Published: Saturday, May 5, 2012 at 7:13 p.m.

Mayra Mari graduated on Saturday from the University of Florida Master of Business Administration program. On Monday, she starts a job managing client website development projects for 352 Media Group.

“I was very happy to find a job here in Gainesville,” said Mari, 24, who is from Miami.

Gainesville is happy to have her.

In the past couple of years, the city’s business, academic and political leadership have organized around efforts to grow an innovation economy by trying to keep the university’s brain power from leaving.

Innovation Gainesville, the economic development plan led by the Gainesville Area Chamber of Commerce, is focused on helping to start, grow and recruit innovative companies that provide graduates like Mari a place to work. The mission is also to encourage entrepreneurs to create their own jobs and jobs for others.

The idea is that as the number of professional jobs grows, that in turn creates the need for jobs in service industries, improving opportunities for people at all education levels.

For years, UF has provided a pipeline of employees for local business and government, particularly in fields such as education, medicine, civil and environmental engineering, biotechnology, accounting and law.

Recent years have seen a boom in information technology jobs, both from software companies moving here to take advantage of the talent supply and from students and graduates starting their own companies.

352 Media Group presaged the IT student startup boom by a decade. Geoff Wilson and Peter VanRysdam were in the journalism program at UF studying to be TV journalists while building websites for extra money on the side. After graduating in 2000, they decided to turn their side gig into a career.

Mari is one of two UF MBA graduates starting at the company Monday, bringing the full-time staff to 67, said Wilson, the company’s president and CEO. Wilson figures that at least 75 percent of the company’s employees come from UF or Santa Fe College, having studied graphic design, advertising, marketing, digital media production, computer science or business.

“We have discovered over the years that our biggest competitive advantage to being headquartered in Gainesville is the access to top talent from the University of Florida and from Santa Fe College,” Wilson said.

Having access and proximity to computer science talent helped to lure software development company MindTree Limited to Gainesville with plans to create at least 400 jobs locally.

SumTotal Systems, which develops human resources software, helped with the pitch to MindTree on behalf of the Chamber.

SumTotal’s entry into Gainesville came with the acquisition of the similarly named MindSolve Technologies, which was founded by UF graduates. SumTotal moved its headquarters to Gainesville in 2010 largely because of the talent pool.

An international company, SumTotal has 175 employees in Gainesville, with more than 100 being local graduates, and plans for rapid growth, spokesman Christopher Faust said.

Most of the jobs are for computer engineers, but the headquarters also hires people in finance, sales and marketing, and customer service, which requires communication skills, he said. “We’re hiring the smartest and brightest people,” Faust said.

Reserveage Organics, a natural supplement company, has almost 100 employees, 85 percent of whom graduated from UF in such fields as communications, advertising, systems analysis and engineering, accounting and legal.

The company also plans to recruit from the nutrition department, CEO Naomi Whittel said.

She said they have had to go outside the area to find experienced management.

More and more students are starting their own companies.

Many are creating online and mobile applications “because it’s inexpensive and the potential is great,” said Ted Astleford, director of experiential learning at the UF Center for Entrepreneurship and Innovation.

“It is a growing trend. Over the last three or four years, you’ve really seen this culture of entrepreneurship here has exploded,” he said.

Astleford said at least a dozen student startups are in downtown Gainesville, while a few are in the UF Innovation Hub and probably a couple dozen more work out of home offices. Some use interns from UF.

The big ones are Grooveshark, the online music streaming service founded by two UF students while they were still undergrads, and Trendy Entertainment, the video game maker founded by two UF graduates. Both have hired UF graduates from fields such as computer engineering and marketing.

Most student startups include only the founder or two or three students with complementary skills who partnered to start a business. A few will be successful, possibly creating more jobs, and the rest will go away, Astleford said.

UF’s Office of Technology Licensing has helped start more than 100 companies over the past 10 years by matching entrepreneurs with university research inventions. Some of the companies relocate to the CEO’s home base.

Jane Muir, director of the UF Innovation Hub, said that of the surviving companies, about three-fourths of those that started in a local business incubator have stayed in the community. Those in the biomedical fields tend to hire post-doctoral or graduate students, while the IT companies hire undergrads, she said.

At the spring Career Showcase at UF, local companies were recruiting in the fields of transportation, publishing, engineering, information technology, energy and accounting. Gainesville currently has a lot of jobs open for software developers and programmers, said Kim Tesch-Vaught, vice president of workforce for the Chamber and FloridaWorks. She said there also has been an increase in marketing and communications jobs, particularly for people who can write and do Web design.

Gov. Rick Scott has emphasized the need for more graduates from the STEM fields — science, technology, engineering and math.

Tesch-Vaught said local tech companies are looking for people who have other skills to complement STEM skills.

“They might come from communications. They might come from the College of Liberal Arts and Sciences, but they have to have an aptitude for technology,” she said. “It might be a minor. It might be something they did extracurricular.”

http://www.gainesville.com/article/20120505/articles/120509729

In his previous job, Ed Poppell developed the University of Florida East Campus on Waldo Road, leading President Bernie Machen to refer to it as the “Ed Poppell campus.”

Now, he is part of the early success of Innovation Square, helping to lure software development company MindTree to Gainesville by putting together 10,000 square feet of office space with room to grow in Ayers Plaza.

Poppell retired as vice president of business affairs and economic development last year after 40 years at UF. In his new role, he is responsible for overseeing development of Innovation Square, an up to 40-acre master planned development between UF’s main campus and downtown Gainesville.

So far, so good. The first piece, UF’s Innovation Hub business incubator on the former site of Shands at AGH, is filling up faster than expected, Poppell said.

When MindTree came calling and wanted space near the university with room for 400 employees over the next five years, he was able to offer space across the street in Ayers Plaza. Renovations are expected to start within weeks.

MindTree’s announcement has brought more attention to Gainesville as a location for innovation, Poppell said.

“The business community is wanting to know what we’re doing here,” he said. “They’re looking at our master plan. They’re excited about it. They want to be a part of an urban environment very, very close to a university in a community with a quality of life that’s outstanding.”

The core of the development is the former Shands at AGH site between Southwest Second and Fourth avenues and extends for several blocks in all directions, along University Avenue and encompassing Santa Fe College’s incubator and training facilities north of University Avenue. It includes properties acquired over many years, mostly for student housing, by Trimark Properties.

Trimark plans to start construction in the fall on the Infusion Technology Center adjacent to the Hub that will be an eight-story building with first-floor restaurant and retail space and seven floors of office and lab space for technology companies, followed by INSPIREation Hall, a dormitory and incubator for entrepreneurial students.

Future plans include buildings with ground-floor retail space along Southwest Second and Fourth avenues and space for private companies to develop other buildings.

Poppell said the retail space could include a bank, food services, shops and a fitness center.

He is working with developers to bring a small first-floor grocery store that would be topped with a hotel or housing that would run the gamut from college graduates to CEOs.

He also is working on luring an extended-stay facility for companies that want to collaborate with UF, whether for two months or two years.

“The one critical thing about all this is proximity to that university,” he said. “That is something we have over most every community right now is this project is a block and a half away from the university.”

From the Gainesville Sun;

http://www.gainesville.com/article/20120429/articles/120429668?p=1&tc=pg

Innovation Square continues to gain momentum and the market interest for Gainesville class A office space at Infusion Technology Center at Innovation Square has been strong. Innovation Square recently announced through iG and the Gainesville Chamber that software giant Mind Tree will be expanding into Gainesville and will eventually create over 400 new jobs.

We are also seeing continued interest in the commercial real estate market in Ocala, Florida. We have several listings in that market as well and just began marketing several prime outparcel sites in front of the Lowe’s on SR 200. We also have a listing which is under development what will be home to the first Aspen Dental location in Ocala. Mattress Firm and two other national concepts will complete the center.

Overall, the Gainesville commercial real estate market is strong. As a full-service commercial real estate brokerage company, Front Street provides its clients the following services; office leasing, retail leasing, investment sales, tenant representation, mortgage banking and property management. If you are in need of commercial real estate services in Gainesville, please contact us today.

Investor network for new companies unveiled

By Anthony Clark | Business editor

Tuesday was a banner day for the University of Florida to show off some of the ways it is building momentum as a job-creation engine.

The morning announcement that an established India software company had selected Gainesville for its U.S. development center — lured in part by the computer engineering talent to come out of UF — was followed by a showcase featuring 14 promising early-stage companies looking to go to market with UF research inventions.

The sixth technology showcase, called “A Celebration of Innovation,” drew more than 300 people, including public officials, business leaders, inventors and service companies to the Hilton University of Florida Conference Center.

It also drew nearly three dozen investors and company management candidates from across the country, according to David Day, UF director of technology licensing.

Day announced the creation of an angel investor network for Gainesville that would screen and vet applicant companies for investors interested in providing seed capital. The Innovation Gainesville Angel Network will provide secure confidential information online to qualified investors at InnovationGainesville.com.

Ann Collett, vice president of Innovation Gainesville, said they were exploring the idea of creating an angel fund, but investors said they would rather invest in companies directly than pool their money in a fund.

The Florida Institute for the Commercialization of Public Research will screen applicants. Once a company has funding, the institute can provide a matching loan from the state up to $300,000.

Day said the project was an experiment that if successful could be replicated for the entire state and lure companies seeking funding to Florida.

The showcase started with UF President Bernie Machen repeating the morning announcement from the Gainesville Area Chamber of Commerce and Council for Economic Outreach that MindTree Limited would bring 400 or more jobs to Gainesville, going in the Ayers building in UF’s Innovation Square.

“I want to make clear to everyone here today that this university and this city and the entire region are fertile ground for all innovation and technology companies whether homegrown or transplanted from elsewhere,” he said.

Machen said the growth of high-tech companies here would accelerate with MindTree’s arrival and the attention it would bring with it.

MindTree co-founder and president of the Americas Scott Staples said the company’s experience could help local startups.

“The more high-tech companies you can bring into this market, the better it is for us,” he said.

Day said they were already talking about the spinoff companies they could get from MindTree locating here.

Over the past decade, UF has spun off more than 100 companies and received $335 million in royalties from licensed inventions, according to Win Phillips, UF senior vice president and chief operating officer. That revenue has helped build 500,000 square feet of new research space.

Phillips said spinoffs such as AxoGen are attracting hundreds of millions of dollars in venture capital annually.

“That’s a new thing,” he said.

Last year, UF opened the Innovation Hub, now housing 17 early-stage companies and nine service providers that include a partner from a venture capital firm with offices in Boston and San Francisco.

Several of the Hub companies were at the showcase.

ReliOx Corp. is developing a resin that reacts with a chemical to produce chlorine dioxide more cheaply and safely than current production methods for use as a disinfectant in health care, food processing, water treatment and janitorial industries.

CEO Ian Knapp, who came from the water treatment industry, said they are working on prototypes and have customers waiting for the product.

Based on past history in the industry, he said he expects a major company to acquire the technology.

MLM Biologics was showcasing a dressing to treat diabetic ulcers and bed sores. President Chandra Nataraj said they have an office at the Hub, a lab at the Sid Martin Biotech Incubator and are seeking a manufacturing site.

Phillips presented the Clark Butler Entrepreneur of the Year Award to Randy Scott, founder of NovaMin, which was acquired by GlaxoSmithKline. Scott is now counseling new businesses.

The award submittal was co-sponsored by four of the project’s major stakeholders — the University of Florida, Shands at UF, City of Gainesville, and the Gainesville Community Redevelopment Agency — and the urban design and planning consultant, Perkins+Will.

Innovation Square, situated between the UF campus and downtown Gainesville, is a planned mixed-use research neighborhood that is being developed with overwhelming community support and stakeholder collaboration. This urban redevelopment project is expected to transform 12 underutilized blocks in midtown Gainesville into a mixed-use urban research neighborhood that advances the national and global profile of the city’s largest employer — the University of Florida with its medical center, Shands at UF medical center — and the growing local biotech industry.

Unlike the internally focused suburban research parks of the previous decades, Innovation Square aligns the goals of the City of Gainesville and UF to create a livable, walkable, adaptable and sustainable urban research district that will give Gainesville a competitive edge in attracting and retaining the best minds and companies in research.

As UF President Bernie Machen said: “As we envision it, Innovation Square will be unlike anything you’ve seen. In fact, it will be nothing short of a complete re-invention of the town square concept.”

The panel was impressed with the project’s high quality, establishment of a vision that is not only aspirational but implementable, and the collaboration of a wide range of stakeholders to create and implement a framework to create a transformative project that will make a lasting contribution to the economic condition of the community. The panel was unanimous in its selection of Innovation Square as the 2012 Award recipient.

The Excellence in Economic Development Planning Award will be presented at the Economic Development Division’s annual meeting and reception on April 16 during the 2012 National Conference of the American Planning Association in Los Angeles.

The Economic Development Division of the APA provides an opportunity for APA members to join others who share an interest in and responsibility on matters related to economic development. The mission of the Economic Development Division is to advance the practice and state of the art of economic development by:
• Increasing the understanding of economic development as a key element of public policy formulation at all levels of government;
• Promoting economic development as a critical element of neighborhood community, regional, and national planning processes;
• Disseminating materials and information about current economic development practice and theory to members of the division;
• Assisting APA in positively influencing economic development policy; and
• Promoting professional communication among members of the division through a variety of member services, including, but not limited to newsletters, web page, conference sessions, workshops and other publications.

The Excellence in Economic Development Award is named for Donald E. Hunter, who died in 2009. He was a longtime and active member of the American Planning Association, always urging greater attention for economic development planning. He was president of Hunter Interests Inc., an award-winning real estate development and consulting firm based in Annapolis, Md.

http://news.ufl.edu/2012/03/30/innovation-square-wins-award/

Business editor

Published: Tuesday, March 27, 2012 at 10:21 a.m.

India-based software company MindTree Limited has chosen Gainesville for its U.S. development center with plans to create at least 400 jobs with an average salary of $80,000.

The company will move into the Ayers building at 720 SW Second Ave., now considered part of Innovation Square surrounding the University of Florida’s Innovation Hub business incubator, following a $2.9 million renovation.

MindTree expects to employ 35 people in Gainesville over the next six months from a combination of existing employees and local hires, with plans to add 100 jobs a year thereafter, Scott Staples, co-founder and president, Americas, told The Sun.

He said in a presentation that they hope to go beyond initial plans for 400 jobs, to create 500 or 600.

MindTree develops software for Fortune 2000 companies and independent software vendors worldwide. It has 11,000 employees.

The official announcement came Tuesday morning at a ceremony with local business, government and education officials at the Hilton University of Florida Conference Center.

Staples credited a coordinated effort among those factions with selling the company on Gainesville.He presented Brent Christensen, president and CEO of the Gainesville Area Chamber of Commerce and the Council for Economic Outreach, with a conductor’s baton for a “well-orchestrated team effort.”

He also credited the quick response of Gerhard Ritter, acting chairman of the UF Department of Computer and Information Science & Engineering, after first making contact by email to ask about the potential labor pool out of the university.

In a subsequent email projected on a screen Friday, Staples wrote, “This is the best response I have received from any major university. Thanks for the detail and the passion behind it.”

Staples said MindTree was seeking IT talent, a strong university tie, proximity to potential Fortune 2000 clients, a place relocated employees would want to live, and local and state support.

“We found a place that is obsessed with innovation and action,” he said.

The company was approved for up to $1.2 million in tax refunds depending on the number of jobs created, with 80 percent coming from the state. Gainesville and Alachua County commissions each approved $120,000 credits for the remainder.

Florida Lt. Gov. Jennifer Carroll said the company will help prevent the brain drain of UF graduates leaving the state.

“You are helping Florida move in the right direction to help the governor and I create those 700,000 jobs that we campaigned on,” she said.

UF President Bernie Machen said, “MindTree is exactly the kind of global, creative, aggressive company that we’ve been dreaming about. … With Innovation Square, we began a brand new era. MindTree’s decision to come to Gainesville affirms our direction.”

MindTree is publicly traded on the India stock exchange with revenues of $100 million per quarter and 20 percent annual growth, Staples said.

The company has six U.S. offices and headquarters in Warren, N.J., and Bangalore, India.

Staples said they are known for a corporate culture that emphasizes integrity and calls employees MindTree minds.

Among several honors, the company was awarded the Best Corporate Governance, India, 2012, by World Finance magazine.

Staples first contacted Ritter on Nov. 29, 2011, and visited Gainesville on Dec. 20. He said he received a call from Gov. Rick Scott shortly thereafter and had dinner with him about a month later.

“And some guy named Tim Tebow sent me an autographed copy of his book saying Gainesville turned out pretty good for him and he promised it would be pretty good for my team,” he said.

He said he would return the favor now that Tebow is with the New York Jets, which plays in New Jersey.

Staples returned with other MindTree executives on Feb. 13 to tour two potential locations, and get a taste of the workforce and quality of life over four hours. Gainesville was competing with sites in South Carolina and Alabama.

“You guys delivered. We were impressed with Gainesville,” he said.

Realtor Mitch Glaeser, chairman of the Council for Economic Outreach, said, “We had four power-packed hours to make our case.”

As part of the incentive package, FloridaWorks received permission from the U.S. Department of Labor to alter a $5 million training grant to include technology companies, making MindTree eligible to apply. The grant funds part of the salary during on-the-job training for hiring the unemployed.

Chamber Chairman Michael Gallagher of SantaFe Healthcare said CEO and Innovation Gainesville partners can celebrate the fruits of their labors after raising $3.4 million from local investors for economic development. Other recent Chamber and CEO efforts include helping lure Silver Airways and with Priora Robotics’ downtown expansion plans.

We are pleased to announce the launching of the official website for Infusion Technology Center at Innovation Square!   The site has recently gone live and includes information on office leasing and purchase opportunities at Infusion.  Visitors to the site can learn more about Gainesville commercial real estate opportunities at UF Innovation Square.

As one of the closest research parks in the country to its associated University, Innovation Square sits just two short blocks from the heart of the University of Florida campus, libraries, research labs and classrooms. It’s an ideal location for businesses whose clients, researchers, or employees are involved with UF and need short commute time.

Directly adjacent to the Florida Innovation Hub, Infusion Technology Center is the first commercial building for private companies looking to take advantage of the many benefits of being located at Innovation Square. This Class A commercial building offers first floor retail and restaurant space to support seven additional floors of wet lab, dry lab, office and high-tech business space for emerging, established and high-growth companies. Due to their close proximity to the venture capital firms and business support initiatives within the Hub, businesses within Infusion Technology Center are uniquely positioned for exponential growth. Businesses looking to join Innovation Square can enjoy the many benefits of Infusion Technology Center by either leasing or purchasing available space within the building.

Front Street Commercial Real Estate Group is a commercial real estate brokerage firm headquartered in Gainesville, Florida.  Front Street was retained as the exclusive broker to handle the sales and leasing for Infusion Technology Center at Innovation Square.    Front Street is a full service firm performing office leasing, retail leasing, brokerage, investment sales, property management, tenant representation and commercial mortgage banking services on behalf of its clients.  If you are interested in learning more about Infusion Technology Center, Innovation Square or other commercial real estate Gainesville has to offer please contact us.

Nick Banks

nickb@frontstreet.net

Seth Lane

seth@frontstreet.net

By Christopher Curry | Staff writer

Gainesville city commissioners are eyeing two areas west of the city for potential annexation through referendums in November.
The areas include Santa Fe College, Buchholz High, residential areas around North Florida Regional Medical Center and a roughly three-mile stretch of Northwest 39th Avenue.
Combined, the areas have an estimated population of 7,156 and a taxable property value of $337.2 million.
Two adjacent voting precincts — 22 and 62 — are under consideration along with Pinewood Apartments at the 4400 block of Northwest 39th Avenue, which would otherwise be an enclave of unincorporated county if precinct 22 votes to annex.
During a Monday evening City Commission annexation workshop, Administrative Services Director Becky Roundtree said the Supervisor of Elections Office has requested that any referendum include a whole voting precinct.
Precinct 22 is generally bounded by Northwest 23rd Avenue to the south, Northwest 43rd Street to the east, Northwest 75th Street to the west and Northwest 39th Avenue to the north. It includes Buchholz and the residential areas surrounding it.
Precinct 62 is more sprawling and more oddly shaped. It’s bounded to the south by Newberry Road, the west by Interstate 75, and to the east the neighborhoods east of North Florida Regional Medical Center. East of Northwest 75th Street, the northern boundary is Northwest 23rd Avenue. West of 75th, the northern boundary is Northwest 39th.

Click here to Read More.

Front Street Commercial Real Estate Group is focused on Gainesville commercial real estate and other North Florida markets such as Ocala and Lake City. We are a full service firm performing office leasing, retail leasing, brokerage, investment sales, property management, tenant representation and commercial mortgage banking services for our clients. If you are interested in viewing our Listings or learning more about the commercial real estate Gainesville has to offer please contact us.

MIAMI-Office markets in most Sunbelt cities have already bottomed out and should surpass national growth rates in the next six to 12 months. So says a new report from Jones Lang LaSalle.

Fort Lauderdale, Jacksonville, Miami, Orlando, Tampa, and West Palm Beach were among the hardest hit by the recession. Now, these markets are posting substantial upticks in office occupancy and seeing declines in vacancy. JLL attributes the rebound to strengthening employment, migration and housing market shifts with absorption rates in the 1.5% to 2% range across most the Sunbelt geographies.

“A diversification of the economy is helping to fuel the resurgence in Florida,” John Sikaitis, senior vice president of Research at JLL, tells GlobeSt.com. “Healthcare opEerations, call centers in Central Florida markets like Tampa, a return of tourists primarily in Orlando and Miami, and South Florida’s growing influence as a global trade center and base of operations for Latin America are all contributing to the upturn.”

Sikaitis says people are returning to the area and considering Florida as a viable work and live alternative, something they did not consider in 2008 and 2009 due to the housing crisis limiting opportunities for jobs and income growth. But Florida markets are now surpassing the national average in private and professional and business (PBS) services job growth.

Jacksonville’s 5.9% annual increase in PBS jobs is among the largest in the nation, while Tampa’s 2.5%-plus annual growth in all measures shows signs of revival and diversification. Miami also surpasses both national expectations, increasing at around 1.9% overall annually. This growth was one of the most surprising economic trends Sikaitis witnessed in Florida.

“Employment levels have not only grown over a period of time, but in recent months have substantially outperformed the national economy and recovery,” he says. “As a result, the office market has seen demand shoot up in the majority of markets, helping to provide an overall bottom to rent prices, which are still well below 2007 peaks but are no longer falling in most segments.”

Since their pre-recession peaks, housing markets within the Sunbelt have experienced drastic reductions in price and sale volume, far greater than any other region of the United States. In most cases, these housing markets have yet to begin recovery, JLL reports. However, as a result of positive office demand growth, employment and migration indicators, there is a strong chance that most of these geographies are hitting their market low and will soon begin to recover, if this has not begun already.

“Even with these positive shifts, most of these geographies are two to three years away from returning to pre-2007 levels,” Sikaitis says. “So, while we are upbeat about the recovery for these markets, we remain realistic and guarded in the fact that we are not yet back to 2006 territory and likely will not be until the 2014-2015 timeframe.”