Tampa Bay Brewing Co. sets opening date for new facility

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Just over a year in construction, Tampa Bay Brewing Co.’s new facility is set to open July 6.

The 17,400-square-foot brewery/restaurant, built from the ground up, is located on Racetrack Road in Oldsmar, a quarter mile north of Hillsborough Avenue.

“The major construction is done and we’ll soon be installing equipment and start landscaping,” said Mike Doble, who is overseeing the build-out. He’s part of the family that owns and operates TBBC.

All told, project’s price tag is $5.1 million, Doble… …read more

Existing home sales fall while housing starts surge — what’s up with that?

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Sales of existing houses unexpectedly fell in April, providing the latest bit of confusing data about the health of the housing market.

The National Association of Realtors reports sales of single-family homes, townhomes, condominiums and co-ops dropped 3.3 percent in April to a seasonally adjusted annual rate of 5.04 million. The good news is that’s the second month in a row that the sales pace topped 5 million. Plus it’s 6 percent higher than it was a year ago.

Economists, however, expected… …read more

Hot apartment market presents $375M opportunity for Landmark Apartment Trust

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Landmark Apartment Trust Inc. wants to raise up to $375 million in an initial public offering of its common stock.

A hot market for apartments is driving the IPO. Multifamily was the first sector of commercial real estate to grow post-recession, as people who lost homes to foreclosure or had damaged credit became renters, as Tampa Bay Business Journal’s Ashley Kritzer previously reported.

Landmark, a Tampa-based real estate investment trust, has been rapidly growing since 2012. It owns 71 apartment… …read more

When age is an asset: How this realtor turned her youth into a viable niche

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When Smitha Ramchandani was 24 years old, she was a newly married immigrant from Bombay who wasn’t sure where to look for a job.

Did she want to run a salon, as her family did in India? Not really. Did she want a 9-to-5 position? Not her style.

Ramchandani settled on real estate, after driving by a few offices and seeing expensive cars parked outside, and got her license.

But there was a problem: her age.

The brokers at the New Jersey-based Weichert Realtors, where she was hired, were more… …read more

Exclusive: Tampa developer plans speculative mansion on Westshore waterfront (Video)

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On a serene cul-de-sac in Sunset Park sits an overgrown, vacant lot where Tampa Developers LLC plans to build a lavish mansion — for a buyer to be determined later.

The group closed on the site last week, paying $2 million for the .31-acre lot, which sits on a finger of land that juts out into the water. On the site, the group will speculatively break ground on a 7,500-square-foot home with modern Spanish architecture. It will have six bedrooms and seven-and-a-half bathrooms.

Sunshine Bank provided… …read more

Managing: Can I fire a current employee for lying on his resume?

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Each week Alison Green, who also writes the “Ask a Manager” website, answers workplace and management questions from readers. Please comment or ask your own question by emailing her at alison@askamanager.org.

Question 1. My new employee lied on his resume

I joined my current company last year and was recently promoted from my former position (more IT-related) to managing another department. One of the team members in my new department expressed an interest in the role I was vacating.

In the process… …read more

Top of the List: Pinellas boasts Bay area’s wealthiest ZIP codes

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The May 15 issue of the Tampa Bay Business Journal contains a List of the wealthiest ZIP codes in the Tampa Bay area. The rankings are provided by the Environmental Systems Research Institute (Esri).

Pinellas County is home to the highest number of ZIP codes on the List. The nine Pinellas locations represents a significant increase from the five that appeared on last year’s List. Hillsborough County, which was home to the highest number of ZIP codes on last year’s List, saw its number drop from… …read more

Housing starts hit seven-year high as builders see pent-up demand

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Housing starts jumped 20 percent in April to a seasonally adjusted annual rate of 1.135 million, the highest number in more than seven years.

Building permits for housing units increased 10 percent to a seasonally adjusted annual rate of 1.143 million, up 10 percent from March, according to the Census Bureau.

Both numbers were higher than economists expected, but they don’t necessarily mean we’re at the beginning of a new housing boom. Home builders’ confidence in the housing market actually… …read more

Transit plan a recurring roundtable theme

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Monthly, we invite a group of executives across a range of sectors to lunch. The goal is to gather business leaders in one place so we can develop strong story ideas, bolster relationships and stay informed.

Common threads emerge such as the region’s brand and labor and workforce gaps. But what comes up at nearly every gathering is the lack of great public transportation here.

This week, our focus was residential. With a compelling mix of brokers, developers and homebuilders, sure enough, transportation… …read more

TBBJ List: More about the top 5 wealthiest ZIP codes

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About the tapestry codes

Tapestry Segment 9A: Silver and Gold

Household: Married couples, no kids

Housing: Single family, seasonal

Affluent retirees who live in exclusive communities in warm climates. We worked hard, invested wisely, and now we’re experiencing the payoff. We drive luxury cars or SUVs and donate generously to charities. We contract for home maintenance services so chores don’t interfere with our active social life, trips, golf games, and boating. The Internet is used to get… …read more