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10 who made a difference

Their contributions changed the landscape of the local business community in 2005.

By Times staff writers
Published December 12, 2005

THE PHILANTHROPISTS

	[Times file photo]
	Dr. Kiran Patel and his wife, Dr. Pallavi Patel, are giving $18.5-million to USF to kick-start the Kiran C. Patel Center for Global Solutions.

They made the big bucks, and now two Tampa physicians are using them to take a stab at changing the world.

Dr. Kiran Patel and his wife, Dr. Pallavi Patel, are giving the University of South Florida $18.5-million to kick-start the Kiran C. Patel Center for Global Solutions on the USF Tampa campus.

Getting scholars and leaders together to talk about problems just might be the first step toward solving them. It should at least get more of us thinking globally. USF, of course, is thrilled with the largest donation in its history, and hopes to parlay the Patels' gift into a $62.5-million kitty fueled by other private donations and state matching contributions.

The Patels haven't limited their generosity to USF. They're spreading the wealth among various area health, education and arts projects. Other beneficiaries include Tampa's University Community Hospital and the Tampa Bay Performing Arts Center.

The Patels also are big donors to causes in India, where both were educated.

The Patel fortune came from WellCare, a Tampa-based HMO that he started in 1985 and sold to a New York investment group headed by George Soros three years ago. The company went public last year.

Patel also is involved in other entrepreneurial ventures, including a software company and a hotel and condo development on Clearwater Beach.

There's no doubt money talks. Last week, a group of leading Tampa Bay philanthropists and USF officials (including university president Judy Genshaft and USF medical school dean Dr. Stephen Klasko) led by the Patels were in India to explore setting up medical school and nursing school programs.

- HELEN HUNTLEY, Times staff writer

When the ambitious Civitas project to redevelop downtown Tampa's troubled Central Park area died in January 2004, it dashed the hopes of many for a revitalization of the impoverished neighborhood.

	Metoyer

Enter Bank of America's Community Development Corp. and newly arrived senior vice president Elon Metoyer.

The bank already was working with developer Bill Bishop and LazyDays RV SuperCenter founder Don Wallace to merge two proposed projects into a new plan for a residential and commercial complex in Tampa Heights called, simply, The Heights. Before long, Bishop and Wallace - both key figures in the Civitas project - persuaded Metoyer to join them to come up with a new plan for Central Park.

Bank of America is a full-fledged co-developer in the Central Park plan, which calls for the creation of 4,000 residential units in a 60-acre mixed-use, mixed-income community.

Metoyer's role has been "utterly crucial," Bishop says. While Bank of America has historically had a strong interest in redevelopment efforts, he adds that, "the bank's very aggressive participation in the Central Park project is the result of Elon's initiative."

Construction has yet to begin. The developers are negotiating with the Tampa Housing Authority.

After working for Bank of America's CDC in St. Louis, Metoyer, 36, relocated to Tampa in 2003. He saw a market that lacked the kinds of urban redevelopment projects already emerging in other major southeastern cities, such as Atlanta and Charlotte, N.C.

"You look at the location of (the Central Park and the Heights projects), it's in the heart of the city, the urban core," Metoyer says. "It's the perfect opportunity for redevelopment."

- LOUIS HAU, Times staff writer

The Tampa Bay Devil Rays have yet to play, much less win, a single game for new principal owner Stuart Sternberg. But most of those familiar with the team's wretched, cellar-dwelling history would agree that the former Wall Street trading executive already has taken decisive steps to shed this legacy of failure.

	Sternberg

Not bad for a guy who has been at the helm for all of two months.

Under former managing general partner Vince Naimoli, the Rays organization consistently failed to field a competitive team and was often accused of being oblivious, and sometimes even hostile, to the needs of fans and sponsors.

Straight out of the gate, Sternberg made it clear that he wants to change that, showing real public relations savvy in grand gestures that emphasized a desire to make a break from the past.

He appointed young, results-oriented Wall Street veterans to key management positions. He hinted at a shakeup of the team's thin sponsorship portfolio. Heck, he even promised free parking next season at Tropicana Field.

And with his blessing, the Rays took the highly unusual step of launching a major TV and print advertising campaign two weeks after the end of the regular season to get the message out that the team is acutely aware of all the work ahead of it. "Under Construction" was the campaign's apt theme.

Sternberg's still enjoying his honeymoon days with the Tampa Bay community. But he's giving long-suffering Rays fans the hope that, to quote an old team marketing slogan, it's a whole new ball game. The proof will be on the field.

- LOUIS HAU, Times staff writer

If educators and business people speak different tongues, then Judy Genshaft must be bilingual. The president of the University of South Florida made unprecedented inroads into the Tampa Bay area's business ranks this year.

	Genshaft

Genshaft, 57, is serving a rare second one-year term as chairwoman of the Greater Tampa Chamber of Commerce's Committee of 100, where she presides over some of the area's most influential executives. The group and its staff negotiate incentive packages to attract out-of-area businesses and keep local ones here. Genshaft also serves as vice chairwoman of the Tampa Bay Partnership, yet another powerful regional economic development group.

Other 2005 milestones for Genshaft range from plans for a massive expansion of USF's Lakeland campus to the recently completed enlargement of its research park, where faculty research is conducted and commercialized. A top Genshaft priority: recruiting biotechnology and life sciences companies to the area, and nurturing those already here.

One of her biggest challenges ahead? Keeping USF competitive - financially and politically - with two aggressive and growing peers in central Florida: Gainesville's University of Florida and Orlando's University of Central Florida.

Genshaft personally bridged the business/education gap last month when she became a founding investor/director of American Commerce Bank. Expected to open for business in Tampa next year with $100-million in capital, it will be the richest startup bank in Florida history.

Perhaps the school's Web site says it best: "USF takes pride in its business connections."

- SCOTT BARANCIK, Times staff writer

ECONOMIC BOOSTER

It will be nine months ago this week when CEO Jill Considine stepped up to the podium in New Tampa to officially open New York's Depository Trust & Clearing Corp.'s "Southern business center."

	Considine

That day in March was full of enthusiasm, evident among DTCC's initial 255 employees. Many had relocated from New York's boroughs and suburbs to this sunny locale.

DTCC, it turns out, became the best relocation project for the Tampa Bay area in 2005. It brought high-paying jobs (average salary: $72,000), produced a fan of the area in the influential Considine - and the promise of more. Not only does DTCC now employ 380 in its Southern business center, but the company says it may expand on land adjacent to its center, the high-end office building that once housed the former Intermedia Communications.

By the end of 2006, DTCC should employ close to 500.

Remember, Considine, born in Panama City, Fla., picked the Tampa location to create a redundant operation of DTCC's Manhattan operations after the events of Sept. 11, 2001. The company is the largest U.S. clearinghouse for transactions in stocks, bonds and various securities, and is now pushing rapidly into automating the clearing of the fast-growing derivatives business.

It was not intentional, DTCC says, but having a Tampa complex that can handle everything its New York facility can do has become a major marketing tool for DTCC when pitching its services to finicky financial corporations.

And that has made Considine a financial executive eager to market the merits of the Tampa Bay region.

- ROBERT TRIGAUX, Times business editor

Years ago, Craig Sher advised his suburban developer boss Mel Sembler to steer clear of downtown St. Petersburg redevelopment projects.

	Sher

But after Sembler immersed Sher in creating such successful projects as BayWalk, his younger chief executive officer grasped the possibilities of rebuilding aging cities. Sher plunged ahead with an urban shopping center and an investment in a downtown mixed-use project, and is wrapping up a term as chairman of the St. Petersburg Area Chamber of Commerce.

The development company's volunteered assistance also helped pave the way for a long-awaited Sweetbay Supermarket that opened in the Midtown area of the city.

It has been big transformation for Sher. Sembler picked Sher in 1988 to run his St. Petersburg development company before Sembler went overseas to serve two presidents as U.S. ambassador to Australia, then Italy.

Sembler's company changed under Sher. Once known for building retail strip centers in the suburbs, Sembler ventured into entertainment and lifestyle shopping complexes and projects that mix commercial, office and residential development. The company's development pipeline grew 30-fold since 1988 to $300-million in 2005. Sembler expanded to extensive operations in Atlanta, Puerto Rico and Washington, D.C.

The first developer to head the chamber in decades, Sher hoped mold the organization into a more relevant business lobby with political clout and a bigger role in the region's economic development.

"I partially met those goals," he said.

- MARK ALBRIGHT, Times staff writer

Rob Higgins brought a new sense of energy and ambition to the Tampa Bay Sports Commission when he was appointed its executive director in June 2004.

	Higgins

But it was during the past year that the youthful Higgins, 27, really came into his own. Under his leadership, visitor room nights for local athletic events assisted by the sports commission surged to 68,892 in the fiscal year ended Sept. 30, up sharply from about 28,000 in fiscal 2004.

"He brought a very entrepreneurial skill set to his position," says sports commission chairman and Tampa Bay Lightning president Ron Campbell. "He went out and got the business."

Two events in particular bore Higgins' imprint.

One was the Tampa commission's successful bid for the 2012 NCAA Division I men's ice hockey championships, or "Frozen Four." It was a bold move, given that the tournament has never been held in the Southeast.

Then there were Higgins' efforts to schedule a football game between the University of South Florida and Florida A&M University at Raymond James Stadium. The FAMU football team hadn't played in Tampa since its 1996 Florida Classic game with Bethune-Cookman College after alleged shabby treatment by local businesses of visiting students and alumni of the historically black colleges.

The Sept. 10 game drew about 42,300 fans, a USF record at Ray Jay. Higgins and his staff also worked with USF and FAMU to organize a long weekend of events leading up to the game, including a gala scholarship dinner.

- LOUIS HAU, Times staff writer

Dewey Mitchell remembers when Pasco County business people, at least in the eyes of power brokers in Tampa, were apt to have manure on their boots.

	Mitchell

Mitchell's rise to the chairmanship of the Tampa Bay Partnership, the seven-county economic development group, is putting the rural perception to rest.

Co-owner of Tampa Bay's No. 2 real estate agency, Prudential Tropical Realty, Mitchell is clear-eyed about two major threats to the commuter-based economy: High gas prices and traffic congestion.

Transportation is his priority on the partnership, and he realizes new asphalt alone won't cut it. He proposes a multicounty rapid transit fix to accommodate the 3.5-million new residents projected to arrive in the next couple of decades.

Our love affair with the automobile won't end, but oil shocks and two-hour commutes will make buses and trains seem sweeter than ever.

A work-close-to-home philosophy shapes Mitchell's private investments. He and his parters recently paid $6.4-million for the former Tampa Bay Executive Airport near Trinity on State Road 54 in Pasco.

Once a destination for corporate planes, the 75-acre airport is months from an overhaul to add 700,000 square feet of offices, warehouses, retail and a hotel.

It's a premium location within five minutes of 5,000 homes, set in the heart of a growing regional bike trail network. Happily, Mitchell, a cattleman's son whose family ranch became some of Pasco's biggest developments, is a pedaling fanatic.

- JAMES THORNER, Times staff writer

It was a simple act, copying documents and mailing them to local newspapers.

But it was a bold one. And one that publicly embarrassed Florida's largest law firm, Holland & Knight, and led it to rescind its brazen promotion of Douglas A. Wright, a partner who had been reprimanded for sexual harassment.

The anonymous whistleblower accomplished what nine female employees who had complained about Wright's behavior could not.

The women had bravely stepped forward to describe how Wright had repeatedly questioned them about their sex lives, commented inappropriately about their clothing and urged them to "feel his pipes." An internal investigation concluded that Wright had violated company policy by his actions. Howell W. Melton, the firm's managing partner, agreed Wright's actions were "inappropriate and unacceptable."

Six months later, Melton promoted Wright to chief operating partner, the No. 3 position in the firm.

The promotion undoubtedly upset many at Holland & Knight. It moved one person to blow the whistle, inciting a firestorm of negative publicity about the firm and pressure on Wright. Wright stepped down from his position as chief operating partner, but he remains with the firm.

But there may be a heavy price to pay. In its initial response, the law firm raged against the breach of confidentiality. And though it later toned down its rhetoric against the whistleblower, Holland & Knight continues to aggressively search for the source of the leak to this day.

- KRIS HUNDLEY, Times staff writer

He burst onto the downtown Tampa scene with the new year, promising the tallest skyscraper, the swankiest penthouses and the most extravagant amenities in a luxury condo tower that would bear his name.

	Trump

This was the year Donald J. Trump came to Tampa, offering a taste of the luxe life to the area's elite. With local developers handling most of the workload and risk, Trump graced the 52-story rendering with his name and it caught fire.

Within weeks, 98 percent of the 190 units, priced up to $6-million, had been reserved. The Donald swept in for a sales launch in mid February. The developers said reservations would go to hard contract within a month, requiring buyers to make a nonrefundable, 20 percent deposit. They said financing would be firmed up within six weeks.

Ten months later, cranes are on the Trump site at the base of Ashley Drive. Test borings are being drilled. The sea wall is being repaired.

Construction financing is expected to be announced once the foundation is complete in early spring. About 90 percent of the units have gone to hard contract. Meanwhile, the heat has cooled a bit on the real estate market. Several armchair developers are betting more than one grandiose project will evaporate, leaving little more than an architect's rendering in its wake.

A spokesman said that won't be the case for Trump Tower Tampa. The world's most renowned real estate promoter will swing through town early next year for the groundbreaking, he said. Concrete will be poured, steel will rise. And 33 months later, the favored few will be able to savor the Trump life in Tampa.

- KRIS HUNDLEY, Times staff writer

[Last modified December 12, 2005, 06:58:50]