Paradise Reworked
by Janan Talafer

CHARLES FUST Inventor and chairman SinoFresh Laboratories Inc. photo by Tom Berndt

Chemist Charles Fust was a consultant on a business trip to the upper Gulf Coast areas of Texas and Louisiana when a light bulb went off. •“Everyone was carrying around a bottle of nasal spray like it was chewing gum or cigarettes,” says Fust. “For the first time in my life I was coming down with an upper respiratory problem. I surmised it had to be environmental.” •That ‘aha’ moment led to a decade of research into finding a non-addictive, non-drowsing product that would flush away germs and bacteria from the nose and sinuses.

Traditional products attacked the symptoms; Fust would go after the cause. In 2001, Fust relocated from Atlanta to Florida, setting up shop as SinoFresh Laboratories Inc., in a 10,000-square-foot facility.

After a year of development, his SinoFresh nasal spray was finally ready. He gave samples to local physicians and stocked the shelves of a Punta Gorda pharmacy. Consumer response was favorable. A chief financial officer and national marketing director came on board. The test market spread from Naples to Tarpon Springs. SinoFresh began outselling the leading brands 10-to-1, says Fust. The company (www.sinofresh.com) was named 2002 Sarasota County Technology Company of the Year.

This summer, the company launched a 12- month rollout of the nasal spray and relocated to nearby Englewood to accommodate its growing team, now up to 22 employees. “Sarasota County has embraced us,” says Fust. “It’s been a great marriage. The pharmaceutical and medical talent we’ve been able to recruit here is nothing short of a miracle. To live and work in paradise doesn’t get any better than this.”

By year end, Fust expects the company’s revenues to be about $20 million; $70 million by the close of 2004. Two more product rollouts are planned for the first quarter of 2004. The company, now international, has 130 patents.

While SinoFresh’s story may be more dramatic than many, it is not unique in the county.

The Sarasota County Board of Commissioners and the Sarasota County Committee for Economic Development (CED) are in the process of creating a five-year economic development plan that they hope will encourage high-tech startups like SinoFresh. The goal is to broaden the tax base and bring in higher-paying jobs.

Tourism, recreation, real estate and development have long been a mainstay of the county’s economy, says Kathy Baylis, CED vice president. And, although these industries will continue to be strong, Baylis says that the five-year plan calls for diversifying the economy in “emerging industry cluster areas” – areas such as technology, specialty manufacturing, financial services, health care and life and environmental sciences.

Creative services have traditionally played an important role in Sarasota, an area rich in art and cultural activities, from the John and Mable Ringling Museum of Art to the Van Wezel Performing Arts Hall. But the term now being used by Sarasota’s leadership also speaks to creative individuals in the fields of interior design, architecture and engineering; and entrepreneurs with innovative ideas, the technical know-how and drive to bring new products to the marketplace.

Baylis points to increased patent activity as an example. By comparison with the rest of the country, the number of patents overall in Florida remains low, but the Sarasota-Bradenton region increased its patent activity by 97 percent from 1990 to 1999. Machinery, high tech, biosciences and manufacturing were the top four areas of concentration.

What’s causing this? Baylis only half jokingly speculates that “younger retirees are coming to the area, getting bored and putting their talents to good use inventing new products and services.”

The Pull of I-75
In the northern part of Sarasota, straddling the county line, Lakewood Ranch, a master-planned community on the 28,000-acre Schroeder-Manatee Ranch, is becoming home to both start-ups as well as expanding local business.

While most of the residential development for Lakewood Ranch is in Manatee County, 1,300 acres in Sarasota have been zoned for industrial and commercial use; 580 of those acres will be developed. The remainder is set aside for environmental preservation, says John Swart, president of Lakewood Ranch Realty Company.

To date about 120 businesses have moved into the Lakewood Ranch Corporate Park. That’s about 1.5 million square feet of construction so far, says Swart, with build-out expected at 6 million square feet. At the end of last year, Miles Media Group, a publisher of vacation planning guides and magazines for the tourism industry, had moved in. So had MVI Marketing, a specialist in the travel incentive promotion business, and BESTechnologies, a high tech company that markets grease-eating microbes to restaurants.

In January 2003, the $4.7-million Manatee Community College Center for Innovation and Technology opened, and Everglades College, an affiliate of Keiser College, began taking its first students in March. (Keiser opened at Lakewood Ranch in 2000).

“We are transforming the area, adding a new dimension to the region’s economic base,” says Swart. “We knew we wanted to attract an employment base for the ranch to be successful. We are building a community, not just housing. The corporate park is a high productivity area with easy access to I-75. You can live and work right here.”

Further south, Sarasota’s International Trade Center sat dormant for years but recently has experienced brisk sales because of Lakewood Ranch’s presence, according to developer John Cox of Halfacre Construction Co. “As soon as Lakewood Ranch opened up east of the interstate, people started to take notice,” he says. “Now most of our lots are pre-sold.”

Urban Upswing
Downtown Sarasota is another area that seems to be on the upswing. Like a number of urban centers around the country, downtown Sarasota is undergoing a renaissance. “Developers are taking up flat surface parking lots and bank drive-thrus and creating mixed-use residential, commercial and retail space,” says John Harshman, president of Harshman & Company Inc. Half-million dollar (and high- Mote Marine Laboratories er) two-story ‘lofts’ on top of commercial space will give residents a trendy urban lifestyle and a birds-eye view of the city and waterfront.

“We have a lot planned,” says Harshman. “We haven’t had a new office building in 15 years. Our skyline and streetscape will be changing.”

Baylis likes to point to the number of cranes in the air – that’s construction cranes – as evidence of downtown’s economic health. “We haven’t had many in the air recently,” she says, “but in a year from now, you’ll be seeing seven or eight.”

Whole Foods Market (www.whole foods.com), the largest natural and organic foods supermarket in the country, will bring its national presence to town with a 62,000-square-foot facility that combines retail space, grocery and 95-upscale condominium units.

Courthouse Centre, a nine-story retail, office and residential complex broke ground this September. Other downtown projects include Ringling Court, a 14- story condominium and retail commercial space; Unicare, a 49,700-square-foot office building with retail on the first floor; Five Points, a 17-story condominium with retail and office space; Ringling Square, a five-story office building with drive-thru bank and ground floor retail; and RMC is building another mixed-use grocery, retail and office building with 181 residential units.

“It’s an exciting time to be in Sarasota. It’s a very easy sell. We’ve got everything here – beautiful beaches, a solid business base and a community that cares so much about this city,” says Alisa Bennett, of the Ritz Carlton Sarasota, which opened downtown in 2001.

Seventy percent of the group bookings at the hotel are new to Sarasota, says Bennett. This year, the hotel (www.ritz carlton.com/hotels/sarasota) is opening a new full-service spa. And by January 2004, a new Ritz Carlton beach club is scheduled to open at Lido Key, four miles from the hotel on the Gulf of Mexico.

A shuttle service will transport hotel guests. “This will change the face of our property and transform us from a downtown hotel to a full resort experience,” says Bennett.

Business Park Breakout
Another growing area lies between Fruitville and Bee Ridge roads, on both the east and west sides of the I-75 corridor. The Sarasota International Trade Center is located there. So are the Cattleridge Business Park, Tower Commerce Park, Gateway to Sarasota and Live Oak Business Park.

Standard Tile, located in Sarasota since 1978, is an example of a company taking advantage of the newly developed business parks. The firm moved into a new 28,000-square-foot facility in the Sarasota International Trade Center this fall, more than doubling its size. The expansion was spurred by what Standard Tile President Paul MacPhail calls the recent condominium boom in the area and the new business the firm is attracting statewide. The tile company plans to purchase $60,000 in high tech equipment and add 10 more skilled workers.

Brian Kennelly of Osprey Management and president-elect for the commercial commercial investment division of the Sarasota Association of Realtors, notes that much of the land in this area was privately held for years and only now is being developed for commercial and industrial use.

The area’s easy access to employees living south to North Port and north to Tampa and St. Petersburg is a big plus, says Kennelly. It also has the amenities people want, from hospitals and shopping center to restaurants and golf course communities. “Executives can live within five miles of their offices,” he says.

Osprey Management is developing Live Oak and Cattleridge business parks for a combined total of 340,000 square feet. Sales have been brisk. Currently just 23,000 square feet remain available, says Kennelly, although Osprey Management has another 300,000 square feet of undeveloped land ready to go as demand dictates. “The permitting process for the region is contingent on the infrastructure,” says Kennelly. “Sarasota County is concerned about maintaining the quality of life – not growth just for the sake of growth. We want smart growth; to keep things in check.”

Infrastructure 1-2-3
As the population continues to grow, both roads and bridges in the county are under construction to improve traffic flow and reduce bottlenecks.

Every community experiencing growth has infrastructure issues, admits the CED’s Baylis. “The challenge is the cost to do transportation projects. The cost to purchase right-of-ways has been driven up so much it is difficult to do it in a reasonable bud- get. We are trying to prioritize and fund projects that really have to be done.”

One transportation project underway is the widening of Cattleman Road. Currently a two-lane road running north and south parallel to I-75, Cattleman is being expanded to a five-lane road with a center turning lane.

Completion is expected by end of year. In Venice, a $78-million Florida Department of Transportation project will make improvements to U.S. Business 41 and replace the North and South bridges, creating a new entryway to the heart of the city’s downtown area and Gulf Beaches. The bridges will be widened to four lanes and the bridge tenders’ buildings replaced with an Italian Renaissance design in keep-36 ing with the adjacent historical downtown area.

Reconstruction of the Ringling Causeway Bridge linking the city of Sarasota with the barrier islands is also underway. The current drawbridge will be replaced with a new fixed-span bridge. Some $1.5 million in landscape improvements will create a series of parks with wide sidewalks, a gazebo and a pedestrian- friendly feel.

Industrial Elbow Room
As the county continues to entice business relocations, new startups and expansions, two issues are drawing attention, one immediate and one long-range. The most pressing issue is the lack of currently available ‘ready to go’ buildings for commercial, office and industrial use.

“New buildings are being leased or sold as quickly as they can be built,” says Baylis. Jim Walter, of Richardson Kleiber Walter Partnership, handles commercial sales in the southern part of the county. He agrees that the demand for space is greater than the land available.

“We had little to begin with and what we have is quite full,” says Walter. “Since October 2002, we’ve been leasing (industrial space) at a rate of 10,000 square feet a month.”

For the long-term, Baylis says the concern is not just available buildings, but whether there is sufficient land zoned for nonresidential use.

“There is very little land zoned for industrial space and that is not going to change soon,” says Walter. “A lot of the land in South County that was going to be industrial has been rezoned for residential.”

Halfacre’s Cox is also concerned about growth and infrastructure, but his focus is job opportunities for the next generation. “This community is long past the stage of being just a retirement community,” he says. “We need to look ahead. In the near future there won’t be any more (commercial and industrial) land available except at Lakewood Ranch. We’ll be sold out.

“We need to come together as a community and do something about it,” Cox adds. We need to support clean industrial parks; something that will bring high-paying jobs to keep our children here.”

The View from Venice
This summer, the Venice City Council gave the official go ahead for business partners Bill Morris and Paul Hostetler, former owner of PGT Industries, to begin leasing Triple Diamond Commerce Plaza, a business park at the intersection of Lau- rel Road and I-75. Ken D’Agostino, a broker with D’Agostino and Associates, calls this intersection a ‘mini-Lakewood Ranch.’

“What happens is development energy follows development energy,” says D’Agostino. “Once it starts at an intersection, other people follow. Laurel and I-75 was ripe for this.”

Triple Diamond Commerce Plaza has 54 lots ranging in size from 25,000 square feet to 935,000 square feet and features amenities like underground utilities, curbs and sheet drains. The Stuff Shop, a recent relocation from Charleston, SC, hopes to be in its new 26,000 square-foot facility in the new business park by late fall.

Owner Mike Hill says his company (www.stuffshop.com), a national supplier of toy merchandise to family entertainment centers, roller skating centers and similar venues, could literally be located anywhere. “The Sarasota County Economic Development Council was very persuasive and made it easy for us to come here,” says Hill. “I know Venice; I’d been coming here for five or six years to visit friends.”

In the next year, Hill says he will hire 20 new people and expand his already thriving business into the ice skating and bowling center market. “We’ve been in business 11 years and have grown 30 to 50 percent every year,” says Hill. “We expect to take off even more once we get up and running in our new Venice facility.”

Venice residents are being asked to vote in November on a $10-million bond issue for several large-scale projects, including the conversion of a wastewater treatment plant to a public beachfront park, renovation of the Venice Community Center, replacement of the Venice fishing pier and a major beach renourishment.

“Venice is a beautiful city, with a low crime rate and solid community base,” says George Hunt, Venice city manager. “We have many retirees who brought their strong Midwestern values with them. They are progressive thinkers and financially astute.”