2013 entrepreneur of the year

May 17 - May 23, 2013 | THREE DollaRS

PURRRFECTNext StepsTricia Bolds’ online pet supplies business has taken off in sales — now come the tough decisions.PAGE 7

NEW MARKETSAhead of the StormWhen the recession threatened his business, Brian Rist expanded his territory. Now he wants to do the same thing with his products.PAGE 8

TECHNOLOGYShip and SaveBlueGrace Logistics can save companies time and money on shipping. That offering has been a recipe for big growth.PAGE 12

DEVELOPMENTGood TimingBrian Stock took some heat for reducing home prices on the cusp of the downturn, but now he’s ready to build.PAGE 14

SARA-MANA WINNERSkeptics BewarePeople can second-guess his company’s products, but It Works Global’s CEO says the proof is in the sales.PAGE 18

LEE-COLLIER WINNERIn Good TasteAs foodies take over the nation’s restaurant scene, Innovative Food Holdings pushes to offer the very best.PAGE 20

Freedom | Politicians have buried the country in debt. Here’s how we can save it. SEE INSERT

DON’T MISSPAGE 27 Bay area execs change their networking scenery.

PA S C O • H I L L S B O R O U G H • P I N E L L A S • M A N AT E E • S A R A S O TA • C H A R L O T T E • L E E • C O L L I E R

PersistenceSteve MacDonald was fired from the first company he built. Turns out, it just gave him a new chance to shine. PAGE 16

Steve MacDonald | CEO, MYMATRIXX

PAyS Off

Billionaire businessman buys corporate headquarters in Punta Gorda. 22

Benderson buys TECO Plaza for $22 million. 23

Manatee’s Palma Sola apartments sell for $27 million. 24

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CoffeeTalkWell-known local commercial real

estate broker Mindy Kauffman is back in the leasing and selling busi-ness after a six-year detour — and she brings good news.

Formerly of Sarasota Commercial Management, Kauffman now runs Red Property Management, which handles leasing for several prominent downtown Sarasota buildings. (The properties include a building on Main Street where the Observer Media Group, publisher of the Business Observer, leases space.) Kauffman’s father is Dr. Mark Kauffman, a local real estate developer who has owned and helped build some of the build-

ings in what’s now the Red Property portfolio.

Mindy Kauffman sold Sarasota Commercial Management in 2007. She shifted to real estate consult-ing, with a focus on turnarounds and workouts. But now, back in the thick of leasing properties since January, Kauffman senses a palatable re-bound.

For example, Kauffman reports lease rates for some properties have retuned to pre-recession levels. “Things are picking up,” Kauffman tells Coffee Talk. “Rents are edging up a bit, especially in desirable locations. We are seeing more activity.”

Broker, back in action, sees good times ahead

See Coffee Talk page 5

The pharmacy business is fraught with danger, not the least of which is complying with complex gov-ernment regulations of insurance reimbursements.

The latest entrepreneur to get snared: Del Parrish, owner of Naples-based Sunshine Pharmacy, who fended off large-chain com-petitors such as CVS and Walgreens with his pharmacy’s customer service.

Federal prosecutors recently charged Parrish, 44, with conspir-acy to commit health care fraud. The government alleges that Del Parris and Patricia Parris, 73, con-spired to file fraudulent claims for government reimbursement from Medicare, Medicaid and Tricare. If convicted, each could face 10 years in prison.

It would be a shame if the alle-gations are proven true, because Parrish built a successful chain of pharmacies with a fleet of delivery vans for homebound customers, wholesale drug distribution to assisted-living facilities and home medical equipment sales through-out the region.

Sunshine Pharmacy reported $37 million in revenues in 2010, up 23% from 2009, according to the latest

available figures compiled by the Business Observer for the Gulf Coast 500, an annual ranking of the top companies in the region.

phArMAcY owner chArged

File PhotoDel Parrish

Metropolitan regions across Florida scored poorly on a new report that analyzes employee productivity and employee growth during a three year-period, 2009-2011, when the economy was supposedly in recovery.

The April report, from the Federal Reserve Bank of Cleveland, probed the growth, or lack thereof, in output per employee and the labor force increase in each metropolitan statistical area. The report is based on data from the U.S. Bureau of Economic Analysis and the Fed.

Two of the bottom five regions, out of the 100 largest MSAs in the coun-try, were in Florida: Lakeland-Winter Haven was last, with a -2.1% drop in combined productivity and total employment increase. The North Port-Sarasota-Bradenton region, mean-while, fell -0.4% from 2009 to 2011, according to the report, for the fifth-worst rank in the country. Significant-ly, the Sarasota-Bradenton region had 1.7% in employment increase in that time frame, so the drop was based on a -2.1% decrease in employee produc-tivity.

The Cape Coral-Fort Myers region had the eighth-worst rank out of the 100 largest MSAs in the U.S., with a

combined score of roughly zero, the report shows. The Tampa-St. Peters-burg-Clearwater region, however, by comparison to Gulf Coast and other Florida MSAs, was dynamic, with 2.3% growth in employee productivity plus employee growth. That was good for 74th place nationwide, ahead of Mi-ami-Fort Lauderdale-Pompano Beach and Orlando-Kissimmee-Sanford.

The explanation for the scores, the authors write, is essentially the old standby: Follow the money.

“On one end of the distribution are MSAs that continued to struggle with the effects of the housing boom and the subsequent bust. Metropolitan areas in the ‘sand states’ of Florida, Nevada, California, and Arizona populate this lower end of the growth distribution,” the report states. “The upper end…tends toward MSAs as-sociated with natural resource extrac-tion or high-tech industries. In addi-tion, several metros associated with automobile assembly also showed significant growth, as production of vehicles picked up markedly over this period.”

Sunshine state lags nation in productivity


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topstories from BusinessObserverFL.com

SARASOTA-MANATEEPort promotes three execs to leadership

Port Manatee, one of the larg-er seaports in the state, recently promoted three executives.

One promotion was of Senior Director of Business Robert Armstrong, who was named deputy executive director and will retain his chief financial officer post. Armstrong will be responsible for the port’s fi-nance and business activities, in addition to telecommunications and information technology, according to a release.

Seaport Security Director Frank Holden was named se-nior director of seaport secu-rity, and Compliance Manager David St. Pierre was named deputy director of seaport se-curity. Holden will be in charge of overall security and safety, the release states, and St. Pierre will monitor compliance with federal, state and local laws and regulations related to the port’s security and safety.

The port, moreover, an-nounced that Julie Yeh was named corporate communica-tions manager. Yeh was previ-ously supervisor of corporate communications at Sarasota-based FCCI Insurance Group.

TAMPA BAYLaw firm opens Clearwater office

On May 1, Hill Ward Hender-son opened a Clearwater office, to better serve clients doing business in Pinellas County, the firm says in a statement.

The new office is located at 311 Park Blvd., Suite 240, just west of U.S. 19 off U.S. 60, in Park Place, a six-story build-ing within an office park. “The new Pinellas County office will be utilized by many Hill Ward Henderson attorneys as they attend to client needs across the bay,” the company says in its statement.

Attorneys E.D. Armstrong III and Katherine E. Cole will head up the new office, in addition to working from the firm’s Tampa headquarters downtown in the Bank of America Plaza. The firm recently renewed its lease there for 12 years.

CHARLOTTE-LEE-COLLIERGovernment to spend millions on beaches

The government plans to spend $36.7 million on three beach nourishment projects in Lee County this year.

The largest project will be

the $21 million nourishment of 6.4 miles of beach in Captiva and north Sanibel from Redfish Pass to Bowman’s Beach. Fed-eral and state dollars will pay for half the cost of the project, which is scheduled to begin in August and be completed by the end of the year.

The next-largest project will be the beach nourishment of 3.1 miles of shoreline from 17th Street to Boca Grande Pass on Gasparilla Island. Federal and state governments will pay for 80% of the $10.5 million proj-ect, which is scheduled to be completed by Thanksgiving.

The third project is nourish-ment of one mile of beach at Bonita Beach and another mile at Lover’s Key State Park. State and local governments are funding the $5.2 million project scheduled to be completed in early 2014.

Low reimbursements hurt cancer firm

Radiation Therapy Services says a drop in prostate-cancer treatments and lower insurance reimbursements contributed to lower revenues and profits in the first quarter.

Radiation Therapy, which operates 127 cancer-treatment

centers in the U.S. and Latin America, posted a net loss of $19.4 million on revenues of $172 million in the first quarter ending March 31. That com-pares with a net loss of $8.4 million on revenues of $175.5 million in the same quarter one year ago.

Despite the declines in pros-tate-cancer volumes and lower insurance reimbursements, Radiation Therapy officials say they are hopeful conditions have stabilized.

“The declines to prostate treatment volumes from 2012 continue to improve, confirm-ing the trend we saw in the first two months of the year,” says Daniel Dosoretz, president and CEO, in a statement. “While we do expect these declines to persist in the near term, we are cautiously optimistic that they peaked in late 2012 and will level off in mid- to late-2013.”

Dosoretz says the company will continue to make acquisitions, including spending $25 million for two undisclosed centers.

Radiation Therapy operates 127 treatment centers, includ-ing 96 centers located in 15 U.S. states and clustered in 28 local markets. The company also operates 31 centers in six countries in Latin America.

what do 37.8% Yes

62.2% Noyou think?

quoteof theweek

“”That was the moment I realized, ‘Holy s**t, if I can do this once, I can do it a thousand times.’Matt Nachtrab | CEO of LabTech Software, on his company’s first big sale. SEE PAGE 10

Should Congress take action to increase oversight of the IRS?

Should women-owned businesses get special considerations or assistance?

Last week’s question:

Vote at BusinessObserverFL.com


1126

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Robert W. Baird & Co. does not provide tax or legal advice © 2012 Robert W. Baird & Co. Incorporated. Member SIPC. MC-36948.

As a trusted partner to businesses and families across generations since 1919, Baird has seen investors through many market cycles. Our tradition of excellence attracts the industry’s best and brightest experts who address the sophisticated needs of our clients, including:

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CoffeeTalkfrom page 3

Despite being an experienced man-ager, there may be a few things stifling your team’s progress —and they may stem from you. That was the message from Mike Staver, a leadership coach and CEO of the The Staver Group, dur-ing his presentation at a recent meeting of the Gulf Coast CEO Forum.

According to Staver the three things in the way of massive momentum in progress by leaders are: the need to be right, the need to be in control, and the need to be all things to all people.

If these sound familiar, don’t worry, Staver also shared some solutions.

If you’re someone who needs to be right, Staver suggests developing a mind-set of curiosity. He recommends asking your leadership team big, scary, uncom-fortable questions such as: “If we were

going to build our most lethal competi-tion that would put us out of business in six months, what would we build?”

For the person who needs to be in con-trol, Staver says: Let. It. Go. Some compa-nies have too restrictive policies that don’t allow for flexibility, others are too hands-on. There needs to be a happy medium.

And, if you’re the leader who needs to be all things to all people, Staver wants you to just say no. Choose what you say “yes” to carefully, but saying no is the first step toward communicating to your team where your priorities lie, which helps them do their jobs better, too.

Leadership isn’t for cowards

We’ll probably never know if Hertz ever considered relocating its corporate head-quarters to Cape Coral, but the city in Lee County isn’t exactly laying out the red carpet for new businesses or residents.

Hertz recently picked unincorporated Estero in south Lee County to relocate its corporate headquarters from New Jersey.

Meanwhile, across the river, the Cape Coral City Council recently approved a new 7% public-service tax on electric bills in exchange for a slight reduction in the property tax millage rate. On top of that, a consultant hired by the city has suggested the city needs to impose an undetermined “fire services assess-ment.”

So it’s understandable why a recent meeting of the Cape Coral Construction Industry Association with City Manager John Szerlag became heated over the

issue. Builders wondered why the city would impose new taxes at a time when the economy is finally recovering from the real estate crash.

Rightly so, builders were skeptical of promises that the taxes will help pay for necessary city services. And they assailed the relatively high taxes the city continues to impose on new construc-tion, also known as “impact fees.”

Szerlag told the gathering that lower-ing taxes on new construction hasn’t been considered. “I couldn’t recom-mend waiving impact fees not knowing what the alternative revenues might be,” he told the visibly agitated group.

We’ve heard enough government consultants and politicians promise tax solutions for ailing public finances. When that happens, we only have this advice: Watch your wallet.

Cape Coral tax plan: Watch your wallet

Who knew Fort Myers was horse country?

According to NBC Sports, the Fort Myers market registered the second-highest TV ratings in the country for the Kentucky Derby earlier this month. The broadcaster cited Nielsen ratings, which tracks viewer habits.

The No. 1 market, of course, was Louisville, Ky.

Bob Beville, the director of sales for Waterman Broadcasting, owner of the Fort Myers NBC affiliate, says

the Fort Myers market is a prime area for sports enthusiasts. The area always ranks in the top five markets for golf and in the top 10 the Olym-pic Games, he says.

Beville says factors for the Derby’s appeal included a slew of Derby-re-lated parties in the area. In particu-lar, he says there was tremendous interest in the female jockey Rosie Napravnik. Plus, horse racing is an affluent sport that appeals to the wealthier demographics of the region.

Fort MYers loves the ponies

Developers in Sarasota County won a small victory recently when county com-missioners, by a 4-1 vote, agreed to reopen Sarasota 2050 to possible revisions.

The 2050 plan, approved in 2002, was the county’s answer to urban sprawl. It was supposed to create a business-friendly atmosphere for developers to build pedestrian-friendly villages in un-derserved areas of the county, particu-larly east of Interstate 75.

But the 2050 plan, instead, choked development and growth. The recession, of course, played a role in the slow-down. Yet more than a decade after 2050 passed, only one project has been built through it: Neal Communities’ Grand

Palm in Venice.Developers, including representa-

tives from Lakewood Ranch-based Neal Communities and Schroeder-Manatee Ranch, the firm behind Lakewood Ranch in east Manatee County, spoke with county officials about the 2050 plan flaws. Some developers say the plan is too restrictive and the rules lack flex-ibility, especially in the types of housing and density limitations.

Commissioners agree. They directed county planning staff to study and pro-pose changes in the next two months. The county will then schedule a series of public hearings to debate the possible changes.

Sarasota 2050 plan faces possible revisions

To see clips from Staver’s talk, visit BusinessObserverFL.com.

viDeo


Welcome to the second edi-tion of the Ian Black Real Estate Property Guide!

Encouraged by the reception that our first edition received, we have made the commitment to publish the guide on a regular basis and have given it a new pro-fessional layout with advertising support from many of our business partners.

The positive response to our first publi-cation vindicated our initial thoughts that in today’s fast moving world of electronic communication a more tangible presen-tation would be appealing to those inter-ested in commercial real estate.

I am also pleased to report that in the first five months of 2011, our results have been more than encouraging and reflect significant increased activity. The com-

mercial real estate market is still coming to terms with the new market realities, the less bureaucratic in-terference with supply and demand, the bet-ter chance the market has to return to some degree of stability.

The increasing suc-cess of Ian Black Real Estate can be attrib-uted to diverse market knowledge combined with excellent team work and an unyield-ing commitment to serve the best interests of our clients. It is both exciting and hum-bling that our efforts have been recognized by the Greater Sarasota Chamber of Com-merce and we have been named as one of the three finalists for the 2011 Frank G. Berlin Sr. Small Business of the Year.

In closing I will again answer the ques-tion that I posed in our last edition and

Commercial Property Guide

Summer 2011 | Issue: No.2.11

2011 Greater Sarasota Chamber of Commerce Frank G. Berlin Sr.

Small Business of The Year Award Finalist

by Ian BlackIan Black Real [email protected]

Office Warehouse Retail

Front row: Debbie Anglin, Joni-Elizabeth Hoehn, Michele Fuller, Ian Black, Bob Granicz.

Second Row: Dottie Rutledge, Steve Horn, Marci Marsh, Nick DeVito II, David Greenberg, Jag Grewal, Alia Wallace.

one that I am asked nearly every day, “How’s the market?” From our perspec-tive the improved movement we have experienced since the beginning of the year is promising but the market is still strug-gling to deal with the new paradigms.

As always our team is at your ser-vice and we look forward to our ninth year serving all of your commercial real estate needs. n

1075 Central Ave • Sarasota, FL 34236 • [email protected] • www.ian-black.com

www.ian-black.com 941.906.8688www.ian-black.com

Welcome to the second edi-tion of the Ian Black Real Estate Property Guide!

Encouraged by the reception that our first edition received, we have made the commitment to publish the guide on a regular basis and have given it a new pro-fessional layout with advertising support from many of our business partners.

The positive response to our first publi-cation vindicated our initial thoughts that in today’s fast moving world of electronic communication a more tangible presen-tation would be appealing to those inter-ested in commercial real estate.

I am also pleased to report that in the first five months of 2011, our results have been more than encouraging and reflect significant increased activity. The com-

mercial real estate market is still coming to terms with the new market realities, the less bureaucratic in-terference with supply and demand, the bet-ter chance the market has to return to some degree of stability.

The increasing suc-cess of Ian Black Real Estate can be attrib-uted to diverse market knowledge combined with excellent team work and an unyield-ing commitment to serve the best interests of our clients. It is both exciting and hum-bling that our efforts have been recognized by the Greater Sarasota Chamber of Com-merce and we have been named as one of the three finalists for the 2011 Frank G. Berlin Sr. Small Business of the Year.

In closing I will again answer the ques-tion that I posed in our last edition and

Commercial Property Guide

Summer 2011 | Issue: No.2.11

2011 Greater Sarasota Chamber of Commerce Frank G. Berlin Sr.

Small Business of The Year Award Finalist

by Ian BlackIan Black Real [email protected]


Front row: Debbie Anglin, Joni-Elizabeth Hoehn, Michele Fuller, Ian Black, Bob Granicz.

Second Row: Dottie Rutledge, Steve Horn, Marci Marsh, Nick DeVito II, David Greenberg, Jag Grewal, Alia Wallace.

one that I am asked nearly every day, “How’s the market?” From our perspec-tive the improved movement we have experienced since the beginning of the year is promising but the market is still strug-gling to deal with the new paradigms.

As always our team is at your ser-vice and we look forward to our ninth year serving all of your commercial real estate needs. n

THE PLACE FOR SPACE

Celebrating 10 yearsof service to our clients.

2003-20131 YEARSCELEBRATING

Front Row: Marci Marsh, Tracy Page, Ian Black, Dottie Rutledge, Michele FullerMiddle Row: Debbie Anglin, Cindy Jean, Nick DeVito II, Melissa Harris

Back Row: Lonnie Homenuk, Jag Grewal, Kevin Peavler, Steve Horn


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Business investmentThe number of areas out of 22 statewide that

posted declines in business investment in February

compared with the same month

a year ago.

The average gain statewide

in business investment in February

compared with February 2012.

Punta Gorda’s rank in the state in percentage

gain for business investment in February

compared with the same month

last year.

economicsnapshot

3

1

3.8%

BY The nuMBers

Feb. 2012 Mar. ’12 Apr. ’12 May ’12 June ’12 July ’12 Aug. ’12 Sept. ’12 Oct. ’12 Nov. ’12 Dec. ’12 Feb. ’13Jan. ’13

$5.0 bilion (Florida statewide)

4.9

4.8

4.7

4.6

4.5

4.4

4.3

What the data shoWTaxable sales in the business-investment category in-

clude office equipment, computers, hotel and restaurant supplies, transportation equipment, paper and packaging, medical supplies and industrial machinery. The latest data are for February.

What it meansPunta Gorda, Fort Myers and Naples posted greater an-

nual percentage gains in business-investment taxable sales than the state (up 3.8%). Punta Gorda lagged the rest of the region in the recovery and starts from a relatively low base, so any increase is going to be significant on a percentage basis. Still, Punta Gorda posted the biggest increase of any area of the state by that measure.

ForecastBusiness confidence appears to be returning, though

the growth in business-investment taxable sales will con-tinue to fluctuate as entrepreneurs gauge their markets and consumer moods. Business owners are reluctant to take big risks while the economy continues to recover, so expect business-investment taxable sales to continue to post modest gains year-over-year.

Naples

Cape Coral-Fort Myers

Punta Gorda

Sarasota-Bradenton

Tampa-St. Petersburg

FEBRUARY BUSINESS INVESTMENTAREA BUSINESS INVESTMENT ($ in millions) % ANNUAL CHANGE

Source: Florida Legislature Office of Economic & Demographic Research

$542.8 1.7%

$115.5 6.0%

$22.1 16.9%

$68.3 4.3%

$136.4 0.5%


Although things have been tough with the recession, it has revealed businesses that have found ways to grow despite hard times and have adapted to the change around them. They are clever, tough and often counterintuitive.

Our selection process begins by asking entrepreneur-led companies for revenues for the past three years. Candidates must have revenue growth in each of the those years to be consid-ered. It’s a requirement that’s become more challenging to meet in recent years, no doubt.

This year, we spotlight winners in three revenue categories: $1 million to $15 million; $15 million to $50 million;

and $50 million plus. We also have cho-sen a regional winner for each area.

But we have to admit, it’s not all objective. We also look for a great story. We look for people who embody the entrepreneurial spirit, who have taken risks and done what it takes to make it on their own.

On the following pages, you’ll see both: amazing numbers and great stories.

Our overall winner is Steve MacDon-ald, who started myMatrixx in the back of a warehouse shortly after being fired from another firm he founded. Since it began in 2001, myMatrixx has grown from $267,000 in revenue to more than $72 million in 2012. Yet despite that success, his marketing director told us she had to beg him to wear a tuxedo last year to the Florida Ernst & Young Entre-preneur of the Year awards, for which he was nominated. As you’ll read on page 16, MacDonald bootstrapped the busi-ness, and grew it quickly.

But one thing stuck out in our report-ing. As he started myMatrixx, his third startup, MacDonald said he knew it was his opportunity to build a business on his terms. He was going to get it right for his company and his customers — he was going to run it the way he wanted.

That sold us. That’s what being an entrepreneur is all about.

— Kat Hughes

The motivation for Tricia Bolds to start her own business out of her ga-rage in 2007 couldn’t be

more altruistic.

“I wanted to be able to provide some-thing for my son,” says Bolds, whose child was a toddler back then.

Bolds still aims to provide for her son, but now, six years later, she has addi-tional motivations with her business, Sarasota-based Gulf Coast Pet Supplies. The firm sells and ships an array of pet products, from beds and bark collars to hound heaters and treats. Many of the items are hard-to-find products, some-times from overseas.

A dog owner herself, Bolds says an-other motivation is to continue to pro-vide a non-chain alternative for other pet owners. A final inspiration for Bolds, a onetime model who learned Web pro-gramming on the side, is in the last five years she’s become captivated simply by being an entrepreneur.

That captivation shows in the growth. Annual sales are up 117% since 2008, from $1.8 million to $3.9 million in 2012. And Bolds projects at least 40% sales growth in 2013 for the seven-employ-ee firm. “We’re slammed,” says Bolds. “Business is really good.”

So good Bolds faces one of a fast-growing entrepreneur’s biggest chal-lenges: How to spend less time doing all the things she used to do and more time on visionary big-picture plans. “We’ve become so big, so quickly,” she says, “that we are having growing pains.”

Bolds, for example, does the ordering and accounting herself, and usually does the re-pricing on the website. The last task has become especially labor-intensive because the company has added so many new products recently.

Help could be on the way. Amazon.com, where Gulf Coast Pet Supplies does about half its business, recently selected the firm to participate in a

beta program for shippers in the Web giant’s “less than truckload” category. That program, says Bolds, could save the company significant time on pack-aging orders.

Bolds’ passion for entrepreneurialism began, in some ways, when she was a young child at modeling assignments. She modeled into her 20s, and she also appeared on a woman’s pay-per-view professional boxing event. It was in those careers where Bolds first learned how to come back from rejection and stay focused on a goal.

She sought more stable work soon af-ter her son was born, which led to Gulf Coast Pet Supplies. The first product, which she admits was “was one of the goofiest things I’d ever seen,” was a Lit-ter Kwitter. Made in Australia, the prod-uct, which retailed for $60, was a three-step cat toilet training kit.

Gulf Coast Pet Supplies now sells thousands more products. Bolds bought a 3,000-square-foot warehouse/office flex building for the company in 2010, and she added a second floor to the cli-mate-controlled facility last summer. Yet the company is out of space, again, with new products coming in regularly.

To manage the surge Bolds faces a thorny entrepreneurial decision. A national products distribution firm recently approached her about a part-nership, where Bolds can use the firm’s warehouses in Buffalo and Las Vegas. The distribution firm, in turn, would take care of order fulfillment in the Northeast and West Coast.

The per shipment fee the company charges is doable, says Bolds, but the lack of authority over packaging gives her pause. Still, it would cut down ship-ment time to the West Coast by more than half, from five days to one or two, so Bolds will give the proposal serious consideration.

“It’s a little scary,” she says, “but it’s all part of giving up control.”

Follow Mark Gordon on Twitter @markigordon

EntrEprEnEur

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rEvEnuEs

EMploYEEs

Year Revenue %growth2010 $2.8million2011 $3.4million 21.4%2012 $3.9million 14.7%

2010 ’11 ’122.5

3.0

3.5

$4.0 million

$3.9 million

BUSINESSStartup struggles are so 2007 for Tricia Bolds. Now, with a company nearing $5 million in annual sales, she has other pressing challenges.

Mark WeMple

TRiciaBolds founded an online pet supply business out of her garage in 2007. That company, Sarasota-based Gulf Coast pet Supplies, had $3.9 million in sales in 2012.

Winner

$1 Million To

$15 Million

ByMaRkGoRdon

deputy

Managing

editor

BOLd

20102

20113

20124

Source: Gulf Coast Pet Supplies

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Every year, the editors at the Business Ob-server survey their coverage areas from Tampa to Naples in search of our Entrepre-

neur of the Year. And every year, the candidates reflect not only the ingenuity and entrepreneurial drive on the Gulf Coast, but also the larger picture of what’s going on in our region.

2013

Winners

BuSineSS

oBServer


Imagine you’re in the hurri-cane-protection business, but there are no major hur-ricanes for seven years. On

top of that, no one’s building new homes in a recession.

When you consider those factors, it’s a wonder Brian Rist’s company is still in business at all. But Smart Companies is growing because Rist responded quickly to changing conditions.

“You have to be willing to reinvent your-self all the time,” says Rist, 59, the com-

pany’s owner and chief executive.Over nearly two decades in business,

Rist has installed hurricane protection systems such as shutters and screens in the homes of more than 55,000 custom-ers around Southwest Florida. Until the residential collapse, most of Rist’s busi-ness was installing such systems in new homes.

So in 2007, when homebuilders halted operations in Florida, Rist started travel-ing in search of new business. He found it in Mexico, where his company installed hurricane protection systems at the Hotel Presidente in Cancun.

“One hotel led to another hotel,” Rist says. Plus, there was no competition. “We were the only ones down there,” he smiles. “We built a manufacturing facility in Mexico.”

The hotel business carried Smart Com-panies through the Southwest Florida downturn and allowed Rist the opportu-nity to broaden the scope of his services such as installing windows, lighting sys-tems and solar-energy devices. “If you keep fishing in the same pond and don’t catch fish, you go to a different pond,” he reasons.

“A lot of guys complain their business isn’t doing well, but they’re not doing the basics,” says Gary Hartman, who has sup-plied aluminum to Rist since he started his company.

Hartman says Rist grows the business because he’s not afraid to ask for refer-rals, put signs in yards where his crews are working and try new ideas. “If you take care of your customers, your business takes care of you,” says Rist, who grew up working in his father’s dry-cleaning plants in Massachusetts from a young age.

Indeed, Rist says 48% of his customers in 2012 came from referrals. “That’s the trick. If you have to buy customers every two months, you won’t make it,” he says.

Rist says the Internet has been a signifi-cant source of referrals, so much so that he spends $10,000 a month marketing on the Web. The company has nearly five full-time information-technology em-

ployees, including one who does social media full-time.

“Brian is the kind of guy who if he thinks it’s a good idea actually starts to work on it,” says Hartman. “He doesn’t have an ego about it. He doesn’t care whose idea it is; he does it.”

Meanwhile, new construction is roar-ing back. “In the last two months, we’ve seen more new construction than all of last year,” Rist says, though he notes that much of it is in luxury homes.

Although new construction is picking up, it’s nowhere near where it was dur-ing the boom. Rist estimates new con-struction is about 12% of his business today, compared to the majority during the boom. Yet Rist says he’s not keen to return to the boom years when he wasn’t so diversified.

In any case, Rist isn’t waiting for the next big hurricane. “The next major storm will be the energy storm,” he says. “Nobody believes the cost of energy will decline.”

Follow Jean Gruss on Twitter @Jean Gruss

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It’s all about the Numbers. 11

22

82

Revenues

eMploYees

Year Revenue %growth2010 $10.6million2011 $11.8million 11%2012 $12.5million 6%

2010 ’11 ’1210

12

11

$13 million

$12.5 million

Source: Smart Companies

entRepReneuR

of the

YeAR

Winner

$1 million to

$15 million

ByJeanGRuss

Editor/lEE-

colliEr

Brian Rist didn’t let the housing recession slow him down. When things got tough, he went to Cancun.

OpEN thEShUttERS

JimJett.com

BRianRist, owner of Smart companies, says rising energy prices will drive business in the years ahead.

201097

2011105

2012110


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That was in 2005, when the father and son launched Fit2Run. The idea was to build a chain of stores that put a premium on personalized customer service and offered a smorgasbord of athletic gear and equipment for all levels of athletes. “It’s like a candy store for runners,” says Bill Robinson. “If anybody has it, we have it.”

The chain, with a corporate head-quarters in Parrish, in north Manatee County, also has some fast growth. It has eight stores, including one at Coconut Point in Estero that opened earlier this year and another loca-tion, at the Dadeland Mall in Miami, which opened in April. Other stores are in Gainesville, Orlando, Sarasota-Bradenton, St. Petersburg, Tampa and Wellington. Combined annual sales at those stores have grown 183% since 2010, from $6 million to $17 million

in 2012.“The company is in a good position

now,” says Bill Robinson, and both father and son agree: A target of 50 stores, at an undetermined date, is an achievable, albeit wild and crazy, goal.

Yet Bill Robinson says Fit2Run’s success is somewhat of a surprise, at least considering the first year or two, when the business struggled to get in-ventory. And Robinson says a diverse product list, that includes rare items, is the best formula for success in the sporting goods industry. “Starting from scratch,” says Robinson, “was very difficult.”

The elder Robinson, however, tracked down an Asics salesman he knew from the 1980s, which got the company going. Fit2Run has since added dozens more products, in ad-

dition to a series of features to meet customer demand. Now the specially trained staff at each store tests and scans customer’s feet to perform a gait analysis and find the right shoe.

Athletic specialty retail was the obvious choice when the Robinsons launched a business together because sports has played a key part in each entrepreneur’s life. Parks Robinson played college baseball at the Uni-versity of Georgia and Valdosta State University. “I always thought I would be a professional athlete,” says Parks Robinson, who sold shoes at the Nor-dstrom in Tampa before Fit2Run.

Bill Robinson’s father, meanwhile, H.L. Robinson, founded Robby’s Sports in Bradenton in the 1960s along with Bill Robinson’s brother, Penny Robinson. That chain, partial-

ly under Bill Robinson’s leadership, became one of the largest athletic re-tailers in the country, with 49 stores and $70 million in annual sales.

The Robinson family sold the busi-ness to the Woolworth Co. in 1988 and Bill Robinson stayed on to run the business, now Champs Sports, for three years. Bill Robinson oversaw massive national expansion with the company, but he ultimately decided corporate life didn’t fit.

So Bill Robinson left Champs in 1991 and switched industries. He ran a successful tree farm, which grew to $12 million in annual sales, and he got into commercial real estate. Bill Robinson sold the tree farm business to John Deere around the time Parks Robinson, 31, came to his father with the idea for Fit2Run.

Bill Robinson, 63, says he has no re-tirement plans and he loves coming to work every day, but the business, for the most part, is Parks Robinson’s to run. “My role is to pass on what I know to Parks,” says Bill Robinson. “Parks is a unique son in that he listens. He takes things in, he thinks about it and he makes his own decisions.”

Of course, like any father-son duo, the Robinsons don’t always agree with each other. “But conflict doesn’t necessarily mean bad,” says Bill Rob-inson. “Conflict means creativity.”


Mark WeMpleParks robinson, left, and his father, bill robinson, founded Fit2run in 2005. The chain now has eight stores nationwide.

FIt to GROwA father-son business partnership started small, but has since found its stride.

They have ambitious growth targets.

rEvEnuEs EMploYEEs

Year revenue %growth

2010 $6million

2011 $11million 83.3%

2012 $17million 54.5% 2010 ’11 ’125

10

15

$20 million

$17 million

Source: Fit2Run

Conflict doesn’t necessarily mean bad. Conflict means creativity. Bill robinson | Fit2Run

“”

Bill Robinson had been out of the specialty athletic footwear retail business for nearly 15

years when his son, Parks Rob-inson, reeled him back in.

Winner

$15 Million To

$50 Million

ByMark Gordon

DeputyManaging

eDitor

Hear how the Robinsons make a family business fit to function at BusinessObserverFL.com.

vIDEo

201070

2011110

2012140


“We took a leap of faith with Con-nectwise,” says the 37-year-old CEO of LabTech. So the company moved from Toledo, Ohio, to Tampa in Feb-ruary 2010. “At this point, I know it was a good decision, but at the time, it was like going on a blind date.”

The strategic partnership provided the fuel for LabTech’s growth. Over the last three years, the company has grown from 59 employees to its cur-rent 210, and to more than $23 million in revenue. The partnership, which

was an exchange of an undisclosed amount of cash for equity, has faired well for ConnectWise as well, as it has grown from 75 to 240 employees.

“Actually partnering with someone in the industry, the amount of syner-gies was astronomical. That’s what exploded,” Nachtrab says.

Since he was 14 years old applying for his own vendor’s license to sell baseball cards, Nachtrab has always been interested in running his own business. “I like building businesses; I like building things,” Nachtrab says. With a bachelor’s in electrical engi-neering and computer science from Vanderbilt University and an M.B.A. from Indiana’s Kelley School of Busi-ness, he has used the coupling of a technology background and business know-how to make ideas a reality.

In 2000, one unlikely opportunity came along, when Nachtrab’s father’s company was in dire need of IT sys-tems support. Nachtrab, who was working full-time in IT, partnered with his neighborhood friend, Drew McCallum, to help his dad. From this first client, McCallum and Nachtrab formed Nemsys, which provides ser-vices for companies that want to out-

source their IT needs. In 2005, Nachtrab started to see a

gap in their business. Managing IT for a number of small businesses was dif-ficult; the tools available to remotely monitor IT for big businesses didn’t support managing multiple systems and networks. So Nemsys hired a pro-grammer to develop software that al-lowed them to monitor many small businesses’ IT remotely.

Greg Buerk, a Toledo programmer, developed a similar program after seeing Nemsys’ software. In 2008, Buerk went to Nachtrab to pitch his finished product, which Nachtrab re-alized was much bigger than Nemsys.

Nachtrab then formed LabTech Software LLC with McCallum and Buerk. Using Buerk’s software, LabTech offers a way for IT out-sourcing companies to monitor and troubleshoot their clients’ systems re-motely. This makes IT providers more efficient and allows them to help cli-ents more easily from a distance.

Nachtrab emptied his personal and business checking accounts, created a website, and bought Google adver-tising and a tradeshow booth. “Be-fore I knew it, we were getting leads

around the world,” Nachtrab says. LabTech’s first big sale was to a

Netherlands-based company. The customer emailed Nachtrab 45 ques-tions about the software. The next day, after receiving answers and a quote, the man wired a check for $10,000. “That was the moment when I realized, holy shit, if I can do this once, I can do it a thousand times,” Nachtrab says. Within the year, LabTech passed Nemsys in revenues.

Analyzing his competition, Nach-trab offered LabTech at a lower price to make the product more affordable for small business. He also began to build strategic partnerships with complementary products that he could integrate into his software, in-cluding ConnectWise’s professional services automation (PSA) software. He continues to build partnerships with other PSA providers, to gain a bigger share of the European market where ConnectWise doesn’t have a large presence.

Nachtrab forecasts the main gen-erators of growth through 2014 will be from international expansion and partner add-on sales, building off the revenue from existing accounts. For 2015, he wants to leverage his current market to bring his product to IT de-partments, moving LabTech one step closer to the end-user.

Both Nachtrab and McCallum con-tinue to own Nemsys today, which has helped them develop LabTech’s services. “We are our own custom-ers,” McCallum says. “We continue to eat our own dog food, so we un-derstand the challenges our partners face on a day-to-day basis.”

MARK WEMPLE

Matt Nachtrab, CEO of LabTech, says one of his biggest challenges is recruiting experienced IT talent to move to Tampa because LabTech is growing too fast to train people. His directors spend nearly 25% of their time recruiting and interviewing candidates.

IT BIz WIzWhen Matt Nachtrab realized other IT systems managers had an interest in his homegrown remote

management software, he knew he had a market. Now he pulls business from the big boys.

Revenues eMploYees


2010 $2.46million

2011 $12.68million 415.44%

2012 $23.09million 82.10% 2010 ’11 ’12

5

15

$25 million

$23.09 million

Source: LabTech

In 2010, Matt Nachtrab and his five-person software company were faced with a difficult decision. Nachtrab

always wanted to have full con-trol of his business, but he was invited to partner his IT systems remote-monitoring and manage-ment software with Connect-Wise, a provider of professional IT services automation software. The partnership would mean di-luting ownership and ultimately losing some of the control.

entRepReneuR

of the

YeARWinner

$15 MILLIOn TO

$50 MILLIOn

Bytraci

McMillaN beach

ContriButor

201059

2011108

2012152


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If you want to install an Imax theater inside your house (price: $2 million), give Joe Hi-eronimus and Dan Robbins a

call. They’re among a handful of dealers who can handle this task.

Or maybe you need to wire a commer-cial office building for lighting and secu-rity. Paul Caruso can help you with that.

The three entrepreneurs have been in-stalling electronic systems inside com-mercial buildings and luxury homes for decades, and they’ve always been successful, even in recent years. “We’ve grown in the worst of the worst economic times,” says Robbins.

Caruso, 47, Hieronimus, 54, and Rob-bins, 60, are co-owners of Pittsburgh-based Accent Electronic Systems Inte-grators and sister company Naples-based Advanced Electronic Systems Integrators. Accent ESI manages commercial custom-ers while Advanced takes care of residen-tial customers; the companies split into two entities last year, but they reported combined revenues of $22.5 million, up 22% from the prior year when they both operated under the Accent banner.

Success came because the trio made timely acquisitions of struggling compet-itors in 2008 and because they targeted commercial work in Pennsylvania and Ohio, two areas not nearly as impacted by the real estate downturn as Southwest Florida.

“Acquisitions were a part of the strat-egy, particularly in Southwest Florida,” says Caruso. “Our competitors were hurt-ing a little bit.”

In Naples, for example, Accent acquired Blue Kangaroo, a decade-old firm that

installed home-technology systems in high-end homes. These systems includ-ed home theaters, temperature control, surveillance systems, and computer networks. “There are some economies to being bigger so you can become more ag-gressive when there are fewer projects,” Caruso says.

But the trio still plans to grow their business and make more acquisitions, though the challenge now is finding will-ing sellers. “Our M.O. is to find the right guy,” Hieronimus says.

Meanwhile, as business was slowing in Southwest Florida during the downturn, the partners decided to focus on com-mercial projects in the Pittsburgh area. The Pittsburgh natives had done business there for years, operating prior compa-nies that they later sold. “We started in Dan’s basement in 1978,” chuckles Hi-eronimus.

Caruso, who oversees the Pittsburgh operations, says Accent has found a grow-ing niche wiring schools and universities. Increasingly, campuses are seeking sur-veillance and security systems to protect against criminals and violent intruders.

Bootstrapping young companies is what the trio likes to do. “You get to the point that you don’t enjoy what you do,” says Robbins. At one point, their prior company had 75 offices, 500 employees and was posting $75 million in annual sales.

Each of the owners has a particular strength. “Joe is more of our strategic guy; he is our planner,” says Caruso, whose ex-pertise is commercial sales. Robbins is the operations man and the one who owns the boat when they get together on the water. “I’m the best golfer,” laughs Caruso.

Follow Jean Gruss on Twitter @JeanGruss

EntrEprEnEur

of thE

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rEvEnuEs

EMploYEEs

Year Revenue %growth2010 $14.5million2011 $18.4million 27%2012 $22.5million 22%

2010 ’11 ’1210

15

20

$25 million

$22.5 million

Source: Accent ESI and Advanced ESI

WATCH THISA trio of entrepreneurs weathered the downturn by making strategic acquisitions and targeting customers in another part of the country.

Julia Rendlemannancy denike

aBOVe:DanielRobbins and JoeHieRonimus, owners of advanced electronic Systems integrators in naples, install home movie theaters and other electronics in luxury homes. PaulCaRuso(inSet) manages the commercial operations of accent electronic Systems integrators in Pittsburgh.

201060

2011100

2012120

Winner

$15 milliOn tO

$50 milliOn

ByJeanGRuss

Editor/LEE-

CoLLiEr


EntrEprEnEur

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Bobby Harris is running pedal-to-the-metal, full-speed ahead, to use trucking slang.

He has gone from dock worker at a trucking company following high school to founder and CEO of the 20th fastest-growing company on the Inc. 500 with 7,387% revenue growth between 2008 and 2011.

Riverview-based BlueGrace Logistics, a third-party freight and logistics pro-vider, is on target to hit $120 million this year, with revenue projected to triple in the next two to three years.

At times, the ride has been bumpy and unpredictable.

Five years ago, the entrepreneur owned 23 United Shipping Solutions franchises, a reseller of DHL services, and he was in the process of buying the franchisor. Collectively the franchises had about $8 million in annual sales.

“It was a very successful company. Everything was looking up,” says Harris.

But then DHL’s parent company an-nounced it was exiting the U.S. market, citing steep losses tied to the economic recession.

“It was scary. A lot of people were de-pending on me,” he says.

It didn’t take Harris, now 39, long to recognize a new opportunity.

Managing shipping costs is crucial to the survival of companies that regularly ship goods. For some businesses, it’s the second highest expense following labor, he says.

Harris had created BlueGrace Logis-tics (the middle names of his two daugh-ters) to hold the intellectual property rights to technology developed for his shipping company.

His team refined the software to en-able small- and mid-sized companies to find the most affordable trucking carrier by using a computer search similar to Orbitz. Instead of calling 20 or 30 com-panies for shipping quotes, the software provides an answer in 20 seconds. It also tracks shipments and consolidates the entire process.

BlueGrace had $18 million in revenue in 2009, its first full year of operation.

Harris, who grew up in Brandon and graduated from the University of South Florida with a bachelor’s degree in psy-chology in 2010, speaks modestly of his success.

He says his company is successful be-cause it helps other businesses operate more efficiently by simplifying shipping.

Still, the company faces stiff competi-tion.

But “there’s always a market for the best,” says Harris.

Key to BlueGrace’s success is Har-ris’s executive team, which includes in-house legal counsel.

Harris also cites the company’s cor-porate culture: Management is commit-ted to treating all employees fairly and making BlueGrace a fun place to work. Management is also committed to hir-ing empathetic, creative people who want to serve customers.

“My thing is to let people be them-selves. We like odd people,” he says. “We’re a little eccentric.”

On Fridays, the company offers free beer at 4 p.m. It’s no surprise those lines are usually long.

The company has an open social me-dia policy, which means employees are encouraged to use Facebook, Twitter and LinkedIn as work permits.

The open social media policy enables Harris to keep up with the lives of his 140 plus employees through Twitter.

Harris has his own Twitter account, @Bobbybg_CEO. His Twitter home page proudly proclaims: “Actively living 20 lifetimes in one and enjoying every sec-ond.”

About half of the company’s revenue comes from its 35 franchises and Harris expects franchise growth to continue as BlueGrace expands its geographic reach.

Selling to start over isn’t in his plan book.

“I don’t want to sell my company,” he says. “I just want to keep making it great. I have a lot of fun doing what I do. I stay creative, very flexible.”

Mark WeMple

BoBBy Harris founded BlueGrace logistics, named after the middle names of his two daughters, after DHl exited the U.S. in 2008. as a reseller of DHl services, he developed software to help companies reduce shipping costs.

FULL SpEEdAHEAdWhile the recession could have put Bobby Harris out of business, he

shifted gears to a new idea that came with some serious growth.

rEvEnuEs EMploYEEs

year revenue %growth

2010 $38.6million

2011 $63.6million 64.77%

2012 $88.9million 39.78% 2010 ’11 ’1220

60

$100 million

$88.9 million

Source: BlueGrace Logistics

201025

201173

2012108

Winner

$50 Million +

ByJanet Leiser

ContriButor


The ledger was so dread-ful at Medallion Homes in the early 1990s that founder and owner Car-

los Beruff admits he should have filed for bankruptcy — business and personal.

But Beruff held steadfast, he says, pri-marily for one reason: Sheer stubborn-ness, a tenacity likely handed down from his mother, who fled Fidel Castro-led Cuba a few years before he was born.

The resolve ultimately paid off. The Manatee County-based company still stands today and is on its best three-year run of home sales ever. Plus, Beruff learned a valuable entrepreneurial lesson, that li-quidity trumps all other worries.

“I was young and immature and didn’t realize that when a business gets diffi-cult the only people who survive are the people with cash,” Beruff says. “It also taught me how to be extra careful and to take risks with my own money, not other people’s money.”

Those principles are what guide Medal-lion Homes, where sales increased 74% since 2010, from $32.8 million to $56.9 million in 2012. Annual revenues based strictly on home sales, not including land deals, are at an all-time high.

A Miami native, Beruff founded Medal-lion in 1984, after a short but successful stint selling houses for U.S. Homes. Living

in Tampa in 1980, Beruff recalls he saw a newspaper ad that sought home salesmen in Sarasota. The pay was $3,000 a month, plus commissions.

That salary sounded dreamy to Beruff. His family, including his Cuban-born old-er sister and brother, struggled to get by for several years. Beruff says they would pick up government-sponsored food every Sat-urday, such as surplus cornmeal. Beruff, his siblings, his mom, his aunt and some cousins, eight people total, all lived in a two-car converted garage for a few years.

Yet Beruff grew up determined, not bit-ter. “When you’re a kid,” he says, “you don’t know you’re poor. I never went hungry.”

Beruff founded Medallion basically on a hunch, when he bought 22 lots on Tal-levast Road and Tuttle Avenue in Manatee County. He paid for the lots with a $120,000 bank loan that came with a two-year term. Beruff paid it back in eight months.

The next big turning point for Medallion Homes came in 2005. That’s when Beruff decided to sell five projects to national builders, a purge of lots and land that lasted 18 months and brought in $110 million.

Beruff says he sold because the finan-cials of the homebuilding industry had gotten out of whack. Specifically, he be-lieved a key rule in the industry was being shredded, that the price of a lot shouldn’t exceed 20% of the sale price of the home. If it does, Beruff had learned, then profits would likely evaporate.

Cash from those deals was Beruff’s

downturn savior, and it gave him the abil-ity to buy lots in the recovery. “Now I look like a genius,” says Beruff. “But as it was happening, that’s not what I thought.”

Beruff’s thoughts now have turned to the future, and how he will manage a fast-growth business. Beruff is determined to not let growth negate the firm’s customer service.

Beruff is also determined to remember another key lesson he learned 30 years ago, second only to having enough liquidity. The lesson: That success in homebuild-ing is predicated on getting people to see homes. He says if three out of 100 prospects buy a home, that’s good, and if four out of 100 buy one, that’s really good.

“I worry about this business when I can’t get people to see my models,” Beruff says. “This business is driven by footsteps through the door. You can’t sell homes to ghosts.”


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rEvEnuEs

EMploYEEs

Year Revenue %growth2010 $32.8million2011 $42.5million 29.6%2012 $56.9million 33.8%

2010 ’11 ’1230

40

50

$60 million

$56.9 million

Source: Medal-

lion Homes

Mark WeMple

CaRlosBeRuff founded Manatee County-based Medallion Homes in 1984. revenues at the firm are up 73% since 2010, from $32.8 million to $56.9 million in 2012.

Winner

$50 Million +

ByMaRkGoRdon

DeputyManaging

eDitor

GHOSTThe son of Cuban immigrants, Carlos Beruff overcame a poor childhood to find long-term success in homebuilding. Annual

sales, near $60 million, are at an all-time high.

BUSTER

201040

201147

201252


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No one could have foreseen the real estate collapse that ensued, but Stock was earliest among builders in Southwest Florida to recognize what had to be done to survive. “It was always about keeping momentum,” says Stock, the 43-year-old CEO of Stock Development.

This was no easy decision, be-cause builders in 2007 predicted that the market’s softness was just a temporary setback. It would still be another year before the financial crisis erupted in 2008. In fact, rival builders grumbled that Stock was being too aggressive with its prices and refused to go along.

When he faced residents of Stock

communities, such as Paseo in Fort Myers, residents there were upset about the devaluation. “One got up and slammed the door,” Stock re-members at a contentious commu-nity meeting with residents.

But Stock stuck to his aggressive pricing strategy, arguing that com-munities had to maintain sales mo-mentum or new development would come to a halt, slashing values even further. At the time, Stock had 350 unsold homes because many buy-ers walked away from their 20% de-posits.

As it was with the downturn, Stock has been prescient about the recov-ery. In 2010, when many builders

still weren’t sure the economy was rebounding, Stock cleared 240 acres at its Lely development in Naples. The company spent $15 million to clear the land and build models, including $6 million to dig lakes on the property. Soon after, Stock was able to boost prices 15% for the homes there that range in price from $400,000 to $1 million.

Now, the momentum is building. To keep up with surging demand, Stock is building 140 speculative homes and another 46 models for the next home buying season. The company has a pipeline of 1,600 lots and is close to announcing plans to build in a ninth community in

Southwest Florida.Part of Stock’s success is that its

CEO is always on the job. For fun on weekends, Stock jumps into his car and visits homes and communities in Lee and Collier counties. “It’s not work to me,” Stock says.

Stock’s father, K.C. Stock, says son Brian worked at his father’s con-struction-supply business in Green Bay, Wis., at age 13, loading lumber. “I made Brian go to work for a con-tractor,” says the elder Stock, who sold the construction-supply busi-ness and used the proceeds to fi-nance Stock Development in Naples.

Although he has a reputation as a good delegator, Stock says he enjoys getting into the finer details of the company. For example, he spent two hours with landscaping consultants one evening at Quail West recently, discussing the kinds of plants that needed to line the entrance to the residential development in North Naples.

And Stock regularly discusses is-sues with community residents. For example, Stock redesigned the lay-out of 13 tennis courts at a cost of $2 million by moving the parking lot at The Players Club at Lely.

Still, Stock’s open-door man-agement policy doesn’t slow the decision-making process. “Brian’s always been able to make a quick de-cision,” says Claudine Léger-Wetzel, Stock’s vice president of sales and marketing.

Follow Jean Gruss on Twitter @Jean Gruss

Brian TieTzBrian Stock, the CeO of Stock Development, survived the residential housing downturn and has positioned his company for the rebounding recovery.

PERFEcttImNg

Brian Stock has been prescient about the economic cycle, timing the new-home market with uncanny success on the downside — and the upside.

rEvEnuEs EMploYEEs


2010 $178million

2011 $201million 13%

2012 $280million 39% 150

200

250

$300 million

2010 ’11 ’12

$280 million

Source: Stock Development

Winner

$50 milliOn +

ByJean GruSS

Editor/LEE-

CoLLiEr

It was always about keeping momentum. Brian stock | Stock Development

“”

In 2007, Brian Stock made a decision that saved his homebuilding and develop-ment company from the fate

of many others in the homebuild-ing industry: He slashed prices by 35%.

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The best way to celebrate is to elevate. Schif ino Lee

wi l l continuously create new things that transform

l ives and businesses to make a posit ive difference.

Onward. Upward. One word: Unstoppable.

schifinolee.com

S C H I F I N O L E E . B E U N S T O P PA B L E .

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May 21LegisLative review: The Greater Tampa Chamber of Com-merce will hold a meeting with state legislators from Hillsborough County to discuss the outcome of the 2013 legislative session. The meeting will run from 11:45 a.m. to 1:30 p.m. at the Embassy Suites Hotel Tampa-Downtown, 513 S. Florida Ave., Tampa. Cost is $45 per person and $50 for others. For more information visit tampacham-ber.com.

May 22MedicaL ManageMent: Gwen MacKenzie, CEO of Sarasota Memorial Hospital, will speak at The Argus Foundation’s Meet the

Minds meeting. She will discuss the role of public hospitals in a changing medi-cal and political environment. The meeting will start at 11:30 a.m. at The Franchise Ball Room, 1289 Palm Ave.,

Sarasota. Cost is $30 per person. For more information contact Sharlene at 941-365-4886 or email [email protected].

LegisLative update: Florida State Sen. President Pro Tempore Garrett Richter and other area leg-

islators will speak about the recent state legislative session at an Urban Land Insti-tute meeting. The event will run from 8 a.m. to 10:30 a.m. at The Club at Grandezza, 11481 Grand Oak Blvd., Estero. Cost is $35 for mem-

bers and $45 for others. For more information call 800-321-5011 and mention 8118-1313.

June 4econoMic suMMit: Anirban Basu, chief economist for the As-sociated Builders and Contractors,

will be the key-note speaker at the CREW Tampa Bay’s annual eco-nomic summit. The event, which will also feature the mayors of Tampa, Clear-water and St. Petersburg, starts at 11:30 a.m. at the Sheraton Riv-

erwalk Tampa, 200 N. Ashley Drive, Tampa. For more information visit crewtampabay.org.

June 6 and 7reaL estate suMMit: Jeb Bush will be the keynote speaker at the Urban Land Institute’s state-

wide real estate summit at The Ritz-Carlton, 280 Vanderbilt Beach Road, Naples. Cost is $395 for private sector ULI members. For more information visit uliFlorida-Summit.org.

June 25sMart data: Moez Limayem, dean of the University of South Florida College of Business, will discuss how organizations use data

to outperform competitors at a Greater Tampa Chamber of Com-merce Competi-tive Edge Series meeting. The event will run from 11:45 a.m. to 1:15 p.m. at the cham-ber’s offices, 201 N. Franklin St.,

Tampa. Cost is $35 for members and $50 for others. For more infor-mation visit tampachamber.com.

July 17atwater speaks: Jeff Atwater, chief financial officer of Florida, will

speak at Greater Tampa Chamber of Commerce meeting. The event will run from 7:30 a.m. to 9 a.m. at The Tampa Club, 101 E. Kennedy Blvd., Tampa. Cost is $35 for mem-bers and $40 for

others. For more information visit tampachamber.com.

SepteMber 12econoMic deveLopMent: The Economic Development Corp. of Sarasota County will hold its annual meeting from 11:30 a.m. to 1:30 p.m. at the Hyatt Regency, 1000 Boulevard of the Arts, Sara-sota. For more information visit edcsarasotacounty.com.

OctOber 11Meet the directors: The Florida Directors’ Institute will hold an all-day program for directors of public and large private companies at The University of Tampa, Vaughn Center, Ninth Floor, 401 W. Kenne-dy Blvd., Tampa. For more informa-tion visit ut.edu/centers/fdi.

nOveMber 7-9tourisM conference: The Ringling College of Art and Design will host a three-day second annual international tourism conference on its campus to focus on service design. For more information visit servicedesigntourism.com.

calendarofevents

Mackenzie

RichteR

Basu

Bush

LiMayeM

atwateR


myMatrixx, which had $72.84 million in revenue in 2012 and has more than 140 employees, special-izes in providing services for work-ers’ compensation benefits. This includes everything from medica-tions and home nursing services to medical equipment. But the

scalable key to the company’s fast growth is how it does this: It pro-vides an interface to streamline the payment processing system to “make sure patients are getting the services they need in the timeline they need them,” MacDonald says.

The company negotiates dis-counts for medications and sup-plies, while at the same time monitoring activity for insurance companies to help its clients, who are mostly self-insured employers. It serves as a “safety net,” checking to find if there are indications of fraud, abuse, or overutilization of workers’ compensation, MacDon-ald says. It varies by state, but typi-cal cost savings from using myMa-trixx is around 30-35%, according to his figures.

The company, which made the Inc. 5,000 list four years in a row,

has more than 400 clients, with a client retention rate nearing 99%. Since beginning in 2001, only two clients have left the company, and one is planning to come back after a two-year stint with a competitor. It has grown by more than 20% each of the past two years, a trajectory MacDonald plans on continuing.

A GREAT IDEAMacDonald, 45, started his career

working for someone else, at PMSI (at the time, Pharmerica), a phar-macy and medical services compa-ny serving the workers’ compensa-tion population. He worked his way up from sales to running the firm’s Catastrophic division. In 1999, Mac-Donald pitched a business plan for moving his division’s offerings on-line to automate its processes, but was shot down by board members

who didn’t see the Internet becom-ing a popular household tool.

“I saw the world differently at that moment,” MacDonald admits. “So I told my boss, ‘I’d love to do this here, but if you’re not going to do it here, then I’m going to start my own company.’”

MacDonald turned his idea into AccessLife, the first online por-tal for individuals suffering from brain and spinal cord injuries to share information and resources, and order medical supplies or medi-cations. The software also featured an ancillary medical service that helped “process insurance claims and manage distribution for the products the patients ordered,” ac-cording to the company.

To raise capital for his venture, MacDonald never asked people for money, but always asked for advice. Often, he found advice sessions over a cup of coffee would lead to an investment. MacDonald and his

MARK WEMPLE

Steve MacDonalD, chairman and chief executive officer of myMatrixx, built the workers’ compensation industry’s first Web-based pharmacy management system. Today, myMatrixx owns an in-house online pharmacy that ships medications directly to those injured on the job.

It took Steve MacDonald more than one try to get it right. But in the world of entrepreneurs, persistence is a prerequisite.

Revenues eMploYees

Year Revenue %growth

2010 $49.03million

2011 $59.34million 21%

2012 $72.84million 23% 2010 ’11 ’1240

60

$80 million

$72.84 million

Source: myMatrixx

Since he set out on his own nearly 15 years ago, Steve MacDonald failed in one business he began, and

promptly started another — only to later be fired from it. But now, armed with somewhat painful yet powerful lessons, he’s run-ning a business the way he’s al-ways wanted to with his current company, myMatrixx.

entRepReneuR

of the

YeARWinner

2013BytRaci

McMillan

Beach

ContriButor

ThIRD TIME’S A ChARM

201075

2011103

2012143

• Do the right thing• Respond with care• Serve with passion• Innovate constantly• Love to learn

coRe vAlues


business partner raised more than $5 million through this kind of net-working and were able to persuade actor Christopher Reeve to join the board of directors.

Like many Internet startups in 1999, the company burned through the $5 million quickly, and MacDon-ald was forced to shut down the Ac-cessLife portal and lay off 60 people. “In some degree it was a big public disaster,” MacDonald admits.

He decided to focus on Tech-Health, the commercial aspect of the software they built. Having lost all of his investors, MacDonald’s business partner and a previous boss both took a risk and wrote checks to keep TechHealth up and running. The company landed a deal with Blue Cross Blue Shield, which attracted new investors who provided $1.5 million in funding.

To secure the last round of financ-ing, the investors told MacDonald

he’d have to fire his business partner. “A lesson for other entrepreneurs,” MacDonald says, “When you fire your votes on the board, then that leaves you a sitting duck. So I was the next to go.” MacDonald and his part-ner were both fired from the compa-ny they founded, losing the software program he developed. MacDonald considers it the best thing that ever happened to him.

New aNd ImprovedIn 2001, while sorting out a settle-

ment in court with the TechHealth investors, MacDona ld was ap-proached by Ron Warble, of Brown & Brown’s Amerisys. “If you could build me a (customized online) pharmacy program, I’ll be your best customer,” Warble said.

MacDonald decided to give it a shot. He knew if he could build it, he could market it to others. After borrowing $5,000 from his father and $5,000 from a friend, he found a partner to help with startup costs and used the last $20,000 he had to hire a programmer to build the first version of the myMatrixx software.

Working out of the back of a ware-house with a college student answer-ing the phone (who is now a vice pres-ident with the company), MacDonald started “dialing for dollars,” looking for clients. For the next two-and-a-half years, MacDonald didn’t take a salary. Instead, he reinvested what-ever small profits the business made.

At first, MacDonald had a hard time persuading customers that his small startup could handle their workers’ compensation needs. He focused on getting the clients his competitors didn’t want: small to mid-sized municipalities and school boards. MacDonald says he wanted to get as many customers as possible, no matter how tiny the deal.

Servicing smaller customers also allowed him to learn from them and improve the business. He hand-de-livered invoices, taking the opportu-nity to talk with clients and ask them what he could do better and what would make their jobs easier. This set the foundation for myMatrixx: offering superior customer service for technology that streamlined how customers processed workers’ com-pensation pharmacy claims.

Eventually the small customers led to larger ones, and as the business grew, MacDonald took another ap-proach to build growth — he recruit-ed top talent. By hiring well-known names in the industry, he was able to cement myMatrixx’s legitimacy and also take advantage of the knowledge and relationships the new employees brought with them.

The approach led to steady — and large — growth. In 2001, his first year, he had $267,000 in revenues.

Three years later, in 2004, he had nearly $6 million in sales.

But as the business took off, the re-lationship with his partner started to deteriorate. “He was a great guy… he gave me the confidence that I could bootstrap something,” MacDonald says. But the two had different vi-sions for the company.

In 2005, a private equity firm bought his partner’s shares for $3.5 million, but MacDonald learned from his previous business that he wanted control. He met Tom Cardy (now myMatrixx’s CFO) through a connection at his CEO peer group, and together they created a financ-ing deal that would allow MacDon-ald to gain 81% ownership by raising $1 million of equity and $2.5 million of long- and short-term debt. With sales continuing to climb, MacDon-ald paid off the debt in three years.

BuIldINg a TeamMacDonald attributes a large

amount of myMatrixx’s success to the company’s ability to innovate. To do this, MacDonald says it’s all about having the right people.

With the company experiencing such fast growth, MacDonald elicit-ed the help of Mary Key, a consultant with CEO Florida Forums. Key says one of MacDonald’s key concerns was maintaining the company’s culture, so she worked with him to create core values for the firm. These values guide the company not only in what it does, but also in whom it hires.

MacDonald says the first thing a manager should look for is whether or not a person is willing to learn. “If

a person is humble enough to learn, then they’re usually humble enough to be a coworker,” he says. myMatrixx candidates have to pass the culture test first, and an aptitude test second.

“There seems to be no limit to his abilities in regards to people and bringing the right team together to accomplish the goal,” says Mike Bunkley, myMatrixx’s senior vice president of business development. “He knows what he wants, and he knows how he’ll get there.”

“He knows what he knows,” says Cardy. “He gets very good people to do what he doesn’t know, and he gives them free reins.” But he’s also impa-tient. “You have to get things done. You can’t wait around,” Cardy adds.

MacDonald’s belief in constant im-provement shows itself on the sales side, with what he calls “Oh wow” factors to pitch to customers. His current “wow” factor is myMatrixx’s mobile app, which allows patients to access ID cards, look up the names of their prescriptions and see the status of their drug fulfillment, so they don’t have to wait at the pharmacy for the insurance to send an approval. The app notifies the client if prescriptions or services are not covered under typical guidelines and need approval from the insurance company. Field adjusters and nurse case managers can also leverage the app to commu-nicate or order necessary supplies directly from their phones.

MacDonald embraces the fact that his company is “young and innova-tive, offering the solutions that older legacy companies are not offering,” he says. He asks companies to take a risk, rather than playing it safe by sticking with what they know.

He dresses the part, too. Typically clad in casual attire like jeans and a cotton shirt, his director of marketing had to beg him to wear a tuxedo to the 2012 Ernst & Young Entrepreneur of the Year Awards, for which he was nominated.

Out of his competition – PMSI, Healthesystems, TechHealth, Pro-gressive Medical, Express Scripts, and CyberCare – four are in Tampa, one is his previous employer, and one is the company he founded. MacDon-ald’s next step to stay ahead is a ser-vice that uses business intelligence and data analytics to demonstrate predictive outcomes that will help insurance companies spot problems and intervene more quickly.

True to his passion for innovation, last year MacDonald launched a sec-ond company, MamaBear, a mobile app to help parents keep kids safe by monitoring social media. The app rolled out in 2012 as a free subscrip-tion and is currently at 30,000 down-loads, with its fair share of national media attention.

MacDonald says it’s just another way for him to be creative and enjoy the process of invention.

“You just have to keep going, just don’t stop,” MacDonald says. “You never know, but one thing is certain: if you don’t keep trying, you’ll keep failing.”

Hear more of MacDonald’s entrepreneurial story at BusinessObserverFL.com.

VIDEO

1. Trustyourgut. It’s easy to make decisions with your head and not with your gut. Don’t let yourself get talked into making a decision that doesn’t feel right.

2. Don’thireabusiness-planwriter. If you are knowl-edgeable about your idea, you can put together an executive summary that is two to three pages max.

3. Ifyou’renotinaCEOgrouporpeergroup,joinone. Examples in the area include Vistage, YPO, and the Tampa Bay CEO Council. You can also form your own small group (around eight people) and meet monthly without fail. You want to gain valuable advice from people you trust – so pick this group wisely.

4. Optimizeaperson’spotential. Focus on what people do well and try to exploit that. It creates a great relationship dynamic and people will go to the moon for you.

5. Bepersistent. You get a lot of no’s along the way, and it’s easy to get discouraged. You have to keep going and keep believing.

6. Create“Ohwow”factorsinyourdemo. Develop something that will make people say, “Oh, wow!”

7. Enjoytheride. There’s a lot of ups and downs. It’s not always easy, but you’ve gotta enjoy the ride.

MAcDOnAlD’s ADVIcE fOr EnTrEPrEnEUrs TIMElInE

You just have to keep going, just don’t stop. You never know, but one thing is certain: if you don’t keep trying, you’ll keep failing. steve MacDonald | myMatrixx

“”

2013: CNBC names Mama-Bear one of Top 25 most promis-ing startups in the world.

Launches myMatrixx Mobile, the first tool in workers’ compensa-tion that allows claims profes-sionals and patients to access their data from a smart phone.

1990: Graduates from Univer-sity of South Florida with degree in accounting, begins work at PMSI (later became a division of Pharmerica)

1999: Pitches online product to PMSI, but idea is shot down. Quits PMSI to start his own busi-ness.

Launches AccessLife, an online community for individuals suffer-ing from spinal cord and trau-matic brain injuries.

2000: Shuts down AccessLife, lays off 60 employees

Develops TechHealth out of Ac-cessLife

2001: Fired from TechHealth. In August, asked develop Web-based claims processing system (myMatrixx) for AmeriSys (a division of Brown & Brown). Launched Matrix Healthcare Services Inc. now doing busi-ness as myMatrixx, a pharmacy benefit manager.

2004: Takes first paycheck from myMatrixx (2.5 years after inception)

2005: When his partner exits the business, MacDonald takes out personal loan with help of a small group of investors to avoid losing control of the company.

2008: Repays loan (took three years to pay out completely)

First year to appear on Inc. 5000 list (appears in 2008, 2009, 2010, 2011, 2012)

2011: myMatrixx office opens in Austin, Texas

2012: Launches MamaBear, a parenting mobile app

Business Insurance Magazine names myMatrixx one of the Best Places to Work in Insurance nationwide


EntrEprEnEur

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Skeptics sometimes creep up on Mark Pen-tecost and jab him with a disbelieving frown.

That’s not a total surprise, especially considering Pentecost’s firm has had some colossal growth recently, like a 590% increase in annual revenues, from $29 million in 2010 to $200 mil-lion in 2012. That makes the company, Bradenton-based It Works Global, one of the biggest, and fastest growing, privately held firms in the Sarasota-Bradenton region.

The firm had $1 million in sales in one day in March, a first-time feat. Then it did it several more times in April, when it set a monthly sales re-cord at $45 million. More than 300,000 people have bought its products, and the firm has 50,000 independent dis-tributors worldwide. “It’s going crazy here,” says Pentecost. “We’re killing it. We’ve become a customer-generating machine.”

Yet the skeptic script almost always repeats itself. Pentecost realizes some people doubt a local business, in a re-gion that produces few gazelles, can really grow that much, that fast. Fur-ther, the firm’s flagship product — a cloth wrap infused with a botanically based cream that can tighten and tone a body and waist in 45 minutes or less — almost demands doubt.

Pentecost, though, rarely takes of-fense to the uncertainty. He usually says something similar to what he told a stranger on a cruise in March who flat out asked him if “it really works?” Replies Pentecost: “I told her that after 11 years it has to, otherwise we should call the company, ‘It Doesn’t Work.’”

It Works, instead, sells a line of well-ness and health products, including the Ultimate Body Applicator wrap, through multi-level marketing. That business model, where a sales force earns money on sales and on the sales of other distributors they recruit into the network, has faced a bevy of its own skeptics. A prominent Wall Street investor, for example, recently alleged that Herbalife, a $4 billion multi-level marketing firm, is a pyramid scheme for relying on network recruitment, not product sales, to generate reve-nues. Herbalife, denies the allegations.

But for all the skeptics, plenty of others consider multi-level marketing companies an entrepreneurial dream that’s minted many millionaires. The walls of It Works’ headquarters, a for-mer concrete and building materials office, are filled with framed pictures of the people nationwide who have reached that seven-figure sales mark.

It Works has 58 employees in the cor-porate office, which Pentecost plans to relocate to Palmetto, just north of downtown Bradenton, later this year. A chunk of the those employees moved to the region with Pentecost in early 2011, when he moved the company from Grand Rapids, Mich., where he founded it in 2001. Manatee County and Florida economic development officials dangled about $800,000 in performance-based incentives and tax refunds for It Works to move south.

Now Pentecost says 2013 looks like it will be another strong growth year, with $500 million in sales a reasonable target. But the hyper-competitive Pen-tecost already looks past that mark, to what some consider the valley of death for large fast-growth businesses: The leap from $500 million to $1 billion.

“You get to a certain level of sales and you think you don’t have any problems,” says Pentecost. “But you do. It’s just a new set of problems. Now we have high-class problems.”

OvercOme challenges One of those dilemmas, says Pente-

cost, is the supply chain must keep up with the demand. That’s because the firm now has a line of skin care prod-ucts and nutritional supplements — all sold under the direct-selling model. No products, from weight loss energy bars to a stretch mark moisturizing cream, are sold retail. Says Pentecost: “We

Mark WeMpleMark Pentecost founded It Works Global in Grand rapids, Mich., in 2001. The firm moved to Bradenton in 2011.

WORKItDoubters and disbelievers

beware: Mark Pentecost has proven everyone wrong

before. He plans to do it again, real soon.

WinnerSaraSOTa-

BraDeNTON

By Mark GorDon

DEPUTy

MANAGING

EDITOR

rEvEnuEs EMploYEEs


2010 $29 million

2011 $45 million 55%

2012 $200 million 344%

100

$200 million

2010 ’11 ’12

$200 million

Source: It Works Global

201045

201145

201258


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could sell as many products as we can get our hands on.”

Pentecost also makes sure employ-ees stay focused on small goals to build up to big successes. He constantly re-minds employees that the firm can’t do everything. “It’s really easy to get distracted,” he says. “Our no’s mean as much as our yeses.”

Pentecost admits he has to check himself, too, from overdoing it. “I’m a very competitive person. I’m always setting goals,” says Pentecost, a for-mer high school teacher and basket-ball coach. “My biggest problem could be my competitiveness. I get obsessed with winning.”

Another challenge for Pentecost is It Works has attracted complaints. For instance, the Better Business Bureau West Florida office, based in Clearwa-ter, has received and closed 172 com-plaints on It Works Global in the last three years. The agency says it closed 108 complaints in the last year.

The complaints, according to the bureau’s website, include allegations of customers who receive the wrong products; consumers who receive ad-ditional products after trying to cancel orders; consumers who say the firm

bills them after cancellation; and cus-tomers who say they didn’t know about a $50 cancellation fee. The firm earned an A- ranking from the bureau on an A+ through F scale.

Pentecost says the complaints, while taken seriously, total less than 1% of the firm’s 350,000 monthly orders. Com-pany spokeswoman Kate Martin adds that most of the bureau’s reports stem from termination fee issues, which can also be a misunderstanding. “We are currently reviewing the termination terms and system to improve our cus-tomer experience,” Martin says in an email response to questions about the Better Business Bureau grades.

Tough loveAll the challenges, from complaints

to supply chain, are the polar oppo-site of what Pentecost dealt with when he founded It Works. Pentecost was a teacher and coach back then, and he sold phone services at night through a multi-level marketing business. He had a passion for teaching and coach-ing. But Pentecost, who was born on a farm in Tennessee and grew up mostly in Michigan, also discovered he was a good salesman.

His opportunity to prove it full-time came when heard about the It Works wrap from a friend, Pam Sowder. Pen-tecost and his wife, Cindy Pentecost, used the product, invented by Luis Mijares, a skin care scientist. They be-lieved in it and started the business. Sowder and Mijares are executives

with It Works today. Things started slowly. Pentecost

invested $300,000 to $500,000 of his own money in the company, and he and Cindy Pentecost took out a second mortgage to keep it afloat. “We didn’t pay much in the beginning,” Pentecost says. “We didn’t have much.”

Now It Works has customers na-tionwide and in Australia, Canada and parts of Europe. The interna-tional division makes up about 5% of the total business.

But while It Works has grown substantially, one constant, say people who know Pentecost, is the founder’s ability to coach and teach through tough love.

“He’s like a general you want to go to war with,” adds Don Ham-ilton with the Grand Rapids office of Huntington Wealth Advisors, who has been It Works’ banker since its inception. “He’s the little engine that can.”

Klein, Hamilton and others, in-cluding It Works employee Zach Hesse, say Pentecost’s energy and competitive zeal also run unusu-ally deep. Klein has seen it come out when Pentecost plays cornhole, a beanbag toss game. Hesse has seen it on the golf course and in the board-room.

“I’ve never seen anyone who doesn’t rest on his past like Mark,” says Hesse, an assistant to Pentecost. “There is something about his drive. He just goes and goes and goes.”

Snazzy Scene The next physical place Pentecost,

and It Works, will go is into a new cor-porate headquarters.

That building, which Mark and Cin-dy Pentecost bought late last year, is on the Palmetto side of the Manatee River and was previously a health club and spa and a bar. The Pentecosts paid $3.13 million for the 36,000-square-foot building, according to Manatee

County property records. Renovations, which Pentecost

says will cost another $3 million to $4 million, are already under way, with a possible completion of later this year. Plans include the addition of a glassed in outdoor fourth floor with a fire pit that will replicate a snazzy nightclub scene. Pentecost says that floor will be used for train-ing and entertaining the sales net-work. Another potential feature of the building: Pentecost says there will be a slide on at least one floor, instead of an elevator.

The plans, in general, scream fun over formal — which is just how Pen-tecost wants it. “I tell people I’m more Jimmy Buffett than Warren Buffett. I’d rather be in sandals and shorts. We like to have fun here, but we still take the work seriously.”

Mark Pentecost, founder of It Works Global, hasn’t shied away from enjoying the spoils of success. His recent feats and purchases include:

• In October 2010 he bought the 18-hole Stoneybrook Golf Club in east Manatee County. Pentecost and his wife, Cindy Pente-cost, paid $3.5 million for the course, which is now where the firm holds training seminars and events;

• He bought a 340-acre ranch in Myakka City last year. He hunts, drives a four-wheeler and generally pals around with employees and friends there;

• He attended the Masters Golf Tournament and he played in a pro-am event at the Innis-brook Resort and Golf Club in Palm Harbor, where teamed up with 2003 U.S. Open win-ner Jim Furyk.

• A lifelong fan Michigan State athletics fan, Pentecost recently traveled with the school’s basketball team on its team bus, for a game against Indiana University.

—Mark Gordon

MArk of SucceSS

You get to a certain level of sales and you think you don’t have any problems. But you do. It’s just a new set of problems. Now we have high-class problems. Mark Pentecost | It Works Global

“”

Hear more on how Pentecost handles his firm’s big growth at BusinessObserverFL.com.

VIDeo


EntrEprEnEur

of thE

YEAr

In December 2008, just as the crisis on Wall Street was raging, Sam Klepfish was staring at another fi-

nancial disaster.The firm in which he was a leading

investor, Naples-based Innovative Food Holdings, had run out of cash in September of that year. “We had to put up money to make payroll,” Klepfish recalls.

After scrambling for cash over the holidays in 2008, Klepfish found an investor who on Dec. 31 agreed to give the company a $200,000 loan. With-out it, Klepfish says the company likely wouldn’t have survived the New Year.

Today, it’s a different story. Innova-tive Food has $1.3 million in cash on its balance sheet, it has made strategic ac-quisitions that boosted revenues 60% last year and it recently purchased a new headquarters building in Bonita Springs for its rapidly expanding op-erations. The company reported it earned $2 million on revenues of $18.6 million last year, compared with net income of $1.5 million on revenues of $11.6 million in 2011.

Innovative Food distributes 7,300 gourmet foods to thousands of up-scale-restaurant chefs around the country and to gourmet-food aficio-nados via its online store ForTheGour-met.com. Products range from Kobe beef to heirloom tomatoes, fresh morel mushrooms and French cheeses.

The unassuming headquarters of the company is tucked away in a nonde-script office building near the last exit in Naples before Interstate 75 turns into Alligator Alley and into the Everglades.

Klepfish, 41, seems a bit out of place on the edge of the swamp. The Brook-lyn native and resident commutes to Naples regularly, but otherwise del-egates the day-to-day operations to Justin Wiernasz, Innovative Food’s president and a veteran of the food-distribution business.

Wiernasz says the top question in-vestors and others want to know is how he and Klepfish work together. “It’s based on trust and respect,” says Wiernasz. “One of Sam’s strengths is when he hires someone he trusts, he lets you go.”

Klepfish is quick to help in a pinch, even answering the phones when he’s in Naples. “Sam will jump in for me,” says Z. Zackary Ziakas, better known in the office as Chef Z. Ziakas oversees the retail website, ForTheGourmet.com.

But Klepfish says working from New York keeps him from slipping into mi-cro managing. “If I was here all the time it would not be as effective,” he says. “I’m not the type of guy who pulls out the boss card.”

When he does visit Naples, Klepfish brings a dry sense of humor to the of-fice. “We’ve been growing so quickly, he brings levity to the situation,” says Wiernasz. “I don’t have to stress all the time.”

banking backgroundTrained in finance, Klepfish was

working for law firm Phillips Nizer in New York City helping companies raise capital and make acquisitions. He joined the board of Innovative Food in 2004 as the company was about to acquire a pasta manufacturer.

The pasta-company acquisition didn’t happen, but Klepfish remained on the board and became its CEO after the founder, Joe DiMaggio Jr., a Naples resident and relative of the famous baseball player, resigned. Klepfish now owns about 15% of the shares of the publicly traded company.

At Phillips Nizer, Klepfish bridged the worlds of entrepreneurs and law-yers. “My approach is analytical and that’s how this business is run,” he says. “A good decision is if you have all the facts,” he says, because outcomes are often out of your hands.

The risk-averse Klepfish says he of-ten recalls his grandmother’s admon-ishment: “If you do something stupid and nothing bad happens, it doesn’t

PHOTOS BY NANCY DENIKE

Sam KlepfiSh, the CEO of Innovative Food Holdings, says chefs on staff have helped boost sales of fine foods to restaurants across the country.

ThE

chEFExEcUTIVE

Sam Klepfish is guiding the growth of gourmet-food purveyor Innovative Food Holdings with a team of trained chefs.

Winner

LEE-COLLIEr

By Jean GruSS

Editor/LEE-

CoLLiEr

rEvEnuEs EMploYEEs


2010 $9.9 million

2011 $11.6 million 17%

2012 $18.6 million 60% 5

10

15

$20 million

2010 ’11 ’12

$18.6 million

201015

201115

201239

Source: Innovative Food Holdings


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make you smart.”Klepfish was confident of Innova-

tive Food’s business model, which is to provide artisanal foods to upscale-restaurant chefs around the country. To do that, the company hires chefs who have grown tired of the kitchen. They answer the phones, help custom-ers with their orders and make sugges-tions on how to use the products.

“It gives you the ability to talk food without the grueling hours,” says Todd Carrell, a trained chef and executive vice president of sales and procurement.

For example, edible hibiscus flow-ers are among the company’s hottest items. Chefs at Innovative Food explain how to use them to adorn champagne

flutes, slices of cheesecake or even skewers of shish kebab. “They’re look-ing for ideas,” Carrell says.

Of course, few people go hungry in an office full of chefs. The company budgets for Fun Food Fridays when each chef at the company takes turns making a meal for everyone on the last day of the week. A recent breakfast in-cluded egg soufflé, coffee cake and ba-con, and lunch was chicken chili soup and couscous salad.

Everyone always tastes the new prod-ucts that arrive. “Even on the finance

side they love food,” Carrell chuckles.The company goes to great lengths

to secure gourmet foods for its cus-tomers. For example, when the U.S. slapped a 300% trade tariff on Roque-fort cheese from France in 2009, In-novative Food stocked up with 2,000 pounds of the pungent cheese so it could keep its customers supplied at reasonable prices while the trade dis-pute was resolved.

“It’s a great concept they have, bring-ing food from around the world and making it available to restaurateurs,” says Lou Haley, a veteran of the food distribution business whose consult-ing firm, The Haley Group, was re-cently acquired by Innovative Food. “Everyone is becoming foodies.”

Klepfish is passionate about tech-nology and the Innovative Food has automated its systems to track more than 100,000 shipments it makes ev-ery year, by FedEx and through giant distributor US Foods. For example, In-novative Food can create an order, ar-range for a FedEx shipment and notify the customer in five minutes, says John McDonald, the company’s CIO.

Shipments quadrupled, but the same two employees can manage the increased work because of automation technology. “It used to be a full-time job just to load orders,” McDonald says. “That’s the only way to survive.”

Focus on growthWiernasz says Klepfish’s strength is

developing long-term strategy for the company. “I’m more in the minute detail,” says Wiernasz. “He’s more at the 50,000-foot level.” While Wiernasz knew more about the food business, Klepfish brought the accounting and financial acumen. “That’s been a really strong relationship,” Wiernasz says.

As Wiernasz grew sales, Klepfish scouted acquisitions as the company became more successful. “What I liked about him was that he was pretty up front about his strengths and weak-

nesses,” Wiernasz says. In May 2012, the company acquired Artisan Specialty Foods for $1.2 million, an Illinois gour-met food distributor to high-end res-taurants around Chicago. “That gave us a big shot in the arm,” says Wiernasz.

As its business continues to grow, there will be more opportunities. Most recently, for example, Innova-tive Food acquired Haley Group, an advisory firm that helps food produc-ers with manufacturing and product placement. “We’re always on the look-out for acquisitions that make sense,” says Klepfish.

To accommodate future growth,

I n nov at ive Food ac qu i re d a 10,000-square-foot building in Bonita Springs. The company paid $770,000, which was below the building’s $2 million estimated replacement value, Klepfish says. What’s more, the com-pany financed the new building with a loan from Fifth Third Bank.

And the company arranged for a reverse-split of its stock last year (sym-bol: IVFH), which increased the price of its stock. Klepfish declines to say whether it might use its stock as a cur-rency for future acquisitions. “It could only be a good thing for the stock to be higher,” he says with a smile.

The technology industry has its business incubators and accelerators, so why not the food industry?

Naples-based Innovative Food Holdings provides 7,300 gourmet-food items to chefs all over the country, and many of them are made by budding entrepreneurs looking for help to market their products. Over the years, Sam Klepfish and Justin Wiernasz, the CEO and president of Innovative Food, respectively, have successfully advised and nurtured some of these entrepreneurs.

“The entrepreneurial spirit is always alive in food service,” says Wiernasz. “People have great ideas, but they don’t know how to take it from the kitchen to manufacturing. There’s a huge need for guidance in that realm.”

So Klepfish and Wiernasz recently co-founded Food Hatch, which will in-vest between $18,000 and $35,000 in a food business in exchange for an equity stake of up to 8%. Food Hatch hasn’t invested in any companies yet, but the duo say they’ve had a lot of interest, especially via their website (www.foodhatch.co).

The company initially plans to invest in no more than five early-stage or

startup food companies. Food Hatch has arranged for a group of experi-enced food-business executives to advise budding entrepreneurs. “We have a model of performance doing just that,” Wiernasz says.

—Jean Gruss

HATCHING THe NexT IdeA

Justin Wiernasz, president of Innovative Food Holdings.

I’m not the type of guy who pulls out the boss card. Sam Klepfish | Innovative Food Holdings

“”Hear Klepfish’s must-have traits for entrepreneurs at BusinessObserverFL.com.

VIdeO


commercial real estate | CHARLOTTE-LEE-COLLIER |

Father, son franchise operators constructing first Florida Culver’s

BUYER: Naples Custard LLC (principal: Mike Busalacchi), Brookfield, Wis.SELLER: Dunkin’s Diamonds & Gold Real Estate Inc.PROPERTY: 5775 Airport-Pulling Road N., Naples also known as lot 5, Pine Air Lakes, unit 5PRICE: $850,000PREVIOUS PRICE: $1.2 million, July 2006LAW FIRM ON DEED: Kevin F. Jursinski PA, Fort Myers

PLANS, DESCRIPTION:Mike and Vinnie Busalacchi pur-

chased a 0.87-acre parcel on Airport Pulling Road North between SunTrust Bank and Bob Taylor Chevrolet for $850,000.

The price equated to $977,011 per acre. That figure is higher than the two-year average price per acre for retail space ($746,593) in Southwest Florida, according to the CoStar Group.

The new owners plan to use the property to create the first Culver’s restaurant in Florida. The Busalac-chies already own and operate three Culver’s in Wisconsin.

Mike Busalacchi, who lives in Naples and has split his time between Florida and Wisconsin for the past nine years, sees a huge opportunity in the market. He says the large presence of Midwest-erners along the west coast of Florida made it especially attractive to the fast-casual restaurant chain.

Construction has already started on the 4,300-square-foot restaurant building. It is scheduled to open in Au-gust. The building will feature seating capacity for 102 at 35 tables and will generate 70 full- and part-time jobs.

Jeremy Kallies will be the operating partner for the new restaurant.

“We’re already looking at a second location in Naples,” Mike Busalac-chi says. “We already have it under contract.”

The Culver’s restaurant chain has announced plans for other franchisees to open restaurants in Fort Myers and Sarasota. The chain has 482 restau-rants nationwide. Florida is Culver’s 21st state.

The purchase entity Naples Custard LLC mortgaged the property to First Bank Financial Centre for $2.5 mil-lion.

Billionaire, landowner Kelley buys Integrated Control Systems HQ

BUYER: Boca Norte LLC (principal: Greg Betterton), Venice

SELLER: Integrated Control Systems Inc.PROPERTY: 900 and 990 W. Marion Ave. and 955 W. Retta Esplanade, Punta GordaPRICE: $3.52 millionPREVIOUS PRICE: $8.9 million, March 1995LAW FIRM ON DEED: Grant Fridkin

Pearson PA, Naples

PLANS, DESCRIPTION: Billionaire businessman/real estate

mogul Brad Kelley purchased the 51,824-square-foot former Integrated Control Systems Inc. corporate head-quarters and training facilities for $3.52 million.

The price equated to $68 per-square-foot. That figure is lower than the two-year average price per-square-foot for office space ($120) in South-west Florida, according to the CoStar Group.

Located across the street from Char-lotte Harbor, the 3.99-acre property features several two-story buildings. The development also included a number of unusual corporate ameni-ties from its time as the home of the IMPAC University business school. It features basketball and racquetball courts, a gym, a library, classrooms, several conference and meetings rooms and a 247-seat auditorium.

Integrated Control Systems had the campus built in 1994, but by 2004 the company had filed for bankruptcy.

As the Business Observer reported in its March 15 issue, the three-building campus attracted a great deal of at-tention. The listing generated the most views for any Florida property on LoopNet for several weeks in a row heading up to its auction by Fisher Auction Co.

The private Kelley made most of his money from manufacturing tobacco and is now primarily a rancher and landowner. The Land Report maga-zine lists him as the fourth-largest owner of land in America in its 2012 Land Report 100 and various news reports say he owns roughly 1.7 mil-lion acres in Florida, Texas and New Mexico. Last year, he purchased the well-known thoroughbred breeding and training facility, Calumet Farm in Lexington, Ky.

Kelley’s local representative, Venice attorney Greg Betterton did not reply to a request for comment as of dead-line.

EtC…• Randy Krise has become a mem-

ber of the Land Development Code Advisory Board for Lee County. Lee County Commission Chairman Cecil Pendergrass appointed Krise. The board advises county commissioners and staff on development code issues and recommends changes to the land development code.

• Falcon Fyrie Farms LC purchased

5.62 acres of commercial land at 800 West Hickpooche Ave., Labelle from Branch Banking & Trust Co. for $200,000. Andrew DeSalvo and Matt Stepan, of Premier Commercial Inc. handled the sale.

• Tannassee Fire Protection pur-chased an 8,918-square-foot flex, four-tenant building at 1895 Seward Ave., Naples for $452,000 from CWS Enterprises Inc. Fred Kermani of CRE Consultants handled the transaction.

• OBPFL - Bonita East 20 LLC pur-chased 20.06 acres of commercial land at 12585 East Terry St., Bonita Springs from ACM Liberty Comm RE LLC for $300,000. Andrew DeSalvo and Matt Stepan of Premier Commercial Inc. handled the sale.

• Open Sky Media Inc. leased 5,472 square feet of office space in Magnolia Square at 1421 Pine Ridge Road, Naples from Magnolia Square LLP. Randal Mercer and Brandon Stoneburner of CRE Consultants represented the ten-ant and Jeff Clapper of Courtelis Co. represented the landlord.

• JJBR Dixon Inc. purchased a 1,710-square-foot flex condominium at 2176 J&C Blvd., Naples from Capital Bank NA for $100,000. Andrew DeSalvo and Matt Stepan of Premier Commer-cial Inc. represented the seller.

• Yvette Camargo Arturo Haran and Peggy Haran purchased a 26.75- acre

property at 20311 Huffmaster Road, North Fort Myers from PAB Residen-tial Holdings LLC for $170,000. Randy Thibaut and Michael Price of Land Solutions Inc. represented the seller.

• CAI International leased 2,340 square feet of retail space in Palm Pointe Shoppes at 11601 S. Cleveland Ave., Fort Myers from 2010 Palm Pointe Limited Partnership. Mike Concilla and Brandon Stoneburner of CRE Con-sultants handled the transaction.

• Key West Enterprises LLC pur-chased 21,578 square feet of office condominium space at 1342 Colonial Blvd., Fort Myers from Branch Bank-ing & Trust Co for $800,000. Andrew DeSalvo and Matt Stepan of Premier Commercial Inc. represented the seller and Nils Richter of Market America Realty represented the buyer.

• TerraSmart leased 3,920 square feet of office space at 9200 Estero Park Commons Blvd., Suite 6, 7 and 8, Estero from Roorda Estero Park Commons LLC and Graeme R. Hunter Trust. Andrew DeSalvo and Matt Stepan of Premier Commercial Inc. handled the lease.

• Patten Sales & Marketing LLC leased 4,315 square feet of office space at 1100 Fifth Ave. S., Suite 404, Naples from 1100 Building LLC. Scott Dun-nuck and Fred Kermani of CRE Consul-tants handled the transaction.

• Ambiance Fine Furniture LLC leased 2,000 square feet of retail space in Bridge Plaza at 12901 McGregor Blvd., Fort Myers. Adam Palmer and Bryan Myers of LandQwest Commer-cial handled the transaction.

• Service Works Partners Invest-ments LLC purchased a 7,480-square-foot industrial building at 6220 Metro Plantation Road, Fort Myers from Sun-sports Warehouse L.C. for $386,000. Bob Johnston, Jerry Messonnier and Derek Bornhorst of Lee & Associates’ Naples-Fort Myers office handled the transaction.

• Sterling Estate Sales SWFL LLC leased 5,000 square feet of retail space in The Expo at Brantley, 1901 Brantley Road, Fort Myers. Michelle Hoffmann of LandQwest Commercial represented the landlord.

• Rinaldo and Sheron Acciavatti purchased a 1,536-square-foot indus-trial condominium at 12960 Commerce Lakes Drive, Unit A26, Fort Myers from Commerce Express LLC for $70,000. Bob Johnston, Jerry Messonnier and Derek Bornhorst of Lee & Associates’ Naples-Fort Myers office handled the transaction.

• 5720 Zip Drive LLC purchased a 9,500-square-foot industrial build-ing at 5720 Zip Drive, Fort Myers from Brian Cousins, as trustee and William Cousins Jr. for $373,450. Bob Johnston, Jerry Messonnier and Derek Bornhorst of Lee & Associates represented the seller and Phillip Qualls of Premier Plus Realty represented the buyer.

• Phenix Salon Suites leased 5,198 square feet of retail space in Bayfront at 412 Bayfront Place, Naples from Bay-front Inc. Mike Concilla and Hamish Williams of CRE Consultants repre-sented the landlord.

• Charles Williams purchased a 5,500-square-foot industrial building at 6380 Metro Plantation Road, Fort Myers from Bay Area Industrial Ser-vices Inc. for $300,000. Bob Johnston, Jerry Messonnier and Derek Bornhorst of Lee & Associates’ Naples-Fort Myers office handled the transaction.

• Sheeley Architects Inc. has com-pleted the architectural design services for a future retail and office center at 9011 Daniels Parkway, Fort Myers. The 1.5-acre site located in front of One Parker Center will feature Starbucks and Heartland Dental Care. Stultz Inc. is the construction manager and Banks

By SEAN ROTh | REAL ESTATE EDIToR

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commercial real estate | tampa BaY |

Times Square Properties buys two St. Pete apartments

BUYER: A Voice From A High LLC (principal: Robert Repko), St. PetersburgSELLER: Exclusive Designs of Florida Inc.PROPERTY: 236 10th Ave. N.E., St. PetersburgPRICE: $600,000PREVIOUS PRICE: $175,000, January 1997

BUYER: Loser LLC (principal: Robert Repko), St. PetersburgSELLER: Exclusive Designs Florida Inc.PROPERTY: 745 Second Ave. N., St. PetersburgPRICE: $800,000PREVIOUS PRICE: $327,000, June 1998LAW FIRM ON DEED: Bayshore Title Insurance Agency, Tampa

PLANS, DESCRIPTION:St. Petersburg real estate mogul

Maryann Lynch of Times Square Prop-erties purchased two St. Petersburg apartment complexes for $1.4 million.

The price equated to $36,842 per unit.

The Carmarwin and 236 10th Ave. N.E. multifamily buildings are roughly a mile and half from each other, but were sold together as a portfolio from a single seller. The two feature a com-

bined 38 units. Both facilities offer on-site laundry facilities.

The occupancy was in the high 90% range for the portfolio, with only one or two vacancies.

Michael Regan, Francesco Car-riera and Nicholas Meoli in Marcus & Millichap’s Tampa office handled the transaction.

“They needed a little TLC,” says Me-oli. “The exteriors needed some updat-ing, mainly new paint. But the interiors of the units were fine. That market is very well stabilized. Most of the market is 92% to 95% occupied.”

Lynch owns a number of similar apartment properties in St. Petersburg, with an emphasis on downtown, along with rental homes and commercial space. She is a long-term holder of real estate and is expected to retain these properties for their rental income.

Benderson Development Co. LLC buys Tampa Electric’s TECO Plaza

BUYER: 7978 Associates II LLC (principals: David Baldauf), University ParkSELLER: Franklin Street Associates Ltd.

PROPERTY: 702 N. Franklin St., TampaPRICE: $22 million

PREVIOUS PRICE: $1 million, July 1979

PLANS, DESCRIPTION:Commercial real estate giant Bend-

erson Development Co. LLC purchased the 277,454-square-foot TECO Plaza for $22 million.

The price equated to $79 per square foot. That figure is lower than the two-year average price per square foot for office space ($115) in the Tampa Bay area, according to the CoStar Group.

The office property, which covers a 1-acre city block in downtown Tampa, was built-to-suit for Tampa Electric Co. in 1979. Tampa Electric, the primary subsidiary of TECO Energy Inc., oc-cupied the property shortly thereafter and has leased it ever since. It has 13 years remaining on its current lease.

Camille Renshaw of Stan Johnson Co. represented the seller, a partnership managed by financial services firm UBS.

“This is their headquarters, and they have expressed nothing other than they plan to continue to stay there,” Renshaw says. “It is a classic absolute net lease. The landlord has absolutely no responsibilities. It’s a lot like a bond. With single-tenant properties like these it’s less about the real estate and more about the creditworthiness of the tenant.”

She says the seller was looking to take advantage of a heated single-tenant market, she says. Its view of the market was proved accurate with an intensive bid process and highly compressed return for Benderson. Based on the property’s cash flow and the buyer’s cash investment, Benderson received a cash-on-cash return of 5.78%, which

sets a new low-return benchmark, ac-cording to Renshaw.

For certain business models, such as those used by Tampa Electric or PWC, it makes more sense to rent their real estate leaving more capital in the business.

ETC.

• Keystone Manhattan Apartments LLC purchased the 24-unit Cay-man Islander apartment develop-ment from Bayou Partners LLC for $375,000, or $15,625 per unit. Built in 1960, Cayman Islander is located at 4205 S. Manhattan Ave., Tampa. Kevin Kelleher, Darron Kattan, Robert Goldfinger and Zach Ames of Franklin Street Real Estate Services handled the transaction.

• Tampa design firm, Api(+) provided architecture and interior design services for Yummy Market in Vaughn, Canada. The 50,000-square-foot store opened in February. The store has a 2,315-square-foot kitchen and is centered around a 3,050-square-foot bakery.

• Pawn Depot of Largo Inc. leased 4,500 square feet of retail space in Pine Lake Center at 12001 66th St. N., Pinellas Park from McGrath Family Holdings LLC. Linda West of The Ross Realty Group Inc. represented the landlord.

By SEAN ROTh | REAL ESTATE EDIToR

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IMG Academy announces expansion, new three-phase multi-sport complex

IMG Academy has started construc-tion on new multi-sport complex addi-tion to its Bradenton campus.

In the first phase of development, the academy will create a 5,000-seat stadium. The sports facility, which is scheduled to open in August, will also include an eight-lane, 400-meter track, a broadcast-ready press box with coach, press and radio rooms, hospital-ity suites and a collegiate-style video board. IMG Academy also plans to open a new stadium field for baseball.

In the second phase, the private ath-letic training institute plans to create a 40,000-square-foot field house with multiple locker rooms, meeting spaces and offices. The second phase is sched-uled to open in December.

In the third and final phase, IMG Academy has announced plans to cre-ate research and development facilities for sports performance companies. IMG Academy will create new multi-sport field venues to bring the total sports fields to more than 20 servicing soccer, lacrosse, baseball and football.

The new facilities are expected to be particularly important to IMG World-wide’s relatively new IMG Performance division. Created in 2012, IMG Perfor-mance owns and manages more than 100 sporting events, many of which

take place at IMG Academy and will now be staged in the new complex.

APH Property Holdings buys Vista At Palma Sola

BUYER: Vista Palma Sola LLC (American Property Holdings Corp.), Glenview, Ill.SELLER: AB Merion Palma Sola Associates LLC

PROPERTY: 3900, 3902, 3906, 3910, 3914, 3918, 3922, 3926, 3930, 3934, 3938, 3942, 3946, 3950, 3954, 3958, 3962, 3966, 3974, 3970, 3978, 3982, 3986 and 3990 W. 75th St., BradentonPRICE: $27 millionPREVIOUS PRICE: $20.63 million, December 2011LAW FIRM ON DEED: Alston & Bird LLP, Atlanta

PLANS, DESCRIPTION: APH Property Holdings, also known

as American Property Holdings, pur-chased the 340-unit Vista At Palma Sola apartments for $27 million.

The price equated to $79,412 per unit.

The lakefront development, which was formerly known as the Colonial Grand at Palma Sola, features 23 residential buildings and a clubhouse. The 25-acre property contains a swim-ming pool and spa, volleyball court, playground, fitness facility, laundry facilities and a lighted tennis courts. Built in 1991, the garden-style apart-ment complex includes one-, two- and three-bedroom units.

As with all APH Property Holdings purchases, the property is being man-aged by Providence Management Co. LLC.

APH Property Holdings is a private real estate investment trust created New York City investment company Prospect Capital Corp. The trust has made a significant push into West Florida recently. Earlier this year, it purchased the 770-unit Camden Live Oaks apartment complex for $63.4 million ($82,338 per unit) and it recently acquired the 280-unit Lofton Place for $26 million (92,857 per unit).

The purchase entity Vista Palma Sola LLC mortgaged the property to CBRE Multifamily Capital Inc. for $17.55 million.

commercial real estate | sarasota–manatee | By SEAN ROTh | reAL eStAte eDItor

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• Roger B. Kennedy Inc. has com-pleted the 35,000-square-foot LA Fitness Sarasota Parkway & Cooper at 8502 Cooper Creek Road, University Park. Designed by ARC3 Architecture Inc., St. Petersburg, the facility is the fourth LA Fitness project constructed by Roger B. Kennedy Inc. this past year. In November, the building firm completed the new LA Fitness Tampa South, also designed by ARC3, as well as the new LA Fitness at The Groves in Winder-mere, designed by Cuhaci & Peterson, Orlando. Kennedy earlier completed the LA Fitness Hunter’s Creek remodel and 11,000-square-foot expansion in Orlando.

• The ground floor of Sarasota Memo-rial’s new $250 million Courtyard Tower has opened. The rest of the nine-story patient care tower is scheduled to open in phases beginning this fall. The Court-yard Tower’s upper floors are dedicated to cardiac and orthopedic care, while the middle floors will be home to the hospital’s new and expanded neonatal intensive care unit, labor and delivery suites and mother-baby unit. The tower is the cornerstone of a larger campus improvement project that also includes a new state-of-the-art central energy plant, expanded critical care center and

four new integrated operating rooms completed in the last several years.

• 3293 Fruitville LLC purchased 3293 Fruitville Road, Units 103 and 104, Sarasota from Wells Fargo Bank NA for $242,800. Ian Black, Steve Horn and Melissa Harris of Ian Black Real Estate and Jeff Button of Richardson Kleiber Walters Kleiber Button handled the transaction.

• Global Engineering & Contract-ing Inc. purchased a bank-owned 1,017-square-foot office condominium at 234 N. Rhodes Ave., Unit 108, Sarasota from PNC Bank NA for $96,500. Theresa Blauch-Mitchell of Boback Commercial Group handled the transaction.

• Grape A Day Inc. purchased a bank-owned 2,034-square-foot office condo-minium at 202 N. Rhodes Ave., Units 101 and 104, Sarasota, from PNC Bank NA for $189,000. Theresa Blauch-Mitchell of Boback Commercial Group handled the transaction.

• Jeevy Computing LLC purchased an 865-square-foot office/retail condo-

minium unit at 115 N. Tamiami Trail, Nokomis from Stearns Bank for $52,750. David Roth of Re/Max Alliance Group represented the buyer, and Mike Migone of the Sperry Van Ness Commercial Ad-visory Group represented the seller.

• David Timmerman purchased a 1,725-square-foot flex condominium unit at 103 Triple Diamond Blvd., north Venice from Regions Bank for $62,500. Barry Bright of Sandals Realty repre-sented the buyer and Michael Gallatin of the Sperry Van Ness Commercial Advisory Group represented the seller.

• D.R. Horton Inc. purchased 30 acres of contiguous land at Bay Street and Old Venice Road in Osprey from Redus Florida Condos LLC and CRM Florida Properties LLC for $4.5 million. Sam Watkins and Janet Robinson of Cold-

well Banker Commercial NRT and Alec String of NRT Development represented the sellers and Todd Menke of Wood-mere Realty Advisors LLC represented the buyer.

century 21 Beggins Enterprises expanding to Sarasota, Manatee

Century 21 Beggins Enterprises, a real estate brokerage with five of-fices in Tampa Bay, plans to expand its reach into Sarasota and Long-boat Key with five new locations.

The local headquarters for the expansion will be the former Bar-rier Island Realty office at 7000 Gulf of Mexico Drive, Longboat Key, 1626 Ringling Blvd., Suite 500, Sarasota and additional locations through-out Longboat Key.

The firm is looking to attract new agents and has announced strategic alliances with several other real estate companies such as Resort Va-cation Accommodations, Property One Annual Rentals, Sperry Van Ness Commercial Advisory Group and Realty One Florida.

John Neal Homes growing office, staff

Lakewood Ranch-based John Neal Homes has doubled the size of its office space from 1,000 square feet to 2,600 square feet and is adding staff, in preparation for additional growth this year.

“We were bursting at the seams in our old office space,” John Neal, president of the homebuilder, says in a press release. “The timing was per-fect for us to add more space as we grow our business this year with our custom, on your lot division and our expansion into new communities.”

Wares creek expansion project awarded Federal funds

The U.S. Army Corps of Engineers was recently allocated an additional $12 million for a flood relief project on Wares Creek in Manatee County. The additional funding will allow the Corps to contract work to complete the long-awaited project along the creek bed from Ninth Avenue to Cor-tez Road in Bradenton.

The first phase of the project, dredging and deepening of the creek bed between Manatee Avenue and Ninth Avenue was completed last fall. But the next and longest area of the flood control project, widening of the creek from Ninth Avenue to Cortez Road, was delayed for lack of funding.

“In January, the county began a targeted outreach strategy with key Congressional officials highlight-ing the importance of the request,” Manatee County Natural Resources Director Charlie Hunsicker says in a press release. “We understood the long odds of gaining approval of an additional $12 million in light of the federal budget sequestration, projected cuts in Corps funding, and the need for unanticipated aid for natural disasters nationwide.”

With the final funding secured, Hunsicker thinks the Corps could award a bid for the final section of the project by August and work could begin by the end of the year.


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corporatereport | By sean roth | research editor

Enviro-Serv Inc. restarts X-Terminate subsidiary

Tampa-based Transfer Technology International Corp. has created a new subsidiary to re-launch its pest control management business model. The new subsidiary is named X-Terminate Pest Management Inc. and will focus on termite control, general pest control and lawn and ornamental services.

Richard Tellone, a senior master ter-mite inspector and former vice president of X-Terminate Inc., will lead X-Termite Pest Management Inc..

Enviro-Serv Inc. recently changed its name from Transfer Technology Inter-national Corp.

Kerkering, Barberio founder hired as Sebring Software CFO

Allan Barberio has become chief financial officer of Sarasota-based Se-bring Software Inc.

Before joining Sebring Software, Bar-berio spent most of his career in public accounting, and in 1972 cofounded Kerkering, Barberio & Co. That firm now

has 120 employees. He was also the court-appointed trustee of a $60 million trust for four years. Barberio will continue to counsel the firm.

“Allan is a seasoned financial executive with extensive experience in

the health care industry; representing large medical practices, dental practices, and diagnostic imaging centers,” Leif Andersen, president and CEO of Sebring Software, says in a press release. “Allan’s leadership and financial acumen have been extremely instrumental in previ-ous endeavors, and I am thrilled to have

him be part of the team at Sebring, as we take the company into its next phase of growth.”

Sebring is focused on providing soft-ware solutions to the dental-practice management industry.

Tampa Bay Entrepreneurship Gala recognizes brewery, Sweetwater farm

The University of South Florida Alumni Society of Entrepreneurs hon-ored Cigar City Brewing and the Sweet-water Organic Farm at its Tampa Bay Entrepreneurship Gala May 10. Cigar City Brewing was recognized as the En-trepreneurship Organization of the Year and Sweetwater Organic Farm was the Social Entrepreneur of the Year.

The Tampa Bay Entrepreneurship Gala is organized by graduates of the USF Center for Entrepreneurship, to benefit the Michael W. Fountain Endowed Schol-arship, named after the current director of the USF Center for Entrepreneurship. The endowment scholarship is designed to help grow the dreams of young entre-preneurs through mentorship, finan-cial support, and additional resources needed to help start their business.

NetWeave Social Networking buys UK social media firm

Palmetto social media company NetWeave Social Networking LLC, has acquired U.K.-based Elevate Social,

bringing a number of new aviation and health care clients to NetWeave’s book of business.

The deal came about in April through discussions between Kevin McNulty, CEO of NetWeave, and Elevate CEO Adam Miller at Lakeland’s SUN ‘n FUN Fly-In and Expo, where the two were presenters on a social media panel. Mc-Nulty says combining the two business-es made sense because NetWeave was also focused on the two industries. Two of its current clients are Sarasota’s Cirrus Aviation and Bradenton Urgent Care.

The new business will bring NetWeave’s client list to nearly 100, while also adding one more to its staff of 10.

NetWeave Social Networking assists businesses and non-profits in estab-lishing and promoting themselves on social media and managing their online reputations.

American Senior Services hires former ACSIA president as COO

St. Petersburg-based American Senior Services Inc. has hired Mark Goldberg as its chief operating officer.

Goldberg was most recently president of the long-term care insurance com-pany ACSIA Long Term Care Inc., which had eight consecutive years of double-digit growth. He also served in various positions with Prudential, Transamerica and Amex Life.

“Mark is one of the few profession-als in the senior sales space that knows what it takes to grow a business year over year in the form of product sales and sales leadership,” ASSI CEO Bobby Gross says in a press release.

Metz Culinary Management expands, opens Sarasota office

Metz Culinary Management, a Pennsylvania-based foodservice firm that serves hospitals, schools and cor-porations, has opened a Sarasota office in an effort to expand in Florida and the Southeast.

The firm hired Longboat Key resident Jack Brill to run its Southern Division corporate office. Clients in that divi-sion include health care and long-term care facilities, colleges, universities and independent schools, the company says. Metz Culinary Management President and CEO Jeffrey Metz says the firm brings restaurant-style hospitality to its clients. “Florida is a tremendous market for us,” Metz says. “We are making a strong commitment there. We will put a major push on Florida.”

With more than 160 accounts in 14 states, Metz Culinary Management was recently named one of the top 20 management companies in the U.S. by Food Management magazine. Metz adds that the company picked up about 35 accounts in 2012. The firm, based in Dallas, Pa., north of Philadelphia, also operates several franchise restaurants in the Northeast, including a Ruth’s Chris Steak House; 13 T.G.I. Friday’s locations; and two Krispy Kreme stores.

Brill has more than 25 years of re-tail and foodservice industry experi-ence. He’s owned and operated two foodservice businesses, according to the release, and he’s also worked with global food companies and military programs. “I’m thrilled to join the Metz Culinary Management team,” Brill says in a statement, “and feel that we have services that are uniquely qualified for the South.”

—by Mark Gordon

BarBerio

Sweetwater Organic Farm


A Better View of Business BusinessObserverFL.com

PASCO

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PINELLAS

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SARASOTA

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JUNE 7Special Issue:

Banking & Finance A quarterly analysis of the Gulf Coast’s banking and finance sector

Advertising Reservation Deadline: May 30Our lineup of 2013 special issues offers an entire year of opportunities to advertise and reach Florida’s Gulf Coast business leaders. To receive more information or our editorial calendar, contact Diane Schaefer at 941.362.4848.

Reach farther{

COVERAGE THAT SPANS FLORIDA COUNTIES8

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out of the office | clay date | By Heidi Kurpiela | ContriButor

Bay area execs aim highMembers of the CEO Council

of Tampa Bay tested their marks-manship May 3 at FishHawk Sporting Clays in Lithia.

At the suggestion of the group’s vice chairman, Ray Sikorski, CEO and president of Verified Label, Print & Promotions Inc., the 225-member council decided to swap its annual golf tournament for a challenging shooting competition on 77 acres of ranch land outside Tampa.

Despite FishHawk’s remote loca-tion, more than two dozen mem-bers turned out for the game.

Said member Hellen Davis, pres-ident and CEO of Indaba Global, “This is much more exciting than golf. My adrenaline is pumping!”

Joni adams, owner and CEO of Refur-bished Office Furniture

miles dierKs, SuperVision Surveillance; Kyle de-leonard, assistant at Got-Rack.com; alan Bridges, owner at Got-Rack.com and ricK gal-legos, president and CEO at Dale Carn-egie Training

geoff dyer, CEO and founder of AussieFit; Hellen davis, president and CEO of Indaba Global; cyndi sexton, adminis-trative director of the CEO Council of Tampa Bay and rodney collman, owner of Collman & Karsky Architects

Jeff WelcH, Bouchard Insurance, scott colman and doug BisHop, CEO at Bouchard Insurance

ron Zielin, president of Offsite Technol-ogy Solutions, and ray siKorsKi, CEO and president of Verified Label, Print & Promotions Inc.

craig lamBerson, president of J.O. DeLotto and Sons


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