Print

Email story

Comment

Letter to the editor

Around the Bay

Business news from around Tampa Bay

By Times Staff
Published October 15, 2007

St. Petersburg

Retail pairings breed sales synergy

Before Christina Noordstar opened the Tropical Smoothie store at 1201 Fourth St. N this year, she had heard interest from possible neighboring tenants in the building she built with her husband, Robert.

The most eager was Hollywood Tans because of an apparent affinity customers have for the tanning-smoothie combination.

"They came shopping for us," Noordstar said of the chain. "But they make a good fit. People making better health choices want to look better, too."

Though the combination came to Noordstar, the tanning-smoothie pairing reveals how retailers look for synergy from neighbors. Some combinations are obvious; others make sense after careful analysis.

"Shoe Carnival likes to be next to Best Buy," said Steve Althoff, who handles leasing for Sembler and often fields requests from stores to be in certain proximity to others. Althoff said linen stores like to be near electronics because Mom shops in one while Dad the other, but the Shoe Carnival combo was an accidental discovery.

St. Petersburg

Home sellers rely on FlatFee.com

Mark Eicholtz says he likes Realtors. But his new business seems to attempt to slap them around a bit.

"We want to have a grownup conversation about this business," said Eicholtz, who started FlatFee.com this month. "We're trying to change the conversation and force agents to talk in real dollars, not percentages."

FlatFee will list a house and create a detailed online description with a virtual walk-through, floor plan and measurements for a startup fee of $179 and $95 per month. The home appears on the multiple listing service, and Eicholtz handles showings. When the home sells, the buyer's agent gets $7,995, not the traditional 6 percent of the selling price split with a seller's agent.

"For anyone involved in a $300,000 transaction and up, we are going to be one wildly attractive solution," said Eicholtz, who for eight years has offered a flat-fee model for mortgages. "Should people pay more because they have more?"

St. Petersburg

Businesses unite to remake 34th Street

Residents and business owners along 34th Street have united to thrust new life into one of the city's busiest and least attractive thoroughfares.

The newly formed 34th Street Business Association will attempt to follow in the footsteps of business groups that helped transform the Grand Central corridor and Fourth Street from abandoned eyesores into busy, attractive commercial districts.

But the challenge before them won't be easy.

The federal roadway is dotted with big chain superstores and fast-food restaurants. The group is dealing with a much larger land mass than its predecessors on Central Avenue or in downtown St. Petersburg. The 34th Street Business Association will run from 38th Avenue N to 54th Avenue S.

Association members are hoping the size of the area will help them attract a greater number of customers, unlike less-accessible neighborhoods that have to rely on word of mouth or advertising to pull in new clients.

"To us, 34th Street is more visual, more people have heard about it, more people drive on it," said Cass Rael, a member of the association and president of the North Kenwood Neighborhood Association. "It's like the city's highway. It connects to everything."

The association formed in June after business owners said they were tired of their customers describing the street as ugly.

"Everyone is like, 'Why 34th? Why would you open a business there?' They really don't expect to find anything nice on 34th," said Jolene Schuite, president of the 34th Street association and owner of FreshGo Wild Market & Grill. "When really this is the heart and soul of St. Petersburg."

[Last modified October 12, 2007, 20:51:31]