Business Observer / May 12, 2017

M AY 12 - M AY 18 , 2017 | TH R E E D O LL A R S

FLOR IDA’S NE WSPAPER FOR T HE C - SUI T E

Strategies | A thirst for transparency flows through Troy Taylor’s company. PG.14 PASCO • H ILL S BOROUG H • PIN ELL AS • P OLK • M A N ATEE • SA R ASOTA • C H A R LOT TE • LEE • COLLIER

Special Insurance Issue: Pages 11-13

Assigned

Blame

Trial lawyers claimed a victory in a legislative battle over a niche side of insurance. Yet the issue lingers. PAGE 12

Kelly Overcash | LYKES INSURANCE MANUFACTURING

ENTREPRENEURS

INSURANCE

Rise of the Machines

Pizza Power

Big Push

Sean Dotson believes his robotics firm is in a prime spot to capitalize on a rebound in American manufacturing.

PAGE 7

A couple’s on-the-go pizza catering business seeks another challenge, with a brick-and-mortar store.

PAGE 9

REAL ESTATE

FCCI Insurance Group is on a mission to hit $1 billion in premiums by 2020.

How will it get there?

PAGE 11

STRATEGIES

TECHNOLOGY

COMMERCIAL REAL ESTATE

Round and Round

Must Have Balance

Back in Action

A branding campaign for employees, not customers, has had a big impact at London Bay Homes.

PAGE 8

Charlotte Count y, w ith a host of revitalized projects, has an advantage over some other areas: cheaper land.

PAGE 16

Multifamily giant targets Pasco County with $52.8 million deal. 16 A $20 million, six-year renovation at a St. Pete office park pays off. 18

PAGE

19 Avoid the pitfalls of family business succession.

224511

DON’T MISS

A new report aims to fill the wide gap between company board members and cybersecurity officials.

PAGE 10

Tampa firm closes $56 million hotel fund. 16

cooltoday.com

2

BUSINESS OBSERVER | MAY 12 – MAY 18, 2017

BusinessObserverFL.com

Vol. XXI, No. 17

Insurance • Bonding • Employee Benefits

A Division of The Ob­serv­er Media Group

BusinessObserverFL.com Founded in 1997, the Business Observer is Southwest and Central Florida’s newspaper for business leaders. With offices in Hillsborough, Pinellas, Polk, Pasco, Manatee, Sarasota, Charlotte, Lee and Collier counties, the Business Observer is the only weekly business newspaper that provides business leaders with a regional perspective. The Business Observer’s mission is to deliver relevant news and information on Southwest and Central Florida’s leading and growing companies, up-and-coming entrepreneurs and economic, industry and government trends affecting business. The Business Observer is also the leading publisher of public notices on the Gulf Coast of Florida.

Editor and Publisher / Matt Walsh, mwalsh@BusinessObserverFL.com Executive Editor / Kat Hughes khughes@BusinessObserverFL.com Managing Editor / Mark Gordon mgordon@BusinessObserverFL.com Commercial Real Estate Editor / Kevin McQuaid kmcquaid@BusinessObserverFL.com Staff Writer/ Grier Ferguson gferguson@BusinessObserverFL.com

Successful individuals and businesses have unique goals. As the leading choice in Southwest Florida for business and residential insurance, Atlas Insurance will help you define your needs, handle the details and provide unmatched personal service.

Rob Brown, CIC • Darren B. Howard, CPCU Thomas W. Kochis, CIC, CRM • David W. McMahon, MBA, AAI Michael Howard, CIC, CRM • Jared Hawkins

Editorial Design / Laura Woodside Copy Editor / Kelly Carson Contributors / Traci McMillan Beach, Steven Benna, Ted Carter, Jean Gruss, Beth Luberecki

Associate Publisher / Kathleen O’Hara kohara@YourObserver.com Associate Publisher / Diane Schaefer dschaefer@BusinessObserverFL.com Director of Legal Advertising / Kristen Boothroyd kboothroyd@BusinessObserverFL.com Advertising Production Manager / Kathy Payne kpayne@YourObserver.com Chief Financial Officer / Laura Keisacker lkeisacker@YourObserver.com Director of Circulation / Anne Shumate subscriptions@BusinessObserverFL.com

HOW TO REACH US Hillsborough County

204 S. Hoover Blvd., Suite #220 Tampa, FL 33609 Phone: 941/906-9386 (Legal Notices) Fax: 813/287-9403

Lee County

Offices: Sarasota ~ Port Charlotte

Orange County

941.366.8424

720 S. Dillard St. Winter Garden, FL 34787 Phone: 941/906-9386 (Legal Notices) Fax: 407/654-5560

Serving Our Community for 60 Years.

238823

www.atlasinsuranceagency.com

AN ALTERNATIVE TO MONEY MARKET FUNDS

PO Box 3169 Sarasota, FL 34230 1970 Main St., Suite 400, Sarasota, FL 34236 Phone: 941/362-4848 Phone: 941/906-9386 (Legal Notices) Fax: 941/954-8530

Collier County

Charlotte County

The French Quarter, 501 Goodlette Road N., #D-100 Naples, FL 34102 Phone: 941/906-9386 (Legal Notices) Fax: 239/263-0112

Pinellas County

Pasco County

Address: 949 Tamiami Trail, Suite 202 Port Charlotte, FL 33953 Phone: 941/906-9386 (Legal Notices) Fax: 941/249-4901 14004 Roosevelt Blvd.

Clearwater, FL 33762 Phone: 941/906-9386 (Legal Notices) Fax: 727/447-3944

April is behind us and May is off to an exciting start. Many companies in the S&P 500 reported strong quarterly results. Investors remain optimistic that President Trump’s proposed tax cuts will be enacted by Congress. In addition, there is hope Congress will finally pass the full repeal and replacement of Obamacare.

5570 Gulf of Mexico Dr., Longboat Key, FL 34228 Phone: 941/362-4848 Phone: 941/906-9386 (Legal Notices) Fax: 941/954-8530

Sarasota County

15050 Elderberry Lane, Suite #4-12 Fort Myers, FL 33907 Phone: 239/703-7802; Fax: 239/936-1001 (Legal Notices)

National Network. Local Presence. Personal Service.

Manatee County

3030 Starkey Blvd.

New Port Richey, FL 34655 Phone: 941/906-9386 (Legal Notices) Fax: 813/287-9403

Polk County

3730 Cleveland Heights Blvd., Suite 5 Lakeland, FL 33803 Phone: 941/906-9386 (Legal Notices) Fax: 863/646-9491

There was a stunning development in the municipal bond market recently. On May 3rd, Puerto Rico officially filed for protection from its creditors in what amounts to the largest bankruptcy filing ever in municipal finance history. Puerto Rico has about $75 billion in debt.

To send Legal Notices, email to: legal@BusinessObserverFL.com. Name the county of interest in the subject line and attach notice. Deadline for legal notices is noon Wednesday.

Under the PROMESA legislation enacted last year, Puerto Rico was given the opportunity to effectively file for bankruptcy in federal court rather than in bankruptcy court. But, under current law, no US state or territory can file for bankruptcy. For this reason, the PROMESA legislation will likely be fought in court on constitutional grounds under both the Due Process and Equal Protection clauses of our Constitution. As a lawyer myself, it is clear to see how states that have issued a mountain of debt will seek to have the same opportunity as Puerto Rico now has, in an attempt to discharge a large amount of their debt outstanding. Litigation will take years for sure.

For Display Advertising, call (941) 362-4848. Deadline for display advertising space is noon Friday.

HOW TO SUBSCRIBE Subscription Price

The Federal Reserve chose to hold rates steady at its May meeting. With the Presidential election in France now behind us, bond market strategists are now pondering how the ECB, the European Central Bank, will react at its meeting June 8th. Our Federal Reserve will meet days later on June 13-14. If the May Nonfarm Payroll Report, to be issued on June 2nd is strong, the Fed may decide to approve another rate increase at its June meeting.

One-Year Periodical Rate........................................................................................ $75 One-Year First-Class Mail......................................................................................$107 Two-Year Periodical Rate.......................................................................................$127 Two-Year First-Class Mail.......................................................................................$180

Crude Oil prices suffered a rapid decline from late March into early May as Brent Crude and West Texas Intermediate Crude both traded below the $50 per barrel level. There has been concern that the production cuts agreed to last year by OPEC and the major non-OPEC nations may not be continued upon expiration. We will have a much better idea once the OPEC meeting in Vienna on May 25th concludes. REUTERS reported on May 5th that Russia is ready to agree to extend the OPEC production cuts at the May 25th meeting, a positive sign.

Three-Year Periodical Rate....................................................................................$185 Three-Year First-Class Mail...................................................................................$239 Single copy price: $3 Group rates for five or more corporate subscriptions are available.

To subscribe online: www.businessobserverfl.com If you have a question about your subscription or wish to suspend your subscription temporarily, call Anne Shumate, (877) 231-8834 or contact her by email: subscriptions@BusinessObserverFL.com

Last month, Costco, Exxon and utility giant Southern Co. announced dividend increases. Costco also announced it would also pay a special dividend of $7/share to its shareholders. Exxon has raised its dividend 35 straight years while Southern Co. has raised its dividend 16 straight years.

Our firm continues to focus on S&P 500 companies with a history of both paying and increasing their dividend. These companies do so thanks to their financial strength.

POSTAL INFORMATION The Business Observer (ISSN#1539-9184) is published weekly on Fridays by the Gulf Coast Review Inc., 1970 Main St., Sarasota, FL, 34236; 204 S. Hoover Blvd., Suite #220, Tampa, FL 33609; 14004 Roosevelt Blvd., Clearwater, FL 33762; 3030 Starkey Blvd., New Port Richey, FL 34655; 5570 Gulf of Mexico Dr., Longboat Key, FL 34228; 949 Tamiami Trail, Suite 202, Port Charlotte, FL 33953; 15050 Elderberry Lane, Suite #4-12, Fort Myers, FL 33907; The French Quarter, 501 Goodlette Road N., #D-100, Naples, FL 34102; and 3730 Cleveland Heights Blvd., Suite 5, Lakeland, FL 33803. Periodicals Postage Paid at Sarasota, FL, and at additional mailing offices. The Business Observer is circulated in Charlotte, Collier, Hillsborough, Lee, Manatee, Pasco, Pinellas, Polk and Sarasota counties.

My weekly radio show on WWPR 1490 AM airs at 12.30pm each Friday. The show can also be heard live on the station’s website (www.1490wwpr.com). My prior radio shows and news columns are available on my firm’s website (www.amescapmgmt.com).

If you are unhappy with the returns now offered by money market funds feel free to contact us.

POSTMASTER: Please send changes of address to the Business Observer, P.O. Box 3169, Sarasota, FL 34230.

For information on reprints, visit BusinessObserverFL.com

“The road is cleared,” said Galt. “We are going back to the world.”

He raised his hand and over the desolate earth he traced in space the sign of the dollar.

Ayn Rand, Atlas Shrugged

info@amescapmgmt.com | amescapmgmt.com

239760

4419 Samoset Drive Sarasota, FL 34241 | 941-378-5000

MAY 12 – MAY 18, 2017 | BUSINESS OBSERVER

BusinessObserverFL.com

CoffeeTalk

3

Protect your business Protect your business with a company you Protect your business with a can withtrust. a company company you you can trust.

Your Auto-Owners Insurance policy can trust. comes with a local agent –someone Your Auto-Owners Insurance policy who Auto-Owners understands you and thepolicy Your Insurance comes with a local agent –someone protection you need. comes with a local agent –someone who understands you and the who understands you and the protection you need. protection you need.

COURTESY PHOTO

ROGAN DONELLY and CARLY OCHS

Good Morning, Shoppers TV morning show viewers nationwide recently had the chance to score deals on products from two popular regional brands.

And the companies behind the brands, Venice-based Tervis and Brandon-based Bourbon and Boweties, scored some major publicity points — and sales.

Tervis and Bourbon and Boweties were featured on ABC’s “Good Morning America” May 4 in a segment called “Deals and Steals on Wheels.”

Tory Johnson, who regularly hosts the morning show’s “Deals and Steals” segment, traveled to the Don CeSar on St. Pete Beach to film outside the hotel in front of a live audience. It was part of a weeklong tour of American cities highlighting deals on products from local companies in each area. Johnson

also shot segments in Dallas, Philadelphia, Chicago and Raleigh, N.C. Drinkware company Tervis, known for its plastic insulated cups, offered bestselling products in seven designs at a reduced price for “Deals and Steals.” Buyers purchased items through a special website set up for the segment.

Tervis reported 34,415 units sold during the one-day sale period. New customers represented 92% of those orders, say Tervis officials.

Carley Ochs, founder and CEO of jewelry company Bourbon and Boweties, tells Coffee Talk Johnson heard about the company. That led to a call from ABC saying she was going to

See COFFEE TALK page 5

NOTED CHEERLEADER MOVES ON But there was also some recent tension between Herr and at least one city commissioner, the Plant City Observer reported. That came HERR specifically over communication issues in Herr’s decision to spend $130,000 on two pieces of transportation equipment. Plant City Vice Mayor Bill Dodson, according the story, sensed Herr was “under duress” and “that he had a significant level of discomfort in his working relationship with some.”

Dodson says while he was surprised by the timing of the announcement, he thought Herr would leave the city eventually.

Herr, in the Plant City Observer story, couched the move as bittersweet. But the lure of a slight bump in salary, combined with a move to a city he says has strong tourism, medical and economic development industries, was too good to pass up.

“I began to think that at my age, at 64, at this state in my career, I may not get that opportunity again,” Herr says. “The opportunity to go back where I spent most of my career and work with a lot of people really pinged at my heart.”

Celebrating 60 years of service.

Specializing in the Celebrating 60Construction years of Industry. service.

Celebrating 60 years of service.

Specializing in the Construction Industry.

Specializing in the Construction Industry.

BEN BROWN INSURANCE AGENCY, INC. BEN BROWN INSURANCE BEN BROWN INSURANCE SARASOTA • 941.366.9373 AGENCY, INC. www.benbrownins.com AGENCY, INC. SARASOTA • 941.366.9373

SARASOTA • 941.366.9373 www.benbrownins.com www.benbrownins.com

240924

Plant City in east Hillsborough County, amid a development renaissance, is losing one of its biggest cheerleaders.

Mike Herr, city manager of Plant City since September 2014, is leaving his post to become city manager in nearby Winter Haven, in Polk County. The move is a return to familiar turf: Herr was the town manager of Dundee in Polk County from 1980 to 1985; director of public works for Lakeland from 1992 to 1998; Polk County director of transportation from 1998 to 2003; and Polk County Administrator from 2003 to 2010.

Herr has been an outspoken advocate of a proactive move in Plant City to be more business friendly.

“Part of our mission is to be the best place to do business in Central Florida,” Herr said in a February Business Observer story on the strategy to grow in Plant City. “We’re very motivated. We’re very ambitious.

Our business community is ready to rock and roll.”

Herr, who ran public works and utilities for the city of Tampa under Mayor Bob Buckhorn for three years, was generally well liked in Plant City government and business circles. His departure, according to the Plant City Observer, sister paper of the Business Observer, came has a surprise to some fellow leaders.

4 topstories from BusinessObserverFL.com

BUSINESS OBSERVER | MAY 12 – MAY 18, 2017

BusinessObserverFL.com

TAMPA BAY

Company targets 200 hires Clearwater-based IT services provider Vology plans to add an additional 200 positions in Pinellas County and expand its offices over the next two to four years.

The company currently employs 310 people in Pinellas County. It hired 80 new staff members in 2016. The expansion will encompass 60,000 square feet in the Bay Vista Office Park in Largo. It will allow the company to accommodate its growing number of employees as well as a network operations center, according to a statement.

Vology monitors, manages and maintains more than 100,000 devices at more than 20,000 customer locations.

Builder moves forward with project Epoch Residential will build multifamily homes in the 1,825-acre master-planned Bexley community in Land O’Lakes.

The project, Lakeside Walk at Bexley, will include eight buildings with 300 apartment

quote of theweek The worst thing in the world would be if our employees could not deliver our elevator pitch on our mission and vision.

Sabra Smith | London Bay Homes SEE PAGE 8

what do you think?

units. Bexley, 25 miles north of Tampa in Pasco County, opened in fall 2016. The community is a joint venture between North America Sekisui House and Newland Real Estate Group LLC. CHARLOTTE-LEE-COLLIER

Hospital system names new CEO Dr. Larry Antonucci will succeed Jim Nathan as president and CEO of Lee Health.

The Lee Health board chose Dr. Antonucci after Nathan stepped down as president to serve as a board resource for the rest of his contract period, which ends in March 2019.

Dr. Antonucci will assume his new role June 1.

Dr. Antonucci has been Lee Health’s COO since 2011, leading the patient care team at all Lee Health facilities. Prior to joining Lee Health in 2007, he was a practicing obstetrician and gynecologist.

Chico’s chooses board member Fort Myers-based women’s clothing retailer Chico’s FAS nominated Deborah Kerr to serve on its board of directors.

Kerr, if formally approved by shareholders at the company’s annual meeting June 22, will fill the remaining one-year term of Ross Roeder, who is retiring from the board effective at the annual meeting, according to a statement.

He joined the board in 1997 and served as chairman from 2009 to 2015.

Kerr most recently served as executive vice president and chief product and technology officer of travel technology firm Sabre Corp. She previously held leadership positions at FICO, Hewlett Packard and NASA Jet Propulsion Laboratory.

SARASOTA-MANATEE

Insurance firm expands reach CBIZ Insurance Services Inc. acquired the commercial insurance book of business from Alliance Insurance.

The acquisition makes the Sarasota office of CBIZ the largest underwriter of community associations in the region, according to a press release. CBIZ also added Alliance Insurance’s vice president of sales, James Cirillo, as a business partner in the

Will Trump’s health care plan be better for your business than Obamacare?

Vote at BusinessObserverFL.com

firm’s Sarasota office. Cirillo has experience in community associations, hospitality and private clients.

CBIZ has five other Florida offices, in Boca Raton, Clearwater, Tampa, Orlando and Delray Beach.

Community beats competitors The 10,000-acre West Villages master-planned community in south Sarasota County had 815 annual home starts in the quarter ending March 31, according to market researcher Metrostudy.

The statistics include Sarasota National, Grand Palm, IslandWalk at West Villages and Gran Paradiso at West Villages neighborhoods. The research also shows that West Villages outpaced other master-planned communities in the region, such as Lakewood Ranch, with 787 home starts, and Palmer Ranch, which had 249 home starts.

West Villages is between Venice and North Port. A partnership that includes Mattamy Homes and Vanguard Land is developing the community.

Last week’s question:

Are public-private partnerships a waste of taxpayer money?

42% Yes 58% No

LIVE RICHLY. HERE TODAY. HERE TOMORROW. J.L. BAINBRIDGE 241164

& C O M P A N Y, I N C .

1582 MAIN STREET, SARASOTA, FL 34236 | (941) 365-3435 | (800) 899-5171

MAY 12 – MAY 18, 2017 | BUSINESS OBSERVER

BusinessObserverFL.com

CoffeeTalk

5

FROM PAGE 3

be in the area and wanted to feature Bourbon and Boweties. “It was like floating on cloud nine,” Ochs says. “It was an honor to be there with other great companies in the area, especially Tervis.”

Ochs says she receives an email alert for every sale the company makes — and her phone was buzzing constantly

the day the segment aired. It turned out to be Bourbon and Boweties’ best single day for sales since the company started.

“It’s kind of like the Oprah effect,” Ochs says. “It’s the ‘Good Morning America’ effect. It was beyond what we ever could have imagined.”

COURTESY PHOTO

Florida Gov. RICK SCOTT stopped by Naples-based Best Home Services May 4, part of a 10-day statewide tour his office called “Fighting for Florida’s Future.” In the back, left to right is, Zach Mersh, Phil Kucak and Keegan Hodges with Best Home Services.

The fight continues research firm. In Naples, Scott toured the 40,000-square-foot headquarters of Best Home Services. Scott was at Best Home Services earlier this year, too, when he presented co-owners Chadd and Keegan Hodges with the Business Ambassador Award in honor of their job creation and expansion.

Best Home Services is a full-service, residential heating, air conditioning, electrical and plumbing company, operating in Southwest Florida since 1980. It has more than 140 employees, with satellite offices in Fort Myers and Sarasota.

See COFFEE TALK page 6

DALI DECISIONS College students had a real-world experience, not a surreal experience, at The Dali Museum in St. Petersburg this past semester.

About 40 students from the strategic management class at the University of South Florida Muma College of Business spent the semester learning how the museum, dedicated to the work of surrealist painter Salvador Dali, operates.

Strategic management is a capstone course all business students must take before graduation.

“Students get a lot out of it,” USF Muma College of Business strategic management professor Steve Diasio tells Coffee Talk. “There’s a strong connection with concepts and theories they’re learning in class that are put into practice.”

Diasio has also organized class collaborations with Clearwaterbased yacht charter company The Moorings and St. Petersburg-based print and digital advertising company Valpak.

Working in eight groups, the senior-level students were tasked with creating a standard process for The Dali to conduct an inclusive, organization-wide strategic review.

Students also were asked to develop ideas about how the museum could attract beachgoers.

Dali Chief Marketing Officer

Kathy Greif says the experience was a like a three-month consultant project. “They’re synthesizing research for us,” she says, “and through the benefit of having multiple groups, we’ll start to see patterns.”

The students examined a variety of organizations, businesses and nonprofits to find strategic review best practices. Greif says the museum expects to take some ideas and put them into practice.

To determine how The Dali could engage beach visitors, students delved into the museum’s demographics and conducted interviews.

Ideas included dedicated transportation services to bring beachgoers to the museum as well as coupons, advertisements and targeted social media concepts.

The students presented their findings to museum leadership at the end of April. Groups developed video presentations, app mockups and timelines for implementation.

“Education is a critical part of our mission,” Greif says. “While normally we think of that as educating visitors on Salvador Dali, this is a really interesting way we can contribute to the community as well, by helping to teach the intricacies of nonprofit management.”

Hardly enough time for what is normally an employer’s second largest line item.

With the right strategy and education, employees can help to reduce health care costs for themselves and save your organization money.

Call Alltrust to discuss your Employee Communication Strategy.

EMPLOYEE BENEFITS . HUMAN RESOURCES . COMPLIANCE . TECHNOLOGY EMPLOYEE BENEFITS . HUMAN RESOURCES . COMPLIANCE . TECHNOLOGY CORPORATE WELLNESS . MULTIPLE LOCATIONS THROUGHOUT FLORIDA CORPORATE WELLNESS . MULTIPLE LOCATIONS THROUGHOUT FLORIDA *Nationwide Survey by Harris Interactive on behalf of Transamerica Employee Benefits.

229113

Gov. Rick Scott spent the last few weekdays of the 2017 Legislative Session on the road, in what his office dubbed the “Fighting for Florida’s Future” tour.

The 10-city tour included three stops on the Gulf Coast, in Tampa, Sarasota and Naples. At each stop, Scott publicly called out state legislators who went against some of his budget priorities — specifically those who voted to cut funding at Visit Florida and Enterprise Florida. “Our economy is on a roll,” says Scott in a statement, “and now is not the time to take our foot off the gas.”

In Sarasota, Scott stopped by PropLogix, a fast-growing property

BUSINESS OBSERVER | MAY 12 – MAY 18, 2017

BusinessObserverFL.com

CoffeeTalk

FROM PAGE 5

datasnapshot

Mall developer touts figures Shopping malls nationwide have been on a slow burn to obscurity, failing to adapt to consumer shifts to shop online.

But several Florida malls have reversed the trend to a certain extent, becoming top performers for Bloomfield Hills, Mich.-based developer Taubman Centers. Taubman, in its annual meeting investor presentation, cites six malls in its portfolio as “some of the most productive assets in the industry, as recognized by equity research.”

The top four are from Florida, including International Plaza in Tampa and the Mall at University Town Center in Sarasota.

The data are from leading industry research firm Green Street Advisors.

Green Street looked at sales per square foot, a key industry metric that helps set lease rates and is a glance at a mall’s overall health. International Plaza posted an estimated $925 in sales

per square foot in 2016, the Taubman report states, while the Mall at UTC posted an estimated $900 in sales per square foot.

By comparison, the Aventura Mall, outside Miami on Biscayne Boulevard, did $1,595 in sales per square foot in 2016, according to a report from CNBC, which also used Green Street Advisors data. The No. 1 mall nationwide for sales per square foot, according to that report, was Bal Harbour Shops, near Miami Beach, which did $3,185 in sales per square foot. The No. 10 mall was the Ala Moana Center in Honolulu, at $1,440 in sales per square feet.

Taubman operates 21 malls in the United States and another three in Asia. In addition to International Plaza and the Mall at UTC, Taubman’s holdings on the west coast of Florida include the Waterside Shops in Naples.

The sales data cited by Taubman in its investor reports include:

TALE OF SALES

estimated sales Mall location per square foot Mall at Millennia Orlando $1,345 Dolphin Mall Miami $935 International Plaza Tampa $925 Mall at University Town Center Sarasota $900 City Creek Center Salt Lake City $615 Great Lakes Auburn Hills, $610 Crossing Mich.

year completed 2002 2001 2001 2014 2012

A GOOD START

89% 83% 81% 44%

Face time is key: Nearly nine out 10, 89%, say meeting with their manager to clarify expectations is important.

Walk around: 83% expect formal introductions to their colleagues.

Be prepared: 81% say it’s important to have their workspaces ready to go with proper setups in place.

Forget the free lunch: Less than half, 44%, say being taken to lunch was necessary for a positive first day.

Source: Robert Half International

Unhappy days Unhappy employees aren’t necessarily sticking it out once they’ve found a job. A survey of U.S. workers released by human resource firm Robert Half International includes this statistic: more than one-fourth, 28%, of workers say they would consider quitting within the first 90 days of their new job if they were unhappy.

The survey also reports on workers’ specific expectations for their first day at work. It reveals that 89% of respondents say meeting with their manager to clarify expectations is important.

Also high on the list of first day musts is social interaction: more than eight of 10, 83%, reported they expect formal introductions to colleagues. And 81% say they

want to see their workspace properly setup and ready to be used when they arrive.

But what do new hires see as less important? Something that’s more traditional — being taken to lunch on the first day of work.

Only 44% of respondents say the “free lunch” is necessary.

The upshot of the report is employers should carefully consider and manage the first impressions employees form of their company. By helping them settle in quickly, employers can avoid losing new staffers early on and having to head right back out to the hiring game.

Source: Green Street Advisors, Taubman annual meeting investor presentation, company filings

THE WEALTH MANAGEMENT GROUP OF LCM CAPITAL ADVISORS

Joseph Romano

Jon Lee

Senior Vice President and NFLPA Registered Player Financial Advisor

CEO and Managing Partner

Our services cover all areas of financial management, from investments and retirement planning to risk management and estate conservation.

We specialize in helping our clients develop a comprehensive, cohesive financial strategy that fits their unique needs.

CALL TODAY

To get your free 401(k) comprehensive retirement plan review.

941.822.0401

LCM Capital Advisors, LLC 1924 S. Osprey Avenue – Suite 202, Sarasota, FL 34239 941.822.0401 Securities and advisory services offered through Aegis Capital Corp.

Member FINRA/SIPC, a Registered Investment Advisor.

lrpcapitalgroup.com 241203

6

MAY 12 – MAY 18, 2017 | BUSINESS OBSERVER

infocus | manufacturing |

T

he recession pierced the niche custom-manufactured robotics machinery industry in Florida.

One notable example: Three of the five largest companies in the sector statewide filed bankruptcy during the downturn.

One of two companies to avoid that fate is Manatee County-based RND Automation & Engineering, where company President Sean Dotson believes his survival instincts are about to pay off. “I firmly believe a lot of manufacturing is coming back in the United States,” says Dotson. “We are seeing it really pick up.

It seems like people are finally spending money again.”

RND, which designs and assembles custom-made automation and robotic machines used by other manufacturers, plans to take advantage of the surge.

One way is with the guidance of a new executive, Tim Twitty, who was a corporate officer at Sarasota-based Sun Hydraulics Corp. for a decade. Twitty had been with the hydraulic valve manufacturer since 1993.

With RND’s recent growth, to nearly $4 million in annual revenue and 18 employees, plus three open positions, Dotson knew he needed a new layer of executive management. But he thought Twitty, who ran Sun’s Asia unit and also oversaw a $19 million expansion at the company’s Sarasota facility, was out of his league. Sun had $196.9 million in revenue in 2016. “A lot of people around here know him,” says Dotson. “We are getting a real seasoned executive.”

Twitty, who launched a factory automation and robotics unit at Sun, says RND is a perfect fit for a career shift. “I was looking to get back to my roots,” Twitty says. “This is a great opportunity for me.”

Twitty joins a company in transition.

In 2005, Dotson and his co-founders, Doug Robertson and Bruce Naylor, launched RND out of what was the custom automation division of Bradenton-based Gebo USA and Aidlin Automation. Global packaging equipment manufacturer Sidel shuttered the Bradenton facility after it acquired those companies.

Dotson and his colleagues focused on custom-made projects, from fully automatic high-speed robotic machines to operator-assisted semi-automatic workstations. It now sells its machines to companies that make a host of products, including hydraulic valves, automotive sensors and contact lenses.

Current and past clients include Sun Hydraulics and Venice-based drinkware manufacturer Tervis.

In addition to Twitty’s hiring, RND recently made another big move: it added a standard line of machines it will manufacture for clients. Those machines will complement its custom line.

RND’s first noncustom line of machines is called Kanga — aptly named because it’s a pouching system that forms four-sided pouches. Industries RND targets with the Kanga include medical device, pharmaceutical and electronics. Clients can use the machines, says Dotson, to package sensitive medical tools and equipment and electronic switchboards, among other products.

Research and development into Kanga ran into the mid-six figures, says Dotson. The company introduced the line last year, and embarked on a marketing tour, including trade shows, earlier this year.

RND is going after the middle market with Kanga, says Dotson, seeking clients high-end and low-end competitors miss. “We see a real nice market in the middle,” Dotson says.

Some of the challenges RND faces are common to fast-growing businesses, primarily the constant need for more space and people. On people, Dotson says the company is actively looking.

On space, it might move soon — even

7

BusinessObserverFL.com

BY MARK GORDON | MANAGING EDITOR

Pouch

Players With a new executive and new product line, a manufacturer sets its sights on big growth plans.

LORI SAX

SEAN DOTSON co-founded south Manatee County-based RND Automation & Engineering in 2005. He recently hired former Sun Hydraulics Corp. corporate officer TIM TWITTY to an executive post at RND. though it’s already moved four times in 12 years and has only its south Manatee County industrial park home since 2014.

The space is 12,000 square feet. Dotson says he might look for up to 30,000 square feet in the next home for RND. Any new space for RND, says Dotson, will have to match the company’s penchant for sleek and sophisticated proj-

ects. Those machines tend to cost more, and RND sometimes losses customers on price. That’s OK with Dotson. “You can always find people who will do it for less money,” Dotson says he sometimes tells clients. “We aren’t making Hondas and Toyotas. We are making Cadillacs and Corvettes.”

8 infocus | strategies |

BUSINESS OBSERVER | MAY 12 – MAY 18, 2017

BusinessObserverFL.com

BY MARK GORDON | MANAGING EDITOR

Get on the Bus JIMJETT.COM

SABRA SMITH was named vice president of human resources at Naples-based London Bay Homes in 2014.

A homebuilder, to help shine a light on employees, reversed-engineered its brand. It has had a big impact.

W

hen L ondon Bay Hom e s P r e s i d e nt and CEO Mark Wilson hired Sabra Smith in 2014, he knew he was getting an experienced human resources executive.

Smith, among other career stops, headed up HR at Bonita Bay Group from 1992 to 2008 — when the company grew into one of the largest homebuilders and developers in Southwest Florida. But while Smith has helped hire some 70 people in less than three years at Naples-based London Bay, her main mission at the company veered off the traditional human resources track.

T hat m ission? To create and implement an internal program, dubbed an employee-branding campaign, that would be a road map for anyone on the London Bay payroll to articulate the company’s

“why.” The major assignment took on an even greater sense of urgency for Smith considering London Bay, surging in home sales, has grown from 60 to 120 employees since 2015.

Officials with the company, founded in 1990, decline to disclose revenue figures.

“T he worst t h i ng i n t he world would be if our employees could not deliver our elevator pitch on what our mission and vision is,” Smith says.

The end result of the mission is BUS: Building Unique Stories.

The acronym is essentially a blend of the company’s core values, mission, vision, the why it’s in business and its external motto — private-label living.

But BUS is more than a metaphor. When Smith and her HR team introduced BUS in February at a companywide event,

The worst thing in the world would be if our employees could not deliver our elevator pitch on what our mission and vision is.

Sabra Smith | London Bay Homes

they also debuted an internal reward system, where employees can nominate colleagues who go above and beyond. The prize: a gift card, $20 to $100, for somewhere specific to that winner’s favorite places, from Starbucks to an online retailer.

The winner also receives a toy replica double-decker bus.

The toy bus, says Smit h, has quickly become a badge of honor and in many cases is more valuable to employees than the gift card. She takes a picture of a bus winner, and he or she is written up in the weekly company news bulletin. “We make a big deal about it,” says Smith.

Wilson says the BUS campaign is a hit — he’s given out a few buses himself, citing extraordinary work. “It’s building camaraderie at all levels of the company,” Wilson says in an email response to questions. “I’ve also been encouraged to see employees come together to actively seek out and recognize other employees for embodying our core values.”

Smith and a group of London Bay executives and managers from a variety of departments worked behind the scenes for a year to create the employeebranding campaign. The core question the group kept coming back to, says Smith, was

CAMPAIGN TIPS Sabra Smith, who oversees human resources at Naples-based London Bay Homes, says there are several key elements to creating and implementing a successful employee-branding campaign. The top three: n It has to be memorable; n It has to be simple and easy to understand; n It has to have an element of fun. “what does it mean to be a London Bay employee?”

London Bay has a top-notch wellness program, where employees, among other perks, get a $100 Fitbit activity tracker and free gym memberships. So that came up a lot in the conversations. Another topic that came up often is the pride and passion employees feel when they are able to customize a client’s request with minimum red tape.

Taken all together, Smith a nd her tea m hea rd t hree words — building and unique and stories. “We considered so many ideas,” says Smith.

“This one just hit on all cylinders with us. This is the best employee-branding campaign I’ve ever been a part of, bar none.”

MAY 12 – MAY 18, 2017 | BUSINESS OBSERVER

infocus | companies |

9

BY GRIER FERGUSON | STAFF WRITER

Slice of Success T here hasn’t been a single job Polpo Pizza Co. owners Danni Bleil and Tom Baril haven’t worked themselves.

It’s been almost four years since they started the Sarasota-based business, and, as Bleil says, “time f lies when you’re making pizza.”

Bleil and Baril take their restored 1951 Ford F5 truck on the road to serve pizza at event venues and other locations throughout Sarasota and the surrounding area. But they usually don’t go farther than 30 miles from the office.

That’s because the truck can’t go fast, and they have to avoid the interstate.

Plus, trips to more distant locales take more time and eat into profit.

The husband-and-wife business team first served pizza at a wholesale event for chefs in October 2014, where Bleil says they formed instant fans. Says Bleil: “Buzz started pretty quickly.”

Today, Polpo Pizza averages five events a week during in-season months, generally from October to March, and two to three events per week during off-months.

Polpo has become known for its vintage vehicle, but it’s technically not a food truck. Florida only grants mobile food dispensing vehicle licenses when cooking and preparation is done inside a vehicle’s contained kitchen. Polpo’s oven is on the side of the truck, so it operates as a catering company.

Polpo caters weddings, rehearsal dinners, graduation parties, birthdays and, as Bleil says, parties thrown for the sake of having a party. She says they have

BusinessObserverFL.com

Danni Bleil and Tom Baril built a buzz early on with their pizza business, run out of a 1951 Ford farm truck. Now they strive for a bigger slice.

LORI SAX

TOM BARIL and DANNI BLEIL started Polpo Pizza Co. in 2013. repeat clients who discovered them at parties or see them weekly at Polpo’s two longstanding gigs — Phillippi Farmhouse Market during season and Mandeville Beer Garden in Sarasota’s Rosemary District.

For two years, Bleil and Baril have driven the Polpo truck to Mandeville on Tuesday nights, when the restaurant hosts a trivia game.

“I read an article about them, and I just loved everything about them,” says Mandeville Beer Garden founder and

TREAT YOUR TEAM TO A DAY AT THE BEACH!

owner Rebekah Mandeville. “I hadn’t tasted the pizza at that point, but the look of the truck and the look of the pizza — I just thought they would be a good fit for Mandeville. As an added bonus, the pizza is fabulous.”

Since then, Bleil says they’ve doubled the amount of dough they bring to Mandeville to keep up with demand. Overall, sales are three times what they were during Polpo’s first year. Bleil declines to disclose specific revenue figures.

Before they were pizza entrepreneurs,

Bleil and Baril lived in New York City.

Bleil was a food stylist working with celebrity chefs and major food brands. She also launched her own boutique catering company for small high-end parties.

Baril was a fine-arts photographer.

With some of Baril’s family in Parrish, they’d come to Sarasota on vacation, so they were familiar with the area. They were looking to do something new, and they wanted to work together creatively. “We saw pizza as a blank canvas for creative expression,” Baril says. “And we knew what we were doing would be unique here.”

Bleil trained with Roberto Caporuscio, U.S. president of the Association of Neapolitan Pizza Makers, who taught her the art of Neapolitan pizza making.

Now the duo seeks to make the leap to a permanent space, not serve only out of a truck. They are working with restaurateur Mark Caragiulo, who is behind Sarasota restaurants Caragiulos, Owen’s Fish Camp and Veronica Fish & Oyster, to help find the right space.

“We were talking brick and mortar two years ago, but we wanted the catering to stand on its own two legs,” Bleil says. “Now that it’s done well, we can focus on brick and mortar.”

Bleil and Baril may need to sell the truck to finance the restaurant build out. They are also looking for investors.

“We’re pretty optimistic about success because the truck has a tremendous following,” Baril says. “Going into brick and mortar, that’s unique. The truck has been a good jumpstart.”

SARASOTA COUNTY

LAND FOR SALE

.95 Acre in downtown Sarasota AVAILABLE FOR DEVELOPMENT

Central & Convenient Location in Beautiful Venice Easily Accessible from Tampa to Ft. Myers • Only 6 Miles Off I-75, Exit 193

Plan Your Personalized Company Party Now: • Choose your location: smack dab on the beach at Sharky’s or in true Old Florida on the Myakka River at Snook Haven • Enjoy an All-American buffet, games for the kids, beverages, canoe & kayak rentals (at Snook Haven) plus much more!

CALL OR EMAIL US TODAY TO START PLANNING YOUR PARTY! 241150

941-484-7362 • office@sharkysonthepier.com • SharkysOnThePier.com *For corporate groups only. Valid May-Dec. No cash value.

941-861-5000

238514

For information, visit scgov.net/surpluslands or call 941-861-5000.

50 PERSON WATERFRONT COMPANY PARTY FOR ONLY $2,500!

10 infocus | cybersecurity |

BUSINESS OBSERVER | MAY 12 – MAY 18, 2017

BusinessObserverFL.com

BY MARK GORDON | MANAGING EDITOR

At the Gate MARK WEMPLE

YONG-GON CHON is CEO of Tampa-based Focal Point Data Risk LLC. The company recently released a comprehensive survey on cybersecurity.

Data threats are exacerbated when a company has communication breakdowns. A new report aims to restore balance.

F

ew topics squeeze out more angst for company board members than two words: data breach.

The list of giant businesses to suffer that fate includes Home Depot, Target and Fort Myersbased 21st Century Oncology, among others. Yet even with all the publicity, a wide gulf remains in how board members learn about data breaches, deal with them and help their companies recover, according to a new survey.

The survey, the Cyber Balance Sheet Report, is from Tampa-based Focal Point Data Risk LLC, a cybersecurity and data risk management firm formerly named Sunera. The Cyentia Institute, a Virginia cybersecurity research services firm, is the lead independent researcher on the report. Both entities say the survey, which

MORE INFO For more information on the Cyber Balance Sheet report and to download a copy, go to cyberbalancesheet.com.

includes interviews with scores of board members, chief information security officers and industry experts, is the first of its kind in the field.

“For yea rs pu nd its have been saying ‘cyber needs to be a boardroom issue,’ but the Cyber Balance Sheet Report replaces this sound bite with the most illuminating look yet at where cyber issues are making headway with boards or falling off the table,” says Focal Point CEO Yong-Gon Chon. “There is a jargon of cybersecurity, and that’s not the jargon of business.”

Chon says a big goal of the report, and a summit Focal Point hosted in New York City in January, is to get board members and cybersecurity leaders to communicate better. “People are focused on the wrong things,” he says. “People need to focus not on getting a data breach because breaches are a fact of life today. People need to focus on negating the impact of a breach.”

The core of the issue, according to survey interviews, is many chief cybersecurity officers “consider interact-

ing with the board to be the toughest part of their job.” The feeling is somewhat mutual. A board member is quoted in the report saying “security has a seat at the table, but has nothing to say. We’re listening, but security mumbles.”

Another inconsistency between board members and security officers is in ways to express risk. Board members’ No. 1 preference, the report shows, is to “tell me a story: describe the problems and how we’re solving them (or not.)” Their least preferred method is to “bring up your grades: develop a scoring approach and work to improve over time.”

Chief cybersecurity officers, the report states, flip the answers. They prefer to bring up the grades, something tangible, and last on their list is to tell a story.

One way to get both sides together, concludes the report, is through creating a cyber balance sheet — a statement of cyber assets, liabilities and capabilities within a company.

“Quantifying cyber risk,” states the report, “requires a level of shared language and risk

PROTECTION The Cyber Balance Sheet report offers several tips for cybersecurity officials to communicate better with corporate board members. Tips include: n relate to the business and avoid jargon; n build security awareness, but avoid hype; n be credible and candid; n provide pointed evidence; n know your audience; n keep it simple, and interesting; n show the plan and progress; n don’t re-create the wheel. principles.”

The extensive project was a mid-six-figure investment for Focal Point, says Chon. In addition to the subject matter, Chon says the report, and the publicity he hopes it will generate, is a good branding move coming off the company’s recent name change. “We wanted to blaze a trail with this,” Chon says. “This was the right way to present this data.”

People need to focus not on getting a data breach because breaches are a fact of life today. People need to focus on negating the impact of a breach.

Yong-Gon Chon | CEO, Tampa-based Focal Point Data Risk LLC

MAY 12 – MAY 18, 2017 | BUSINESS OBSERVER

infocus | insurance |

11

BY MARK GORDON | MANAGING EDITOR

Bold

AT-A-GLANCE

Vision

Less than three years remain for an already large insurance firm to hit a milestone growth goal.

How will it do it?

FCCI Insurance Group Headquarters: Lakewood Ranch, Sarasota County President and CEO: Craig Johnson Year founded: 1959 Employees: 818 Policyholders: 18,570 Contracted agencies: 612 FCCI: premium breakdown Florida: $295.6 million Southeast region: $130.2 Gulf Coast region: $123.4 million Midwest region: $99.3 million Southwest region: $44.8 million Agribusiness: $99.7 million Premiums (net) Year revenue 2012 $472.6 million 2013 $531.6 million 2014 $606.4 million 2015 $675.7 million 2016 $745 million Revenue Year revenue 2012 $529 million 2013 $586.4 million 2014 $657.5 million 2015 $732 million 2016 $791.4 million

% growth 12.4% 14% 11.4% 10.2% % growth 10.8% 12.1% 11.3% 8.1%

Source: FCCI, FCCI 2016 annual report

FILE PHOTO

gold, providing trips and other rewards to ones who provide the most and best accounts. “We focus all our energy and attention, from the board on down, on making better relationships with agents,” Johnson says. “When you become more important to them, they feel almost obligated to give you accounts.”

Externally, FCCI will chase $1 billion through a geographic push, to states such as Virginia and Pennsylvania.

The company hopes to be competing for business in Pennsylvania full on in 2019. Internally, FCCI recently boosted its IT department, from 70 to 100 employees, to keep up with changes in technology in insurance.

One of Johnson’s biggest worries mirrors one that hits other executives: will the company find and maintain top employees to handle the growth? FCCI recently expanded its intern program, from a handful of interns to 24, in an effort to proactively mine for new talent.

Johnson also has other worries — regulations, legislation, the economy — that add up to sometimes feeling like his head is on swivel. “You can’t be a head-down leader,” he says. “You have to look around the corner to see what’s coming next.”

239702

CRAIG JOHNSON was named president and CEO of Lakewood Ranch-based FCCI in 2011.

229287

F

or a company that prides itself on risk protection, FCCI Insurance Group sure put its top executive, Craig Johnson, in a precarious spot last October.

The company’s president and CEO, recently named chairman, Johnson was killed off — in fun — in the company’s annual skit, part of the festivities for the recognition of its United Way partnership. Johnson played the role of Mr. Body, in a Clue-like performance where employees had to track down the killer.

It’s a side of Johnson FCCI’s rank and file don’t see all the time. He’s a suitand-tie executive, sometimes chided for forgetting to wear jeans on casual Friday. But Johnson’s buttoned-up focus has led FCCI on one of the biggest fiveyear growth tracks in the company’s 58year history. FCCI handles property and casualty insurance for businesses, with a presence in 18 states and Washington, D.C. It’s also one of the largest employers in the Sarasota-Bradenton region.

Premiums are up 57.6% since 2012.

Revenue is up 49.6%, from $529 million in 2012 to $791.4 million last year. Cash and investments surpassed $1.6 billion in 2016 and total assets are more than $2.2 billion. “This puts us in the strongest financial position in our history,” says Johnson in the company’s most recent annual report.

Adds Johnson in an interview: “Our customers have gotten healthier, and we have gone out and earned more business.”

One glitch to the growth: The company didn’t make a profit in 2016.

Johnson, 48, says 2016 started out with a bang, “with five of the best months in the company’s history.”

But things turned quickly. A host of negative factors hit the company, including a rise in limits on attorneys’ fees in workers compensation cases; industrywide increases in auto losses and claims, due, in part, to distracted driving; and storm-related losses that doubled what the firm had in past years, according to its annual report.

While those factors remain on the horizon, FCCI is now on a 30-month push to reach goals in its 2020 plan. That includes a big one — hit $1 billion in written premiums by the end of the decade.

Johnson, with the risk of growing too fast always paramount, says 2020 is a marathon, not a sprint.

“Our philosophy isn’t to grow like gangbusters for the top line,” says Johnson. “We will do it in a responsible way, where we also look at the bottom line.”

FCCI was founded to work with contractors and builders, under the name Florida Contractors and Construction Industries. Its model now is to sell products to businesses through a large group of partner agents and agencies. It has no inside sales agents.

FCCI treats its partner agents like

BusinessObserverFL.com

WWW . ATILUS . COM

12

BUSINESS OBSERVER | MAY 12 – MAY 18, 2017

BusinessObserverFL.com

INSURANCE

A

‘House of Cards’

nother Florida Legislature session has ended, and another attempt to pass assignment of benefits reform failed.

If you’ve ever gone to the doctor, you’re probably familiar with the concept of assignment of benefits. You sign a form that allows your health-care provider to work directly with your insurance company to secure compensation for their work. It’s a practice that tends to work pretty smoothly.

But AOB agreements are being used more often in property insurance in Florida, and things aren’t working quite as well. In this case, third-party contractors — predominantly working in water remediation and sometimes roofing — get homeowners to sign a document assigning the benefits of their insurance policy over to the vendor. This gives the vendor the right to deal directly with the insurance company on the claim.

It also gives them the benefits of Florida’s one-way attorney fee statute, which the insurance industry officials say was intended to protect consumers, not contractors. Under that statute, if a homeowner takes his or her insurance company to court over a claim and the homeowner wins, the insurance company must pay the policyholder’s attorney fees, even if the claim amount disputed was just $1 more.

“It helps the little guy stand up to the big guy and levels the playing field,” says Don Matz, president of Tower Hill Insurance, Florida’s largest homeowners’ insurer. “But when an AOB is signed, the contractor gets to stand in the shoes of the insured, and the oneway statute carries over to them. And that was never designed to be a business-to-business arrangement.”

Because of this, AOB lawsuits are on the rise. Florida Chief Financial Officer Jeff Atwater said there were 405 AOB lawsuits across all 67 counties in 2006.

In 2016, there were 28,200.

The f requency of water-da mage claims in general has increased by 46% since 2010, according to the Florida Office of Insurance Regulation’s 2016 Data Call Study, and the severity of those claims has increased by 28%. It also found that claims with an AOB clause tend to have a much higher severity.

“What’s happened with these thirdparty vendors and the attorneys that represent them is they’ve taken advantage of this provision,” says William Large, president of the Florida Justice Reform Institute, a nonprofit civil justice reform organization. “So many times the claims are three- or fourfold greater than the market price.

The benefit [of the one-way attorney fee statute] is meant for the insured, the Davids of the world. It’s not meant for the Goliaths of a third-party corporate vendor working with an attorney.”

While a lot of the controversial use of AOBs happens in South Florida, it’s an issue that goes statewide. The rise in AOB lawsuits has led insurers to request rate increases, and some private insurance companies are pulling back on their willingness to write policies.

That means homeowners will have less choice when it comes to property insurance and be forced to pay more for it, which could impact people’s ability to secure mortgages and buy homes.

“This is only just now starting to come to a head,” says Kelly Overcash,

BY BETH LUBERECKI | CONTRIBUTING WRITER

A key industry reform initiative backed by powerful insurance supporters — and opposed by trial lawyers — flopped in the state Legislature.

Consequences loom large.

MARK WEMPLE

KELLY OVERCASH, with Lykes Insurance, says the Assignment of Benefits issue is “starting to come to a head.”

EXECUTIVE SUMMARY Industry. Insurance Issue. Legislators failed to pass Assignments of Benefits reform. Key. Florida house and senate were split on some issues.

MAY 12 – MAY 18, 2017 | BUSINESS OBSERVER

private risk division manager at Lykes Insurance Inc., which has offices in Tampa, Sarasota, Fort Myers and Winter Park. “A lot of companies have said they can’t write new policies because of the abuse. It’s a house of cards.”

CLOSE THE LOOPHOLE The insurance industry has lobbied to push bills through the Legislature to curb alleged abusive practices related to AOBs for a few years. Trial attorneys have fought back to prevent limitations.

Insurers got fairly close this year with the House passage of HB 1421.

That would have created a graduated scale to determine whether attorney fees would be paid by insurers based on the dollar amount in controversy awarded to the plaintiff, with the goal of making lawsuits less lucrative and therefore less appealing.

But nothing made it through the Senate.

“Flor ida’s ha rdwork ing fa m i lies should remember this – the Florida Senate chose to side with anti-consumer special interests, instead of stepping up and protecting consumers from an AOB loophole that has attracted plaintiffs’ attorneys like gold rush miners,” says Edie Ousley, a spokeswoman for the Florida Chamber of Commerce, one of the leading groups that pushed AOB reform.

In the past, the insurance industry fought similar battles centered on practices it considered abusive related to issues like mold and sinkholes.

In those cases, either legislation was passed or limitations were placed on insurance claim amounts, and the problems largely went away. AOBs, in the industry’s mind, are just the latest moneymaking scheme.

“Attorneys started getting involved in AOBs after the 2004-2005 storm sea-

BusinessObserverFL.com

sons,” says Charles “Dick” Tutwiler, president of Tampa-based Tutwiler & Associates Public Adjusters. “All this big business dried up, and it was a great opportunity for them to continue to sue insurance companies. They file a lawsuit, then it becomes an issue of intimidation.”

Homeow ners’ insurance policies tend to require that the policyholder show proof of a loss and give their insurance company time to come in and inspect it. Michael Peltier, a spokeswoman for Citizens Property Insurance Corp., says courts have been ruling that those requirements don’t transfer over to AOB assignees.

“They’re not required to provide the same amount of information to the insurance company as the homeowners themselves,” he says. “From a strategic standpoint, if I’m going to file a lawsuit, I would rather do it through the contractor than the homeowner, because the burden of proof is less burdensome.”

Settling becomes the lesser of two evils. “The average claim that is litigated runs about three times higher than a nonlitigated claim,” says Peltier.

“Oftentimes you will simply settle the case, even if you still have to pay the one-way attorney fees. If you continue on, those fees rack up, so it’s less expensive to settle.”

‘DEVASTATING’ BILL Companies and indiv iduals in the water-remediation industr y — and the attorneys who defend them — argue AOBs, and in many cases the lawsuits that tend to result from them, are necessary to ensure they get paid at an amount commensurate with their work.

“If I don’t bring suit, [the insurance companies] can push me off for six months,” says Florida Association of

EMPLOYEE BENEFITS.

REAL DAMAGE Citizens Property Insurance Corp., the state’s insurer of last resort, has been especially impacted by Assignment of Benefits claims and litigation. It posted a $27.1 million net loss for 2016 — its first loss since 2005 and a loss that occurred in a year with minimal storm damage. Citizens officials attribute that loss to increases in AOBs and the percentage of non-weather-related water claims that move to litigation.

Also, a total of 8,097 new lawsuits were filed against Citizens between January and November 2016, a 30% increase from the same period in 2015. And while less than 15% of water-related claims resulted in litigation in 2011, nearly 50% did so in 2016. Those increases occurred even though Citizens’ policy count dropped 26.3% between January 2015 and November 2016.

Restoration Specialists President Jeff Grant. “They won’t move fast enough to send an adjuster out to inspect the property. They don’t want us to remove things either, but then when mold is growing they want to deny that portion of the claim.”

New Por t Richey attorney Dea n Makris, who represents vendors and homeowners in lawsuits against insurers, says he’s seen similar delays and underpayments. “That’s really the issue why there’s litigation,” he says. “It’s not so much that AOBs are out there, it’s more so that insurance companies are delaying or underpaying those claims.”

When insurers refuse to pay expenses based on industry standards, Grant says he faces the equivalent of career suicide. “The insurers either have to pay what’s asked or leave it so that I have to sue the client,” he says. “And if

13

I go around suing my clients because their insurance company didn’t pay, I’m not going to be in business long.”

Grant sees the push for legislation as a way for insurance companies to hold on to more money. “It’s just about how much greed,” he says.

Makris says if the House bill became law, it would have been “devastating,” because the freedom to use AOBs is vital for third-party vendors. “It would have crippled if not killed the industry,” he says. “These repair companies might not have been in business anymore.”

The insurance industry feels differently. “Contractors don’t necessarily only do insurance-related work,” says Logan McFaddin, Southeast regional manager for the Property Casualty Insurers Association of America. “If you’re a contractor and someone wants a new roof, you don’t make them sign an AOB and you’re still able to get paid.

I think it doesn’t really ring true that they can’t get paid [without an AOB].

I’ve seen testimony from a lot of vendors who say they don’t use AOBs and they don’t have any problem getting paid.”

Insurers also don’t feel AOBs need to totally go away. “We do not oppose the AOB practice,” says Peltier. “It’s a homeowner’s right to decide they want someone else to take care of the problem for them. What our concern is, is that the law is being twisted by folks for whom it was never intended to benefit.”

Makris agrees — to a point — that some kind of regulation would be OK. “There should be some checks and balances put in place so repair companies can’t operate without any discretion,” he says. “It may be a good thing to have some more regulation here. I think it just needs to be fair, and what we had [in HB 1421] was not fair at all.”

FEATURED PROPERTIES

FOR SALE

Leading with Experience.

Alltrust offers healthcare benefits and HR solutions tailored for your business and provides the expertise needed to ensure success in managing a year round program.

If you want the best for your company and employees, contact: Steve Hall, CEBS, CHRP, CSFS— Market President, Senior Benefits Consultant & Shareholder • Currently works with Fully Insured and Self-Funded Group Medical Plans

WATERFRONT RESTAURANT 121 Playmore Drive (at Tamiami Trail) Venice FL 34293 Area of Great Growth, 2+ Acres, Central Water & Sewer, Full Liquor License, Indoor & Outdoor Seating, Boat Ramp & Docks – Very Profitable

• Client size range from 25– 4,000 employees • Industries—Healthcare, Senior Living, Manufacturing, Technology, Insurance, White and Blue Collar Industries

GULF to BAY RESORT on 5.3 ACRES

16 Bldgs with 80 Units, 2 Laundry Rooms, 4 Cabanas, Office, 800+ Ft on sandy beach & 450 Ft on Bay, Docks (power & water) for 38 Boat Slips, Ramp, 2 Heated Pools

HOTEL SITE on TAMIAMI TRAIL 2525 S Tamiami Trail, Sarasota FL 34231 Great Visibility – All Utilities Near Sarasota Memorial Hospital

Call for Additional Information

Charles J. Palmeri

Steve Hall, CEBS, CHRP, CSFS

Broker-Associate

Market President 8430 Enterprise Circle, Suite 110 Lakewood Ranch FL 34202

RE/MAX Alliance Group | 2000 Webber St., Sarasota, FL 34239

238850

cpalm1926@gmail.com 239005

EMAIL: Shall@alltrustinsurance.com | PH: 941.713.6187

941.504.8428

14

BUSINESS OBSERVER | MAY 12 – MAY 18, 2017

BusinessObserverFL.com

EXECUTIVE Q&A

BY TRACI MCMILLAN BEACH | CONTRIBUTING WRITER

FILE PHOTO

As CEO of Coca-Cola Beverages Florida, TROY TAYLOR says he’s in the business of data analytics, warehouses, automation, trucking, logistics, sales and fashion.

Beverage Rules The top executive at a $1.2 billion company has learned a key secret to building a standout internal culture. It starts with an all-out focus on transparency.

C

ulture isn’t something to be taken lightly — especially when you’re growing at lightning speed.

No one knows that better than Troy Taylor, who runs one of Florida’s biggest startups, Coca-Cola Beverages Florida. The company owns the exclusive rights to bottle and distribute Coca-Cola products to almost all of Florida. The 46-year-old CEO leads the third-largest privately held and the fifth-largest independent Coca-Cola bottler in the U.S. Taylor started his career in banking, and made his way to a division that advised large corporate and consumer brands with franchise and trademark finance. It was 1995 on a red-eye flight back from working with the Bacardi de la Cruz family when he realized he wanted to be a Coca-Cola distributor.

Though it took him 20 years to get there, in May 2015 he won the exclusive rights to sales distribution and operations in Central Florida. At the time,

the operation had around $380 million in annual revenue. Last October, the company acquired the North Florida territory, and in February, the South Florida territory. After starting with 10 employees, Taylor’s company is now at 4,700 employees spread across four manufacturing plants and 17 sales and distribution centers in Florida. Revenue is close to $1.2 billion, with the company producing 100 million cases of beverages a year.

To keep up with the rapid growth and change across the organization, Taylor says transparency and a clear vision is essential.

He also considers 80% of his job being a “glorified HR guy.”

One of the best ways to do that is to be visible to employees, he says. Earlier this year, for example, Taylor decided to make a last-minute trip with one of his senior leaders to visit the company’s Tampa warehouse at 11 p.m. The leaders spent more than an hour walking the floor, asking people questions and shaking hands. “You have to touch people that way; you

have to be there,” Taylor says.

“Most of the action is not happening on the headquarters floor. When they see you there and you’re asking questions, they’ll see you care.”

Taylor spoke with the Business Observer following a recent USF Muma College of Business Conversation with a CEO. Edited excerpts follow.

You spend a lot of time on the floors, meeting with your employees and asking questions.

Why? One of the questions is, “What are you drinking?” We get some consumer insights from that. The other thing is, “What are you working on? How do you feel about it? Anything new?” You’d be surprised when you ask those open ended questions what you get. You figure out if people are happy, if they are stressed, if they’re not. “Are you in the right job?

What do you think about our products? What do your friends and family say? Where do you see opportunities to improve the business?” You’re

talking about young kids that are the future of the business, but they have a different perspective that’s a lot more open.

You want to know where the puck is going.

You acquired multiple territories. How do you build a one-team, one-culture environment?

That’s challenging. The vast majority of our people have worked in large organizations or have been in a subsidiary of a large business, and that’s different than being in an independent business. We have to build an independent business culture. That’s change management. That’s always communicating where we’re going and why we’re going there. It’s not to say that the Coca-Cola company culture was bad; it’s just not the culture that will help us thrive. You have to communicate clearly the what, the why, the hows to people, and then connect that back to ‘this will help us grow the business, this will help us be better in the community’, but

EXECUTIVE SUMMARY Company. Coca-Cola Beverages Florida Industry. Beverage manufacturing, distribution Key. Open communications can improve strategy.

MAY 12 – MAY 18, 2017 | BUSINESS OBSERVER

If you want to be the best, you better be dedicated, responsible and disciplined about honing your craft.

You better be ready to make some sacrifices.

Troy Taylor | Coca-Cola Beverages Florida also ‘this will be better for you as an individual, career opportunities, pay, the whole nine.’

Executives often struggle with communication. How do you communicate?

I can’t do it alone. We have 4,700 employees, so a lot of communication gets pushed down to local leaders to say, here’s the vision, here’s where we are, here’s where we need to go. We’re going to be in this mode of change for the next few years. You have to be transparent. Our company is one with sizzle — I’ll leave that to our marketing and sales people, but we also have to bring a lot of substance. They know the commercials and stuff, but they want to know exactly what is it that we’re aiming to do, what’s the vision, what’s the mission, how is it connecting to the larger community.

What’s your biggest challenge?

How do we build a culture that people can stay committed to, that they understand and feel they have a part in building? Plus, how do we continue to evolve with the consumer and how do we lead? How do we bring those insights to our customer to say this is what the consumer wants, this is what they desire? We have to make sure that’s what we’re delivering.

What are the keys to building a strong culture?

You cannot flip-flop. Culture is daily, it’s hourly. It’s not something that you hang on the board and say we did it.

The people you recruit, how you train, the people you exit from the business, how you engage with consumers, how you engage with customers, your total engagement in the community. That’s all part of what you build.

What’s it like representing one of the biggest brands in the world?

The Coca-Cola brand is a great brand.

There’s two words that people know around the world: “OK” and “CocaCola.” There’s a tremendous amount of brand equity with that and that brand equity brings legitimacy to everything we do, as long as we’re good stewards of that brand. With customers — McDonald’s or Publix or Wawa — when we walk in there, there’s automatic legitimacy. That legitimacy is also brought with what we do in the community.

People know the brand; they trust the brand. We have to lead with that brand to not only sell products, but to do great things in our community.

Any acquisitions on the horizon?

We have to swallow what we just stuck

BusinessObserverFL.com in our mouth. We want to localize the business. We’re Florida first, we’re Florida owned. Our initiatives and our actions will always be about what works best for our Florida customers, consumers and communities.

What’s the best business decision you’ve made with the company?

My best business decisions have always been around people. What makes businesses is the people. Recruiting, hiring the right people with diversity — ethnicity, gender, you name it — and then unlocking the ability or the talent in those people. That makes a company grow. You’re here to lead, you’re here to serve. You’ve got an opinion and we want you to grow. When you share that with people, and you mean it, and you put in the opportunity to do it, you’ll see the business grow. There are a lot of reasons why I sleep well at night — one is I have a great team.

You were a successful college basketball player at Marshall University. Anything from basketball that you’ve applied to business?

People talk about teamwork and trusting and relying on teammates because you can’t do it alone. But the biggest thing for me is work ethic. Michael Jordan wasn’t the greatest basketball player in the world. There’s probably some kid in Chicago, in L.A., in Tampa, that had God-given talents that were beyond his or her wildest imagination.

But they didn’t dedicate themselves, they didn’t work as hard, they didn’t hone their craft like Michael Jordan did. If you want to be the best, you better be dedicated, responsible and disciplined about honing your craft.

You better be ready to make some sacrifices. If not, you’ll see less talented people pass you up. Are you willing to roll up your sleeves and do it?

15

MORE CHOICES Coca-Cola Co. recently announced a number of setbacks, including a planned layoff of 1,200 employees.

Sales are down 11% from the prior year.

Wall Street analysts say part of the blame falls on consumers trending away from sugary drinks.

Troy Taylor, with Tampa-based Coca-Cola Beverages Florida, says while that’s true, the company can do better job marketing other options.

Coca-Cola has over 22 “billion-dollar brands,” Taylor says, including many low calorie and lower sugar options.

“We rely too much on this (Coca-Cola). It’s a great brand, we make a ton of money from it, but we have a portfolio that is far greater than this,” he says.

“Let’s be honest, there’s a fair amount of sugar in this bottle.”

“We invest a lot of money in making sure that we have a portfolio that can answer the bell for consumers,” Taylor adds. “We have not done a great job of educating the consumer, to say, ‘Here are the choices.’”

Taylor, for one, says Coca-Cola Beverages Florida has a bottling line that whips out 700 to 900 bottles of Smartwater a minute. But many people don’t associate Smartwater with the Coca-Cola brand. The same goes for Honest Tea and Vitaminwater, a couple of Coca-Cola’s other big brands.

Taylor says the new Coca-Cola Co. CEO, James Quincey, will help turn that around, as he’s recently announced to analysts that Coca-Cola is a “total beverage company.”

Before You Sell The risk was yours.

The years of hard work.

And now the rewards.

Before you sell, let’s discuss how we can protect and grow your assets.

We understand business ownership.

You’re Why We’re Here.

We invite you to come in and visit with us, and discover the difference.

Trust & Estate Services | Investment Management

President

Not FDIC Insured | Not Guaranteed | May Lose Value 241233

Michael R. Dreyer, CPA

4488 Boy Scout Blvd #425 | Tampa, FL 33607 813.915.6202 | tampabaytrustcompany.com

commercial real estate

16

BUSINESS OBSERVER | MAY 12 – MAY 18, 2017

BusinessObserverFL.com

COMMERCIAL REAL ESTATE

Liberty Group closes $56 million hotel fund Hotel developer and investor Liberty Group has finalized its second lodging acquisition fund, with plans to buy select-service and extendedstay properties through 2020.

Liberty Hospitality Fund II LP, of which Liberty Group and affiliates K.L. are the singleMCQUAID largest equity investor, raised $56.3 million beginning in January. In all, the firm hopes to deploy $165 million through leveraging the fund’s equity.

The fund follows an initial Liberty fund, which completed raising $25 million in capital in 2014.

Since that time, the fund has purchased more than $65 million in hotel properties, including Marriott- and Wyndham-flagged assets.

The first fund, which acquired several distressed properties that suffered under last decade’s economic recession, has recently disposed of four of its hotels, in Charleston and Hilton Head, S.C. “The deals may be a little different now. We won’t be buying purely distressed properties, but we still feel there’s an opportunity to create value through capital and managerial improvements, which is what we specialize in,” says Punit Shah, Liberty Group’s CEO and the general partner of the second fund.

“There are still good opportunities, we just may have to look a little deeper and work a little harder to find them.”

Tampa-based Liberty Group has owned more than 50 hotels, containing some 4,000 rooms valued in excess of $425 million, throughout its nearly fourdecade history.

Northland buys targeted Pasco apartment

Northland Investment Co.’s $52.87 million deal for a 14-building, 311unit apartment complex in Land O’Lakes, on its surface, appears to be just the latest deal in a Gulf Coast multifamily buying spree that shows no signs of abating.

But the Newton, Mass.based company’s decision to acquire the Village at Terra Bella could signal an inflection point in the market.

That’s because Northland, a company that alSee COLUMN page 17

BY K.L. MCQUAID | CRE EDITOR

FILE PHOTO

SYD KITSON began work on Babcock Ranch, an 18,000-acre town in Charlotte and Lee counties, more than a decade ago.

The project was sidelined by the recession, but today it is among several showcase real estate communities moving forward in Charlotte County.

Stars

Aligned

Charlotte County is poised to become the next real estate mecca along the Gulf Coast, thanks to a handful of rejuvenated projects.

F

or years, Charlotte County’s real estate market was a lot like the “Island of Misfit Toys” from the animated “Rudolph the Red-Nosed Reindeer” Christmas tale.

To its north, Sarasota County collected accolades for its stellar beaches and created cities like North Port that made “fastest growing” lists. To its south, Lee and Collier counties boasted pockets of immense wealth and established sustainable communities with significant business bases.

During boom times, tens of thousands moved to the counties around it. Charlotte largely languished.

More than a decade ago, a few ambitious projects were proposed, but they staggered from the damage inflicted by the Hurricane Charley in August 2004 and again four years later, when the recession ravaged the Gulf Coast.

Babcock Ranch suffered from bureaucratic battles, hurdles of regulation tied to its goal of creating an environmentally sustainable town

It does appear to finally be coming around, and Charlotte County has the advantage of being a more affordable market than its neighbors.

Ashley Bloom | SVN national land and development services product council chairman.

and a desire to approach energy consumption differently than any other community in the state.

Murdock Village was crushed by immense debt and the inability of developers to gain traction once the recession took hold.

But today, with developable land to the north and south shrinking, land costs rising and historically low interest rates holding steady for now, Charlotte County is poised to be the next Gulf Coast real estate mecca, analysts say.

A lready, builders are work ing on the first homes and commercial space in long-awaited Babcock Ranch, and a buyer has emerged to purchase roughly half of the land in Murdock Village from Charlotte County.

Elsewhere in Charlotte County, Naples-based Lely Development Corp. recently bought more than 560 acres of land known as Tucker’s Grade just off Interstate 75, where the company hopes to develop as many as 2,400 homes and as much as 50 acres of commercial space with retail space and hotel rooms.

MAY 12 – MAY 18, 2017 | BUSINESS OBSERVER

COURTESY PHOTO

ASHLEY BLOOM, SVN national land and development services product council chairman.

Together, the three developments could add more than 10,000 new residences to the county within the next five years, together with associated commercial development.

“Charlotte County now finds itself in the path of growth,” says Syd Kitson, the developer behind Babcock Ranch.

“It’s picking up there even more than we anticipated, though we knew it was only a matter of time before people discovered it.”

Lennar Homes and a handful of other builders are working to complete the first slate of residences in the ranch early next year, and Kitson is readying infrastructure, completing a charter school scheduled to debut in the fall and constructing a business incubator and wellness center.

The ranch’s Founders Square, a retail and restaurant complex, opened last year.

Charlotte County’s pending success comes amid a confluence of events in

the counties surrounding it.

In the south of Sarasota County, for instance, the four-community West Villages has emerged as one of the fastestgrowing master-planned communities in the U.S. Last year, West Villages notched nearly 850 home sales, according to Burns Real Estate Consulting, which compiles an annual list of top master-planned community sales.

To Charlotte County’s south, Lee County land prices have risen dramatically, even as the county is slated to become one of the fastest growing in Florida in terms of population over the next two decades.

Collier County, too, has experienced a run-up in prices as the inventory of well-located property connected to infrastructure has eroded.

“In Collier County, we’re just about out of property to develop,” says Joseph Boff, president of Naples-based Lely Development Corp., which recently spent $6.5 million to acquire the Tucker’s Grade site in Punta Gorda.

“I’m hoping I’m not crazy buying that land, but if we can be the first off the highway exit we’ll be thankful.”

Boff says his development won’t be able to move ahead until utilities are extended to the site, which could take up to two years.

Meanwhile, Murdock Village, a longstalled new town that Charlotte County leaders believed could spur growth a decade ago, also appears to have renewed life.

Naples-based Private Equity Group has contracted to buy roughly half of the planned village’s land — about 400 acres — for about $11 million, officials say.

The company, which five years ago bought nearly 5,200 acres from Alico Inc. in Lee County, also will be required to pay for about $11 million in required infrastructure, says Ray Sandrock, Charlotte’s County administrator.

Officials from Private Equity Group, which is conducting due diligence on its planned Murdock Village purchase, did not return telephone calls for comment. If the company moves ahead, it is expected to finalize its Murdock Village purchase this fall.

In addition to roughly 2,000 new homes, Private Equity would likely build

transactions | DEEDS/MORTGAGES The following real estate transactions more than $1 million were filed in Charlotte, Collier, Hillsborough, Lee, Manatee, Pasco, Pinellas, Polk and Sarasota county courthouses. The information lists the seller, buyer, amount of sale, previous price and date, mortgage and lender, if available, address and book and page of the document.

CHARLOTTE Buyer: Bickett Holdings LLC Seller: James Bickett Address: 46481 Farabee Road, Punta Gorda Property Type: Orchard groves Price: $11,458,614 COLLIER Buyer: Radio Road Shell LLC Seller: Mahir Trading Corp.

Address: 7392 Radio Road, Naples Property Type: Retail store Price: $2,750,000 Previous Price: $3,200,000, June 2007 Buyer: Lucid Property Enterprise LLC

BusinessObserverFL.com

retail and other commercial space, hotel rooms and a visitors’ center as was envisioned for Murdock Village more than a decade ago.

“It would be almost the full concept of what Murdock Village was supposed to be,” Sandrock says.

Like Tucker’s Grade, however, it would likely be 2019 before Private Equity Group could begin constructing homes within Murdock Village.

Still, the movement has many real estate participants and analysts feeling more optimistic about the county’s chances than at any time in the past decade.

“It does appear to finally be coming around,” says Ashley Bloom, national land and development services product council chairman for commercial real estate brokerage firm SVN. “Charlotte County also has the other advantage of being a more affordable market than its neighbors.”

Homes in Tucker’s Grade, for instance, are likely to be priced between $200,000 and $400,000, Boff says. By comparison, the median price for a single-family home in Sarasota, Lee and Collier counties well exceeds $200,000.

“There’s definitely renewed interest in Charlotte County,” says Sandrock.

“There’s demand, certainly, but there’s also a confidence among developers we haven’t seen for a while.”

He believes the work the county has done in rebuilding Punta Gorda in the wake of Hurricane Charley and enhancements to the Punta Gorda Airport have boosted confidence.

Kitson, too, credits Charlotte County’s administration for helping create an environment for growth.

“Over the past 10 years the leadership there has done a great job of executing some very forward thinking,” he says.

“And it’s not just one thing, it’s been a series of things, from downtown Punta Gorda to the Tampa Bay Rays’ sports park to the airport to Charlotte Harbor.

It’s helped the entire county.”

17

COLUMN from page 16 ready owned more than two dozen Gulf Coast complexes from Fort Myers to Tampa, targeted Pasco County because of its high “affordability ratio.”

“Like a lot of investors, we’re focused on highgrowth areas, particularly along the lines of whitecollar employment, and Pasco and the Tampa suburbs certainly have that,” says Matthew Gottesdiener, Northland’s chief investment officer. “But what we like about that area, too, is that a majority of tenants are comfortably able to afford their rent.

“Buying there is absolutely a reflection of how we see the market today,” Gottesdiener adds. “We’ve seen such a massive run up in prices, and a compression of cap rates, especially in downtown and more urban areas.”

He explains the firm also liked Terra Bella because of its age. It opened last year.

“We tend to be long-term owners, holding properties anywhere between 10 and 25 years,” Gottesdiener says. “So we focus on newer built communities.”

In all, Northland has spent more than $630 million in Florida since 2008 to acquire complexes containing 5,400 units. Last month, the company also was ranked by the National Multifamily Housing Council among the Top 50 owners of apartment communities in the U.S., with 24,212 units.

BY STEVEN BENNA | CONTRIBUTOR

Seller: Bayfront Professional Center LLC Address: 1333 Third Ave. S., Naples Property Type: Office building Price: $2,565,000 Buyer: Dragon Goodland LLC Seller: Pelican Point at Goodland LLC Address: 613 Palm Ave. E., Goodland Property Type: Commercial building Price: $1,600,000 Previous Price: $1,225,000, October 2011 HILLSBOROUGH Buyer: Carlyle Tampa LLC Seller: Garros Carlyle LLC Address: 8415 N. Armenia Ave., Tampa Property Type: Apartment units Price: $32,225,000 Previous Price: $26,194,200, February 2015 Buyer: Tampa on 50 LLC Seller: C150 5005 Excellence BLVD LLC Address: 5005 Excellence Blvd., Tampa Property Type: Apartment units

Price: $17,556,900 Buyer: North Poplar LLC Seller: Wisco 7 LLC Address: 4111 N. Poplar Ave., Tampa Property Type: Apartment units Price: $13,150,000 Previous Price: $5,742,900, March 2014 LEE Buyer: Cole CW Fort Myers FL LLC Seller: Marks RV & Boat Sales Fort Myers LLC Address: 4621 Waycross Road, Fort Myers Property Type: Auto sales Price: $15,171,000 Previous Price: $3,500,000, December 2004 Buyer: Narayan Farm LLC Seller: Tropical Resorts Inc. Address: 3608 Del Prado Blvd.

S., Cape Coral Property Type: Hotel Price: $3,600,000 MANATEE Buyer: KT Lakewood Ranch FL Landlord LLC Seller: Kauffman Family LLLP

Address: 6008 Lakewood Ranch Blvd., Bradenton Property Type: Retail store Price: $2,911,800 PASCO NONE PINELLAS Buyer: Cats Red Apple St. Pete LLC Seller: Walter Bobbitt Address: St. Petersburg Property Type: Vacant commercial land Price: $16,500,000 Previous Price: $10,000,000 Buyer: TH Tampa 22nd Ave. LLC Seller: C&C S A LLC Address: 901 22nd Ave. S., St. Petersburg Property Type: Retail store Price: $2,500,000 Previous Price: $2,350,000, November 2014 Buyer: Aqua Prime Real Estate Seller: Between Waters LLC and Whisker Lickins LLC Address: 213 Gulf Blvd., Indian Rocks Beach Property Type: Restaurant Price: $1,800,000

Previous Price: $1,000,000, May 2013 POLK NONE SARASOTA Buyer: TDC Blackbird SCC LLC Seller: Osprey-Sarasota City Center LLC Address: 1819 Main St., Sarasota Property Type: Office building Price: $36,500,000 Buyer: Honore Partners LLC Seller: Lauren Danielson, Jane Briskin, Sharon Bozman, and John Glendening Address: Desoto Road, Sarasota Property Type: Multifamily units Price: $1,875,000 Buyer: Sponky LLC Seller: Domari Property Group LLC Address: 135Triple Diamond Blvd., Nokomis Property Type: Office building Price: $1,300,000 Previous Price: $350,000, March 2008

commercial real estate

18

BUSINESS OBSERVER | MAY 12 – MAY 18, 2017

BusinessObserverFL.com

COMMERCIAL REAL ESTATE

T

he Feil Organization took a bit of a gamble in 2011 when it bought the 15-building Baypoint Commerce Center.

The largely 1970s-era St. Petersburg office park looked run down from a lack of maintenance, recession-crippled tenants were leaving the park in droves, and a nationwide trend toward re-urbanization was breathing new life into Gulf Coast downtowns.

Six years and roughly $20 million in improvements later, though, Baypoint is toasting new tenants and higher occupancy. Most recently, accounting firm Spoor Bunch Franz announced late last month plans to consolidate offices from downtown St. Petersburg and Clearwater and move its headquarters to Baypoint.

W i t h S p o o r B u n c h ’s 17,950-square-foot deal, Baypoint’s overall occupancy now stands at 85% — up from 60% when New York-based Feil bought the 76-acre business park.

At the Glades Building, which Spoor Bunch will occupy by the end of the year, occupancy is now 91%.

“Once people saw the commitment Feil was making to the park, they understood, and that changed the ideas about Baypoint,” says Barry Hanerfeld, the Cushman & Wakefield senior director who represents the park for Feil.

“Every building was touched, and in some cases completely redone. And that’s because Feil has a very long-term ownership mentality, which is unusual for the Tampa area, where most buildings have historically transacted every three to seven years.”

As part of its renovations, Feil installed new landscaping and LED lighting, refurbished lobbies, upgraded parking, improved signage and added new sidewalks, benches and patios throughout the 700,000-squarefoot park.

Hanerfeld also touted the abundance of free, surface parking at Baypoint, which was developed beginning in 1971 just north of downtown St. Petersburg.

“Parking has become a challenge in downtown Tampa and St. Petersburg,” Hanerfeld says.

“There’s a real scarcity of it in some cases.”

Unlike urban office buildings, which typically contain two or three parking spaces per thousand square feet of rented office space, Baypoint offers five spaces per 1,000 square feet, he says.

As Gulf Coast office markets have tightened amid an improving economy and new supply has been scant — or in some cases, nonexistent — companies have turned to suburban parks like Baypoint that may have been ignored in a rush to city centers.

At least one key commercial real estate analyst contends the lack of new supply, coupled with returns that are slated to exceed those of asset classes like hospitality, multifamily and retail over the next three years will renew interest in suburban parks like Baypoint.

“Suburban office is poised to

BY K.L. MCQUAID | CRE EDITOR

New Again

A New York property investor bet right in buying and renovating Baypoint Commerce Center in St. Petersburg.

MARK WEMPLE

Cushman & Wakefield Senior Director BARRY HANERFELD has worked with New York-based Feil Organization to rejuvenate the Baypoint Commerce Center in St. Petersburg for the past six years. Today, thanks to a series of renovations by Feil and tightening inventory, occupancy at the 700,000-square-foot park has jumped.

Every building was touched, and in some cases completely redone. Barry Hanerfeld | Cushman & Wakefield, on Baypoint Commerce Center be the next asset class to experience significant recovery, because it’s been underused and under loved for the past three, five, seven years,” say Spencer Levy, head of research for the Americas for commercial brokerage firm CBRE Inc. Along the Gulf Coast, there are already signs that such a recovery is taking hold.

New Jersey-based Vision Properties, which acquired the 71-acre Renaissance Center in Tampa’s Westshore District in early 2016 for $108 million, decided late last year to push ahead with a speculative office building — the first major new suburban project in years in the Tampa.

Even more remarkable, Vision announced earlier this month that Auto Club Group planned to lease the entire 150,000-squa re-foot building for its Florida regional headquarters.

Vision expects to complete the Renaissance VI building, which will bring the park to 723,000 square feet, in April 2018. Rena issa nce’s ot her buildings are fully occupied by Capital One, which developed

the park, and WellCare.

“We looked around the market, and in terms of large, contiguous blocks of space, the more we looked the fewer and fewer we found in downtown Tampa or Westshore,” says Will Bertolero, Vision’s executive vice president of asset management, who is overseeing Renaissance VI’s development.

“So we decided it kinda made sense to move ahead on a speculative basis, because there was not a lot of competition for 25,000-square-foot blocks of space and above,” he adds.

Bertolero notes, too, that while Renaissance Center features abundant amenities — including its own food court, a 20,000-square-foot fitness center complete with basketball and racquetball courts — what also attracted A A A was the park’s 3,200 structured parking spaces.

Feil hopes to take advantage of the parking trend, as well, at Baypoint, its only Florida asset in a portfolio that totals 26 million square feet of commercial space in New York, Louisiana, Virginia, Washington, D.C., Illinois and Indiana.

“Baypoint had lost a lot of tenants prior to our involvement with it, and it was looking a bit rundown,” says Brian Feil, a Feil vice president and a third-generation member of the 60-yearold, family-owned company.

“We think Baypoint is a great piece of real estate, and we spent a great deal of time, effort and energy getting it up to our standards,” he adds.

W.G. Spoor, a Spoor Bunch Franz partner, says Feil did “a great job sprucing the park up.”

“The location was perfect for us, because we have clients in Tampa, St. Petersburg and Clearwater,” Spoor says. “So Baypoint was very central, and it met our size requirements.”

Spoor expects his firm to move into Baypoint’s Glades Building, a 71,400-square-foot building at 877 Executive Center Drive W., by the end of this year.

Hanerfeld says Feil is also actively working to attract larger tenants to Baypoint, a departure from previous ownership.

Spoor Bunch Franz meets that criteria, as do tenants such as Clear Channel Communications, Informed Medical, ValPac, Jabil Circuit, and others.

“Their objective is to provide space for larger tenants than has been historically done at Bay point,” Hanerfeld says.

“It had been home more to mom-and-pop firms, but Feil has really stressed the desire to go after the larger companies that are out looking in the marketplace.”

MAY 12 – MAY 18, 2017 | BUSINESS OBSERVER

BusinessObserverFL.com

bottom-line behavior

BY DENISE FEDERER | CONTRIBUTING COLUMNIST

Shift power successfully Guiding a business’s transition to the next generation requires clear communication and lots of planning.

Most family business owners know legacy planning is important for the long-term success of their business — but that doesn’t mean they take the necessary steps to ensure a smooth transition of power. What I see happen over and over are parents who invite their adult children into the business with the thought of grooming them to take over, but when the time comes, mom and dad won’t give up control.

This occurs frequently, even when a succession plan is in place, for any number of reasons. In many cases, the parents: n Realize they’re not ready to let go; n Don’t have a vision for what’s next for them; n Are uncomfortable that their children may have a different vision for the business; or n Have failed to manage expectations and communicate honestly about their concerns and fears.

In addition, parents often fail to differentiate between family and business modes, so they may find it challenging to trust their children to carry their own weight — even though they’ve grown to be responsible adults.

Unfortunately, in personal rela-

19

Expectations must be managed upfront, and parents and children should keep discussing the future.

Denise P. Federer | principal of Federer Performance Management Group tionships, we often get stuck seeing someone through the family “lens” of how we experienced them in the past, rather than acknowledging their growth and abilities.

That’s what happened in the following case: A business owner invited his daughter and son-in-law into the business but didn’t trust them, so he micromanaged and often usurped both of their authority. He had an issue with respecting boundaries — he couldn’t see past his “little girl,” even though she was a grown woman, and he underestimated the folly of trying to treat his son-in-law like his own child. This story didn’t have a happy ending, for the couple ultimately left the business.

I have also observed many parents getting “insulted” when their adult children want to implement changes or perhaps take the business in a different direction. Unfortunately, they perceive these suggestions as not only a lack of respect for what they have accomplished thus far, but a challenge to

their ability to continue to add value to the company. While this is usually a misperception of their children’s intent, these conversations can leave unresolved and hurt feelings.

Even when everyone involved is committed to a successful transition between generations, unforeseen and unspoken issues such as those mentioned can derail this process, often leading to disastrous damage to family relationships.

A formal family business succession planning process can eliminate situations like this by opening the lines of communication to ensure everyone is on the same page. Expectations must be managed upfront, and parents and children should keep discussing the future, hold each other accountable and engage in honest communication.

Parents must admit their role and start to let go, giving their children more and more responsibility. They must also be able to gracefully listen to any honest feedback they receive from their children, instead of being

Denise P. Federer, Ph.D. is founder and principal of Federer Performance Management Group. She has 27 years of experience working with key executives, business leaders and Fortune 500 companies as a behavioral psychologist, consultant, coach and trainer. Contact her at: dfederer@fpmg.info

hurt and defensive.

Some excellent steps to take as part of the legacy planning process include: n Focusing on increasing lines of communication and conflict resolution; n Creating a governance structure and hierarchy that clearly outlines areas of responsibility; n Creating a family mission statement to help guide decision-making; n Establishing an informal advisory board to help guide the business; and n Holding monthly family meetings and family management meetings to discuss issues and concerns.

Failing to have a business succession plan is a recipe for disaster, not just when difficulties exist between parents and children, but between siblings as well.

When values don’t align, it can lead to a lack of trust, poor communication about essential issues and avoiding discussions about critical decisions, which sadly leads to litigation at times.

The legal fights that can ensue when family business succession planning hasn’t occurred can tear families apart — certainly not what the parent-owner had in mind for his or her legacy.

227984

8x4

MARKETING **HOUSE BUSINESS OBSERVER 109259

infocus | marketing Looking for inspiration?

Check out local agencies’ best campaigns and see the latest industry trends.

Read It: June 2 Advertising: May 25

For advertising information contact Marisa Merlino at 941.366.3468 x381 mmerlino@yourobserver.com

HILLSBOROUGH

POLK

PINELLAS

MANATEE

SARASOTA

CHARLOTTE

LEE

COLLIER 227984

PASCO

20

BUSINESS OBSERVER | MAY 12 – MAY 18, 2017

BusinessObserverFL.com

OPPORTUNITIES YOU CAN BUILD ON VIEW ALL OF OUR LISTINGS AT

W W W. L A N D S O LU T I O N S . N E T

LICENSED REAL ESTATE BROKER

BEACHWALK PRESERVE

THE FORUM

RESIDENTIAL LAND | 93.43± Acres

COMMERCIAL PARCELS | MIXED USE

n

n

n n n n

1151 South River Road, Englewood, Florida 223± Planned Single Family Units Direct Access to I-75, Five Miles from the Site Within 2 Miles of Englewood Beach Price: $4,125,500 | $18,500 Per Unit

n n n n

SHOPPES AT PLANTATION VILLAGE

2800 Champion Ring Road, Fort Myers, Florida Highly Visible Property with I-75 Frontage Part of The Forum of Fort Myers DRI 14.75± Acres Total | Parcels range from 3.49 to 3.85± Acres Price: $9.50 PSF

FIDDLESTICKS PROFESSIONAL CENTER PRICE REDUCED

165,000 SF of COMMERCIAL | 33.91± Acres

COMMERCIAL ZONED ACREAGE | 2.56± Acres

n

n

n n n n

12171 Treeline Avenue, Fort Myers, Florida 2,400 Feet of Frontage on Treeline Avenue Easily Subdivided into Multiple Out Parcels | Potential for MF Convenient Access to I-75 and SWFL International Airport Price: $5,539,199 | $3.75 PSF

n n n n

13641 Fiddlesticks Boulevard, Fort Myers, Florida Zoned Commercial Planned Development Up to 29,100 SF of General and Medical Office Conveniently Located, 0.5 Miles from I-75, with Dual Access Points Price: $625,000 | $5.60 PSF

METRO BRIARCLIFF

SAN CARLOS COMMERCIAL

ESTATE HOMESITE | 20.11± ACRES

COMMERCIAL PARCELS | 8.4± Acres

n

n

n n n n

6228 Briarwood Terrace, Fort Myers, Florida 3.5 Miles from I-75 at Alico Road, just East of U.S. 41 Parcel is Located in the Path of Growth with Access to Everything Zoned Agricultural and Residential Price: $699,000

n n n n

16720 San Carlos Boulevard, Fort Myers, Florida High Exposure, Close to Beaches Uses include Commercial and Residential North 3.91± | South 4.49± | Can be Divided Price: $1,829,522 | $5.00 PSF

More Than Just Dirt.

W W W. L A N D S O L U T I O N S . N E T

Licensed Real Estate Broker (239) 489-4066

| 239.489.4066

232698

LAND SER VICES • MARKE T RESEAR CH • ASSE T MANAGEMENT • MARKE TING SPECIALTIES