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Around the Bay

Business news from around Tampa Bay

By Times Staff
Published December 10, 2007

St. Petersburg

Firehouse converted to restaurant, club

Almost a century ago, 128 Third St. S was the city's first firehouse.

Now it will play host to flashing lights of another variety, as the McNulty Station building becomes a restaurant and nightclub aimed at professionals in their 30s.

"This is going to be a first-class place in an old rustic building," said Ernie Hogue, general contractor for the project.

Together, the lounge and Latin American bistro will be able to hold more than 700 people: 200 seats in the two-story restaurant, De Santo, and 500 upstairs in the Push Ultra Lounge.

If the combination succeeds, it might be replicated throughout Tampa Bay, said Amanda Hill, one of the owners of De Santo and Push.

"We looked around the country, but we came here and thought a renaissance was going on in downtown St. Petersburg," said Hill, who owns the business with her husband, Seth, and development veteran Doug Illman. "We wanted to be on the cusp of it."

Construction began in July. Since then, the Milken Corp. construction company has installed custom bathroom fixtures, imported floors and five bars: in the restaurant, outside in the courtyard, in the nightclub and on the station's roof.

Renovations cost more than $2-million.

The station, built in 1911, is almost a century old. Though construction in a historic building was a structural challenge, the city has been helpful, Amanda Hill said.

"It's good to work with a city that's so proactive," she said.

The menu will cater to upscale tastes, combining dishes from Latin America with more traditional American food.

Push Ultra Lounge will open on Dec. 14. De Santo will follow with a grand opening on Dec. 17.

Land O'Lakes

Some things are better left unsod

No matter how manicured we want our lawn to look, if we could cut the time to keep it that way to almost nothing, we'd jump at the chance.

Sellers of synthetic turf say their product has come a long way since the Astroturf days, when fake grass often had seams and rips similar to worn carpet.

Improved materials and technology have made it an option for those who can afford it, or feel it's worth the cost to toss their mowers or lawn maintenance contracts.

"It's becoming popular because of watering issues and pest control, and there's not a lot of maintenance," said Jeff Jennings, president and owner of Turf Pro Synthetics Landscaping.

For Jennings, what started with mowing lawns as a kid has evolved into a profitable profession.

"I was at Busch Gardens one day watching them build a big water display with rocks, and I thought that looked neat and I built something similar for my yard," Jennings said.

He realizes that at about $8 to $12 a square foot, compared to real sod at around 80 cents to a $1 a square foot, the product isn't cheap. But for homeowners who are tired of maintenance and want more free time, the expense is worth it, he said.

Synthetic turf is made of a polypropylene fiber that has a 10-year warranty and has a UV coating to protect it from the sun. Jennings said it should last between 15 to 20 years.

The turf goes in, mixed with bits of rubber and then some sand. Then it's rolled until smooth and you're ready to practice your putting. Or use your newfound free time for more interesting pursuits than mowing.

"It has a curing agent that makes it look even better after the first year," Jennings said. "Rain won't bother it or cause it to shift. Just clean it with any solvent like 409, blow off the leaves or debris and that's it."

Jennings said potential customers have many options from which to choose, like a St. Augustine version and natural turf.

South Pasadena

No sour grapes, just sweet wine

Before he opened a winery and began turning thousands of pounds of fruit into bottles of wine each day, Ray Shook never much liked wine.

The retired engineer and his wife started a citrus winery as a side project to their citrus packing operation, beginning with an idea and two 50-gallon fermentation tanks. A decade later, the Florida Orange Groves Winery offers 54 kinds of fruit wines and is doubling its capacity in another expansion.

"The last four years, we've seen terrific growth," he said. "People have finally accepted we make real wine out of things other than grapes."

To accommodate the demand, the winery installed a bottling machine that can produce 100 cases per hour, replacing a hand-bottling system that put out 50 to 60 cases per day. The Shooks are adding 4,500 square feet that will double their storage capacity to 50,000 cases.

While most sales are in Florida and online, the next step is an expansion to California and the United Kingdom, where distributors have expressed interest, Shook said.

The inspiration for the winery came from an article Shook read in the early 1990s.

[Last modified December 7, 2007, 21:36:41]