Even in the current economic downturn, it's an upbeat picture, and by mid-March, even the gloom over the county's marine industry began to lift. Boat manufacturer Chris-Craft Industries Inc. emerged under new ownership (see accompanying story, page 42) which seemed to indicate a turn-around is in order.

Meanwhile, more companies are relocating to Manatee. West Virginia-based Wheeling Corrugating Co. has opened a 56,000-square-foot corrugated steel manufacturing plant in Palmetto, adding 25 jobs. PetLift, a manufacturer of veterinary supplies, is relocating from its Brooklyn headquarters to Bradenton, bringing another 25.

Manatee's appeal as a corporate setting is recorded by citations it has received for its quality of life. A tally of the main components that make for an excellent lifestyle has earned the county Expansion Management magazine's five-star rating, placing it, along with Sarasota County, sixth in the nation for standard of living. High marks in wage rates and cost of living, income, crime rates, adult education levels and potential for home ownership are the factors that place Manatee in a favorable light with the magazine, which focuses on business expansion and corporate relocation.

Other statistics reveal that Manatee, combined with Sarasota, ranks third of 212 metropolitan areas in per capita buying power. And more jobs are on the way, apparently. The U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics cites the area as third in the nation for job growth. Fishkind & Co., an economic forecasting firm in Orlando, projects that as many as 15,000 jobs are coming to the two-county area in the next three years, with Manatee claiming two thirds of that total. In the next four years Manatee's population is projected to grow by 9.2 percent, compared to 7.6 percent in Sarasota and 8.2 percent in Florida generally. (Increasingly, Manatee and Sarasota counties - fierce competitors in the past - are cooperating for economic growth. The two leading chambers of commerce are involved in several joint projects, and the two county economic development organizations are cooperating to form the first high-tech incubator south of Tampa Bay - see story, page 18.)

ClearAccess Communications Inc., the signature tenant at the Bradenton Financial Center, is offering its telecommunications services to companies in Southwest Florida.

The projected growth of the area is no accident. "We literally have all the right ingredients," says Nancy Engel, executive director of the Manatee Chamber of Commerce/Economic Development Council. "Obviously, our location in the south Tampa Bay area is ideal. We're in a major metropolitan area but have the feel of a small town. We have a great quality of life with recreational and cultural activities. Educational resources are available in this area and our residential is great but also is the job market. Companies are very focused on the quality of life in Manatee."

Quality-of-life issues contributed to the choice of Baker Electronics Inc., a high-tech manufacturer of aviation products, to build a new 50,000-square-foot headquarters in the Sarasota-Manatee Airport Authority's SRQ Aviation Park of Commerce, a new 54-acre commercial center adjacent to the Sarasota-Bradenton International Air-port. The 220-employee company has been operating in South Manatee since its founding in the late '60s. "This is a consolidation from several buildings in South Manatee," says Dan Barwick, the firm's chairman. "We elected to go to the airport. The airport authority's new industrial park is a great meld for our aviation-based business."

The company manufactures audio control panels used in airplanes. "This equipment is used to manipulate audio signals from various radios in the cockpit," Barwick says. "A simple airplane will have six or seven radios. Complex planes have even more and pilots need a control mechanism for those."

The firm also manufactures cabin management equipment for corporate airplanes. "This covers entertainment, environmental switching, lighting and heating for the back of corporate airplanes," says Barwick. "It's much more complex than commercial aircraft." A third product line is flat panel displays for aviation, marine and industrial applications.

"Our systems fly on Cessnas, Gulfstreams, Raytheon aircraft, every imaginable kind of aircraft," Barwick says. "That includes Boeing aircraft used for private purposes. Lockheed uses our defense-based monitor systems."

Baker Electronics "dates back to the late '60s, when a fellow by the name of Smith acquired rights to the audio panel," says Barwick. "Gene Baker, for whom the company is named, started to do business [manufacturing the audio panel] as Baker Electronics in 1972. He passed away in the late '80s. His brother started to work for him in the late '70s and is still with us. My [two] brothers and I bought control of the company in '94 and today we own about 70 percent of it. The rest is owned by our employees. We've grown at a rate of 20 to 40 percent annually for the last six years and expect to continue to do that."

Barwick finds that Manatee "has a very accommodating working environment. People have a generally good work ethic, it's a nice place to live with a reasonable cost of living. It has the things that employers look for," he says. "A cadre of high-tech businesses doing fairly exotic things is building in Sarasota/Bradenton. We're building a high-tech workforce to draw from."

Although Barwick has difficulty recruiting locally for the more sophisticated engineering positions, "on the upside, they don't leave [after relocating]," he says. "They like the area. An advantage is that we can draw from a resource pool of the entire Tampa Bay area. This is a new phenomenon. We have people working for us who live in St. Petersburg. The circle is widening."

High-tech honors
The center of that high-tech circle in Manatee has some significant players that earned spots on the 2000 Tampa Bay Technology Fast 50 list. Elcotel Inc., a pay-phone manufacturer and telecommunications provider ranked 26th, although early this year the company fell prey to the growing financial distress of the pay phone industry and filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection.) Precise Power Corp. in Palmetto, ranked 29th, makes electric motors featuring new technology. Acterna Corporation, formerly Cheetah Technologies Inc., ranked 34th. The Bradenton company manufactures broadband network systems. Esprit Chemical Co., which distributes specialty chemicals, ranked 42nd. And Teltronics Inc., a south-county company that manufactures telecommunications equipment, ranked 44th.

The decision of a Bradenton location came from Wethington, who owned a local high-tech firm (Sentient Networks) that Cisco bought in 1999. "Cisco moved the company to San Jose and then we ended up with a place in Florida," he says. "It was my decision to be in Bradenton. I'm the site manager. The location and the building are convenient." With more than 34,000 employees in 75 countries throughout the world, "we're a small part of the business unit," Wethington says. "Within Cisco's overall design, we don't show up. But we're doing very important work within the overall business plan." While the downturn in the economy has been felt at Cisco, "we're definitely busy with development," says Wethington says. "We've got plenty to do."

The 70 employees at Precise Power Corp. (Maddux Report, July 2000) have plenty to do as well. For the past couple years the high-tech innovator of electric motors and power equipment has been in transition from extensive research and development to marketing its new technology. The results not only earned the company a ranking on the 2000 Tampa Bay Technology Fast 50 list but also the Florida 100, a list of the 100 fastest-growing private companies in the state prepared by the University of Florida's Warrington College of Business Administration. In 1999 the company's revenues grew by 45 percent compared to the previous year.

With this kind of growth in revenues Precise Power is also building up its staff. "We're recruiting both executive and production talent aggressively," says Bill Kemp, the company's president. "We have a good story with our proprietary technology and the potential for high growth in a relatively stable industry. Being in the Tampa Bay area doesn't hurt either. There are always talented people around."

The company has attracted investors to fund its growth. "We've received over $10 million since mid-2000," Kemp says. "We've had a lot of investor interest. The bulk of investors are angel types that are Florida based. This interest is partially because of our own merits but they're also aware that the power technology sector is the best performing in the technology market."

The equipment manufactured at Precise Power provides a ready solution to the power supply problems occurring in California and, as a result, the company is beginning a push to sell its products in that market. The company's small motor generator is designed to provide a continuous, uninterruptible energy supply to bridge the gap between utility power outages and start-up of large emergency generators.

A solid financial performance has also come from Eaton Corp. A manufacturing facility for Irvine, Calif.-based Eaton Aerospace, the technology company employs 400 people who make power management and switching systems for commercial and military aircraft. Contributing to its financial success is a new technology manufactured locally that has a wide market in the aerospace industry, say company officials.

The optical lens industry in Manatee had its setbacks with the layoff of 420 employees at Bausch & Lomb earlier in the year. But Benz Research & Development, a manufacturer of raw materials for the optical and medical industries, is in the midst of an expansion of its South Manatee headquarters facility from 20,600 square feet to 33,000 square feet. The company uses state-of-the-art chemical processing technology and ultra-high vacuum glass distillation in the production of the raw materials. The firm's website indicates that 90 percent of all soft contact lenses made in the United States uses its products.

Sailing On? Nearly 400 workers were abruptly thrown out of work when Bradenton's Chris-Craft Industries Inc. boats shut its doors as owner Outboard Marine Corp. filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection in December. In early March, however, all of Outboard Marine's assets in the United States were purchased by Minneapolis-based Genmar Holdings Inc. and its investment acquisition wing, JTC Acquisitions LLC. The new ownership Ð which claims to be the world's largest boatbuilder Ð promised to produce 18 brands of fiberglass and aluminum boats, including Wellcraft (which was already a Genmar company), which recently won awards for its technology in boat manufacturing. Wellcraft, which employs nearly 1,000 people at its local headquarters and boat factory, won the awards for its computerized process for producing fiberglass hulls. It is a process nearly 10 times faster and more precise than conventional hull-production techniques. A few days later Genmar sold the oldest boat company in the U.S., 127-year-old Chris-Craft, to the London-based special situations investment firm Stellican Ltd. Stellican's chief, Stephen Julius, promptly labeled Chris-Craft as "absolutely superb and [a] world-class brand with enormous potential. This could well be a $200-$300 million sales company in the making." Julius named Stephen Heese the new Chris-Craft president. (Heese and Tampa-based McNeel International Inc. are minority investors.) In 2000 Chris-Craft sold more than 1,400 boats at a net sales value of nearly $50 million, Stellican Ltd. said in a news release.

Another expansion in the world of high-tech comes from ClearAccess Communications Inc., a telecommunications firm in downtown Bradenton. The two-year-old start-up last year expanded to a 17,000-square-foot facility at the Bradenton Financial Center. "We're a provider of high-speed broadband wireless access and Internet services," says Barry Batson, the firm's vice president of corporate development. "This company was founded in Bradenton in 1999 on the premise that this technology would deliver high-speed data, Internet, voice and video for corporations. That's our core product offering. We provide service in nine counties in Southwest Florida from Tampa to Naples."

A distinction the young company has earned is its certification as a Cisco-powered network partner (CPN). "We utilize Cisco products primarily," explains Batson. "There are a limited number of companies that qualify to meet the requirements by Cisco to become a CPN. We were one of the first wireless connectivity providers in Florida to be awarded the CPN."

The company invested $1 million in infrastructure to power the technology at its downtown headquarters. "We had to spend a lot of capital to equip the building in terms of power and fiber," says Batson.

Although the company's founders are from New Jersey, they chose Bradenton as the headquarters for their new firm. "Bradenton/Sarasota is a very good model of the type of markets we'll expand into," Batson says. "They basically launched the business here because the quality of life is what they want for raising their families. We've brought employees from Virginia, Maryland, New Jersey and California. Most of the employees, especially those from the Northeast, are pleased with the quality of life, the weather in particular. Those with families are pleased with the school districts here."

New York pet movers
Similar sentiments can be heard at PetLift Ltd., a 40-year-old manufacturer of veterinary equipment that moved from Brooklyn to its new 12,000-square-foot building in Solomon Enterprise Industrial Park in South Manatee. "This is something I've wanted to do for years," says Steve Apatow, the firm's president. "We were familiar with the area. I have family here and everything started clicking together."

The company employs 25 people and seven of those employees have relocated from New York to stay with the company. "We can't believe it," Apatow says. "Some have family here. They're tired of New York and the weather. They want a change. Most of them are single. They're just excited about working with this company. They've been with us for many years."

PetLift, which made its first grooming table in 1960, manufactures kennel and grooming equipment for the pet industry. "We make tubs to wash animals," says Apatow. "We sell to zoos, and [we] supplied the tubs used to wash the animals [affected by] the Exxon Valdez spill. We have a worldwide distribution of anything involved with bathing or veterinary care or grooming care of animals."

Chris-Craft, which closed its doors last December due to the bankruptcy filing of its then owner Outboard Marine Corp., has been acquired by London-based Stellican Ltd.

Another relocation from the Northeast involves Aerial Films Inc., formerly based in Morristown, N.J. The 15-employee company manufactures and distributes gyro-stabilized aerial camera systems and is building a 21,800-square-foot assembly and installation hangar across from the airport's SRQ Aviation Park of Commerce. "We sought a community that would be perfect for our clients and employees and found it in the Manatee and Sarasota County area," says Ken Sanborn, the firm's president. "The airport provides an ideal location for us to significantly expand our service capabilities."

Also relocating into the south-county area is VantageSource LLP, a unit of Arthur Andersen. The 30,000-square-foot facility houses the Andersen Worldwide Distribution Center, which was formerly located in Chicago. Fifteen employees work in the distribution center that supports Andersen personnel and clients with services such as digital printing, packaging, binding, kit assembly, product fulfillment and shipping. Other office support employees of VantageSource are based at the Arthur Andersen Technology Park in Sarasota in the I-75 corridor.

Out of the rust belt
It's a long leap from accounting services to manufacturing steel, but the facilities aren't far apart in Manatee. Wheeling Corrugating Co., a division of West Virginia-based Wheeling-Pittsburgh Steel Corp., invested $2.7 million in enhancements to a 56,000-square-foot manufacturing plant at the Palmetto Corporate Complex in Ellenton. The building had been vacated 13 years ago when Siemens AG closed its hydroelectric generator division and laid off 600 workers. The building sat empty until Wheeling picked it up for its newest facility, which employs 25 workers manufacturing corrugated steel for roofing and bridge decking.

And the county's largest employer is expanding, too, to the tune of $90 million. "Tropicana is putting in refrigerated storage and major roadway improvements," says Nancy Engel at the Economic Development Council. "This is beyond their new administration building."

Tropicana, owned by PepsiCo Inc., employs 3,200 people at its Bradenton headquarters. Its Pure Premium orange juice product is the fourth-largest selling item in grocery stores nationwide. The company is building a four-story, 145,000-square-foot office building designed to accommodate sales, marketing, finance and other administrative departments. The new facility includes a health club and exercise facility and auditorium-style corporate learning center. It plans to add another 120,000 square feet of cold storage to its existing 600,000 square feet that keeps juice frozen at minus-15 degrees.

Another of Bradenton's larger employers has expanded its corporate headquarters. Beall's Inc., which employs 1,017 workers throughout the county, has invested $2.5 million to convert 22,000 square feet of warehouse space to offices for the department store chain's financial division and a fulfillment center for its MyGiftCottage.com division. It also recently opened a 67,000-square-foot retail store in East Manatee along the I-75 corridor, its 72nd department store, the third in Bradenton.

CFI Manufacturing Inc. is also in a high-growth mode. The company employs more than 200 workers that make cushions, umbrellas and patio furniture. Also on the Florida 100 list, CFI had sales of $700,000 when current owner Webb Carter bought it in 1989. By last year sales had grown to $25 million. CFI expanded its plant in the south-county area by 100,000 square feet two years ago and is preparing for yet another expansion with the recent acquisition of 51 acres at U.S. Highway 301 and Whitfield Avenue.

Wrapping it up
The county's significant cluster of packaging equipment companies continues to grow with the expansion of Bossar USA Inc., a unit of Barcelona-based Bossar S.A. The Spanish company, which sells machinery that seals food in pouches, opened its United States operation in September 1998 with two Manatee County employees. Needing space to accommodate growing sales and distribution for its North American markets, it recently expanded into 6,600 square feet in the Tallevast Commerce Center. The staff now numbers eight and is expected to continue to grow.

Precise Power Corp. in Palmetto is on a fast track to high growth as it aggressively markets its new power technology throughout the world.

Construction is due to begin soon on Berth 12, which when completed will be 1,055 feet long. "This will provide berth space for ships as long as 1,000 feet, which means bigger ships can come into the port," Tyndal says. "Another element includes relocating and enlarging the turning basin to a 1,400-foot diameter. We're talking about a new class of ships calling on the port. The docks along Berth 12 will be built specifically to handle general cargo and cruise passengers. We've had one regular cruise line [Regal Cruises] at the port for the last eight seasons. We're trying to attract new cruise business and feel confident that by the time Berth 12 is operational we'll have a new cruise line at the port."

In addition to a 60,000-square-foot cruise terminal, the port authority is building a 150,000- to 200,000-square-foot cold-storage facility at Berth 12. Meanwhile, the port authority is also building additional facilities to accommodate the expansion of Del Monte, one of its major tenants.

"They moved to Port Manatee in 1989 from the Port of Tampa, where they had been based 19 years," says Tyndal. "They were an important addition to the port's general cargo mix. Over time, their imports and exports grew to the point that they needed additional space beyond the 58,000-square-foot building we had constructed for them. In 1999 we built 15,000 square feet of additional chill space for them and then another 30,000 square feet. In February we completed an additional 60,000 square feet of chill space. That's 163,000 square feet at the port just for Del Monte, in addition to 168 "re-fer" plugs (another cold-storage method). We have 13 acres of paved container facilities used primarily by Del Monte and have just finished another seven acres."

Del Monte imports fresh fruits through the port. "They bring in primarily bananas, pineapples and seasonal melons," Tyndal says. "We have two to three ships a week in the early part of the year. For seven to eight months it's one ship a week. Each ship brings 400 truckloads of fruit. But they are also a very significant exporter. From our port they ship many of the necessities to operate their plantations in primarily Costa Rica and Guatemala. They also export almost all of the paper they use to construct their cardboard boxes at their box plants in Central America. They have a very comprehensive operation in Costa Rica. They're the largest non-government employer there and second-largest non-government employer in Guatemala."

Gas pipeline
A relatively new player at the port is Gulfstream Natural Gas System LLC, which has recently received federal approval to lay its proposed $1.6-billion, 753-mile natural gas pipeline from Mississippi and Alabama across the Gulf of Mexico to Port Manatee. From there the pipeline will spread another 292 miles through Central Florida to supply up to 1.1 billion cubic feet of natural gas daily to gas-fired electric generators from Manatee County east to St. Lucie County and from Lakeland south to Palm Beach.

The port will be the center of construction activities, set to begin in June. "We're constructing a 45,000-square-foot office building for Gulfstream," says Tyndal. "They'll be the primary tenant of the building during construction of the pipeline and have as many as 135 employees based there. When the pipeline's finished, which is scheduled for June 2002, they'll release portions of the building back to the port authority, at which time we'll lease to new tenants."

"The office at the port will be devoted to handling construction of the pipeline," says Brian O'Higgins, Gulfstream's director of offshore pipeline design. "After construction is completed it will be used to operate the pipeline. Construction will happen simultaneously offshore and onshore. The port will be a strategic area for supporting our offshore and onshore pipeline activities. Pipe will be arriving at the port via both ship and rail."

But the port has additional major tenants. "Tropicana has been a significant player in the port's solid financial footing over the years," says Tyndal. "Universal Forest Products is a major importer of forest products from around the globe. These companies and many others like them are putting Port Manatee and Tampa Bay literally on the map for international trade commerce."

As part of capitalizing on international commerce, the port is gearing up to create trade routes with Mexico. "The United States and Mexico share annual trade valued at $227 billion a year," says Tyndal. "Florida gets approximately 1 percent of that trade. Most of it goes over the border by truck and the balance by water on north-south trade routes. If we, as the ports of Tampa Bay, can capture just 10 percent of that trade by establishing efficient east-west trade routes, we're looking at a $227-million economic impact on the region. Hopefully, the docks we're building and the other facilities at other Tampa Bay ports will help capture trade with Mexico. And that's just one country."

Shifting Sandpile
Projects to revise downtown Bradenton's Sandpile have seemed mired in a series of delays and changes. But development activities should occur soon. "Riverfront Partners made a presentation to city council recently and got that approved," says Nancy Engel of the Economic Development Council. "They have housing, office, hotel and restaurants going in there."

Bill Theroux, executive director of the Downtown Development Authority, says that $65 million to $70 million of development has occurred in the past two years. Projects include, among others, the Bridgewater condominiums at Point Pleasant, a $5.5-million renovation of the South Florida Museum, a new surgical center for 26 physicians, the $1.2-million conversion of the old railroad station to offices for ophthalmologist Daniel Pope and contractor/developer Mike Carter's renovation of office buildings along Main street.

The Manatee Riverwalk encompasses redevelopment efforts in the downtowns on both sides of the Manatee River. "This Riverwalk project has Bradenton and Palmetto working together," says Palmetto Mayor Pat Whitesel. "The Manatee River was the river that divided. It no longer divides; it connects. The Riverwalk will feature restaurants, retail businesses, bicycle trails and historical tours in Bradenton and Palmetto. It encompasses our Heritage Park and wedding chapel. We're working together as a community. This is such a win situation with the river that connects."

Other developments in downtown Palmetto include a new Albertson's food store, with construction recently begun. A Walgreens drug store has opened and the Weber building adds office space downtown. "We have a new gourmet chocolate and nut shop, a new fashion shop, and the Main Street Restaurant. Our small businesses are the life blood of our city," Whitesel says.

The new Riviera Dunes development on the waterfront is contributing significantly to Palmetto's vitality. St. Petersburg-based First Dartmouth Homes plans to build 250 luxury condominiums in five six-story buildings that will feature views of the Manatee River and Riviera Dunes Harbor. The master-planned community will also include 217 single-family homes, an $11-million hotel, commercial retail space, a 220-slip public marina, the Tony Jacklin Golf Center and a community pool and tennis center.

"Mike Carter will develop the marina and restaurants at Riviera Dunes," says Whitesel. "Across from the Dunes is our estuary park with 11 acres of preserves. It will have an observation tower and picnic table and will be a habitat for a large variety of birds. It will be some place that everyone can walk through the woods or by a stream and get back to nature. When all is said and done, if the city council approves this, we'll have 45 acres of preserves along the waterfront adjacent to the Riviera Dunes project." Another aspect of beautifying the cities on the river is "pooling our resources and working on specific areas of slum and blight," Whitesel says. "We're appointing a committee to decide where the needs are most critical, and we'll concentrate on one full block to get it revitalized. This working together is new. People are realizing that whatever Bradenton does affects Palmetto and vice versa. It's an exciting time in Manatee County."

Lakewood Ranch Grows
Just as it is in East Manatee where new development is adding residential, retail and corporate office settings at a blistering pace. Several new office buildings are under construction in Lakewood Ranch at the I-75 corridor and University Parkway. "Our office market continues to be strong in the Town Center at Lakewood Ranch," says John Swart at Lakewood Ranch Realty. "The Taylor Woodrow building is two stories and 33,000 square feet. The primary tenant is Taylor Woodrow and others are Homes by Towne and Kerkering Barbario, CPAs and financial planners from Sarasota. Colonial Properties has a three-story, 134,000-square-foot building planned and fully permitted. It's in preleasing status."

Beall's Inc. recently converted warehouse space in Bradenton into office space to serve as its MyGiftCottage.com fulfillment center. This store is in Ellenton.

Colonial Properties is also building 272 multi-family residential units at Lakewood Ranch. "This is Phase Two of construction," Swart says. "Their first phase of 288 units is totally leased."

A new Publix shopping center is opening in a more northerly sector of Lakewood Ranch at State Road 64. "We have a lot of new residential product built there so Publix is putting a store there also," says Swart. "This is their second. It's a 46,000-square-foot grocery store with another 30,000 square feet of local retail space."

Additional services migrating to Lakewood Ranch include a First Union Bank. "That's in addition to the Northern Trust that's been open for a year," Swart says. "SunTrust and Bank of America have also been open for a while. Chili's is under construction and we have a J. Ryan's on the Grill. We also opened a daycare center called Kids 'R' Kids. Daycare is really important because we have such a large employment base now."

There's more. An 87-room Marriott Fairfield Inn & Suites is planned in Lakewood Ranch. A 15,000-square-foot Walgreens drug store and additional 10,000 square feet of retail space will soon be under construction in the Town Center. "This will include many services that office buildings like to have close by to save time and effort," says Swart. "Employees can drop shirts at the dry cleaners, shop at Publix or have dinner in one of the three or four restaurants there."

Near Lakewood Ranch High School, the Manatee Technical Institute is building a 50,000-square-foot occupational health education facility. And Manatee Memorial Hospital is planning to build a 120-bed hospital at Lakewood Ranch. "They're in the final approval process," says Swart. "By second quarter 2001 construction should start on a 60,000-square-foot medical office building to include emergency care, lab, diagnostics and doctors' offices. We expect the hospital to start some time in 2002." In Manatee County Lakewood Ranch currently has "2,500 homes in round numbers," Swart says. "We'll end up somewhere between 6,000 and 7,000. Our market continues to be very strong."

He might have been speaking for Manatee County as a whole.