Business Observer 4.16.21

APRIL 16 - APRIL 22, 2021 | THREE DOLL ARS

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

Strategies | Want to get to a yes? Say no first, says one banking executive. PG.7 PASCO • H ILL SBOROUG H • PIN ELL AS • P OLK • M A N ATEE • SA R ASOTA • C H A R LOT TE • LEE • COLLIER

BANKING ISSUE: PAGES 7-14

inside

JOINT EFFORT

PANDEMIC

Shot in the Dark

Some area companies find financial ways to encourage employees to get a COVID-19 vaccination.

PAGE 5

COMPANIES

Strength from Within

Fast-growing Tampa cyber security firm dips into big-league baseball to help its team hone a winning mindset.

PAGE 5

The Florida cannabis industry is a growinglike-a-weed, billion-dollar sector that’s missing one key element: banks. A few bold lenders embrace the challenge.

SEE PAGE 12

DATA SNAPSHOT

Business Boom

With a big lead over competitors, the Sunshine State takes charge in new business formations.

PAGE 6

BANKING

Nice Fit

By holding off on buyers that weren’t the right cultural match, Hillsboro Bank found a stronger partner close by.

PAGE 8

BANKING

Next Chapter

Longtime Southwest Florida area banker David Hall reflects back on his successes and lessons learned.

PAGE 10

COMMERCIAL REAL ESTATE

Puttin’ On the Ritz

Prominent Southwest Florida hotel and resort makes way for modern changes with extensive renovation project.

PAGE 16

REAL ESTATE Association celebrates top brokers, deals. 16 Firm acquires Bradenton apartments for $12 million. 18

Dana Chaves | SENIOR VICE PRESIDENT, FIRST FEDERAL BANK

Investor buys Pinellas office building for $6.5 million. 18

MARK WEMPLE

3 Iconic steakhouse co-founder cooks up key lessons.

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APRIL 16, 2021 – APRIL 22, 2021 | BUSINESS OBSERVER

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leadership matters

SELL INVESTMENT PROPERTY

BY MARK GORDON MANAGING EDITOR

NO RULES, JUST RIGHT

C

hris Sullivan, a co-founder and former CEO of some of the most prominent global restaurant brands of the last 30 years — Outback Steakhouse and Carrabba’s Italian Grill among them — chuckles at the question: What are some of the biggest mistakes you have made in your career you turned into lessons learned?

“How much time do you have?” Sullivan, 73, quips back in a recent Zoom interview.

Over an hour-long chat Sullivan mentions two of his biggest mistakes, or for the golf aficionado he is, mulligans, the decisions he wish he could do over.

One involved Carmel Café and Wine Bar, a casualdining Mediterranean chain Sullivan founded in 2010 with his son Alex Sullivan. The catch with Carmel was customers could order with a tableside iPad tablet-ordering system. The concept grew to eight locations, spread from the Tampa area to east Manatee County. But by 2018 all but two had been shuttered.

The two core problems? One, says Sullivan, he went oh-for-three on hiring a director of operations for the chain, someone who could grow the concept and find the right people. Second, he says, is they were too far in front of the technology to make the iPad system work beyond a gimmick. “Opening a restaurant without having the technology perfect was one of the dumbest thing I’ve ever done,” Sullivan says.

A second mistake, or regret, says Sullivan, similar to Carmel Café was with Carrabba’s, where development of new locations outpaced the company’s

NO ‘I’ IN WE In October 1992, Sullivan and his founding partners, backed by DeCotiis, came up with five principles to guide Outback. Sullivan, Bob Basham, Tim Gannon and Trudy Cooper founded Outback in 1988 in Tampa. The five principles the team came up with include: n Hospitality is giving for the sake of giving, rather than for the sake of gaining. It is giving to people beyond what is expected of us; it is sincerely saying please and thank you and our willingness to help them in tangible ways. It is being genuinely concerned and actionoriented toward their comfort and well-being; n Sharing is inviting people to participate in the fruits of our success. It includes sharing dollars, responsibility, authority and accountability. It is “we” made it happen rather than “I” made it happen; n Quality is having a purpose and always working to improve. It is atten-

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ability to staff it with the right managers. “We went too fast it,” Sullivan tells me. “It was more complicated then we thought it was going to be.”

Mistakes can certainly become good lessons. But a conversation with Sullivan about what he looks for in a good leader — trust, integrity and ethics are paramount, he says — also reveals one of his biggest lessons comes from a triumph.

That triumph is a document — the Outback Steakhouse Principles and Beliefs. While nearly 30 years old, the five-page principles and beliefs, written with industrial and organizational psychologist Tom DeCotiis, is relevant today for any business, from startup to established firm. The company DeCotiis co-founded, Colorado Springs-based Corvirtus, has worked with businesses nationwide on leadership and culture.

Locally it’s helped Tampa-based restaurant chain PDQ and insurance firm BKS Partners create core philosophy documents.

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4 topstories from BusinessObserverFL.com

BUSINESS OBSERVER | APRIL 16, 2021 – APRIL 22, 2021

BusinessObserverFL.com

SARASOTA-MANATEE

Foundation hires former official Cheri Coryea, who stepped down as Manatee County administrator Feb. 23 after a contentious period with county commissioners, has been named an initiative consultant at the Patterson Foundation, an endowed charitable entity with some $240 million in assets.

Coreya, according to a statement, will collaborate with the foundation’s staff members and other consultants on three initiatives strengthening individuals, organizations, and communities across Charlotte, DeSoto, Manatee and Sarasota counties. She will work directly with the foundation’s Suncoast Campaign for GradeLevel Reading, Digital Access for All and Suncoast Villages initiatives, the release states.

Construction begins on medical complex One of the largest construction projects of the past year in the Bradenton area is underway, with the groundbreaking of Coastal Orthopedics’ future headquarters.

The 88,000-square-foot, two-story complex and medical facility will house clinical services, an ambulatory surgery center, physical therapy department, administrative

quote of theweek We’ve had literally dozens of financial institutions make offers to buy us. We’ve had a lot of people kick the tires, and it wears you out.

Mike Ward | Hillsboro Bank SEE PAGE 8

offices and diagnostic imaging services, including digital x-rays and magnetic resonance imaging (MRI), among other services, according to a statement. The concrete foundation will be poured in the coming weeks, the release adds, and the project is expected to be completed in spring 2022.

CHARLOTTE-LEE-COLLIER

Flooring companies announce partner

TAMPA BAY

Steve’s Supreme Flooring Inc. and Unique Wood Flooring Co. named Travis Brown a shareholder of both Naples-based companies.

In addition to his new role as shareholder, Brown was also named vice president of operations, according to a statement. He will collaborate with President and Founder Steve Karterouliotis to carry out all operations of both companies, the release adds.

Developers add pair of buildings The developers of Hope Preserve, a mixed-used project in central Fort Myers that includes a medical facility and a hotel, are adding two new office buildings to the project.

One building will consist of a 20,000-square-foot, twostory professional office that will be the new headquarters for Stevens Construction Inc.,

according to a statement. The other building is a planned 27,000-square-foot, two-story specialized medical office, the release adds. The buildings are on a 3.73-acre parcel fronting Metro Parkway, and will be built by Stevens Construction.

Hope Preserve is at the Northeast corner of Metro Parkway and Ben C Pratt/6 Mile Cypress Parkway.

Investment firm brings in new official Anzu Partners named William Strong, a former Morgan Stanley Vice Chairman and Co-CEO of the New York investment giant’s Asia Pacific region, as a partner in the firm’s Tampa office.

In his new role, Strong will spearhead strategic transactions and join Anzu’s investment committee. He will be one of six partners at Anzu, which was founded in 2014 and today manages in excess of $400 million in capital.

Strong joins Anzu with more than four decades of investment, capital markets and transactional experience. He spent more than half of that time at Morgan Stanley, where he most recently served as a member of its Global Management Committee and Co-CEO for its Asia Pacific Region, working in Hong Kong.

BY THE NUMBERS 78

Branches of Conway, Arkansas-based Centennial Bank David Druey oversees across Florida PAGE 7

8%

Return on equity at Plant City-based Hillsboro Bank through the end of 2020 PAGE 8

$612 million Total assets through Dec. 31 at Sanibel Captiva Community Bank, where co-founder, COO and CFO David Hall recently retired PAGE 10

650

Cannabis, CBD and hemprelated business accounts Lake City-based First Federal works with PAGE 12

$50 million

Estimated cost of renovations underway The Ritz-Carlton Naples and its sister golf resort PAGE 16

Our top commercial sales year-to-date

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CoffeeTalk Big hitter ReliaQuest, one of the largest, and fastest-growing, tech and cybersecurity companies in the region, is taking a swing at becoming an even better firm —at least on the mental side of business.

The Tampa-based firm is doing that with Derin McMains, a former professional baseball player and mental performance coach for several big-league teams. McMains, whose psychological theories and applied mental skills practices helped the San Francisco Giants win three World Series titles in five years, was recently named director of mental conditioning at ReliaQuest.

“Whether in sports or business, a mindset-focused approach to performance simply works, and it’s an initiative that has fueled ReliaQuest’s rapid growth,” ReliaQuest CEO Brian Murphy says in a statement. “After consulting with us and driving impactful results, it’s a natural progression for Derin to join us full-time.”

McMains has worked for the Arizona Diamondbacks, San Francisco Giants and Seattle Mariners, among other organizations outside baseball, the release states. He focuses his mental conditioning work on three key areas at ReliaQuest, where the company’s GreyMatter platform has led to 450% growth in three years. The firm also picked up a $330 million investment last summer, led by global private equity giant KKR. McMains’ focus at ReliaQuest includes:

COURTESY

DERIN MCMAINS n● Teaching the psychological components of high performance, centered around ReliaQuest’s core values of adaptability, accountability, focus and helpfulness; n● Driving mindset messaging across the organization, including finding creative ways to communicate the mindset professionals should strive for each day, and being intentional about setting minds to focus on the controllable; n● Supporting ReliaQuest to clarify strategy, processes and communications to achieve goals, while developing long-term habits that drive consistency in execution.

McMains will report directly to Murphy. “I’ve spent the last 20 years in some of the most high-pressure environments and I’ve learned that it’s your mind that takes you from good to great,” McMains says in the statement. “Training your mind is the separator at the highest levels.”

BusinessObserverFL.com

5

Shot in the arm Incentives to encourage more people — either as employees or citizens — to get a COVID-19 vaccine is a becoming a bit of a cottage industry.

Krispy Kreme Doughnuts, for one, made national headlines by offering a doughnut a day for the rest of the 2021 with proof of a COVID-19 vaccine. A movie theater in Cleveland, meanwhile, Chagrin Cinemas, is giving out free popcorn through April to vaccinated moviegoers, according to a CNBC report. And one of the quirkier get-the-vaccine incentives comes courtesy of the Greenhouse of Walled Lake marijuana dispensary in Michigan, where anyone over 21 with proof of vaccination can get a free pre-rolled joint. The dispensary calls the incentive “pots for shots.”

Some local entities are getting in on incentives as well. One of the big ones, Lakeland-based grocer Publix, is offering associates a $125 Publix gift card after complete vaccination. (The company, in a February statement, makes a point to say associates aren’t required to be vaccinated at a Publix Pharmacy to receive the gift card.)

“We care about our associates and customers and believe getting vaccinated can help us take one step closer to getting back to normal,” Publix CEO Todd Jones says in the statement.

Another employee incentive program comes from Naples-based Wire Experts Group, parent company of Pelican Wire, a custom manufacturer of resistance and thermocouple wire.

Wire Experts, starting March 12, has been distributing $150 gift cards to any employee who gets vaccinated, according to a statement. In addition to Pelican Wire, the company operates Rubadue Wire in Loveland, Colo.

“I am very optimistic the U.S. is on the right track with COVID-19 vaccinations,” Wire Experts CEO Ted

FILE

Wire Experts Group CEO TED BILL Bill says in the statement. “From the outset of this pandemic, we have proactively worked to do everything possible to protect our employee-owners and their families. So naturally, we are strongly encouraging every member of our team to get vaccinated. Our leaders are showing the way by being the first to be vaccinated and we’ve created the program to simply express that encouragement in a meaningful way.”

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APRIL 16, 2021 – APRIL 22, 2021 | BUSINESS OBSERVER

6

BUSINESS OBSERVER | APRIL 16, 2021 – APRIL 22, 2021

BusinessObserverFL.com

BELIEFS from page 3 tion to detail. It is consistently meeting and then exceeding our standards; n Fun is having a sense of humor, being able to laugh at ourselves and celebrate together; n Courage is living our principles and meeting our standards with absolute discipline while having a No Rules approach to customers. It is being focused on results, sticking to the core of our business and accommodating the individuality of our people rather than demanding that they accommodate us.

The “No Rules, Just Right” theme became both a famous ad campaign and an internal North Star for the company.

“That was for our employees to know we support them in finding a way to get to yes for customers,” Sullivan says.

“And it was also for our managers because we wanted them to find a way to get to yes for our employees.”

The kicker to the five principles is a reminder to keep the values front-and-center.

“We are a company of restaurants, not a restaurant company, and focus on individuals, individual restaurants, teamwork and success,” the document states. “We solve our problems with reverence for our principles and beliefs and the well-being of our people.”

CHOW DOWN Sullivan says his leadership style and dual focus on customers and employees stems from two key mentors in his

COURTESY

CHRIS SULLIVAN co-founded Outback Steakhouse in 1988. life: his dad, William Sullivan, and restaurant executive Norman Brinker, a pioneer in casual dining with Steak & Ale, Bennigan’s, Chili’s and more.

Chris Sullivan grew up in eastern Kentucky. His dad played professional baseball, and while not making it to the major leagues, the elder Sullivan later served in World War II, with the U.S. Marines in Guadalcanal. After the war, William Sullivan became an FBI agent and handled some notable cases in California in the 1960s and ’70s. “We had our battles especially when I was a teenager,” Sullivan says, “but I learned so much from him about work ethic and dedication.”

Under Brinker, meanwhile, Sullivan began to form the ideas for how he wanted to create a workplace culture that gave people autonomy, but also held them accountable. At Steak & Ale and later in the early days of Outback, he would observe nights and shifts at the restaurant, then review the staff. He aimed for at least four

positive reinforcement comments for every one stinger, and he also made a point to deliver constructive feedback about a situation quickly — a key leadership ideal. “Nobody wants delayed criticism,” Sullivan says.

Sullivan, who maintains a busy work schedule with a variety of entities he has a stake in, from Old Memorial Golf Club in Tampa to Metro Diner, considers Outback’s principles and beliefs a leadership career highlight. (Not far behind is the joint venture partnership model Outback pioneered, which allowed managers to have ownership in their locations, in concert with the corporate office.)

Sullivan addressed both joint venture partnerships and the principles and beliefs document in a column he wrote for Harvard Business Review in 2005 — back when Outback Steakhouse was in its prime.

“How did a 17-year-old company produce 20.1% sales growth last year while increasing its workforce by 15.9% without losing focus and control?” Sullivan wrote.

“By creating an organizational model in which managers in the field make most of the decisions, garner the rewards and live with the consequences. Almost all of these managers have come up through Outback’s ranks; they’ve done every front-of-the-house and back-of-the-house job there is. They’ve taught those jobs to others, and they’ve had instilled in them our ‘principles and beliefs.’”

datasnapshot Launch pad Florida is a national leader in new business creation.

Floridian’s apparently can see the sun come out amid an arduous time like the pandemic. One shining example: the state is a national leader in business creations in February, according to an analysis of U.S. Census Bureau data from marketing firm TOP. Residents in Florida founded 50,972 businesses in February. That’s 10,000 more than the No. 2 state, California, and 15,000 more than No. 3 Texas. It’s also up 46.5% year-over-year from February 2029, when Florida

50,972 34,792

California

40,730 33,849

Texas

26,485 35,682

Georgia

26,450 14,517

New York

24,694 19,893

Florida was home to 34,792 businesses. Only 11 other states reported more than 10,000 new business starts, and of those, the report shows, four surpassed 20,000.

To some extent, the report shows new business tallies is a Southern thing, if not in total in volume then in annual gains. Mississippi had the largest annual increase, up 103% to 5,022 firms.

Louisiana posted an 88.2% increase while Georgia was up 82.2%, for No. 2 and No. 3, respectively in percentage gains. Alabama at 72%, South Carolina at 69.3% and North Carolina at 64.1% are all in the top 7 in percentage gains. +46.5% +20.30% +34.7% +82.2

+24.10%

Illinois

16,752 9,744

N. Carolina

13,702 8,348

+64.10%

Pennsylvania

13,510 8,683

+55.60%

Michigan

12,559 8,055

+55.90%

New Jersey

12,468 9,484

+31.50%

+71.90%

BUSINESS STARTS Data is from February 2020 and February 2021.

2021

2020 SOURCE: TOP AGENCY

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APRIL 16, 2021 – APRIL 22, 2021 | BUSINESS OBSERVER

infocus | banking |

BusinessObserverFL.com

7

BY BETH LUBERECKI | CONTRIBUTOR

STEFANIA PIFFERI

DAVID DRUEY has been involved with Centennial Bank since its 1998 founding in Conway, Arkansas. He’s now Florida regional president for the bank, which had $16.36 billion in assets through Dec. 31.

‘Open& Honest’ Being upfront with customers helps build good relationships, says a longtime Florida banking executive. Picking up trash helps build even better relationships with employees.

BY THE NUMBERS: CENTENNIAL BANK, FLORIDA n Total number of Florida branches: 78 n Total Florida deposits: $5 billion n Total Florida employees: 674 n Bank has $122 million in deal closings in the pipeline from mid-March through the end of May for Southwest Florida.

SOURCE: CENTENNIAL BANK

F

or David Druey, sometimes the best answer he can give a client is “a quick no.” Over his more than two decades with Centennial Bank, including the last several as the bank’s Florida regional president, he’s learned a fast response can help everyone move on to the next thing.

“Everybody’s busy; everyone has lots of things to do,” he says.

“A quick no is probably more appreciated than anything.”

That doesn’t mean a no is always the end of Druey’s relationship with a customer.

Sometimes it’s a step to the next option that could result in a yes.

“That’s how I’ve created a lot of my relationships, being able to say I can’t do it this way, but I can do it this way,” says Druey, 48. “That creates that feeling of I’m not going to string you along.

Banks tend to string people along and then not get the loan done. To me if you can do the loan, great. But if you can’t do the loan, tell the person.”

Those strong relationships

AT A GLANCE BUYING BINGE Centennial Bank has acquired a handful of banks in the region in the past decade.

ACQUIRED BANK TRANSACTION DATE Heritage Bank of Florida, Lutz 2012 Florida Traditions Bank, Dade City 2014 Florida Business BancGroup, Tampa (Bay Cities Bank) 2015 Bank of Commerce, Sarasota 2017 Stonegate Bank, Pompano Beach 2017

PRICE PAID $N/A* $43 million $101.6 million $4.2 million $778 million**

NOTE: THE FEDERAL DEPOSIT INSURANCE CORP. ASSISTED CENTENNIAL IN THE HERITAGE BANK DEAL. CENTENNIAL ASSUMED HERITAGE’S $222.5 MILLION IN DEPOSITS AND ABOUT $193 MILLION OF THE FAILED BANK’S ASSETS. ** WHILE STONEGATE ISN’T BASED IN THE REGION, THE BANK, PRIOR TO BEING ACQUIRED BY CENTENNIAL, HAD JUST BOUGHT SARASOTA-BASED INSIGNIA BANK.

with clients proved beneficial during the COVID-19 pandemic.

Druey could comfortably reach out to clients to see how things actually were on the ground compared with what was being reported on the national news.

And because he oversees almost 80 Florida locations of Conway, Arkansas-based Centennial Bank, a wholly owned subsidiary of Home BancShares, he was able to learn how things differed regionally or across different industry sectors.

He reached out, for example, to folks in the hospitality industry in Florida to learn what they were experiencing and how that differed if they were located near the beach or more inland. “If we didn’t have a relationship, you couldn’t pick up the phone and call those people,” says Druey, who is based in Fort Lauderdale but travels statewide. “And because we have that relationship, they felt open and honest to have that discussion with us.”

Over the course of his career, Druey has had a servant leader management style, jumping on whatever needs to be done regardless of title. In addition to the quick no, that’s been another

advantage in building a strong team. “If we need to get out there and pick up trash in the parking lot, let’s get out there and pick up the trash,” he says. “If we need to understand a project, let’s go see the project. Let’s get out and do the things we need to do.”

Druey has been involved with Centennial Bank since its 1998 founding in Arkansas, and he’s seen it grow from nothing to some $17 billion in assets today. “We’re able to do bigger deals and larger projects that we couldn’t do even when I first moved down here to Florida [seven years ago],” he says. “And we still have that community feel….We’re still doing small business loans in Southwest Florida. We’re still doing all the things we were doing as a community bank, but we also have the opportunity to do some very large transactions for some of our customers who have also grown exponentially in the Florida market. To have that scalability is important.”

Especially when you’re working in a place like Florida, where things like the population and property values are often on the rise. “The upward trajectory of

almost everything in Florida is unlike everywhere else,” says Druey. “The Florida market is not like any other market. It bounces back faster; the prices go up quicker. It’s definitely a wonderful market to be in, and you get credit for lot of things when it’s really just the state of Florida just being the state of Florida.”

As the world continues to recover from the pandemic, he expects to see an uptick in bank acquisitions, something happening before the pandemic.

“You might have some of these smaller banks that have weathered COVID-19…that might say this may be the time to get out and be a part of a bigger bank,” he says.

Centennial Bank’s last bank acquisition was Stonegate Bank in 2017, a $778 million deal.

Could Centennial be part of that acquisition uptick Druey expects to see? He’s got nothing specific to say about that. “But we have been very active in the past with acquisition of banks,” he says. “We are always an acquisitive bank.”

BUSINESS OBSERVER | APRIL 16, 2021 – APRIL 22, 2021

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infocus | banking |

BY MARK GORDON | MANAGING EDITOR

MARK WEMPLE

The Bank of Tampa’s BILL WEST, left, and COREY NEIL, far right, are looking forward to the merger with Hillsboro Bank, overseen by MIKE WARD, middle.

Spice It Up In keeping lesser qualified suitors at bay, a small local bank finds the just-right merger partner next door.

M

ike Ward calls Hillsboro Bank a plain vanilla lender, doing loans, deposits, CDs — the basics. He’s OK with that, serving businesses and residents in rural Plant City in east Hillsborough County.

The bank was founded in the summer of 1998, and has grown into $190.3 million in assets.

Hillsboro’s vanilla vibe is on the cusp of getting a lot more f lavor, given its recent announced merger with The Bank of Tampa. Announced March 18, the deal comes after a flurry of consolidations and mergers in banking, especially prior to the pandemic. The Bank of TampaHillsboro Bank deal, signed off on by both boards, now awaits regulatory approvals. Bank of-

ficials declined to disclose financial terms of the deal, including book to value.

For Hillsboro Bank, the deal adds not only some spice to its services and products, by being under The Bank of Tampa, but is also an answer to a bigger problem: how to maintain its folksy, down-home culture without having to sell out to a credit union or larger out-of-state bank. “They are a larger version of us that can do a lot more things, offer different money management and other treasury services,” Ward says of The Bank of Tampa. Ward will remain with The Bank of Tampa as its Plant City market president, and will serve on the bank’s executive committee.

For Bank of Tampa, meanwhile, the deal is the first acquisition in the 37-year history of the $2.7 billion-asset bank. “We’ve been looking for a while to see what we can do as we come out of the pandemic,” The Bank of Tampa CEO Bill West says.

“We’ve never bought a bank before and we wanted to buy (one) where we didn’t have to go into it and fix it.”

In addition, Hillsboro Bank, West says, is a solid financial performer in what he calls an attractive market. The bank, for example, made the S&P Global Market Intelligence Top 100 list of best-performing community banks nationwide in 2018. The list looks at metrics such as efficiency ratios, loan growth and loan quality. Hillsboro posted an 8% return on equity through the end of 2020, Federal Deposit Insurance Corp. data shows, making it one of the leaders among community banks in the region on that metric.

The Bank of Tampa has had a loan production office Plant City for several years, and had been talking with developers about possibly building a branch in town. “We love the Plant City market,” West says. “There are thousands of businesses there that fit right in our wheelhouse.”

With that strategy in mind, the history of the deal goes back long before the pandemic, to when Ward was part of team that launched Florida Traditions Bank, in 2007 in Dade City, Pasco County. The founders sought a loan in the early days to get going — and got one from The Bank of Tampa.

Ward and West stayed in touch over the years and in March 2020, right before the pandemic, they had plans to have lunch — with what a merger would look like on the menu. Those plans were tabled until December.

Merger discussions with The Bank of Tampa, in addition to solidifying an exit strategy for Hillsboro, were something of a reprieve for Ward. He says the bank’s niche and strong balance sheet, combined with already having a presence in one of Florida’s most populous counties, has been a magnet for potential suitors for three years. “We’ve had literally dozens of financial institutions make offers to buy us,” Ward says. “We’ve had a lot of people kick the tires. It wears you out.”

Most of the suitors, he adds, seemed indifferent to Hillsboro Bank’s culture or history. “One was a credit union from New York,” Ward says, “and they couldn’t care less about Plant City, they couldn’t care less about our customers. They just wanted to get a foothold in Hillsborough County.”

Both Ward and West are excited about the possibilities now that The Bank of Tampa has that foothold. While 2020 — outside of PPP loans — wasn’t as solid as 2019 for many community banks in organic loan growth, West says the bank is poised for a strong run the rest of 2021. In addition to the Hillsboro Bank acquisition, the bank is working on expanding its presence in east Manatee County and Lakewood Ranch. It also plans to continue outperforming many of its peers, like Hillsboro Bank did for two decades. Says West: “We punch above our weight class.”

AT A GLANCE THE BANK OF TAMPA/ HILLSBORO BANK The Bank of Tampa President and CEO: Bill West is CEO; Corey Neil is president Year founded: 1984 Assets, 2020: $2.37 billion Revenue, 2020: $82.1 million Employees: 259 Branches: 11 Hillsboro Bank President and CEO: Mike Ward Year founded: 1998 Assets, 2020: $190.3 million Revenue, 2020: $5.58 million Employees: 25 Branches: 3 DATA IS THROUGH DEC. 31, 2020 SOURCE: FEDERAL DEPOSIT INSURANCE CORP.

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BY MARK GORDON | MANAGING EDITOR

Hall of Fame

money than we do as a percent of assets.”

some money to buy a suit.”

“I hit a home run,” he adds. “I hit the trifecta.”

Hall went on to have several other big hits in his career, helping take five businesses public and also helping some troubled banks overcome financial issues. In 2001, he joined Craig Albert and a few others to launch Sanibel Captiva Community Bank.

Hall was the CFO, COO and an executive vice president.

Hall and the team helped grow Sanibel Captiva from a de novo bank to one with $612 million in assets through Dec. 31. The bank’s return on equity ranks within the top 60 nationwide out of some 4,000 banks, and deposits have grown 26% per year compounded for the past eight years. “David has been my most trusted and valued partner for over 20 years, and has been instrumental in our establishment as a highperforming bank,” Albert says in a statement.

In a recent interview Hall, 65, spoke about the secrets behind Sanibel Captiva’s successes and his plans for the future.

Edited excerpts:

SERVICE MENTALITY: Like many community banks, Hall says putting a premium on superior customer service is another key to the success.

“Customers have my cell phone number, it’s not unusual for us to get phone calls,” he says.

“We try to have at least two people in the bank know each customer’s name — and (customers) love that. They love the attention. They like the quick turnaround. It’s not a 1-800 number and you have to wait for the music to stop playing before someone picks up from who knows where.”

We always try to find people better than what we need for that job and then we don’t micromanage them.

David Hall | Sanibel Captiva Community Bank OVERHEAD: Hall attributes the bank’s success in returns in equity and assets primary to “being very frugal,” on expenses and overhead. “My dad kept the air conditioning in the house set between 80 and 82 degrees because he didn’t want to spend the money to air condition the house below 80. It drove me crazy. We’re not that bad, but we are very tight with a penny. When we can save a dime, we save a dime. About 90% of banks spend more

NEXT UP: Hall and his wife are big travelers. They had plans to tour countries in the Baltic region in May. That was canceled due to the pandemic, but they rebooked for 2022.

They also are planning a trip to New Zealand and Tasmania in March 2022. And with a hole in May in the schedule, the Halls are now planning a driving trip along the Mississippi

River and Great River Road, from New Orleans to St. Paul, Minnesota. After Minnesota, they plan to head west to go to the one state Hall has never set foot in: North Dakota. “I like seeing new places, talking with people,” Hall says. “I especially like going with my wife — that makes it very special to me.”

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ongtime Southwest Florida area banker David Hall believes his first day at his first job nearly 44 years ago was a major stroke of good fortune. All the more so because that day was July 7, 1977 — 7/7/77.

A recent University of Florida graduate, Hall showed up for his first day at CPA firm Haskins and Sells in Miami enthusiastic but with little means. “I had $1.25 to my name and one suit,” Hall recalls. He had no idea how he was going to pay the $5 for parking fee.

A few hours into training, a supervisor with the firm, which later merged with Deloitte & Touche, asked for volunteers for a bank audit assignment. Hall jumped at the chance — and it was his first lucky break.

“This job had free parking — and didn’t require a coat or tie, which meant I could wear a polo shirt,” Hall says. “And they had an employee lounge and cafeteria, with free food for lunch. So for the first month I didn’t have to pay for parking and didn’t have to pay for lunch, and was able to save up

After more than 30 years of working in community banks in Maryland, including one sold in February 2020, John Wright and his wife moved to Southwest Florida. A seasonal resident for a decade and coming down right before the pandemic, Wright thought he would at least take the rest of the year off.

He soon reconnected with David Hall and the executive team at Sanibel Captiva Community Bank, who he knew a little bit from being in the industry. With the PPP loan program underway — and Wright getting restless at home — he and the bank started an informal relationship for him to help out. That turned into a full-time job, and now Wright is the successor to Hall, recently being named CFO, COO and executive vice president. “This is by far the best community bank in Southwest Florida from a performance level,” Wright says. “They were the first ones I contacted and the only ones I contacted.”

PEOPLE FIRST: The bank’s success beyond the ledger, Hall says, stems from hiring well. “The one thing we spend (more) money on is we hire really good people and pay them really well,” Hall says. “We always try to find people better than what we need for that job and then we don’t micromanage them. We let them do their job and have some fun at it.”

A banker reflects back on his long career in the industry — and the lucky break that got it all going.

RIGHT MOVE

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Member FDIC

Committed to our culture.

L to R: Alison LaPointe, Private Relationship Manager Nick Thurston, Plant City Market Director

Invested in our employees.

At The Bank of Tampa, you will find passionate people working together to always do the right thing. We treat each other with dignity and respect, we value promotion from within, we provide an unmatched experience to our clients, and we give back to our communities by donating time and resources. These principles are the very foundation of The Bank of Tampa’s culture. Bringing our employees together to achieve success—for each other, for our clients, and for our community.

813.872.1200 thebankoftampa.com

E M P LOY E E- FO C U S E D S I N C E 198 4 351551-1

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BANKING

BUSINESS OBSERVER | APRIL 16, 2021 – APRIL 22, 2021

BY MARK GORDON | MANAGING EDITOR

HIGH HOPES Most Florida banks avoid cannabis and related companies — given the obstacles and legal uncertainty. Others see opportunity in the mushrooming industry.

A

lex Levine knows what it’s like to be told by his bank to take a hike. Like the time in 2015, his Colorado retail cannabis business flush with cash from sales, when he sat outside an ATM shoving bills into the kiosk at night. Call it the dope deposit.

That was when Wells Fargo, mired in a public relations crisis with an account fraud scandal, gave Levine short notice it was dumping him, and his company, Green Dragon, as clients.

Levine, whose Denver-based business entered the Florida medical marijuana market in late 2020 with plans to open at least 10 locations in the state in 2021, says the banking scramble was a drag. “We had one year where we really didn’t have any banking,” Levine says, citing third-party lenders with double-digit percentage loan terms as one of several issues. “It was a horrible experience.”

Green Dragon’s banking is on better ground now — though Levine says it’s mostly self-financing its Florida expansion.

But Levine’s banking challenges are just one of multiple examples of the struggles people and businesses in cannabis and related industries — hemp and CBD products particularly — face in maintaining strong banking relationships.

The problem on the banking side is simple, yet tantalizingly frustrating: community bankers in Florida constantly look for underserved or underbanked markets to boost assets and deposits. Cannabis, with its rapid grow th and cashheavy nature, would seem to be a perfect fit. To wit: Florida processed $1.2 billion in medical cannabis sales in 2020 and statewide annual sales are projected to top $6 billion by 2030, according to a March report from marijuana industry research firm Leafly and Whitney Economics. The industry, the report also found, added 14,891 jobs in 2020 and now supports 31,444 total jobs.

Yet even though Florida approved medical marijuana in a 2016 amendment, possessing, using, growing and selling marijuana remains a federal offense. So banks that get into the sector take a big risk with auditors and regulators, including being part of any potential

MARK WEMPLE

TODD KLEPERIS founded PayZel in 2019 to connect banks with the companies in the cannabis industry. (Picture taken at Live Naturally, a company on Anna Maria Island with which Kleperis and PayZel has worked.) money laundering investigation. Several federal and state regulatory agencies have released guidance memos over the past few years that provide banks a bit of wiggle room on banking cannabis — while also creating a gray area.

Florida Bankers Association President Alex Sanchez addressed the situation in a note to members March 30, commenting on pending federal legislation called the SAFE Banking Act. The Secure and Fair Enforcement Act, it would provide safe harbor for financial institutions to provide services to the cannabis sector, including loans. A U.S. House committee approved a version of the bill in late March and it has some bipartisan support in the Senate.

“As I have shared with you in the past, a bank should be able to bank a legal business,” Sanchez writes. “In Florida now and in a growing number of states, cannabis business is legal but

most banks are hesitant, with few exceptions, in banking that industry … even FDIC Chairman (Jelena) McWilliams told us in Washington, D.C., last year, her examiners have to enforce federal regulations and laws, and marijuana use is still a federal offense.”

Despite the laws and lingering warnings, some swashbuckling Florida bankers and financial services entrepreneurs are attempting to fill the cannabis banking void. They are doing it slowly, yet sometimes aggressively, with a major time and financial investment in training employees, education and protocols. One reason for the intense training is to prove to regulators that clients and money the banks are working with are for legitimate, state-legalized businesses. It’s a dual goal: to meet current cannabis banking needs and also be positioned to become a market leader if and when federal laws are reformed.

We had one year where we really didn’t have any banking. It was a horrible experience.

Alex Levine | Green Dragon

EXECUTIVE SUMMARY Industry. Banking Issue. Contrast between federal and state marijuana laws create paradox for bankers.

Key. Bankers look to court clients aggressively, but with proper training and processes in place.

LEAD THE WAY On a national scale, through December 2020 there were 684 banks and credit unions that serviced the cannabis industry. That’s down from 739 in December 2019, according to a Financial Crimes Enforcement Network (FinCEN) report. The drop, the report states, could stem from some marijuana businesses closing in the pandemic.

Two of the statewide banking leaders in this area are Lake City-based First Federal Bank, a $3 billion institution, and Jacksonville-based Florida Capital Bank, with $475.6 million in assets through Dec. 31. First Federal has a branch in Apollo Beach and a loan office in Tampa, while Florida Capital has a branch in Tampa.

First Federal currently has about 650 cannabis and hemprelated business accounts. The clients are broken into tiers, says Dana Chaves, senior vice president and director of specialty banking services at First Federal. The first tier is companies that touch marijuana at some point in the supply chain,

See HEMP page 14

APRIL 16, 2021 – APRIL 22, 2021 | BUSINESS OBSERVER

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Trusted. Committed.

Banking Forward.

South State Bank and CenterState Bank have joined together to create one of the leading regional banks in the Southeast. As trusted partners, we are committed to providing more locations, enhanced products and services and innovative digital banking technology to make our customers’ lives easier and more convenient.

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AT A GLANCE BANKING CANNABIS

Banks/Credit unions actively banking marijuanarelated businesses in the U.S. Banks/ credit Year unions Change 2016 334 2017 412 23.5% 2018 551 33.73% 2019 739 34.11% 2020 684 -7.44% DATA IS THROUGH DECEMBER OF EACH YEAR; SOURCE: FINANCIAL CRIMES ENFORCEMENT NETWORK; U.S. TREASURY DEPARTMENT

HEMP from page 12 from cultivators to labs to dispensaries. The second tier, such as software providers, ad agencies and payment processors, provide products and services to the first tier.

First Federal works with Tier 1 clients in Florida and Arizona, offering debit cards, secured and business credit cards, treasury management services, armored courier services and some real estate lending. It also offers those services to Tier 2 clients.

A Bradenton Beach resident, Chaves, 55, gets several calls a week from people in cannabis asking ‘how do I’ questions — how can they get a loan, open an account and other queries.

Other calls come from people in

situations Levine at Green Dragon faced — clients cut loose by their bank. “It seems like there’s always a need we are trying to fill,” Chaves says. “A lot of customers need more and more services, but with the current laws it’s really hard to build a business around this, so we are growing it gradually.”

First Federal recruited Chaves from a likely source: Colorado.

That’s where she oversaw membership growth for the Partner Colorado Credit Union, developing a cannabis business plan there from 2014-2016. “First Federal has always been willing to take on clients in difficult industries,” Chaves says of the community-based mutual bank, founded in 1962. “We believe we have the compliance put in place to make this work.

We want set a foundation for this, not be reactionary.”

CAPITAL OPPORTUNITIES Florida Capital also seeks to set a foundation in the sector, with a concentration in hemp and CBD businesses; it hasn’t yet taken on any medical marijuana companies as clients. Stewart Baker, the bank’s managing director of specialty banking, electronic payments and prepaid cards, says the key difference is medical marijuana and recreational marijuana has THC. That’s the psychoactive compound in cannabis that produces the high — and what makes it illegal. Legal CBD and hemp products, while extracted from cannabis, have 0.3% or less THC. Baker, in banking for 40 years and with Florida Capital since 2010, recalls a meeting he had

with cannabis industry consultant Holly Bell in late 2018. Florida Commissioner of Agriculture Nikki Fried had just appointed Bell the state’s director of cannabis, a new post, and Baker was curious about the banking side of the business. “I came back to the office and told our team ‘this is a business we need to be in.

I think this will be a significant industry in Florida.’”

With potential clients in everything from hemp textiles to CBD beverages, Baker made a good call. Hemp and CBD clients now make up about 5% of the bank’s business, a figure Baker predicts will grow significantly, with two people in the bank assigned just to those clients. “There’s a lot of capital looking for a place to go,” says Baker, who, like Chaves, hears from several companies a week that have been neglected or fired from a previous bank or lender.

“It’s a nascent industry and we are on the ground floor. That’s why we have made such a big investment in it.”

ALTERNATIVE OPTIONS One of First Federal’s first clients in medical cannabis was AltMed Enterprises. Founded in 2014 in Sarasota, AltMed merged with Chicago-based Verano in late 2020. The merger created a publicly traded cannabis giant, with some $500 million in combined revenue in 2020.

While Verano President John Tipton, an AltMed executive who stayed on after the merger, says the firm has always been profitable, it missed not having a bank early on. “We (were) excluded from the typical bank

We believe we have the compliance put in place to make this work. We want to set a foundation for this, not be reactionary.

Dana Chaves | First Federal borrowing that all businesses like to do to secure funds quickly for expansion and growth,” Tipton says, adding First Federal wooed them in 2019.

A company like AltMed or Levin’s Green Dragon is what got Sarasota resident Todd Kleperis thinking about the financing side of the cannabis — but not through a bank. Kleperis moved to the area five years ago from California, where he had built a company, Hardcar Security, that handled armored security for the medical cannabis industry.

An entrepreneur previously in robotics, Kleperis saw the lack of banking services in the sector up-close with Hardcar. And like

others, Kleperis had also seen and heard the crazy stories of the underbanked in cannabis.

That goes from businesses that lugged backpacks of cash to check-cashing places to make payroll to a cannabis executive turned down for a mortgage when working in the industry.

To address the need, in 2019 Kleperis, 50, founded PayZel, what he calls a portal for licensed cannabis institutions to safely and securely bank cash, in addition to accessing other banking services. “If we had a funnel to drive all that volume down through the right banks with the right people, we’d radically change the way the financial system happens for the cannabis industry,” Kleperis says in a video promoting PayZel. The PayZel system, says Kleperis, uses artificial intelligence and partner banks to work with cannabis clients. He connects the sides and takes a fee through PayZel. With high hopes, Kleperis has invested his own money into PayZel, around $1 million. He plans to start a multimillion-dollar capital raise soon, possibly engaging with Tampa-based Florida Funders.

PayZel has a five-person management team and Kleperis hopes to hire more people locally to build out the system.

Kleperis has recruited five to seven banks nationally for PayZel so far, but for it to work long-term, he says he will need scale, and more like 50 banks.

Like many others, that’s the rub — and Kleperis’ biggest challenge. “Finding banks willing to do this,” he says, “is like finding the Loch Ness Monster.”

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THE TIDEWELL FAMILY OF COMPANIES

APRIL 16, 2021 – APRIL 22, 2021 | BUSINESS OBSERVER

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Pictured above (L to R): Ron Beck, Commercial Banking; Tom Martin, Senior Loan Officer; Ann Stevens, Asst. Financial Center Manager; Tim Self, Wealth Management; Dennis Murphy, President/CEO; Jeff Burkee, Commercial Banking; Tracy Wolfe, Financial Center Manager

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At Gulfside Bank, we think the word “community” still means something important. When you bank here, we know you. You’re our neighbors, our friends, and we care about your success. That’s what being a community bank means to us.

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Live here. Bank here.

commercial real estate

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BusinessObserverFL.com

FGCAR unveils Tampa Bay 2021 winners

K.L. MCQUAID The Florida Gulfcoast Commercial Association of Realtors (FGCAR) has given out its annual Pinnacle Awards, celebrating brokers and deals despite the impact of COVID-19 on the Tampa Bay market in 2020.

Nancy Surak, senior land advisor and managing broker for Land Advisors Organization’s Tampa Bay office, won “Overall Deal of the Year,” one of three top awards she collected, together with land deal of the year and top land producer for a national firm.

Cushman & Wakefield’s John Jackson took home a pair of awards, for “Overall Top Producer” as measured by volume and as top producer of industrial transactions with a national firm.

Wendy Giffin, a Cushman & Wakefield director, also won a pair of top awards, for being the top producer with a national firm in the office and general brokerage categories. Scott Clendening of Commercial Partners Realty Inc. also received a pair of awards, for being the top producer for office and general brokerage from a regional firm.

The “Investment Deal of the Year” went to KW Commercial’s Chris Nowicki, while the “Deal of the Year — Office” was given to Erika Thompson, of the Dikman Co. Ciminelli Real Estate Services’ Thomas Hernandez was recognized for “Most Number of Transactions” and Cushman & Wakefield’s JT Faircloth as “Rookie of the Year.”

Christopher Angelo, with Century 21 Elite Locations

COURTESY PHOTO

NANCY SURAK, managing partner of Land Advisors Organization’s Tampa Bay operation, won three top Pinnacle Awards from FGCAR for her work in 2020.

See COLUMN page 18

STEFANIA PIFFERI

JIM MCMANEMON is the area general manager for the two Ritz-Carlton hotels in Naples. He’s overseeing major renovations to both properties.

A pair of Ritz-Carlton hotels in Naples are planning and implementing major capital improvements aimed at modernizing the resorts for today’s travelers.

T

he Ritz-Carlton Naples and its sister golf resort are in the midst of a “reimagining” that will result in multimillion improvements including a new 14-story tower of suites, modern amenities and the most ambitious refurbishment to the two resorts in their 35-year history.

At the Ritz-Carlton Naples, upgrades at the A A A five-diamond beachfront resort are slated to begin in the coming weeks. When completed in 18 months, the resort will contain a new 74-guest suite tower that will be constructed in the place of an existing swimming pool.

The new suites will boost the hotel’s number of rooms and suites to 474.

As part of the estimated more than $50 million renovation, amenities will be added or shifted on-site, as well. An existing swimming pool, tennis courts and outdoor bar and grill will be relocated, and a new lap pool, private poolside cabanas and an expanded Club Lounge will be added.

“We’re calling it the evolution of an icon,” says Jim McManemon, area general manager of the Ritz-Carlton Naples and the Ritz-Carlton Golf Resort nearby since January. “It’s going to be a huge transformation but one that we think will fit in with the existing resort very well.”

The renovations, designed by Atlanta-based architectural firm Cooper Carry and Parker-Torres Design, of Boston, will mark the first time the 280 Vanderbilt Beach Road resort has received a major makeover since 2013.

As part of the upgrades, existing rooms will be completely redone,

COURTESY PHOTO

The Ritz-Carlton Naples, in response to customer demand, will add a new 74-suite tower to the adjacent hotel beginning next month. with new configurations, flooring, bathrooms, furniture and other fixtures, and bathed in color schemes of gold, creams, blues, greens and grays “reflective of the resort’s natural surroundings.”

At the same time, major renovations will take place at the hotel’s 51,000-square-foot spa, which debuted a decade ago, on-site restaurants and other amenities.

In the hotel’s lobby, McManemon says Tuscan-styled influences will be replaced by “cleaner lines” and more modern looks.

Meanwhile, at the nearby RitzCarlton Golf Resort Naples, hotel staff are readying a series of new amenities that are scheduled to debut on May 10.

Most notably, the hotel has been constructing a 14,000-square-foot “immersive water activity experience” with a pair of body slides, a tube slide and a 600-foot-long “lazy

river” since last summer.

Additionally, the 2600 Tiburon Drive hotel has added a 3,600-squarefoot event lawn and outdoor restaurant and swimming pool.

“The golf resort has proved to be very successful,” McManemon says during a tour of the beachfront hotel earlier this month. “But what we’re finding is a lot of families don’t play golf, so we wanted to open up the amenities to have the widest possible appeal to all our guests, while still accommodating the golfers who come here.”

There have been key personnel moves afoot at the 295-room hotel, too. In February, Ritz-Carlton veteran Jenny Piccione was named general manager.

Piccione joined the Naples resort from the Ritz-Carlton Orlando See RITZ page 18

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RITZ from page 16 Grande Lakes, where she had worked as hotel manager for the past four years and oversaw a $34 million renovation.

She had also worked at the Ritz-Carlton Palm Beach and the Ritz-Carlton Buckhead, in Atlanta.

The capital improvements come as t he pa ir of Rit zCarlton resorts in Naples are recovering, like most lodging properties, after being ravaged

by COVID-19.

Average occupancy at the two properties today is above 80%, up from an anemic 13% in April 2020 when the pandemic took root throughout the U.S. and disrupted travel and nearly every other facet of the global economy.

Both resorts are owned by Host Hotels & Resorts Inc., which spun off from operator Marriott International Inc. in

1998. Today, the real estate investment trust is the largest in the lodging and hospitality sector.

In all, the company controls a portfolio of 80 properties valued at roughly $13 billion, including the Don Cesar in St. Pete Beach and the Tampa Airport Marriott, according to the company’s website.

Rit z-Ca rlton, which is a subsidiary of Marriott International, operates more than 100 hotels in 32 countries and territories, its website states.

James Risoleo, Host Hotels’ president and CEO, told investment analysts last December that the pandemic actually makes this “an oppor t u ne t ime to renovate the guestrooms and to make (r e t u r n on i nv e s t ment) generating upgrades to the resorts pools, pool bar, and restaurants.”

In descr ibi ng t he R it zCarlton Naples as among the

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: LMP Port Charlotte KOPC LLC Seller: WBF Florida Properties III LLC Address: 202 Tamiami Trail, Port Charlotte Property Type: Car dealership Price: $20,000,000 Previous Price: $3,100,000, December 2012 Buyer: BJs Wholesale Club Inc. Seller: Centennial Bank Address: 19150 Quesada Ave., Port Charlotte Property Type: Mixed use commercial Price: $3,700,000 Buyer: Charlotte Shore LLC Seller: GR Serenity Cove LLC Address: 25405 Shore Drive, Punta Gorda Property Type: Multifamily units Price: $1,200,000

company’s “top-performing hotels,” Risoleo also noted that developing suites makes more economic sense than simply adding additional keys.

Suites, he says, are “highly sought after by the hotel’s loyal customer base” and generate roughly $800 per suite daily — nearly double the revenue per available room (RevPar), a key industry metric, vs. typical rooms.

In 2023, Host Hotels’ investment in Naples is expected to generate more than $10 million annually in earnings before interest, taxes, depreciation and amortization.

That performance equates to a 12% cash-on-cash return, Risoleo told investors.

McMa nemon, too, say s that developing suites better accommodates the resort’s visitors.

“Often times we have families come here, or extended families even, and they want

to be together but they also desire some space of their own,” he says. “Suites provide that, especially for guests who desire to stay for a longer period of time per visit.”

McManemon believes the latest slate of improvements should set the tone for the hotel for the next two decades.

“Ritz-Carlton is always at t he forefront of prov iding luxury and meeting guests’ expectations and desires,” he says. “In Naples, this property has evolved over time to meet contemporary guest demand.

The spa and the members club here were part of that.

“Now, customers are telling us that they’d prefer to have more suites as a setting for their stays, and so we’re providing those based on our loyal customers’ input,” McManemon says. “I truly believe that these improvements will take us through the next 20 years here.”

COLUMN from page 16 Inc., won the top producer award for investment deals for an agent with a national firm, while John Skicewicz with Coldwell Banker Commercial received that award in the retail category.

Regional firm brokers Deron Thomas, of Industrial Realty Solutions; John Burpee of John Burpee & Associates Inc.; J. Michael Strahan of Eshenbaugh Land Co.; and Heidi Tuttle-Beisner of Commercial Asset Partners Realty all won top honors in their respective categories.

FGCAR was formed nearly three decades ago to promote commercial real estate agents’ work in the Tampa Bay area and to provide unity and support for those in the practice regionally.

The group intends to hold an awards ceremony April 29.

BY STEVEN BENNA | CONTRIBUTOR

COLLIER Buyer: Project Asteroid Fund V LLC Seller: Walgreen Co. Address: 1450 Immokalee Drive, Immokalee Property Type: Retail store Price: $4,076,857 Previous Price: $2,772,300, June 2000

Buyer: Project Asteroid Fund V LLC Seller: Walgreen Co. Address: 15900 Summerlin Road, Fort Myers Property Type: Retail store Price: $5,175,000 Previous Price: $235,300, January 2002 Buyer: Project Asteroid Fund V LLC Seller: Walgreen Co. Address: 11494 Bonita Beach Road S.E., Bonita Springs Property Type: Retail store Price: $5,092,500 Previous Price: $540,000, April 2004

HILLSBOROUGH Buyer: Buyer: Life Storage LP Seller: Big Jim IX LLC Address: Tampa Property Type: Commercial Price: $5,315,000 Buyer: Beyham Trust LLC Seller: G Rack Fields LLC Address: 5210 S. Causeway Blvd., Tampa Property Type: Manufacturing plant Price: $4,075,000

MANATEE Buyer: PEDCOR Housing Corp.

Seller: Palms at Cortez LLC Address: 3810 5th St. E., Bradenton Property Type: Apartment units Price: $12,050,000 Previous Price: $6,300,000, March 2016

Buyer: LGI Homes Florida LLC Seller: GSN Development Co. Address: Tampa Property Type: Vacant land Price: $3,278,000

Buyer: Southwest Florida Build to Rent LLC Seller: SMR North 70 LLC Address: Not listed Property Type: Vacant land Price: $6,336,000

LEE Buyer: LMP Cape Coral KOCC LLC Seller: WBF Florida Properties LLC Address: 443 N.E. Pine Island Lane, Cape Coral Property Type: Vacant commercial land

Buyer: Dobby MMH LLC Seller: 215 Gladiolus Street LLC Address: Gladiolus St., Anna Maria Property Type: Vacant land Price: $2,960,000

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PASCO Buyer: Project Asteroid Fund V LLC Seller: Walgreen Co. Address: 5432 Little Road, New Port Richey Property Type: Retail store Price: $4,521,900 Previous Price: $3,100,000, October 1999 Buyer: 6AZ TP4 LLC Seller: Windy Newport LLC Address: 4240 US Highway 19, New Port Richey Property Type: Restaurant Price: $1,415,000 PINELLAS Buyer: OHI West Inc. Seller: 2500 34th St LLC Address: 1800 66th St. N., St. Petersburg Property Type: Office building Price: $6,550,000 Previous Price: $3,180,000, May 2018 Buyer: Granite Lake Bon Bon LLC Seller: Bedrock Bon Bon LLC Address: 6190 62nd Ave. N., Pinellas Park Property Type: Mobile home park Price: $4,965,000 Previous Price: $3,600,000, September 2018

POLK Buyer: Ridgecrest LLC Seller: Aleeco Properties LLC Address: 40230 Highway 27, Davenport Property Type: Shopping center Price: $3,500,000 SARASOTA Buyer: Buyer: Life Storage LP Seller: Big Jim V LLC Address: Venice Property Type: Commercial Price: $16,902,500 Buyer: Buyer: Life Storage LP Seller: Big Jim I LLC Address: Venice Property Type: Commercial Price: $13,315,000 Buyer: Buyer: Life Storage LP Seller: Big Jim VIII LLC Address: Venice Property Type: Commercial Price: $6,065,000

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