north central florida business report june 2012

By Chris Eversole

Roads, buses—or both? That’s the decision voters will likely face in the November

general election.After several years of debate over a

transportation sales tax referendum, the county commission made the tentative decision in April to place two sales tax referendums on the ballot—one for three-quarters of a cent on every dollar of purchases for roads and the other for one-quarter cent for transit.

But there’s no guarantee the commission will go forward with the ballot issues. Each municipal commission in the county is considering whether to enter into an agreement with the county over the county’s proposed funding formula.

After the cities complete their votes, the county commission will make the final decision about placing the referendums on the ballot. Any group of three commissioners could pull the plug on the referendums.

County Commissioner Lee Pinkoson hopes the ballot issues move forward. “We urgently

need to fix our roads,” he says. “We have a deep hole in road maintenance, and we need to accept responsibility to address it.”

If the referendums go on the ballot, getting approval of the three-quarter cents for roads will be challenging, Pinkoson acknowledges. “Roads aren’t sexy,” he says. “Times are tough, and it’s hard to ask people to pay more.”

Pinkoson plans to appeal to voters with a basic financial argument: The cost of road repairs increases if repairs are delayed. “The longer we wait, the more it’s going to cost,” he says.

The county is using all the other resources it has available to improve roads, including increasing the amount of property tax dollars for repairs and using bonds funded by a nickel increase in gas tax, which went into effect in 2008, to complete road improvements, Pinkoson says.

“We’ve been doing what we can to build trust that we’re committed to roads,” he says.

By Chris Eversole

The long-anticipated economic infusion from the $7 million Nations Park youth baseball

complex in Newberry will have to wait a little longer.

The grand opening, originally planned for late June, has been postponed until the week of Thanksgiving. Only one tournament, with 40 to 50 teams, is scheduled this summer.

In planning for the 16-field complex that’s being built with Alachua County Tourist Development Tax dollars, city officials projected that it would rival Cooperstown Dreams Park in New York State, which attracts 1,300 teams annually.

“Getting going has proven to be a little more difficult than we had expected,” says Stefan Davis, president of Davis & Sons Construction, which donated 40 acres for the baseball fields. “In a year or two,

we’ll be going full blast like we had hoped to.”Despite the slow start, Newberry City

Manager Keith Ashby says a developer is considering building a $7 million to $10 million sports arena and hotel complex in town.

The developer is working with Enterprise

Florida and city officials on the project, says Ashby, who declined to give more details.

Davis remains optimistic about the 150-acre

Sandia development his company plans west of Nations Park, but he says he has to be patient.

Sandia will be similar to the Town of Tioga, with a combination of homes, stores, restaurants and up to four hotels. “Hotel developers are waiting to see the bed nights before they make a

commitment,” Davis says.

CONSTRUCTION DELAYS SLOWED BOOKINGS

Few teams made reservations for tournaments this summer due to delays in completing Nations Park, Ashby says. “Teams book one to three years in advance, so we can’t expect to be busy from day one.”

“This gives us a test period, a time to be sure everything is working like it should,” he says.

“We can have an optimum grand opening to establish our brand, with the governor and lots of other people coming.”

N O R T H C E N T R A L F L O R I D A

JUNE 2012

(continued on page 12)

(continued on page 9)

Some Alachua County roads that haven’t been resurfaced in 40 years would be resurfaced with sales tax dollars.

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“There was nothing we could do to get the fields completed earlier. All

things considered, it’s good that we didn’t book heavily this summer.”

— Lou Presutti, founder of Nations Park

Newberry Still Waiting for Impact of Baseball FieldsThe field of dreams hasn’t knocked its big plans out of the park—yet.

Transportation Funding at CrossroadsSales Tax Proposals Could Fix Roads, Ease Congestion and Expand Bus Service

InsideMeet the Matchmakers Who Make Local Innovation a Success

16Thornebrook Art Gallery Explains How Art Gets Down to Business

24Inside One of Gainesville’s Coolest—and Newest—Tech Offices

27Members of the Chamber of Commerce receive a free subscription to The Business Report.

The NorTh CeNTral FlorIDa BusINess reporT JUNE 20122

www.gainesvillebizreport.com 3


Content June 2012

Contact:PO Box 15192, Gainesville, FL 32604352-377-1402 (ph) l 352-377-6602 (fax)E-mail: [email protected]

07 Building BusinessWhat Do You Worry About?

09 Cover StoryIf You Build It, They Will Come—Later

11 News BriefsUF Awards McGurns for Achievements and More

06 Editor’s ViewpointWhy All Business is Your Business

15 Business Basics11 Tips and Tricks for QuickBooks

16 Success StoryTech Triumvirate Bridges Science and Business

19 News BriefsCade Awards Night Wrap-Up, and More

12 Cover StorySales Tax Would Impact Many Projects

28 Calendar + TransactionsMeetings & Start-Ups

30 News BriefsChamber of Commerce President to Leave, and More

27 Office SpaceDigital Brands, Inc.

22 What Works For...United Way President Debbie Mason

23 In the NewsGainesville Attracts National Recognition

24 Made in GainesvilleThe Business of Art: Thornebrook Gallery

21 News BriefsGPD Headquarters Update, and More

PresidentKevin Ireland

Editorial DirectorMaghan McDowell

Creative DirectorHeather von Klock

Senior WriterChris Eversole

InternsAnnabelle BrooksSarah KinonenChelsea LipfordTaylor GonzalezBradley OsburnRachel SaleAlexandria Ugarte

Senior Account ExecutivePete Zimek

Account ExecutivesCarolyne SaltBrandon Stern

Distribution ManagerRyan McDowell

Operations ManagerLori White

WritersErica HurlburtHeather van Blokland

Contributing ColumnistsJohn SpenceStephanie Travis

PhotographersElliott DoolittleChris EversoleErik Knudsen

Copyright 2012 by Broad Beach Media.

27Office Space

24Made in Gainesville

N O R T H C E N T R A L F L O R I D A

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Erik Knudsen


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( Editor’s Viewpoint )

by Maghan McDowellWhy All Business is Your Business

Some of the key questions we face when planning our editorial lineup every month are, “How is this business-related?” and “How will this affect business?”

Solving this riddle is harder than you might imagine. I’ve concluded that anything to do with life in Gainesville—a new restaurant, a road tax, a grant awarded to a college researcher—ultimately impacts its residents during both work and the other few hours they juggle in the day.

In other words, “business” is a very broad concept, and the successes and failures of Gainesville’s businesses are important to us all.

I wouldn’t consider myself a “business person.” I didn’t go to business school; frankly, in college, I had no idea what majoring in “business” meant. (Isn’t everything “business?”) But I do find the concept of “business” fascinating, and I do work at a local business.

And that’s how we decide what to include: We cover the key people you should know, and go behind the scenes with the ones you already do. We cover what makes the community tick and what ultimately affects your quality of life.

We take our role—as a local business helping other businesses—seriously, and look at bridging the gap between, say, science and business (page 16), art and business (page 24), government and business (see our cover) and more.

We are always looking at more ways to reveal the human side of business, as you’ll see in our profile on the local United Way’s CEO Debbie Mason in a new section called “What Works For…” We’re also excited about another new feature called “Office Space,” in which we take you inside some of the coolest places to work in town. (Have a nomination? Let me know.)

I’m always surprised (and secretly ecstatic) at the sheer diversity of our readers. I’m not just talking about the range of people I met at the recent Business Showcase. I mean people who haven’t gone to business school or don’t often wear a suit (painters, fitness trainers, entry-level assistants) in addition to senior-level managers, government officials and university faculty.

Ultimately, as I think this issue attests, the business of Gainesville is really exciting these days, and if there’s something happening in our town—it’s our business.

ONE OF THE CHALLENGES of putting out a monthly news journal is covering breaking news in a way that is still fresh a month down the road. That’s why we’ve started posting daily updates online on our webpage and on Facebook, and why we’re excited to announce a new project for our readers. It’s called The Business Report Insider, and it’s a free bi-weekly e-newsletter created to provide even more of what you expect from Gainesville’s top business resource. Visit www.gainesvillebizreport.com to find out more, and to subscribe.


A few days ago, I was talking to one of my clients, a brilliant young man (I believe he’s in his late 30s) who runs a great little company out in California. Things are going very well for his firm. He has a lot of business booked and was really feeling pretty secure. So I decided to ask him one of my “secret weapon” questions: “In terms of the business, what keeps you up at night? What are the top two or three things that worry you?”

He answered that the first one was compensation; he was concerned as to whether or not his business had done an adequate job of building a fair and equitable compensation system for their top performers. He thought a little bit longer and said the second issue was hiring talent. Their firm was growing fast; he needed to hire talented people who

had the ability to hit the ground running and start working with clients immediately.

After a little more deliberation he said, “Those are the only two things that keep me up at night.” I told him that those are both important, but that he had missed the absolute most important thing that should be keeping him—and every single business owner in the world—up at night.

The single most important thing to worry about is this: Are your customers totally enthralled with the products and services you are providing? Do they love your business? Are they crazy about what you sell them? Do they truly enjoy interacting with your employees? What do your customers honestly think about your firm right now?

This hit him like a ton of bricks.

He was very apologetic, saying that he should have thought of that, and I assured him that very, very few people have ever answered that question the way I hoped they would. Most business people I know are so inwardly focused on their processes, their systems, their people and their issues, that they forget that the person who pays all the bills is the customer. Without happy, engaged, loyal and fanatic customers—eventually you will go out of business.

So to my mind, the most important thing for you to focus on is owning the voice of the customer (VOC), getting as close to your customers as possible and deeply understanding what their expectations are, what will make them very happy, what

will make them angry, what would make them give you lots more of their business, what would make them take their business away from you.

The only way to do this is to ask them… in 100 different ways… and then listen, listen, listen, listen. They will tell you exactly what it takes to be successful; they are the only ones who can tell you what it takes to be successful—because they are the ones who decide whether or not to give you their business!

Yes, you need absolutely fantastic employees who are highly engaged, loyal and motivated—because that is the single most important driver of happy, loyal and engaged customers. And of course you

need quality products and services delivered at a reasonable price, that is a given. However, it is completely possible to have great people, great products, superb service and fair prices—and go out of business—because you do not have enough customers.

My suggestion to you is that although you have lots of things to be concerned about in your business, and several of them that likely keep you up at night, if there is anything that should stay at the forefront of your mind as the single

most important thing to think about, worry about, fret about, be totally and completely obsessive about, is: What are your customers saying and thinking about your business?

That, my friends, is the $64,000 question.

( Building Business )

John Spence is the author of Awesomely Simple – Essential Business Strategies for Turning Ideas into Action. He is an award-wining professional speaker and corporate trainer, and has been recognized as one of the Top 100 Business Thought Leaders in America and also as one of the most admired Small Business Experts in the nation.

Most business people are so inwardly focused that they forget that the person who pays all the bills is the customer.

By John Spence

W H AT D O Y O UWORRY ABOUT?A

few days ago, I was talking to one of my clients, a brilliant young man (I believe he’s in his late 30s) who runs a great little company out in California. Things are going very well for his firm. He has a lot of business booked and was really feeling pretty secure. So I decided to ask him one of my “secret weapon” questions: “In terms of the business, what keeps you up at night? What are the top two or three things that worry you?”


( Cover Story )

T he baseball park’s construction was delayed by unexpected circumstances like relocating gopher tortoises found in the land and dealing with sinkholes, notes Lou Presutti.

Presutti, founder of the Cooperstown baseball complex in the small city that is home of the Baseball Hall of Fame, persuaded Newberry as well as county government to join in the youth baseball project.

“There was nothing we could do to get the fields completed earlier,” Presutti says. “All thing considered, it’s good that we didn’t book heavily this summer.

“The sod needs time to mature,” he says. “We would have had egg on our face if we had chopped the fields to ribbons before the root system was established.”

Participation in the Cooperstown events built up over 15 years, Ashby says. “We can’t expect to be up to that level on day one. We expect a three-year ramp-up.”

Roland Loog, the Alachua County tourist development director, says he’s not surprised by Nations Park’s pace in booking teams.

He’s confident that the baseball complex will achieve the performance measures it is required to meet. Nations Baseball is required to hold 12 tournaments with 40 or more teams annually by the end of 2014.

Participation in tournaments in Newberry will take off, due to the outstanding nature of the 16 fields at Nations Park, which feature artificial turf infields, Loog says.

“The word will get out that, ‘You’ve got to play in Newberry,’” he says.

Joe Tyler of Pensacola, who organizes youth baseball tournaments in Pensacola and Tallahassee, says the Newberry complex will be a big draw, due to its outstanding facilities and its good location.

The largest number of youth baseball fields together in the state is five in Fort Myers, Tyler says. No other venues feature artificial turf infields.

“The Newberry facility will be fantastic,” he says. “I wish we had it in Pensacola.”

IF YOU BUILD IT,

THEY WILL COME—LATER

Newberry city manager Keith Ashby continues to tout the economic benefits that recreation is bringing to Newberry, a community of 6,000.

Two new restaurants, the Firefly and the Red Wok, opened in Newberry recently, he notes.

The $3.5 million Easton-Newberry Sports Complex, which attracts archers for training and competition from around the world, is doubling in size, Ashby notes. He also says that E.D. Norfleet and

Sons, a large land owner and the builder of about 450 homes in the Newberry area, plans to move forward on its 20-acre “town center.”

For Developer Stefan Davis to proceed with his Sandia development, he needs for the city to provide water for the site. “It’s a chicken-and-egg situation,” he says. “The city needs to know that development is happening in order to expand the water system, but developers need to know that water is available in order to make their plans.”

ECONOMIC DEVELOPMENT P R O G R E S S I N G

NEW

S BR

IEFUF Professor

Awarded $1.25 Million Grant

The U.S. Department of Defense recently awarded a University of Florida professor $1.25 million to study factors affecting political stability in the African Sahel, the region south of the Sahara Desert.

The award was given to UF political science and African studies associate professor Leonardo. It will support a three-year effort by a team of faculty and graduate students to study culture and politics in the nations of Senegal, Mauritania, Mali, Burkina Faso, Niger and Chad. The project should establish UF as a key center for research in the region and will serve as the basis for academic publications, educational resources and may even be useful for journalists, the DOD and U.S. policymakers.

The award is part of the DOD’s Minerva Research Initiative, a university-based social science research program started by former Defense Secretary Robert Gates to increase the nation’s understanding of regions and topics considered important to U.S. national security. “These countries are among the least developed and least studied nations on Earth,” Villalon said in a press release. “And until recently they have been considered sort of a sleepy backwater in the world scene.”

“The Newberry facility will be fantastic. I wish we had it in Pensacola.”

— Joe Tyler

(continued from cover)


( In the News )N

EWS

NEWS BRIEFS University of Florida Awards McGurns for Achievements

At its spring commencement, the University of Florida presented Ken and Linda McGurn with Distinguished Alumni Awards—the first couple to jointly receive this honor.

Through McGurn Investment Co., the McGurns have led redevelopment of downtown Gainesville since the early 1980s. In addition to renovating buildings such as the Opera House and developing the Sun Center, the couple built Union Street Station, which occupies an entire block in downtown Gainesville. They are involved in redevelopment across Florida, including Main Street Landing in New Port Richey (under construction) and an upcoming project in downtown Ocala.

They also created the Downtown Tech Center, located in the Sun Center, which provides office space, mentoring and financing for start-up companies. The McGurns have established two major UF endowments. Both serve on the Warrington College of Business Dean’s Advisory Board and the UF Center for Entrepreneurship and Innovation Advisory Board.

Ken holds a bachelor’s, MA and PhD from UF, and Linda holds a bachelor’s and JD. They have received more than 60 local, state and national awards for their projects, including a HUD National Certificate of Merit.

Fracture Receives Angel InvestmentFracture, a Gainesville firm that developed digital technology to print

photos on glass, has received an investment from the Tamiami Angel Fund I, which targets emerging growth companies. Initially, the fund is investing $410,000, with more to come if Fracture reaches certain performance targets during the next year. Fracture stands to receive up to $750,000.

The Tamiami Angel Fund I (“TAFI”) is Southwest Florida’s first Angel Fund and the only active Angel Fund in the state of Florida, according to their website. Though its members have reviewed more than 400 business plans and invited more than 20 companies to make pitches for financing, the investment in Fracture is the fund’s second-only investment.

UF-Led Team Selected for Energy ProjectA University of Florida-led research team was selected to participate

in a five-year, $125 million energy project known as the Joint Clean Energy Research and Development Center (JCERDC). The project, which involves the United States and India, is designed to reduce energy consumption, cut dependence on petroleum products and increase the use of renewable fuels.

The team will develop biofuels derived from inedible plant material. Total funding for the project is approximately $21 million, including $2.7 million in federal funding for UF.

Women’s Giving Circle Announces GrantsThe Women’s Giving Circle held its Annual Grants Reception at

downtown Gainesville’s Blue Water Bay on May 16, announcing plans to give more than $50,000. This year’s General Grant Awards were presented to Big Brothers Big Sisters to ensure continued services to the 50 girls through the summer months; Girls Place Summer Camp to offer sliding scale financial assistance for girls in middle school and high school; Meridian Behavioral Health Care to help expand the Meridian Transitional Jobs Program; Partnership for Strong Families to support

Project Job Makeover and assist up to 15 women; and Take Stock in Children to purchase a Florida Pre-Paid two-year scholarship that will benefit the class of 2018.

Focus Grant Awards were given to Catholic Charities to continue support for the Individual Development Account program for women and Peaceful Paths to continue support for their current IDA program and launch a micro-loan component.

During the past six years, the Circle has given almost $500,000 to support local women and girls.

352 Media Teams Up with MicrosoftGainesville web development company 352 Media Group recently

teamed up with Microsoft and West Coast Customs to transform a Ford Mustang. The transformation included state-of-the-art technology including an Xbox 360, Kinect Sensors, new Windows 8 tablets and the Ford Sync voice-command system.

352 Media designed the Mustang’s dashboard app, which included three display options and a heads-up display that reflects on the windshield. It also developed a Windows Phone app to unlock the vehicle and view the instrument panel.

Innovation Square Wins AwardThe Economic Development Division of the American Planning

Association (APA) recently awarded Innovation Square with the Donald E. Hunter Excellence in Economic Development Planning Award. Located between the UF campus and downtown Gainesville, Innovation Square is a planned mixed-use research neighborhood that is being developed with overwhelming community support and stakeholder collaboration.

The APA panel was impressed with the project’s high quality, the establishment of a vision that is both aspirational and implementable and the collaboration of a wide-range of stakeholders to create a project that will make a lasting economic contribution to the community.

—Compiled by Alexandria Ugarte


( Cover Story )

(continued from cover)

W hile Pinkoson is passionate about preserving roads, Gainesville City Commissioner Thomas Hawkins is equally enamored of having a vibrant bus system and is the leading proponent of the quarter cent for expanding bus service.

He cites the following three reasons voters should support enhancing RTS service:

People want choices beyond depending on cars.•

Increasing buses reduces traffic congestion by taking cars • off the road.

A stronger bus system will aid economic development by • reducing the need for parking at the University of Florida campus, Innovation Square and downtown Gainesville.

A major part of the RTS expansion would be creating what is known as a bus rapid transit system (BRT). It would feature attractive buses that run frequently, possibly using dedicated lanes to avoid traffic congestion.

BRT advocate attorney David Coffey says the system needs to seem “cool” to succeed. “For people to give up cars for commuting, buses have to be convenient and comfortable,” he says.

Hawkins wanted one ballot issue, combining funding for roads and buses, but he believes both proposed referendums can pass.

A poll by a political action committee that Hawkins heads shows an encouraging level of support for both proposals, with the bus tax proposal leading the road one. “I believe both proposals can win if people understand their benefits,” Hawkins says.

WHAT TAXES WOULD DOBoth proposed taxes would run for 15 years, with the three-

quarters cent road tax generating an estimated $22.5 million a year, and the quarter-cent for buses generating $7.5 million a year.

Money from the road tax would be split between the county and each of the cities in the county based on a formula that takes into consideration both population and road miles.

This formula would benefit cities with small populations and a large road network, Hawkins notes, with Micanopy getting $400 per capita a year. Newberry, High Springs, Hawthorne, Waldo, Archer, Alachua and LaCrosse would get relatively high per capita revenue.

Gainesville would get the least amount of money per capita, at $100 annually, because the city commission emphasized transit in the list of projects it proposed for sales tax dollars.

The funding formula is good or bad, depending on how it affects you.

Newberry City Manager Keith Ashby likes it because his city has the largest land area of any municipality in the county (even larger than Gainesville), despite having a population of only 6,000.

Hawkins sees the formula jeopardizing support from Gainesville voters. “Historically, Gainesville voters have been

the biggest supporters of referendums,” he says. “This formula is a liability in getting their support.”

From the viewpoint of county government, the math justifying the road tax is simple. Under the formula, the county would receive $13 million a year for road maintenance, which equals the amount it currently spends on this work.

“There’s no way we could come up with that much money without the tax, no matter how much we cut everything else—our ambulances, our funding for the sheriff and the social services that help people who need it the most,” Pinkoson says.

Without the sales tax, the county would have to put off plans for major projects, including a total upgrade of Tower Road and rebuilding 43rd Street, which is a county responsibility, although it is totally inside the Gainesville city limits.

“Roads the county maintains go through all the cities, so the cities are benefiting from the sales-tax proceeds that would go for roads through the cities,” County Engineer Dave Cerlanek says.

Gainesville would focus its road sales tax dollars on the extension of SW 62nd Boulevard and SW 40th Boulevard, going between the Oaks Mall area and the Butler Plaza area. In addition to the sales tax funding, a portion of the project

would be paid for by Butler Enterprises.The SW 62nd Boulevard project is important as a way to

improve traffic connections in Southwest Gainesville and relieve traffic on I-75, Gainesville Public Works Director Teresa Scott says. “I-75 is functioning as a major artery for local traffic,” she says. “Having 62nd as a local road roughly parallel to it will take pressure off the Interstate.”

All of the quarter-cent tax for buses would go to the City of Gainesville. However, the RTS expansion, including bus rapid transit service, would serve people in the unincorporated area as well as the city, Hawkins notes.

Seven of the nine bus routes that would be expanded serve the unincorporated area, including routes going to Tower Road and the Santa Fe College area and ones along Hawthorne Road east of the Gainesville City limits.

SALES TAXES PARTS OF BROAD PLANThe sales tax dollars would be the final pieces of a puzzle

that county government and the City of Gainesville have been putting together over the past decade to fix roads, add new ones to relieve congestion, expand bus service and streamline traffic lights.

Pieces of the puzzle that are already in place come from a variety of funding sources, including the following:

The five-cent gas tax that went into effect in 2008 is • backing bonds used to borrow money for major projects such as the planned renovation of NW 16th Avenue from 13th Street to the Buchholz High School area, as well as applying chip-seal to 40 to 50 miles of unpaved roads. Money collected from developers through the • Multi-Modal Transportation Mitigation Program is accumulating for projects including extending SW 8th Avenue through the back of the Town of Tioga from Tower Road to Jonesville. Completion of this project will depend on how fast development occurs.The county commission is devoting up to $1 million a • year from its General Fund property tax revenue to road maintenance. Pinkoson pushed for this allocation, based on increased property tax revenue, so “development would have a chance to pay its own way.”

SALES TAXES WOULD IMPACT MANY PROJECTS

Some Alachua County roads that haven’t been resurfaced in 40 years would be resurfaced with sales tax dollars. This photo illustration prepared by County Engineer Dave Cerlanek compares a newly resurfaced road to one that hasn’t been resurfaced for 40 years.

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A combination of funds from the city, county, state and • University of Florida have built a high-tech traffic signal management program that has dramatically improved traffic flows.

RTS has greatly expanded service, especially for routes • serving UF students.

Since he took office 10 years ago, Pinkoson has been a driving force in developing a diverse transportation funding program for county government.

Pinkoson believes that using bonds to get funds to address major road problems, such as the NW 16th Avenue project, has shown good faith with voters. “We’re demonstrating that we’ll do what we say we’ll do with the money we get,” he says.

One of the projects the county is completing with gas-tax dollars is the $6 million resurfacing of County Road 231, which forks off of State Route 121 north of Gainesville. The need to invest in this relatively remote piece of roadway illustrates the challenges facing the county, Pinkoson says.

“The county has different needs than Gainesville does,” he says. “While the county has to focus on fixing existing roads, the city doesn’t have the same maintenance backlog that the county does, and it’s able to focus on transit and building the 62nd Boulevard Extension.”

RTS RIDERS INCREASE FIVE TIMESThe RTS expansion began in 1999, when its ridership was

two million annually. The expansion, funded by fees on UF students and other sources, was the major reason ridership doubled over the next two years, says Doug Robinson, the chief planner for RTS.

RTS now has 10 million riders a year. While bus passengers have increased, traffic counts on roads around the UF campus have declined.

During peak hours, some of the system’s 72-passenger buses fill up, says RTS spokesman Chip Skinner. “How would you like to have 72 cars in front of you instead of one bus?” he asks.

The planned expansion of RTS from sales tax dollars would tie in with county policies promoting “transit-oriented developments” (TOD’s). Such developments will be allowed to have much more units per acre than is customary in exchange for funding “bus rapid transit.”

Planned TOD’s include Celebration Pointe east of I-75 near Kanapaha Botanical Gardens, Springhill and Santa Fe Village north of Santa Fe College and Newberry Village, between I-75 and Fort Clarke Boulevard.

The TOD’s will pay heavily for bus rapid transit, picking up both the operating and capital costs for service for the portion of the routes serving them for 15 years.

One reason the county commission took the unusual move

of splitting the sales tax vote into two referendums is that Pinkoson and fellow commissioner Susan Baird contend that it’s premature to commit funds to BRT, since plans for it are incomplete.

The city’s Hawkins disagrees. “We don’t have complete plans for all the road improvements, but we need make plans to fund them,” he says. “BRT is no different.”

The sales taxes are needed so that all the pieces of the pie for transportation funding are in place, Hawkins says.

He uses the plans for Butler Enterprises to fund a portion of the 62nd Boulevard/40th Boulevard extension as an example. “If only the section around Butler Plaza is built, six lanes will come to a dead end.

“With the sales tax dollars, we can complete a project that serves the entire community.”

WILL THE VOTERS RESPOND?Pinkoson and Hawkins say both of them are dedicated to

reaching out to voters regarding the referendums.How much support will come from other county

commissioners and from commissioners of the municipalities is unclear.

On the other hand, leaders of the Alachua County Tea Party have announced their oppositions to the referendums, and other people in the community are saying privately they may campaign against the referendums.

Hawkins is confident about the quarter-cent for transit. “I believe it has a strong constituency,” he says.

Pinkoson is not as confident, but he says he’s determined to communicate the need for the three-quarter cents for roads. “I’m going to do what I can to help people understand how urgent it is to protect the investment all of us have in our pavement,” he says.

( Cover Story )

“We don’t have complete plans for all the road improvements, but we need plans to fund them. Bus

Rapid Transit is no different.”— Gainesville City Commissioner Thomas Hawkins

T raffic is moving better throughout Alachua County, thanks to an $18 million traffic management system that vastly

improves the timing of traffic signals.The project, which began in 2008 and is nearly

complete, placed video cameras at 130 of the 230 intersections in the county. Alachua County now has one of the highest densities of video camera in the state, says Matt Weisman, the City of Gainesville operations engineer for the project.

The project includes running dedicated fiber optic lines to most of the intersections, Weisman says.

Among the benefits? Traffic after a Gator football game typically clears out in 90 minutes, a big improvement over the three and a half to four hours it took in the past.

Traffic flows on 13th Street and 34th Street have improved up to 40 percent on some sections of roadway that have adequate capacity, Weisman says.

Archer Road is another story. “The system allow us to make the best possible utilization of existing road capacity,” Weisman says. “Since Archer Road already is at capacity, our impact is limited.”

During two hours of rush hour in the morning and two hours in the afternoon, city staff keeps their eyes on a gallery of video monitors in their control center in the city’s Public Works Building on NW 39th Avenue.

On football game days, city workers, along with representatives of law enforcement and rescue agencies, manage the system with four monitors at Ben Hill Griffin Stadium.

Staff is constantly tweaking regular timing of lights. It overrides regular timing when a major accident backs up traffic, Weisman says.

Local funding includes $3.8 million from the University of Florida, $3 million from the city and $2.3 million from the county. This totals $9.1 million, which the state matched.

Chris Eversole

Matt Weisman, the operations manager for the City of Gainesville’s traffic management system, shows the gallery of video monitors that track traffic.

HIGH-TECH TRAFFIC SIGNALS

SPEED TRAFFIC

Current plans for the proposed extension of SW 62nd Boulevard and SW 40th Boulevard, which sales tax dollars would fund, include dedicated bus lanes.

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Alachua County continually updates its webpage on the sales taxes. Search for Alachua County Transportation Surtax for updates.


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( Business Basics )

Stephanie G. Travis is the owner of One Source Accounting, LLC, which provides outsourced bookkeeping, consulting and managerial accounting services. She holds a Master of Accounting degree from the University of Florida and is a 37-year resident of Gainesville.

By Stephanie G. Travis

11 TIPS & TRICKS for QuickBooksQuickBooks, developed by Intuit, is a popular accounting

software for small business owners who don’t have professional accounting experience. Here are some quick tricks to solving QuickBooks.

You can set a floating decimal in Edit/Preferences/General/My Preferences. When “Automatically place decimal point” is selected, QuickBooks will automatically place a decimal in any number you type. If you type 22, it will be entered as $0.22 cents. If you type 2341, it will be entered as $23.41.

If you like several windows open at once, here is a short-cut navigation bar you can use to move from window to window: View/Open Window List.

When troubleshooting or sleuthing, most transactions will let you view a history. Look for the button at the top of the transaction window. For example, if you are reviewing a customer payment, at the top of the window click “History.” This will show you where and when it was deposited to the bank, and to what invoice it was credited.

Have you upgraded to a new version and don’t like the new interface for the online banking matching of transactions? You can use the old interface by changing settings: Edit/Preferences/Checking/Company Preferences. Then choose “Register Mode.”

Your Undeposited Funds account should always be zero. You can find this account in the asset section of your accounts chart. If the account is not zero, there are problems with customer payments and deposits to work out.

Do you have a PayPal account? It should be set up, populated and reconciled just like a conventional bank account. Monies

transferred between your bank account and PayPal account should be entered like a banking transfer.

If your company is using more than one checking account, change the background color for easy identification of which account you are using. Open the register for any checking account. Click on the Edit Menu and select “Change Account Color.”

Do you reconcile your checking account during the month to online data? You can also do this in QB. Just pull up the normal bank rec window and enter today’s bank balance. Check off items that have cleared so far this month until your difference is zero. But don’t click “Reconcile Now.” Click “Leave.” You can keep doing this until you are ready to reconcile at the end of the month using the bank statement.

Did you create two vendor names for the same vendor by mistake? You can merge them. Go to Vendor Center, double-click on the vendor name you want to keep, copy the name in the first, top field. Now double-click on the vendor name you want to delete and paste the first vendor name. It will ask you if you want to merge.

When setting up Items (the products that you sell), do not make the type “Inventory” unless you are truly using the accrual inventory/COGS method. Use the type “Non-Inventory” for materials and “Service” for services.

Ever go to reconcile your bank account and the beginning balance in the bank reconciliation screen is different (incorrect) from your bank statement beginning balance? To find out what reconciled transactions have been edited or deleted since the last reconciliation, go to Reports/Banking/Reconciliation Discrepancy.

CONTROL + A brings up the Chart of AccountsSPACE BAR marks or un-marks items or boxes with check marksCONTROL + F opens Find Transactions windowCONTROL + Q brings you a quick report of transactions for each item in a list you have highlighted (sale item, customer, vendor, etc.)ALT + F4 exits the QuickBooks softwareCONTROL + M brings up the Memorize Transaction optionCONTROL + DELETE KEY deletes a lineCONTROL + INSERT KEY inserts a lineALT + DOWN ARROW KEY displays list for a fieldCONTROL + E lets you edit a transactionCONTROL + I creates a customer invoiceCONTROL + W opens up Write Checks window

QUICKBOOKS KEYBOARD

SHORT-CUTS


Licensing revenue brings in more than $50 million a year to the University of Florida, divided roughly a third for central administration, a third to the scientists and a third to the researchers’ labs and their colleges.

But when University of Florida discoveries become business successes, the limelight generally shines on the scientists and entrepreneurs involved—but a key team is often overlooked. That team is composed of those who work at the Office of Technology Licensing (OTL), the Florida Innovation Hub and the Sid Martin Biotechnology Incubator, which can be critical to the commercial success of UF discoveries.

David Day—“the lead matchmaker”— heads both OTL and the Sid Martin Incubator. He works closely with Jane Muir, the OTL’s associate director and director of the Hub, and Patti Breedlove, associate director of the Sid Martin Incubator.

The OTL has multiple responsibilities. In addition to helping researchers bring their discoveries to market, it oversees registering patents and securing licensing agreements that provide a split of revenue.

The Hub is located in Innovation Square, midway between the UF campus and downtown Gainesville. It

houses OTL’s offices, serves as an incubator for start-ups based on new technologies and provides places for collaboration among people involved in innovation. Resident companies can focus on improving their technology and market development in a supportive environment.

The Sid Martin Incubator, located in Progress Corporate Park in Alachua, features labs, greenhouses, and scientific equipment for biotechnology-based start-ups.

While the three are well known locally, they’ve brought national recognition to town. A key indicator of their success was a 2006 report by international think tank the Milken Institute, which ranked UF fifth in its University Technology Transfer and Commercialization

Index. Then, a 2007 Business Week article titled “MIT, Caltech—and the Gators” explained “how UF moved to the major league of technology startups,” “whizzing past” Johns Hopkins and Harvard. The National Business Incubator Association recognized the Sid Martin Incubator as the No. 2 technology incubator in the world.

Day, Muir and Breedlove have been directly involved in UF’s efforts to commercialize research discoveries by faculty for more than a decade. Day came to UF in 2001, after heading the technology transfer office at the University of Alabama at Birmingham. Muir joined OTL in 1999, after working at the NASA Regional Technology Transfer Center in UF’s College of Engineering for seven years. Breedlove, who previously ran

community health centers in several states, came to the Sid Martin Biotech in 1998.

We got the chance to talk with the trio that works day-in and day-out to bring to reality OTL’s slogan: “Where science meets business.”

HOW DO THE THREE OF YOU FUNCTION AS A TEAM?Day: We work reasonably independently of one

another, running in our own circles doing our own jobs.Muir: At the end of the day, we all have the No. 1

mission of getting discoveries out of the laboratory and into the market. Each of us has different resources and different roles to play that are very synergistic.

WHAT HAVE BEEN SOME MILESTONES SINCE THE THREE OF YOU CAME ON BOARD?

Day: Right out of the box, we started signing start-up agreements that had been hung up for a long time. Then, we started building competence.

The founding of Sharklet [a company that produces a bacteria-resistance material that mimics sharkskin] was a real milestone because Tony Brennan was one of the major researchers on this campus.

He did not want to do a start-up company. He had seen so many start-ups go awry. He wanted to do a licensing agreement with a big corporation.

After two years of trying to sell a license to an established corporation, including getting an introduction to the president of 3M from the chairman of UF’s board of trustees, he finally heard what we had been telling him: that his technology was too early.

( Success Story )

Chris Eversole

David Day, Jane Muir and Patti Breedlove chat at the Florida Innovation Hub.

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The Florida Innovation Hub provides space for “collisions,” informal collaboration among people involved in bringing innovations to market.

Tech Triumvirate Bridges Science, Business

By Chris Eversole

Get to know the matchmakers who work behind the scenes to help local researchers cure disease, make money, bring jobs to Gainesville and cultivate an innovation destination.

We were drinking champagne to celebrate the federal grant for the Innovation Hub, and we were talking

about the name. It had to be more than an incubator. It had to be the Innovation Hub because we wanted it to be the hub of entrepreneurial activity in Gainesville.

Jane Muir, director of the Florida Innovation Hub


Finally, about four years in, Brennan decided to do a start-up. That was a major signal that the mainstream senior faculty had enough confidence in us to start working with us on start-ups.

Another major milestone is we had a big, big year in 2007, when over $200 million in investment capital came in. Just before the recession, we got up to $225 million.

We went down with the recession, and now we’re up to that level of investment capital again.

Starting up the Tech Showcase six years ago, which brings in investors from around the world, was a milestone. Starting The Celebration of Biotechnology at the Progress Corporate Park, which Patti helped to found, was another milestone.

YOU GET CREDIT FOR MAKING RESEARCH APPROACHABLE TO THE INVESTOR. HOW DO YOU DO THAT?

Day: The overriding thing we do is put together companies that are attractive to investors.

Investors don’t see that everywhere. They see a lot of scientist-led companies and hype. Here, we look to create management-led companies that are good investments. You do that, and the investors are going to come.

We’re not a typical tech transfer office. What we focus on is finding CEOs. We bring them in, show them the technology and introduce them to the scientists. We do that until either a company doesn’t emerge or until a pairing occurs.

Muir: About 300 new discoveries come into our office every year. Once a month, we sit down, and we go through every one of the inventions that come in. Typically, out of every 20, we’ll add three to four as potential start-ups.

HOW DO YOU INFORM AND MENTOR FACULTY MEMBERS?

Day: We not only bring in entrepreneurs and investors, but we also bring in alumni and people from the corporate world.

It helps the scientists see what they need to be doing—what kind of grants they need to apply for and what kind of experiments they need to be running.

YOU ARE KNOWN FOR SETTING HIGH STANDARDS FOR THE SCIENTISTS WITH WHOM YOU WORK. CAN YOU DISCUSS THAT?

Day: Our main rule is: Practice makes perfect. These

young companies have to be able to do a pitch to get into deals with people. They have to practice this pitch. They have to be willing to be criticized by people around them, by investors and by the business community. They’ve got to be positive and not be defensive.

HOW DO RESEARCHERS RESPOND TO YOUR ADVICE?

Muir: Researchers have to be a bit egotistical. They have to be confident in their abilities, and yet they have to be willing to follow our advice on matters outside of science.

We’ve listened to investors over the years, and we know what they want to hear. We have a template that we give the researchers, and we provide them coaching.

The best way for researchers to improve their pitch is for them to get up in front of investors and other entrepreneurs to critique them. They take advice better from experienced entrepreneurs and investors than they do from tech transfer professionals.

ARE STUDENTS BECOMING MORE INVOLVED IN INNOVATION THAN THEY WERE IN THE PAST?

Day: Grad students always have been involved. They’re often the ones who spin off into new companies, while the faculty members remain at the university.

The undergrads are a whole other thing. We’ve got a tech explosion going on in this town, with companies like Grooveshark, Trendy Entertainment and Fracture. The tech explosion is helping UF and Gainesville get on the map around Florida and the Southeast.

HOW DOES IT FEEL TO HELP PEOPLE BE FINANCIALLY SUCCESSFUL AND TO BRING SOMETHING TO COMMERCIALIZATION?

Muir: It’s not the money that motivates the faculty. [UF pharmacy researcher] Ray Bergeron gave a talk at our annual celebration of innovation. He’s had hundreds of millions of dollars of sponsored research, and he

has dozens of patents. He told about his conversation with a mother of a child who had a disease that he was studying. She came up to him after he had given a talk and asked, “How far are you from this cure?”

Finding cures that help people is what motivates many of our researchers.

The nerve graphs that Axogen provides are having a huge impact. They help everyone from a gentleman who was about to have his leg amputated and now can walk to my son’s best friend, who cut himself with a box cutter and developed problems after he was treated in the ER. He had a nerve graph put in, and now he has full function of the arm.

WHAT DISTINGUISHES THE SID MARTIN INCUBATOR?

Breedlove: We were one of the first incubators in the country to focus exclusively on biosciences. That’s because about half of the research at UF is in the life sciences.

Our initial funding came from a combination of a USDA grant, state funds and university funds. Some bioscience companies need a lot of expensive equipment just to get their

( Success Story )

(continued on next page)

Trimark Properties

Trimark Properties plans to begin construction of the Infusion Technology Center, which will be built in the 700 block of S.W. Second Ave., in December. The 150,000-square-foot building is scheduled to be completed in December 2013. Front Street Commercial Real Estate Group is the listing agent.

Some bioscience companies need a lot of expensive equipment just to get their work done every day. If that’s the case, they’re good candidates for our program because we have about $1 million of scientific equipment.

Patti Breedlove, associate director of the Sid Martin Biotechnology Incubator

UNIVERSITY OF FLORIDA CAMPUS AND HEALTH

SCIENCE CENTER

INNOVATIONSQUARE

DOWNTOWN

Faculty conduct research

40 acres between UF and downtown:

Former Shands at AGH siteAyers Medical being converted to home for Mindtree and other innovative companiesTrimark Properties developing Infusion Technology Center and INSPIREation Hall at UF (student housing)

PROGRESS CORPORATE

PARK

Located in AlachuaHome of RTI, Axogen and many other innovative companies

ALACHUA, FL


( Success Story )work done every day. If that’s the case, they’re good candidates for our program, because we have about $1 million of scientific equipment. Investors love that model because it allows companies to move along more affordably and more rapidly.

There are a lot of other tech companies that don’t need that kind of equipment. They might be interested in space at the Hub.

The great thing is that UF now has a complete package of options to let companies pick from.

At the Sid Martin Incubator, we work with a small number of companies, and they stay with us a long time. Some of our companies have products on the market, and others are still getting to that point. Our companies have attracted over $600 million through equity investment, contracts and grants.

WHAT ARE KEYS TO HELPING COMPANIES AT SID MARTIN?Day: Patti made a significant step when she diversified

the makeup of her board of advisors. They had been primarily scientists. She added venture investors and CEOs from the Southeast and across the nation.

Breedlove: We completely revamped the criteria to stay in our incubator program. Companies only get one year at a time. They go through a formal review process to determine if they get another year in the program.

The group that evaluates the companies is made up primarily of venture capitalists and bioscience entrepreneurs. It’s a very strong group that has made a huge difference. Members of the group advise companies as well as help select new ones.

WHAT DOES THE HUB ADD TO THE EQUATION?Muir: It brings a lot of players within the community

together and gets them on the same hymn sheet. It doesn’t just serve as an incubator space but serves groups of all different types who can see what we’re talking about regarding taking research from the laboratory to the market.

It gives us a lot more resources near the university.

Over 125 people come through here every week.

We were drinking champagne to celebrate the federal grant for the Innovation Hub, and we were talking about the name. It had to be more than an incubator. It had to be the Innovation Hub because we wanted it to be the hub of entrepreneurial activity in Gainesville.

We had been here about a month, and I went into David’s office and said, “It’s so fun; all the things we had talked about are actually happening.”

WHAT IS MEANINGFUL ABOUT THE OFFICE’S WORK?Day: In the past decade, we’ve laid a solid foundation

of start-up company activity. There have been 130 companies started; 80 of them have survived. We’re going to keep adding to that foundation. We’re going to keep clunking out 12, 15, 20 start-ups a year and keep on bringing them through our incubation process.

Now we’re growing these start-ups to the next level. Prioria [which makes handheld planes the military uses] is moving into the Power District. Companies are moving to bigger facilities.

We have the confidence of the local community, the political structure and the university administration that we can go out and recruit companies to the cluster we’ve created.

Muir: We’re in a very unique position, and it’s largely because we’ve gotten so intertwined with the community.

I would put our community up against any other in terms of integration of the tech transfer function. The size of our

community helps. I talk to people at church about tech transfer and on the soccer field about a licensing deal.

WHAT CREDIT DO YOU GIVE TO PEOPLE IN THE COMMUNITY AND THE UNIVERSITY FOR HELPING YOU DO YOUR JOBS?

Muir: When we started working on the Innovation Hub, City Manager Russ Blackburn took me aside and said, “Look, this is important for our community. If anything gets in the way, call me. We’ll work through it.”

The Chamber of Commerce is integral. MindTree co-founder Scott Staples was right when he said that the effort to attract the company was well-orchestrated. An orchestra needs a conductor, and [Chamber CEO and President] Brent Christensen did a great job.

David: [UF President] Bernie Machen is very important. He’s given us the heavy air cover to do our thing and create these companies. He regularly reminds everyone of how important what we’re doing is and making sure it receives the attention it needs.

Muir: When Win Phillips became the vice president for research, he immediately made a number of changes and put resources into the tech transfer office that we never had before. We doubled in size.

When our colleagues from the Association of University Technology Managers see the level of commitment that we have from the top level of administration—the president and the vice president—they drool with envy.

Our main rule is: Practice makes perfect. These young companies have to be willing to be criticized by people around them, by investors and by the business community.

David Day, director of UF’s Office of Technology Licensing

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Dacia Scharf of Banyan Biomakers, located in the Sid Martin Biotechnology Incubator, conducts research. Banyan has developed tests for detecting traumatic brain injuries.

University of Florida

Santa FeCollege

FLORIDA INNOVATION

HUB Center for Innovation

& Economic Development

(CIED)

Gainesville Technology Enterprise

Center (GTEC)*

City of Gainesville

SID MARTIN INCUBATOR

Innovation GainesvilleCommunity-wide effort coordinated by Gainesville Area Chamber of Commerce

Includes:Business CommunityEducational InstitutionsArts and cultural groupsOther stakeholders

*Santa Fe College is in the process of taking over management of GTEC, replacing the Gainesville Area Chamber of Commerce.

(continued from previous page)


NEWS BRIEFS Cade Awards Night Focuses on Innovation

Tampa-based BioAcousTech won first place and a $50,000 prize provided by the Community Foundation of North Florida (formerly the Gainesville Community Foundation) in the Third Annual Cade Museum Prize Night, presented at the Santa Fe Fine Arts Hall May 11. BioAcousTech developed eCath, a device that monitors cardiovascular, pulmonary and fetal functions through sound waves from catheters in patients.

Gainesville-based Reliox, which developed a simple process to produce the disinfectant chlorine dioxide, was the first runner-up. The second runner-up was Orlando-based Nanodiscovery, which uses gold nanoparticles in medical tests.

SumTotal Systems Continues Local Expansion

SumTotal Systems Inc., the largest software company in Gainesville, plans to expand its headquarters, including hiring key positions across research and development, customer service, administration, finance, sales and marketing.

SumTotal was first introduced to the area in 2006 after purchasing locally based MindSolve Technologies. The company, recognizing the strong talent pool available, as well as the lower cost of doing business and the great quality of life, moved its headquarters here from Silicon Valley in 2010.

The company already has more than 175 local employees.

Florida Unemployment Compensation Being Reduced

Florida’s lower unemployment rate means the state no longer qualifies for federal extended benefits, and the federal emergency unemployment compensation expires at the end of 2012. Once offering up to 99 weeks of benefits, the combined state and federal compensation could be reduced to 20 weeks or less for Florida workers who lose their jobs in the future. It is estimated that 836,000 workers still remain jobless.

Federal emergency unemployment compensation, which is due to expire at the end of the year, once offered up to 53 weeks of benefits. Each week that goes by is one less week of benefits until they are completely cut off at the end of 2012.

Santa Fe’s Math Department One of the BestAfter being part of a National Science Foundation survey

of calculus programs across the country, Santa Fe College was identified by the Mathematical Association of America

(MAA) as a college with a remarkable level of success in its calculus program.

The MAA surveyed more than 200 U.S. colleges in 2010, conducting surveys at both the beginning and end of the term. The surveys focused on five factors: passing rate, interest in continuing on to Calculus II, general interest in continuing to pursue mathematics, enjoyment of mathematics and confidence in mathematical ability. Seven schools were identified as having the most successful programs.

Southern Legal Counsel Celebrates 35 YearsSouthern Legal Counsel, a statewide not-for-profit

public interest firm in Gainesville, is celebrating its 35th anniversary.

Founded in 1977 by Gators Jon Mills, Chesterfield Smith Sr., Joseph R. “Dick” Julin, Michael McIntosh and Joseph Onek as an outgrowth of the Center for Governmental Responsibility at the University of Florida College of Law, the firm has traditionally represented people who would not have access to legal counsel otherwise. Today, SLC is run largely by three University of Florida College of Law alumni, several UF law clerks and UF undergraduate interns.

The firm receives no government funding and focuses on the people and issues that are in greatest need of civil legal assistance, representing citizens with disabilities, reforming education laws and protecting the environment.

“SLC represents people with little or no voice against powerful interests,” said Board of Directors Chair William Kalish in a press release. “With the high-quality representation SLC lawyers provide, they make the playing field even.”


( In the News )N

EWS

Contestant Stephen Hsu and his wife, Helen Goh, talk with judge James Ehrlich, the medical director of Colorado-based Early Detection Technologies. Hsu’s company, Prometheon Pharma, is developing Topix, a skin patch for use with medical compounds such as insulin that can’t be delivered through a patch now. Hsu’s company was the third runner-up in the prize competition.

Chris Eversole

—CE


( In the News )N

EWS

NEWS BRIEFSSanta Fe College Chosen for National Endowment

Santa Fe College was chosen as one of 10 community colleges to take the lead in a new initiative funded by the National Endowment for the Humanities. The Association of American Colleges and Universities (AAC&U) and The Democracy Commitment: An American Community College Initiative (TDC) chose the schools, which will participate in the Bridging Cultures program, a three-year curriculum and faculty development project.

“The community colleges chosen for this project are poised to lead the way in developing curricular and co-curricular practices steeped in the humanities and designed to prepare students to be active and engage participants in the democratic process,” said De Anza College President Brian Murphy, one of the founders of The Democracy Commitment and a co-director of the Bridging Cultures project.

Blue Cross Blue Shield Gives UF $1.6 Million Blue Cross Blue Shield recently gave the University

of Florida $1.5 million to promote faculty research that addresses health disparities among Florida residents. The funding established the Florida Blue Endowed Chair in Health and Disparities Research at UF, which will work to promote culturally sensitive practices in health care, train future health providers to follow such practices and help lead efforts at UF to eliminate health disproportions.

Additionally, the BCBSF Foundation gave a $100,000 endowment to create the Robert I. Lufrano, M.D. Health Disparities Support Fund, which will support undergraduate, graduate or postdoctoral students, academic programs and presentations.

County Opposes Hotel Tax RulingAlachua County and 16 other Florida counties are

appealing a judge’s ruling that online travel companies, like Expedia and Orbitz, should be taxed only on what they pay for hotel rooms rather than the higher price they charge customers.

Currently, the online travel discounters buy rooms at a discounted rate, and then mark them up about 25 percent, says County Attorney Dave Wagner. They pay tourist development tax only on their purchase price. The travel companies contend that their mark-up is a “facilitation fee” and not subject to taxation.

However, Alachua County claims it is owed $435,000 in unpaid taxes and $150,000 in interest and penalties, Wagner says—but in April, Leon County Circuit Judge James Shelfer ruled in favor of the online companies.

With millions in tourist development tax dollars at stake, the counties will challenge the decision in the First District Court of Appeal, according to Bob Nabors, a lawyer for the counties. The case could end up before the Florida Supreme Court.

Florida Women Paid Less Than MenAccording to a report recently released by the National

Partnership for Women and Families, working women in Florida are paid 80 cents for every dollar paid to men. The median pay for women working full time in Florida is $32,762. The median pay for men, however, is $40,731—a difference of $7,969. The median yearly pay for women in the United States is $10,784 less than men. The report states that Florida ranks 11th in the gender wage-gap.


GPD Headquarters UpdateOn April 19, the Gainesville City Commission approved

the design of a new police department headquarters. The $10.9 million, 40,000-square-foot project would feature an open glass entry combined with brick and stone. It would replace the current police headquarters, which is made up of several sections from as far back as 1952. A 9,000-square-foot warehouse nearby will be converted into a training center.

The city had started on a $3.5 million remodeling of the present headquarters, located at 721 NE Sixth St., only to find that bringing it up to today’s standards wasn’t cost-effective.

The project is expected to be completed in late 2013 or early 2014. Meanwhile, police offices are in temporary locations, including the former parks and recreation department building on East Eighth Avenue.

The new building will be only one-third the size of a new headquarters that consultants recommended in 2003. Still, the new headquarters will be a far superior building to the current headquarters, Police Chief Tony Jones says, because it will:

Stand up to the severest hurricane.• Use space well, with a much more flexible floor plan • than the old headquarters.Be inviting to the public, with an open and attractive • reception area, private interview rooms in the front and meeting rooms that community groups could use.Provide a healthy air conditioning and heating system.•


D ebbie Mason has worked for corporate and non-profit clients in the fields of governance, strategic planning, development, marketing and public relations. Her career

has spanned the corporate sector as well as philanthropy and consulting, but after missing the non-profit sector, she became a consultant for the United Way worldwide—and has been part of the team since.

The United Way is an international non-profit organization that works at the local level to improve communities through charitable organizations. After a year as the local United Way’s President and CEO, this University of Florida public relations graduate is a self-titled “Master Mixologist.” She matches community needs with donor resources as well as with the knowledge, skills and resources available to the United Way. (A devoted reader, she’s currently working on a campaign that matches adult reading buddies with 2nd and 3rd graders.)

Considered a “smaller” United Way, the United Way of North Central Florida continues to win grants and honors on a national level. Debbie credits much of this success to both strong internal and external partnerships. Here’s what works for her.What is the best, and worst, advice you received? Best: “Success comes to those who are prepared.” So I am prepared to seize the opportunities or make them.

Worst: “Do nothing and the problem will go away.” I find that is rarely the case; at best it is wishful thinking and at worse it is negligence. Usually, you have to constructively address problems or they fester and eventually erupt out of hand. What gadget is most valuable to you at work? My iPhone. It lets me manage hundreds of emails in between appointments when I am not at my desk.What’s your best tip for staying organized? Discipline and time. I make the time to do it.

I carve out time every week to look forward on my calendar to see what’s coming, what needs more time, how my team is progressing with projects, etc. I do that monthly and quarterly looking at the entire year, as well, to stay on target. I do that with my senior team, too, so we all stay connected, as we are managing some major projects for the community with lots of moving pieces.

I keep my organizational and personal metrics in front of me at all times so I can discern what’s really important and then can prioritize my time accordingly. I’m a big list and calendar person. I break giant tasks down into steps, and I try to work ahead of deadlines rather than procrastinate.What sources do you use to get your news? For local news, The Gainesville Sun, TV20, The Business Report, Gainesville Magazine, Home Magazine, etc. For national news, The New York Times. I subscribe to about a dozen work-related magazines, ranging from Harvard Business, Inc., Fast Company to several nonprofit journals on management, communications and fundraising.

I am a prolific reader, so I subscribe to about a dozen magazines focused on interior design, gardening, travel, yoga. I read about three books a week, ranging from business management to inspiration and fiction. And, I love KTK, WUFT and SKY radio.

Which books do you recommend?Several. My friend, John Spence, wrote a great little book, Awesomely Simple: Essential Business Strategies for Turning Ideas Into Action. It’s short but packed with good advice, no matter what sector in which you work. I love books by Malcolm Gladwell, Seth Godin and I still love good old Tom Peters, too. I periodically reread the books by all of those guys.What is your daily schedule like? I wake up between 5:30 and 6am and either walk or do some yoga. I read the paper, feed my dog and then hop in the shower. After that it is full guns a-blazing! I get to the office or my first appointment between 8:00 and 8:30, usually after working some from home. (A lot of my mornings start with 7:30am meetings, which I find dreadful, but I do them.)

My calendar is typically booked minute-to-minute in meetings. I can’t really skip meals, so lunch is usually my biggest meal, and the closer to noon the better for me.

On a rare day, I can carve out some strategic thinking time during the workday, but usually that happens after 5pm. I get home between 7:00 and 8pm probably three to four days a week, after either working late at the office or attending a work function, or sometimes after meeting friends. Then, I take a walk with my dog and do some reading. I do a last round of emails before climbing into bed, so I can land in bed with a clear mind. I go to bed about 11 or 11:30pm most nights.

Weekends are my decompression time. I try to limit work to only a few hours over the weekend. I try to say “no” to work events on Sundays to keep that as the one day a week for some spiritual time and respite.What excites you about the future? The growth of this United Way and our ability to serve Alachua and our five neighboring counties at an even greater level. We are building from a $3 million United Way to a $7 million United Way in the next decade. Our ability to create long-term change in educational improvements, in partnership with the school board and others, will truly change the economic landscape of our region.

We are bringing amazing grant dollars to our community to invest in strategies to improve families’ financial stability and to answer immediate needs like food and shelter and others. We’re developing terrific volunteer opportunities for seniors, for working professionals and for families to

harness their desire to serve in a way that can fold into the strategies we need for solving community problems.

Sometimes it’s hard to sleep because there is so much work to do and I am so excited about our ability to serve. We have the right team in place to achieve some significant advances for our community.

Did you have a moment when you thought you’d

“made it?” Yes. When I learned to

celebrate life every day. When I learned to just enjoy being me, quirks and all. When I learned to literally stop and see what was around me. I enjoy my garden every day, particularly now when almost every morning a new glorious flower is blooming. I’m in a peaceful state of mind that creates health and well-being for me and for those around me. My continued work area is to balance my enthusiasm and drive for achieving my goals with my need for peace.What’s your favorite thing to do in Gainesville? Something social like dinner parties at my house or dinner at a great restaurant—we’re blessed to have quite a few great ones now. Gator games, long walks or bike rides around my neighborhood. I love the fall outdoor concerts downtown, and of course, our United Downtown series that plugs into all the energy of the city and downtown.

I use my vacation time to get away to the beach to get out of my head and do physical things like biking, swimming, kayaking, paddle boarding, fishing. I need to have regular time on a body of water, so I’ve learned to schedule it so it happens.What’s your favorite hidden gem? For dining it would be Mildred’s Big City Food, Civilization, Sisters Restaurant, Vellos Brick Street Grill, Dragonfly Sushi, Sabore, or Emiliano’s Cafe. For an out-of-the-ordinary beer, Tall Paul’s Brew House, and for wine or champagne, Half Cork’d. For shopping it would be Pinner’s Fine Shoes or Kitchen & Spice. For inspirational hanging out, you can’t beat the butterfly area at the Florida Museum of Natural History, Kanapaha Botanical Gardens or the Harn Museum. And, of course for arts, we are really blessed—too many to mention!

By Heather van Blokland

I break giant tasks down into steps, and I try to work ahead of deadlines rather than procrastinate.

( What Works for... )?

WHAT WORKS FOR… DEBBIE MASON

President & CEO, United Way of North Central Florida

SKRR


No stranger to recognition, Gainesville and the Alachua County area—or Titletown to many—has topped multiple lists in the past, boasting the No. 1 place to live and work in America in 2007’s Cities

Ranked & Rated, Second Edition, as well as being hailed as the “Healthiest City in America” by the Wellness Council of America. Still, it seems that the town has gained an unusual amount of publicity and awards in recent months.

Good press included coverage of the Samuel P. Harn Museum of Art’s new Cofrin Asian Art Wing, which opened in March, in the Wall Street Journal and the Washington Post.

Then, US Airways Magazine ran a 28-page special section on the area in their May issue. Roland Loog, director of the Alachua County Visitors and Convention Bureau, helped arrange the special section after his former marketing and communications director, Marcheta Keefer, helped put together a similar special section on Winston-Salem, N.C.

“The magazine reaches three million readers,” Loog says. “It was written by professional journalists, with no editorial control by us, which gives it legitimacy.”

Other recent media mentions and awards include:Parade• magazine ranked Gainesville sixth among the “Top 25 Hardest Working Towns in America,” based on average hours worked per capita, the willingness to work during personal time, dual-income homes and the jobless rate.

Amazon rated Gainesville as eighth on its list of • best-read cities per capita, based on sales of books, newspapers and magazines.

Social scientist Richard Florida, writing for • The Atlantic magazine’s website, ranked Gainesville No. 8 among best places for new college grads, based on the unemployment rate; the share of jobs in professional, technical and creative occupations; and other factors.

Southern Living• magazine’s “Tales from the Road” blog covered Gainesville Fashion Week.

A city guide to Gainesville was recently published on • popular design blog Design Sponge.

More positive attention may be on the way. Representatives of Innovation Gainesville and Scott Staples, co-founder of MindTree, recently met with reporters from Inc. and Forbes magazines and The New York Times to tout the company’s decision to create a software development center in Gainesville.

Rob DeRocker, the New York-based publicist that Innovation Gainesville hired, arranged the interviews, says Brent Christensen, outgoing president and CEO of the Gainesville Area Chamber of Commerce.

“We’re not sure when stories will appear, but we are working regularly with national media,” he says. “We plan to make more trips down the line, including ones to Atlanta; Washington, D.C.; and some locations in the West.”

( In the News )N

EWS

Gainesville Attracts National RecognitionBy Chris Eversole

The 28-page section on Gainesville in US Airways Magazine opens with a photo of the Thomas Center taken by area photographer Gene Bednarek.

Reprint Courtesy US Airways

Editor’s Note: Staff from The Business Report contributed to the US Airways feature and the Southern Living story.

Sometimes, publicity isn’t all good. Negative press flared up over the University of Florida’s proposal to eliminate the Computer and Information Science and Engineering Department in the College of Engineering as a separate entity. Bloggers from Forbes, The New York Times and The Atlantic commented on the plan—which has since been modified.


Three weeks after he graduated from the University of Florida’s fine arts college in 1981, David Arrighi opened Thornebrook Gallery.

“We opened on a shoestring and have somehow managed to make it work for 30 years,” he says.

As a student, Arrighi had noticed that many of his classmates were incredible artists but not as skilled when it came to selling their work. He knew he could help, so he opened a gallery that, from its very beginning, showcased the work of some of his most talented classmates.

The gallery, located in Thornebrook Village off Northwest 43rd Street, specializes in fine art, fine craft, artisan jewelry and custom framing. With just a couple employees (his most recent hire has been on staff for 16 years), Arrighi’s gallery is in the hands of people who know the area and its artists best.

Arrighi has a passion for artwork that depicts the unique landscape of the North Central Florida region. He works with about 20 artists whose mediums include watercolor, oil painting and photography. The key to building a strong gallery, Arrighi says, is building a following for the artists.

“One of the things I love about selling art is getting people to look at things in a little different way,” he says. “You can look at art and like it, or you can look at it and understand what you’re looking at and love it.”

Perhaps the most unique feature of Arrighi’s gallery is that he and his co-workers provide consultations to families and businesses that want to spruce up their space. They do everything from helping choose artwork to finding the right place for it to hanging it properly.

In addition to selling fine art, Thornebrook Gallery sells jewelry and fine crafts. Arrighi says the jewelry and crafts are appealing to customers because of the design quality and the fact that they’re one-of-a-kind.

“The jewelry is artisan design and is more about the design than rocks and gold,” he says. “Fine jewelry has gotten really pricey, so

when you’re selling things that are silver and amethyst as opposed to diamond and gold, you can get them into people’s hands for less money, and those artists are just as skilled and passionate.”

Another aspect of the gallery that Arrighi is proud of is the high-end, archival framing they do. A recent job included framing a set of bagpipes.

“I look at framing as an art,” he says. “It’s like the setting on a gem. It can be involved and really enhance the artwork.”

We recently talked to Arrighi about the artists he works with, the businesses he’s consulted and how he’s kept his gallery doors open in today’s economy.

YOU STUDIED PRINTMAKING IN SCHOOL. WHAT LED YOU TO OPENING THORNEBROOK GALLERY?

I was interested in art all my life. After four years in the Navy, I was convinced I didn’t want to spend the rest of my life doing something I didn’t absolutely love. What I found in college was that seeing what other people were doing and the incredible creativity and the effort that artists put in to their work energized me. I also found that many artists were really bad at selling their work. I’ve always been a “people person,” and opening the gallery seemed like the right thing to do at the time.

WHAT WAS SOME OF THE FIRST ARTWORK YOU HAD IN THE GALLERY?

There were a couple people I went to school with who I thought were absolutely

brilliant artists. One was Margaret Tolbert. I was right, she is. And 31 years later, I still carry her work. She does a lot of work with the springs in North Florida. They’re completely unique. There’s nothing else like them in the world. Her work is an amazing representation of all that the springs are. The colors are gorgeous. She gets it like no one else I’ve ever run across. [Her pieces] really have the power and majesty of these springs. Posters were also huge. We did a lot of posters, and we did more with them than most poster shops. We tended to do more with matting and more interesting framing.

HOW DO YOU DETERMINE WHAT KIND OF ARTWORK APPEALS TO YOUR CLIENTELE?

I carry mostly landscapes because I love this area, and it’s so different from most places I’ve been. Margaret [Tolbert] describes North Florida as a subtle landscape in her book— it has an intensity and depth and richness

By Erica Hurlburt

Erik

Knu

dsen

( Made in Gainesville )

THE BUSINESS OF ART

For some, business is an art. For David Arrighi, art is business.Thornebrook Gallery Thriving

Erik Knudsen

SEEING WHAT OTHER PEOPLE WERE DOING AND THE INCREDIBLE CREATIVITY

AND THE EFFORT THAT ARTISTS PUT IN TO THEIR WORK ENERGIZED ME.


that most places don’t have. There’s not a space where something isn’t growing. The climate is such that we have both big trees and beautiful live oaks and palms and pines, but there is no space where something isn’t growing. It’s very complex and very textural and very deep and rich. When you look into a Florida forest, you’re not looking into open spaces. It’s a different feel than a lot of places, and we have so many amazing artists here who do them.

WHERE DO YOU FIND THE ARTWORK YOU SELL?I have one or two people a week who come in and want

to show their artwork, but I have about 20 artists whose work I feel I can really concentrate on. A big part of it is building a following and getting people involved with the artist. I don’t think you can do that if you show too many people.

YOUR GALLERY PROVIDES CONSULTATIONS TO BUSINESSES THAT WANT TO SPRUCE UP THEIR SPACE WITH ARTWORK. WHEN DID YOU START OFFERING THIS?

When we opened the doors. First we did work for the wives of doctors and lawyers who were doing their homes. Then they came home and saw how good it looked and would say, “Can you make my office like this?” We can do it at any level. It’s amazing what we can do now. There are poster companies who can print posters onto canvas and then put a simulated brush stroke on it so it looks like original art, and it doesn’t cost an arm and a leg. There’s a huge variety of imagery available.

WHY IS ART IMPORTANT TO A BUSINESS OFFICE?It improves the professional appearance of a building.

It makes people feel as though they’re a part of something more than just the business. Hospitals, for example—there’s a reason they spend the money they do on artwork. It really has an effect on people and makes people feel better about where they are.

For other offices, it can be important as well. It gives a professional image. Things that look as though they’re meant to be where they are make people more comfortable. Businesses want to make people feel more comfortable and “at home” because it gets them over the first barrier of doing business.

YOUR BIGGEST JOB TO DATE WAS FOR INTERVENTIONAL CARDIOLOGISTS OF GAINESVILLE, WHERE YOU HELPED SELECT AND FRAME 50 PIECES OF ART. WHAT GOES INTO A JOB LIKE THAT?

When they built their building, their contractor had an art package, but their contractor was from Wisconsin so they didn’t have a lot that looked like Florida. So they came to me, and I helped them. For this job, we had plenty of time because they were still building, so it took us about five weeks. That’s not a luxury we always have, and we’ve done many other jobs in a shorter time frame.

What we do for any business or home is get an idea of the budget and how many pieces we’re looking at doing. I usually look at the space and see if I can reach some kind of agreement with them on the area they want to fill and how they want to do that. With the range of options we have—prints, original work, posters that look like

paintings—I’m usually able to work within that person’s price-range.

HOW DOES ART FOR A BUSINESS OFFICE DIFFER FROM ART FOR A PERSONAL RESIDENCE?

When dealing with a residence, you can deal with their interests and what they like. For an office, you have to take into account the fact that you’re dealing with a lot of people you don’t know. You don’t have the same freedom you have as if you were dealing with a personal environment. Pieces need to be selected with a broader range of appeal. I’m more in-tune to color coordination

when I’m doing offices. Jarring color is not something you want to use in an office because it doesn’t appeal to as wide a range. In your home, you can do anything you want. It’s a personal space, and people have that understanding about personal spaces. People aren’t going to leave if they don’t like the artwork at someone’s home.

HOW DO YOU DETERMINE WHAT KIND OF ARTWORK IS BEST FOR THE SPACE YOU’RE EVALUATING?

It depends on what the folks want. But sometimes that’s dependent on what they’re shown. We’ve wound up with art very different from what they originally thought they wanted. We work with wants, desires, textures, colors and what works in the space. Any time someone buys a

big piece, I’m going to deliver it and hang it. How it’s hung affects how it’s viewed. I want to make sure the artist’s work is shown in the best possible way. Hanging pictures is not something people do on a regular basis. I deal with this all the time and spatial relationships are something I’m good at. Sometimes we find a better place where it might work better or might be different than the client

originally thought. A fresh set of eyes can sometimes make a difference in how the person originally envisioned it.

WHAT IS YOUR BIGGEST CHALLENGE? Since the world ended four years ago, it’s been staying in

business. We are not something that is necessary for day-to-day life. I think it’s important and a lot of people think art is important, but you don’t have to have any of this stuff. And the fact that we’ve been able to keep it going through this period, I’m very pleased with.

I’ve seen a definite upswing this year. It’s different. I have changed my business through the years to adapt in the way businesses have to to survive. When we opened, we were framing posters left and right. Nowadays, there’s very little poster-framing being done. And then you have people who come up with marketing ploys—people who say they’ll give you 40 percent off on framing have overcharged you in the first place. My wife is an accountant. She has helped me with pricing from day one, and I’m a member of the Professional Picture Framers Association and have spent a lot of time doing pricing and comparative pricing.

WHAT ARE YOUR GOALS FOR THE FUTURE?I would like to showcase more art. I’d like to get

more people involved with original art and art by local artists. We have people who work incredibly hard to do what they’re doing, and it’s not always easy. These artists spend a lot of time and effort learning to do what they do and doing it. They don’t say, “Well that’s good enough.” They just won’t do that. They’ll scrape the paint off and start over again because they are the artists that they are. I’d love to get more people involved because these are the creatives in our society and these are the people we need to bring us something no one else can bring us. And they make us see things in different way.

( Made in Gainesville )Erik Knudsen

Photo courtesy of Thornebrook Gallery

Photo courtesy of Thornebrook Gallery


OFFICE SPACEDIGITAL BRANDS, INC.

( Office Space )

D igital Brands is a start-up Internet development company that recently set up shop on the second floor of one of Gainesville’s most central blocks downtown—a sunny, 4,000-square-foot loft that encourages collaboration, creativity and even a little Pac-Man. They invited us into what some have called the city’s coolest tech office.

The company “break room” features a fully stocked fridge, gourmet coffee and a library of video games.

The conference rooms are named Firefox, Safari and Explorer—but they use the Firefox room most often.

After graduating from the University of Florida with a degree in public relations

and business administration, founder and CEO Toby Sembower recently returned

to Gainesville and opened Digital Brands in December. Today, he manages the company’s site-build, marketing and

content strategies.In the “Safari” conference room, meeting space is

combined with arcade space. On Friday’s, the company competes in Challenge Friday’s for a $25 gift card. A

recent challenge theme? “Walk like an Egyptian” Day.

Digital Brands provides lunch for employees every day. It’s usually from a nearby downtown location—anywhere that Director of Operations Jamie Gebhardt can walk. Gebhardt was the company’s first employee.

LOCATION: 15 SE 1st Avenue, second floor (above Gelato Company downtown)

WEBSITE: www.digitalbrands.com

NUMBER OF EMPLOYEES: Eight now, with plans for 20 by the end of the year.

HOW LONG IN CURRENT LOCATION: 7 months

WHAT THEY DO: Digital Brands builds websites and apps to fill under-served consumer needs in areas such as health, travel, computing, telecom, B2B and lifestyle. Their sites pair comparison tools with reviews, advice and related content that let audiences compare products. They created their first site, DatingAdvice.com, to be “the authority on all things dating;” they plan to build four such websites a year.

DESIGNED BY: Gainesville’s Denny Interior Design, Inc.

FUN FACT: Digital Brands is currently hiring programmers, writers and editors.

Photos by Elliott Doolittle


( Monthly Meeting Calendar )

REGULAR MEETINGSBNI GAINESVILLEFirst Baptist ChurchEvery Thursday, 8:30am

BREAKFAST CLUB OF GAINESVILLEUF Hilton Conference CenterEvery other Friday, 7am

PHOENIX AUCTION SERVICES1832 SE 3rd Ave., Trenton, Every Thursday, 6:30pm

SUNRISE ROTARYUF Hilton Conference CenterEvery Thursday, 7am

ROTARY CLUB OF GAINESVILLEParamount Resort and Conference CenterEvery Tuesday, noon

GREATER GAINESVILLE ROTARY CLUBNapolatano’sEvery Monday, noon

ROTARY CLUB OF DOWNTOWN GAINESVILLEVilla EastEvery Wednesday, noon

KIWANIS CLUB OF GAINESVILLEParamount Plaza Hotel and SuitesEvery Wednesday, noon

GAINESVILLE AREA WOMEN’S NETWORKSweetwater Branch InnThird Wednesday of every month, 11:30am

FOOD REVIEWS

MENUS

VIDEOS

SPECIAL EVENTS

SEARCHABLE DATABASE

MyGainesvilleRestaurants.com

Hungry?Visit Gainesville’s Most Complete Dining GuideDetailed Listings for Over 400 Local Restaurants

CALENDARMAY 24, THURSDAYGAINESVILLE AREA INNOVATION NETWORKStart That Business! WorkshopSanta Fe CIED, 1pm

GAINESVILLE AREA CHAMBER OF COMMERCEProfessional Women’s RoundtablePatticakes, 4:30pm

BUILDERS ASSOCATION OF NCFMembership MeetingBest Western Gateway Grand, 11:45am

MAY 25, FRIDAYBREAKFAST CLUB OF GAINESVILLERegular MeetingUF Hilton Conference Center, 7am

MAY 28, MONDAYALACHUA COUNTY EMERGING LEADERSCommunity Relations Committee MeetingBooks-A-Million, 7pm

MAY 29, TUESDAYGAINESVILLE AREA CHAMBER OF COMMERCEConnect MeJason’s Deli, 4pm

MAY 30, WEDNESDAYGAINESVILLE AREA INNOVATION NETWORKSpeaker Series – Mr. Jamie M. GroomsCarrabba’s Italian Grill, 11:30am

JUNE 4, MONDAYHAVEN HOSPICEHaven Attic Volunteers TrainingHaven Hospice Attic Resale Store, 2pm

JUNE 5, TUESDAYINTERNATIONAL ASSOCIATION OF ADMINISTRATIVE PROFESSIONALSBoard MeetingAyer’s Building, 5:30pm

ALACHUA COUNTY EMERGING LEADERSBoard of Directors MeetingLifeSouth Community Blood Center, 6pm

BUILDERS ASSOCIATION OF NCFExecuive CommitteeBuilders Assoc. of NCF, 11:45am

JUNE 6, WEDNESDAYBUILDERS ASSOCIATION OF NCFBoard of DirectorsBuilders Assoc. of NCF, 11:45am

JUNE 7, THURSDAYALACHUA COUNTY EMERGING LEADERSWebsite Development Sub-Committee MeetingStarbucks Downtown, 6pm

JUNE 11, MONDAYALACHUA COUNTY EMERGING LEADERSProfessional Development CommitteeUF Hilton, 6pm

JUNE 12, TUESDAYGAINESVILLE AREA CHAMBER OF COMMERCEDeveloping Systems to Improve Workflow and Reduce StressSanta Fe CIED, 10am

BUILDERS ASSOCATION OF NCFAmbassador Comittee Phone BankBuilders Assoc. of NCF, 8am

INTERNATIONAL ASSOCIATION OF ADMINISTRATIVE PROFESSIONALSChapter MeetingAyer’s Building, 5:30pm

JUNE 13, WEDNESDAYALACHUA COUNTY EMERGING LEADERSPublic Policy Committee MeetingVolta Coffee, 6pm

JUNE 14, THURSDAYALACHUA COUNTY EMERGING LEADERSHappy Hour2-Bits Lounge in the UF Hilton, 6pm

JUNE 18, MONDAYALACHUA COUNTY EMERGING LEADERSKickball Committee MeetingBooks-A-Million, 7pm

JUNE 19, TUESDAYALACHUA COUNTY EMERGING LEADERSMarketing and Communications Committee MeetingMaude’s, 6pm

GAINESVILLE AREA CHAMBER OF COMMERCEBCC County Candidate DebateSanta Fe College Auditorium E, 4pm

JUNE 20, WEDNESDAY GAINESVILLE BOOKKEEPERS ASSOCIATIONFirst General MeetingSanta Fe CIED, 3:30pm

JUNE 22, FRIDAYBREAKFAST CLUB OF GAINESVILLERegular MeetingUF Hilton Conference Center, 7amON

THE

MOV

EStephanie Travis of One Source Accounting has started a Bookkeeper’s Association in Gainesville. GBA is a networking and education group open to all bookkeepers. Its mission is to build a community and to support members’ professional development. Their first meeting will be June 20, 3:30pm to 5pm at the Center for Innovation and Economic Development. See www.gainesvillebookkeepersassociation.com for more.

Michael B. Kitchens, CRB, GRI has joined the Coldwell Banker M. M. Parrish Realtors executive management team. Kitchens started his real estate sales career in 1994, and was consistently a multi-million dollar producer. A seventh generation member of the Gainesville community, he is involved in a number of area organizations.

North Florida Regional Healthcare recognized the following volunteers during Volunteer Week for 15 years of service and beyond: Gene Dixon (15), Art Reed (15), Arlene Alexander (16), Mary Lee Harris (16), Shirley Billings (23), Ruth Kalch (25), Mary North (26), Trudie DuBose (30) and Barbara Carlson (31).

The Haile Plantation office of Coldwell Banker ranked 10th in performance out of 463 similarly sized offices in closed units across North America for the month of March.

On May 1, professor Naima Brown, 39, began her one-year appointment as interim Vice President of Student Affairs at Santa Fe College.

Morgan Stanley Smith Barney recently announced the appointment of Ashley A. Banks as resident manager of the firm’s Wealth Management office in Gainesville. Banks has been with Smith Barney since 2007 and has been in the finance industry for more than 21 years.

Ozean Media announced in May the merging of Inception Design and Ozean Media. Included in the merger is the addition of Eric May as Ozean’s new chief creative officer and equity partner.

CH2M HILL won the Global Water Award for Water Company of the Year. The annual Global Water Awards distinguish outstanding achievements within the international water industry.

Long-time Florida Credit Union board member John Rawls is retiring after 55 years. He was elected to the board of directors in 1957, and during his years on the board he served as president, vice president, secretary, chair, treasurer and interim CEO.

After a renovation of guest rooms and public spaces, the 208-room Cabot Lodge Hotel, located at 3726 SW 40th Blvd., reopened in April.

According to Engineering News-Record’s Top Contractors for 2012, Gainesville-based Charles Perry Partners, Inc., was ranked 342nd, with reported 2011 revenues totaling $145 million. The construction firm also operates offices in Jacksonville, Orlando, Tampa and Vero Beach, as well as Perry and Watkinsville, Georgia. It specializes in educational, commercial, healthcare, governmental and institutional construction.

John V. Carlson, CEO and Principal, CPPI

Ashley A. Banks

Michael B. Kitchens


( Transactions )Transactions(All content comes from city, county and state official records.)

COMMERCIAL SALES802 NW 16 AVEGainesville; FL 32601Type: CommercialSeller: Culver; Jonathan and CamilleList Agent: Jeffrey SiegelList Firm: Prudential Trend RealtySell Agent: Jennifer McIntoshSell Firm: Prudential Trend RealtyBuyer: PHESS 1; LLCPrice: $110,000

2830 NW 41st STGainesville; FL 32606Type: CommercialSeller: Cushman/GodbeyList Agent: The BeeryRainsberger GrpList Firm: Coldwell Banker/M M ParrishSell Agent: The BeeryRainsberger GrpSell Firm: Coldwell Banker/M M ParrishBuyer: Thornebrook Partners; LLCPrice: $107,500

203 SW 16th AVEGainesville; FL 32601Type: CommercialSeller: Zuckerberg; JoelList Agent: The BeeryRainsberger GrpList Firm: Coldwell Banker/M M ParrishSell Agent: The BeeryRainsberger GrpSell Firm: Coldwell Banker/M M ParrishBuyer: Equilease Southwest I; IncPrice: $172,000

3939 SW 13 STGAINESVILLE; FL 32608Type: CommercialSeller: Rajaee; MohammadList Agent: Michael RyalsList Firm: Bosshardt Realty Services LLCSell Agent: Michael RyalsSell Firm: Bosshardt Realty Services LLCBuyer: Shands Teaching Hospital & Clinics; Inc.Price: $700,000

12130 W Newberry RDGainesville; FL 32606Type: CommercialSeller: McNeely/ Sharon M. TrusteeList Agent: Perry G. McDonaldList Firm: Bosshardt Realty Services LLCSell Agent: David FerroSell Firm: Bosshardt Realty Services LLCBuyer: JLAR Holdings; LLCPrice: $700,000

COMMERCIAL LEASES2835 SW 91st St.Gainesville; FL 32607Type: Rest/Food/Drink FacilityList Agent: Rick CainList Firm: Coldwell Banker/M M ParrishLease Agent: Rick Cain

Lease Firm: Coldwell Banker/M M ParrishBuyer: Sweet Frog Frozen Yogurt

3750 SW Archer Rd.Gainesville; FL 32607Type: RetailList Agent: The BeeryRainsberger GrpList Firm: Coldwell Banker/M M ParrishLease Agent: The BeeryRainsberger GrpLease Firm: Coldwell Banker/M M ParrishBuyer: Green Energy Development, LLC

2521 NW 74th Pl.Gainesville; FL 32653Type: Office/WarehouseList Agent: Eric LigmanList Firm: Bosshardt Realty Services LLCLease Agent: Eric LigmanLease Firm: Bosshardt Realty Services LLCBuyer: Sunshine State Lawn

4011 NW 43rd St.Gainesville; FL 32606Type: OfficeList Agent: David FerroList Firm: Bosshardt Realty Services LLCLease Agent: Out of Area AgentLease Firm: Out of AreaBuyer: Gentiva Health Services

4703 NW 53rd Ave.Gainesville; FL 32606Type: OfficeList Agent: David FerroList Firm: Bosshardt Realty Services LLCLease Agent: Out of Area AgentLease Firm: Out of AreaBuyer: CurtCo Robb Media, LLC

3558 NW 97th Blvd.Gainesville; FL 32653Type: Office/WarehouseList Agent: Eric LigmanList Firm: Bosshardt Realty Services LLCLease Agent: Eric LigmanLease Firm: Bosshardt Realty Services LLCBuyer: North Florida Medical Sales & Rentals

502 NW 16th Ave. Gainesville; FL 32601Type: OfficeList Agent: The BeeryRainsberger GrpList Firm: Coldwell Banker/M M ParrishLease Agent: The BeeryRainsberger GrpLease Firm: Coldwell Banker/M M ParrishBuyer: Jannie Grant

1135 NW 23 Ave. Gainesville; FL 32609Type: OfficeList Agent: Richard PlaList Firm: Venture Realty Of N Fl IncLease Agent: Richard PlaLease Firm: Venture Realty Of N Fl Inc

Buyer: Southeastern Rural Community Asst

490 NW 60th St.Gainesville; FL 32606Type: RetailList Agent: Lloyd ParkerList Firm: Venture Realty Of N Fl IncLease Agent: Lloyd ParkerLease Firm: Venture Realty Of N Fl IncBuyer: Gator Fitness & Training

CITY OCCUPATIONAL LICENSESA GATOR LIMOUSINE INC DBA GATOR LIMO 4010 W Newberry Rd.

ADVANCED MANUFACTURING ASSOCIATION OF NORTH CENTRAL FLORIDA, INC. 00020 W University Ave.

AHA SPECIALTIES, INC DBA AHA WATER 4110 SW 34th St.

AIR LIQUIDE HEALTHCARE 605 NW 53rd Ave.

BAKER, JEREMIAH D JEREMIAH BAKER’S LAWN SERVICE 1140 NE 24th St.

BROWN, TERRY T CLEAR TOUCH DETAIL 603 SW 2nd Ter.

CHARLIE’S SNOW SHACK, INC 2649 NW 13th St.

CLARK, TYRONE J. MOBILE ONLY

CLAY OIL CORPORATION 1943 NE 23rd Ave.

CLINICAL PATHOLOGY LABORATORIES SE 4340 W Newberry Rd.

COPELAND WINKFIELD, FAITH FAITH COPELAND WINKFIELD CLEANING SVCS 120 NE 39th Pl.

DAVIS FAMILY ENTERPRISES, LLC DBA MINI MAXI WAREHOUSES 2150 NE 31st Ave.

DOS MAMA’S EASTSIDE EATERY, INC 2017 NE 27th Ave.

FAMILY DOLLAR STORES OF FLORIDA INC #8950 ATTN: TAX & LICENSE DEPT 508 NE 23rd Ave.

GAMBLERS SALOON LLC 4401 NW 6th St.

GAMERS HQ LLC 2108 SW 34th St.

HOOD & SON INC DBA DAVID’S REAL PIT BBQ 521 NE 23rd Ave.

IN GOOD HANDS, LLC 4509 NW 23rd Ave.

INNOVATIVE HEALTH RESOURCES LLC 1143 NW 64th Ter.

KSSTENTINI, BENOIT DON’T DO IT YOURSELF 2138 NE 8th St.

LANE, JAMES E TOP NOTCH LAWN SERVICE 3601 SW 28th Ter.

LIPSTICK & STILETTOS INC 2950 SW Archer Rd.

LUCIO, ESTHER MAGIC’S ALTERATIONS 4117 SW 20th Ave.

MIRROR IMAGE STUDIOS, INC 619 S Main St.

NEW AGE COMPUTERS, LLC 17 NW 17th St.

OATES, LOU J II MOBILE ONLY

OXNER, AMY C ALTER ECO LANDSCAPE & DESIGN, LLC 4715 NW 36th Ct.

OXNER, AMY C AMY OXNER PHOTOGRAPHY 4715 NW 36th Ct.

RICHARDSON, TORREY K TORREY RICHARDSON CLEANING SERVICE 2911 NE 10th Dr.

ROBERTSON, KEVIN ROBERTSON LAW 224 NW 2nd Ave.

RUSSELL’S MOBILE DETAILING, INC 726 NW 8th Ave.

SECOND SALES, LLC 02512 NE 1st Blvd.

SHAYENA 10, LLC DBA WESTCOAST SEAFOOD 510 NE Waldo Rd.

SHERMAN, LAVONYA R LA’TU8, LLC 3924 SW 26th Dr.

STANLEY, JEREMIAH D CHIC SHOT STUDIO906 NW 20TH Ter.

STEPHENS, III, WILLIE T. WILLIE T STEPHENS III, OWNER 1735 NW 42nd Ave.

STRAWDER, JOYCE EMOBILE ONLY

TOWNSEND, DAVID L. MOBILE ONLY

TOWNSEND, LAERIKA J MOBILE ONLY

USED TO BE NEW1801 NE 23rd Ave.

WILLIAMS, ROBERT E. MOBILE ONLY

COUNTY OCCUPATIONAL LICENSESA 1 DAVIS CLEANING SERVICE 23707 SE Hawthorne Rd.Hawthorne, FL 32640

BITS AND SPURS TACK INC 16245 W Newberry Rd. Newberry, FL 32669

CARLOS A PIEDRA DMD PA 5717 SW 75th St.Gainesville, FL 32608

CHAMPION TAXI INC 28924 SW 30th Ave. Newberry, FL 32669

CATCHING MEMORIES PHOTOGRAPHY 25512 NW 94th Ave. High Springs, FL 32643

CVS PHARMACY #18154354 NW 23rd Ave.Gainesville, FL 32606

EHEN CLEANING SERVICE4416 SW 74th Ter. Apt. 1 Gainesville, FL 32607

E-TEC LAWN CARE LLC 2219 NW 170th St.Newberry, FL 32669

FIRST COMMUNITY BANK OF SOUTH BANK, BUILDING & LOAN ASSOC. 3520 NW 43rd St.Gainesville, FL 32606

GAINESVILLE EYE PHYSICIANS PA 12921 SW 1st Rd. Ste. 107 Newberry, FL 32669

GATOR SMOOTHIE, LLC 3700 NW 91st St. E-400Gainesville, FL 32606

GENESIS REHABILITATION SERVICES6700 NW 10th Pl.Gainesville, FL 32605

HOLLOWAY WEALTH MANAGEMENT LLC 5225 SW 91st Ter. Gainesville, FL 32608

J & D OLIVER ENTERPRISES INC 5901 NW 99th Ter. Gainesville, FL 32653

LIVING FOR SUCCESS INC 4031 NW 97th Blvd. DGainesville, FL 32606

MANDY’S KOUNTRY STORE LLC 5616 SE US HWY 301 Hawthorne, FL 32640

P & L PAINTING & DECORATING INC 714 NW 89th St.Gainesville, FL 32607

REDBOX AUTOMATIC RETAIL LLC2303 SW 75th St.Gainesville, FL 32607

SARAH’S HAIR STUDIO 5341 SW 91st Ter. BGainesville, FL 32608

FICTITIOUS NAMESA 1 DAVIS CLEANING SERVICE P.O. Box 2105Hawthorne

A DECOR STORE4333 NW 6th St.Gainesville

AFGE LOCAL 27791601 SW Archer Rd. Room A-164Gainesville

BARKERBRUSHWORKS2308 NE 14th St.Gainesville

BEEFS”O”BRADY’S1999 NW 43 Rd St.Gainesville

CHRISTINA SCHECHTER11740 NW 71st Terr.Alachua

ESPRIT CREATIONS13422 W. SR-235Alachua

FLAQUITOS MIDTOWN1702 W. University Ave. #F1Gainesville

FLOWERS THAT SPEAKP O BOX 546Alachua

HOLISTIC HORSE HOOF CARE21219 NW 70th Ave.Alachua

NEW BREATH OF LIFE2632 NW 43rd St. A 109Gainesville

QUALITY CLEANERS TOWER 24 VILLAGE2440 SW 76th St., Suite 150Gainesville

RISING SUN LODGE #10P.O. BOX 140626Gainesville

SHARON MACNEILLE10845 NW 61st Terr.Alachua

SHEESHA1114 SW 104th St.Gainesville

SOUTHERN PRO LAWN SERVICE9316 SW 99th Pl.Gainesville SPLASH & DASH MOBILE DETAILING6519 W. Newberry Rd.Gainesville

SWEET THURSDAYS5228 NW 23rd Pl.Gainesville

VIXEN VIRGIN HAIR COMPANY2800 SW 35th Pl. Apt. 3006Gainesville


NEWS BRIEFSChuy’s Tex-Mex OpensChuy’s Tex-Mex opened last month at the old

TooJay’s location in Butler Plaza at 3410 Archer Road. The menu includes family recipes from South Texas, New Mexico and Mexican border towns, all made to order. In April, Chuy’s announced its community partnership with The Alachua County Public School Foundation. Chuy’s was founded in Austin, Texas, in 1982.

UF Housing Specialist Publishes Guide Randall Cantrell, a University of Florida housing

specialist and a faculty member with the Institute of Food and Agricultural Sciences, has published a guide that uses the results of a national survey to pinpoint areas that might need attention when preparing to sell a home.

Cantrell conducted a national survey of more than 400 homeowners, asking them to rate 81 items that could improve the home’s overall performance in maintenance tasks, energy and water conservation measures and family operations. Cantrell’s guide is available at www.edis.ifas.ufl.edu under the documents FY1320, FY1321 and FY1322.

Titletown Gator Club Awards Scholarships

The Titletown Gator Club awarded scholarships for the fall semester at the University of Florida to six high school seniors from Alachua County. Each of the six students, who were chosen based on a combination of merit and need from a pool of 26 applicants, will receive a $1,300 award. The students are from St. Francis High

School; P.K. Yonge Developmental Research School; Santa Fe High School; and Gainesville High School. The funds were raised through various events including the Gator Gathering with Coach Muschamp.

Work of Heart Awards Recognizes Volunteers

The annual Work of Heart Volunteer Awards, hosted by Haven Hospice, recently recognized 40 years of honoring individuals and organizations that work to better their community. There were 57 nominees, and a total of 19 awards were presented. Among the volunteers recognized were Mark and Mary Barrow, who earned the E.T. York Distinguished Service Award for their contributions in the development and continuation of the Matheson Museum, Inc. The Barrows have spent more than 50 years dedicating themselves to collecting and preserving the history of Alachua County.

Project Gainesville Promotes Community Involvement

Up-and-coming nonprofit Project Gainesville was recently founded to keep the public updated on what the community has to offer through its interactive website and sponsored events. The nonprofit organizes meet-up groups for locals and recently hosted the Gainesville Community Fest, an annual event for businesses to interact with the community. Project Gainesville’s most recent event, Friday Art Fest, takes place on the third Friday of every month at Villa East with live music, food and wine, and affordable art. See GainesvilleActivities.com.


( In the News )

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Chamber of Commerce President to Leave in June

The Gainesville Area Chamber of Commerce announced May 15 that President and CEO Brent Christensen is leaving his position in early June. Christensen has led the Chamber for the past 10 years, overseeing the development of its “Innovation Gainesville” initiative, and placing the Gainesville Chamber in the top 1 percent of all chambers nationwide.

Chairman Michael Gallagher has appointed Chairman-Elect Mitch Glaeser to lead a search committee to elect a new president and CEO. The search process is expected to take about 90 to 120 days.

“I have no doubt that our outstanding staff will continue the momentum and that we will find a dynamic new leader for the Chamber,” Gallagher said in a news release.

Chamber Vice President and COO Sonia Douglas will serve as the interim president and CEO following Christensen’s departure. Christensen is leaving to become the executive director of the Mississippi Development Authority, a statewide economic development team with 300 employees.

This follows the December departure of another key player in economic development: Anthony Lyons, director of the city’s Community Redevelopment Agency, who was replaced by Kelly Huard-Fisher, who had been project manager there.

Chamber president Brent Christensen (second from right) recently visited New York City with the UF Development Corporation’s Ed Poppell and MindTree’s Scott Staples to talk “Gainesville” with major media outlets like Forbes magazine—where they met Steve Forbes.

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north central florida business report june 2012

Documents

sales tax referendums

gas tax

ballot issues

property tax dollars

cost of road repairs

roads arent sexy

city ofcials

hotel complex