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Business headline
By MARY JANE PARK Beach Drive art gives way to real estateST. PETERSBURG -- Merrick Gallery, 330 Beach Drive NE, will close after its current show ends, according to owner Cindy Williams, who is selling the property. Robert Glaser, chief operating officer of Smith & Associates Realtors Inc., said his agency hopes to move to the gallery from Northern Trust in St. Petersburg, and it is under contract and expected to close at the end of the month. "It's certainly a high-visibility spot," he said, and will fulfill the company's goal of showing property in a gallery format. "That office there will allow me to ... use a more unique business strategy we wanted to try in the market." "Faces and Voices: St. Petersburg Up Close," photographs by Herb Snitzer, is the current exhibit. The business opened in July 1999 and has shown works of some of the bay area's most accomplished artists. -- MARY JANE PARK Seminole to get Cornerstone bankSEMINOLE -- Cornerstone Community Bank in St. Petersburg bought property on Seminole Boulevard, where it will build its second branch office. President and chairman Robert L. "Skip" Carr said the bank had been trying to get the property at 7800 Seminole Blvd. since 1999. It is part of the site of the old A&P grocery building. "We just bought the corner," Carr said. The sales price was $500,000. Construction is to start in 90 days. If everything goes as planned, the 3,200-square-foot, one-story branch will be open by the end of the third quarter this year or the beginning of the fourth. It will have two drive-through windows and an ATM lane. Cornerstone Community Bank is headquartered at 6518 Fourth St. N in St. Petersburg and has a branch at 6600 Central Ave. It just completed its third year of operation, has assets of $76-million and is profitable, Carr said. Outback alters designST. PETERSBURG -- Builders of the Outback Steakhouse at 1900 Fourth St. N have changed their exterior design slightly and had to do some extensive structural work on the building they are renovating for the steakhouse. But the popular Australian-theme restaurant still aims to open at the end of June. "We needed to make severe structural changes," said Clark D. East of Boyd Development Co. Total costs now will be closer to $2.5-million for the structure. Outback will spend another $2-million on the interior of the restaurant, East said. East's company is rehabilitating the old Bradford Coach House, which it bought from a local partnership last year. When it changed designs, residents of the nearby Crescent Lake neighborhood became concerned, fearing that cost cutting would take away from the appearance of the building. But Clifford Holensworth, president of the neighborhood association, met with East and Oliveri Architects and said the new designs are acceptable. Probably the biggest difference in the exterior is that the new design more distinctly separates the three businesses that will occupy the ground floor space: Outback, Optical Outlets Inc. and Panera Bread. East said that was done at the request of the city. Practically Picasso, an art gallery, is the only tenant now signed for the second floor. Pet store changes handsST. PETERSBURG -- Sue Manfredi, a senior auditor at Bayfront Medical Center, is the new owner of Pinellas Pet Center, at 4845 34th St. S. She purchased the business from Dr. E.C. Godfrey, a veterinarian who has owned the store since 1988. "I've worked in the shop for Dr. Godfrey over the years, and the time was right for me to buy the pet business," said Manfredi, 44. She has a degree in veterinarian technology as well as another in nursing from St. Petersburg College. Along with selling small animals, fish, reptiles and supplies, Pinellas Pet Center aims to educate pet owners. "People are uninformed about long-term pet care, and we hope to change that. I had one lady who came in and told me she let a rabbit loose in her house. He ate her rattan furniture. The woman needed to learn that young rabbits need to gnaw on wood while they're growing. It helps their teeth," she said. Godfrey, who owns veterinary clinics in Pinellas Park and Seminole, sold his shop to lessen his workload.
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