Where are they now

Where are they now

GCBR recently caught up with the standout entrepreneurs we've honored over the past six years. They're not standing still.

By Sean Roth

Real Estate Editor

As GCBR celebrates its seventh annual Entrepreneur of the Year award, it's exciting to hear of the continued success and prosperity of past winners. Most of the entrepreneurs have spring boarded to bigger and better positions; only two past winners: Bob Williams and Harvey Vengroff (collectively) and Lee Wetherington have stayed with companies they founded.

1998: Robert Wolsey

Pinnacle Holdings

The late '90s proved to be good times for Pinnacle Holdings and Wolsey with a successful $288 million IPO in 1999, which was one of the largest initial public offerings in Florida history. But the company, which owned and leased access to several thousand wireless communications sites nationwide, took a tumble in the summer of 2000 following a failed third stock offering. Wolsey resigned in 2001.

Pinnacle faced an SEC investigation, which included its auditor PriceWaterhouseCoopers and four class-action lawsuits. Eventually, it reorganized under Chapter 11 of the U.S. Bankruptcy Code.

The company, which now has new owners, has emerged from bankruptcy and is known as Global Signal Inc.

Wolsey took a break from business. "I basically went fishing for two years," he says. "Now I am in the process of starting another business. It is not going to be dissimilar to the stuff that I have done in the past. I have some commitments for some fishing tournaments through July. I am planning after that to get this started."

Wolsey expects his new company to remain private for at least for the foreseeable future. "I was always a zero to 60 person manager," he says. "I enjoy building a company from nothing. I can't see being a CEO of a public company anymore. Myself and the other associates have enough of our own capital to get going ... the new venture should be a lot less capital intensive (than Pinnacle). There is still a lot of money around these days."

1999: Ken Morris

and Ken Goldberg

CFT Consulting

The same afternoon that GCBR honored Morris and Goldberg as co-Entrepreneurs of the Year, the duo sold CFT Consulting to Answerthink for about $14 million in cash and stock. At the time of the sale, CFT was projecting $18 million in revenues for 1999, with average annual growth of 53.5%.

After a brief stint at Answerthink, Morris started KMG Solutions, a Sarasota-based software company, which developed and marketed process management solutions, in early 2001. Last year, the company was sold to Tampa-based CommerceQuest, a business process management company. As part of that sale, Morris worked with CommerceQuest until mid-April.

Morris has since taken a job in the downtown Boston area providing retail information on a consulting basis. "We will be maintaining a house here," Morris says. "And our plan is to return."

Goldberg remained with Answerthink until January 2003. Goldberg, an investor in Startup Florida, has been serving as chief operating officer for the Sarasota-based business incubator.

Now, Goldberg is helming the birth of the second startup technology company from Startup Florida, Real Digital Media or R.D.M. As chief executive officer, Goldberg is selling the company's next generation signage technology to retailers and banks. One of the biggest upside to the technology involved in R.D.M. is the ability to offer multiple business structures: technology sales, content creation or even advertising sales. R.D.M. has already established a relationship with retailer L.L. Bean. Goldberg hopes to partner with a local bank in the next couple weeks.

2000: Larry Starr

Florida Vacation Accommodations

In early 2001, Starr sold his company to Memphis-based ResortQuest International Inc. for a combination of cash and stock valued at more than $1 million. Starr has stayed on to manage Florida Vacation Accommodations (FVA) and its new local acquisitions. Last year, FVA was renamed under the "ResortQuest" banner, and Starr became ResortQuest's president of Southwest Florida, covering its 2,500 properties from New Port Richey to Venice. Last May, his coverage area was expanded to include another 1,000 properties in the Miami region. In November, Gaylord Entertainment, a Nashville-based public hospitality and entertainment company, purchased ResortQuest International in an all-stock deal.

"They were a large sophisticated company that brought to ResortQuest a broader skill set," Starr says. "I know with Gaylord that I am negotiating much larger contracts than I have ever done before. We are developing our growth strategy for next several years, which will kick off in June. It will include a lot of acquisitions and several expanded developer relationships. We are ready now to grow and expand the company like before 2001. I don't think Gaylord will be satisfied with less than 25% growth. I have no doubt that ResortQuest is going to be the household name in vacation rentals; Gaylord will make absolutely sure of that."

Starr says the industry is starting to see some great signs of recovery including an uptick in bookings and growth in sales tax collections. Starr says he is also seeing considerable growth in occupancy rates. At the same time, European tourist bookings in the Southwest Florida market have returned to their 2000 levels.

Starr says: "These areas (Sarasota and Manatee counties) have the strongest numbers we have produced. The April numbers aren't out yet but I bet they will be a lot stronger than last April."

2001: Wayne Ruben

Benderson Development Co./

Ruben Properties

After more than a decade with the 800-pound gorilla, Ruben has left Benderson Development, the nation's largest privately held commercial development and property management firm, for a Sarasota-based development partnership.

Largely through Ruben's attention and tutelage, Benderson Development became one of the dominant retail developers/managers in Florida, from the cleaned up Cooper Creek property to the planned North Port Panacea property and it is working its way into Orlando, Naples, St. Lucie and Jensen Beach.

Florida has became such an important part of the growth of Benderson that the retailer sold off 18.8 million square feet of its national portfolio of shopping centers to Developers Diversified Realty for $2.3 billion and relocated its headquarters from Buffalo, N.Y., to Bradenton.

Ruben's resignation, which GCBR reported in February, was attributed to health reasons; Ruben underwent two back surgeries in December and January.

Ruben went on to partner with two friends Larry Lieberman, president of the Barrington Group and Roger Holland, president of Hostetter Construction Co. - and his son, Aaron, to form RLH Development.

Some of the specifics of the partnership's first project recently started leaking out. The project, called Long Bar Pointe, is set on more than 500 acres along the coast between the El Conquistador subdivision and Tidy Island in Bradenton. The development plan, which The Barrington Group originally proposed as SBC Development, has been through multiple iterations spanning at least two years.

The developers now propose to build the first phase of the Long Bar Pointe as 25 two-story buildings and seven five-story buildings, with a total of 275 units.

"We are just really exploring our opportunities at a much slower pace," Ruben says. "I'm looking forward to getting back into what I enjoy which is land-entitlement development - right to build." Ruben, through his company Ruben Properties, still owns an investment interest in many of the past Florida developments with Benderson.

2002: Harvey Vengroff

and Bob Williams

Vengroff, Williams and Associates

Vengroff, Williams and Associates, the full-service collections company, appears to be continuing its fairly extensive expansion binge. The company has opened five offices in Europe and one in Asia, which is on top of the company's half-dozen U.S. offices.

Williams says the company had to open six additional offices to support Walt Disney Co.'s outsource business in Europe. "We are likely to see another 20% growth this year," he says.

The company plans to expand it service offerings to Latin America early next year after its European expansion is complete.

The company hired Joe Simonetta, an architect, former tennis pro at the Colony Beach & Tennis Resort, one-time candidate for Congress in Pennsylvania and holder of a master's of divinity from Harvard, as president of VWA's Florida operations in late January. He was mainly brought on to assist Williams, who is in charge of the European expansion.

In addition, Vengroff is still busy buying real estate properties. He is developing the Backlot theater on the site of the former Cox/Stottlemyer Lumber facilities on Fruitville Road.

2003: Lee Wetherington

Lee Wetherington Cos. Inc.

GCBR was just one of many organizations to recognize Lee Wetherington and his companies last year. The homebuilder was ranked 20th on Builder magazine's "Fast Track 2003," a list of the nation's 100 builders selected for rapid growth. For the fourth year, Wetherington was listed as the "Best Builder" in the Readers' Choice Poll by a local newspaper. But the largest national award came from the National Association of Homebuilders and Builders magazine, which named the company one of its three America's Best Builders in 2004. The Home Builders Association of Sarasota County named the company its "2003 Builder Member of the Year."

On the Philanthropic front, the company received the Fourth Annual Hearthstone Builder Lifetime Public Service Award for "dedication to public and charitable service" from Hearthstone and Builder magazine.

Last year, the Boys & Girls Clubs of Sarasota County named its newest unit the "Lee Wetherington Boys & Girls Club" for his involvement with the charity. The Association of Fundraising Professionals also chose the Lee Wetherington Cos. as its "2003 Corporate Philanthropist of the Year" for spearheading and building the unique Reading Garden at Fruitville Public Library. The Salvation Army awarded Lee Wetherington the Alex Shoenbaum Humanitarian Award for 2004.

In addition, the National Association of Home Builders, based in Washington, D.C., named Lee Wetherington Homes, a division of Lee Wetherington Cos., to its "Home Builders Care" honor roll.

Added to the public recognition, the company experienced record sales in 2003. The home building division exceeded its entire goal in the third quarter ended Sept. 30 with more than 100 homes sold for year-to-date sales of $86.9 million. The Lee Wetherington Cos. had volume-closed of $99.6 million. The company eventually sold 304 homes for a total sales volume of $111.7 million, a growth of 56.7% compared to last year.

Through the first quarter of the year, the company's sales revenue was up by 70.8% over the same quarter last year.