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Around the Bay

Business news from around Tampa Bay

By Times Staff
Published December 31, 2007

St. Pete Beach

Mom-and-pop owners may be allowed to rebuild

The Gulf Way Inn in Pass-a-Grille has been serving tourists for decades, and owner Takvor Evrikoz wants to keep doing so but fears he won't be able to.

His 84-year-old building lacks the modern touches tourists expect, but he has no legal right to rebuild a hotel on property zoned for residences.

As beach communities suffer the loss of tourist lodging to condominiums, they've struggled to balance a desire for more visitors with retaining their cities' character.

Pass-a-Grille is a microcosm of similar issues elsewhere and the difficulty of pleasing everyone.

Evrikoz has spearheaded an effort to get the City Commission to allow mom-and-pop hotels in Pass-a-Grille to rebuild. He has nearly won, but not the way he wanted, because the City Commission is on the verge of passing an ordinance aimed at a few properties, not all the hotels Evrikoz championed.

"I said this is for all the mom-and-pops," Evrikoz said. "They said this is just for these two gentlemen."

Indeed, at a November City Commission meeting, a majority of commissioners said they wanted to expedite rebuilding specifically for Evrikoz and Joe Caruso, who owns the adjacent Sabal Palms hotel.

For now, the commission is planning to create a "traditional hotel" zoning category but limit membership to licensed, operating tourist facilities on Gulf Way south of 19th Avenue, those on First Avenue and those with land greater than 8,712 square feet.

St. Petersburg

At Bob Lee's, fuel for the famished

When they painted one of their buildings to look like a restaurant, the owners of Bob Lee's Tires considered it just a quirky decoration that blended better with the up-and-coming Fourth Street Garden District. But an idea started simmering.

"This wasn't even a blip when we painted the mural," said Todd Murrian, managing partner of the auto shop and the new BLT Grill at 1631 Fourth St. N. "It's just serendipitous."

Now the 60-year-old repair shop also serves Perrier, Joffrey's coffee and Boar's Head meats. There is a soup of the day, fresh cookies and hot-pressed sandwiches, hardly the fare one expects at a filling station.

Murrian had seen that as cars became more complicated, wait times for repairs grew. Customers spent long periods in the waiting room or braved the traffic for a snack across Fourth Street. His 40 employees did likewise.

"We had a TV in here, but we didn't even have bad coffee," Murrian said.

He asked around about some equipment after someone told him of a deli's closing.

"Todd needed the equipment, but he also said, 'What are you going to do now?' " said Pam Kana, who in October closed her Creme de la Creme gourmet deli and wine store in Tierra Verde and opened BLT Grill. "He said he was opening a deli. I barely had a break."

St. Petersburg

Smart firms ensure many happy returns

At the height of shopping season, frantic customers are dealing with overtaxed workers, and the casualty is often civility. But it can also be the bottom line.

"Even the best product experience can be destroyed if the customer is not well taken care of," said Carl Riche, owner of the Paciugo gelato store downtown but also retired after 30 years in management with Wal-Mart and Sam's Clubs. "That customer is not going to come back."

From retail to airlines to utility companies, customer service is a central but often overlooked part of doing business. Research shows a strong return on investment in service, but surveys also show that consumers continue to find the phrase "customer service" to be an oxymoron.

"Companies tend to focus on getting new customers in, not tracking how loyal customers are," said Kristine Ketcham, who worked in customer service for companies like American Express, MCI and Verizon before starting St. Petersburg consulting firm Focused Success.

A happy customer is far more likely than a merely satisfied one to buy again or tell friends, according to research in the Harvard Business Review. Keeping just 5 percent of customers can double profits.

"If I get 'I-don't-care' service, that tells me it's coming from the top down," Ketcham said.

[Last modified December 28, 2007, 20:35:41]