Tampa businessman bids on Rivergate Tower in downtown Tampa

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Motivated as much by passion as potential profits, a Tampa entrepreneur is bidding on the city’s most iconic skyscraper.

Tom Frederick, who was a partner in Zeno Office Solutions before selling the company to Xerox in 2013, said Thursday that he submitted a $60 million offer for the Rivergate Tower, the 31-story cylindrical office tower on North Ashley Drive.

Offers were due Tuesday, Frederick said. He wasn’t sure when CBRE Group Inc., which took the property to market earlier this year, plans… …read more

The 5 most expensive streets to live on in Tampa Bay

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The priciest streets to live on in Tampa Bay are in exclusive waterfront enclaves, from Clearwater to an-off-the-beaten path bayfront nook in Ballast Point.

That’s according to analysis from Zillow, which released the most expensive streets in the U.S. on Wednesday. The top spot is in South Florida, on Indian Creek Island, a private island in Biscayne Bay. The median home price on Indian Creek Road is $21.48 million.

Tampa Bay’s priciest street in Mandalay Point in Clearwater, which has a median… …read more

New townhouses in Seminole Heights to break ground speculatively next month

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A townhouse development in Seminole Heights will break ground speculatively by mid-May.

Developer Wesley Burdette had planned to wait until at least one of the homes was under contract before breaking ground on the four-unit development at 113 W. Giddens Ave. But since he launched the sales campaign in mid-January, he’s found that most buyers are looking to move faster than the time it would take to build the houses.

“I’ve got a lot of people who want to have them, but what I’m also finding… …read more

5 things to start the day: Tampa loses a mayor to St. Pete and an actual number we can tie to the gender earnings gap

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Women in Florida earned 84 percent of what men earned in 2013, according to the spring 2015 “The Simple Truth about the Gender Pay Gap” report from the American Association of University Women. See the info graphic below for state rankings. The state ranked similarly in a report from the Institute for Women’s Policy Research, which found an earnings ratio of 85 percent. Businesses can play big role in fixing the gender gap, and not just by paying women equally. Here are some ways how.

Former Tampa… …read more

How I faced a tragic loss at my company

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The death an employee is a tragedy for any company.

Here Rand Construction CEO Linda Rabbitt talks about her president, Jon Couch, who died last fall when the plane he was piloting crashed near Richmond, Virginia. Couch’s mother, Francis Gene Couch, 72, also died in the crash. Couch, 46, was piloting a T-28C Trojan Navy trainer, a propeller plane, at the Alton, Virginia, speedway.

Rabbitt reluctantly relived the experience, which can still bring her to tears, in hopes it would help other companies… …read more

Mixed-use Ringling Square in downtown Sarasota sold to New England investor

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A New England group has acquired downtown Sarasota’s Ringling Square for $11.5 million.

Ringling Square is a five-story office and retail building with an adjacent five-story parking garage, built in 2005. Including the garage, Ringling Square totals 124,527 square feet, for a sales price that breaks down to $92 per square foot.

That figure is below replacement cost — it would cost significantly more than $90 per square foot to build the same building today.

Dennis Dahm, a commercial broker… …read more

Waterfront home in Westshore’s Beach Park Isles sold for nearly $3 million

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The recent sale of a waterfront home in Westshore’s Beach Park Isles neighborhood illustrates the urgency in Tampa’s luxury housing market.

A home on Beach Park Isles sold for $2.7 million on April 3, according to a Hillsborough County deed filed Friday. The seller, Christina Lavery, paid $2.025 million for the home in 2012. The buyer was Craig Turnbull.

The property was on the market for 10 days before it went under contract, said Stephen Gay, an agent with Smith & Associates who had listed the… …read more

A miniature city in the heart of suburban St. Pete

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Darryl LeClair wanted to build it, but they didn’t come. LeClair, chairman of Echelon LLC, in 2012 proposed land in St. Petersburg’s Carillon Park as a site for a new Tampa Bay Rays stadium.

The Rays never engaged with Echelon. As the real estate market improves, Echelon feels now is the time to pursue a massive-mixed use development on the site.

The first phase of the project is slated to break ground this fall, a 14-story apartment tower with 198 units and 16,000 square feet of retail space. …read more

Jeff Vinik’s C-suite blends new blood and Tampa’s old guard

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It’s nearly dusk as Jim Shimberg walks onto the riverfront lawn at Ulele, where hundreds of people are congregating to celebrate Mayor Bob Buckhorn’s re-election. Shimberg can’t take more than a few steps without shaking another hand, greeting another familiar face.

They’re real estate developers, attorneys, political connections, family friends: These are relationships that span decades, bolstered by a father and uncle who were prominent developers in Tampa.

This is the network that landed… …read more

Longboat Key estate known as Bayside Villa, complete with 14-car garage, sold

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A bayfront mansion on the Manatee County side of Longboat Key has been sold.

The estate, known as Bayside Villa, sold to an undisclosed buyer for $3.25 million, Michael Saunders & Co. said Wednesday. The seller, according to Manatee County property records, was Irene Pompliano.

Richard Perlman, an agent with the Longboat Key South office of Michael Saunders & Co., had the property listing. Kary Andrew of Bayshore Real Estate represented the buyer.

The house at 5030 Gulf of Mexico Drive includes… …read more