Kira Derryberry, Scott Holstein, Kallen Lunt, Alicia Osborne, Bruce Palmer, Saige Roberts, Phil Sears, Scott Smith, Ray Stanyard, Brianna Webb, Chase Yakaboski

Keep It Simple Somehow That’s what we’ve been doing for 15 years!

We “keep it simple” by having subject matter experts on staff to support your business.

When people know what they’re doing.

Life gets A LOT simpler.

How can we make things Simple for you?

Email: KeepItSimple@SimpleHR.com or call (850) 650-9935

State of Florida license #EL374

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SALES, MARKETING & EVENTS VICE PRESIDENT/CORPORATE DEVELOPMENT McKenzie Burleigh Lohbeck DIRECTOR OF NEW BUSINESS Daniel Parisi AD SERVICES COORDINATORS Tracy Mulligan, Lisa Sostre ACCOUNT EXECUTIVES Bess Grasswick, Darla Harrison, Lori Magee Yeaton, Rhonda Murray, Dan Parker, Linda Powell, Sarah Scott, Brianna Webb INTEGRATED MARKETING SPECIALIST Jennifer Ireland INTEGRATED MARKETING COORDINATOR Bria Blossom MARKETING AND EVENTS ASSISTANT Mackenzie Ligas OPERATIONS ADMINISTRATIVE SERVICES/HUMAN RESOURCE COORDINATOR Marah Rhone CORPORATE CLIENT LIAISON Sara Goldfarb ACCOUNTING Jackie Burns ACCOUNTANT ASSISTANT Lisa Cleaves ADMINISTRATIVE ASSISTANT Lisa Snell

DIGITAL SERVICES 850 BUSINESS MAGAZINE 850businessmagazine.com, facebook.com/850bizmag, twitter.com/850bizmag, linkedin.com/company/850-business-magazine ROWLAND PUBLISHING rowlandpublishing.com SUBSCRIPTIONS A one-year (6 issues) subscription is $30. To purchase, call (850) 878-0554 or go online to 850businessmagazine.com. Single copies are $4.95 and may be purchased at Barnes & Noble and Books-A-Million in Tallahassee, Fort Walton Beach, Destin, Panama City, Pensacola and at our Tallahassee office.

850 Magazine is published bi-monthly by Rowland Publishing, Inc. 1932 Miccosukee Road, Tallahassee, FL 32308.

850/878-0554. 850 Magazine and Rowland Publishing, Inc. are not responsible for unsolicited manuscripts, photography or artwork. Editorial contributions are welcomed and encouraged but will not be returned. 850 Magazine reserves the right to publish any letters to the editor. Copyright December 2016 850 Magazine, Inc. All rights reserved. Reproduction in whole or part without written permission is prohibited. Member of three Chambers of Commerce throughout the region.

WITH NONSTOP SERVICE TO: ATLANTA | BALTIMORE | DALLAS HOUSTON | NASHVILLE | ST. LOUIS and connections to the rest of the world.

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Global access with daily flights on Delta, Southwest and United iflybeaches.com

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Happy Holidays!

OUR BEST TO YOU The entire Rowland publishing family of 36 publishing professionals wish you and all whom you love and care for a happy and safe holiday season. We also extend a special, heartfelt thanks to the businesses whose support enables us to do what we love — design and produce over 20 titles that are CURRENT • QUOTABLE • WELL-READ. —BRIAN ROWLAND, ROWLAND PUBLISHING

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Tallahassee/Leon County a Truly Capital Community No Business Taxes • 1 National High Magnetic Field Laboratory 2 Research Universities • Highly Skilled Labor Market

From financing to business analytics, comprehensive site selection to incentives management, we are ready to nurture your growth.

850.219.1060 OEVforBusiness.org info@OEVforBusiness.org

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850businessmagazine.com LET’S GET SOCIAL!

Daymond John, founder, president, and CEO of FUBU and an investor on the ABC reality television series Shark Tank

Have all the latest business stories at your fingertips by following us on Facebook, Twitter and even Instagram.

No matter what device or social medium, we want to be a resource for you. Find 850 Business Magazine in all the best spots.

IN THE COMMUNITY We had a great time at EntreCon in Pensacola, Nov. 3-4. Our very own Brianna Webb had the privilege of introducing the moderator, Ted Kirchharr, for Friday’s conference. Follow us on social media and stay up-to-date with our blog to see where in Northwest Florida we’ll be next!

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ONLINE EXCLUSIVES

» Flip Books: View this issue and past issues in a digital book format.

ONLINE POLL RESULTS

CURRENT ONLINE POLL

Once on society’s fringe, organic farming is becoming an increasingly mainstream occupation, with many local farmers now able to sell their goods to a growing number of stores. Are you more liable to patronize stores that have a large selection of organic products?

In this issue of 850, we turned to businesses, drivers and auto dealerships to discuss the pros and cons of leasing cars. Does your business have a company car fleet?

» Archived Stories: Peruse our vast archive of articles.

If so, does the company own the vehicles or are they leased?

» Blog: Read about local business events, happenings and gatherings through our up-to-date blog section.

NO

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» Deal Estate: View the latest real estate deals and listings.

PHOTOS BY LAWRENCE DAVIDSON (JOHN) AND COURTESY OF BRIANNA WEBB (ENTRECON)

GULF POWER SYMPOSIUM RECAP Engage.

Connect. Grow. That was the motto for the 2016 Gulf Power Economic Symposium, held Oct. 2-4 in Panama City Beach at the newly renovated Sheraton Bay Point. The three day conference connected representatives of various economic sectors, economic development officials and community leaders in engaging ways designed to promote the growth of Northwest Florida. Speakers included Governor Rick Scott, Gulf Power chairman, president and CEO Stan Connally and Shark Tank star Daymond John. Catch up on what you may have missed from the Symposium on our recap blog at 850businessmagazine.com/Blog/ News-2016/Gulf-Power-Economic-Symposium.

SacredSacred Heart Heart HealthHealth SystemSystem will soon willbegin soon begin construction construction on a new on afour-story new four-story Children’s Children’s Hospital.

Hospital.

This means This means that – that right– here rightinhere in Northwest Northwest FloridaFlorida – more– sick moreand sickinjured and injured babiesbabies and children and children will bewill able betoable receive to receive specialized specialized pediatric pediatric healthcare. healthcare.

Help Help our Christmas our Christmas wishes wishes come come true true by making by making a giftatoday! gift today!

Visit Foundation.Sacred-Heart.org Visit Foundation.Sacred-Heart.org or call or850-416-4660. call 850-416-4660.

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Executive Mindset

Business Arena NEWS AND NUMBERS

COLLEGIATE COMPARISONS SmartAsset recently released its second annual Best Value Colleges study. The University of Florida leads for Florida, a repeat of its 2015 performance. Top performing schools ranked as a result of their performance in categories including scholarships provided, starting salary, tuition, living costs and retention rate.

AVERAGE SCHOLARSHIP

AVERAGE STARTING SALARY

TUITION

LIVING COSTS

RETENTION RATE

1. UNIVERSITY OF FLORIDA

$6,050

$49,500

$6,263

$12,840

96%

2. FLORIDA A&M UNIVERSITY

$6,974

$45,900

$5,785

$13,760

81%

3. EMBRY RIDDLE AERONAUTICAL UNIVERSITY

$11,285

$57,300

$31,334

$15,280

79%

4. FLORIDA INSTITUTE OF TECHNOLOGY

$20,533

$56,100

$32,020

$16,670

76%

5. UNIVERSITY OF SOUTH FLORIDA

$5,976

$42,700

$6,410

$14,350

89%

6. FLORIDA STATE UNIVERSITY

$4,580

$42,400

$6,507

$15,036

92%

7. UNIVERSITY OF CENTRAL FLORIDA

$4,616

$42,700

$6,317

$14,522

88%

8. UNIVERSITY OF NORTH FLORIDA

$4,893

$42,400

$6,353

$14,222

83%

9. FLORIDA INTERNATIONAL UNIVERSITY

$5,055

$43,800

$6,496

$16,472

84%

$5,343

$44,600

$4,790

$16,793

75%

$4,992

$42,910

$14,336

$13,878

70%

SCHOOL

10. FLORIDA ATLANTIC UNIVERSITY FLORIDA AVERAGE

SmartAsset is a financial technology company that uses data to provide free advice on big financial decisions. Topics include home buying, renting, retirement, life insurance, taxes, student loans and investing.

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BRYAN POLLARD / SHUTTERSTOCK.COM

Smathers Library at the University of Florida

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Executive Mindset

Management Strategies SETTING PRIORITIES

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Make the Most of Your Minutes 15 quick tips to help stressed-out professionals better manage their time BY JACKIE GAINES

A

sk any working professional what they could use more of, and you’ll probably keep getting the same answer. Time. In the frantic pace of the digital age, time is something everyone seems to be short on now. (It’s almost laughable that we once thought technology would help create more leisure time!) But if workers could figure out how to make the most of their waking moments, they could be far more productive and happy regardless of their time constraints.

Success at work and in life often comes down to one thing: developing better time management skills. Our minutes have become hot since time is so scarce these days, and we toss them away without a second thought. The truth is, we are always going to have obligations, deadlines and responsibilities, but if you learn how to handle your hot minutes you can work with the clock instead of against it.

Here are some tips to help you make the most of your time (no matter how little you have) and achieve a healthier and happier work-life balance:

JORGEN MCLEMAN / SHUTTERSTOCK.COM

1. Prioritize sleep so you can function when you’re awake.

If you do nothing else, prioritize your sleep needs. You will be more productive and feel more ambitious when you get the rest your body requires.

I suggest scheduling sleep like any other daily activity on your to-do list.

Pencil in a stopping point in your day and stick to it without fail. Then wind down with a book or another relaxing bedtime ritual to help you drift off to sleep.

2. Establish what the “workday” means to you and your boss. It’s common for employers to call or email you after hours, but it is up to you to decide whether you’re available after hours.

If you choose to be off-duty on nights and weekends, that is your choice (and your right!). Just make sure you respectfully address your “workday” limits to your boss upfront, so everyone is clear on the boundaries.

3. Don’t stay on your email all day. Constantly checking your inbox is distracting and slows you down. Designate a few times in your workday to check email so that you remain in control of your schedule and aren’t being reactive to new messages as they appear.

4. Choose human connection over technology. Though technology has improved our lives, it comes with its own set of problems.

Emails and texts are convenient, but they create room for confusion and miscommunication. Whenever possible, talk in person in order to get your message across clearly.

5. Learn to say no and mean it. It’s OK to turn down invitations, cancel plans or disconnect from the outside world every now and then. Saying no is a skill that will benefit you throughout life, so allow yourself to politely start bowing out of unnecessary commitments right now.

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MANAGEMENT STRATEGIES

constructed to-do list will be useless if it is too ambitious. What’s the point of writing down unachievable tasks? We’re not superheroes and shouldn’t try to be. Make your daily goals small enough that you can actually get them done. Remember that you can always do more if you have the time.

7. Give multitasking the ax.

Multitasking is ineffective and counterproductive. People work best when they give focused attention to the task at hand. So aim to work on only one project at a time and give yourself permission to forget about other priorities until you are done.

8. Listen up! Active listening consists of being present and engaged when communicating with another person, but it’s not as easy as it sounds. It’s very common to forget to listen after you speak your thoughts in a conversation, and you often lose important info as a result. When you are talking with a coworker, manager or anyone else, be sure that you turn off that pesky inner monologue and focus when it is the other person’s turn to speak.

9. Don’t be a sheep. While maintaining the status quo is often a good thing (especially at work), there may come a time when it is advisable to stop following the herd and innovate in the name of productivity. If you can envision a way to work smarter and better, you may just create new best practices for your place of work that will save time and increase quality.

10. Stop shuffling papers.

Most of us waste a lot of time shuffling papers from one pile to another. Chances are that your desk is full of paper you don’t know what to do with. Stop this

maddening cycle by touching each sheet of paper just once and figure out the appropriate action. Either put it in a to-do pile so you can deal with it immediately, a file (for documents you must keep), or the trash. This keeps the papers moving and keeps you sane!

11. Step away from the Internet. Surfing the web is a huge time-waster for most people. An innocent little break often turns into an hour (or more) of wasted time that you can’t get back — especially when you should be working or headed to bed to get some rest. I advise shutting off access to the Internet at a certain time each day to avoid getting lost in cyberspace. I also recommend breaks from recreational Internet use — about a month — to focus on other aspects of your life that may need attention.

12. Have some fun along the way. It’s important to remember that stressed-out people aren’t all that productive. You have to relax and schedule “recharge time” into your life to avoid burnout — especially if you have an intense work environment. Be sure to build in time for fun on the weekends and on some evenings but try to make work fun, too. If appropriate at your office, find ways to infuse a little lighthearted play into your workday.

13. Practice breathing and mindfulness. Imagine how productive you could be if you could focus, calm all anxious thoughts and truly be present. You can find out by practicing mindfulness.

Breathing is a tool for achieving a relaxed, clear state of mind. There are multiple methods for achieving this state, including tai chi, meditation, yoga or simple breathing exercises. Find one that resonates for you and practice it daily.

14. Stop owning other people’s stuff. How often do you hear yourself saying, “Never mind, I’ll do it myself”? Probably more often than you’d like, and this habit takes up your precious minutes in no time. The solution is to hold others accountable for their responsibilities. This includes your children, your spouse and your colleagues. Let “Never mind . . .” be the exception instead of the rule.

15. Let go and delegate. Learn to know when to let someone else handle a task. It can be hard to relinquish control, but it is also necessary to delegate, especially if you’re in a leadership position. Remember that delegating is not admitting you can’t handle your responsibilities — not at all. Rather, it’s about maximizing the potential of your entire workforce.

Remember that you have two choices when trying to manage your time. You can either let your priorities and obligations run your life, or you can take charge of your minutes and let them work for you to achieve your goals in a timely manner.

While you won’t ever succeed long-term by racing the clock, you can drop your bad habits, improve ineffective practices and kick stress to the curb so that your whole life improves.

Jackie Gaines is a coach for The Studer Group and a senior executive with a career that encompasses more than 38 years of sustained leadership and accomplishments with major health systems and organizations. She has dedicated most of her career to the advancement of quality health care programs, particularly those focused on the care of the poor and underserved. She has written four books, including “Wait a Hot Minute! How to Manage Your Life with the Minutes You Have.” Copies can be purchased online at StuderGroup.com.

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Executive Mindset

Bottom Line WHEEL DEALS

Buy

Lease

TO LEASE OR NOT TO LEASE? T ony Bellomio doesn’t expect his employees at The Maids of Tallahassee to buy a new car every few years, but he can ensure that they drive one.

“We lease,” said Bellomio, co-owner of the cleaning service with his wife, Shelby.

“Our maids are cleaning houses in nice neighborhoods, and a new car promotes a better opinion of our company.”

Bellomio leases five vehicles for his

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business — four Honda CRVs and one Honda Fit — as well as two vehicles for personal use.

“It’s more cost-effective,” said Bellomio, also a salesman for Acura for 25 years. “We get the safest, newest cars every few years.

It makes sense.”

While leasing is gaining momentum, not all drivers are on board.

At the other end of the financing spectrum are consumers such as Tallahassee

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resident Gail Brayman, who finds buying more economical — in the long run.

Brayman bought her 2002 Nissan Altima in November 2001, and it’s still running. In 15 years, she has spent about $8,000 on the car, which originally cost $27,500. It now has 99,400 miles. Brayman bought it outright, with the help of a home equity loan, which she quickly paid off.

“I feel more secure having my own car,” Brayman said. “I don’t have to worry about

TEGUH JATI PRASETYO / SHUTTERSTOCK.COM

Nearly one-third of car sales are now leases BY ROCHELLE KOFF

running up mileage, and I don’t have to worry if I get any dents or dings. I didn’t want to pay money to keep up a car that I’m going to have to turn over to the car dealership.”

Brayman keeps her emerald mist-colored Altima spotless, so it’s still “almost perfect.”

Whether you like to lease like Bellomio or buy like Brayman, the world of auto financing is, well, complicated.

“Leasing is probably the most misunderstood way to finance a vehicle, and because it’s misunderstood, I think it scares a lot of people away from it,” said Will Benedicks, director of finance for The Proctor Dealerships in Tallahassee.

“We try to help educate consumers, because the more educated the consumer, the better the decision they can actually make.”

More consumers, from college grads to retirees, are indeed deciding that leasing is a viable alternative to paying cash or getting a traditional car loan.

“There are a lot of people who enjoy being in a new car every few years,” said Greg Clark, general manager of Werner Hyundai in Tallahassee.

Leasing now accounts for nearly one-third of vehicle sales throughout the country. According to the latest Lease Market Report from the car-buying platform Edmunds.com, more new vehicles were leased in the first half of 2016 than during the first half of any other year in history. The figures show that 2.2 million new cars, trucks and SUVs were leased in the first part of this year, an increase of 13 percent over the same period in 2015, and double the number from five years ago.

“Leasing is very popular at Capital Eurocars,” said Crawford Atkins, vice president and general manager of Capital Eurocars Group in Tallahassee.

“Approximately 40 percent of our new vehicle sales are leased, and that number is growing. … I am a lease customer,

myself. I have been in the automotive business for over 31 years and I lease my personal cars. For me, there is not a smarter way to pay for a car.”

Leasing is appealing in many ways, but there are also drawbacks to consider.

“Leasing is not for everyone,” said Atkins. “If you like to keep your car for five years or more, or if you drive 30,000 miles per year or more, you shouldn’t lease.”

Jackie Watson, part owner and president of Watson & Associates, PA, Certified Public Accountants in Tallahassee, agreed. “Economically, it’s usually better to buy if you’re going to keep the car,” she said. “If you are selling your car every three years, it might be more economical to lease … Tax-wise, the individual circumstances will determine if it’s better to buy or lease.”

Clark said customers generally lease for 24, 36 or 48 months, while contracts to buy are inching past five years and pushing 72 to 84 months.

When you buy a new or used car, you are paying for the entire cost of the vehicle. When you lease a car, you pay for only a portion of the vehicle’s cost, which is usually why you pay less per month in a lease than if you were buying the car. When leasing, payments will be based on the vehicle’s estimated depreciation cost or residual value, what the car will be worth after three years, along with interest, taxes and fees.

When the lease expires, you can turn the car in and walk away, lease another vehicle, or buy the car to keep or use as a trade-in.

“It’s just a different way to finance a vehicle,” said Greg Whibbs, a partner in the Buick/GMC Division of the Vince Whibbs Automotive Group in Pensacola.

IHS Automotive said the average length of ownership for a new vehicle has been extended to 6.5 years, compared with 4.3 years in 2006. But from a dealer’s

perspective, “most people are not driving their car until the wheels fall off anymore,” Whibbs said.

That trend is especially true for millennials (ages 18 to 34). Edmunds.com reported in 2015 that young consumers opt to lease their vehicles at a higher rate than the overall car-buying population.

And leasing accounted for 28.9 percent of all new-car purchases made by millennials in 2015.

Their psyche is geared to leasing, Benedicks said. “They want the newest and best that’s out there and they want to keep their prices lower.” Also, at their age, “their personal and professional life can be in a state of flux. Are they married? Where will their career take them?”

Millennials often choose to lease rather than invest in a car that might not suit them in a few years, he said.

And instead of keeping a car for 10 years, a growing portion prefer making payments to lease a car they couldn’t otherwise afford to buy.

But millennials aren’t the only major fans of leasing. Buyers ages 75 and up have also “embraced leasing in a big way,” according to Edmunds’ Lease Market Report. “Leasing has increased 74 percent among these buyers in the last five years.”

No need to convince David Parke, 76, of Tallahassee. He has leased 11 cars.

“Basically, it’s an individual thing.

Leasing’s not for everyone,” said Parke, a retired pilot and former director of flight operations for the state of Florida.

“But I’m a car guy. I like new cars. My lifestyle is such that I want a new car every three years.”

Parke currently leases an Acura TL for $365 a month. He also owns a 2003, 50thanniversary red Corvette.

“Everyone needs a toy,” Parke quipped.

He leased his cars with no money down so that he saves upfront costs and doesn’t have to dip into his savings.

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BOTTOM LINE

“Financially, most cars aren’t a good investment,” he said. Another plus for Parke: “When you lease a new car every three years, it’s never out of warranty.

“If you’re a person who’s completely satisfied driving a car for 20 years, you’ve gotten your money out of it,” Parke said. “If after three years you want a new car, then you better lease it.”

Consumer advocates advise car shoppers to understand all the elements of a lease, or any car contract, before making a decision. Other factors affecting the lease payment include the length of the lease (usually two to four years), and the mileage limits, usually 10,000 to 15,000 miles per year. Consumer advocates advise drivers to avoid excess mileage charges by obtaining a lease that has a large enough mileage allowance to cover their transportation needs. Drivers must also consider if the extended-mileage lease is still cost-effective.

“One time I went over my miles, and it cost me $250. Not a big deal,” said Robert Crystal, 60, of Tallahassee, who worked as a law enforcement officer with the New York Police Department and with the Office of the Inspector General for the Florida Department of Corrections.

Crystal has been leasing for 20 years and

likes getting the newest safety and technology features available in new cars. He leased his most recent vehicle, a 2017 Hyundai Elantra, on Sept. 29.

“There’s just about every extra in this car,” said Crystal. “I don’t have to put any cash down or use my savings. I make payments of $225 and I have a nice car.”

Benedicks pointed to some estimates of the costs involved when securing a 36-month lease or a 60-month loan for an average, 2016 fourdoor sedan selling for $27,000, both with a 3 percent interest rate.

If you buy the car with no money down, you’ll pay $530 a month. With a five-year loan, you will have spent $31,800 for the car plus an estimated $4,750 for maintenance and repairs, bringing the cost of the car to $36,550. After six years of ownership, according to car appraisal sites, the car is worth $7,600, so you’ve paid an estimated $28,950 for the car. The sedan could be worth more or less depending on its condition, whether it’s been in an accident, gas mileage and other factors.

If you lease the car for more than three years, you’ll pay $385 per month, $145 less than the car loan payment. In 36 months, you’ll have spent $13,860. You’ll pay an estimated $650 in maintenance and repairs, since cars leased for

three years are under warranty. So your cost for three years is roughly $14,500. If you lease two cars in a row, you’ll have spent $29,020 in six years, $70 more than you spent on your six years of ownership.

If you buy, “at the end of six years, your car is worth $7,600,” Benedicks said. “Would you buy a house if you knew it was going to depreciate by more than 50 percent in six years?”

But not all cars are equal when it comes to leasing. Be wary of cars with low resale values.

Benedicks advises against leasing cars that are traditionally used as rental or fleet cars, for instance, because “in three years, the market will be flooded with them.”

The highest-leased brands are Audi, Mercedes-Benz, BMW and Land Rover, which have a high resale value, Benedicks said. About 64 percent to 70 percent of those new luxury cars are leased. The average demographic for those cars is “solidly upper middle class with a $165,000 household income,” he said. “They’re buying their houses and leasing their cars.”

But for consumers who prefer to be payment-free and are vigilant about car upkeep, leasing isn’t a done deal.

“I love my car,” said longtime Altima owner Gail Brayman. “I know I’ll be able to keep it a long time.”

Should You Lease Your Car? Here are some of the pros and cons to consider when leasing

PROS ▪ Lease payments are lower than loan payments. You can drive a more expensive vehicle when you lease compared to when you finance a loan to buy a car.

▪ A car loses value the minute you drive it off the lot, so if you aren’t keeping a car, you’re not getting its long-term value.

▪ You get a new car every few years with updated safety features and technology.

▪ When a lease is over, you can turn the car in, buy it or use it for a tradein. If the car has been in an accident, you don’t have to worry about its diminished value. It’s back to the dealership at the end of the contract.

▪ A lease often requires no money down or a small down payment, so you don’t have to dip into your savings to drive home a new car.

▪ You have to pay basic maintenance, but the car is under warranty for three years, so you don’t have to deal with big repairs.

CONS ▪ If you purchase a car, you’ll be payment-free after you’ve paid off the loan. But with a lease, you have to keep making payments. It is ultimately more expensive to lease than buy a new car if you take care of that car and keep it a long time.

▪ You don’t own the car, so you can’t customize it. (Some

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dealerships allow minor modifications such as tinting.)

monthly payment. Consider whether a lease is still practical.

▪ You have agreed-upon mileage restrictions. Many leases have driving limits of 10,000 to 15,000 miles per year. If you go over your miles, you pay a penalty. You can check into extended mileage leases, which usually raise the

▪ You need to keep the car in good shape. There are mixed opinions about how much wear and tear is acceptable. A few minor dings might be OK, but don’t beat it up.

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▪ If you have bad credit, forget leasing.

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Executive Mindset

Human Element EMPLOYEE ETIQUETTE

BUG THEM OR LEAVE THEM ALONE? Employers’ respect for employees’ privacy affects performance BY WAYNE HOCHWARTER

A

merican employees who are constantly connected to work report the highest levels of job and life stress of any time in history.

Business leaders and scholars agree that much of this stress is a result of mismanaging the boundaries between work and home life. The reasons are many, including increased globalization, a more rapid pace of change and the growing emphasis on working remotely. Also, advances in communication technology — from ever-present smartphones to easy video conferencing — lead to employees and supervisors being in seemingly constant contact and create what many describe as a “24/7 workforce.”

My research team and I recently developed a study designed to examine the role of privacy away from work on employee stress and wellbeing to further understand employeeemployer boundaries.

Approximately 500 administrative and professional employees were asked the extent to which leaders at work respected their privacy while away from work. As examples, employees were asked to indicate the extent to which their boss “understands that I have a life away from work” and, conversely, “thinks I am on call 24/7.”

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When compared to employees reporting high levels of privacy, those indicating low levels also were: ▪ 40 percent more likely to feel overwhelmed with too many tasks.

▪ 31 percent more likely to observe boss moodiness.

▪ 18 percent less likely to help others at work who asked for assistance.

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Those same employees also reported: ▪ 28 percent higher levels of coworker threat behavior.

▪ 23 percent higher levels of job and life burnout.

▪ 23 percent higher levels of job-search activity at work.

▪ 20 percent higher levels of work anxiety, both on the job and at home.

▪ 15 percent higher levels of frustration with others and company expectations.

Overall, employees with low-privacy relationships indicated they did not have the level of control they needed to focus on work and give the same

IMAGEFLOW / SHUTTERSTOCK.COM

level of attention to other aspects of their lives. In fact, one 34-year-old accountant said, “I hate the fact that managers think they can dictate how I live my life away from work.”

Why are some employees treated respectfully during non-work hours, while others are subject to the whims of supervisors? Our study found that high- and lowprivacy employees differed along multiple dimensions while at work. Compared to low-privacy workers, those given more privacy reported having access to more work resources, were more confident in their ability to get others to “buy in” to their ideas and suggestions, and indicated higher levels of supervisor support, access and openness to speak candidly even when reporting unfavorable news.

These employees were not bothered because they really did not need to be. They knew what was expected of them at work and took care of it, articulated their expectations for non-work interactions, and made sure that supervisors were aware of their unique family and social obligations.

Companies exhaust incalculable resources managing the way employees and supervisors interact on the job with little concern for what goes on outside of the workday.

My advice for employees wishing to have the best of both worlds is to talk with your employer in ways that lead to favorable results. Instead of telling your boss, “Your Saturday calls are annoying,” say, “Weekends are my time to recharge so I can approach the new week enthusiastically. So unless it is an emergency, please allow me to do so.”

In addition, sitting down with your boss and collaboratively agreeing on your availability represents a type of contract both parties should acknowledge and accept.

Employees who set the boundaries rather than reacting to them benefited by seizing back some of the control often lost at work.

Employees also need to constantly monitor their stress levels, taking into account the source of the stress, how it affects their physical and psychological health, and how it affects work, home life and important relationships.

No one knows you like you know yourself, and you can hide some things from others but not yourself. Get control and help if needed.

Wayne Hochwarter is the Jim Moran Professor of Management at Florida State University’s College of Business and a professor fellow at the Australia Catholic University.

Committed to supporting local business initiatives and promoting active and engaged involvement in the Greater Pensacola community.

PensacolaChamber.com

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SPIRITS WORLD CRAFT DISTILLERIES AND THEIR PRODUCTS ARE GROWING IN POPULARITY

BY MATT ALGARIN // PHOTOGRAPHY BY DAVE BARFIELD

A Timber Creek Distillery in Crestview uses a local blend of corn, wheat and barley to create their bourbon, which is easy to drink whether you prefer it neat, on the rocks or mixed in your favorite cocktail.

former Navy pilot and chemist, Paul Rollins was looking for something interesting to do when he retired in Gulf Breeze.

Aaron Barnes and Camden Ford wanted to form a business, hatching their plan over meetings in a Destin backyard.

Dean Minardi had an idea to convert the old Coca-Cola bottling plant near downtown Tallahassee into a business.

On the surface, there doesn’t appear to be a connection among these four. But along with a growing number of individuals across the region, state and nation, they have developed a similar passion for a rapidly expanding industry — craft distilling.

The business of booze, more specifically craft spirits, is growing by double digits.

The number of small production facilities in the United States has more than tripled since 2007, with the total number of craft distilleries now hitting the highest numbers since Prohibition.

According to data from a recent study conducted by the American Craft Spirits Association, IWSR and Park Street, there were at least 1,280 active craft spirit producers in the nation in 2015. Between 2007

and 2015, the annual growth rate for permits was 16 percent.

In Florida, records from the state Department of Business and Professional Regulation show that as of Aug. 17, 2016, there were 37 licensed distilleries in the state, stretching from Okaloosa County in Northwest Florida to Miami. Along the Panhandle, there are currently four licensed distilleries — Rollins Distillery in Gulf Breeze, Blackwater Spirits Inc. in Milton, Peaden Brothers Distillery in Crestview and Timber Creek Distillery in Crestview.

During an eight-year period that began in 2004, a total of 12 distillery applications were filed with the department. Between 2012 and 2015, there were 32 applications filed. As of mid-August, four more applications were filed.

Craft spirits are the products created and bottled on-site by an independently owned distillery with maximum annual sales of 52,000 cases. To be considered a craft distillery, one must be involved in all aspects of the distillation process, from ingredient selection to bottling and labeling.

They are regulated much like any other business and must adhere to all local and state regulations. One more caveat: They can open only in “wet counties.”

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Rollins Distillery The father and son team of Paul and Patrick Rollins leased their current property — located at 5680 Gulf Breeze Parkway, D-10 — in 2012, although the company itself was born the year prior.

“The first year was spent planning out our operations,” Paul Rollins explained.

“We really wanted to start out as a pilot plant and take the time to get good products developed.”

Rollins Distillery, which is filled to the brim with large containers holding molasses, a variety of stills, coiled copper pipes, a fermenting room and a packaging/bottling area, produces three products (all molasses-based) out of its warehouse setting: Esprit de Krewe Vodka, Esprit de Krewe Crystal Rum and Esprit de Krewe Spiced Rum. In fact, the Esprit de Krewe Vodka and Rum were awarded silver and bronze medals, respectively, in the grain-to-glass sugar vodka and un-aged rum molasses categories during the 2016 American Distilling Institute Sprits competition.

That’s quite the honor for the Rollins team, which also includes Paul’s wife and Patrick’s mother, Lamia.

“We’re first-generation distillers, so we are learning it all on our own,” Patrick Rollins said. “It’s really a constant lesson.”

Paul Rollins is a retired Navy pilot and chemist, while Patrick Rollins, who

“What we wanted to do is have topshelf spirits that the area would be proud of. But we also want to work with local growers, such as apple growers, to produce new products.”

— Paul Rollins, Rollins Distillery

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originally planned to be an architect, holds a degree in marketing and sales management with a certificate in supply chain logistics from the University of West Florida. After retirement, Paul was looking for a new adventure and drew inspiration from fond memories of Scotland, where he spent time in a distillery while working on his MBA through Auburn University. For his part, Patrick has a longstanding love of beer and dabbled in home brewing while attending college in Gainesville.

The Rollinses wanted to start a business they not only enjoyed but that would allow them to give back to the community and utilize local resources from various farms in the area.

“What we wanted to do is have topshelf spirits that the area would be proud of,” Paul Rollins said. “But Attention to detail we also want to and quality are two things the folks at work with local Rollins Distillery in growers, such as Gulf Breeze won’t apple growers, compromise on, says Patrick Rollins. The to produce new goal for the father products.” and son team is to eventually source as Rollins Distillmany ingredients as ery is completepossible from local ly funded out farmers and growers, which would allow of the family’s them to give back to pocketbook. the community.

“There’ve been a lot of tradeoffs in terms of what we really want to do and what we can actually afford to do,” Paul Rollins said. “That’s why we are starting out at the scale of a pilot plant. It’s smaller, and the equipment is more affordable.”

While it’s hard to create the quantities they would like, the smaller scale allows them to have greater control over their products.

“If we were going full scale at our production level now, we could get a barrel of usable spirits/vodka a month, which is about 250 bottles,” Patrick Rollins said.

Added Paul Rollins, “We are not trying to rush products out the door; we are trying to create quality products that people can enjoy.”

The Rollins products can be found locally at World of Beer in Pensacola and

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elsewhere along the Emerald Coast at Fish House, the Bridge Bar, Aloha, Red Fish Blue Fish and Peg Leg Pete’s, just to name a few.

“We’re really excited because we are getting the foundation spirits right,” Paul Rollins said.

As much fun as they are having at the distillery, the Rollinses are particularly enjoying spending time together as father and son.

“It’s really hard when you work for yourself. You have to find that drive, but thankfully Dad has that and he Timber Creek keeps us motico-founders vated,” Patrick Camden Ford and Aaron Barnes, Rollins said. “This who serves as the truly is a family master distiller, have introduced business.”

Timber Creek Distillery

their own bourbon blending kit, which allows bourbon lovers to blend their own whiskey from the comforts of home. Each kit contains a bottle of Florida Wheat Whiskey, Florida Black Rye Whiskey, Florida Corn Whiskey and American Single Malt Whiskey. All of the ingredients are made at the Timber Creek Distillery in Crestview, where Barnes’s parents own a log cabin.

About 70 miles northeast of the Rollins Distillery, Aaron Barnes and his business partner, Camden Ford, make their own craft spirits at Timber Creek Distillery in Crestview.

Situated on a large family farm, the approach to the distillery off of Poverty Creek Road is dramatic and secluded. The red clay road is lined with tall pines, private driveways and abandoned homes with plenty of stories to tell. It’s a setting straight out of a Hollywood movie.

But the idea behind Timber Creek began in Destin, where Barnes, who serves as the master distiller, lives full time.

“My neighbor and I came up with the idea in my backyard,” he recalled. “He was the one who started out making everything, and I would just give him ideas and taste-test things.”

Added Barnes, “It was literally two neighbors sitting on the back porch drinking booze.”

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“I’ve had people almost stalk me over the coffee rum. People just love it. That really says a lot when people will drive all the way from Pensacola to get this.”

— Aaron Barnes, Timber Creek Distillery The name Timber Creek comes from the man who built the house Barnes’ parents bought years ago. The fireplace in the living room has the name Timber Creek etched into it.

The property itself is roughly 2 square miles in size, abuts Juniper Creek and is home to a variety of fruit trees and a couple of pigs.

Corn, wheat, barley and rye fill silos next to the distillery. At Timber Creek, Barnes uses a process called batch distillation to create his spirits.

“For whiskey, I’ll run it through twice, and for rums I’ll run it four times,” he said.

Walking through the distillery, there are massive stills, pots and heavy equipment churning and humming with activity.

Barnes said his stills were custom-made in China.

Timber Creek currently has eight products on the market — vodka, clear rum,

The former Coca-Cola bottling plant will see new life as All Saints Distillery, which will also feature a rooftop raw bar with views of the Tallahassee skyline.

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dark rum, coffee rum, apple pie rum, bourbon, a four-grain reserve bourbon and a black rye whiskey.

“The apple pie rum is very popular,” Barnes said. “What I like to do with this is mix it with unsweet tea or drizzle a little bit of it over vanilla ice cream.”

For the coffee lover, Barnes said the coffee rum is made from a dark roasted Brazilian coffee and then blended with rum. It’s ideal for a cold coffee.

As for their vodka, Barnes said initially Timber Creek hadn’t planned to make any, as there are a thousand vodkas on the shelf at every liquor store.

“I ended up making a bunch of wheat whiskey and then just ran it through the still two more times to get it back up to 95 percent,” he said. “Then we did the charcoal filtering, which is required by Florida law, and we ended up with the vodka. I wasn’t really a vodka drinker, but I love it.

It actually has flavor.”

Timber Creek ages everything in special barrels, Barnes said, so they can get the flavors they want and have more control over the products. From start to finish, it will take about nine months to make a bourbon. Timber Creek uses wood from the Ozarks in Missouri for its barrels.

“It really ages better,” Barnes said.

Given the size of the distillery, Barnes can produce about 1,000 cases a month, but he’d ideally like to expand his facility so he can produce 6,000 cases a month.

Up to this point, Barnes said all of Timber Creek’s products have been well received on the streets and at the events they attend.

“I’ve had people almost stalk me over the coffee rum,” he said. “People just love it.

That really says a lot when people will drive all the way from Pensacola to get this.”

Timber Creek’s spirits can be found in Walmart, Sam’s Club and Publix locally.

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“Since we are local and small-scale compared to the big guys, it can be difficult to get into some stores,” Barnes said. “You really have to get out there and sell yourself and the product you are creating.”

This fall, Timber Creek will release a “blend your own bourbon kit.” Barnes said this product would come with four bottles of flavorings, which include wheat, barley and corn, for the bourbon lover to play with and create his or her own blend.

So is Barnes proud of what he produces day in and day out?

“Of course, I make booze,” he quickly said. “How can life get much better?”

But there is still room to improve and room to grow, both at Timber Creek and as craft distillers in general.

RENDERINGS COURTESY BARKLEY CONSULTING ENGINEERS

“We’ll always be tweaking things, but to this point, it’s mostly for efficiency,” Barnes said.

For the most part, the distillery is fully automated. In fact, Barnes, who is a real estate broker by trade, has built a vast majority of the electrical equipment used in the distillery. He downplays the work, saying, “It’s just a simple switch” or “Anybody can do this.”

“At the end of the day, there’s a lot of satisfaction in being able to reach out and touch what you make,” Barnes added. “I think we are 10 years behind the craft beer movement, but we are definitely seeing a wave.”

All Saints Distillery Tallahassee businessman Dean Minardi can easily look past the graffiti on the walls and

the current state of disrepair at the future site of his new project, All Saints Distilling Company. Located in the southeast quadrant of Tallahassee in the former Coca-Cola bottling plant at the intersection of St. Michaels and All Saints streets, Minardi plans to run a three-still system where his master distiller, who will be found through a nationwide search, will craft vodka, gin and rhum agricole (a style of rum made from cane juice).

“We’ll grow into aged whiskey as well,” said Minardi, who also owns Garages on Gaines, a local hangout. “So instead of bottling Coca-Cola, we’ll be bottling spirits.”

Minardi said his plan is to work with the local growers at Orchard Pond Organics to source grains, corn and sugarcane, keeping things as local as possible.

“We really want to go from farm to flask,” he said.

Minardi’s plan is to be the brains behind the business end of the distillery, while hiring the smartest, most ambitious people he can find to create the spirits and run the day-to-day operations. Ideally, Minardi said he would like to have the first bottling at All Saints take place in the next 18 to 24 months. Part of the wait is the stills, which Minardi says can take a year to be manufactured after they are designed. The building itself is also going through renovations, which should be wrapped up in less Tallahassee than a year. businessman Dean All Saints DisMinardi will transform tilling Company the former CocaCola bottling plant will feature a in the All Saints rooftop business, district of downtown which is not relatTallahassee into the All Saints Distillery, ed to the distillery, where he plans to boasting a cold bar craft vodka, gin and and vodka lounge. rum agricole.

“Tallahassee really needs a highend raw bar, considering we are almost a coastal city,” Minardi said.

Seeing the growth of craft distilleries around the state, Minardi said the time is right for Tallahassee to have a distillery to call its own.

“We really think this is going to be quite successful, as we have a lot of people come to Tallahassee from other parts of the country,” he said. “People come here from Miami, where there are craft distilleries, and ask us where ours are. Now we are going to have one.”

Minardi and his team are currently working their way through the regulatory and permitting process.

A Bright Future As distilleries become more common in Northwest Florida and throughout the state, consumers can expect to see a wide array of product offerings, from traditional vodka and rums to spirits infused with locally sourced fruits, vegetables and spices.

The flavors and combinations are only limited by the creativity of their distillers.

“It’s really incredible to be able to change the perception of what spirits can be and what they are,” Patrick Rollins said.

850 Business Magazine

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2017 TALLAHASSEE BUSINESS JOURNAL AN 850 BUSINESS MAGAZINE SPECIAL REPORT

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CONTENTS | EDITORIAL DIRECTOR OF EDITORIAL SERVICES Steve Bornhoft EDITOR Linda Kleindienst SENIOR STAFF WRITER Jason Dehart EDITORIAL COORDINATOR Rebecca Padgett ASSISTANT TO DIRECTOR OF EDITORIAL SERVICES Kim Harris Thacker COPY EDITOR Barry Ray PROOFREADER Melinda Lanigan CREATIVE CREATIVE DIRECTOR Lawrence Davidson DIRECTOR OF PRODUCTION AND TECHNOLOGY Daniel Vitter SENIOR ART DIRECTOR Saige Roberts ART DIRECTOR Jennifer Ekrut PUBLICATION DESIGNERS Charles Bakofsky, Shruti Shah GRAPHIC DESIGNERS Meredith Brooks, Sarah Mitchell DIGITAL PRODUCTION SPECIALIST Chelsea Moore SALES & MARKETING VICE PRESIDENT/ CORPORATE DEVELOPMENT McKenzie Burleigh Lohbeck DIRECTOR OF NEW BUSINESS Daniel Parisi AD SERVICES COORDINATORS Lisa Sostre, Tracy Mulligan ACCOUNT EXECUTIVES Bess Grasswick, Darla Harrison, Lori Magee Yeaton, Rhonda Murray, Dan Parker, Linda Powell, Sarah Scott, Brianna Webb INTEGRATED MARKETING SPECIALIST Jennifer Ireland INTEGRATED MARKETING COORDINATOR Bria Blossom MARKETING AND EVENTS ASSISTANT Mackenzie Ligas OPERATIONS ADMINISTRATIVE SERVICES/ HUMAN RESOURCE COORDINATOR Marah Rhone CORPORATE CLIENT LIAISON Sara Goldfarb STAFF ACCOUNTANT Jackie Burns ACCOUNTANT ASSISTANT Lisa Cleaves ADMINISTRATIVE ASSISTANT Lisa Snell

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PHOTO COURTESY TMH/DAVE BARFIELD

PRESIDENT/PUBLISHER BRIAN E. ROWLAND

54 8 TOURISM

Leon County sees more than 2.35 million visitors in 2015, breaking records.

10 E CONOMIC DEVELOPMENT

Tallahassee/Leon County’s first strategic economic development plan gets the green light.

COMMUNITIES INSTITUTE

Economic development is enhanced by cultivating a more engaged community.

Magnets are becoming an economic force to be reckoned with.

A native Tallahassean is taking the lead in forging the area’s economic future.

54 TALLAHASSEE MEMORIAL

Local startups are putting Tallahassee on the national map.

Budding community entrepreneurs are united with students seeking a master’s degree in business administration, to the benefit of both.

49 I NNOVATION PARK

52 N ATIONAL MAGLAB

23 B EN PINGREE

36 F LORIDA A&M UNIVERSITY

The colleges of Business and Human Sciences make students job ready.

Science and business enhance each other and are benefiting the community.

20 K NIGHT CREATIVE

A photography hobby parlays into an international company.

In an entrepreneurial atmosphere, students are educated to get a job — or learn how to create their own job.

RETAIL INNOVATION CENTER

From Gaines Street to Cascades Park, city and county officials join forces to tout successes, plan future.

32 B OB KNIGHT

COMMUNITY COLLEGE

44 F LORIDA STATE UNIVERSITY

12 I NFRASTRUCTURE

26 E NTREPRENEURISM

40 TALLAHASSEE

HEALTHCARE Young physicians enjoy the TMH commitment to progress and community they now call home.

58 CAPITAL REGIONAL

MEDICAL CENTER New physicians are being recruited to ensure Tallahasseans don’t have to leave town to get needed care.

61 REAL ESTATE

The region’s residential housing market is experiencing a resurgence, doubling sales.

ON THE COVER: Tallahassee’s Innovation Park is home to the MagLab, the most powerful magnet laboratory on the planet. An employer of more than 640 people, it generates $90 million in annual economic output in the Tallahassee area. PHOTO BY DAVE BARFIELD

2017 T A L L A H A S S E E B U S I N E S S J O U R N A L / 7

DETECT | | TOURISM

VISIT TALLAHASSEE

Growing numbers of tourists are coming, providing thousands of jobs

by LINDA KLEINDIENST

L

“These numbers are proof that Leon County’s investments in tourism strengthen our economy and enrich the quality of life for our citizens and visitors alike,” said County Administrator Vincent S. Long. “We are proud of the record year and sustained growth as Leon County Tourism continues to reach new heights.”

8 / 2017 TA L L A H A S S E E B U S I N E S S J O U R N A L

The Leon County Division of Tourism Development lends financial support to signature events, including Springtime Tallahassee, that contribute significantly to bed-tax revenues.

The county collects a 5 percent bed tax from hotels and short-term lodging establishments which fund all tourism promotions and other tourism-related activities.

In addition, through Leon County Division of Tourism Development’s grants, $515,000 was invested locally to help fund sports, special and signature events in the county. The Council on Culture and Arts receives $1.25 million in tourism funds for its arts and culture events and capital investments.

“There are positive indicators in visitation, spending and tourism-related jobs that frame our goal of achieving even more and reaching new heights,” said Kerri Post, director of the Leon County Division of Tourism Development. “We are closer to becoming a nationally recognized destination acclaimed for our tremendous outdoor recreation, dining, arts and culture, history and heritage, and entertainment.”

Local bed-tax revenue has increased for seven straight years. It presently generates more than $1 million in revenue per penny of tax.

2015–16 $5.3 million (projected) 2014–15 $5.14 million 2013–14 $4.56 million 2012–13 $4.37 million 2011–12 $4.23 million 2010–11 $3.85 million 2009–10 $3.66 million 2008–09 $3.24 million

LAWRENCE DAVIDSON

eon County Tourism continues a pattern of success in Florida’s Capital County as Leon County saw its seventh consecutive year of growth, reaching new heights in 2016.

More than 2.35 million visitors — or 6,400 daily — from 47 different states and 36 countries generated $863 million in economic impact to the community last year. Tourism accounts for more than 14,100 jobs in Leon County.

“In Leon County, our tourism industry is committed to excellence — and it’s proven by the seven years of growth in a row,” said Leon County Commission Chairman Bill Proctor.

“Atop that track record, we anticipate more success in the coming year as we embrace new opportunities in the tourism industry.”

Highlights of the 2015/2016 fiscal year include: » Tourist Development Tax (TDT or bed tax) collections through the first 11 months of the fiscal year (at $4.76 million) currently track ahead of last year’s 12-month record of $5.14 million. » National Hotel occupancy for the previous 12 months through August is 61.8 percent, ahead of the previous record year. » Leon County hosted 99 youth and adult sporting events, attracting more than 73,000 visitors and resulting in an economic benefit of $31.6 million in direct spending. » $17.5 million in visitor spending was generated by meetings and leisure groups. » 92 percent of area visitors are likely to return to Leon County, according to an independent research study.

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ECONOMIC DEVELOPMENT |

TRANSFORMING ECONOMIC DEVELOPMENT Local elected leaders adopt an aggressive plan to boost business and create jobs by LINDA KLEINDIENST

10 / 2017 TA L L A H A S S E E B U S I N E S S J O U R N A L

in the county with its new, unified vision.

Part of the plan that calls for an aggressive marketing strategy and development of a brand is designed to combat what consultants said is a negative impression some have of the community. Their report noted: “The area has the reputation for not being business friendly, being isolated, having high crime rates and being economically segregated. More harsh critiques note its persistent lack of investment, slow and siloed decision-making, absence of coordination, little or no discernible strategic planning and even an overall complacence related to local economic development efforts.”

With concerns over who would decide how to spend the sales tax money when it starts to flow — and how best to utilize those dollars — city and county leaders decided to join forces early in 2016 to enhance and better coordinate economic development efforts. The move led to the dissolution of the Economic Development Council that had been operating alongside the Greater Tallahassee Chamber of Commerce and had been the prominent force behind the county’s economic development efforts.

“Economic vitality efforts will be constantly monitored by our elected city and county commissions, numerous citizen and technical advisory bodies, including broad representation of leaders from our thriving industries, universities, researchers and economic development experts,” Pingree said. “Never have our unique and worldclass assets, resources and quality-of-life attributes been so aligned with a vibrant entrepreneurial ecosystem to leverage the success that is anticipated.”

The plan will be implemented through the county’s Office of Economic Vitality under the direction of Al Latimer, a former highranking executive with Enterprise Florida.

The strategic plan sets four primary goals to grow jobs, create businesses and build a collaborative network to expand economic opportunity: » Implement a new, collaborative economic development program of work that stimulates economic expansion in the city and county across all unique opportunities for growth. » Better promote the area as a business generator, an ideal location to start and grow a business. Brand and market the community’s strengths in this capacity. » Better identify, understand and align all available assets, organizations and resources toward shared economic growth objectives.

Encourage collaboration among the many entities affecting the economic development environment to work together for maximum competitiveness. » Leverage and maximize the existing framework toward the responsible allocation of resources to achieve today’s goals as well as to refine the foundation for future growth and opportunities.

Tallahassee-Leon County’s Top Assets

» E ntrepreneurial Development »R esources for Personal Sustainability » Talent Pipeline » Quality Education »A dvanced Technology Resources » S mall-Business Development »Q uality Infrastructure » S ocial Infrastructure (Nonprofits) » Business Resources »C ultural Amenities and Natural Resources Source: Tallahassee-Leon County Economic Development Strategic Plan

SEAN PAVONE / SHUTTERSTOCK.COM

J

oining forces in a new, holistic approach to economic development, city and county leaders have adopted a comprehensive strategic plan that will serve as a springboard to change how Tallahassee and Leon County pursue economic growth and job creation.

The plan, which is the first of its kind in the county, is designed to help local officials develop and market a new, business-friendly atmosphere while better coordinating local business development efforts and resources.

It also sets the groundwork for how Leon County will spend $90 million in sales tax revenue approved by voters for economic development. That money will begin flowing to the county in 2020.

“Working in close partnership with our many economic co-creators, partners and stakeholders over the next 20 years, this new strategic plan will guide effective, efficient and transparent economic growth in accordance with specific goals and metrics outlined to exceed industry best practices for stimulating fiscal success,” said Ben Pingree, director of Planning, Land Management and Community Enhancement (PLACE), a joint city-county planning department.

The plan was developed by VisionFirst Advisors, which is led by Gray Swoope, the former head of Enterprise Florida, the state’s lead economic development agency.

It was approved in late October by the Blueprint Intergovernmental Agency (BIA), a committee composed of the city and county commissions.

In its report to the BIA, the consultants stressed the need for “purposeful, measured action and intentional collaboration” and promised that their comprehensive strategic plan will “transform the face of economic development”

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Bowersox said he chose FSU because of its flexibility. The program allows students to complete coursework at times that work best for them each week. “I found that FSU’s program was fully online with no campus visit required. That made it very pro-military.”

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/ 11

INFRASTRUCTURE |

ADMINISTRATORS IN A CAR GETTING COFFEE Rick Fernandez and Vince Long tool around town talking about infrastructure by ROSANNE DUNKELBERGER

F

12 / 2017 TA L L A H A S S E E B U S I N E S S J O U R N A L

VINCE LONG County Administrator

RICK FERNANDEZ City Manager

Infrastructure provides the underpinnings for neighborhoods of all sorts from the eclectic — think Gaines Street, right — to residential, commercial and industrial environs while exerting a profound influence on communities’ futures.

PHOTOS BY LAWRENCE DAVIDSON (RIGHT), SCOTT HOLSTEIN (LONG), AND COURTESY CITY OF TALLAHASSEE (FERNANDEZ)

lick on a light switch. Take a shower. Drop the kids off at school. Drive to the grocery store. Stroll around Lake Ella. Flush the toilet. Catch a plane.

While the word “infrastructure” isn’t on the tip of most people’s tongues, these fundamental facilities and systems are the underpinnings of modern society.

Roads, sewers, water pipes, schools, government buildings, parks, sidewalks, electric lines … and the list goes on. Many are unseen, literally underground, while others are so ubiquitous we don’t even give them a second thought — until the lights go out, the toilet backs up, a school is too overcrowded for your child to get in or a favorite road is closed for reconstruction.

Two of the people paid to think about such things — so you don’t have to — are County Administrator Vince Long and City Manager Rick Fernandez. Both were born in New York City and each has been working in local government for more than 20 years. They spent a rainy morning in Fernandez’s SUV driving a reporter around, pointing out projects of interest while keeping up a running commentary about the inner workings of infrastructure.

By way of background, much of the money to fund infrastructure is included in the annual Leon County and City of Tallahassee budgets — the city’s power plants, wastewater treatment facilities, road repairs and such.

In 1989, voters approved an additional one-cent sales tax (on top of the 6 percent assessed by the state and a half percent for schools) in supplemental money for transportation projects — most notably the expansion of Capital Circle Northeast — and law enforcement facility improvements.

2017 T A L L A H A S S E E B U S I N E S S J O U R N A L / 13

DETECT | INFRASTRUCTURE |

Ten years later, voters approved an extension of the penny sales tax through 2019 for infrastructure relating to transportation, storm water and flood control, and greenspace acquisition and parks. And in 2014, voters extended the penny tax for another 20 years, through 2039. It’s often called “Blueprint” money, named for the city/county organization that oversees its distribution.

Most other Florida counties assess this penny tax, but how the millions in Blueprint money generated over the years are parceled out is unique to our hometown and a point of pride for the area’s top administrators.

Long explained: “Most cities and counties, once that penny is authorized, they’ll come up with a list of city projects and a list of county projects — roads and parks, jails and libraries — all your typical county and municipal type uses,” he said. “One of the things we did as a community here that was so different (is) … the business community and the environmental community … got together and they started thinking: ‘What would be possible if we didn’t just come up with those lists of projects — if we planned holistically and integrated parks and roads, and we FAMU Way and found a way where the Capital Cascades Trail — roads could operate Blueprint-funded as … economic corriimprovements to dors that connected FAMU Way provide a scenic welcome to people with commerthe campus. cial activities and we could create parks that were linear and a storm water facility could become a world-class park.’ It was sort of conceptual at that time.”

The city and county commissions at the time caught the vision and assigned staffers to join together with this group, known as the Economic and Environmental Consensus Committee, to start planning.

14 / 2017 TA L L A H A S S E E B U S I N E S S J O U R N A L

“No exaggeration, it was a complete game changer,” Long said. “It’s just a department of the city and county governments but people statewide know the Blueprint philosophy. You can build and design where you get multiple benefits from a single project that (is) planned holistically and without regard to city and county jurisdictions.”

The Gaines Street Effect First stop on the Magical Infrastructure Tour was Gaines Street. Plans had been in the works to upgrade and improve the stretch of road lined with mostly old, mostly industrial buildings and vacant lots, but the timeline was accelerated during the economic downturn.

“We did it at time when the costs were the least expensive to the taxpayer and the jobs were needed the most,” Long said.

Of course, there was also the little matter

of envisioning how a busy, four-lane thoroughfare could be downsized to two lanes. “People went absolutely crazy, particularly our public works staff,” Fernandez recalled. But $28 million worth of construction that included upgraded underground water and sewer utilities and relocated utility lines carried on. The result today is a collection of wide, stroll-able sidewalks, on-street parking, gas lamps, a roundabout and other amenities that attracted about $250 million in private investment in shopping, restaurants and residences.

Parallel to Gaines is the ongoing upgrade of FAMU Way, a city road that runs along a portion of the Capital Cascades trail as well as a small park. “This is an example of what we want (Tallahassee) to look like,” said Fernandez, pointing out a pair of roundabouts — including one providing a second entrance to Railroad Square — gently curving lanes including bike lanes, medians and lots of landscaping. “You could have done two lanes and made it work, but we wanted it to look special.”

Instead of a grassy ditch surrounded by a chain-link fence, an adjacent storm water pond is terraced with seating that’s “more like a little park,” said Fernandez. “The idea was if you have little gatherings, a little music or whatever people want to have, they could hang here.” Even the overpass above it was designed to be used as a mini-bandshell.

LAWRENCE DAVIDSON

… In 2014, voters extended the penny tax for another 20 years, through 2039.

It’s often called “BLUEPRINT” MONEY, named for the city/county organization that oversees its distribution.

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INFRASTRUCTURE | The area is within eyeshot of the Capital Cascades Connector, a pedestrian bridge over South Monroe Street, scheduled to be completed early this summer. It has taken its knocks for its $5 to $6 million price tag, but its supporters think its modern style evoking a tree canopy will make it a perfect

entranceway to what the administrators consider the area’s most recent infrastructure triumph — Cascades Park.

The Cascades Park Triumph Parked on a hill overlooking the park, the pair took a mental victory lap at what was

once a toxic superfund site, transformed into a massive storm water system with recreational features that help it do double duty a world-class park. In the past, said Long, the so-called highest and best use surrounding the property was parking garages. “Without this park it would just be nasty buildings, warehouse, those kinds of things,” said Fernandez.

“You can just imagine how the land use is going to change around this park,” Long chimed in, as he looked at metal buildings and old state office buildings abutting the park. Local arts groups and developers are currently being asked what they envision in their place. “I wouldn’t be at all surprised to see very high quality high-rise residential and mixed use.”

As a sidelight, Long pointed out a new, circular sidewalk tunnel under the railroad trestle that runs over Lafayette Street. “The (Cascades Park) project it took us to the bridge … which was one of those artificial barriers. You had to walk out in the street to take your life into your hands,” he said. With improvements made along Lafayette Street, including the tunnel, people from the Myers Park neighborhood can now easily walk to the park.

The Long View

County Administrator Vince Long says the widening and other improvements to Mahan Drive (top) made it possible for the regionally popular Bass Pro Shops (right) to fast track their move to Tallahassee. Long and City Manager Rick Fernandez envision this fenced-in retention pond near Market Square (above) as an attractive, walkable park once improvements are made.

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Just up the street, construction of the Magnolia Multi-Use Trail is in its early stages. Plans had been discussed “oh my god, forever,” according to Fernandez, to improve the stretch of Magnolia Drive between South Monroe Street and Apalachee Parkway. When completed in 2019, the $7.9 million worth of improvements will include covering the drainage ditches on either side of the road with a 10-foot-wide multiuse trail, a traffic signal at Jim Lee Road, sidewalks, and upgraded benches and landscaping.

Driving along the section of Orange Avenue between Blair Stone Road and Southeast Capital Circle, the administrators praised it as an example of forward thinking.

While it looks like a 230-foot-wide road to nowhere, they envision it lined with easily accessible businesses, similar to what’s popping up along a similarly large Southeast Capital Circle. By contrast, Capital Circle Northeast is about 130 feet wide.

Any major widening projects there would

an average of 50 miles and two and a half hours to shop there. So Long knew if and when the regional outdoors mega-retailer came knocking, it was going to be with a list of demands for infrastructure, fast-track permitting and a request for $6 million in economic incentives.

One day, a representative of Bass Pro did appear, but the company was in a hurry to plant their flag in the area before their competitor did. So, said Long, no incentive was required and the newly widened and improved Mahan Drive — a straight shot from Interstate 10 — made it easy to fasttrack the retailer into an existing building in Fallschase, formerly occupied by Sportsman’s Warehouse. When it opened in 2013, the 70,000-square-foot store brought 200 jobs to the area.

“The reason that store is there is this road,” Long said. “You’ve got to ask yourself: ‘Without that road built to that standard, would Bass Pro have come in that close to town or would they do their usual model, which is to be right there on the interstate?’”

LAWRENCE DAVIDSON

Along the Interstate

entail condemning property and relocating businesses along the roadway.

North Monroe Street is even more “constrained.” With businesses built close to the curb, “it’s not like you can go in there and expand sidewalks or medians,” said Long. “You’ll see improvements there.

It’s an important gateway and it’s going to continue to get a lot of attention, it’s just you have a lot fewer options.”

Surveying Orange Avenue, Long said, “This is how you build a road for the next 50,

60, 100 years. As far out as it sounds, we’ve accommodated what future transportation modes might be. If you’re you’re talking about rail or other things, the right of way is big enough to accommodate it.”

Mahan Drive Lands a Big Fish It’s a fact: City and county administrators get together and compare notes and share intel.

In their world, Bass Pro Shops is a huge get, bringing jobs, money, visitors and a certain cachet to a community. Its customers travel

On a quick jaunt up Interstate 10 to the Market Street area, Fernandez pointed out what he called the county’s “hidden gem,” the Miccosukee Canopy Road Greenway, a linear park that meanders from Fleischman Road six miles to the interstate. “I’m there all the time,” he said. He also drew attention to the woodsy area that is slated to become the massive Welaunee community, as well as a spot that could become the newest interchange on Interstate 10.

Getting off at the Thomasville Road interchange, both commented on the infrastructure triumph that is the Capital Circle flyover. “It’s pretty awesome, isn’t it? They said nobody would use it,” said Fernandez.

However, one shouldn’t expect a quick and easy solution to the hot gridlocked traffic mess below it where Killearn Center Boulevard, Capital Circle and Thomasville Road converge. “Having the interchange to the east could take a load off this interchange,” he said. “To fix the problem here is like a billion-dollar solution.”

Reimagining Market Square The area today known as Market Square started with a shopping center near I-10 — 2017 T A L L A H A S S E E B U S I N E S S J O U R N A L / 17

INFRASTRUCTURE |

soon to undergo a major re-do. Other strips of shops and restaurants popped up independently, growing along with the residential areas in Tallahassee’s Northeast. But there wasn’t coordination in their construction so, even though convenient to each other, they weren’t easily walkable. “You can sort of see the opportunity for pedestrian movement, but it’s not accommodated very well so it creates those artificial barriers,” said Long.

Efforts are underway to create a “sense of place” in the area, including a traffic circle at the corner of Market Street and Maclay Boulevard South.

But the piece de resistance of the plan is a new rectangular-shaped park that will incorporate the two large holding ponds just south of Premier Health and Fitness Center.

People walked under a nearby electric transmission line, creating a trail. “We said OK, everybody’s using it as a walkway, 18 / 2017 TA L L A H A S S E E B U S I N E S S J O U R N A L

let’s create a walkway,” explained the city manager. The city is currently acquiring property, some of it donated. Where there is now an electric substation and wires overhead, a collection of power poles on the ground and a view of the backs of buildings, Fernandez envisions in five years a chain of three ponds and an attractive park. “It’s going to be super gorgeous.”

Economic Development and Infrastructure At the end of the tour, Fernandez and Long did stop for coffee at the Lucky Goat on Capital Circle and discussed a new facet of the latest penny approved for Blueprint. For the first time, funds from the tax will be set aside for economic development — a total of $90 million over 20 years.

The pair are suggesting that Blueprint set aside $20 million of that economic devel-

opment money to piggyback on the $400 million investment FSU will be making to build a new hotel, parking garage and business school near the Donald L. Tucker Civic Center. The money, they said, would be used to build 50,000 to 80,000 square feet of meeting space, which would put Tallahassee in the running to host larger gatherings. “We’ve got over 200 state associations (in Tallahassee) and nobody has their annual conference here because we can’t accommodate their floor space.”

Rather than trying to grow the economy here by offering incentives to existing outof-state businesses, the two suggest infrastructure is where money is better spent.

“The biggest thing we can do for economic development is exactly what you saw today,” said Long. “(Businesses) come for what we do well — parks, schools; they come for something like the amphitheater.”

LAWRENCE DAVIDSON

Built at the convergence of Capital Circle Northeast and Thomasville Road, the “flyover” has helped to keep traffic moving at one of Interstate 10’s busiest interchanges.

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KCCI |

BRANDING A CITY

“Community Catalysts” have been changing the Tallahassee landscape for 10 years by JASON DEHART

B

efore there was the artsy and edgy “Gaines Street,” there was simply Gaines Street — a gritty, workaday industrial corridor near Tallahassee’s downtown. Before there was “Midtown,” there was simply a midtown area in the triangle formed by North Monroe Street, Thomasville Road and East Seventh Avenue. And before there was the vibrant amphitheater and family playground known as “Cascades Park,” there was Cascades Park, an old industrial wasteland languishing for redevelopment.

No doubt, these parts of Tallahassee were destined for better things. In 2007, the Knight Creative Communities Institute came to town and worked with city leaders, committees and various partners to guide these developments and improve economic development.

“KCCI enhances economic development by helping cultivate a more engaged community, and then, through that, implementing projects that enhance the sense of place in Tallahassee,” said Betsy Couch,

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executive director of KCCI. “What we’re doing is we’re building upon (existing) assets. We’re taking something that we already have in town and looking at how can we make it better, how can we make more people aware of it? And you’re creating new places.”

The John S. and James L. Knight Foundation picked Tallahassee in 2007 as the incubator for a pilot economic development program driven by the “creative class” principles espoused by economist Richard Florida. According to his theories, economic growth is fostered by creating a “sense of place” that is attractive to a wide range of artists, musicians, engineers, educators and other assorted intellectuals. In short, if you have the right kind of atmosphere and amenities, you will attract the right kind of people who drive the economy.

“Research shows that strong communities with a strong sense of place have strong economic development growth,” Couch said.

“Areas with a strong sense of place appeal to the ‘creative class,’ and that fosters an environment of growth in entrepreneurship, of

BY THE NUMBERS

Creating a Sense of Place Gaines Street

The Get Gaines Going team worked with the city of Tallahassee to revitalize Gaines Street and push the development timetable up by 11 years. Gaines Street now has become an economic development engine.

A total of $11 million has been invested by the city of Tallahassee Community Redevelopment Agency since 2011 in large-scale incentives to support major redevelopment projects in the Gaines Street area. This money resulted in approximately $195.8 million in private investment, most of which was used locally.

The estimated increase in post-development taxable value is nearly $150 million.

Midtown

ALICIA OSBORNE

Betsy Couch, executive director of KCCI, stands in Cascades Park, which is a venue for concerts, festivals and everyday enjoyment.

creative ideas, and it fosters areas that appeal to a wide variety of talent.”

KCCI depends of a diverse set of volunteers, called “community catalysts,” to serve on various project teams. There are between 10 and 16 volunteers on each team; over the past 10 years, more than 200 catalysts who have served on 20 or more projects. KCCI trains volunteers on Richard Florida’s principles, reminds them of the city’s assets, and gets them to work together on projects that further enhance those amenities, Couch said.

“One of the nicest unintended consequences is it fosters a deeper connection and creates future leaders,” she said.

The Identify Tallahassee team enhanced a sense of place and instilled civic pride in current and future residents in Midtown.

The Midtown Action Plan was the basis for including a large-scale Midtown placemaking project as part of the Blueprint sales tax extension.

The project includes a number of key improvements totaling $22 million.

More than $500,000 has been secured for enhancements to the Midtown area.

Cascades Park

The Cultivate Cascades team conducted research on Cascades Park, pushed for a more extensive amphitheater and collaborated with community partners to develop Discovery, a unique “playscape.”

To date, 28,349 people have attended paid concerts in the amphitheater. The economic

impact of the 2015 Avett Brothers concert alone was $620,200.

The total economic impact for Word of South Festival 2016, which took place in Cascades Park, was $871,700.

On any give day, you will see a variety of people, from all walks of life, enjoying Discovery in Cascades Park. The Discovery project connected more than 35 private and public partners to bring the playscape to life. This resulted in more than $300,000 in cash donations and more than $250,000 in of-kind donations.

Explore Outdoors

The Explore Outdoors team worked to promote Tallahassee and the surrounding areas as a premier outdoor recreation destination.

In 2010, the team worked with Visit Tallahassee to create the Explore Outdoors Task Force, which worked to promote the Big Bend region as a premier outdoor recreation destination with world-class, nature-based resources.

The team’s efforts ultimately led to the branding and marketing of Trailahassee.com, which attracts nearly 20,000 unique annual visitors; 25 percent of the 2.3 million annual visitors to Tallahassee-Leon County participate in outdoor activities.

(Data from Visit Tallahassee)

EllaVate

The EllaVate Lake Ella team made improvements to Lake Ella, including lighting, landscaping and porch swings. They also helped coordinate events such as Food Truck Thursday to drive more traffic to Lake Ella merchants and truly make it a “place to be.”

2017 T A L L A H A S S E E B U S I N E S S J O U R N A L / 21

Quality and Compassionate Care

Capital Regional Medical Center is Committed to the Care and Improvement of Human Life.

Capital Regional Medical Center is a fully-accredited healthcare facility with more than 1,100 employees and 500 physicians. A 266-bed, acute-care hospital that offers 24/7 Emergency Services in Leon and Gadsden Counties including; a Pediatric ER, Senior Care ER and an Express Care ER. We also offer a Bariatric Center, Behavioral Health Center, Cancer Center, Chest Pain Center w/PCI, Comprehensive Breast Center, Family Center, Heart & Vascular Center, Orthopedic Center, Physical Therapy Services, Seniors First, Stroke Center, Surgical Services, Wound Healing Center, Network-of-Care Affiliated Physician Practices, and more.

2626 Capital Medical Blvd. | 850.325.5000 | CapitalRegionalMedicalCenter.com Same Day & Online Appointments Available at Most of Our Locations 22 / 2017 TA L L A H A S S E E B U S I N E S S J O U R N A L

BEN PINGREE |

THERE’S NO PLACE LIKE HOME

Ben Pingree’s goal is to make Tallahassee-Leon County thrive

by ROSANNE DUNKELBERGER

ALICIA OSBORNE

B

en Pingree is bullish on Tallahassee.

As the new Director of PLACE — an acronym for TallahasseeLeon County’s department of Planning, Land Management and Community Enhancement — it’s kind of his job to envision a rosy future.

But when the affable 41-year-old speaks, he exudes good vibrations. Tallahassee, he declared, has come a long way, and is about to come into its own as a nationally recognized center for culture and commerce.

“This is a community that has gone far and wide to find out who we want to be,” Pingree said. “We went to Madison, Chattanooga, Raleigh, Austin and last year we went to Boulder. They were great trips and we learned different things, but I think finally Tallahassee is realizing that the secret sauce to our success is that we’re going to be ourselves.

We’re going to utilize … our greatest assets and attributes and resources and craft a tomorrow that other communities will travel to come and visit when they want to have a glimpse of who they want to be.

“All of the key ingredients that we need have been here. But they have never been so well aligned as I see them right now,” he continues, “Yeah, I’m excited about it … you betcha.”

In his new position at PLACE, which began Feb. 1, Pingree initially was in charge of the city/county planning department and the Blueprint intergovernmental agency.

Ben Pingree walks FAMU Way, which was one of the projects revamped and reformed by PLACE.

2017 T A L L A H A S S E E B U S I N E S S J O U R N A L / 23

BEN PINGREE |

Pingree takes seriously the opportunity to bridge Tallahassee’s present and a robust future.

“We have never seen in this community the playing field so ready for significant private-sector economic investment and vitality.” — BEN PINGREE, DIRECTOR

OF PLACE, TALLAHASSEE-LEON COUNTY’S DEPARTMENT OF PLANNING, LAND MANAGEMENT AND COMMUNITY ENHANCEMENT “Over the years, I have worked with Ben on complex, important and high profile policy, program and management issues that face our community,” he said. “Ben is a team player, a problem solver and a proven rare talent with a distinct understanding of the unique environment of local government and an ability to consistently achieve results for the community.”

In 2006, Pingree left the county to serve as Wakulla County administrator. Thirty-two years old at the time, he was the youngest city or county manager in Florida. His ambitious plan to build a team and pass a county charter were realized within two years. But by year three, as an “outsider,” he realized his time in the rural community was up.

He moved to Miami to serve as the president and CEO of the Zoological Society of Florida (now known as Zoo Miami). His duties included meeting with members of 20th Century Fox to encourage a billiondollar theme park to be called Miami Wilds.

But three years later, in 2013, “I realized that as much as I enjoyed it, I wanted to come back to my hometown,” he said.

And he wanted to bring to Tallahassee his family including his wife, Alexandra, an IT consultant who works as a contractor for the

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state Department of Agriculture; daughter Elle, 21, now a student at the University of Florida; and sons Philip, 16, a rising senior at Maclay; and Harrison, 10, who attends Riversink Elementary.

Pingree led the area’s Economic Development Council at the Greater Tallahassee Chamber of Commerce until leaving there for his current position.

Since his return, Pingree said he has seen the “hundreds of hours of meetings and planning and charettes” that he attended at the turn of the century produce results in the form of the Gaines Street revitalization, Franklin Boulevard and Cascades Park, and the creation of local Community Redevelopment Agencies.

“In just the last 2½ years, the progress has been force multiplied yet again,” he said.

“We have never seen in this community the playing field so ready for significant privatesector economic investment and vitality.”

But Pingree’s praise veers back to the personal when talking about his own reasons for coming home again: “Tallahassee has an amazing draw. I’ve left it, and I’ve come back twice. And I’ve always been sad to go and happy to come.

“It’s always been home.”

ALICIA OSBORNE

Less than a month later, the newly created Office of Economic Vitality also came under his purview. The latter group is in charge of encouraging economic development throughout the county and, starting in 2020, will administer an estimated $94 million to support those efforts, paid for with a portion of an extra penny in sales tax.

Pingree was born in Tallahassee, his parents both steeped in state government. His father was twice secretary of the Department of Health and Rehabilitative Services under Gov. Bob Graham, while his mother was a senior official with Secretary of State and Florida Cabinet member George Firestone.

His parents divorced and he moved with his mother to Miami, where he would attend middle and high school. After that, he went to Boston University, parlaying his baseball talents into a year in Australia starting a team at the University of Queensland.

He would also spend a semester in Spain training with the Spanish Olympic baseball team. Before graduating BU in 1996, he landed a “dream job” in the front office of the Philadelphia Phillies.

But life got in the way. He turned down the position to move back to Miami to help his mother, who was undergoing cancer treatment. Pingree would spend a year as a social worker there. “I loved the work, I loved caring for my mom but I knew that I needed to get back to graduate school,” he recalls. He returned to Tallahassee and Florida State University to pursue a master’s in public administration.

His plan was to go into the family business — state government — but “a chord was struck” when he took an elective class in local government, taught by his one of his now bosses, County Administrator Vince Long (his other boss is City Manager Rick Fernandez). Within months after graduation, Pingree was working for the county, first in the budget office, and then in a variety of other positions throughout the early 2000s.

“I was, to use the baseball term, a utility player,” he said. “I was doing things like helping create the EMS system, helping create an uninsured health care program, a lot of program development, program creation, budget management. Periodically I would be called on to run different departments. … I loved every minute of it.”

Long sings Pingree’s praises.

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ENTREPRENEURISM |

GROWING STARTUPS

Local entrepreneurs have put Tallahassee on the national map

by ROCHELLE KOFF

W

26 / 2017 TA L L A H A S S E E B U S I N E S S J O U R N A L

Gabe and Saralyn Grass, owners of Grasslands Brewery, brewed up a business that pours business into Tallahassee.

ALICIA OSBORNE

hen Gabe Grass was conjuring up tasty beers in his backyard, the idea of becoming one of Tallahassee’s prime brewmasters was still a fantasy.

But in February 2015, he opened the Grasslands Brewing Company taproom on Gaines Street, and the business has been evolving ever since.

Grass will tell you that transforming malted barley, hops, yeast and water into a quality craft beer isn’t easy, but it may be less challenging than crafting a great beer into a business.

“It’s easier to make beer,” he said. “It’s been said that running a brewery is 5 percent making beer and the rest cleaning and paperwork. But I’m doing something I’m passionate about.

And I care about the community and adding to it.”

Grass said he is grateful for the opportunity to turn a dream into a reality, a common theme in Tallahassee’s growing entrepreneur community.

Tallahassee was named a Top 50 City for Entrepreneurs

by Entrepreneur Magazine in the publication’s August issue.

The ranking was part of a partnership between Entrepreneur Magazine and Livability.com. Tallahassee ranked 46th on the list and was one of only three Florida cities. (Orlando was No. 15 and Miami No. 33.)

There’s more. The “In Real Terms” column for Five ThirtyEight, the statistical analysis company from numbers wizard Nate Silver, reported in September that Tallahassee was No. 9 on a list of 20 cities with the fastest-growing rate of startups from 2009 to 2014, based on U.S. Census data. While a 1.1 percent increase doesn’t seem dramatically different, it represents a sign of hope, said those in Tallahassee’s entrepreneurship universe.

What’s more encouraging is that there has been a lot of progress since that time, with numerous factors fueling the entrepreneurial spirit in Tallahassee.

“Overall, the community has embraced the culture of entrepreneurship,” said Keith Bowers, regional director for the Florida Small Business Development Center at Florida A&M University. “Everything started to sink in after the Great Recession. When the economy started to hit rock bottom, every industry suffered across the board.”

2017 T A L L A H A S S E E B U S I N E S S J O U R N A L / 27

He pointed to a “a laser-like focused effort” to promote new businesses, vital since “98 percent of the jobs created each year are created by small-business owners,” Bowers said.

“A light went on somewhere and the city, county, FSU, TCC, FAMU, the Chamber of Commerce and the then-EDC (Economic Development Council) got on the same page for the first time and said, ‘We’ve got to work together to drive economic growth through entrepreneurial programs,’” said Larry Lynch, director of the Entrepreneurial Excellence Program. “We have a lot of smart people here, and they weren’t staying in Tallahassee.”

Aside from the Entrepreneurial Excellence Program, FAMU’s Small Business Center and the local brainpower, business leaders point to a growing interest from investors and The Jim Moran Institute for Global Entrepreneurship.

The institute, which is under the FSU College of Business, will move to a standalone building in 2017 as part of a $100 million gift from Jan Moran and The Jim Moran Foundation, along with expansion of the institute’s programs statewide. The gift will also enable FSU to create what will be one of the nation’s largest interdisciplinary, degree-granting schools of entrepreneurship.

Another crucial step has been the opening of the startup incubator Domi Station.

Domi Station was launched in 2014 in a former warehouse building provided by the county off Railroad Avenue. Domi’s mission has been to drive entrepreneurship in a variety

of ways. The nonprofit venture offers collaborative work space, which varies in price depending on the amount of time needed and space required, with individual desks and eight offices. All participants can take advantage of Domi Station events, activities and mentorship.

“There’s so much value when people plug into an entrepreneurial or community space,” said Lucas Lindsey, Domi Station’s executive director. “We push the idea that you’re not just building a business, you’re building a city, too.”

Tallahassee has developed an infrastructure to spur the entrepreneurship community, said Jay Revell, vice president for the Greater Chamber of Commerce.

“We have a trajectory that continues to grow,” he said.

Domi attracted a handful of startups from the get-go, and last year 35 teams, 18 of them student-run, went through the facility’s sixmonth incubator program. The program offers three months of intensive training, called a boot camp, that emphasizes the development of a business, financial and marketing plan, followed by three months of implementing the plan, accountability and growth. The program also encourages mentors, with 25 mentors volunteering their time.

“We work together,” Lindsey said.

“There’s a lot of collaboration.”

Much of that collaboration is organic, a sharing of information that naturally occurs when sharing space with other dreamers.

“Domi started at a time when people were hopeful of what could happen,” Lindsey said.

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“There were some people launching startups here and there, starting tech businesses and flying under the radar. Over the last few years, we’ve had more tangible examples of people whose stories have created a lot of excitement and inspired more and more people.”

One of those people was Mark Powell, who founded a Tallahassee startup called HWind, which grew from a one-man effort Domi Station provides to a team of 12 in collaborative less than two years. workspaces, HWind was the first workshops and mentorships company housed to flourishing at Domi Station to entrepreneurs. become acquired by a larger company, RMS, a Silicon Valley-based firm that specializes in risk modeling. Powell went to RMS as vice president of model development, brought his team and opened a Tallahassee office.

Powell began developing his datatracking system while working as a scientist for the federal National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration. He switched from flying into storms with hurricane hunters to analyzing ground data, creating a system to be used in real time. But the research was shelved for years, which nagged at Powell.

He eventually petitioned NOAA for the commercial rights to the process he invented during his 30-plus years there. After about 18 months, he received the rights to his work.

“I had the benefit of over 30 years with a research organization and the ability to develop technology here,” Powell said. “The organization (NOAA) valued getting technology out and bringing it to the private sector.”

When Powell left NOAA to start his own firm, he took advantage of courses at the Small Business Development Center at FAMU, attended the Entrepreneurial Excellence program and was a member of Domi, using its office space.

“Tallahassee has a lot going for it,” Powell said. “There’s a rich talent pool here. And there’s a rich ecosystem of advisers and people and groups who want you to succeed.”

Despite all the advances in entrepreneurship, the city is still lagging behind in encouraging more diversity in business.

Tallahassee tops the list of the most economically segregated cities in the United States, according to a report released in February 2015 by the University of Toronto’s Martin Prosperity Institute.

LAWRENCE DAVIDSON

ENTREPRENEURISM |

YOUR DOWNTOWN DISCOVERY BEGINS AT TALLAHASSEEDOWNTOWN.COM 2017 T A L L A H A S S E E B U S I N E S S J O U R N A L / 29

ENTREPRENEURISM |

“Like most communities, we have challenges when it comes to diversifying our economy. Our greatest hope for doing that is to create a thriving entrepreneurial ecosystem.” — JAY REVELL,

VICE PRESIDENT FOR THE GREATER TALLAHASSEE CHAMBER OF COMMERCE Participants could include catering, spice or sauce makers, bread or jelly makers.

“You move out of that space and you develop a business,” she said. “People are looking for a way to make their passion a full-time job, and that’s what a commercial kitchen provides. It has the potential to diversify our economy and change our situation for the better.”

Lynch, of the Entrepreneurial Excellence Program, said starting a business helps people escape dependence on an employer.

Both Powell and Grass attended the Entrepreneurial Excellence Program, which started in 2011 and has worked with 130 startup teams in nearly six years. The 10-class program, with classes offered twice a week, is housed under the Leon County Research and Development Authority in Innovation Park. The cost is $400 for a team of two people and includes dinner provided by one of its alumni, Vale Food Co. Participants “get a feel for teamwork, and a lot of discussion happens in that half-hour before class,” Lynch said. Classes taught by local business pros help students develop a business and financial plan and includes a “Shark Tank” pitch experience.

“We talk to several other companies in the same boat, and we learn from each UberOps CEO Eduardo Gonzalez, other,” said Jodi tracks data on Chase, CEO of health concerns in F u l l S c a leNA NO. Florida including Zika, the flu and “Tallahassee has a bioterrorism. culture of helping each other. There’s a culture of cooperation, not competition.”

FullScaleNANO is one of Tallahassee’s relatively new, cutting-edge startups. The company was started in 2012 by Jeffrey Whalen and a team of scientists. The firm works with nanotechnology, which sounds like it belongs in a science fiction movie but

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has a growing number of uses, from touchscreens to monitoring bodily functions.

Tallahassee entrepreneurs continue to be a pretty varied bunch, including the under-theradar UberOps (not related to the car service).

UberOps, a data integration and cloud computer company, helps the U.S. Centers for Disease Control track data on health concerns including Zika, the flu and bioterrorism. The firm recently traveled to Vietnam to assist that country’s health ministry.

“Not many people know we exist,” said UberOps CEO Eduardo Gonzalez Loumiet. “We deal with some of the most sensitive information in the United States.

And we’re here in Tallahassee.”

Within the past year, UberOps formed the startup Bloomdot, which prevents deadly delays when a baby is born by utilizing “seamless electronic communication” for screening test orders and results.

Attracting investors is another key challenge for Tallahassee startups.

Angel investors have invested in 10 Tallahassee-based companies, providing more than $1.7 million over the past year in a variety of fields including software, technology, medical devices, agriculture and aquaculture, said Matt Johnson, of Tallahassee’s new chapter of the Florida Angel Nexus. All members have to be accredited and meet standards, including income and net worth.

“Angel investors are high-net-worth individuals who invest their own money into highgrowth companies,” Johnson said. “Venture capitalists invest other people’s money.”

“Raising capital is incredibly difficult and demanding on an entrepreneur,” Johnson said. “We feel this is our moment to create a long-term sustainable investment group in Tallahassee. It would be nice to be able to find great companies that deserve investment in our own backyard.”

SCOTT HOLSTEIN / ROWLAND PUBLISHING FILE PHOTO

“Like most communities, we have challenges when it comes to diversifying our economy,” Revell said. “Our greatest hope for doing that is to create a thriving entrepreneurial ecosystem.”

One promising endeavor is Tallahassee’s first food-based incubator to be housed in the historic neighborhood of Frenchtown.

Entrepreneurs with a passion for cooking can utilize the space of a commercial kitchen to develop a business in one of the city’s poorest neighborhoods and food deserts.

But applicants don’t have to live in Frenchtown to be considered for the program.

KitchenShare, expected to open in summer 2017, will be inside the West Georgia Street Heritage Hub, where a farmers market is located. KitchenShare will be accessible 24 hours a day, with space available for up to 40 clients paying $15 an hour rent. Participants can also take advantage of resources in learning the food business.

“Tallahassee has the willingness and interest to purchase locally grown food, so the foundation is here,” said Michelle Gomez, director of Heritage Hub. Residents see the project as a way to help an area burdened by sluggish growth.

“We have people knocking on the door, wondering when it will open,” Gomez said.

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BOB KNIGHT |

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ICONS OF THE PHOTO BUSINESS Bob and Gail Knight have created millions of memories

by KAREN MURPHY

Bob and Gail Knight take their turn in front of the camera after 40 years of photographing others.

BRUCE PALMER

A

nyone graduating from a Florida high school or college or crossing the finish line at one of the world’s prestigious endurance races — or simply placing a child on Santa’s lap at the mall — is probably doing business with Gail and Bob Knight.

For 40 years, the Knights’ firm has photographed iconic events in people’s lives and captured the pride, excitement and drama of those defining moments. What started with Bob Knight photographing sorority parties for beer money as a Florida State University freshman has grown into a multimillion-dollar company, now known as Iconic Group. It provides professional photography services at 10,000 events worldwide and takes 53 million consumer images per year.

The company’s beginnings were modest. With only a Minolta SLR camera, one flash unit, 20 rolls of film and a $5,000 loan from his dad, Bob’s first big job was sorority bid day in 1976. He ran his business, known as Bob Knight Photo (BKP), from his one-bedroom apartment near campus and sorted photos on his coffee table.

His business quickly expanded to six other college campuses throughout Florida.

In 1977, Knight approached Leon High School’s principal about photographing its commencement.

“At the time, no one was doing that,” he remembers.

“There were plenty of portraits but no graduation pics.”

The principal loved the idea, but Knight had to figure out how to do it. He says he and his “intrepid team” figured out how to run 100 yards of electrical extension cords out to two cameras in the middle of the football field where commencement would take place. The photographer would shoot and change cameras while the other one was reloaded.

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BOB KNIGHT | “It worked,” Knight says. “It was wildly successful. Parents loved it.”

Today, his company is the world’s largest commencement photography business, with 77 percent market share of Florida high schools and 96 percent market share of Florida colleges, as well as substantial market share all over the country.

In 1979, Knight began dating Gail Fitzgerald. She graduated from FSU in 1982 with an accounting degree, then moved to Miami, where she worked with Peat Marwick Mitchell & Co. and became a Certified Public Accountant. Gail returned

5,000 people and you need them all photographed and identified and products sent out in a short period of time, that was what we were good at.”

In 1986, those abilities landed BKP the opportunity to work with the Walt Disney Company. The company was hired to photograph Disney’s Grad Night. Over a fournight period, BKP photographed 12,000 students a night and mailed the photos within 48 hours. BKP then took on Disney’s Cast Christmas party and ticketed events such as Mickey’s Very Merry Christmas Party and Mother’s Day at Epcot.

“It is an amazing story. We had a lot of help along the way and we had some great people working for us, some really smart people. It wasn’t just me and Gail, it was the team that Gail and I were able to put together that was key.”

— EVENT PHOTOGRAPHER AND ENTREPRENEUR BOB KNIGHT

to Tallahassee in 1983 and married Bob the following year.

“At this time, BKP was doing $2 million in revenue, shooting 100,000 graduates,” Gail Knight says.

In January 1985, Gail Knight left the local accounting firm she was working for and joined BKP full time.

“We had vowed we would never put all our eggs in one basket,” Bob Knight recalls.

“We didn’t know how long this gig would last. We thought it might be a house of cards and any moment come falling down. For both of us to be in this fledgling business was risky.”

But the risk paid off. BKP rapidly expanded through the 1980s and ’90s and became a solid regional firm.

Bob Knight says the best advice he was given was to find that one thing he was really good at and do that one thing better than anybody in the world.

“That really helped us focus,” he says.

“My business is all about large volumes of pictures for large volumes of people, no family pictures or portraits. If you have

For 15 years, Disney was BKP’s single biggest client. Annual revenues were $500,000. “(Disney’s) Michael Eisner sent us a letter when we crossed the 2 million photo mark,” Bob Knight recalls. “We were adding them up like McDonalds’ (hamburgers).”

In 2005, the Knights purchased a California graduation photography business.

“We were then shooting 300,000 graduates and were a $10 million firm,” Bob Knight says.

The couple soon realized that future growth would have to come through acquisitions.

“But every time we bought, Bob and Gail were on the line and as we went on, we realized we didn’t want to risk everything we had on these acquisitions,” Gail Knight explained.

So they began looking into private equity investment, with the goal of taking on acquisitions but using someone else’s money.

Their new private equity partners recapitalized their business by buying BKP. “BKP sold in March of 2007 and Event Photography Group (EPG) was born on the

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same day. That allowed us to buy the rest of the country,” Gail Knight says. “Within three months of that deal, we had more than doubled the size of our portfolio because we bought two key businesses, the biggest ones in the country, with the help of our private equity friends.

“Now instead of 300,000 graduates, we had 1.4 million graduates, all within that first year, which made selling Bob Knight Photo look pretty smart.”

Between 2007 and 2013, EPG purchased 15 other firms. Gail Knight was heavily involved in the accounting process and Bob Knight in the acquisitions.

One of those acquisitions was MarathonFoto, the largest endurance-race photography company in the world. Another is WorldWide Photography, which sends 600 naturally bearded Santas to malls in 48 states. These brands join GradImages and University Photo.

“Gail and I are still major stockholders,” Bob Knight says. “We replaced ourselves in 2013, and that was always the goal, to put management in place so we could step away.

One day we woke up and we had done it. It was like, ‘OK, clean out your desk.’”

The Knights still sit on the board, and Bob Knight walks through the Tallahassee office about once a week on behalf of the board, to see how things are going. Most of BKP’s management team remains with the company, now called Iconic Group. A new CEO, Denise Conroy, was recently brought on to lead it.

“Bob and Gail’s partnership and marriage is legendary and has left an indelible mark on Iconic Group’s business, even to this day,” Conroy says. “From the moment you walk into our Tallahassee office, you feel their presence. They’re the perfect combination of ‘left brain/right brain,’ with Bob building the foundation for the business’ sales and marketing ethos and Gail complementing that with her financial acumen and analytical genius. They continue to advise and propel our business forward.”

When Bob Knight steps back to reflect on the birth and growth of the business as objectively as he can, he admits, “It is an amazing story. We had a lot of help along the way and we had some great people working for us, some really smart people. It wasn’t just me and Gail, it was the team that Gail and I were able to put together that was key.”

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F AMU |

SERVICE LEARNING

FAMU consultancy projects unite students and businesses

by STEVE BORNHOFT

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COURTESY TALLAHASSEE SEGWAY TOURS (RIGHT) AND JENNIFER COLLINS (LEFT)

T

im Nettles came to refer to them as his “MBA Girls” and intended not the slightest of slights in doing so.

“They got to know my business inside and out,” said Nettles, the owner of Tallahassee Segway Tours at 1500 S. Monroe St. “They took a sincere interest in my product and made very clear recommendations about pricing and what they thought we could offer the market. They were especially helpful with suggestions about how we could best reach a younger demographic.”

The MBA Girls are Britanny Boyer, Ana Parra, Andrea Soriano and Erica Thomas, four women who were closing in on their master’s degrees in business administration at Florida A&M University when they joined with Nettles in an MBA Candidates Consultancy Program project designed to mutually benefit both the students and the participating business.

The consultancy is the final class taken by students in the MBA sequence at FAMU. As a capstone course, it requires that students employ concepts and tools that they become familiar with throughout their postgraduate studies.

Dr. Jennifer Collins is the assistant dean at the Division of Management Services in the School of Business and Industry at FAMU. She was in on the ground floor when the consultancy program was established five years ago.

“It used to be that a professor occasionally would find a business for students to interview,” Collins said, “or students might be asked Dr. Jennifer Collins, assistant dean to focus on a publicly traded at the Division of company that they could Management Services gather information on. The in the School of consultancy gives students an Business and Industry opportunity to interact closely at FAMU

Ana Parra, Erica Thomas and Andrea Soriano were closing in on master’s degrees in business administration at FAMU when they served as consultants to Tallahassee Segway Tours and helped get the business rolling.

They were joined in the project by Britanny Boyer, not pictured.

2017 T A L L A H A S S E E B U S I N E S S J O U R N A L / 37

FAMU | with an actual business and see how everything in their curriculum comes together in making real-world business decisions.”

The Florida Small Business Development Center at FAMU, headed by Keith Bowers, identifies businesses interested in taking part in a consultancy. Students are then matched by the FSBDC with businesses based on their “entrepreneurial DNA,” Collins said, and a survey completed by both the consultants and their client.

Bowers said the FSBDC has a “vested interest” in the businesses it assists and endorses the consultancy program because it encourages his clients to harness new technologies and helps them repay their loans and create jobs.

“We provide businesses with the perspective of diverse and very creative minds,” said Dr. Shawnta Friday-Stroud, dean of the School of Business and Industry at FAMU. “We work with businesses that, if they had to pay for the findings and recommendations our students give them, they probably wouldn’t get them.

“Our program gives them the opportunity to vet ideas in a non-threatening environment.”

Friday-Stroud makes the point that

“Our program gives them the opportunity to vet ideas in a non-threatening environment.”

— DR. SHAWNTA FRIDAY-STROUD, DEAN OF THE SCHOOL OF BUSINESS AND INDUSTRY AT FAMU consultancy work may be especially helpful to students who have aspirations about one day becoming entrepreneurs, themselves.

“They get to see a business through the eyes of an entrepreneur,” Friday-Stroud said. “It is one thing to read about starting a business in a book or to see something from afar, but in this program, students spend a fair amount of time closely interacting with the entrepreneur, and they get insights and nuggets that you cannot get in a textbook.”

The consultancies culminate in a written report given to the client as a deliverable, and students make a presentation of their findings to an audience that includes the client, representatives of the FSBDC and Dr. Collins.

“I look for evidence that the students have

demonstrated mastery of concepts from class and that they exhibited a high degree of professionalism in their dealings with the client,” Collins said. “They need to demonstrate strong written communication skills and come up with recommended strategies based on data. It is all about making data-driven decisions.”

A couple of projects stand out for Collins.

“When the Lofts on Gaines Street apartment project was in the building phase, students put together a wine-and-cheese event to attract potential buyers of units,” Collins recalled. “They shared floor plans of the apartments to those who attended and delivered prospective purchasers to the developer. Our students gained hands-on experience in event marketing.”

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FAMU | As part of another memorable project, students developed a Kickstarter campaign for NaughTeas, a distributor of ready-to-drink iced teas, and conducted taste tests at Cascades Park.

“We were instrumental in helping that business launch,” Collins said. “Now, I see their product whenever I am at the airport.”

In the case of Tallahassee Segway Tours (TST), students began with an assessment of the big picture before eventually arriving at the tactical level.

They conducted a PESTEL analysis, which takes a look at “macro-environmental” factors in six areas that affect an organization: political, economic, social cultural, technological, environmental and legal.

As a product of that analysis, TST was encouraged to consider variables ranging from the weather to lifestyle trends to the U.S. Consumer Product Safety Commission.

The “MBA Girls” divided TST’s target market into three segments – tourists/visitors, local residents and college students — and recommended strategies and tactics specific to each segment and applicable to the market as a whole.

Be the Blue #StandOutTally

Overall strategies were: » Establish and maintain a strong social media presence. » Increase visibility. » Create and market shorter and more varied tours.

Recommended tactics related to those strategies included:

» Creating and taking “social media breaks” during tours. » Posting selfie pictures and videos with guests and using

upbeat captions featuring emojis. » Having a presence at activities including FSU tailgate parties and Springtime Tallahassee. » Establishing a “Ghouly Glide” tour with stops at “ haunted” locations in Tallahassee including the Lively Building, the Knott House and the Old City Cemetery.

Collins was pleased to have heard recently from a member of the “Segway Team” who had accepted a job with a small business in Memphis. She was hired before the employer learned about the former student’s experience and expertise in business development.

“The business needs some time and attention in those areas and the employer learned that they were getting in our graduate more than they thought they were getting,” Collins said.

Nettles said that he was well served.

“The students were very enthusiastic and very thoughtful,” Nettles said. “They weren’t just checking a box and getting a grade. They were invested in what we were doing. This was an opportunity for them to get involved in the real deal.”

Would he recommend the consultancy program to other budding businesses?

“Without a doubt,” Nettles said.

Friday-Stroud said the consultancy program is consistent with the “service culture” at FAMU. “It is one of the ways in which we can give back to the community,” she said. “When we can help businesses succeed, the community benefits. The program is a win-win-win for the students, the clients and the community as a whole.”

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T CC |

GO GETTERS At TCC, entrepreneurship is just good business

by ROSANNE DUNKELBERGER

LAWRENCE DAVIDSON

Y

ou can’t open a magazine or scroll through your social media feed without coming across a business story making reference to entrepreneurship. Whether it’s self-actualizing millennials looking for quality of life, the gig economy or tech startups, the DIY work life is the new, new thing.

The times, they are a-changin’. Change — and entrepreneurship — is something Tallahassee Community College is wholeheartedly embracing, as it has throughout its 50-year history.

TCC primarily serves as the two-year springboard to a four-year academic degree, still the chosen track for 75 percent of its students. But throughout its history, the college also has been the path forward for those who choose to blaze their own trail toward success. And in today’s fast-paced world, the community college is nimble enough to quickly evolve with changin’ times.

“We want to educate students for a reason — and the reason is to get a job,” said TCC President Jim Murdaugh. “And if that’s the case, then we need to educate them to create their own job or educate them to go to work for someone else. We want to do all of the above.”

The world, he said, “is changing quickly, the kinds of jobs the future will need are changing quickly … The jobs we’ll see in the next 10 years, many of them don’t even exist today.”

Murdaugh served up an example: “How long ago was it that we didn’t even talk about a drone?” he said. “We put together a

TCC President Jim Murdaugh sparks and kindles the ideas of student entrepreneurs.

class to teach people how to pilot drones. It didn’t take us very long, it was a very popular offering, (and it’s) something we intend to expand.” Ditto for 3D printing.

TCC’s Spark program is dedicated to entrepreneurs, with a wide array of credit and non-credit classes as well as opportunities for mentorship and collaboration with other locally based partner organizations — what TCC Vice President for Workforce Development Kim Moore calls Tallahassee’s entrepreneurship “ecosystem.”

Oftentimes, people equate entrepreneurism with the words “young” and “startup.”

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And TCC offers plenty to its traditional students. The college’s Eagle Business Club has more than 200 student members who already have a business. And TCC reached down to the high school level, co-sponsoring entrepreneurial training and a competition for 1,600 Leon County students.

“We want this to be a destination for budding entrepreneurs,” Moore said.

But another important part of the equation, she said, is offering services to existing small businesses.

“Whatever cycle or phase you are in in your business, that is where we work to

LAWRENCE DAVIDSON

support you,” Moore explained — all the way to the end with succession planning.

TCC has always been plugged in to the business community, and now most notably with Corporate Solutions, which provides customized services to existing businesses to expand, from market surveys to getting down to nitty-gritty issues such as the number of employees to hire, their pay and work shifts, “and all the modeling that goes along with that,” Moore said.

The college also works hand-in-glove with other groups promoting entrepreneurism locally, such as Domi Station, Florida State University’s new Jim Moran School of Entrepreneurship and Florida A&M University’s Small Business Development Center.

“We realize businesses have different needs. For instance, with Domi, there’s more of a focus and emphasis on technology,” Moore said. “There’s no reason why we’d want to duplicate that effort.” If a business is more manufacturing-oriented, “I know that our partners (will refer) them over to me because I have a manufacturing center.”

And so, when it comes to an entrepreneur with a need in Tallahassee, “there’s really no wrong door … We really can create an entrepreneurship ecosystem where, wherever you go, your business is able to receive that support,” she continued.

While espousing the virtues of entrepreneurism throughout its varied curricula,

Murdaugh thought it only right that TCC should practice what it teaches.

“In addition to the work we’re doing with our students, which has been remarkable, I’ve challenged our leadership team to look at what we’re doing and try to find ways to be

“We want this to be a destination for budding entrepreneurs.”

— TCC VICE PRESIDENT FOR WORKFORCE DEVELOPMENT KIM MOORE

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T CC | creative and entrepreneurial in running the college,” Murdaugh said.

For example, the college’s Florida Public Safety Institute sits on 1,500 acres of land. TCC hired a forester several years ago to provide environmental stewardship of the property, ultimately including the harvesting of trees.

“Last year, after we paid the forester, I think we netted in a quarter of a million dollars simply because we made a decision … We needed to manage that asset in a better way, and so we were both environmental in our approach and entrepreneurial in looking for additional ways to bring revenue into the college,” Murdaugh said.

In a second instance, TCC is about to become something of an accidental business owner.

When talking with city officials about what might be a “new and different” addition to TCC’s Capital Center, the idea of a coffee shop to promote foot traffic in Tallahassee’s downtown area was floated. After a few local companies passed on the offer, the college reached out to Starbucks, Murdaugh said. When the company suggested getting a franchisee, TCC decided take on the role — the only state college to be an owner/operator of its own Starbucks. The coffeehouse is set to open along with the college’s new Center for Innovation in December 2016.

What’s Your Entre-Personality?

According to TCC’s Spark program, “entrepreneur” isn’t a one-size-fits-all moniker.

Here’s a sampling from the Spark website (tccspark.com) of how different sorts of people approach creating their own business: ENTREPRENEUR You organize, manage and assume all the risk of your business or enterprise. This means you’re “all in.”

INTRAPRENEUR You pursue an idea while maintaining the security of a full-time job. Most often, it translates into your business coming together on evenings and weekends.

BOOMERPRENEUR You guessed it — you’re a baby boomer tackling a startup idea. Most typically this occurs during retirement.

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FSU RETAIL INNOVATION CENTER |

RETAIL REV

FSU Retail Innovation Center prepares students for an ever-changing industry

by TISHA CREWS KELLER

W

hat’s a high-tech, global, $5 trillion industry offering tremendous opportunities for career and income growth?

Retail.

As the Florida State University College of Business explains it, the modern retail industry is far more expansive than meets the eye, encompassing everything from product development to changing technologies and customized supply chains.

The need for retail managers has never been greater, and the opportunities never so ripe for bright college graduates to launch a career in the retail world.

In a somewhat rare partnership, the FSU colleges of Business and Human Sciences have joined forces to cross academic lines and create the FSU Retail Innovation Center. The mission behind the joint venture is to make students job-ready, and to build upon a shared concept of integrating real-world experience into the science of retail.

FSU’s College of Human Sciences already runs the Retail, Merchandising and Product Development Center — or FSU Retail Center for short — under the leadership of industry veteran and Retail Center director Ann Langston.

Jim McLaughlin founded the Retail Innovation Center through the College of Business.

Luke Hopkins, assistant chair of the college’s Department of Marketing

Currently, the Retail Center mainly focuses on providing a point of synergy between retailing and related industries, the faculty and the students of the college’s Department of Retail, Merchandising and Product Development (RMPD).

In addition to hosting speakers and recruiters on campus, the center sponsors annual events focused on professionally developing the RMPD students: the Scholarship Dinner, where companies provide scholarships and networking opportunities for students; the Retail Summit, an intense conference with lectures featuring insider perspectives on the future of retailing and product development; and the Retail Focus Panel, which features FSU graduates with careers in the retail industry sharing advice with students.

The FSU College of Business, recognizing the value of such industry-studentfaculty interactions, has for years had a cross-course requirement with the RMPD department, so students in either program are exposed to both the business and creative sides of retail management.

For Retail Center founder Jim McLaughlin, developing a next-generation Retail Center as a collaborative project was the natural next step in this fruitful partnership with his new “home” at the College of Business. He set the idea into motion, and colleague Luke Hopkins, assistant chair of the college’s Department of Marketing, worked with Langston to bring it to life.

“The Retail Innovation Center was fueled by a $350,000 investment from the Florida Retail Federation,” Langston explained. “Its members were interested in expanding the offerings for retail programs across academia and tying together the two approaches at FSU.”

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The new Retail Innovation Center will build on what Langton’s team is already doing and add in more collaborative retail industry partners, investments from the industry and focus on bringing a more in-depth experience for the two programs’ students.

“It will be the one of the only centers of its kind in the U.S.,” Hopkins pointed out.

“That is, a collaboration between the retail programs of two colleges in one university.”

Students in the College of Business’ Retail Management program learn the business side of retail — management, supply chain, marketing, etc. — while the College of Human Sciences’ RMPD scholars focus more on the merchandising function, including business strategy, design, product

COURTESY FSU COLLEGE OF BUSINESS/KALLEN LUNT (MCLAUGHLIN AND HOPKINS) AND COURTESY FSU COLLEGE OF BUSINESS/THE VITAMIN SHOPPE

Twenty-three FSU college of business students visited The Vitamin Shoppe on a recent NYC Retail Management Corporate Tour.

development, planning, allocating, buying, distribution, personnel management, floor merchandising and sales.

In addition, College of Business students get exposure mainly to the grocery, home improvement and service sub-industries in retail, while Langston’s RMPD students focus on “softlines” and lifestyle products such as clothing and home department stores.

“The Retail Innovation Center provides a resource for cross-exposure for students and retailers,” Hopkins said. “We already work very closely with the FSU Career Center, and our internship programs are very strong. With this Innovation Center, we can dig down and cover the breadth of the major (from both sides) but also drill down into the specialties.”

Industry partners such as HSN, Stein Mart, Ashley Furniture, Southeastern Grocers, ALDI, The Vitamin Shoppe, Ross, Kohl’s, Macy’s, Aveda and Turner Fine Furniture invest in the project through their annual dues and other fundraising events. They also provide internship placements for students in both programs, which is something retail graduates — and the retail industry — both need.

“We have a very strong partnership with FSU that has come from our membership with the Retail Center,” said HSN’s Sandy Soto, vice president of talent acquisition.

“This has led to a strong internship program at HSN, which has become a very strong pipeline for our entry-level positions for our Merchandising and Planning organization.

The strength of our internship program and the experience it provides to the students has received great recognition.”

Bringing the two halves together in one Retail Innovation Center is a win-win for students and faculty in both programs, and it’s an idea that also excites the industry members of the Retail Center.

“The ability to work with the school’s faculty and influence the school’s curriculum is an incredible opportunity for us,” Soto noted. “The business world — and the retail world at large — has and continues to change. The consumer, in terms of how they shop; the product and how it gets to market; pricing, presentation, the world of technology and shopping, are intersecting and evolving at rapid speed. Being a part

2017 T A L L A H A S S E E B U S I N E S S J O U R N A L / 45

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Samantha Lisowski (graduated 2015) did a summer internship in NYC with the retail marketing/public relations agency Lippe Taylor. Samantha is now Inside Sales Manager for Cre8tive Technology and Design in San Diego.

of the Retail Center has allowed HSN to share current business changes and trends that could be integrated in curriculum, coursework and lectures. In turn, this allows the schools’ programs and students to be current in their business knowledge.”

Besides fueling innovation at the academic level — Langston and Hopkins will bring the research side of retail academics into the center at a future point — Soto also points out that influencing students early in their career prospecting and collaborating with other retailers in the center are big bonuses for the company.

“Even though we are all competitors, we are all advocates of this great retail industry,” she explained. “We all want great talent, and we want the students to see what the industry offers — opportunities, careers, longevity and great partnerships.”

When the College of Business moves into the new building it has planned, the Retail Innovation Center will have new digs, complete with centralized offices for co-directors Langston and Hopkins, as well as facilities for training and meetings.

For now, though, the Retail Innovation Center will begin its expansion in programmatic ways, bringing together industry leaders to give feedback and roundtable discussions at events such as the annual Seminole Futures employment event and developing an advisory board packed with center partners.

Hopkins and Langston recognize that this innovative — and non-traditional, academically speaking — approach to academia-industry partnership is an accomplishment in itself. But they are quick to talk about the visions they have for its future, and the leadership above and around them that brought it to life.

“FSU is very entrepreneurial,” Hopkins said. “The deans at both colleges have the same philosophy — thinking outside the box — and that’s what’s allowed this idea to grow. I think the issue will be how to keep the reins on it once it gets going.”

For partners such as HSN’s Soto, that will be a welcome challenge.

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INNOVATION PARK |

INNOVATION PARK Where science and business enhance each other

by TABITHA YANG

PHOTOS BY MATT BURKE (PAPER) AND COURTESY FSU PHOTOGRAPHY SERVICES (ZENG)

A

t Innovation Park, science and business dwell together in a symbiotic relationship. Located in southwest Tallahassee, the land that Innovation Park occupies was set aside by special charter in 1978 by the state of Florida so that university researchers and private tech companies could be housed side by side. The goal was for researchers, in addition to pursuing independent work, to help companies develop new products or improve existing ones. Being able to show examples of commercial applications for their work would also make it easier for the researchers to apply for grants.

There are 17 buildings within the park, nine of which belong to Florida State University, two to private owners, one to Florida A&M University and five to the Leon County Research and Development Authority (LCDRA), which manages and oversees the park. Today there are 35 organizations and businesses that make their home in Innovation Park, most of which are university-affiliated. They employ about 1,900 people. The park has an additional 44 acres that could be developed to house future businesses or research facilities, as well as a 12-acre outparcel that could be used for a housing development.

Innovation Park is not only an asset to the business and science communities, the 208-acre property is also a beautiful greenspace where wild deer, turtles and birds dwell in the woods and ponds next to the research facilities and high-tech manufacturing.

While the park is currently a workplace, the LCDRA hopes to eventually build housing for graduate students and scholars and add nature trails to make it an attractive place to live and work.

Marvel in Real Life One of the notable tenants based in Innovation Park is FSU’s High Performance Materials Institute (HPMI). Some of the materials

HPMI is developing sound like they came straight out of a Marvel superhero movie.

Take buckypaper, for instance. Thanks to carbon nanotube technology, this paper-thin, black material has the potential to be 500 times stronger than steel, is flame-resistant, and has energy storage and electromagnetic shielding properties. Amazing, right? Potential uses for buckypaper could include lightning-strike protection on aircraft.

Buckypaper prototypes are currently being created on site by HPMI. At present, FSU is waiting for a viable private company to enter into a licensing agreement with it and begin manufacturing buckypaper on a wider scale.

Another recent invention that has come out of HPMI is auxetic foam. Developed by FSU Associate Professor of Manufacturing and Industrial Engineering Changchun “Chad” Zeng, this foam has special shapechanging properties. When it is compressed, auxetic foam moves toward the point of

Changchun “Chad” Zeng took his talents outside of the FSU classroom to develop a foam with shape shifting elements. The manufacturing and industrial engineering professor makes and tests foams in hopes that they will prove worthy of the medical industry.

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LAWRENCE DAVIDSON

INNOVATION PARK |

Heat, ventilate and cool all with one machine. Danfoss Turbocor joined Innovation Park to further develop the first oil-free refrigerant compressor. Through collaboration with other companies, the mechanics and aerodynamics have vastly improved.

impact rather than away from it. This makes it perfect for absorbing impact; potential uses for the foam include body armor, prosthetic limb lining, hospital beds and football helmet lining.

A private startup company, Auxadyne LLC, based out of Keystone Heights, Florida, signed a licensing agreement with FSU in 2014 and has begun producing and sending foam prototypes to interested companies. Auxadyne’s CEO, Joe Condon, said his company will focus on developing auxetic foam for use in athletic shoes and equipment, protective gear for first responders and medical device applications.

Aeropropulsion, Mechatronics and Energy Center Another of Innovation Park’s notable tenants is FSU’s Aeropropulsion, Mechatronics and Energy (AME) Center. The aeropropulsion sector of its research deals with air flow, which refers to how air travels over the parts of an aircraft or other vehicle or object. Researchers at the center want to find ways to change aircraft design to make airplanes quieter and more efficient.

The mechatronics portion of the center

deals with robotics, seeking to design robots that can maneuver easily and efficiently over difficult terrain, such as sandy or rocky areas, as well as robots that can run, climb or fly.

The AME Center is equipped with dynamic motion analysis equipment and sophisticated manufacturing tools that researchers can use to build and test their designs.

The energy research the center engages in is designed with an eye toward finding ways to store and provide energy that is affordable, efficient and causes minimal harm to the environment. Current research at the center includes a project to develop a highly efficient, inexpensive portable PEMFC (proton exchange membrane fuel cell) system and some research into lithium-ion batteries, which could potentially be used one day to power electric cars.

Exporting Cool Air to the World The biggest private business in Innovation Park is Danfoss’ compressor manufacturing center. Danfoss, a large Danish company with manufacturing centers all over the world, creates a variety of machines and parts that are necessary for such applications as heating and cooling, refrigeration and

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industrial automation. The company’s goal, according to its website, is to “do more with less,” creating effective and sustainable technological solutions.

Danfoss Turbocor, a member of the Danfoss Group, has developed the world’s first totally oil-free commercial refrigerant compressor specifically designed for the heating, ventilation and air conditioning (HVAC-R) industry. Thanks to the opportunities to collaborate with researchers and engineers in Innovation Park, the manufacturing facility currently in Tallahassee was moved from Montreal to Innovation Park.

Since then, according to Danfoss Turbocor President Ricardo Schneider, Danfoss has collaborated with several of the research and development entities in the park, including the National High Magnetic Field Laboratory, the FSU High Performance Materials Institute and the AME Center, which helped the company improve the aerodynamics of its compressors. Their facility in Tallahassee employs more than 160 people.

“I know that just the proximity to the MagLab … has been fantastic for us, but also having lots of R&D (research and development) support from FSU has been probably one of the most valuable things in our manufacturing,” Schneider says.

Planning for the Future The LCRDA would like to make Innovation Park even more successful by adding more private businesses.

“The challenge that we’ve had at Innovation Park is that there’s been more research facility development than there’s been private sector development, and that is something that we’re trying to remedy,” LCRDA executive director Ron Miller says.

The LCDRA has a number of programs in place to encourage startup companies, including the Entrepreneurial Excellence Program and tech grants. The authority also wants to put a business incubator in the park, which would provide space for startups to house their companies, as well as equipment they could use to develop and test products, and other forms of support. Speaking of the park’s current $500 million annual impact and future prospects, Miller says, “It is really a tremendous economic resource that’s only going to grow.”

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NATIONAL MAGLAB |

There are at least four other spin-off businesses and research institutes that have sprung up in recent years, touching on everything from nanomaterial measurement software to researching renewable energy and difficult-to-refine oils for fuels.

Yuri Corilo of PetroOrg works with software that assists chemists in classifying petroleum.

THE MAGLAB

An economic force to be reckoned with

by TABITHA YANG

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agnets strong enough to lift refrigerators. Cryogenic labs with gases colder than the coldest winters in Siberia. The National High Magnetic Field Laboratory, or MagLab, headquartered in Tallahassee’s Innovation Park, has these and more. It is the largest and most powerful magnet lab in the world and the only lab of its kind in the United States. In addition to its Tallahassee headquarters, the MagLab has two branch campuses, located at the University of Florida in Gainesville and at Los Alamos National Laboratory in New Mexico. Together, they comprise the largest magnet lab in the world.

Thanks to research done at the MagLab, science has moved forward on a number of fronts. Researchers are expanding our knowledge of the building blocks for quantum computers, for instance, as well as uncovering unique properties of a compound 52 / 2017 TA L L A H A S S E E B U S I N E S S J O U R N A L

called samarium hexaboride, which can behave simultaneously like a conductor and an insulator. Using powerful MRI technology, researchers at the MagLab have also advanced our understanding of strokes

New Businesses in Its Wake The work done at the MagLab has spawned a number of spin-off companies and research institutes. Omics LLC is one such entity.

The company, which is based out of Innovation Park, markets PetroOrg Petroleomics Software, which enables chemists to quickly classify petroleum samples by chemical composition.

Another spin-off company is Specialized Crystal Processing Inc., also based out of Tallahassee. The synthetically grown crystals the company produces have applications in commercial and military electronics, such as infrared sensors and magnetic random access memory chips.

In addition to contributions the MagLab is making to the scientific and business communities, it is also a valuable economic resource. Statewide, the MagLab generates $51 million in income annually and $121 million in economic output, according to a study published in 2014 by Florida State University’s Center for Economic Forecasting and Analysis (CEFA). It has also created more than 1,200 jobs.

Over the next 20 years, the MagLab is forecasted to generate $2.4 billion in economic output and $1 billion in income, as well as create more than 25,000 jobs. CEFA’s study also shows that for every $1 invested by the state into the MagLab (the state contributes 23 percent of the MagLab’s annual $55.8 million budget), the lab yields $6.57 in economic activity in Florida.

In addition, the 1,200 or so scientists “We are proud who visit and spend of the role the weeks in Florida National MagLab each year to do their plays in our community, both research generate in growing our another $2,821,673 local economy but for the state in also in provideconomic output and ing a stimulating $977,450 in income. environment in which entrepreIn the Tallaneurial scientists hassee area alone, can thrive.” — LAB the MagLab generDIRECTOR GREG ates $90 million in BOEBINGER economic output. Its facilities in Innovation Park employ more than 640 people.

“We are proud of the role the National MagLab plays in our community,” lab director Greg Boebinger commented, “both in growing our local economy but also in providing a stimulating environment in which entrepreneurial scientists can thrive.”

PHOTOS COURTESY NATIONAL HIGH MAGNETIC FIELD LABORATORY ( CORILO) AND BY DAVE BARFIELD (BOEBINGER)

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T MH |

Neurosurgeons Dr. Adam Oliver, left, and Dr. Matthew Lawson inspect images in a cath lab at Tallahassee Memorial HealthCare, where they helped introduce a “coiling” technique for arresting blood flow to aneurysms.

BUILDING THE TEAM Wave of new physicians reflects TMH’s commitment to excellence

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he call came in during a shift change.

At 5 in the morning on July 2, a bus carrying migrant farm workers and members of their families sailed through a blinking red light at the Woodville Highway’s intersection with U.S. Highway 98 and slammed into a tractor-trailer rig carrying a load of munitions. Wakulla County and Leon County ambulances carrying a dozen seriously injured persons would be arriving soon at the Bixler Emergency and Trauma Center on the Tallahassee Memorial HealthCare campus at Magnolia Drive and Miccosukee Road.

Personnel who were about to depart for the day were ordered to stay, ensuring that the center would have double the usual complement of nurses and technicians on hand to address an emergency of a sort that is often addressed in faux catastrophe exercises, but is not often real.

Dr. Devin Bustin, 31 and two years removed from his residency at the Carolinas Medical Center in Charlotte, was on duty when it became clear that the Bixler ER was about to become a M.A.S.H. unit.

Bustin took a call from the senior manager at Leon County EMS. Immediately, he recognized the voice. Steve Suarez and Bustin attended the same high school in South Florida.

In short bursts, Suarez told Bustin what he knew about the accident scene to which he was hurtling.

“Sixty to 70 people on the bus. Fire. No seat belts. It’s a mess. No one speaks English. Expect at least 20 traumas.”

In response, Buskin initiated TMH’s mass casualty protocol.

“It brings in resources from the rest of the hospital,” Buskin explained. “We called all the residents down. We called the ER doc who was due in at 6 and told her to get her butt up; we needed her.

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by STEVE BORNHOFT

We called in the medical director; a trauma surgeon, Dr. (Shelby) Blank; a neurosurgeon, Dr. (Adam) Oliver; an orthopedic surgeon, Dr. (Hector) Majia. Everyone was a on a short leash.”

Before the first patient arrived, a system was in place. Buskin would triage cases as they came in through the ambulance bay, determining if they needed immediate attention or could wait 10 or 20 minutes and directing them where they needed to go.

Residents performed procedures including sewing up lacerations.

The orthopedist went from room to room setting fractured bones.

“An anesthesiologist came down and put a breathing tube in one of my patients because I was doing a chest tube in another room,” Buskin recalled.

It was, Buskin said, controlled chaos.

“But a lot of things went right,” Buskin said. “We even had four people close at hand who speak Creole — a cleaning lady, a registration tech, a Red Cross volunteer and a trauma resident who had started with us just a day earlier.”

The Wakulla collision occurred less than a month after the massacre at the Pulse nightclub in Orlando, an event that led Buskin to ask himself how TMH would do in response to a similar situation.

“Everyone got appropriate care,” Buskin reflected. “No one had a bad outcome due to something being neglected or missed, and that is remarkable when you have that kind of an influx. I mean, we had a plan in place, but that doesn’t guarantee that things are going to go well. I was pleased.”

Tested, the community that is TMH came together in service to the larger community in a way that validated decisions made by talented young physicians to make Tallahassee their home. Four of those physicians are profiled here.

Devin Bustin, M.D. For Devin Bustin, who completed undergraduate studies (psychology) and attended medical school at the University of Florida, Tallahassee always had been enemy territory.

So it was that Bustin, when he learned that Tallahassee Memorial HealthCare had an opening for an emergency room physician, decided to interview for the job “just for the experience.”

That experience, however, would sell him on TMH. Bustin had completed his residency at the Carolina Medical Center, one of the top-five busiest trauma centers in the country and home to doctors who “wrote the books on emergency medicine.”

“I could have gone anywhere,” Bustin said.

He began to consider TMH seriously when he found himself interviewing not just with a doctor or two, but with the hospital’s CEO and chief medical officer. He was impressed by their pledge to stay out of physicians’ way and let them “do the right thing.” And he was excited by their willingness to help him establish at the hospital an ultrasonography program — “basically, it’s using an ultrasound machine at bedside to rapidly obtain information to guide your case management.”

Bustin recognizes about TMH that “we’re not a big academic center, so we’re not going to be as cutting edge as Shands (in Gainesville) might be, but that’s OK. “What cutting edge facilities do best is cutting-edge stuff. A doctor treats you for a condition that he discovered and named. We do the bread-and-butter stuff and more very well, and meanwhile we’re very close to the cutting edge. When we have that rare bone tumor, we’ll transfer you to Shands, but otherwise, we’re all you could ask for in a community hospital.”

PHOTO COURTESY TMH/KIRA DERRYBERRY PHOTOGRAPHY (BUSTIN) AND TMH/DAVE BARFIELD

Matthew Lawson, M.D. Dr. Matthew Lawson displayed a device that essentially resembles a miniaturized plumber’s snake.

Called a microcatheter, it is actually a delivery device that is inserted in the femoral artery in a thigh and run up into the brain. Upon arrival there, it is used to place tiny platinum coils in unruptured aneurisms. Several coils may be delivered, forming concentric circles that cause an aneurism to clot off.

The procedure, developed in the 1990s, has through recent years mostly replaced the earlier practice of entering the brain through the skull and clipping aneurisms.

Repeated studies have established that coiling consistently produces better outcomes than clipping.

Coiling was introduced to Tallahassee in 2012 thanks largely due to the efforts of Lawson, an endovascular neurosurgeon.

Practicing in Gainesville, where he had attended medical school and completed his residency and fellowship, Lawson, now 39, found

that many of his candidates for coiling were North Florida residents.

On that basis, he perceived the need for his subspecialty in Tallahassee and began discussions with the neurological clinic here and with Tallahassee Memorial HealthCare.

“I met with (TMH CEO) Mark O’Bryant and he assured me that the hospital was interested in building a room for endovascular work,” Lawson said. “So, the hospital wanted to do it and the clinic wanted to do it and, while I didn’t have anything in writing and we’re talking about a $3 million project, I committed to moving here and Mr. O’Bryant lived up to his word.”

Lawson regards Tallahassee as a big little town when it comes to medicine.

“New techniques and new producers come along and most community hospitals are slow adopters, but that’s not true at TMH,” Lawson said. “We recently became licensed as the only comprehensive stroke center in the region. We’re incredibly busy and we’re doing good things for people from Pensacola to Dothan to half of the way to Jacksonville.”

Adam Oliver, M.D. As a student of history, Dr. Adam Oliver — at this writing, he is reading a large tome on the lives and times of the Apalachee Indians — may have been especially susceptible to a parallel offered him by a neurologist he met while attending the medical school at Louisiana State University.

For Oliver, 37, who grew up as the son of a physician, the language of doctoring has been part of his vernacular since childhood. Medicine always has been approachable; he never considered that it was something he could not do and, for a long while, he assumed he would be a family-practice doctor, just like dad. (Whit Oliver practiced in Blountstown when Adam was in elementary school and continues to practice in Tallahassee.)

Oliver, however, was to become fascinated with neuroscience when he observed at LSU a Parkinson’s patient undergoing deep brain stimulation, a procedure that had the effect of restoring the patient’s ability to speak.

“I saw that and I said, ‘That’s what I want to do,’” Oliver recalls.

But the prospect of neurosurgery was intimidating. He was warned that the specialty is so consuming that “you won’t see your family, you will wind up divorced, you won’t have a life.”

Dr. Jose Bermudez, who Oliver counts as a chief mentor along with his father, would cure the student’s reluctance with a story about Cortez.

“Cortez’s troops were so diseased and sick and afraid of the Indians that they were going to mutiny,” Oliver began to repeat Bermudez’s story.

“He was on the beaches at Vera Cruz and they were going to start their march to Mexico City and there were some Indians who were willing to help them. But the troops were afraid they were going to die there and wanted to return to Spain. So Cortez got up in the middle of the night and he burned his own ships.

“If you want to become a neurosurgeon, burn your ships.”

That, Oliver said, is some of the best advice he ever received. “Faced with adversity, you don’t dig trenches that you can fall back into,” he said.

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CHILDREN NEUROSCIENCE The Panhandle’s most advanced neurosurgery program, including brain and spinal cord injury care in addition to stroke and aneurysm treatments without opening the skull. Home to North Florida’s only Comprehensive Stroke Center and the region’s only Neurological Intensive Care Unit.

The Children’s Center is home to the only Pediatric Intensive Care Unit and Child Life Specialist in the region. More pediatric specialists and services are also coming to Tallahassee through a new affiliation with Wolfson Children’s Hospital.

WOMEN & BABIES On track to become Tallahassee’s first Baby-Friendly Hospital and focused on building better bonds between moms and babies. Home to the region’s only Newborn Intensive Care Unit.

TALLAHASSEE MEMORIAL HEALTHCARE

HEART & VASCULAR

TRAUMA

A leader in the Southeast for exceptional heart and vascular care and advanced clinical research. Home to the region’s only Structural Heart Program, Heart Failure Program and Certified Atrial Fibrillation Clinic.

The only Level-II Trauma Center in the region with the area’s highest accreditations, including a Comprehensive Stroke Center and Chest Pain Center with PCI.

TMH FOR LIFE Promoting health beyond our walls by challenging our community to be active, eat healthier, know their numbers and find their happy through free events, screenings, programs, classes and educational opportunities.

CANCER

ORTHOPEDIC Offering the most experienced orthopedic team in the area with custom joint replacement procedures, orthopedic trauma care and compassionate rehabilitation.

The most powerful cancer program in the Big Bend region with medical oncology, hematology, radiation oncology, surgical oncology and gynecologic oncology all in one facility. It is the longest continuously accredited comprehensive community cancer program in Florida.

TMH.ORG 56 / 2017 TA L L A H A S S E E B U S I N E S S J O U R N A L

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PHOTO COURTESY TMH/DAVE BARFIELD

Dr. Greg Hartlage Dr. Greg Hartlage is an image maker, not that he has anything to do with public relations.

Rather, he works in cardiovascular imaging, a specialty that may prevent the need for cardiac procedures and ensures that surgeries, when they do become necessary, are a lot less invasive than they used to be.

Hartlage, 35, is a Tallahassee native whose father, a family practice physician here, encouraged his son to go to law school.

But Hartlage always has been of a mind to defy his father’s wishes, even if that meant following in dad’s footsteps. For his rebellious nature, his patients might well be grateful.

The tools of Hartlage’s trade are cardiac magnetic resonance imaging, computed tomography and ultrasound machines.

He turned to CT to illustrate what imaging can do for patients and their doctors.

CT, he said, largely has eliminated the need for invasive cardiac catheterization. Now, it’s possible to assess plaque buildups without having to admit a patient to the hospital and run a tube into his heart.

“We just put an IV in the arm, you lay on the scanner, we inject some dye and, in 30 to 45 minutes, you’re gone and we can look at the whole heart, inside and out — and we’ll have more information than a heart cath would supply,” Hartlage explained.

Lots of people, Hartlage said, may experience symptoms that they fear may be attributable to heart disease — or they may result from acid reflux or a pulled muscle.

“CT is a good way to prove that either a person has nothing to worry about or that he has plaque levels that have advanced to a point where preventive measures — diet, lifestyle, exercise, cholesterol medicine, aspirin — are warranted,” Hartlage said.

“People need to know.”

In asymptomatic patients, Hartlage employs a screen that looks for calcium, a marker for plaque.

“A calcium score of zero puts you at an exceedingly low risk of developing any cardiac problems over the next five to 10 years,” Hartlage explained.

In working with the structural heart team at TMH, Hartlage uses CT to precisely determine the size of a value that needs replacing. No longer is it necessary for a surgeon to cut through the chest, open the heart, remove the bad valve and take measurements.

“That’s pretty cool,” Hartlage said with characteristic reserve.

But he does not disguise his enthusiasm for TMH, its relationship with his employer, the Southern Medical Group, and its commitment to supplying doctors with the best tools available.

“For a city of its size, Tallahassee is an exceptionally advanced place and TMH has put a lot of resources into keeping it that way with a ‘build it and they will come’ philosophy,” Hartlage said.

“We get patients referred here from Gainesville.”

• • • • •

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CRMC |

BRINGING DOCTORS TO TOWN Community needs guide hospital’s recruitment efforts

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hey’ve lived through natural and economic disasters. They’ve waded into political and social turmoil. They’re energetic and proactive, but they’re also cautious and maybe even a little tight-fisted.

They’re millennials, and they love Tallahassee.

From boardrooms to emergency rooms, companies throughout Florida’s capital city are benefiting from the tenacity, compassion and maturity that characterize the wave of vibrant 30-somethings that has descended upon our corner of the Big Bend.

Mark Robinson, president and CEO of Capital Regional Medical Center, says that the hospital receives “myriad resumes from young physicians who are coming out of their residencies and fellowships. Some

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by KIM HARRIS THACKER

of them grew up in Tallahassee and are looking to come back home; some are not satisfied with their current situations; some are looking to settle in a city where they know they can live for the rest of their lives.

Tallahassee presents itself as a place where you can have a great lifestyle without the headaches that come with living in bigger cities.”

Heather Lowery, physician recruiter for the North Florida division of Hospital Corporation of America (HCA), of which Capital Regional is a subsidiary, agrees that Tallahassee is an up-and-coming community; but the city’s appeal isn’t the only thing that is important to physicians who are hoping to settle down.

“When we’re looking to attract physicians, we talk about the growth of the hospital and how we keep up with technological

PHOTO BY SAIGE ROBERTS AND COURTESY CRMC/RAY STANYARD AND CRMC/SCOTT SMITH OF CADE & ASSOCIATES (ALLEN)

On Feb. 29, 2016, Capital Regional Medical Care opened its new, full-service clinic on Bannerman Road. The clinic has extended hours and welcomes walk-ins.

advancements,” says Lowery. “We also talk about community involvement and the number of patients we serve. We have a busy ED (emergency department), which physicians like to hear.”

The life of a doctor won’t always be busy days in the emergency room, but Robinson and his colleagues at Capital Regional have a plan for that, too: “We’ve developed an attrition plan for all of our doctors, which means we work directly with them to help them plan their future. This helps us plan for the hospital’s future, which then helps us know the future of the entire community.”

And at Capital Regional, it’s all about the community.

“Everything we do from a recruitment perspective, especially when it comes to physicians, is based on community need,” Lowery says. “It’s our goal to keep patients in Tallahassee, so they don’t have to travel to find quality health care and to provide patients with the best care possible.”

Keeping patients in Tallahassee is one reason why Capital Regional recently opened Capital Regional Medical Care, a primary care clinic located in the Bannerman Crossings shopping center in north Tallahassee. The clinic takes walk-ins and has extended hours, since, as Robinson puts it, “Life extends beyond Monday through Friday, nine to five.” Currently serving at the new clinic are Dr. Brian Allen, who specializes in family medicine; nurse practitioner Lynn Steele and a new hire: pediatrician Dr. Maci McDermott.

The new clinic is not the only Capital Regional facility that has benefited from recent hires. Family practice physician Dr. Shamil Castro joined Capital Regional Medical Group at SouthWood in October.

When asked about the challenges that arise while recruiting young physicians like Dr. McDermott and Dr. Castro to the area, Lowery replies that she doesn’t care for the word, “obstacles.”

“I like to think in terms of ‘opportunities,’ ” she said. “Yes, we’re experiencing a physician shortage in this part of the country. Less people are going to medical school and less are graduating from residency programs; but our parent company, HCA, is addressing this shortage by creating more residency programs.”

Dr. Bruce Deighton, HCA’s Vice President of Graduate Medical Education, is quoted on the company’s website as having said, “As the nation faces a worsening physician shortage, it’s vitally important that medical school graduates have access to quality residency programs. At HCA, we are using our scale and expertise to support sustainable pipelines of superior, patient-centered physicians who will care for our communities for generations to come.”

The Nashville-based company’s “Training Program Outreach” assists residents and fellows with the transition from medical training to medical practice by offering them financial assistance along with seminars on the business side of medicine.

Hospital Corporation of America’s commitment to excellence is echoed at Capital Regional. “We want people to be comfortable and to trust their physician at all times, but especially when they’re injured or sick,” Robinson says. “It’s at those times when they are the most vulnerable.”

A positive experience, whether during an operation or a routine checkup in the clinic, is a physician’s best form of advertising.

“When people are looking for a physician, they do two things,” Robinson says. “One, they ask people for recommendations. And two, they go to the internet and check ratings. The quality of the health care we provide at Capital Regional Medical Center speaks for itself.”

Dr. Shamil Castro

Dr. Maci McDermott

Capital Regional Medical Center President and CEO Mark Robinson

Nurse Practitioner Lynn Steele

Dr. Brian Allen

2017 T A L L A H A S S E E B U S I N E S S J O U R N A L / 59

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REAL ESTATE |

LAWRENCE DAVIDSON

Velda Oaks, a newly developed Premier Fine Homes community in Northeast Tallahassee features move-in ready homes.

RESIDENTIAL RESURGENCE New construction is on the rise

by JASON DEHART

T

allahassee’s residential housing market appears to be heating back up after years of experiencing a slow burn, according to prominent brokers and builders.

“We are finally seeing signs of life. The market has been steady over the last eight years, but we are finally entering a growth market,” said Thomas Asbury Jr., internal operations manager for Premier Fine Homes. “From a new-construction perspective, yes, there has been a resurgence in the residential home market. We have almost doubled our sales for 2016 compared to 2015.”

Over at Naumann Group Real Estate, broker/owner Jason Naumann concurred that there is a big demand for new construction.

“The residential single-family housing market has been busier this year so far than we ever had for our company,” Naumann said. “To

give you an idea, we have more transactions and more dollar volume year-to-date than we had in 2005-2006. Now, the prices obviously are not where we saw them in 2005 and 2006, but they’re climbing back up. So the activity is by far there.”

First-time homebuyers, downsizers and seniors are all looking for new homes, according to Naumann and Asbury.

“Every market segment we have is buying. You have first-time homebuyers, downsizers, empty-nesters, professionals, move-up buyers,” Naumann said. “What I primarily have been focused on personally is an active lifestyle-type product with great location for people who are wanting to downsize. More of that niche, park-like neighborhood, not these big projects.”

Asbury said that Velda Oaks, a Premier development and a highvolume community located off of Velda Dairy Road, started out as a neighborhood for all demographics, but it now appears that more people in the 55-plus age tier have bought homes there.

“As we build our final two homes, we have found that over 85 percent of the homeowners in this community turned out to be ages 55-plus. Velda Oaks transformed into a front-porch, active adult community all on its own,” he said.

Meanwhile, Ox Bottom Crest, another Premier development off of Ox Bottom Road, allows for all types of families, with the popular amenities everyone looks for.

“For example, the schools zoned for this area cater to families, (and) low-maintenance living caters to active adults and emptynesters,” Asbury said. “Ox Bottom Crest has an HOA (homeowner 2017 T A L L A H A S S E E B U S I N E S S J O U R N A L / 61

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LAWRENCE DAVIDSON

REAL ESTATE |

Ox Bottom Crest embodies the needs of Tallahassee residents through desired amenities and an aesthetically pleasing environment.

association) that takes care of your lawn while home owners are out of town or on vacation, helping create a carefree atmosphere.”

People are looking for new construction, good locations and good amenities, and certain developments are being sold out rather quickly, Naumann said.

“We’ve got a new neighborhood off of Hi Lo Way that we sold out of, lot-wise, immediately, just as soon as we brought it to market. We have a project in SouthWood that we’re selling the heck out of,” he said. “We’ve got the Windsor Trace project we sold, and in the Braemore Park community that we’re doing next to Tallahassee Nurseries, I’ve got 28 single-family homes there. I have 53 people registered to buy them. I’ve not advertised once. I do not have any signs out. Just word of mouth.”

The southeast and northeast sections of town remain popular, top-selling regions.

“These two specific regions of the city are undergoing new commercial and retail complexes and are a major factor for the continued increase of residential sales,” Asbury said. “What buyers look for when searching for a new home is a lifestyle. They want a place where they can raise families, be active and feel safe.”

Overall, Naumann said many new developments are being very successful at meeting consumer demand.

“The project that Premier is doing at the corner of Ox Bottom, that’s been wildly successful because it’s really the only singlefamily, new-construction product out there. And Centerville Conservation has been very successful because it’s, you know, probably the only other one,” he said. “Other than that, it is lots here and there that people have been buying and building on.

SouthWood continues to be extremely active with new construction because it’s a neighborhood that has the amenities in place. It has the golf course and tennis courts and pools and all that stuff, and people are drawn to that. Welaunee is coming online, but that’s still probably a year away. That will be a big draw for people, but until then, there’s not a whole lot of choices.”

So what exactly are the hot new trends in home features? Asbury said it’s all about luminous interiors and energy-efficiency.

“White cabinets, white backsplash and white tile,” he said. “The brighter, the better. Accent walls and energy-efficient homes. We build all of our homes to FGBC (Florida Green Building Coalition) and Energy Star standards. Sustainable products such as siding, shingles and low-E windows. Product warranties, which all combine into low-maintenance living.”

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BUSINESS NEWS

CAPITAL LOCAL HAPPENINGS

»

Andrew Pivacek recently joined Kessler Construction LLC’s estimating team. The design-build firm is a top custom homebuilder and remodeler in Tallahassee and surrounding cities.

» Kelly

Dozier and Mary Pankowski have been appointed to the Tallahassee Memorial Healthcare Board of Directors. DOZIER Dozier is co-owner and senior vice president of Mad Dog Construction, owner and manager of Midtown Urban Properties and director of PANKOWSKI the LeMoyne Chain of Parks Art Festival. Pankowski served as an assistant state attorney for 11 years. Upon retirement in 2013, she opened a small law office devoted to helping children and young adults negotiate the system and rebuild their lives.

Pankowski served two terms as president of the Tallahassee Community College Foundation.

and have helped to develop athletic programs for empowering and strengthening young people and families in Leon County since 2008.

»

Michael Kalifeh of Thomas Howell Ferguson in Tallahassee was recently selected as a CPA Practice Advisor “40 KALIFEH Under 40” honoree.

This program seeks to recognize and support professionals who are making a difference and are accomplished leaders in the accounting profession.

» Eunice Cofie, owner of Nueki,

a health and beauty company, recently received $20,000 for her business and advanced to the final round of Miller Lite’s Tap the Future competition. The grand prize in this entrepreneurial contest is $200,000.

» The Florida Economic Devel-

opment Council recently voted to transition Beth Kirkland, CEcD, from interim executive director to executive director.

» Melissa

PHOTOS PROVIDED BY PROFILED INDIVIDUALS

VanSickle has joined Broad and Cassel, a statewide law firm, as a partner in the firm’s real estate practice VANSICKLE group in Tallahassee.

Her focus areas include real estate transactions, real property development and real estate litigation.

LOCAL HONORS

» Ernie Sims III and the Big HITS

Foundation were recently recognized by the Leon County Commission for their dedication to Leon County’s youth. Sims and the foundation provided charitable contributions and support

Gov. Rick Scott recently recognized AMWAT Moving Warehousing and Storage with the Governor’s Business Ambassador Award. AMWAT is a moving company that specializes in residential, commercial, storage and warehousing moves. Over the past 11 years, AMWAT has been recognized for multiple business awards in Tallahassee. Scott also recognized Emily Morehouse, a 25-year-old business owner from Tallahassee, with the Young Entrepreneur Award. She is the chief technology officer and co-founder of Cuttlesoft, a software company that builds applications for the web, mobile devices and more. Cuttlesoft is based in Tallahassee and has created 16 jobs since 2014.

review of partnerships, S-corporations, individual, and trust and estate tax returns, as well as research of various tax issues.

part-time staff accountant in the tax services department and is now in a full-time position. Groom joined as a staff accountant in the tax services department. The firm also recently announced several promotions. Matt Walker was promoted to manager in the assurance services department, Kavisha McCranie was promoted to manager in the tax services department, Becca Gilbert was promoted to director of marketing and business development and Stephen Andrews was promoted to senior manager in the tax services department.

APPOINTED

BY GOV. SCOTT

»

Robert Edward “Bobby” Boone and William Corbin Newton recently joined Wood+Partners Inc. as project planners. Wood+Partners Inc. is a regional land planning and landscape architecture firm.

SOUNDBYTES

Cofie (center), founder of Nueki, celebrating their victory with Steve Canal, MillerCoors Community Affairs, Daymond John (left), host Kenny Burns (right) and Miami semifinalists

» The Rev. R.B. Holmes Jr., pas-

tor of Bethel Missionary Baptist Church, was recently honored with the 2016 Lifetime Leadership Award by Leadership Tallahassee. Holmes has been the guiding force behind dozens of initiatives and programs that have supported the Tallahassee community.

Other honorees were Mary Pankowski, Law Office of Mary Pankowski, for Servant Leadership; Matt Thompson, Madison Social, for Leadership Pacesetter; and Jeff Phipps, Orchard Pond, LLC for Leader of the Year.

»

Elaine Sutter, a senior in the tax services department of Thomas Howell Ferguson, recently achieved her Certi- SUTTER fied Financial Planner certification. Her responsibilities include the preparation and

» Daniel E. Nordby, of Tallahassee, an attorney and partner at Shutts and Bowen, LLP, was recently reappointed by Gov. Rick Scott to the Supreme Court Judicial Nominating Commission. Nordby previously served as the general counsel for the Florida House of Representatives from 2012 to 2014, and as general counsel for the Florida Department of State from 2011 to 2012.

» Tallahassee Community College recently renamed its science, technology, engineering and mathematics center in honor of TCC administrator Lei Wang.

Wang joined the staff of TCC in 2012 after serving as director of institutional research and effectiveness at Our Lady of the Lake University in San Antonio, Texas.

She was born in a labor camp in China, where her parents were forced to live because of their anti-communist activities. The family later lived in Beijing.

NEW BEGINNINGS

» Reggie Bouthillier, a firm director and shareholder with Stearns Weaver Miller and long-time Tallahassee resident, was recently named chair of the Greater Tallahassee Chamber of Commerce, Tallahassee’s largest and longest-serving business support organization. Bouthillier will guide the chamber in implementing its new strategic plan to grow businesses, advocate for business success and deliver value to its members through innovative programs and services. » Thomas Howell Ferguson recently welcomed Seth Grantham and William Groom to the firm.

Grantham joined the firm as a

850 Business Magazine

TCC Lei Wang Center STEM Center ribbon cutting

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BUSINESS NEWS

SOUNDBYTES public relations firm SalterMitchell. Cate’s experience covers the public and private sectors; he has served as the spokesman for former Gov. Charlie Crist, and as communications director for Chief Financial Officer Jeff Atwater and Secretaries of State Kurt Browning and Ken Detzner.

»

Michael Dooner of Havana is the new president of the Florida Forestry Association. Dooner received the symbolic DOONER presidential gavel from outgoing president Mike Bell at the association’s recent Annual Meeting in Amelia Island. Dooner, a Society of American Foresterscertified forester, is the founder and president of Southern Forestry Consultants Inc. He directs much of the company’s Northwest Florida operations and coordinates activities of sister companies Southern Forestry Realty and Wiregrass Ecological Associates.

» The Florida Public Relations Association Capital Chapter recently installed its 2016-2017 board.

The new officers are: President Jay Morgan-Schleuning, APR, CPRC; President-Elect Molly Kellogg-Schmauch; Immediate Past President Nanette Schimpf, APR, CPRC; Treasurer John Fleming, APR, CPRC; Secretary Heather Teter, APR; Director of Programming Kenneth Morgan-Schleuning; Director of Accreditation Rachel Smith, APR, CPRC; Director of Awards and Recognition Stefanie Stricklin; Director of Development Donna Wright; Director of Membership Zoe Linafelt; and Director of Communications and PR Brianna Barnebee.

» Blake Dowling is the new chief executive officer of Tallahassee-based Aegis Business Technologies. For- DOWLING mer CEO Pam Butler is now chairman of the board. Dowling succeeds Butler, who co-founded Aegis in 1997 with Brad KING Mitchell, who will continue in his role as vice president. As chairman of the board, Butler will focus on strategic board initiatives for the company.

Matthew King is Aegis Business Technologies’ newest account executive. The company has been providing IT management services for 20 years.

new financial adviser for Hancock Bank and will oversee the Panhandle region from Tallahassee to MENOR Panama City. Menor has more than 25 years of experience in wealth management.

As the region’s financial adviser, she will guide individuals and businesses by developing taxefficient and strategic investment plans to help grow, protect and transfer their wealth and assets.

» James Moore, Certified Public Accountants and Consultants, was recently named as one of Accounting Today’s “Best Accounting Firms to Work For.” This marks the second year in a row that James Moore has won this honor. » The Alonzo and Eliza Register Family Partnership was recently named the 2016 Outstanding Tree Farmer of the Year by the Florida Tree Farm Program. The award was presented at the Florida Forestry Association’s recent Annual Meeting in Amelia Island. The partnership owns more than 1,100 acres of timberland in southeastern Leon County near Woodville. All of the property is in timber production with either natural longleaf or planted stands.

»

Chris Cate, former vice president of corporate communications for 180 Communications in Tallahassee, is CATE now serving as the senior public affairs director for

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DECEMBER 2016 – JANUARY 2017

LOCAL HAPPENINGS

» Rebekah Vassar recently joined Hancock Bank in Panama City as assistant vice president and will over- VASSAR see business banking relationships at the State Road 77 branch. Vassar has almost a decade of experience in the financial industry.

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850businessmagazine.com

» Pensacola State College has been listed by the U.S. Department of Education as a “best value” among public four-year colleges and universities. This is the fifth consecutive year the college has been placed on this list. With tuition listed as $2,704, PSC is seventh among the 24 Florida colleges to make the most affordable list.

I-10 LOCAL HONORS

» Terry Jones, owner of Compass Builders, and Allen Ray McGinnis, architect, recently accepted a distinctive Judges Special Award of Excellence at the 35th Annual Aurora Awards at the Southeast Building Conference in Kissimmee.

The honor recognized their community service work for the recently completed 15,000-square-foot Pierce Family Children’s Advocacy Center in DeFuniak Springs.

» Kim Menor is the

» Bill Monroe, a licensed CPA with more than 30 years’ experience in government accounting MONROE and auditing services, recently joined Thomas Howell Ferguson’s government services team as a consultant in its Tallahassee office. Monroe worked in the state comptroller’s office for 10 years and held the positions of director of the Division of Accounting and Auditing and deputy state comptroller.

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BAY

Terry Jones, owner of Compass Builders, and wife with Allen Ray McGinnis, architect, and wife

EMERALD COAST LOCAL HONORS

» The inaugural Best Landscaping Award was recently bestowed upon Destin Commons by Trees Destin and the Destin Area Chamber of Commerce. The honor will be awarded quarterly to a Destin business that is a member of the Destin Chamber.

PSC President Edward Meadows talks with PSC students.

» Innisfree Hotels’ founder and CEO, Julian MacQueen, was celebrated by the Florida Restaurant & Lodging Association with its highest honor — the Hotelier Hall of Fame Award — during the FRLA Installation & Awards Gala. The award recognizes an industry professional with a personal record of achievement of at least 20 years, attainment of career distinctions, and distinguished service to the industry, community, charitable organizations and family. Since its founding in 1985, Innisfree Hotels has built a strong portfolio of beachfront hotels, restaurants and spas along the Gulf Coast of Florida, most recently expanding to own and manage hotels in Michigan and Vermont. » Pensacola’s IMS ExpertServices

was named Corporate America magazine’s 2016 Best Expert Witness Search Firm in the Legal Elite awards. The award recognizes the efforts of people and companies who use their expertise to consistently deliver outstanding service to some of the most prominent organizations in the legal industry.

LOCAL HAPPENINGS

Dr. Allen French, founder of Trees Destin, presents Best Landscaping award to Bob Perry, GM of Destin Commons.

» Aaron Ball, founder of Ballpoint Communications Group of Pensacola, recently announced a new marketing venture with long-time colleague Shane Mapoles. Embark Agency is a new joint venture by the Ballpoint Global Network specifically for creative work.

»The Florida Mission of Mercy is

March 24-25 at Woodham Middle School and is a two-day, no charge dental care clinic with volunteers serving any patient in need. The goals of the event are to provide free access to dental care for more than 2,000 people of all ages, to educate patients about oral health, to raise awareness of the increasing difficulty for low-income Florida adults to find dental care and to challenge patients, policymakers and dental professionals to work together to improve oral health of those who have been promised care by the state.

PHOTOS PROVIDED BY PROFILED INDIVIDUALS

»

Melbourne-based digital marketing agency Rock Paper Simple has acquired Titan Web Design of Destin and is BYRON expanding its Florida operations to Okaloosa County.

Christopher Byron, leader of business development for Rock Paper Simple, will head operations in Destin.

Pictured are Kim Valdyke, Building Homes For Heroes; Ken Hair, Children in Crisis; Heather Ruiz, Bob Perry and Michelle Sanchez, Destin Commons; Marcia Hull, Mattie Kelly Arts Foundation; and Tiffanie Shelton, Food For Thought.

»

Destin Commons recently made a donation to each of four area charities through the center’s Coins for a Cause program.

Mattie Kelly Arts Foundation received $10,000, which will directly benefit its All Kinds of Arts initiative; Building Homes for Heroes received $10,000; Children in Crisis also received $10,000; and $5,000 went to Food for Thought.

» Progressive Employer Management Company, a leading provider of payroll services, human resources, workers’ compen-

sation and employee benefits for small and mid-size companies, has announced a partnership with Florida Blue, the leading health insurance provider in Florida. The Pensacola office location, led by Steve Dickson, continues to provide a solid presence for PEMCO from the tip of the Panhandle along Interstate 10 to Tallahassee.

Talent Search specialist Marcy Matthews-Bethea (left) goes over college information with Tytieyanna Young, a recent Pine Forest High School graduate.

» Freddie HaydnSlater has joined Pensacola-based marketing agency Ideawörks as a Destination PR Specialist. HAYDENHaydn-Slater pre- SLATER viously interned at UK firms APR Communications and Unity before joining Edelman, one of the world’s largest public relations agencies, as an assistant account executive.

» Pensacola State College recently received a $342,720-peryear grant from the U.S. Department of Education to renew its Educational Talent Search program. The five-year grant totals more than $1.7 million. » Kim DeOrsey has been appointed the spa director at Henderson Beach Resort.

The resort, anchored DEORSEY by a 170-room hotel named The Henderson, a Salamander Beach & Spa Resort, is slated to open in Destin late this year.

—COMPILED BY JASON DEHART

» Acentria Insurance has merged with Inner Harbour Insurance Agency, located in Destin. Inner Harbour Insurance of Florida was established in 2004 and specializes in home, auto and business insurance.

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DEAL ESTATE

Don’t be the last to know!

COURTESY SOUTHLAND COMMERCIAL REAL ESTATE

Just Listed

A Gateway to Great Business Building coming to high-profile location

By Rebecca Padgett The heart of downtown Pensacola continues to steadily pump as construction is underway on an office building catching the eyes of many. Businesses now have the opportunity to join Servis 1st Bank in this beautiful brick building named the Gateway Garden Building. Servis will occupy the first floor, but the additional four floors are currently available to be pre-leased. The room sizes and floor options range with the choice to be customized to cater to each tenant’s needs. The build-out and improvement options are negotiable depending on the company’s needs. Perks already include vast windows, unfinished flooring, restrooms on each floor, interior demising walls and a plethora of parking.

The location is ideal because it is centrally located making it approachable and easily accessible to customers. “The Gateway Garden Building will offer a unique opportunity for businesses to occupy brand new Class A office space in a prominent location that boasts both excellent visibility along with convenient walkability to downtown’s core business, dining and entertainment district,” said Chris Palmer, advisor at SouthLand Commercial Real Estate. “The building will provide numerous amenities, including the highest quality construction and building materials, ample on-site parking and flexible size and build-out options to fit each tenant’s customized needs.” Construction will be complete during the first quarter of 2018.

Address: 200 BLK East Garden Street, Pensacola Price: $16.50–$18.50 SF/YR Square Feet: Available 2,000–38,349 Contact: Chris Palmer, Advisor, SouthLand Commercial Real Estate, (850) 434-7500, cpalmer@svn.com

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DEAL ESTATE Just Sold

COURTESY BERKSHIRE HATHAWAY HOMESERVICES PENFED REALTY

Bountiful Beachside Sale Costa Blanca condos sell before finish By Rebecca Padgett

A sale before completion is always an impressive feat. Royce Mitchell of Berkshire Hathaway HomeServices PenFed Realty, listed the Gulf-front condominiums of Costa Blanca and they were reserved within 30 days. Spanish for White Beach, Costa Blanca offers a private lifestyle on none other than the whitest of sands intimately attuned to the raw beauty of Scenic Highway 30A. The size of the 14 units range from 2,250 to 4,250 square feet, and the prices vary from $1.8 to $4.25 million. Buyers will enjoy coastal chic design influences to include exposed beams, limestone elements, quartz countertops and view-worthy floor to ceiling windows. Other amenities to indulge in are a Gulf-front

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pool, fitness center, welcoming lobby, personal storage units and underground parking. The complex is currently under vigorous construction with residents set to move in during the fall of 2017. “Costa Blanca is a property unlike any other along Scenic Highway 30A,” said Mitchell. “The exquisite, Gulf-front condominium has been thoughtfully designed to provide an unprecedented level of luxury and

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convenience directly on the beach. Evident from its quick sell out, Costa Blanca will be a timeless residence for a privileged few.”

Address: 4461 W. County Highway 30A, Santa Rosa Beach Sold Price: $1.8–$4.25 million Contact: Royce Mitchell, Berkshire Hathaway HomeServices PenFed Realty, (850) 737-0567

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works for us “I feel it really captures the pulse of the regional, national and international marketplace.”

Dustin Frost, Auxiliary Service Coordinator, TCC Conference and Events Department 850 Magazine advertiser since 2010

Tallahassee Community College’s Conference and Events Department made the decision to advertise with 850 Magazine because they felt the community was mostly unaware that TCC offered conference and events services. They could not think of a more effective way to get the word out than by advertising with a publication that is so respected, has ideal distribution numbers and whose readers are the exact people they are trying to reach.

The partnership between 850 Magazine and TCC Conference and Events Department has been ideal for promotion.

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I-10 CORRIDOR

Northern Escambia, Santa Rosa, Okaloosa + Walton Counties and Holmes, Washington, Calhoun, Jackson + Liberty Counties

Cooking with Art Smith Celebrity chef opens culinary school in Madison By Lazaro Aleman

C

hef Charles Arthur “Art” Smith has cooked for President Barack Obama, Oprah Winfrey and former Florida governors Bob Graham and Jeb Bush, among other VIPs, and he regularly kibitzes with stars and appears on television. That’s what one first hears about Smith.

Closely following is that he is an author, entrepreneur and restaurateur, with successful Southern-themed restaurants in key cities across Florida and several other states.

Lastly — and less known perhaps — is that he is a visionary, humanitarian and veritable Southern boy, with deep Florida roots and ideas of making a difference in the world, or at least of leaving a lasting impression on his small hometown of Jasper and the surrounding area.

A sixth-generation Floridian and Hamilton County native who started his cooking career at North Florida Community

A TASTE OF THE PAST The historic Wardlaw-Smith house, commonly known as the Smith Mansion, in Madison. Smith bought the 1860’s house, which was used as a Confederate hospital in the Civil War, last fall. He plans to turn it into the Chef Art Smith Southern Kitchen and Garden School.

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College (NFCC) in Madison and developed it at Florida State University before going on to earn fame and acclaim as a chef, Smith returned to Jasper in 2015, determined to spark an economic turnaround in the small hometown he couldn’t wait to escape as a child. He is in fact working with the Hamilton County Development Authority to convert a former jai alai building in Jasper into a commercial bakery that he sees as one day producing cakes and other baked goods for national distribution — a jobs-creating venture that he is pursuing with help from Walt Disney World executives and other influential and wellheeled individuals. Yet for all his impressive achievements, world travels and famous acquaintances, the 56-year-old Smith comes across as quite personable, down-to-earth and even down-home, if irrepressible and bubbling with ideas and enthusiasm.

It’s a Friday morning in August, and Smith takes time from dealing with the construction crew renovating the 1860-built antebellum Wardlaw-Smith Mansion in Madison to talk. The renovation is in preparation for the mansion’s imminent opening as a culinary school that Smith envisions producing chefs and bakers for the Jasper bakery and others of his many enterprises.

The school, Smith explains, is actually under the auspices of Reunion, a nonprofit organization he founded that aims to foster the renewal, restoration and rebirth of communities through educational programming. As Smith describes it, the school will offer two online programs, making them easily affordable and accessible to everyone.

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Equally important, he says, the virtual nature of the classes will allow for his and other experts’ participation, no matter their whereabouts or schedules. His role, aside from teaching, will be that of ringmaster, Smith says.

“It’s the kind of thing I do well because I can get people engaged,” he says.

One initiative, the Florida Garden to Kitchen School program, will consist of online lectures and food preparations by Smith and other chefs, the focus on growing and preparing one’s own food, preferably Florida-grown products.

“I’m not interested in teaching students how to use their knives; they should know how to use their knives when they come to me,” Smith says. “What I’m interested in is teaching them a more holistic way — about where food comes from and what goes into growing and preparing it.”

The second and complementary program, Conversations from Reunion, Smith likens to TED Talks. This will involve experts from different fields talking on such topics as the weather, water conservation, Florida’s algae problem and organic farming, and how these relate to food.

“I think these conversations can really bring people awareness,” Smith says.

Smith is big on conversations, which he believes can not only educate, enlighten and motivate people but also initiate new ways of thinking, modify behavior and ultimately lead to cultural and social progress.

“I love the idea of conversations,” he says.

“I’ve gotten more out of a lecture than weeks of classes. What conversations do is start other conversations. I love to support local businesses, for example. There again, you’re creating a conversation. You’re showing people the importance of being supportive of the local community; it’s as simple as that. When I came here and started working on this house, it started a conversation about Oprah’s personal chef. It’s all about engagement.”

Smith brims with ideas and plans for the mansion, which he wants to convert into a vibrant, functioning part of the community, not a museum piece. Besides the culinary school, he envisions having a backyard cafe,

and Madison + Taylor Counties

a library of great Southern literature, a technology incubator, an art exhibition room, and space for dinners and fundraising events. He even plans on having free-range chickens and an apiary in the backyard, to complement the herb/vegetable garden out front.

The ever-present challenge, however, is finding the time to do these things, given his extremely busy schedule. That schedule entails about two weeks of travel each month, as he goes about the country opening and monitoring restaurants, taping television shows, doing book signings and fulfilling numerous other charity and business-related obligations.

Photos by PHIL SEARS

Sometimes, Smith expresses a sense of wonder about his own doings.

“We’re opening a new place in New York City,” he says. “It’s going to be a Southern fried chicken place right in Grand Central Station. Who would have thought a kid from North Florida would be opening in the world’s busiest train station?”

His reason for the school in Madison, aside from the mansion’s availability, had to do with his attachment to the community.

“This is where it all started,” Smith says, recalling his student days at NFCC, where he started cooking.

He plans to limit the culinary school to 10 students at a time.

“I don’t want more than 10 because I want 10 prospective employees,” Smith says. “It’s not about quantity, it’s about quality.”

The classes will have no age limits, entry exams or tests per se. The only prerequisites are passion and self-motivation.

“It’s not about passing, it’s about whether they pass muster in terms of having enough chutzpah, enough passion, to want to do it,” Smith says.

The regime will entail working in the kitchen, the garden and even on a farm.

“It will be from the ground up,” Smith says.

“When you work in a restaurant, you start by washing dishes.

SERVING IT UP They need to know Chef Art Smith what it is to work and smiles while making Arepas (Venezuelan pay your dues.

Corn Cakes) in “This is what’s going the kitchen of his remodeled to happen,” he continVictorian farmhouse ues. “If they want it bad in Madison. enough, they’re going to show up here after watching the lectures and conversations and say, ‘I want to be a bigger part of it.’ Because the ultimate goal is for me to recognize them and for them to become part of my apprenticeship. I will then work more individually with them and put them in restaurants.”

Indeed, mentoring chefs is something Smith has done as a U.S. State Department chef diplomat, bringing students here from abroad, training them and finding them cooking jobs.

He therefore doesn’t doubt his ability to make the school successful.

“If I can open restaurants, write cookbooks, why can’t I open an educational program that many will want to be a part of?”

Smith asks.

He underscores the point by citing Common Thread, a nonprofit organization he founded in 2003 with philanthropist Charles Annenberg Weingarten that teaches low-income children how to cook healthy, affordable meals and emphasizes diversity and cultural tolerance.

“If we can do that, we can do this,” Smith says.

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107

BAY CORRIDOR

Panama City, Panama City Beach + Bay County

Grills on Wheels Father-son team refines the art of putting heat to meat By Steve Bornhoft

I

saac Holmes was content to work as the parts manager at the Century Boats plant at the former airport site in Panama City until he learned what a welder was making there.

“They had to get their checks from me and I peeked one time,” Holmes recalled.

Welders, who were responsible for fabricating building production jigs — forms over which large hulls were assembled — knocked down more money than anyone else in the operation, and Holmes understandably wanted ARTISAN AT WORK to join the fraternity.

Second-generation welder Kenny He did so, gaining what Holmes plies the would prove to be valutrade he learned from his father, able experience prior to Isaac. The elder the closing of the plant Holmes first placed a welder’s helmet on in 1989. his son’s head when The boat manufacthe boy was 14. For both men, grills on turer moved from its wheels have been airport location to a the centerpieces of their fabrication plant at the Industrial operations.

Park north of town on U.S. 231 — it, too, later was closed — and shifted its production from large boats to sportier runabouts. Jig makers no longer were needed and Holmes was laid off, but his skills as a welder ensured that he wouldn’t miss any meals. Holmes caught on as a maintenance man with Panama City-based Royal American, managers of apartment developments throughout the Southeast.

And he was inspired to launch a business of his own.

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Holmes was driving about town when he spied a barbecue grill on wheels at the intersection of Baldwin Road and East Avenue.

The grill had been accessorized with a pig’s curly tail at one end and ears at the other and was cylindrical in shape.

There are people who can play a song immediately upon hearing it. Holmes is one of those people who can fabricate something merely upon seeing it. Before he even pulled away from the intersection, he had visualized the grill that he would make. His would be octagonal in shape like the stop sign he found himself briefly staring at.

“I had to do it my own way,” he said. “I built myself one (with steel bent to his specifications by a local supplier), and I was dragging it behind my truck and a used car dealer, Roger Clemons, saw it and he had to have it right now. He wouldn’t wait for me to build him a new one, and I sold him the prototype.”

Holmes hadn’t spent a dime on advertising and didn’t have a price list or a business card, but his grill-making enterprise had begun to catch fire.

Before long, he would find that he was making grills for oyster bars, churches, banks and tailgaters. He made a customized grill for Tyndall Air Force Base with a miniature, heat resistant F-15 — fuselage, wings and pedestal — on top. For an engineering firm, he arrived at a grill/sink/water heater combination.

While with regard to the fire box, itself, Holmes held to the Henry Ford adage, “You can have it painted any color you want, as long as it’s black.” He added accent colors — such as garnet and gold — to handles and trailers.

Holmes moved from waiting on orders to having as many as 15 grills in inventory and had to have some help. He turned to his son, Kenny, then 14, and resolved to make him a welder.

“I’d put a helmet on him and hold his hands and help him guide the flame,” Holmes recalled with fondness. “And, actually, he learned pretty quick.”

Over time, Kenny became the chief welder and his father became the front man and foreman for Holmes Fabrication Co. “I had to watch him,” said Isaac, regarded

Photos by MICHAEL BOOINI

by Kenny as a perfectionist. “He’ll try to take short cuts, do what we call stitch (intermittent) welding. I like a continuous bead.

It holds up much better.”

Always, Holmes has been humble enough to adopt another griller’s good idea.

In its first year, Grills Gone Wild, a fundraising barbecue competition held then at Arnold High School in Panama City Beach, attracted a standout griller from Blountstown.

“He was a cop and he had the ugliest grill you ever saw,” Holmes said. “It was shaped like a train and had steel wheels, but it was built now, yessir, and it could hold the heat.”

The police officer swept the board at GGW and Holmes interrogated him until he succeeded in extracting a few secrets. In particular, Holmes was impressed with the smoker box on the back of the champion’s grill. Wood smoke flowed from the box into the body of the grill, flavoring the meat.

Holmes carried a mental picture of the smoker box home with him and has made it a feature of many of his grills ever since.

“I’ll use different kinds of wood — mesquite, apple, hickory — but for ribs, you gotta have pecan,” Holmes said. “Ain’t no two ways about it.”

Today, Kenny, at age 38, has inherited

READY TO ROLL Kenny Holmes, at right, displays a finished barbecue grill with Solomon Sims III, whom he regards as superior griller given his command of spices and sauces. Grills are customized to include options such as smoker boxes and gas lines, and you can get any color you want — as long as it’s black.

61-year-old Dad’s business and has renamed it H & S Fabrication. Grills that once sold for $1,300 now go for $2,900. But the two men have stayed close and are friendly rivals when it comes to grilling.

“Kenny is young and he talks a lot of noise,” Isaac says. “He forgets that I taught him everything he knows.”

Kenny dismisses the old man as a “fish fryer.”

“My dad is a better fisherman by far than I am and he can cook you up some bream or grouper or shrimp, but I’m the better griller,” said Kenny, who stresses that seasonings and marinades separate the best from the rest.

About this, however, father and son can agree: The mistake most grillers make is to cook their meat too fast over a grill that is too hot.

It’s best to approach grilling with something on your stomach — and then fill it even further with ribs or wings or steaks or a Boston butt cooked slowly over a fire that is just right.

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109

EMERALD COAST CORRIDOR

Coastal Escambia, Santa Rosa, Okaloosa + Walton Counties

Costa Enterprises Building a legacy, one franchise at a time

By Tabitha Yang

W

hen David Costa Sr. started operating his first McDonald’s franchise, he was working 16 to 17 hours a day and driving some of his employees, who didn’t have cars, back home after their shifts.

Those years were “pretty tough,” he recalls. “It was a real eye-opening experience.”

Fast-forward a few decades, and now he and his family own close to two dozen McDonalds’ franchises throughout Northwest Florida, thanks to their business savvy, creativity and a lot of good, old-fashioned hard work.

A Family Affair Formerly a contract negotiator for the U.S. Air Force, Costa, 61, had studied the McDonald’s business model while getting his MBA and liked what he saw. He got out of the military after 15 years and became an owner-operator, starting with just one store in Mobile, Alabama. Thanks to his excellent management skills, the corporation began offering him and his family more and more McDonald’s restaurants, and Costa Enterprises, which now has 21 stores to its name, was born.

While in college, David Costa Jr., now 35, decided he wanted to follow in his father’s footsteps and get involved in McDonald’s.

He now owns seven of the stores run by Costa Enterprises.

“It’s been a good way to work together with family,” David Costa Jr. says. “Obviously from time to time we’ll have occasional challenges, but we’re both very passionate about the business, and it works well because we complement each other’s assets.”

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David Costa Jr. handles the day-to-day operations, making sure things are running smoothly, while David Costa Sr. focuses more on the business development and marketing end of things.

David Costa Sr.’s daughter Amy and her husband, Steven Killebrew, have also joined the family business, and now own two of the Costa Enterprises McDonald’s locations. Amy Killebrew is involved with local store marketing and has helped with such endeavors as the Teacher Appreciation Card initiative, where every year Costa Enterprises sends a McDonald’s “credit card” to all the teachers (roughly 6,000) in the counties where their stores are located.

The card includes a note of thanks for the teachers’ work and entitles them to a free beverage any time they visit a McDonald’s restaurant, with no purchase necessary.

Amy says working with family enables

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her to have more flexibility now that she and Steven have three young children.

“I actually have … a chalkboard table in my office, where my kids will come and play and draw. My mom has a toy bin. It’s extremely family-friendly,” she remarks.

“And we all have lunch together in my mom’s office a lot of the time.”

David Costa Sr.’s wife, Helen, 61, who met her husband at age 13 when he moved in next door, is also an owner-operator and is responsible for the payroll.

“I enjoy the personal side of the business,” she says, “getting to know people, their journeys, where they’re going.”

Giving Back To help their community, the Costa family has developed several initiatives to give to local charities and people in need.

The largest of these is Café with a Cause,

PLAY PLACES David Costa Jr. takes pride in the creativity used to enhance play areas at two of his stores.

which began three years ago. Half of Costa Enterprises’ coffee proceeds every Monday of a given month is set aside for a designated charity, such as the Little Stars Foundation, which helps children with cancer. Last year, they gave away about $30,000 to various charities. They hope to eventually increase that amount to $100,000.

Tricia Brunson, president and CEO of the Niceville Valparaiso Chamber of Commerce, noted in an email interview that she has watched Costa Enterprises grow over the past 20 years and seen how the Costa family invests in local initiatives.

“David and Helen Costa apply high standards to their McDonald’s restaurants and it shows,” she wrote. “They have innovative ideas and put them into motion to support the community.”

The Costa family also gave a large gift to Northwest Florida State College so the school could build a facility to house the Costa Leadership Institute. The institute opened six years ago and provides ongoing training and networking opportunities for professionals in the area.

Rewards and Hurdles The biggest challenge of running the McDonald’s business, David Costa Jr. says, is

Helen Costa, Amy Killebrew, David Costa Sr., David Costa Jr. and Steven Killebrew

Photos by CHASE YAKABOSKI

finding reliable employees. To make their restaurants appealing places to work, the Costas pay their employees 40 percent above minimum wage and offer free Nissan Altimas or Nissan Rogues to general managers who have been employed for at least 90 days.

David Costa Sr. also came up with a gold medallion program, where at the end of their training, each employee is given a gold medallion they can bring to work and present to receive a free meal (rather than the customary 50 percent discount for employees).

Although holding on to qualified labor can be difficult, David Costa Sr. enjoys the opportunity to be creative. He recently redesigned the play area in their Bluewater Bay store with an aquatic theme, installing projectors that beam images of dolphins, fish and whales jumping and swimming onto the walls. This came after a jungle theme he had designed where animatronic jungle animals were installed in the play area. Both redesigns attracted more customers to the store, so Costa plans to implement similar changes in the coming months in his stores in Navarre and Panama City.

By the end of the year, all his stores will be equipped with kiosks where customers can place their orders, giving them the option to customize their sandwich and select the type of meat, bread (a sesame bun, artisan roll or lettuce wrap, for example) and condiments they want. Next year, the kiosk system will be spreading to most of the McDonald’s across Florida.

Costa is proud of the food his restaurants offer and says McDonald’s uses quality ingredients in everything it serves, including cage-free, hormone-free meat for its chicken nuggets and sandwiches.

Meanwhile, he has no plans to retire any time soon.

“I love what I do. I don’t consider what I do ‘work,’ ” he said.

In terms of advice for those looking to get into the quick-service restaurant industry, Costa says, “It has to be your passion.” He is typically in his stores six days a week, greeting employees and customers and making sure things are running smoothly.

Not one to boast about his success, he simply says, “We’ve been very blessed, that’s for sure.”

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111

FORGOTTEN COAST CORRIDOR

Gulf, Franklin + Wakulla Counties

Planking in Sopchoppy JT Studio has the sustainable floor for you By Jason Dehart

S

ome folks stand behind the quality of their product. But James Tinghitella could literally stand on his product to show the world how durable it is.

Tinghitella, owner of JT Studio, manufactures “wide plank” wood flooring and highend wood tables in a 7,800-square-foot factory in Sopchoppy. A graduate of Savannah College of Art and Design, Tinghitella worked as a fashion photographer in South Florida before switching career paths to take up woodworking, something he had been interested in as a kid. He has been in Sopchoppy for five years.

“I started woodshop when I was a little kid,” he said. “We had woodshop, I think it was in fifth grade, and we had a materials and processing class. It was like an experimental

SAND MAN James Tinghitella sands slabs of domestic and imported woods in his workshop, JT Studio. He finds joy in searching for exotic and beautiful lumber options.

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thing down in South Florida. My teacher taught us about plastics, taught us about woodworking, taught us how to work with glass, and he taught us how to work with all kinds of different mediums, but the woodworking medium really attracted me.”

During this time, Tinghitella learned how to do a man’s job when he was just a kid.

“It was dangerous, the stuff they had us doing, but I ran a big giant planer, I used to run a big radial saw, I ran the table saw, and that’s where I started my woodworking experience,” he said.

Tinghitella leans pretty heavily on that youthful experience today. The wooden planks he planes in his shop are massive. They measure between 13 and 20 inches in width and 10 feet in length.

He uses both domestically supplied wood and imported wood from such exotic locales as South America and Africa. He worked in the jungles of South America and set up fair-trade, sustainable forestry concessions.

Tinghitella can get rosewood, mahogany, American walnut, purpleheart from Central and South America, and African wenge (a type of ebony wood), among others.

“That’s what my expertise is. I’m a lumber buyer. I know where to go for what,” he said.

The use of wide plank flooring goes back hundreds of years to the days when every bit of a tree was used and not wasted. Resources were optimized, and when a tree was cut down, every plank was used, large or small.

“They didn’t cut it up into little strips,” Tinghitella said. “The little strip floor is

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GLOSSED OVER James Tinghitella worked for years to perfect the formula of his product Odie’s Oil. The secret?

Solids instead of solvents and zero harmful chemicals.

a recent development, from only in the last 100 years or since the Industrial Revolution. What I do is a lost art. In New England, some of the old houses there that are 300 years old, there are big giant floors.

If you go to St. Augustine, you might find some. Traveling in South America, I used to find old wide plank floors in old churches. Even in Tibet, you have these giant wood floors that are gorgeous. And they’re still there. Naysayers say you can’t do that, you can’t make a wide plank floor because it’s going to curl. No, it’s not. You just need to know how to handle the wood and buy the proper wood that’s dried properly.”

As a testament to his work, Tinghitella’s wide plank floors can be found all over the United States, from cold climates to humid climates, and JT Studios has never had a floor

COURTESY OF JT STUDIO

malfunction as a result of its particular manufacturing process. Not only are his products stable but they’re sustainable as well. He was one of the first entrepreneurs to organize and own a mahogany forest management plan that complied with the 2003 Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species of Wild Fauna and Flora (CITES) treaty.

“Everything we get is all certified sustainable. It’s all got papers and is regulated and all that,” he said.

Tinghitella actually runs two businesses out of the same shop. There is JT Studio, the manufacturer of tables and floors, but he also makes his own wood finish.

“We source the wood for you, we design the table, we finish the table, we make the finish for the table here, and everything is all natural and sustainable and done the proper way. And it’s built to last forever,” he said.

The finish is a proprietary, all-natural wood finish and protectant called “Odie’s Oil.” The formula is something he tinkered with for years before arriving at just the right thing that was free from harmful chemicals and solvents and yet could put a glossy shine on just about anything.

“It’s unlike any other finish on the market,” Tinghitella said. “The reason why is it’s 100 percent solids; 100 percent of the finish is the actual oil, the finish that stays there. Most other wood finishes on the market are 70 to 80 percent solvents, the chemical that thins it down. My product is 98 percent solids. You put it on and you work it in and then you buff it off just like a wax. And the cool thing about the wood finish is it works on plastic, works on leather and works on steel. We also make detailing products for cars, so you can do the dashboard on your car. Instead of

lasting two weeks like Armor All, it will last two years. And we make it right here.”

Tinghitella said that he had a much bigger company before the Great Recession. It forced him and his family to whittle things down a notch or two, but he’s still doing very well in the new location. Plans for 2017 call for building an air-conditioned showroom and office next to the existing factory.

“I used to have a 25,000-square-foot warehouse loaded with about $2 million worth of inventory all the time out in Oregon and California,” he said. “But when the economy died, we just kind of decided to slow down and take it easy, and we went where it was inexpensive. I grew up in South Florida, and I used to come up here in the summer and visit friends in Alligator Point. When we decided to shift gears, we decided to come back to Florida.”

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The Last Word There have been so many changes in the workplace since I had my first job. Technology has come so far (does anyone remember working on manual typewriters or rotary-dial phones?), attitudes toward women continue to evolve (resulting in a growing number of female CEOs), and there is growing recognition of attempts to relieve the pressures felt by workers who juggle jobs and small children while caring for aging adults.

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Becoming self-sufficient and independent is a major goal for Canning, who currently lives with his brother in Milton but is saving to get his own apartment.

“I want to work so I can pay for my own stuff. It also shows that I can live on my own,” he says.

Canning’s supervisor, Lynda Mistrot, applauds his accomplishments at work, pointing out his great attitude, his willingness to volunteer to do extra jobs and his attentiveness to the needs of customers.

“Sean works hard,” she says. “He is always available to help cover a needed shift in the evening. He is friendly and helpful with our customers, which is what we want from our employees.”

Here’s some food for thought: According to a 2003 study of Florida employers conducted by The Able Trust and Florida State University, the average cost of accommodation for employees with disabilities is $500 or less — but close to one-third of the businesses surveyed had no formal policy to recruit persons with disabilities. A national study found that after three years on the job, 76 percent of employees with disabilities continue to be employed and have received increases in salary and benefits.

It has been estimated that the lack of labor force participation by people with disabilities costs the nation’s economy $200 billion a year. So, while the month of October is set aside as Disability Employment Awareness Month, perhaps it behooves all businesses to think about it each month of the year.

COURTESY C&G VOCATIONAL SERVICES

Businesses should be proud of the changes that have come. But there is still one area where we’re lagging.

And that’s in the employment of those with disabilities. Nationally, a 2000 Harris poll found that 67 percent of unemployed people with disabilities want to work.

Florida is home to an estimated 2.4 million individuals with disabilities, giving the Sunshine State the third-highest disabled population in the country. Studies have shown that more than half those who employ the disabled report they are productive, dependable and capable of advancing in the workplace — yet, in Florida, only one-third of people with disabilities under the age of 18 are employed.

One of those individuals is Sean Canning, who is always happy to do the heavy lifting at the Home Depot in Pace (Santa Rosa County). He helps customers get bulky items into their cars and works as a store associate greeting people who enter the store, stocking the vending machines and keeping the place tidy. He’s even won an award for recognizing a safety hazard in the building.

Canning’s story was highlighted by the state’s Agency for Persons with Disabilities as part of National Disability Employment Awareness Month in October. The agency serves more than 50,000 Floridians with autism, cerebral palsy, spina bifida, intellectual disabilities, Down syndrome, Phelan-McDermid syndrome and Prader-Willi syndrome. The goal is to help people with developmental disabilities live, learn and work in their communities.

Canning works evenings and weekends because he is enrolled in the PALS program at Pensacola State College. The twoyear post-secondary program provides students with developmental disabilities an opportunity to go to college, learn new skills, explore careers, prepare for employment and ultimately gain more independence.

LINDA KLEINDIENST, EDITOR lkleindienst@rowlandpublishing.com

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FLORIDA FIRST SITES WELCOMES CAPE HORN Fabbro Marine, manufacturer of the world-renowned Cape Horn offshore boats, has broken ground on their new facility in Milton, Florida, becoming the first company to build on one of Gulf Power’s Florida First Sites.

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