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Around the Bay

Real estate agency closes without warning.

By Times Staff Writer
Published February 12, 2007

LONG-DOMINANT REAL ESTATE AGENCY SHUTS DOWN WITHOUT WARNING

Re/Max Advantage Realty, once a dominant real estate agency in Pasco County, abruptly shut down Tuesday. Nearly 25 affected agents did not learn of the decision until Tuesday morning. At least some were notified by e-mail from a representative of company owner Donald Hachenberger. There was no explanation for the closing. Rick Miller, who said he represented the owner, would only say Tuesday that the closing "was just a business decision." In its heyday, Re/Max Advantage Realty, in the U.S. 19 strip with Carrabba's Italian Grill, had more than 60 agents in the area. "When they first started in this market, they were the cat's meow," recalled Robert Memoli, a past president of the West Pasco Board of Realtors. The company was once owned by prominent commercial real estate agent Mark Swartsel, who sold it but stayed on as an agent. Re/Max later lost key agents who started their own firms and began facing more competition, Memoli said. Broker Barry Grover, who is one of the Re/Max contractors now looking for a new firm, said the real estate boom brought in inexperienced agents. When the market was hot, they did well. But as the market has slowed, he said, some had problems paying their company fees, which can run about $1,500 a month. Carol Austin, executive director of the Greater Tampa Association of Realtors, said she was surprised by the news. In spite of all the hand-wringing over the market, she said, "We've not seen any major companies closing."

Sno-Rakes' season late coming this year

Snow up North? Who cares down here? These people: Katy Shutts is the owner of Shuttsco off Spring Hill Drive near the Hernando County Jail. Shuttsco makes a snow removal tool called the Sno-Rake. Shutts keeps the books, and Rick Dofka, her son-in-law, makes the rakes and fills and ships the boxes. This winter's early warm spell was mighty unkind to this business here in sunny west-central Florida. Shuttsco, they said, has made about a third of the sales it would do in a regular year. The Sno-Rake is made out of a long wooden or aluminum handle and orange high-grade polyethylene - which kind of looks and feels like gym-mat material - that is heated and pressed around a shank of wood to make the rectangle-shaped head of the no-scratch rake. It's good for dragging snow off hoods and trunks and hard-to-reach tops of cars. In a normal year, Shuttsco makes rakes all spring and summer long. The busiest selling time usually is October, November and December but the lingering fall left lots of Sno-Rakes on the shelves. They're here: stacks and stacks of long wooden handles and boxes and boxes of wood cores and rolls and rolls of orange polyethylene. "Normally," Dofka said, "this place would be empty by this time."

Cuban food for dine-in - or drive to you

There is a new entry in the growing Hispanic food sector that is taking root in Central Citrus County: Havana House, which offers Cuban foods with an emphasis on tradition and freshness. If you are too busy to drive to Lecanto for lunch, the Havana House "restaurant on wheels" canteen truck brings savory dishes such as pressed Cuban sandwiches and rice and beans to you for lunch on weekdays. New owners Frank and Rosa Ruiz took over Havana House three months ago, and their commitment to providing mostly Cuban cuisine from tried-and-true family recipes has lured back customers who shied away from the diner's previous two owners. The head chef is Rosa Ruiz, who says she learned most of the recipes as a young girl from her mother. "I've been cooking since I was 10," she said. "My mother was a working single mother and I learned how to cook early." Frank Ruiz takes the Havana House kitchen on the road in his shiny canteen truck. He makes stops at the school bus garages in Inverness, Crystal River and Lecanto, as well as many businesses in between. Almost every item on the Havana House menu is available on the lunch truck.

Mexican and granola mix at old pizza spot

A popular downtown lunch spot is leaving and is being replaced by a novel concept that will expand two other restaurants. JJ's Subs and Salads has operated at 409 Central Ave. for almost 15 years, but its latest owners sold it because they couldn't juggle it with their other family businesses near Philadelphia. Perhaps as early as March, diners will be able to visit ZKitchen, a market-cafe concept spinning off ZGrille and Bowl-a-Granola. "You're not going to see granola tacos, but you never know," said Zach Gross, a San Diego chef who opened ZGrille two years ago after moving in 2003 to St. Petersburg, hometown of his wife, Jen. The Grosses are partnering with Margaret Guidicessi, who runs the granola store on Fourth Street N and was a chef at Mazzaro's Italian Market on 22nd Avenue N. ZKitchen borrows a bit from Mazzaro's in that it will provide raw goods, prepared ingredients for meals, completed meals for reheating, and ready-to-eat foods for dine-in or carry-out. The new business will have foods in the California-Mexican style of ZGrille, along with granola and baked goods as at Guidicessi's store. Within a space that will look and feel like a kitchen, there will also be a coffee bar, some indoor and outdoor seating and maybe even a newsstand.

[Last modified February 12, 2007, 09:29:17]