Tampa Bay Informer - Business
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Clearwater’s City Councilmen and Chamber of Commerce staff cut ribbon with store manager. (left to right) George Mesmer, Doug Linder, George Cretekos, Shelley Jaffe, Paul Gibson, John Doran, Kathleen Peters and Chuck Warrington (of Clearwater Gas). Photo by Ian Phoenix.

Peter Gillham’s Nutrition Center - 30 Years of Dedication to Downtown Clearwater

Clearwater, FL (March 2009) - Thirty years ago, Peter Gillham opened up his first nutrition center in downtown Clearwater in the old Gray Moss Inn. Downtown has gone through many changes since that time and so has Peter Gillham’s store. The location might have changed (alas, the Gray Moss is no more) but the same dedication to the community persists yet today. Recently, the company held a Grand Opening for the newly-created PG’s Café which brings an Organic Juice Bar to the downtown area for the first time.

The hottest new place to go in downtown is PG’s Café! This natural and organic juice bar features freshly-made juices and smoothies with only top quality organic ingredients. There are also build-it-yourself salads where customers can take advantage of organic produce and toppings to make the healthy yet tasteful meal of their choice. I am told that the homemade dressings are completely yummy.

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Eco Friendly Boutique WareHaus Downtown Clearwater

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Warehaus Eco-Friendly “Adornable” Boutique

Nestled in a cozy shop on Laura Street, just next door to Intuition Salon and Spa, lies the WareHaus Boutique. It is positively one of the most “adornable” new boutiques to crop up recently in Downtown Clearwater. Offering “treasured objects and wearable art”, the store specializes in unique vintage pieces and locally-designed clothing, jewelry, handbags and scarves. Browsing the store one is sure to find one-of-a-kind pieces, hand made with care.

WareHaus Boutique was founded by Renee Cornish and Geri Aranjo in November of 2008, as a place for local artists and designers to display and sell their wares. “My purpose behind it was to provide a real artists’ outlet. There are so many artists and fashion designers around and we know it’s hard to really get out there and have that first step up,” says Renee.

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Smokin Out BBQ Downtown Clearwater FL

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Smokin Out Grill.jpg Slow Cookin’…
That’s the Ticket

Downtown Clearwater, FL  (March 2009) - “His BBQ. It’s that good” is Jill Gutterman’s immediate response when asked why she and husband Ajay decided to open up their restaurant “Smokin’ Out”. “We found that we had a good product and we wanted to give it a shot,” adds Ajay, humbly. “We were tired of working for other people. It was kind of a shot in the dark and it worked.”

Since their grand opening in December, business has been going well for them. “Lunches are really good,” says Jill. “Lunches are usually full. We fill up the place” adds Ajay. “Our lunch special is the pork sandwich or the chicken sandwich. It’s a sandwich, chips and a drink for $5.49. We offer that through the week. It’s cheap, it’s inexpensive, and it’s fast, friendly service.” Their goal is to get you in and out at lunch while giving you a good meal.

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Patrick Valtin

CRISIS BUSTER TIPS for Business Owners and Sales Professionals

How to negotiate your way through rough times if your life depends on selling something – Part One

1. DISAGREE

“Honest disagreement is often a good sign of progress.” – Mahatma Gandhi
You will find that people who continue to do well during challenging times are not luckier or stronger or even smarter.  They are mostly more persistent and they refuse to lose. In other words, they disagree. The best examples are patients who were affected by some “incurable” cancer and yet recovered – against all medical expectations. The only common denominator that could be found in these people was exactly that: they disagreed with giving up!

You can make your own future and you can win the battles of life to the degree that you have the guts to disagree. So remember this principle: When trouble arises, it is just a test of your ability and willingness to make things go right. Just disagree!

2. IGNORE THE BAD NEWS
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Pam Ryan Anderson. REAL ESTATE REALITY

ATTENTION: First-Time Home Buyers!

Clearwater, FL (March 2009) - The American Recovery and Reinvestment Act of 2009 authorizes a tax credit of up to $8,000 for qualified first-time homebuyers that purchase a home between January 1, 2009 and December 1, 2009 and that they will occupy as their main or primary residence.

Even though this tax credit only counts for a primary residence, it may be a single family home such as a townhome, condominium, villa, manufactured home and even houseboats.

A first-time home buyer is defined as anyone that has not owned a home for three years prior to the current purchase of a home.  This means that if a married couple would like to qualify for this program, that neither of them could have owned a home for three years.

Depending also on your income, the tax credit is equal to 10% of the purchase price up to a maximum of $8,000.   There are income limitations that apply and can lower or eliminate the tax credit, depending on how much money the buyer makes.

It is very easy to claim the tax credit; you simply claim it on your federal income tax return!

 

 

 

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Green LogoClearwater, FL (February 2009) - Did you know that a local Clearwater company has prevented over a quarter of a million non-destructible, non-degradable laser toner cartridges from being thrown into landfills?

Malvern Group Cartridge Services has been providing Tampa Bay businesses with name brand and remanufactured toner cartridges for over a decade. They collect your empties and send them off to be remanufactured by an ISO 9001 certified and STMC Independent lab (that tests for yields, print quality and reliability) certified manufacturer.

When they collect your empties, they bring a high quality cartridge to replace it. They not only make it easy to be green, they save you up to 50% over the name brand cartridge. Malvern says it cannot be a mistake to save meaningful dollars if you don’t sacrifice yield, dependability and quality. Malvern’s warranty is provided in writing. “We stand behind our products 100% say, Mike & Lynn Farrell”, owners of Malvern.

Malvern is also an Authorized Samsung Copier and Kobra Shredder dealer here in Tampa Bay. They also offer copier, fax, and laser printer repair. Don’t be so quick to toss a well-built laser printer into a landfill. Often times a simple repair is all it needs.

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Pam Ryan AndersonClearwater, FL (Feb. 4, 2009) - This is an interesting question that I’ve been asked several times recently, so I finally called the Property Appraiser’s Office to find out for myself.

Now, before I tell you the answer, I want to clarify a few terms.

Appraised Value – This is done by an Appraiser hired to determine the value of a home when it has been sold, when it is being re-financed, or to determine the market value of a home.

Just Market Value – This is the term the Property Appraiser’s Office uses for the fair market value of a property. (This is usually broken up into two parts—the Just Market Land which is how much your land is currently worth, and Just Market Improved which is how much your home or building, is worth currently without the land value.  Then there is Total Assessment, and it’s the two values added together.

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Patrick V. Valtin is an international sales & marketing consultant and management coach. He has trained over 75,000 people in more than 25 countries. He recently was lecturing in Athens, invited by AMT Management.
Patrick V. Valtin is an international sales & marketing consultant and management coach. He has trained over 75,000 people in more than 25 countries. He recently was lecturing in Athens, invited by AMT Management.

Do you want to survive and be able to experience expansion while everybody else believes this is the worst economic crisis ever – and is set to last for the rest of their life? If your answer is yes, then follow these 3 steps:

RULE NUMBER ONE:

IF YOU KNOW YOUR HISTORY, YOU HAVE NO REASON FOR WORRY! The current economic crisis is just a repetition of the past. Don’t you remember “Black Monday”? It refers to Monday, October 19, 1987, when stock markets around the world crashed. The Black Monday decline was the largest one-day percentage decline in stock market history. But all world stock markets rallied in less than 1.5 year.

Moving forward, you may recall the 1991-1992 world crisis right after the Gulf War: huge peaks in oil prices, a steep decline in the commercial real estate market and a credit crisis (following the infamous savings and loan collapses of the late 1980s). This crisis ended in 1994 and world stock markets hit top values in less than 2 years.

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Find Your Tax Deductions

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Charlotte Anderson Take Time to Find Your Tax Deductions!

Clearwater FL - Tax time is just around the corner, so you will be putting together the data you, or your tax preparer, will need to prepare your tax return. While assembling the data you can dig out information to help you keep more of your hard-earned money! Here are seven tips you can use to add to your tax deductions and SAVE when the return is filed.

1. Donations to Charity: Donating cash, property, clothing, household items or other goods is a great way to get a tax break and help a worthy cause at the same time. If you donated cash to an eligible charity this year, you can generally deduct up to 50% of your total income when you pay your taxes in April.

Important reminder: Under the newPension Protection Act, as of January 1, 2007 you need a written receipt for all charitable donations, regardless of the amount. So make sure you save receipts so you can take full advantage of your charitable giving.

2. Deductible Expenses: Do you have medical bills, state and local taxes, mortgage payments, or property taxes? If so, any payments you made before December 31are deductible on this year’s tax return. Making an extra mortgage payment or paying off outstanding dental or medicalbills is a great way to offset your tax bill. Just make sure you aren’t subject to the Alternative Minimum Tax (which generally applies to high-income or upper-middle income households) and that you plan to itemize your deductions.

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Angies Restaurant Clearwater FL. Debora Harris, Louis (Louie) Chaconas, and Carmen Wolter. Photo by Simaen SkolfieldWhere everybody knows your name, and they’re always glad you came...


One of Downtown’s not so best kept secrets...

Clearwater FL, December 31, 2008 - Angie’s Restaurant, located on the corner of Myrtle and Cleveland St. has been serving Clearwater delicious home cooked meals for over 35 years.

Angie Chaconas, who took over the diner in the 70’s, gave the restaurant to her son Louis roughly 11 years ago. “Yes, I own it,” states Louis. “But Mom’s still in charge.” Retirement planning does not exist for Angie Chaconas who proudly expressed that she finds joy in hard work. With so much to do in running a restaurant, and making sure each customer is served a hot home‑cooked meal, leaving with a full belly and a smile of their face; happiness at Angie’s is not in short supply.

Prior to the Myrtle Ave. and Cleveland Streetscape construction project (3 years ago), Angie’s Restaurant was open 24 hours a day, 7 days a week. However, with the rerouting of traffic away from Cleveland Street and road closures, less customers came and Angie’s Restaurant reduced their hours; closing at 3:00pm. Now that the construction is over and Downtown Clearwater is seeing increased traffic, popular demand from customers warranted the decision to increase the restaurant hours to stay open until 8:00pm. “There used to be a time…” Angie

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Lessons of The Great Depression

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Financial Crisis Is There an AnswerTo Promote or Not to Promote  Lessons of The Great Depression

We’ve all read the recent Chicken Little headlines about the economy and where it’s going. It’s pretty easy to have one’s own optimism and confidence shattered by such gloom and doom. These pronouncements are the equivalent of being hit over the head with a cudgel: the reality of how bad things are seems quite convincing. It’s natural in face of such “news” to duck and go from offense to defense.

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Real Estate News Clearwater Florida

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FINALLY, SOME GOOD REAL ESTATE NEWS!

From my personal experience, I’ve been noticing that my listings are being shown more, and that prices seem to be stabilizing. Buyers are poking
out their heads again, that they are finding that the water is fine!

Even the National Association of Realtors is reporting that existing home sales in Florida increased in October, actually by 15% over last September. Condo sales are also up, but not so drastic, with a 5% increase over last year.

Last October’s median home price was $222,200 and this October’s median home price was $169,700. That is a 24 percent decrease in one year.

Prices had flown out of reach very quickly, and this adjustment, although painful to homeowners that now owe more on their home that it is worth, is really good news to people looking to buy.

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The Royalty aka Capitol Theatre right across the Street from the new Waters Edge Complex Downtown Clearwater FL. Photo by Ian PhoenixRuth Eckerd Hall Restores “Capitol”

Clearwater FL, December 31, 2008 - Downtown Clearwater is undeniably expanding. With the recent sprouting of  towering condos and tasty restaurants, the city’s growth can no longer be hidden. The downtown area is now expanding in a new direction. A performing arts center.

From the penthouse of the Waters Edge building, Mayor Frank Hibbard and Robert Freedman on behalf of Ruth Eckerd Hall delightedly announced Ruth Eckerd Hall’s purchase of The Royalty Theatre, with the intention of  injecting Downtown Clearwater with a shot of culture. The creation of a performing arts center is expected to stimulate the economy of Downtown Clearwater by increasing and strengthening the arts presence which in turn  will draw people and businesses to the downtown area, hopefully creating the right environment in which private businesses can prosper.

The Royalty Theatre will be returning to its roots, as well as its original name, The Capitol Theatre. “I’m starting that trend right now,” joked Mayor Hibbard. The name of the theatre changed to The Royalty Theatre in the 1990’s when it was purchased by The Royalty Theatre, a local community theatre company.

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The Vintage Lofts Opens With Excitement

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The Luxury Apartment Community Sets a New Standard for Quality Living in Tampa

Tampa FL  December 11, 2008 - With the opening last month of The Vintage Lofts in the historic district of West Tampa better known as Hyde Park North, a new standard has officially been set. Developed by the Zaremba Group, The Vintage Lofts host six fabulous buildings, four stories each with 249, class-A apartment homes. The community is now the area's premier destination for luxury living. With two beautifully furnished models now open and luxurious apartment homes ready for immediate occupancy, it provides residents a highly convenient, upscale lifestyle less than one mile from downtown Tampa.

"This is a community truly like no other," comments Barbara Favreau, Property Manager at The Vintage Lofts. "Everything about it is outstanding…from the beautifully designed models to the lavish landscaping to the amazing location. It's already becoming a very popular community in the short time we have been open."

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Paul Tang-neil  Rauenhorst-City of Clearwater Mayor Frank Hibbard

Aqualea and Hyatt Regency Clearwater Beach Resort & Spa celebrate topping out with local dignitaries

Luxury resort and condominiums to be centerpiece of Clearwater’s Beach Walk project

Clearwater, FL. ­  December 18, 2008 – Today, city officials, developers and Hyatt executives gathered to celebrate the rise of Clearwater’s newest full-scale resort, Aqualea and Hyatt Regency Clearwater Beach Resort & Spa. The “topping out” provided a dramatic preview of the luxury resort condominium hotel being touted as the centerpiece of the city’s highly acclaimed Beach Walk revitalization project.

“Clearwater Beach is positioned to become one of the country’s most attractive vacation destinations, and we are extremely proud to be part of its renaissance,” said Neil Rauenhorst, President and CEO of NJR Development Co. LLC, and developer of the project. “Aqualea and Hyatt Regency Clearwater Beach Resort & Spa will bring an elevated level of luxury and grandeur to the area that will be virtually unsurpassed on Florida’s Gulf Coast beaches.”

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Junior AchievementTAMPA BAY TO HOST U.S. BUSINESS HALL OF FAME 2009 Laureates announced – Outback Steakhouse and Publix Super Markets Founders to be honored

Tampa, FL December 18, 2008. – Junior Achievement today announced four laureates who will be inducted into the U.S. Business Hall of Fame on March 5, 2009, at a black-tie gala at the Tampa Marriott Waterside Hotel. The 2009 laureates were selected by a committee comprised of JA Worldwide directors and previous inductees of the U.S. Business Hall of Fame. Criteria for induction include business excellence, courageous thinking and actions, vision and innovation, inspiring leadership, and philanthropy.

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