2020 Escambia County Business Journal

DEAL ESTATE Just Listed

Excellent Opportunity to Lease Medical Space in Crestview THIS PROPERTY IS LOCATED JUST NORTH OF INTERSTATE 10 with excellent access to South Ferdon Boulevard. It is surrounded by a number of other medical facilities as well as the newly constructed 70-room assisted living facility. Other medical facilities in the immediate area include Sacred Heart Medical Group, Davita Dialysis, NOMC Surgery Center, 21st Century Oncology and Caring Hearts Pediatrics to name a few. It's truly a medical hotbed.

Listed Price: $18.50 per square foot per year Address: 332 Medcrest Drive, Crestview Square Footage: 7,326 Year Built: 2005

PHOTOS COURTESY OF BECK PARTNERS

Features: Approximately 7,326 square feet, potential to subdivide, abundant parking with covered ambulance awning, outstanding location, surrounded by a large number of other medical practices, tremendous access to Ferdon Boulevard and I-10.

Appeal: The building itself consists of five offices, 12 exam rooms, two waiting areas and two check-in counters. It’s movein ready for the user that can occupy the entire facility, but it would also be an easy subdivide.

Contact information: Amanda Harper, Beck Partners (850) 249-3640 aharper@teambeck.com

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Job training at Pensacola High School

PROCEEDING STRATEGICALLY FloridaWest has embarked on a five-year plan to diversify economy and boost wages BY STEVE BORNHOFT

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n 2014, when FloridaWest was established as the Pensacola area’s economic development organization, it worked to take advantage of the cyclical growth in business and industry that occurred as the nation rebounded from the Great Recession.

Today, FloridaWest is more intentional and targeted with its approach.

“Right now, our unemployment rate (2.9% in Escambia County at this writing) is as low it has ever been, and we have more job holders (143,377) than ever before,” noted Scott Luth, FloridaWest’s chief executive officer. “Things are good right now, but you can’t let up. We will be focusing on our workforce development issues and diversification strategies to prepare our area for the future.”

Those issues and strategies are identified in FloridaWest’s new five-year strategic plan.

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“We are out there knocking on doors, and we’ve opened up the third floor of our small business incubator — we’re growing our entrepreneurial community,” Luth said. “We have established strategic partnerships with the Studer Community Institute, the University of West Florida, Pensacola State College and the Pensacola Chamber of Commerce, and together we’re rolling out new mentoring programs.

“We are committed to growing our own, expanding existing businesses where we can and bringing in new employers.”

As to workforce development, the strategic plan commits FloridaWest to helping to bring about a highly trained workforce that is compatible with targeted industries and capable of attracting new employers while supporting existing industry.

Further, workforce development efforts, according to the plan, should help meet the skills-training needs of area residents.

Calculating those needs, Luth said, requires a baseline assessment of the local workforce and an understanding of what the jobs of the future will be and the skills, knowledge and experience they will require.

To those ends, FloridaWest is fortunate, said Luth, to be one of five economic development organizations nationwide who were selected to participate in the Inclusive Development Network (IDN), a project of the Chicago-based Council for Adult and Experiential Learning.

The initiative seeks to identify and implement strategies that reduce equity gaps in local workforce development. At this stage, FloridaWest is taking what Luth described as a deep statistical dive into the Pensacola area.

“We’re looking at populations within the community based on age, race, gender and education levels,” Luth said. “We’re looking at levels of educational attainment, which fields people are choosing and which jobs are susceptible to automation.”

The data collection phase will be followed by the formulation of strategies and related action items. Organizations including Achieve Escambia, Workforce EscaRosa and the Community Action Program Committee are participating in the project, which includes both Escambia and Santa Rosa counties.

In addition to Pensacola, the IDN selected Cleveland; Corpus Christi, Texas; Coweta,

PHOTOS COURTESY OF FLORIDAWEST

Oklahoma; and Spokane, Washington, for its inaugural group of participants. Thirty-five organizations applied.

“This program, as well as our own commitment over the coming years, will allow us to focus on making sure that all individuals in our community have the opportunity for success,” Luth said.

Communities receive a $60,000 dollar stipend to offset the costs of participation in the IDN. FloridaWest’s strategic plan details a program of work aimed at diversifying employment and increasing wages and per capita income. It focuses on two sectors: manufacturing/cyber and information technologies.

FloridaWest intends that over the five years covered by the plan, the effort will generate an average of 400 jobs per year for a total of 2,000 new jobs by 2023.

“THIS PROGRAM, AS WELL AS OUR OWN COMMITMENT OVER THE COMING YEARS, WILL ALLOW US TO FOCUS ON MAKING SURE THAT ALL INDIVIDUALS IN OUR COMMUNITY HAVE THE OPPORTUNITY FOR SUCCESS.” -SCOTT LUTH

FloridaWest looks to its “Live Coastal,Work Cyber” initiative to be a jobs generator.

“There is a lot of momentum behind that program right now,” Luth said. “It’s an initiative that has to be workforce-led. Many times, we bring a company in and we build a workforce around the company, but in this area we knew we needed to start with a workforce.”

Cybersecurity figures in career academies in the public K-12 school system and in degree programs at Pensacola State College and the University of West Florida.

“The cybersecurity center at UWF is receiving a lot of regional, state and national attention,” said Luth, who has closely monitored public-sector activity related to cybertechnology.

“We are seeing a very strong cluster of public-sector cyber develop here,” Luth said.

He cited expansion and growth at the Naval Center for Information Warfare Training’s Corry Station and at the Department of Homeland Security.

“Private-sector activity will follow,” Luth said. “This is, for us, a definite strategy and opportunity.”

FloridaWest, in emphasizing workforce development and other jobs-producing activities, recognizes that whales the size of ST Engineering Aerospace occur maybe once in an economic developer’s career, if at all.

ST Aerospace, based in Singapore, is the world’s largest commercial airframe maintenance, repair and overhaul service provider and, since 2018, has been in operation in a hangar at Pensacola International Airport. Luth and a cadre of others had pursued it for eight years.

“They are moving along and supporting their launch customer, United Parcel Service,” Luth said. “We have been in discussions with them regarding significant expansion and have received great support from the Triumph Gulf Coast board, the Governor’s Office, the City of Pensacola, Escambia County, Congressman Matt Gaetz and the federal Economic Development Administration.”

Contemplated is a $211 million expansion to included construction of three hangars and an administration building.

“We have conditional approval from all the funding sources and support from the company, so we are now going through the contracting negotiation stage,” Luth said late last year. “We anticipate that in four to five

years, whenever construction is complete, we will have 1,700 to 2,000 people working at ST Aerospace.

“All along Northwest Florida’s Gulf Coast and extending into Baldwin County, Alabama, good things are happening,” Luth said. “As the largest city and MSA in the area, we are happy to play a leadership role and to be one of the region’s greatest champions.”

STRATEGIC PLANNING Six planks make up the overall work program:

BUSINESS INCUBATOR Operate a business incubator (Co:Lab) to encourage entrepreneurship and create new businesses.

Five-year budget: $2,062,000

BUSINESS EXPANSION Encourage business expansion and expansion of existing industries.

Five-year budget: $1,158,000

BUSINESS DEVELOPMENT Attract new employers offering wages higher than the state average.

Five-year budget: $2,311,000

WORKFORCE DEVELOPMENT Provide support to help recruit and create a well-trained, diverse workforce that will appeal to targeted industries.

Five-year budget: $926,000

SITES AND BUILDINGS Work with the Pensacola-Escambia Development Commission to support and advocate for the development of high quality business parks and industrial sites.

Five-year budget: $864,000

ORGANIZATIONAL SUPPORT Pursue organizational strategies to secure the resources and partnerships needed to carry out the mission.

Five-year budget: $508,000

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Items generated using additive printers at Sea3D lab

F A NEW DIMENSION UWF embraces the vast possibilities presented by additive manufacturing

BY STEVE BORNHOFT

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or sea turtles of a modest size, they were such a drag.

Satellite tags, the same ones used for large marine mammals, including dolphins and whales, were enough to reduce the hydrodynamics of sea turtles, making it more difficult for them to swim.

And, from the standpoint of researchers, the tags presented additional problems. The tags, about the size of a deck of cards, have a limited battery life and stay attached to a turtle for only about three months. They are affixed to the shells of juvenile turtles, but as the animals grow, the tags fall off.

Two University of West Florida faculty members, marine biologist Dr. Susan Piacenza and her husband, Dr. Joseph Piacenza, a mechanical engineer, selected students Alexia Kenney and Niklolai Shields to design a better tag.

Their quest led the students to the Sea3D Additive Manufacturing Laboratory, which has been made part of the Hass Center at UWF. Taking

advantage of the scanning capacity available at the lab, Kenney and Shields created a durable, three-dimensional model of a turtle to be used in fluid dynamics studies and in an effort to find ways to use a turtle’s movements to extend battery life.

Dr. Nicole Gislason, at this writing the interim assistant director of the Haas Center with oversight responsibilities for the Sea3D lab, cited the sea turtle research as an example of the public service work it has been engaged in.

Too, the lab has manufactured a replica of an anchor from one of the vessels that a Spanish explorer, Adm. Don Tristan de Luna, left behind after arriving in Escambia Bay in 1559.

The original artifact, measuring 10 feet in length, is on display at the T.T. Wentworth Jr. Museum in the Historic Pensacola Village complex, while the knockoff, made of polylactic acid (cheap plastic) is housed on campus and is readily available for study by archaeology students.

PHOTOS BY STEPHEN VANCE AND MICHAEL SPOONEYBARGER/ DIVISION OF RESEARCH AND STRATEGIC INNOVATION COURTESY OF SEA3D ADDITIVE MANUFACTURING LABRORATORY (BORTHWICK, GISLASON)

In 2017, the Florida Legislature funded a UWF request for seed money to establish the lab. That one-time $351,000 appropriation was used to buy equipment and training computers and to upgrade the Museum of Commerce in downtown Pensacola, where the lab is housed.

The lab’s setting, then, makes for an odd juxtaposition. The Museum of Commerce is given to displays that depict Pensacola businesses as they existed 100 years ago. And there in their midst is a lab dedicated to studying and employing the world’s latest manufacturing technologies while serving as a community resource.

“I thought the museum might be a temporary home for the lab, but as soon as we moved in and got set up, I recognized the value of having a storefront for our research in downtown Pensacola,” Gislason said.

“We have a lot of tourists visiting the area, many of whom come from science backgrounds, who have an interest in Pensacola’s rich history. When they walk into the Museum of Commerce and find a research space related to additive manufacturing, it piques their curiosity. It adds another layer to the experience.”

Entrepreneurs involved in product development are finding the lab, too. They reimburse the lab for time and materials — the costs are modest, Gislason said — while students and faculty pay for materials, only.

Sea3D’s openness to visitors — Sea stands for science, engineering and art — is unique among labs at UWF. “Oftentimes, we have to close off labs on campus for safety reasons, and it is not often essential that a community member come in and utilize a lab,” Gislason said. “Sea3D is different.”

On Tuesdays, Sea3D hosts Open Build Night, which gives the general public an opportunity to learn about the hardware and software used in additive manufacturing.

The lab has one full-time employee, manager Murilo Basso, who was UWF’s top mechanical engineering graduate of 2018. He supervises several “innovation ambassadors” who assist visitors. Among the ambassadors are artists, engineers and MBA students.

“We want to put manufacturing on display, not only our own research, but manufacturing in general because it is an area of opportunity and, in my role as the leader of the Haas Center, I want to see that we have a diverse economy and that manufacturing continues to be a part of it,” Gislason said. “We want to demonstrate that manufacturing is no longer dirty. It’s not smokestacks. It’s very high tech,

and it is something that appeals to both men and women and to kids of all ages.”

Gislason said that throughout her 25 years at the Hass Center, her chief passion has been finding ways to accelerate business growth and enhance the region’s competitiveness.

“And I’m guilty of being partial to manufacturing,” she said.

It’s clear that she is cozying up to 3D printing.

“It requires not only a hard skill set, but artistic talent and creativity,” Gislason said.

“Ultimately, on a practical level, it abbreviates the supply chain in many instances. We had a maritime company visit us recently, and you can imagine what an advantage it would be to have shipboard 3D printers that could be used to replace parts as needed.”

Gislason said she believes that 3D printers will soon be a commonplace household item.

Already, some models are available at big box stores.

“These are not Easy-Bake ovens,” Gislason said. She advises people ready to invest in a printer to pay up and get one with a print bed that can be heated.

Gislason, herself, has met with some modest success as a beginning 3D printer, albeit one who completed a course in additive manufacturing at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) last summer. Her first design was a snowman with sunglasses.

It won Sea3D’s Christmas tree ornament contest.

“IT REQUIRES NOT ONLY A HARD SKILL SET, BUT ARTISTIC TALENT AND CREATIVITY.” -DR. NICOLE GISLASON

Technician Christopher Borthwick perfects a replica anchor at the Sea3D Additive Manufacturing Laboratory.

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PROMOTION PROMOTION

Escambia County Court House Escambia County Court House

THE PHOENIX WAY public facilities, industrial plants, public facilities, industrial plants, government facilities and historical government facilities and historical buildings in Florida, Alabama and buildings in Florida, Alabama and Mississippi. Recent Northwest Mississippi. Recent Northwest Florida restoration projects include Florida restoration projects include Maritime Park in Pensacola, Emerald Maritime Park in Pensacola, Emerald Grande in Destin, Navy Sea Systems Grande in Destin, Navy Sea Systems Command in Panama City Beach and Command in Panama City Beach and Pinnacle Port Vacation Rentals in Pinnacle Port Vacation Rentals in Panama City Beach.

Panama City Beach.

Many of their clients are repeat Many of their clients are repeat customers or have been referred by customers or have been referred by long-existing clients. long-existing clients.

“Our work and our repeat “Our work and our repeat customers are our best marketing customers are our best marketing tools,” said Atchison. “Everyone tools,” said Atchison. “Everyone on our staff and all of our clients on our staff and all of our clients know that we do things the Phoenix know that we do things the Phoenix way, which includes quality service, way, which includes quality service, durability and cost-effectiveness.” durability and cost-effectiveness.”

The Atchisons credit their staff as The Atchisons credit their staff as their greatest asset and contribution to their greatest asset and contribution to three decades of success. They believe three decades of success. They believe that providing a safe, friendly and that providing a safe, friendly and gainful work environment benefits gainful work environment benefits their employees, many of whom have their employees, many of whom have been with the company from the start. been with the company from the start.

“Our goal is to keep people “Our goal is to keep people employed in our local economy and employed in our local economy and provide quality products to our clients,” provide quality products to our clients,” said Atchison. “Tourism is the driving said Atchison. “Tourism is the driving engine to this market, and facilities engine to this market, and facilities must be maintained to the highest must be maintained to the highest degree. That’s what we intend to do degree. That’s what we intend to do with each project.” with each project.”

PHOENIX Industrial Court, Pensacola | (850) 857-4740 | PhoenixPensacola.com PHOENIX COATINGS COATINGS 900 900 Industrial Court, Pensacola | (850) 857-4740 | PhoenixPensacola.com 42

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PHOTO PHOTO COURTESY COURTESY OFOF MISSY MISSY KIMBROUGH KIMBROUGH

A

phoenix is a powerful bird that phoenix is a powerful bird that rises from the ashes revitalized rises from the ashes revitalized with strength and renewed with strength and renewed with perseverance. As a structural with perseverance. As a structural restoration company, Phoenix restoration company, Phoenix Coatings strives for each project to Coatings strives for each project to transform into a structure that is transform into a structure that is more durable, more efficient and more more durable, more efficient and more beautiful than before. beautiful than before.

George Atchison and wife Louise George Atchison and wife Louise opened the company in 1988. opened the company in 1988.

Building was in his blood as both of Building was in his blood as both of his grandfathers and his father were his grandfathers and his father were in the construction business. After in the construction business. After serving seven years in the Marines, he serving seven years in the Marines, he sought the work his life was rooted in sought the work his life was rooted in — building and restoration.

— building and restoration.

Today, he fulfills many roles — Today, he fulfills many roles — founder, owner, president, qualifier, founder, owner, president, qualifier, license holder and general contractor, license holder and general contractor, to name a few — alongside his to name a few — alongside his partner in business and life, Louise, partner in business and life, Louise, who is madam chairman of the who is madam chairman of the board, co-founder and owner. board, co-founder and owner.

As a structural restoration As a structural restoration company, their focus is on existing company, their focus is on existing facilities, including industrial sites, facilities, including industrial sites,

workforce manufacturing red tape experience zoning connection location implementatio liason permitting aviation skill population aviation incentives development expediting water sit selection access trained personnel gas acreage ownership logistics workforce red tape locatio industry transportation electricity results certification labor water distribution manufacturin zoning connection location experience logistics implementation telecom liason tax developmen permitting skill incentives population transportation development expediting access site selectio access trained certification gas acreage owner water site selection access training pers`onnel result industry owner logistics location distribution red tape acreage electricity aviation transportatio results implementation workforce manufacturing zoning connection certification industr location distribution electricity certification results workforce manufacturing experience zonin connection site selection red tape industry skill transportation electricity results developmen

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Escambia County Business Journal S P E CI A L R EPO R T

SMALL F FIRM, MONSTER CLIENT

Pensacola architect is grateful for his relationship with the St. Joe Company

BY STEVE BORNHOFT

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rank Daughtry has an old college chum to thank for uniting his small Pensacola architectural firm with the colossal place-builder, the St. Joe Company, in projects including a 130,000-square-foot spec building in Bay County.

Daughtry and Kyle Walker have been the best of friends since they attended Auburn University together in the 1970s. Decades later, Walker was working for White Construction when the St. Joe Company identified the contractor as a candidate to construct what would become the first building in the VentureCrossings commerce park near the Northwest Florida Beaches International Airport.

Walker suggested to his bosses that White team up with Daughtry and collaborate on a design/build proposal. They did, and together the architect and the contractor pitched St. Joe — successfully.

Daughtry, White and St. Joe combined to bring about a 105,000-square-foot facility that was first occupied by Exelis ITT, a defense contractor that produced minesweeping sleds. Exelis commenced operations at

VentureCrossings in 2012 and the triad has been building buildings ever since — notably a spec building at the commerce park and a building in Panama City Beach that will house St. Joe’s corporate offices.

St. Joe CEO Jorge Gonzalez maintains a watchful eye over the company’s projects, but Daughtry works more closely with Dan Velazquez, the vice president for asset management, and project manager Ben Moorman.

“I cannot say enough good things about St. Joe,” Daughtry said. “You work with developers over the course of your life and you discover that half of these guys will steal from you or lead you along and leave you holding the bag. But St. Joe is a stand-up company. We have had nothing but good experiences with them.”

Daughtry grew up outside of Hartford, Alabama, a small farming community located about 20 miles southwest of Dothan. His father grew peanuts and cotton and bought and sold livestock in a small way. Daughtry drove his cow truck from time to time.

After graduating from Auburn, Daughtry

PHOTOS BY BLAKE JONES

Left to right: Connie Formby, Scott Dean, Frank Daughtry, Kathren Simmons and John Schang

went to work for the Atlanta architectural firm of Toombs, Amisano & Wells before earning a master’s degree at the University of Pennsylvania.

Architects weren’t hiring when Daughtry exited Penn. The 1979 oil crisis precipitated by the Iranian Revolution had disrupted economies around the world, and Daughtry caught on instead with an interior design firm in Manhattan.

“I tell people that I have lived in one of the most rural and one of the most urban settings in the world,” Daughtry said.

As the ’80s started to roar, Daughtry hung out a shingle, establishing Frank Daughtry Architect PL in New York City in 1982. A claim to fame, he said, was working on five floors in the so-called Lipstick Building, which was designed by Philip Johnson and John Burgee and developed by Gerald Hines, who would become a major client of Daughtry. The building housed the offices of notorious Ponzi schemer Bernie Madoff.

“New York City in the ’80s was like the Wild West,” Daughtry said. “There were a lot of people personally making more money than some banana republics.”

Daughtry exited the fast lane, moving from New York to Pensacola in 1991 and quickly picking up Department of Defense contracts.

Such work has helped sustain his business through economic downturns including the Great Recession of 2008.

Daughtry has designed U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service offices on Big Pine Key and at the Arthur R. Marshall National Wildlife Refuge near Boynton Beach. At present, he is working on a 252-foot pedestrian bridge that will link a parking garage to a hospital at the James H. Quillen VA Healthcare System in Mountain Home, Tennessee.

Construction of the parking garage was itself a challenge. In pouring foundation pilings for the structure, contractors encountered numerous large voids that had to be filled.

“We were rebuilding the mountain,” Daughtry said.

The bridge, he said, is a “tour de force.” The project required huge trusses at either end, and a section of the bridge as it approaches the hospital is being cantilevered to avoid the need to tie it into the hospital.

At 66, Daughtry has begun to think about preparing a succession plan for his business.

He employs six people, including one other licensed architect.

“I operate like a general contractor,” he said. “You have to delegate and rely on other people. My staff is wonderful, and my hat is completely off to them. I am the traffic director herding everyone together.”

The herd can include a cast of subcontractor engineers: structural, mechanical, electrical, life safety and civil. Most are from Pensacola.

The Beckrich Office Park on Richard Jackson Boulevard in Panama City Beach includes three office buildings. The third, under construction at this writing, will be home to St. Joe’s corporate offices.

“We took the layout for the previous two buildings and modified it at St. Joe’s direction,” Daughtry said. “The exterior looks similar, but once you get inside, everything starts to change.”

Finishes are upgraded. Ceilings are recessed and feature indirect lighting. A glass staircase is “cantilevered out from four

massive columns buried in the wall and really appears to float like it is not supported by anything,” Daughtry said. “I hope people won’t be afraid to take the stairs.”

All of the St. Joe projects that Daughtry has worked on have been built using tilt-up construction. First, the floor slab is poured and walls are then poured into forms that are placed on the floor.

“They tilt up the walls and, in 48 hours, you’ll go from just a slab to a full box,” Daughtry said. “It’s not like a concrete block building where each block is individually stacked.”

The speed of construction notwithstanding, the St. Joe projects are built to last.

“These are 100-year buildings or better,” Daughtry said. “They aren’t going to blow down or wash away. They are substantial, and that’s a St. Joe hallmark. They always deliver a quality product, and that’s what people come to them for.”

Frank Daughtry, left, and his team inspect plans.

The firm’s clients include the St. Joe company.

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CONTEMPORARY FEAR Small and medium businesses now see data breaches as more damaging than other disasters BY STEVE BORNHOFT

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AppRiver, founded in 2002, was one of Microsoft’s original syndication partners for Office 365.

“We provide our partners with the Microsoft mail service,” Wagner said, “and then layer on top of it advanced threat protection, phishing scheme protection and solutions that meet archival requirements and requirements for the safeguarding of personal information.”

Financial institutions account for about half of the archival needs addressed by AppRiver, but, Wagner said, the transparency mandated of government agencies increasingly will lead to more work in that area.

In addition to email, AppRiver archives activity on some 50 different communication channels, including video and messages delivered via platforms ranging from the familiar, such as Facebook and Pinterest, to the likes of Bupa and Flock.

“Social media are an important part of keeping in touch with customers,” Wagner said.

“Businesses want to sell, customers want to buy and customers are moving to social platforms.

We have to be there and, as we go there, we have to understand the risks that come with increasing your attack footprint with your social media presence.”

Wagner advises businesses to provide employees with specific guidelines about posting and to educate themselves about phishing attacks and compromise attacks.

For Wagner, Zix’s move to enlarge its footprint by purchasing AppRiver made abundant sense.

“I couldn’t be more pleased about joining the Pensacola community, which truly has made a commitment to cybersecurity,” Wagner said. “The underlying investment in defense in this area brings a lot of talent and resources to town. Dovetail that with UWF, Pensacola State College and the work that Eman El-Sheikh is doing at the Center for Cybersecurity, and then add AppRiver, and you have a strong cybersecurity presence.

I am even more excited about the future of what we can do in this area.”

AppRiver, Wagner predicted, will eventually double the number of its employees from 250 to 500. At present, he said, it is growing

David Wagner, CEO

PHOTOS COURTESY OF APPRIVER

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any small businesses that would not be without a staff accountant or an attorney on retainer choose to try to get along without a human resources director or consultant. This, despite a general awareness that people issues can be messy and costly.

They may effectively reason that HR is not a problem until it occurs.

In like fashion, said Dave Wagner, the CEO of Zix, a Dallas-based email security firm, new and small businesses often fail to consider their assets, identify the cybersecurity risks associated with them and then mitigate those risks by establishing a relationship with a managed security provider.

Zix doubled its size in February 2019 with its acquisition of AppRiver in Pensacola.

Wagner said AppRiver’s marketing director, Jim McClellan, along with Eman El-Sheikh, director of the Center for Cybersecurity at the University of West Florida, regularly survey businesses across the country and consistently arrive at the same finding: Businesses are concerned about risks to cybersecurity that they know are real, but they do not recognize that they are so complex as to require outsourcing of risk management.

“We are up against cybercriminals of all kinds,” Wagner said. “The state-sponsored actors that you read about in the news are highly sophisticated about exposing vulnerabilities.

We encourage everyone to move their services to the cloud and take advantage of Microsoft Office 365 security solutions.”

revenue by 50 percent per year. In total, Zix employs more than 560 people.

“Pensacola is a place where we have enjoyed great success in hiring talented employees with a real commitment to the company’s mission, to providing security and customer service,” Wagner enthused.

In doing its due diligence about AppRiver, Zix was impressed by its net promoter score, a measure of overall satisfaction with the company, arrived at by subtracting the percentage of the company’s detractors from the percentage of people who would recommend it to others.

AppRiver’s score was 78.

“That was Apple’s score when they were doing their best,” Wagner said. “It’s a world-class score, and it is delivered by the people here and how they interact with customers all over the country and the world. Their commitment to mission and purpose and to each other will differentiate us in years to come and allow us to continue to grow.”

In the second half of 2019, AppRiver added a team of outside salespeople who jet about the country, meeting with “partners,” as the company prefers to call its customers. It hires graduates of UWF and Pensacola State College

and otherwise from leading universities in the South and beyond.

Wagner is recognized as an IT industry leader. After the 2013 data breach at Target Corp. that exposed credit card and personal data on more than 110 million consumers, he testified before the Energy and Commerce Committee in the U.S. Senate.

There, he described the “asymmetric” relationship between big technology companies and consumers in which the Apples and Facebooks of the world have “all the power.”

“I am not a huge fan of government regulation, but in this case, because the asymmetry is so dramatic, we need some protection for individuals to bring about some balance,” Wagner said.

“There are rules in Europe, and we are moving forward in the United States with California being the first to adopt the kind of regulation that puts some control back in the hands of individuals.”

Europe’s General Data Protection Regulation was designed to give consumers a greater say about their data and to provide them with legal avenues for holding companies accountable. GDPR requires that

companies ask users to opt in before their data can be processed by third parties.

But “the rules are relatively loose when it comes to metadata,” writes Canadian journalist Brian Barth. “Even if the contents of a phone call are protected, the time of the call or the parties involved may not be.”

Bottom line: Regulations are not about to obviate concerns about privacy or the activity of cybercriminals — or the need for firms like AppRiver.

AppRiver employees work to secure client email systems.

WHICH OF THE FOLLOWING EVENTS DO YOU FEAR WOULD BE THE MOST DETRIMENTAL TO YOUR BUSINESS? Source: U.S. Small Business Administration

All SMBs 1-250 employees

Large SMBs 100-250 employees

Business Services, Consulting

Financial Services, Insurance

Health Care, Pharma

Legal Services

Tech

Transport, Logistics

Marketing, Media

Office Fire

28%

17%

13%

17%

25%

16%

23%

14%

24%

Office Flood

5%

6%

3%

4%

3%

0%

7%

3%

5%

Office Theft

7%

9%

5%

2%

5%

16%

9%

10%

5%

Transit Strike or City-wide Road Closure

2%

2%

4%

2%

0%

0%

4%

14%

0%

Security Breach of Clients’ Records

58%

66%

74%

76%

67%

68%

57%

59%

67%

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PROMOTION

Next School Superintendent Must Be a Courageous Problem Solver With a Record of Success

By Justin Beck, CCIM, CPM, & Beck Partners CEO, Greater Pensacola Chamber of Commerce Board President

T

he Escambia County School Board will make a decision this year that will greatly impact every aspect of our community when they select our first appointed school superintendent. The choice of our next superintendent will not only impact the children served by our public school system but will also signal what type of community we want in the coming decades. The importance of this decision cannot be overstated.

As a part of the selection process, the Greater Pensacola Chamber of Commerce Board of Directors recently participated in a focus group session, similar to those held throughout the community, where we were able to provide our input on the types of characteristics and qualifications that an ideal superintendent would possess.

In those discussions, board members identified some key characteristics that our next school board superintendent should own.

One attribute that Chamber board members repeatedly stated that our next superintendent needs is the BECK PARTNERS 48

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courage to bring bold, new solutions to the challenges facing our K–12 public education system. While our high school graduation rate has increased dramatically over the past decade, there are still pockets in our community that have not experienced the same gains.

To narrow the achievement gap and provide opportunities for students in those communities, it will take someone willing to implement new approaches until substantial progress is made throughout the district.

Our next school superintendent must also develop strategies that will prepare the workforce of the future. We live in a rapidly changing world where many of the jobs of tomorrow do not exist today. To make Escambia County the best place for businesses to grow and thrive, we must be able to create and attract the talent to fill these jobs and attract new businesses. We need a superintendent that has a proven record of success in addressing this essential issue if we are to remain competitive with other communities in maintaining and attracting talent.

A final quality that Chamber board members repeatedly mentioned they want to see in our next superintendent is someone who is a true bridge-builder and connector, someone willing to work with our entire community to address our public education needs. We are blessed to live in a diverse community with an engaged population that wants the best for Escambia County. Our next school superintendent must be willing to reach out and work with all constituencies — including our minority communities, our military, higher education and our business community — so we can collectively address our educational needs.

We thank outgoing superintendent Malcolm Thomas for his decades of service to our public schools and the leadership displayed in dramatically improving the graduation rate in Escambia County. Now it is time for our school board to take the next step and appoint a forward-looking superintendent with the will to implement strategies needed to address the educational challenges of the coming decade.

151 W. MAIN ST., SUITE 200, PENSACOLA | MOBILE | TALLAHASSEE | JACKSONVILLE | (850) 477-7044 | TEAMBECK.COM

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Escambia County Business Journal S P E CI A L R EPO R T

IMPACT’S IMPACT Philanthropic group of women helps nonprofits fulfill their missions

BY HANNAH BURKE

T

he Health and Hope Clinic is bringing supplies, emergency response training and a public education program to Santa Rosa and Escambia counties in an effort to combat the opioid epidemic and save lives.

Pensacola’s First City Art Center is expanding its Youth Art Program building to accommodate new classrooms and a technology center.

Manna Food Pantries is installing a generator that will prevent the loss of hundreds of thousands of pounds of food in the event of power outages.

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While they are diverse, these projects have the fact that 100% of its $1,000 membership something in common. All have been made fees goes toward funding the program activities possible by the generosity of the 1,006 women of nonprofits not administrative expenses. In who make up IMPACT 100 Pensacola that way, grants, in amounts of $100,000 or Bay Area Inc., a philanthropic organization more, benefit sustainable projects that further devoted to awarding transformative grants the organizations’ missions. to nonprofit organizations in Escambia and IMPACT receives grant applications in the Santa Rosa counties. spring. The criteria are simple: A qualifying The IMPACT idea was born in 2003 nonprofit must be a locally sourced 501(c) when 100 women in Cincinnati, Ohio, each (3) organization registered with the Florida donated $1,000 toward a $100,000 communal Department of Agriculture and Consumer grant. Pensacola Bay Area Services; must show proof IMPACT 100 was founded of filing an annual report in 2004 by 233 women and to the Florida Department “IMPACT today is the largest IMPACT of State; and must submit a DEMONSTRATES organization in the world. letter of intent.

As of late 2019, it had “The letter of intent is an THE POWER OF bestowed 109 grants to 78 opportunity to furnish us COLLECTIVE nonprofits. with the project’s specifics,” GIVING.” “IMPACT demonstrates said Brooks. “When will -BRIGETTE BROOKS the power of collective it commence? What’s the giving,” said Pensacola budget? What is the need Bay Area IMPACT 100 in the community for this president Brigette Brooks. “Pensacola is a project, and how will it sustain that fulfillment?” small community, but it is not without its IMPACT 100 grant review comittees relate poverty and socioeconomic challenges. We to five areas of focus: arts and culture; education; have been fortunate to grow our membership environment; recreation and preservation; and every year since our founding, and it’s those family and health/wellness. numbers that determine how many grants we “Some may argue that there is a greater can afford to award.” need in health and wellness than there is for IMPACT’s success, Brooks said, stems from arts and culture,” said Brooks. “But we believe

PHOTOS COURTESY OF IMPACT 100

IMPACT 100 Pensacola Bay Area’s membership grew to 1,166 women in 2019, a number worthy of celebration.

F R A N K D A U G H T R Y President Brigette Brooks and President Elect Roz Leahy (far right) present a ceremonial check to a 2019 grant recipient, Healing Paws for Warriors.

an investment in all five areas is what creates a balanced, wellrounded community.”

Review committees assess applications, conduct site visits and select three finalists.

For disappointed applicants, IMPACT provides a “wish list” on its website, allowing nonprofits to submit requests for specific items or volunteers. By monitoring wishes, Brooks said, IMPACT members become aware of a range of initiatives.

“This sometimes leads to us losing members because these women fall in love and go on to become major contributors or members of these other organizations’ boards,” laughed Brooks, “but that’s the impact of IMPACT, and I love that.”

At IMPACT’s annual meeting, finalists make 5-minute presentations about their projects and the effect they would have on the areas and people served. Brooks said about 400 women participate in final voting.

“We are one woman, one vote,” said Brooks. “We are very devoted to, from an integrity standpoint, ensuring every part of this process is vetted.”

Elections offices personnel from Escambia and Santa Rosa counties provide voting machines and report the results.

Last year, IMPACT contributed a total of $1,166,000 to 11 beneficiaries.

“To see someone’s $1,000 transform into $1 million is amazing,” Brooks said. “Our membership is very diverse, ranging from the woman who can easily write a check to those who put back a little bit each month to do their part. For the woman who maybe doesn’t have the time to be as involved in her community as she’d like, she can feel comfortable knowing her money has been well invested.”

IMPACT board liaisons are assigned to each recipient organization. They monitor progress and ensure that grant money is expended in accordance with applications.

The more evident Impact’s influence on communities becomes, the more its membership rolls grow.

“I can still remember when I first heard IMPACT’s president at the time being interviewed on a local radio station,” Brooks said. “And that moment has led me to a wonderful group of like-minded, philanthropic women. What we do is a labor of love, and the generosity it spurs consistently amazes me.”

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Escambia County Business Journal S P E CI A L R EPO R T

PHOTOS BY BLAKE JONES (ROTHFEDER) AND COURTESY OF STUDER PROPERTIES

Southtowne, the largest apartment project in Pensacola history, spurred the revitalization of downtown by adding an attractive residential component to what the core city has to offer.

QUALITY OF PLACE To secure talent, first create a highly desirable place to live

BY STEVE BORNHOFT

I

n his book, Building a Vibrant Community, Quint Studer, a Pensacola businessman and founder of the Studer Community Institute, recounts a meeting with Jim Clifton, the chairman and CEO of Gallup, an organization best known for its public opinion research.

Clifton mentioned to Studer that Gallup had conducted a study aimed at discovering why some cities thrive and others do not.

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Among factors accounting for municipal success, Gallup identified a vibrant downtown as highly important.

“And a big takeaway from this meeting was that four elements are needed to create a vibrant downtown,” Studer writes.

They are, Clifton relayed: P rogramming (events and gatherings) that attracts people downtown on a regular basis.

R etail and entertainment options.

O ffice space options.

Diverse

residential options.

Regarding the latter, Studer notes, “If there is not a stable residential foundation downtown, the community gets very dependent on the state of the economy. When the economy gets tough, non-residents stop coming to bars and restaurants. This is less likely to happen if they live nearby.”

“Today, all of greater Pensacola is celebrating the vibrancy of our downtown,” said Andrew Rothfeder, the CEO of Studer Properties. “But

Andrew Rothfeder, the CEO of Studer Properties

nine years ago, our downtown was not what it is Pensacola, “work” and “play” were decent, but “live” was nonexistent despite market research today, despite a lot of entrepreneurs who came data and anecdotes from the road that pointed before us and did a lot of great stuff to try to to a strong appetite among people for living make it better. Sometimes, the moon and stars near the center of town. just don’t align, so we Studer Properties started to do a bunch of conducted more market homework and visiting research and discovered other cities.”

“WE HAD A a demand for downThat is, Studer FORMULA MADE town housing across a Properties, for a time, UP OF THREE spectrum that included became an anthropoall income levels and logical research team, COMPONENTS: types of housing — for searching for the secret LIVE, WORK AND rent, for sale, townhosauce that enabled PLAY. THEY ALL mes, single family, consome Southern downSUPPORT EACH dos, apartments. towns to rebound and The fattest part of succeed while others OTHER, AND YOU that demand, Rothfeder continue to deteriorate.

HAVE TO HAVE found, was for The team visited cities ALL THREE. multi-family, mixedincluding Charleston IT’S A THREEuse development. and Greenville in South “Downtown apartCarolina; Asheville, LEGGED STOOL.” ment buildings were North Carolina; and -ANDREW ROTHFEDER what was most needed St. Petersburg, Florida. to raise the quality of “For thousands of life and lift the residenyears, we all lived in tial leg of the stool,” Rothfeder said. “Then the close, tight clusters,” Rothfeder said, almost challenge became, if it’s so obvious, how come as if reciting the opening line in a dissertation. no one has done it?”

“We lived around the city center where all the The short answer: It was hard to make the commercial activity took place. The markets numbers work. and residences were separated by just a few feet.

“The cost to build a large apartment comThen we invented this thing called a car, and it plex with a parking garage downtown, given changed everything.

“Throughout the South, downtowns died as we suburbanized.”

A clubhouse is among the For generations, idle Schwinns rusted in amenities at the Southtowne dusty garage corners. The car, as a conveyance, apartments in Pensacola. was king. Of late, however, baby boomers have relinquished the driver’s seat to millennials.

“If you are raising kids, you are probably OK living in the suburbs,” Rothfeder said. “You want a house with a yard near the mall and the schools and the soccer fields. But millennials are saying, ‘This is not the way we want to live; we don’t want to live in our cars.’ Today’s younger generation — and the data is there — want to live in a walkable, vibrant downtown where they don’t have to rely on automobiles.”

The Studer anthropologists processed the lessons they learned and asked themselves what role they might play in revitalizing Pensacola.

“We felt like we now had the recipe,” Rothfeder said. “We had a formula made up of three components: live, work and play.

They all support each other, and you have to have all three. It’s a three-legged stool.”

The Studer team deemed that, in downtown

the established market rents, was very risky,” Rothfeder said.

The result, he said, was that many business people kept to the sidelines waiting for someone to assume that risk and make a big, bold first move. In cities visited by the Studer team, a family or an individual, typically with multi-generational ties to their community, had emerged as a pioneer. And because they were wealthy, they could proceed without profit being a necessary or their principal motive.

In Pensacola, Rishy and Quint Studer would lead the revitalization charge. Personally, they didn’t have generations of history in Pensacola, but they had resources.

So it was that Studer Properties, on four acres obtained from the Pensacola News Journal, undertook the development of Southtowne, a project that would become the largest residential project ever built in Pensacola at $58 million and 258 apartment units.

“We don’t view the business that we are in as the real estate development business,” Rothfeder said. “We see it as the community development business, and building buildings is just a tactic in pursuit of the vision of making Pensacola the greatest city in the world.”

Southtowne has been an unqualified success.

Two years ago, Studer Properties pre-leased all units. Today, when a unit becomes available, it remains on the market for an average of 22 minutes. Rather like trying to reserve a court at a popular tennis club.

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“A walkable, safe, stimulating downtown is important.”

Studer Properties isn’t resting on Southtowne laurels and plaudits, far from it.

In the Belmont-DeVilliers neighborhood of Pensacola, the historic center of the city’s African American community and a one-time stop on a Southern blues trail, the Chitlin’ Circuit, Studer Properties has completed two projects and is at work on a third. Savoy Place, like Southtowne, is a residential-over-restaurant/retail development, and it will include 24 apartments.

“There is tremendous, authentic history there,” Rothfeder said. “And, you can’t fake that kind of character anymore, not in the era of the Internet. Belmont-Devilliers is a hip, up-andcoming neighborhood. You can’t find a parking place there after 9 o’clock at night.”

Studer Properties also has acquired a 19acre waterfront parcel that was home to a wastewater treatment plant until 15 years ago when Hurricane Ivan walloped the facility. The acreage is located just two blocks west of downtown’s chief north-south artery, Palafox Street.

“We are working with the city on how best to develop the property, and we have solicited input from the community,” Rothfeder said.

“This is big. It is going to be Pensacola’s next mixed-use neighborhood of real consequence.”

Studer Properties has retained as a project partner DPZ, a placemaker out of Miami that shaped the development of Seaside, Rosemary Beach and Alys Beach in Walton County.

“Capital follows talent, but talent follows place, and that’s a relatively new dynamic,” Rothfeder said. “It used to be that young people entering the workforce went where they could find a job. Now, they go to where they want to live and figure they will find a job when they get there. They are deciding where to live based on quality of life.”

So it is that Studer Properties is focused on talent.

“Smaller cities all need to get the work-playlive playbook and figure that out,” Rothfeder said. “At Studer Properties, we are always working to determine what we can do — be it properties, leadership development, philanthropy, retail, entertainment, entrepreneurial institutes — to make Pensacola a place where talented people want to live and start a business.”

Not long ago a researcher seeking secret sauce, Rothfeder now finds himself fielding calls from other cities curious to learn about the keys to Pensacola’s recent success.

“Our phone is ringing,” Rothfeder said. “At first, I was like, ‘You want to know how we

did it?’ The interest from other cities is blowing my head off.”

Downtown living is among 10 cornerstone ideas that undergird a strategic vision for historic downtown Panama City and its waterfront, prepared by Dover, Kohl & Partners.

Associated concepts, much like those at play in Pensacola, are: The active downtown has a mix of uses that draws and supports a residential community.

Downtown offers many types of housing (apartments, accessory units, cottages, townhouses) for students, seniors, all ages.

Investigation of potential for uses that support residents — grocery, pharmacy, etc. — is warranted.

The vision document stresses that new housing construction is a critical element in Panama City’s recovery from Hurricane Michael.

“With appropriate zoning changes and utilization of opportunity sites, downtown can provide suitable sites for new construction,” the report notes. “A larger downtown residential population is needed to support area businesses and provide 24-hour activity.

“Planned public improvements and safety/ security upgrades will give people the confidence to live downtown. The return of more people downtown can then make viable the return of businesses that can support them. There are many opportunity sites that can support future development, and a primary focus of these sites should be housing. There is capacity to add a lot of development to the downtown in a variety of building and unit types.”

In 2004, efforts to revitalize Pensacola’s downtown had just begun to gain traction when Hurricane Ivan struck the city. Community leaders got together to discuss a now urgent rebuilding effort and to study how other cities had responded to disasters.

“We realized,” Studer writes, “that the hurricane had not stopped plans after all. It was not a roadblock, but an opportunity. In fact, it had become the springboard for bringing big, real, meaningful change to Pensacola.”

Building lasting success would require creating a community capable of attracting and retaining young talent.

And that would mean furnishing them with desirable places to live, consistent with their lifestyles.

“Hurricane Ivan did have a silver lining for Pensacola,” Rothfeder said. “But it was not worth those gray clouds in the middle.”

PHOTOS COURTESY OF STUDER PROPERTIES

“I guess there are people who are set up to get alerts on their phones,” Rothfeder said.

For Rothfeder and Studer Properties, building buildings is just one tactic required to move a community forward.

“Our goal from the beginning has been to do enough tactically to seed downtown redevelopment to the point where other investors would say to themselves, ‘The water’s fine, let’s jump in.’ ” Rothfeder said. “Now, we are seeing so much development, and Quint is just a part of it. Tax revenue is up over 30 percent.

There are tons of new housing and offices.

Downtown is having its moment right now.”

Momentum has been achieved. Growing tax revenues enable the city to make infrastructure improvements and funds the enhancement of public education.

“And, the better that stuff gets, the more development you see,” Rothfeder said.

The Southtowne project at the old newspaper plant produced three wins, Rothfeder said.

It addressed the “live” leg, eliminated a blighted area that isolated downtown from residential areas and resulted in the environmental cleanup of the project site.

That blighted area was so bad that people would get in their cars and drive two blocks to avoid walking through it.

“It offered nothing interesting, just old, falling down brick walls,” Rothfeder said.