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Around the Bay

Business news from around Tampa Bay

By Times Staff
Published October 8, 2007

Bushnell

It's a bed and breakfast ... and barn

The accommodations at the new bed and breakfast are spacious and airy. There's plenty of room for guests to relax and unwind after a strenuous day, the floors are easy on tired legs, the feed buckets are full and right at head level. And that's just for the four-legged guests. Human visitors to Our Father's Haven are pampered, too. The bed and breakfast opened guest suites and a nine-stall horse barn just north of the Hernando-Sumter county line in March after three years of construction. Since then, horse owners from as far away as Naples, Sarasota and Altamonte Springs have found room at the inn. "There are not many places you can come with accommodations for horses and people," said owner Gary Macintosh. "I don't know how unique it is," said his wife, Joanne, but "anybody who has come with horses keeps coming back."

Hudson

A new, waterfront house for $69,000?

Mike Graham, a professional wrestler turned real estate man, was driving when he saw a sign advertising waterfront villas for sale. Asking price? A mere $69,000.

"I thought, 'What is this?'" he said.

So he followed the signs toward the Gulf of Mexico and stumbled onto one of the more interesting residential projects under way in Pasco County: The transformation of a rundown mobile home park, not with pricey condominiums but with affordable - and unusual - modular homes.

TriBird Development of Hudson is replacing the 43 homes in the old Hudson Springs Mobile Home Park with 43 modular homes. Like any other modular home, these are secured on concrete foundations - only the foundations in this case are nearly 14 feet tall and double as stucco-finished garages painted to match the homes.

The living space in the homes is relatively small, about 540 square feet, so TriBird is marketing the units as vacation villas and refers to the park as a "fisherman's paradise." The garages, the company says, could be a place to store boats.

St. Petersburg

Lights. Camera. Auction. Buy this house on TV

Natalie Goff doesn't usually film her parties, but on a recent night at her Snell Isle home a camera rolled as more than 100 people gathered for a purpose: to make sure her house looks good on television.

The 2,810-square-foot Brightwaters Boulevard property will be sold in a televised auction this month, and the party scene was just one of many showcasing the home that will air before the sale.

"We wanted people to see the property at night," said Goff. "The Realtor asked us if we wanted to hire actors for the party, and I thought, "Why not just invite people we know and make it more fun?' "

Televised auctions featuring scenes like Goff's party and elaborate home tours are the latest selling tool in today's tepid real estate market.

"We have reached a new frontier in marketing real estate," said William Tourtelot, a Realtor behind the sale of the home. "A televised auction allows them to view and purchase a home in the privacy of their own house."

Creative real estate schemes have become more common in Pinellas County in the past year as the real estate market has sputtered to a crawl. But Realtors say a televised auction is definitely a first. It will be on America's Auction Network.

Pinellas Park

Faith and business not mutually exclusive

Buying a car can be an act of faith because it's hard to know if you're getting a good deal.

"Car dealers have a bad rap, pretty much deservedly so," said Calvin Frazier, who has spent more than 25 years in the business. "If you don't know somebody, you can get your head knocked off."

Frazier knows somebody. Early in 2006 he started 4Him Auto Sales on 49th Street in Pinellas Park. After working in every facet of the car business and seeing its underbelly, the born-again Frazier decided to open a religion-based used-car dealership, the operation of which would serve God.

"I wanted to do something where I could be me," said Frazier, 53, who had been a wild and lawless youth before finding religion in 1994. "I love the car business and I love helping people, but it became hard to be an honorable guy in a new-car franchise store."

The business name has clear religious meaning, but Frazier said he doesn't "hide behind a cross." He and other area business people struggle with their desire to run businesses according to their beliefs in a world where religious symbols are exploited and where trust is infinitely harder to earn than undermine.

"When somebody starts loudly wearing their religion on their sleeve, sometimes there's a suspicion," said Pete Mishler, a church elder and devout Christian who publishes America's Favorite Coupon Book and sells its ads to area businesses. He said some advertisers will include a cross or small fish in their ads to connote Christian beliefs, but he knows that not all truly abide.

"There's so many little advertising schemes people hatch," he said. "But the thing is whether or not somebody who subscribes to the teachings of Jesus, whether they really apply that in their business dealings or whether they live a two-story life."

[Last modified October 5, 2007, 23:38:39]