A High-Tech Vision

PACESETTER: A High-Tech Vision

Joel Ledlow talks at cyberspeed, especially when the topic turns to his vision of south Florida as a high-tech haven.

"There are like 700 tech companies here in south Florida. Not like Citrix, but little ones you've never heard of,'' says Ledlow, president of the South Florida Technology Alliance, a non-profit business forum for tech professionals to network and share ideas.

JOEL LEDLOW, 35

Founder and CEO, Acarra

High-tech booster: President of South Florida Technology Alliance and a director of InternetCoast, a promoter of regional tech interests.

Company: The Boca Raton-based firm helps high-tech ventures to chart and execute strategy and figure how to boost revenue and profits. Ledlow has one assistant and plans to add a corporate-development specialist.

Experience: Former vice president of sales in North America at CyberGuard Corp."We should improve the landscape for these sorts of businesses," says Ledlow, whose boyish face contrasts with a prematurely gray crop of hair. "How do we get tax money from Jeb? How do we rope in the universities?"

After stepping down last October as vice president of sales for North America at CyberGuard Corp., which is based in Fort Lauderdale, Ledlow planned to take some downtime "to go golfing and boating and spend two years playing," he says. "That lasted about a month, and I got antsy."

So by February, he launched Acarra, a fledgling consulting firm. He operates from an office in his Boca Raton home. His focus is to help budding high-tech businesses to refine strategies and boost sales and profits.

Instead of putting in venture capital, he says, "we're giving you time and talent." Ledlow seeks a retainer from clients, an equity stake and some sort of pay-for-performance incentive. Annualized revenue is $480,000, he says.

So far, he's lined up three high-tech clients: Authentium, West Palm Beach; NetClarity, North Chelmsford, Mass.; and SteelCloud, Herndon, Va.

"He's very sharp," says Gary Miliefsky, NetClarity's CEO. "He knows what resonates with IT managers. He's helped us create partnerships, and he's opened some doors to companies."

LEADERBOARD
>> Bonnie Biumi, formerly treasurer of Royal Caribbean Cruises, sailed over to NCL Corp. to become its CFO. She succeeds Lamarr Cooler, a 30-year veteran of NCL, parent of Norwegian Cruise Lines and other cruise lines.

>> Marcos D. Jimenez, former U.S. Attorney for the Southern District of Florida, joined Kenny Nachwalter P.A. as a shareholder. Jimenez, 45, will focus on civil and criminal litigation and trials.

>> Barbara Salk was promoted to senior vice president of The Related Group of Florida, and Arturo Peña was promoted to senior project manager at the Miami-based developer.

>> Alexander P. Heckler, 29, joined Shutts & Bowen as of counsel. Heckler, who was national finance co-chair for John Kerry's presidential campaign, will focus on government, land use and zoning.

>> RelationServe Media, a Fort Lauderdale marketing concern, tapped as its COO Ohad Jehassi, who was formerly director and COO of interactive marketing and sales for America Online's Latin America division.

CEO Spotlight:
Counting on SuccessGREG BLOUNT, 60

President & CEO / Tropical Financial Credit Union

Miramar

Not your father's credit union: Tropical Financial offers various services, comparable to a community bank. Besides bread-and-butter savings, checking and lending, it provides financial planning and investment management, even trust and estate planning.

Operations: Twenty branches, including 11 in stores such as Wal-Mart, Albertsons and Winn-Dixie in Broward, Miami-Dade, Palm Beach and Sarasota counties. More than 250 employees. Assets of $680 million.

Kudos: Tropical Financial was a 2005 recipient of the Florida Governor's Sterling Award for excellence and leadership.

Quality-management guru: "Continuous improvement is a core value here. It's our culture, the way we do business. All work is a process, and all processes can be improved."

Customers: Known as "members." The non-profit, member-owned cooperative is community chartered. That means the credit union is open to any local resident. It has 75,000 members.

Performance tracking: Blount obsessively measures customers' satisfaction with how employees deliver service and closely tracks employees' satisfaction with their jobs -- and their supervisors. "If employees don't feel good about what they're doing, you're not going to have the quality of service you want to deliver."

REAL ESTATE

>> Stephen A. Schwarzman's Blackstone Group, a private investment firm, bought the T-Rex Corporate Center at Yamato Road and I-95 in Boca Raton from T-Rex Capital for $193 million. T-Rex CEO Thomas M. Mulroy and President Clifford J. Preminger will keep a 10% stake in the 123-acre property, which has 1.7 million square feet of office space.

>> The Florida Department of Transportation agreed to pay developer Paul Murphy and partners $78 million for the 3.7-acre Opus One site in downtown Miami for future improvements to I-375. Murphy, who contracted to buy the land for $29 million in February 2004, planned three towers. Brigham Moore partner Juan Muñiz, who represented Murphy, said the developers would have sought $120 million to $140 million in a court battle. Land values "went through the roof and the sky above in downtown Miami over that year and a half," says Muñiz, adding that his client was about to obtain construction approval and had financing and significant presales.

>> The Altman Cos. of Boca Raton plans to build two 12-story condominium towers called Sapphire on the long-vacant site of the former Cleveland Clinic on A1A in Fort Lauderdale. The Miami architectural firm Kobi Karp designed the project.

HEADS UP: Another Boon for Developers

Cities expecting a wealth of new tax revenue from the boom in Florida real estate construction will have to bide their time.

A Florida Supreme Court ruling, which will save developers millions of dollars, says real-estate construction cannot be taxed until it is "substantially complete," meaning it can be "used for the purpose for which it was constructed."

The case began in 1997 when Sunset Harbour Condominium Association sued to challenge an assessment by the Miami-Dade County property appraiser. The condo group cited the "substantially complete" rule in the Florida statutes.

Municipalities argued that construction projects use fire, police and other services and should ante up, even if a building isn't finished on Jan. 1, when taxes are assessed.

The lower courts struck down the controversial statute, saying the Florida Constitution requires that all property be assessed at "fair market value." But the Florida Supreme Court reversed them and upheld the statute.

"It's a boon to developers," says Arnaldo Velez, a Coral Gables lawyer who represented Sunset Harbour.

>>PDA - Meetings & EventsDateEventLocationSept. 14-15HD Boutique Hospitality Design Trade ShowMiami Beach Convention Center & Loews Miami Beach HotelSept. 29South Florida Business Expo, Business to Business Expo & International Trade ShowEmbassy Suites Boca Raton HotelSept. 30-Oct. 2Cruise Lines International Association Cruise3SixtyFort Lauderdale/Broward County Convention Center

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