GULF COAST
feBRuaRy 17 – feBRuaRy 23, 2012
Business Review
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an inventor’s deck of cards makes playing politics hilarious.
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READ‘EM & WEEP
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Attorneys on Trial
HOPE IN CAPE CORAL
How trial lawyers excel at squashing bills that prevent bad-faith lawsuits.
In ground zero of the bust, residential building rises again.
companies • trends • entrepreneurs • ceos
the weekly newspaper for Gulf coast Business leaders
a biotech firm with a cancer breakthrough awaits approval. can its financing last long enough to make it to market? PaGe 10
Mark Wemple
doug calder, sam duffey and carlos santos are members of the executive team at BioVest, a Tampa-based biotechnology firm.
GULF COAST BUSINESS BUZZ
+ franchise seeks to break out of its shell
Slowly but surely, the Greene Turtle will make its way to the Gulf Coast. The Greene Turtle is an Edgewater, Md.-based chain that bills itself as “equal parts sports bar and casual restaurant.” Tom
to the Gulf Coast, Finn expects to find Florida franchisees in Orlando and Jacksonville.
+ King back in private sector
Gary King says he’s glad to be back in the private sector after getting knocked out of the Cape Coral city manager’s job by newly elected union-backed city councilmen. “I’ve learned that what happened to me is fairly common to city managers,” says King. “The half-life of a city manager is not all that long.” King was city manager of
Cape Coral for less than two years. He was fired a month after union-backed candidates won office in November after he tried to contain the city’s budget. King, a veteran of the banking industry, says he became city manager of Cape Coral in Lee County because he lives there and was urged to take the post by conservative friends who believe in smaller government. “I stumbled into that quite by accident,” says King, who had retired from banking giant State Street when he moved to Cape Coral. The problem is that city managers often get fired when
there’s a change of leadership after elections. “You don’t get much time to get your program in place,” says King. “I fear they’re going to slip back in their old ways.” But King got more accomplished than many of his predecessors. For example, he saved the city $90 million in interest expense when he refinanced a portion of the city’s bonds at an opportune time last year. King recently joined Krise Commercial Group, a Fort Myers-based commercial real estate firm.
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Finn, head of franchise development for the company, says the Gulf Coast, especially the St. Petersburg and Tampa areas, are a big target in 2012. “We are in a pretty significant expansion mode,” Finn tells Coffee Talk. “We think the opportunity is very strong in Florida.” The chain was founded in 1976, initially as a beach joint in Ocean City, Md. It has since grown to become a sports bar haven, down to the TVs that line each booth. The chain is currently mostly in the northeast, with 30 locations in Delaware, Maryland, Washington, D.C., and Virginia. In addition