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Dairy Queen stand testing waters

By CHRISTINA K. COSDON
Published April 30, 2006

CLEARWATER - It had been a Dairy Queen for more than a decade when John and Lisa Sgro of Oldsmar bought the franchise four years ago. Now, after a recent remodeling, it has a new look, an expanded menu and is the first free-standing DQ/Orange Julius TreatWorks in the nation. Dairy Queen is using the Clearwater business at 2046 Gulf-to-Bay Blvd., across from Clearwater High School, as a testing ground for a new concept.

The Sgros couldn't be happier.

"We're very excited about the concept and the whole project," Lisa Sgro said. "This is a new style for Dairy Queen - new colors, a little more hip and geared more to young people."

The menu offers all-beef hot dogs, including the popular chili cheese dog, grilled chicken and barbecue sandwiches, Dairy Queen frozen cakes, hot and cold desserts such as hot apple turnovers a la mode, hot chocolate molten cake and ice cream scooped into fresh daily waffle cones plain, dipped in chocolate or coated in nuts and candy.

Lisa Sgro said the 1,800-square-foot restaurant seats 26 inside and 15 on an outside patio and is open every day. The makeover took an investment of $200,000, she said. They have 22 employees, many of them relatives and old friends. "My brother Randy Turner is a manager," she said, "and the other manager is Don Phillips, a friend from high school. And both of our kids work here."

The Sgros, who graduated from Pinellas Park High School, owned and operated a financial planning and insurance brokerage business before deciding to try their hand at the Dairy Queen franchise.

"It's been a wonderful business for us," Lisa Sgro said.

The first freestanding DQ/Orange Julius TreatWorks opened in July 2005 in Tampico, Mexico.

Wendy and Rick Green have sold their property on South Greenwood Avenue in Clearwater and have moved Colson Auto Electric to new quarters at 7425 124th Ave. N, Largo. The business had been at the Clearwater site for 40 years.

The business supplies industrial and commercial starters, alternators, DC motors, golf cart starters and generators, marine motor starters and alternators. It serves the Tampa Bay area and makes deliveries to area counties as well as Hernando, Manatee and Sarasota.

Moving was a major undertaking, Mrs. Green said, but the couple did most of the work themselves. Making the move and purchasing new equipment cost them about $10,000, she said.

While their new facility, at 3,800 square feet, is smaller than the original, it features a much improved working area for their five employees, Mrs. Green said.

The couple bought the business three years ago after moving here from Lexington, Ky. Green oversees the company's sales, data processing, customer relations and long-term production planning. Mrs. Green handles the day-to-day logistics, accounting, parts ordering, the human resources department and watches over the couple's 11-year-old flat coated retriever, Dooly, who spends her weekdays at the business.

Elliott M. Ross, founding president and chief executive officer of The Ross Realty Group, has been named 2005 Broker of the Year by the Florida Gulfcoast Commercial Association of Realtors. The award, announced at the association's officer installation ceremony, was in recognition of continuing outstanding work in his field, fundraising efforts for county educational programs and for attracting affiliates to the association.

Ross Realty Group is based at 3001 Executive Drive, Clearwater.

Ocean Optics' SeaChanger Color Engine has been recognized as one of the top 10 new products for lighting and stage professionals in a recent issue of Projection, Lights and Staging News. The article predicted the SeaChanger will become a standard part of lighting fixtures, replacing traditional gels.

The self-contained unit - which creates reproducible colors that do not fade, among other functions - includes an internal power supply and installs without tools. Last year, the SeaChanger was awarded the Entertainment Services & Technology Association's Dealers' Choice Product Award for equipment.

Ocean Optics, with headquarters in Dunedin, manufactures and tests the SeaChanger in its Thin Films Division at 8060 Bryan Dairy Road, Largo. The company is a supplier of optical sensing technologies, including chemical sensors, analytical and spectroscopy instrumentation, optical fibers and thin films and optics.

Sales executives Janet Jackson, B.J. O'Shaughnessy and Joe Sexton have been appointed to handle sales of the Indigo Beach Residences and Suites to be built on Clearwater Beach. Jackson and O'Shaughnessy were previously with Westfield Homes in Tampa and Sexton was with Lennar Homes in Sarasota.

Construction of the first Indigo Beach building is to begin this fall. The 15-story beachfront tower will have 112 luxury condominium residences priced from $1-million to more than $2.5-million. Seventy-eight condominium hotel units will be priced from the mid-$300,000s. A temporary sales office has opened at 430 S Gulfview Blvd.

News of businesses and business people can be faxed to the Business Digest at 445-4119, e-mail to cosdon@sptimes.com or mailed to Business Digest, 710 Court St., Clearwater, FL 33756. We are interested in new and unusual businesses, promotions, expansions and major new contracts. Photos can be sent, but not all will be used and they cannot be returned.

[Last modified April 30, 2006, 00:58:16]