by Melissa Wells

The concrete business is so good for Jim Connelly, president of the pipe division at Joelson Taylor Concrete Products, that his firm is building a new 150,000-square-foot facility in Sarasota. Photo by Alex McKnight

There was a time, not that long ago, really, when people saw Sarasota as a sleepy little town, content to hibernate for three months in the heat of the summer. No skyscraper condos or office buildings along the bayfront interfered with that attitude. But somewhere in this short period, a quantum shift occurred. The county has adopted an aggressive business recruitment stance, and both local firms and branches of national and foreign corporations are operating in expansionist mode.

Downtown Sarasota not only stays open for business in the summer, it is busy night and day and promises to get even busier amid a bevy of new office towers and condos, and a newly polished Van Wezel Performing Arts Center.

It is no exaggeration to note that nearly a million square feet of new office and industrial space is being developed. Some of it is already out of the ground; it seems safe to say that all of it will be a fact of life by the new millennium. The wake-up call has been heard most distinctly along the I-75 corridor, primarily at Fruitville Road and University Parkway.

With an unemployment rate below two percent, finding employees to support the growth of many of Sarasota's companies takes a special talent in itself. Dana Corporation needed to locate 80 people for its new pump manufacturing operation. The human resource department has entered into a joint effort with the Florida Center for Manufacturing Excellence (FCME) to find qualified workers.

"There were no classes around in hydraulic pump manufacturing techniques," says Human Resource Manager Linda McKinney. "FCME has sponsored a new training program and helped us find candidates."

McKinney has hired 16 employees through the FCME-sponsored program to date. Another 14 are ready to graduate and a class of 20 is beginning in the 10-week program.

"The folks at FCME are the experts in helping us hire qualified employees," McKinney says. "They know how to do the testing and they have screened candidates properly for success."

Power boat gauge manufacturer Teleflex recently moved into its new facility at Lakewood Ranch. Photo by D.J. Wilson

Arthur Andersen simply relocated 300 new employees to Sarasota last year for high tech and functional expertise in taxes and accounting. "We're focusing on experienced hires," says James Shedivy, partner at Arthur Andersen.

If there is a complaint, it concerns the lack of a work force to support the rapid growth of many of the technological and manufacturing firms that have located in Sarasota. The lack of a direct flight to New York and Chicago from the Sarasota/Bradenton International Airport local airport is an annoyance to some. But not to worry, Sarasota's leaders say they are working to resolve both of those issues.

That a million square feet of new corporate space is being built in a county with a reputation as a "no-growth" area is a paradox. What happened to the faction who just seven years ago tried to place a moratorium on development? Well, it hasn't disappeared.

"Trust me, it is still alive and always will be," says Nevin Thomas, president of Commercial Management and Leasing. "Our rate of growth is actually below the national average." What there is, however, is desirable, he says. "It's important to have good-paying jobs available. We're getting better companies with better payrolls, and those payrolls are going back into the community in the form of purchasing power."

A question that always accompanies rapid development concerns infrastructure. Sarasota County hasn't "seen a problem yet and we don't anticipate one," Tamberrino says. "We're fine for water and sewer; the only issue is traffic, and every east-west road has been widened using dollars from the one-cent tax referendum passed in 1989."

Parking in downtown Sarasota is a problem addressed recently when the city and county voted to move the bus transfer depot a few blocks north and plan to convert the existing facility to a parking garage.

Aladdin Equipment Inc., manufacturer of pool and spa equipment, recently expanded its warehouse and distribution facility at Sarasota International Trade Center. It has plenty of room to grow. Photo by D.J. Wilson

A major component of that million square feet of new space is FCCI Insurance Company's plan to build a 220,000-square-foot office at Lakewood Ranch, south of University Parkway. Second in the line-up is Arthur Andersen's new 157,000-square-foot technology center on Fruitville Road.

Next is lesser-known Joelson Taylor Concrete Products, a company with sales at $75 million. It plans a new 150,000-square-foot manufacturing facility on 60 acres at Sarasota International Trade Center. Joelson Taylor has had a pipe manufacturing plant in Venice since 1953, and now it is expanding into the precast concrete industry. Hence the new facility.

"There is an increased demand for this product," says Jim Connelly, president of Joelson Taylor's pipe division, which expects to add 50 employees to the work force. "The infrastructure in Florida needs to be brought up to growth demands. Our products are utilized to build shopping centers, schools, roads and new subdivisions."

Why the Fruitville Road location? "We like the site because of its access to I-75, and we have enough acreage for future needs," Connelly says.

Meanwhile, Connelly's corporate neighbors have been expanding at the same business park. Aladdin, a manufacturer of pool and spa equipment, recently added 40,000 square feet to its 70,000-square-foot manufacturing and distribution facility. "We have the capability to add another 50,000 square feet on the building," says president Lindy Smith. "We can also add more buildings. We have plenty of room to grow."

Only a few steps away, the world's largest manufacturer of private-label bandages, ASO Corporation, occupies a 50,000-square-foot facility built in 1991. The firm, owned by ASO Pharmaceuticals of Japan, added 15,000 square feet last year and is immediately starting its next expansion of 35,000 square feet. "Our sales were $2 million in 1991," says Rick Baar, vice president and controller at ASO. "This year they are at $22 million."

In the same park, Cook Spring Company has added space to its warehouse, and Octex Corporation, which molds plastics for industrial, medical and consumer products, has started construction of its new 35,000-square-foot plant. Vico Technologies is said to be ready to build a facility in the center, too, but isn't ready to go on the record with its plans. The word is, however, that the building "will be substantial," says Bill Kleiber at Richardson Kleiber Walter Real Estate Company.

The largest development planned for the west side of I-75 at Fruitville Road is Arthur Andersen's 157,000-square-foot technology center to complement its existing 85,000-square-foot office building. The business consulting and accounting firm has had a presence in Sarasota since 1984. In 1997 it decided to locate its American operations center here. "In March 1997 we were at 450 employees," says James Shedivy, a partner at Arthur Andersen. "Now we're at 750. With the growth of our operations, it is conceivable that we could easily see another 100 or 200 employees here."

Shedivy's firm chose the technology park site because it offers room to grow. "We will be able to put in more buildings, at least as much as the building we're currently putting in," Shedivy says. "We didn't want to get land-locked. And its easy access is desirable to our employees."

Additional development at that location is the Gateway to Sarasota office park. A 67,500-square-foot inventory building is under construction, the first of eight buildings. "This office park was approved in 1992," says developer Tom Dabney. "It was pretty green there then. Now it's 'Main and Main.' We're thinking about starting the second building right away."

With its proximity to Arthur Andersen's offices, the Gateway business park has an opportunity to attract spin-off businesses. "Here you have a major office user across the street and they have given a sign of acceptance that this area works as an office market," says Nevin Thomas. "Businesses related to Arthur Andersen will want to be close to them. And being on the I-75 corridor gives companies a much larger employment base to draw from Bradenton through Port Charlotte, maybe even Arcadia."

Dana Corporation has doubled the size of its Clark Road facility and is in the process of adding 80 employees. Photo by D.J. Wilson

AmericInn, headquartered in Deep Haven, Minnesota, likes that corner, too. It has recently started construction on a $3-million, 111-unit hotel next to recently opened Perkins and Don Pablo restaurants. "This is our first hotel in this area," says Alex Samardich, AmericInn's project coordinator. "This major artery is an excellent location and there will be a lot of growth here."

This "Main and Main" corridor is also where ComCast Cablevision expanded its 15,000-square-foot headquarters to create a larger customer service area.

The largest expansion to date along the I-75 corridor in Sarasota County is the new FCCI building at Lakewood Ranch. The mutual insurance holding company is building a three-story, 220,000-square-foot home office which should be ready to occupy in early 2001. That's quite a leap from its current 70,000-square-foot facility.

"Our customer base has increased from roughly 9,000 to 12,000 over the last three years," says Ray Neff, president and CEO at FCCI. "Our surplus has grown from $160 million to $260 million and the dividends we've paid to our owners (policy holders) over that same period has exceeded $120 million."

The firm currently employs 600 and plans to add from 200 to 400 workers after it occupies the new building. "A lot of people think that Sarasota is a great place to retire," Neff says. "I can suggest that Sarasota is also a great place to grow up, raise a family and work prior to reaching retirement age. This is not only a great place to live, it's a great place to work."

The Lakewood Ranch location also appealed to Wave Wireless Networking, a provider of wireless local area networks. It has designed a 60,000-square-foot facility. "We'll build the first 24,000 square feet of the building in our first phase," says Wave Wireless founder Mike McKinney. The company has managed a 300-percent growth rate since its inception in 1994, he says. Sales should be at $9 million this year. "We should see completion of the building by July 1999. We went to Lakewood Ranch to be able to attract technical and engineering staff from outside the area."

So did others. TVC Inc., a manufacturer of parts for cable televisions, is building a 25,000-square-foot facility at Lakewood Ranch. Teleflex, manufacturer of gauges for power boats and small tractors, recently built its new facility there, and new corporate neighbors will be Palm Printing and Sarasota Deli Provisions. Home sales across the street in the Manatee County side of Lakewood Ranch are so impressive that builder Lee Wetherington is erecting a 10,000-square-foot headquarters and sales center in the business park. "He is one of our leading builders," says John Swart, vice president of commercial sales with Schroeder-Manatee Ranch Inc., which owns Lakewood Ranch.

Two developers, Jack Imperatore Sr. and Leonard Garner, are building 20,000- and 40,000-square-foot inventory office centers, respectively. And Fred Starling's 28,000-square-foot inventory office, whose main tenant is the Wilson Miller Barton and Peek civil engineering firm, was full at completion.

Why all this activity? "We've been the beneficiary of good timing," Swart says. "Reasons given to us by company owners are that we have land available to build the type of project they want. And the park is nice environmentally and aesthetically. Fifty percent of the land area will stay green because of wetlands. The other nice thing is that we can offer housing close to where employees work."

FCCI is putting itself to the test if we build it, they will come with plans for a new 220,000-square-foot headquarters at Lakewood Ranch. The insurance firm will add as many as 400 employees upon completion of the new building. Courtesy of Robbins Bell & Kreher Architects Inc.

Farther south off I-75 on Clark Road, Dana Corporation is adding 65,000 square feet to double the size of its hydraulic valve manufacturing facility. "We are expanding our pump business," says Linda McKinney, human resource director at Dana. "This was previously done in Greenville, South Carolina, and this operation is moving to Sarasota." Dana has been at its location in Sarasota since 1973 and employs a work force of 235. "We'll transfer some people from Greenville," McKinney says, "but will hire another 60 to 80 locally."

Another high-growth firm in the county is ParView Inc., a manufacturer of golf cart monitors that use global positioning data to show the distance of the golf ball to the pin or center of the green and also provide communications with the pro shop. The firm recently moved into a 17,000-square-foot building at Palmer Road, tripling the size of its headquarters.

President David Chessler chose Sarasota as the location of the start-up firm because of his home on Siesta Key. "Siesta Key beach is the nicest place I've ever been to," he says. "And Florida is the home of golf. So we figured this is as good a place as any to set up camp."

It's an oft-told story. "Ninety-five percent of the companies that have moved here have a personal commitment from the owner or a manager who later justified moving the company here," says Frank Tamberrino, executive director of the Sarasota County Committee for Economic Development. "The leaders of these companies can locate anywhere, and can afford the quality of life in Sarasota. They decide that this is where they want to be and move the rest of the company here. The quality of life makes it easier to attract professional staff. Fly them here and they look at the water, golf courses and cultural amenities. Our downtown is revitalized and shows off well, and it's a pretty easy sell."

The revitalized downtown and a lot of the night-time activity are due in part to Sarasota Main Plaza, a 260,000-square-foot tower that was totally vacant before it reopened in June 1997 with a 20-screen theater, and its tenant space is completely leased. "We have 10,000 people coming to the cinema each week," says Joe Hembree, president of Hembree and Associates, a commercial real estate firm. "That's a major impact on downtown. We have a very active, viable downtown and this has happened in the past few years."

The drawing board is full of new projects for downtown. Core Development has submitted its site plan to the city for approval of a $275-million development that would include a 270-room Ritz-Carlton Hotel and 50 condominiums on Sarasota Bay. Construction is due to begin in the Spring of 1999.

Farther north along the bayfront, the Renaissance project plans for 500 residential units, 100 hotel suites, and 113,000 square feet of retail and office space. At the east end of Main Street, the YMCA is designing its new 90,000-square-foot facility. That new 11-story tower on Main Street is the recently completed Sarasota County Judicial Center, a 220,000-square-foot court complex with a construction price tag of $24 million.

Still in downtown, the Rivolta Group is redesigning a new office tower on Main Street. "We're still in preliminary planning," says spokesman Richard Storm. "We're acquiring more land on the site and projecting a mid-1999 start date, but the timeline depends on the redesign of the facility. We're pleased with early versions."

Of course, Sarasota isn't ignoring the arts in favor of all this business activity. The distinctly purple Van Wezel Performing Arts Center will close in April for renovation. Plans call for its reopening in January 2000. "The stage house will nearly double," says Bill Mitchell, executive director. "It will accommodate the larger Broadway shows that our patrons want to see. We've been very careful to preserve (in the plans) the superb acoustical properties of the hall and to maintain its intimate feeling. This is one of the key reasons the hall is so beloved."

Arthur Andersen is adding to its campus at Technology Park with a new 157,000-sqft office building, helping to make the I-75/Fruitville Road corridor a 'Main and Main' in Sarasota. Photo by D.J. Wilson

At least two of Sarasota's solid corporate citizens are in a high-growth mode but undecided about where they'll be building new digs. Electro Corporation, manufacturer of sensors for the likes of Harley Davidson and Mack Trucks, is currently operating in 47,000 square feet across the road from Klockner-Bartelt at U.S. Hwy. 301 and University Parkway. It needs 100,000 square feet. "We're looking around Sarasota and Manatee counties," says Mike Stapleton, operations manager. "Teleflex, our former neighbor, moved to Lakewood Ranch and they're very happy. We're examining all our alternatives for the future."

Pinnacle Towers, which provides infrastructure for wireless telecommunications providers, also has outgrown its office space. "Over the last year we've doubled the size of our staff," says Steve Day, chief financial officer and vice president. "We need to be in a place where we have access to a good employee base. We're exploring the benefits of what municipalities can offer to help us." Day's only comment about where that might be is "somewhere" in the southeastern United States.

If a corporation chooses Sarasota, it has to be a choice based on the wide array of quality-of-life issues. "Some companies in town, such as Uniroyal, came here for the pure lifestyle, and part of that was the arts and cultural aspect," says Frank Tamberrino with the Committee of Economic Development. "They can go to a beach anywhere in Florida."

That was part of the appeal to Bossar USA, Inc., a packaging machinery firm based in Barcelona, Spain, soon to be the newest corporate presence in Sarasota County. "Our office will be a sales and customer service center," says company president Roger Stainton. "Apart from being a nice, sunny location, Sarasota was a good choice because it is becoming a center for packaging machine companies."

Venice, at the county's southern edge, isn't being left out of all the corporate activity. Most involves retail, although Vinyl Tech continues to add to its employee base. The window and door manufacturer is the largest non-government employer in Sarasota County. It added 40 employees last year and now has a workforce of 840. "We're not physically expanding," says Julie Heinsman, marketing director at Vinyl Tech. "But we're doing a lot of automation of equipment without increasing our staff." The firm expects to record sales of $82.5 million in 1998.

On the retail front, Office Depot has taken 50,000 square feet at Venetian Plaza, once the home of several dark stores. At the same center, Stein Mart department store will occupy 35,000 square feet of the space vacated by Wal-Mart when it occupied its new supercenter. Other retailers showing up in Venice are The Home Depot, Books-A-Million, Target, Staples and Longhorn Steakhouse. "Jacaranda and U.S. Highway 41 is the hot location in south county," says George Huhn at Re/Max Properties Commercial Division. "We're emerging from a secondary market status."

Residential communities are a key attraction for companies relocating staff to Sarasota County. The hot spots currently are Palmer Ranch, Lakewood Ranch and Casey Key, just south of Siesta Key. "Casey Key has gulf-to-bay properties, and the market is so good that we're seeing multiple offers on the same property," says Rick Hughes at Michael Saunders & Company. "Palmer Ranch and Lakewood Ranch offer a wide spectrum of homes from $180,000 to half a million dollars. Buyers like a home close to their business place. These areas have exploded."

Now, about those direct flights to New York and Chicago. The Sarasota/Manatee Airport Authority is aware of "the problem."

"In the last three years we have cut our fees to airlines over 20 percent to be competitive with surrounding facilities," says Fredrick Piccolo, executive director. "We have 1.6 million passengers go through our airport in a year. But the demand for air service is so great right now nationwide that we're competing with all the other facilities across the country to get more service. As the industry gets more equipment we hope that secondary airports like ours get better levels of service."

Stay tuned.