With record levels of new construction both in the city and along its stretch of the I-75 corridor, Sarasota County continues to add not only to its mushrooming economic base, but also to what it has always liked to be known for - its quality of life.
Downtown, the newly renovated and expanded Van Wezel Performing Arts Hall will soon reopen its doors. Not far away, the Ritz-Carlton Hotel is a rising concrete and steel 18-story monument that will overlook the Sarasota Bay. It has a story often heard but worth repeating: All 50 luxury condominiums attached to the $95-million, 266-room, five-star hotel were spoken for before the first clod of dirt was turned.
"The effect of the Ritz-Carlton has been interesting," says Kathy Baylis, vice president of the Sarasota County Committee for Economic Development. "It has put us on the radar screen of some developers. Some big-name franchisers have indicated interest in bringing in retail and restaurants. The Ritz-Carlton is going to drive some retail and tourism in the downtown area."
But Baylis observes another development of equal importance.
"Our biggest trend this year is the growth of high-tech companies and the growth of existing businesses here," she says. "Two of our technology companies were number one and two in this year's Fast 50. That speaks volumes to what's really happening here. We're still seeing job growth in our technology sector."
The number-one slot on this year's Tampa Bay Technology Fast 50 list was taken by Lexjet Corporation, a Sarasota company that specializes in the wide-format printing industry (see story, page 23), followed in the number-two slot by Indigo Investment Systems Inc., which makes trading and investment software for individuals.
Another Sarasota company on the list at No. 20 is Wave Wireless Networking Inc., a manufacturer of wireless computer network equipment.
Tech lifestyle
"Everybody talks about high tech and wants it in their community," Baylis says. "What have we got going for us that other communities may not have? People in the tech industry can go wherever they want. They're making choices for their company's location as a lifestyle decision. And we have that latitude. We have outstanding schools, a modest cost of living, which is important, and a quality of life that is extraordinary."
Accolades from national publications support the claim. The July issue of Employment Review magazine named Sarasota County the "best place to live and work." Expansion Manage-ment magazine has added Sarasota County public schools to its gold star system. "Ours is the top-rated school system in Florida," says Baylis.
The University of Texas at El Paso ranked Sarasota 7th in the nation among 316 metropolitan areas based on population growth, private employment growth, personal income and wealth, cost of government and entrepreneurial success.
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The newest office building in downtown Sarasota is the 10-story, 78,000-square-foot Janet and Stanley Kane Plaza on School Avenue at Main Street. It was completely leased before the final touches were applied.
D.J. Wilson
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But with an unemployment rate hovering in the 2-percent range for the past year, the availability of a qualified workforce is a concern for the county's technology firms. "Our [tech] companies have told us that workforce is still the number one issue," admits Baylis. "But when they're trying to recruit, it's fairly easy. People visit here one time and they fall in love with the area. They want to live here."
And that is the recurring theme when it comes to the logic behind corporate relocations to the area. Neil Chawkins, chief executive officer at Symphony Electronics Corporation Inc., relocated the company from Los Angeles five years ago and is now expanding his firm from a 3,000-square-foot warehouse into a 10,000-square-foot building he recently purchased along the I-75 corridor.
"We didn't want to stay in L.A.," says Chawkins, the third generation to manage the family-owned business. "Most of what we do is by phone and fax. We could be on a boat somewhere doing this. My dad and I set out to find the most beautiful place to live and still get FedEx and UPS to deliver. We traveled a lot of places looking at different areas to relocate. Atlanta, Tampa and St. Petersburg were considerations. We really liked Sarasota."
Symphony Electronics distributes electronic components to companies like "Lucent, Apple, IBM, Hewlett Packard and Ford," says Chawkins. "We sell to manufacturers who make anything with a circuit board or electronic parts. Everything has a circuit board in it."
The expansion comes as a result of increased demand for product. "There's a major shortage of products due to the growth of the cellular phone business," Chawkins says. "The two largest manufacturers of capacitors are delivering their product directly to Nokia and Erickson. They've cut off all their distributors and the distributors are scrambling."
This change in the industry has led to an increase of the company's annual revenues from $2 million to $6 million. Investment in the building at Tower Industrial Park is the first step in Chawkins' growth strategy. "We're buying more land for expansion," he says. "We'll double in size in the next year. We need more space for the stock we buy. Stock is king. Our customers need to have our product today and they want it yesterday. The key to my business is to have it sitting on my shelf."
Metal supermarket
Availability of stock is the key to success for another company that has recently relocated a division to Sarasota. Metal Supermarkets International Inc. specializes in carrying metals of all varieties. The firm's corporate headquarters is located in Toronto. Joe Miller recently moved the franchise division into a small office at the Sarasota Quay.
"The choice of Sarasota is more personal than anything else," says Miller, who is president of the franchise division. "We've been vacationing here for 25 years and are comfortable here. I bought a house here last year and it seemed natural when we made the decision to move the division that this was a good place to be. It's a lot easier to get a franchisee to come to Sarasota in the middle of winter than to come to Toronto."
The company is in the "small-quantity metal business," says Miller. "We cut exactly to size with no minimum orders and we'll deliver. We carry all types of metals and specialize in finding hard-to-source items, such as titanium."
The firm has 72 stores in Canada, the United States, United Kingdom and Austria. Fifty-eight are franchises. "We have 28 stores in the U.S.," Miller says. "Our goal is to put as many as 200 stores in this market over the next five years. We realized that if we wanted to do a major expansion, we would have to be in that country to do it properly. By being here, we're able to give better support to our franchisees."
Miller says revenues have grown from $14 million in 1997 to $45 million last year and are on track to increase to $65 million this year. Success magazine has ranked the company as one of the top 10 "hottest franchises" in North America and in June, Entrepreneur magazine ranked the company among the top 50 in the world.
"We opened stores last year in Tallahassee, Tampa, Orlando and Fort Lauderdale," says Miller. "And we just recently opened a store in St. Petersburg. We're pleasantly surprised that this has been such a good market for our product. Our demographics had indicated that this would be a good market, but it's even better than we had anticipated."
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The rising 18-story mass of concrete and steel overlooking Sarasota Bay is the $95-million,
266-room, Ritz-Carlton Hotel, whose 50 luxury condos were sold before the earth was turned.
D.J. Wilson
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"Cafetorium" appeal
Such has also been the experience of international consulting firm Arthur Andersen. Over the 16 years that it has operated locally, four divisions have grown in Sarasota, and the company this year occupied its new 125,000-square-foot, three-story regional headquarters just south of Fruitville Road, west of I-75. "Our people are very happy," says Jim Shedivy, the firm's office managing partner. "There has been a lot of positive reaction to this facility. It has better technology and our employees like the fitness center and cafetorium."
The cafetorium is not only a cafeteria that provides hot meals to employees throughout the day, but also an auditorium to conduct meetings that will accommodate more than 100 of the firm's 800 employees. "We can close off part of the space for special meetings," Shedivy says. "It's our biggest area for meetings and it has been used a lot."
The divisions that operate in Sarasota are tax technology enterprise, here since 1984; technology solutions, which serves the internal technology needs of Arthur Andersen globally and assists 80,000 end users globally for technology support of the firm's products; the Americas operations center, which is the back office center that supports payroll and accounts payable functions in North America; and VantageSource, the global distribution center for the company's products.
"We just moved those operations from a Chicago distribution center," Shedivy says. The warehouse is located in South Manatee and 15 employees manage that operation from the corporate campus. "It's more economical to ship and operate from here. This has brought our electronic store to Sarasota."
An example of the technology in place in the new facility is the firm's server farm. "We have 500 servers supporting people in 80 countries," says Shedivy. "This is the largest the organization has."
Moving to the north side of Fruitville Road, one goes from the server farm to the towers that support transmission of telecommunications, data and broadcasting, as another technology firm has consolidated into larger headquarters along the I-75 corridor. Pinnacle Towers Inc. recently moved its 200 employees into 35,000 square feet at the Gateway to Sarasota.
"Our staff has doubled since 1998," says Steve Day, the firm's chief operating officer. "This new location right off the Interstate gives our people a more convenient commute. We miss downtown; it's a very pleasant place to work. But it just didn't have the space we needed. This is a superior location for recruiting, giving us broader access for personnel from Tampa to Port Charlotte."
Pinnacle Towers not long ago also opened a 16,000-square-foot operations facility for staff that manages the operation of the firm's towers at the Sarasota International Trade Center, located east of I-75.
Vico Technologies Inc., a manufacturer of parts for the automotive industry, also selected that location for its new 120,000-square-foot headquarters. "This is an expansion that puts everybody under one roof," says Bill Kleiber of Richardson Kleiber Walter Real Estate Services. "They were in several buildings throughout north Sarasota. We've been very fortunate in this market to see all the local companies growing and doing well. Most of our expansions are coming from that growth."
Another on the expansion list is Torrington Brush Works, which has a new 13,000-square-foot manufacturing facility and headquarters in Northgate Business Park. The company manufactures brushes for industrial use. "This expansion is a result of moving operations in Connecticut to here," says Sid Fitzgerald, the firm's president. "We started here as a distribution center in 1987 and began making brushes in late 1989. In the mid Ô90s we moved all administrative and clerical operations here.
"Any place in the Tampa Bay area would have been satisfactory," adds Fitzgerald, "but I like Sarasota. This building in Connecticut would cost much more to operate. Our property taxes here are less. The labor market is tighter, but it still satisfies our needs."
Another expansion involves a firm specializing in meeting employee demand. Selective HR Solutions is relocating from an office in Manatee County to a new 25,000-square-foot facility in Corporate Park at Lakewood Ranch. The professional employee organization was incorporated in 1984 and is a subsidiary of a New Jersey-based insurance company.
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Fast-growing Pinnacle Towers Inc. moved 200 employees into 35,000 square feet of office space in this new building at the Gateway to Sarasota, north of Fruitville Road just west of I-75.
D.J. Wilson
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"This location is ideal for us," says Bob Clancy, the firm's president and chief executive officer. "We're right off the interchange [at I-75 and University Parkway] and we'll be able to draw employees from Venice to Tampa."
Keiser College is also gearing up to move its Sarasota campus from the Sarasota Quay to Lakewood Ranch. The private school provides accredited two-year degrees in computer sciences, business and allied health. The college is doubling in size to 50,000 square feet and plans eventually to expand to 75,000 square feet.
"We've been in the community five years now," says Art Keiser, the school's president. "We've expanded each year at the Quay and we're out of space. Lakewood Ranch is the best property we've seen in the Sarasota/Bradenton area. It will be easier for students from north and south to come to us."
New concept Holiday Inn
The college will be adjacent to a new 128-room Holiday Inn now under construction at Corporate Park. "This is one of the nicest in the country," says John Swart at Lakewood Ranch Realty. "The quality is exceptional. It doesn't look like a Holiday Inn. It's part of their new imaging. An Alamo Grill restaurant will be part of the hotel. This concept is their first in Florida."
And while construction on the school and hotel are under way, FCCI will be occupying its new 220,000-square-foot headquarters nearby. "They're approved for a future phase of 350,000 square feet," Swart says. "This is a real icon for us."
Also in the works is a new campus for Manatee Community College. "They'll build 30,000 to 50,000 square feet," Swart says.
Meanwhile, nine additional office buildings are in the permitting stages at Corporate Park. "The buildings in Corporate Park are fully leased," says Swart. "Our office market continues to be strong. Everybody likes the [Verizon] SmartPark. That has been a big plus."
Fiber optic appeal
The developers at the Gateway to Sarasota north of Fruitville Road and I-75 have found fiber optics technology to be an excellent draw as well. Two 64,695-square-foot Class A office buildings have been developed to date. "The first building was 100-percent leased within 90 days of completion," says Nevin Thomas of Commercial Management Leasing Inc. "That building came on line at a time when there was tenant demand. There hadn't been new buildings available."
Filling up the second building hasn't been as easy. "Preleasing has dried up," Thomas says. "Tenants want to see a building completed before leasing. There has been some slowdown from the fury of a year ago, but we're running at 80 percent of what we were doing last year. There's still a lot of activity in the market."
That activity has reflected well in the newest office building in downtown, the 10-story, 78,000-square-foot Janet and Stanley Kane Plaza on School Avenue at Main Street. "It's completely leased out," says N.J. Olivieri, president of Horizon Corp. "There aren't many large spaces available downtown, although small pockets are available. Rents are increasing from $15 to $21."
Although the Rivolta Group has halted progress on developing its proposed Class A office building downtown, the Wynnton Group is "moving ahead with preleasing on Five Points," says John Harshman at Harshman & Co. "We have about 85,000 square feet committed. There are a few details to finalize before a specific start date for construction occurs. We had anticipated starting this fall, but are looking to come out of the ground some time in 2001."
This project is the "first Class A office building to be built within the central business district of Sarasota in 15 years," says Harshman. "Tenants are looking in our market but they're looking for space in a relatively short horizon of six to nine months. Construction will take about 18 months."
Delays to this project or not, Sarasota's downtown skyline is filled with cranes working on new buildings. "Most of the downtown development is residential," Harshman says. "There are several new projects under construction or planned and they're changing the face of downtown. With the number of cranes around town it looks like a lot, but all put together it's less than 1,000 [residential units]."
Buzz of the Ritz
It is the impending impact of the Ritz-Carlton Hotel that is creating a buzz downtown. "We have a lot of anticipation for what it will bring," says Harshman. "It will be extremely positive on a lot of different levels. We won't know until it's up and running the degree of that impact but, because of it coming in, there are other hotel groups looking to locate in and around the downtown area."
Horizon Corp. has provided the $95-million financing for the project and also has high expectations for the impact of the five-star hotel on the area.
"Naples was a community that Ritz-Carlton made," says Olivieri. "It brought a lot of development into Naples. We're seeing an impact already. We're seeing a higher quality of retail. Neiman Marcus is considering coming into the Sarasota market place. They're looking for a location. And we're seeing Tampa clients who want to know when the Ritz will be built. There's not a five-star hotel in Tampa. This will be a place to house their clients while they're here."
Horizon Corp. also sold the property contiguous to the Ritz-Carlton to Watermark Communities Inc. of Bonita Springs. "They're developing a condominium tower of 80 units there," Olivieri says. "Construction hasn't started yet. They need to get plans done and presales."
Construction is being completed on the newly renovated and expanded Van Wezel Performing Arts Hall. The original stage house has been demolished and replaced by a greatly expanded stage. In all, 20,000 square feet is being added to the facility, now totaling 78,000 square feet. "We're opening on schedule and on budget," says Bill Mitchell, the center's executive director. "It's bigger and better. It really is quite extraordinary. The presence the building has is so strong. The reconfiguration of the roof sweeping up from Sarasota Bay is very powerful and it's very purple."
The cost of improvements is $20 million. "It cost $2.5 million to build 30 years ago," Mitchell says.
It's not costing quite as much - $18.6-million - to build the new Sarasota County Jail, also under construction downtown. And WWSB Channel 40 is building a new 23,000-square-foot office and studio in the city's Rosemary District north of downtown.
Sarasota Quay Inc. has announced plans to renovate its 220,000 square-foot mixed-use building and add another 230,000 square feet, including new retail space, waterfront penthouse offices, street-front offices, two parking garages, a new elevated entrance and 136 residences. Although plans for the project are still under way, the project has an estimated price tag of between $60 million and $70 million.
In the midst of all this existing and proposed construction, the City of Sarasota has hired Miami-based Duany Plater-Zyberk & Co. to update its master plan. New urbanism architect Andres Duany developed the revitalization plans for Naples, West Palm Beach and more than 200 other communities throughout the nation.
"We're waiting for final adjustments to the draft by Duany," Harshman says. "Public input on the preliminary draft has been received and he's following up with a final recommended master plan for downtown. It will guide the next 20 years of development downtown."
"On top of all that is a visioning process that many hundreds of citizens are involved in," says Baylis of the Committee for Economic Development. "SCOPE (Sarasota County Openly Plans for Excellence) is looking at a number of issues and determining how Sarasota will look in all those issues. They cover the environment, education, health and human services, growth management. This is a very positive thing. We all moved here for quality of life and we want to make sure we maintain that. Our economic viability is based on our ability to maintain that."
Venice waterways
While planning for the future of development throughout the county, new projects under way have not been limited to downtown or the north I-75 corridor. South County is also quite busy. "There's a lot happening in Venice," Baylis says. "An annexation of property is taking place to be developed by the city. And the City of Venice is looking at developing a waterway park around the Intracoastal Waterway."
In keeping with the artsy culture that is a landmark of Sarasota, a Venice firm is expanding its facilities to increase the production of water fountains. Wesco Fountains has designed and constructed the fountains tourists from around the world see in Walt Disney World, Sea World, Epcot and Universal Studios. The firm is expanding and consolidating from three buildings totaling 9,000 square feet into a new 16,000-square-foot facility at the Laurel Interchange Business Center.
"We've always been in Venice and it's a great place to do business," says Janice Coquillard, the firm's president. "We're extremely lucky because our two major lifelines have been thriving. The booming growth of Naples and Orlando has been extremely beneficial to this company. And we're centrally located between these two cities."
Coquillard's father founded the company in 1984. "He owned an irrigation business and designed a floating pump station using submersible equipment," she says. "He got the idea of putting a nozzle on the system and using it as a fountain that would irrigate property at night. This line took off and in 1984 he committed the business to concentrate solely on fountains. He sold the irrigation end. He's chairman of the board and still very active."
Although the firm has designed and built fountains throughout the world, "we concentrate on North America," says Coquillard. "With the economy of Naples and Orlando, I don't have to look much further. We're tapped out as far as what we can produce at our facilities now. We have a growth opportunity ahead for us when we're in our expanded facilities. We're expecting within five years to double our revenues. We're at $5 million right now. We'd like to be at $10 million and this new plant can take us to that level."
The firm currently has 27 employees, and Coquillard estimates that another 15 workers will join the staff when they move into their new facility.
Providing additional options for businesses looking to expand in Sarasota, a new business park is in development at the Laurel Road and I-75 interchange in the south county area. "Knights Laurel Business Park is breaking ground," says Bill Kleiber of Richardson Kleiber Walter.
"Infrastructure is being installed, retention ponds have been dug and roads will be started shortly. It will have 65 lots. It's a nice project.
"We've had limited opportunities in the I-75 corridor until now," Kleiber adds. "We now have [business parks] at Jacaranda, Laurel Road and Lakewood Ranch. We were quite barren for a while, but now we have a lot of opportunities."
There's been so much activity that space is at a premium at the Sarasota County Interstate Business Center in Venice. "Out of 30 lots we have eight remaining," says Jim Walter of Richardson Kleiber Walter. "Most of this is due to local companies expanding."
Sunset Mold Inc. has built a new 14,000-square-foot facility. They'll occupy two thirds of the space, and Gale Industries has leased the remainder. NCN Electric is moving into its new 6,200-square-foot building, as is Harrison Construction, which just completed its 7,200-square-foot facility. Door Depot has occupied 3,600 square feet and Voice Tech has moved into an 8,000-square-foot building. "Glaspro will build a 20,000-square-foot building," says Walter. "They make surf boards. Everybody's doing well."
And that includes North Port at the county's southern edge. "It's incredible to see the list of projects there," says Baylis.
A boom in North Port
Of the 2,600 building permits issued by Sarasota County this year, 1,200 are within the city limits of North Port. "That's 45 percent of all building permits," says Jonathon Baltuch, vice president of KEB Inc. The firm has developed two 10,000-square-foot office buildings in Bobcat Village. "This is where the bulk of the growth is happening in Sarasota. We have availability of quality, amenitized communities at reasonable prices and proximity to beaches. It started with residential development and now we're seeing a tremendous amount of commercial development. A lot of industry and manufacturing are coming this way."
In the last three years $150 million in new construction has occurred in North Port and another $500 million will be spent over the next 36 months. The $52-million North Port High School is under construction, the first new high school to be built in Sarasota County in 40 years and North Port's only high school.
Population is expected to double to 40,000 over the next four years, and within a year it is projected that 2,000 new jobs will be created in the city.
"KEB owns 2,800 acres of land in North Port and is in planning stages for a 160-acre high-tech office park called Panacea Corporate Plantation," Baltuch says. "Our DRI is approved for 2.5 million square feet of commercial and office space as well as 4,500 residential units. We're just beginning development of commercial space."
At the North Port Park of Commerce, Atlantic Teleconnect Inc. has relocated its 85 employees from Punta Gorda into a new 15,000-square-foot facility. Marble Works is building a 29,145-square-foot manufacturing and distribution facility. Raymond Building Supply, Busy Bee Cabinets, Stanley Steemer, Florida Environmental and Herston Engineering are firms that cumulatively will be occupying more than 125,000 square feet at the business park.
Also coming to North Port are King Plastics, building a new 150,000-square-foot manufacturing facility, and JSD, a manufacturer that is building a 140,000-square-foot facility that will employ 100 workers.
An overview of the county's corporate expansions and construction projects makes it easy to accept Baylis' assessment. "In every corner you look in the county there's strong economic growth," she says.
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