1997: The way we were

Turns out 1997, our first year of publishing what was then known as the Gulf Coast Review, was a banner year for business news. In our inaugural year, we covered hundreds of stories affecting Sarasota and Manatee counties. Here's an overview of the top stories from that year, as well as updates to what has happened since.

Jan. 31
Nick Bollettieri announces plans to build a school next to his tennis academy in Bradenton. The Nick Bollettieri Tennis & Sports Academy plans to broaden is academic reach by building its own 450-student private school. The school is planned to offer pre-K through 12th grades, and be open to academy students as well as members of the community. In addition to a school, plans call for a 98,000-square-foot, 500-spectator ice center. IMG, which owns the Bollettieri academy, also plans a sports complex with 25 acres of football, baseball and soccer fields, with a small field house.

UPDATE: IMG Academy is now one of the largest sports training facilities in the country. The campus, now on 500 acres, has more than 20 multisport fields; more than 50 tennis courts; a 5,000-seat state-of-the-art stadium; an 18-hole golf course; two basketball gyms with multiple courts; two 10,000-plus-square-foot weight rooms; and the Gatorade Sports Science Institute.
The 75,000-square-foot IMG Academy Academic Center opened in August 2015 and is four times bigger than the previous academic building. The school has more than 1,000 students from more than 80 countries, in grades pre-K through 12.

Feb. 14
We published that rumors were swirling that Blue Cross Blue Shield had purchased Riscorp, a Sarasota-based workers' compensation insurer that had lost 70% of its value in the previous six months. This story no doubt was the biggest one of the year — and even the next few years.

In May, the company hired Fred Dawson as its CEO to help turn the company around. In June, Zenith National Insurance Co. acquired it. The news came after 140 lost their jobs earlier that month. Bookkeeping and financial controls plagued the firm, drawing the eye of then-Florida Insurance Commissioner Bill Nelson.

The acquisition left shareholders as shell holders — investors with no value once assets were disposed of to settle outstanding debts and liabilities. The company was founded in 1988 by Bill Griffin, and had 881 employees as Feb. 14, 1997.

UPDATE: Griffin pleaded guilty to charges that he put together illegal campaign contributions worth at least $300,000, including some funds steered toward political officials in insurance regulation. Griffin, a well-known Sarasota businessman, spent five months in a federal prison camp for the guilty plea in the case.
Some former Riscorp executives not caught up in the scandal remain in the insurance business in the area. The Riscorp name went way after the Zenith purchase. Zenith is now one of the largest employers in downtown Sarasota.  

Feb. 14
Arthur Andersen gets the green light to receive $1.5 million in economic incentives from Sarasota County and the state to add 350 jobs to the already 400 it has in the region.
UPDATE: The accounting and consulting firm got swept up in 2001 in a scandal involving energy firm Enron Corp. that ultimately caused both companies to go dark and led to the layoff of hundreds of Sarasota-based employees — though a portion of Andersen's local business did survive under another name. In 2013, Sarasota County changed the name of Arthur Andersen Parkway off Fruitville Road to Parmount Drive.

The office buildings that had housed Andersen's operations became known as the Osprey Commerce Center, when Michigan-based Osprey S.A. acquired them in the mid-2000s. Today, Sarasota-based apartment developer Beneficial Communities and partner Tom Settle are building 50 Paramount, a 284-unit complex on nine acres adjacent to the former Andersen buildings. The new community is expected to be completed later this year, with monthly rents ranging from $1,100 to $1,800.

March 28
We report that the region's Hispanic population is expanding faster in Sarasota and Manatee than in any other Florida market. The two-county area saw its Hispanic population grow by 44% from 1990 to 1995. In 1995, the two-county region was home to 22,134 Hispanics, up from 15,306 in 1990.

UPDATE: Manatee County's Hispanic and Latino population now stands at 47,955. In Sarasota County, the Hispanic and Latino population is 30,033, bringing the two-county total to 78,288, according 2015 U.S. Census Bureau statistics. That is a more than three-fold increase.

April 11
While its rival Riscorp. struggled with financial management woes that eventually led the company to be acquired, FCCI Mutual Insurance Co. plodded steady growth. In addition to growing its assets from $769.6 million in 1995 to $818.6 million in 1996, the workers' compensation company bought 28 acres south of its headquarters on Cattlemen Road for $2.95 million. With the purchase, FCCI owned 60 contiguous acres between Fruitville and Bee Ridge Roads just west of Interstate 75, for its corporate campus.

UPDATE: In 2003 FCCI moved into a new 260,000-square-foot headquarters in Lakewood Ranch, in the corporate park off of University Parkway in Sarasota County. Revenues and premiums fell off significantly in the recession, but in 2015 the company had $745 million in direct written premium with customers in 18 states. It had $2.1 billion in assets and a statutory surplus of $581 million, an historic high.

May 23
While downtown Sarasota booms, downtown Bradenton sputters. “Poor downtown Bradenton. While Sarasotans heralded in high style last week the opening of a new 20-screen theater and retail-office complex in the heart of downtown — yet another sign of its thriving, vibrant city center, downtown Bradenton continued its struggle for an identity and revival.” The Review reported several stories on the slow rejuvenation of Bradenton's downtown, which at this time had a 30% vacancy in its office buildings.  

UPDATE: While downtown Bradenton has shown signs of renewal — its Riverwalk has ushered in entertainment and dining options that had been missing from the city — its office space continues to languish.

Last year's corporate headquarters relocation by Sunz Insurance to a vacant 60,000-square-foot building downtown was heralded as a major move forward for the city. Overall, office vacancy remains in the 25% range, however, with few economic drivers capable of pulling that figure down significantly anytime soon.

Time hasn't been kind to Main Plaza, either. Regal Cinema is threatening to pull out of its 20-screen movieplex there when its lease expires in the near future, and both retail and office space have failed to gain traction. Most recently, Ker's Wing House and Sol's restaurants vacated the complex, though new owners are reportedly interested in revamping the
10-acre property.

June 9
The Quay looked like it was turning itself around, after 12 years of upset retailers and failed strategies, and $60 million worth of investments. The office building was reportedly 96% leased, and there was only 12,000 square feet of retail empty in the notable downtown Sarasota complex. The development followed a so-called “festival marketplace:” a mix of 200,000 square feet of office space, retail shops, restaurants and sidewalk carts to attract a mix of residents and tourists.

UPDATE: Following a decline that angered both city officials and nearby residents, a Dublin-based real estate developer in 2004 planned to revamp the Quay with as many as 700 condominiums, hotel rooms, office space, high-end retail and restaurants. Although it tore down the building in early 2007, Irish American Management Services Ltd.'s plan never reached fruition.
Jacksonville-based GreenPointe Holdings bought the 15-acre, waterfront tract in 2014 for $27 million, with plans to largely resurrect Irish American's plans, in phases. Though final city approvals for the Sarasota Bayside project are pending, GreenPointe hopes to begin infrastructure work this year and have an initial building completed by 2019.

June 23
Apartment construction in the two-county area was at its fastest rate since 1980. Occupancy at existing apartments was reaching 95%, and rental rates were rising 4% to 5% per year. In 1996, 1,168 apartment units were constructed in Sarasota and Manatee, and in 1997, another 1,274 were planned.

UPDATE: The Sarasota/Manatee area had a dearth of new apartments built from 1999 through 2012 — even during the unprecedented housing boom. More than 7,000 new apartment units have been constructed in the two counties since 2012, pushed ahead by rising rents that have again exceeded inflation by several hundred basis points annually and shrinking vacancies. Today, the area's occupancy rate stands at roughly 98%.

Aug. 18
“Get ready for the big computer crash” our tech column read. “Your company should begin the steps now to correct the Year 2000 software bug.”

UPDATE: Nothing happened.

Aug. 25
We publish our first list of the Top 50 most influential people in the area.

Sept. 8
Home starts maintain record pace. Single-family home starts in Manatee and Sarasota were on track to break the record of 4,400 units in 1987. In the past two years, the dollar volume of single-family resales rose 13.6%. Developer Pat Neal announced he is spending $6 million to build 25 speculative homes by December, and three of those spec homes are in the $300,000 range.

UPDATE: Home starts in the Sarasota-Bradenton region went way up, then way down. In the Sarasota-Bradenton region there were 6,302 home starts in 1997, according to U.S. Census data. That figure reached 10,186 in 2002 and dropped to 2,681 in 2007. The housing starts figure surpassed the 2002 mark in 2015, when it posted 7,141 starts. Single-family housing prices have also climbed since the recession: The median price for single-family homes in November 2016 was $265,000 in Sarasota County and $279,000 in Manatee County.

Dec. 8
Tervis Tumbler shares some recipes for success. The company, which did $5 million in revenues at the time, said aside from its money-back guarantee, most of its 25 employees have worked at the company for more than 10 years.

UPDATE: Tervis has grown into one of the largest companies in the Sarasota-Manatee region. The privately held business stopped disclosing annual sales in 2011, when it posted $100 million. Today the company has more than 800 employees, in both its Venice headquarters and stores nationwide.

Dec. 31
In its economic forecast issue, the Review asked: “Too many hotel rooms? Don't worry, experts say.” Area hotels planned to add 300 rooms, but experts predicted the rising number of visitors would keep them full.

UPDATE: If people were worried about 300 new hotel rooms in 1998, we wonder what those same folks would think about the 1,273 rooms that have either been added in 2016 or are planned to open in downtown Sarasota by 2018. Many question if demand is strong enough to support all of the new properties. Others remain optimistic that the market is underserved, having only added 10% to 15% more hotel rooms since 2000. As always, time will tell.