Bernard "Robin" Baker, III, golf attorney, is busy these days, thanks to two trends: Golf course development is booming, but participation in the sport is flat. Baker, 52, says the "weird imbalance" in golf course usage is evident nationwide, but especially in southeast Florida, where his employer, West Palm Beach firm Gunster, Yoakley, Valdes-Fauli & Stewart, is based. It's happening not only at the posh golf resorts, he says, but in golfing communities as well.
Baker has a few of his own ideas for solving the problems of aging membership, dwindling participation and economic pressure. "The cost of operating the facilities is becoming increasingly burdensome on a smaller group of people. At the same time, hoteliers in these communities are screaming for golf facilities for their guests," Baker says. "There ought to be a way to integrate a small amount of high-end, hotel-driven, daily-fee golf play into a golf course community that is right for it."
He also believes that resort operators and upscale hotels with golf courses can earn significant revenue by selling memberships to local residents. "If you can get people in there who are willing to pay dues on a year-round basis, that helps maintain a stable flow of people," Baker says.
He works with clubs in the U.S., the Caribbean, Europe and South Africa. So far, few have tried bringing in pre-qualified outsiders. But Baker remains convinced his "on-the-edge'' concepts will work. Meanwhile, as one of two senior partners in his firm's leisure and resorts practice group, Baker is a sought-after speaker at industry seminars.
Cruise Ships: Offshore Shopping
Philip Levine, 38, who once had a job as Royal Caribbean Cruise Line's first-ever port lecturer, never lost his love of the cruise business even after becoming a big-bucks investment banker for Drexel Burnham Lambert in the late 1980s. Still in his 20s, eager to ditch his pinstripes and wingtips, Levine sold Carnival Cruise Lines on the idea of onboard shopping promotions, and a new industry was born.
After a year-and-a-half stint as Carnival's manager of onboard revenue, Levine started the company now known as Onboard Media in a makeshift office above the News Cafe in South Beach.
Convinced that he could develop more elaborate promotions for other cruise lines, he put his skill at cold-call selling to good use. Before long, Onboard Media was producing in-room magazines and videos for cruise ships, hotels and casinos. In 1995, Levine established Cruise Management International (CMI) and -- as the result of another cold call -- joined forces with Park West Galleries to conduct live art auctions at sea. "We went onboard one cruise ship and did $100,000 in sales the first week," he says.
In 1998, with yet another cold call, Levine engineered a deal with Berkshire Partners that left him president and largest private shareholder in a new parent company, Miami Cruise Line Services Holdings, which owns Onboard Media and Cruise Management International as well as the duty-free store operator Greyhound Leisure Services. Its recent acquisitions include the cruise divisions of duty-free competitor Nuance and a Miami-based publishing competitor International Voyager Media.
Levine remains president of the two companies he founded, and plans to take Miami Cruise Line Services Holdings public this month.
Travel: New Worlds
Phil Bakes' young and rapidly expanding company, Far&Wide Travel Corp., aims to become the leading provider of "experiential" tours to destinations worldwide. Based in Miami and launched last March, Far&Wide already has acquired at least 13 tour operators, with combined revenues of more than $300 million. All the companies offer adventure-filled excursions to exotic locales from Latin America to Europe to the Far East. "At the beginning of last year, we had no products to sell. Now we have worldwide reach," says Bakes.
The company's aggressive acquisition strategy takes advantage of fragmentation in the $20-billion tour industry and targets travel producers lacking the resources and Internet technology to market their products. "There are 5,000 tour operators listed under Dun & Bradstreet, but you're hard-pressed to name any of them," says Bakes. "We are taking once-in-a-lifetime kinds of trips that were designed and produced by small companies and bringing resources to them so they can be made available to more people. This has never been done before," he says.
Among the company's most recent acquisitions is Grand European Tours of Lake Oswego, Ore., offering senior citizens in-depth itineraries and leisurely stays in France, Ireland, Scotland, Germany, Portugal, Greece, Turkey and Italy. Two other acquisitions specialize in cultural and educational trips. Far&Wide Travel is the realization of a life-long dream for Bakes, 53, who was a Watergate special prosecutor in the 1970s, served both Continental Airlines and Eastern Airlines as president in the 1980s, and founded the Miami-based merchant banking firm Sojourn Enterprises in 1990.
Far&Wide is no shoestring operation. The company has $115 million earmarked for acquisitions and growth -- the financial backing comes from Wellspring Capital Management LLC, its lead investor and majority owner, and from a group of banks led by BankBoston.
Entertainment: Cinema Magic
His bio reads like a movie script. Clutching a suitcase and $700, Hamid Hashemi flees his native Iran in 1978 as the Shah is overthrown. The 19-year-old student buys black-market forms to get a visa and chases his dream of being a doctor to the U.S., where he learns English by watching TV and old movies. When the college he hopes to attend goes bankrupt, he turns to real estate -- buying, fixing up and reselling homes and commercial buildings. With his profits, he buys a small movie theater in 1984. He fails miserably, but learns there's more to the business than popping popcorn and taking tickets.
Fifteen years later, Hashemi, now 41, is one of south Florida's most successful entrepreneurs -- founder, president and CEO of Muvico Theaters. The fast-growing Fort Lauderdale-based chain of movie megaplexes has 118 screens in Florida, including an IMAX, and 364 more screens under development at 16 locations nationwide. Seven theaters with a total of 164 screens are set to open in Florida, Tennessee and Maryland this year.
Hashemi's theaters echo the glamour of the grand movie palaces of the 1930s and '40s with ornate themed interiors. He pampers moviegoers with expanded refreshment menus, coffee bars, valet parking, extra-wide stadium seating and wall-to-wall curved screens. "We just focused on giving people more than they think they deserve," he says.
The total entertainment package strategy seems to work. Hashemi won't divulge his company's bottom line, but claims Muvico's Egyptian-themed Paradise 24 in Broward County ranks fifth in the nation in attendance. One big draw: Muvico caters to parents with young children. Each megaplex offers on-site childcare for youngsters aged 3 to 8, supervised by moonlighting teachers. The service allows parents "to get in the car and come up to the movies any time they want. We're the only theater in the country that does that."
Meeting Planning: Making It E-asy
Gary Herman describes Worth International Communications Corp. as "a publisher of travel, and we think we understand it as well as anybody, if not better." Herman, 44, is a technology whiz with 15 years as a software designer and consultant who's at the cutting edge of the online service business. Herman won't give specifics, but says he's positioning a new company, Worth Technology, based in Orlando, to take advantage of the telecommunications revolution.
Miami Lakes-based Worth International publishes Recommend (a magazine for travel agents), the Florida International Travel Planner and the Florida Official Meeting Planners Guide. Herman's company operates the online version of the guide, the Internet Meeting Planners Site (flausameetings.com) a searchable data base of facilities and suppliers.
At the site, meeting planners enter company information and logistical requirements; the website provides a list of facilities and suppliers from which the planners can request proposals. More than 6,800 meeting planners have registered. Herman's brainchild has been copied by Meeting Planners International and by convention and visitors bureaus.
Another Herman creation is ARIS, the automated reader information system that immediately faxes an advertiser the name and phone number of callers who request information from computer fax-back programs. "We're very high-tech with fax broadcasting for our advertisers," he says.
Theme Parks: Elite Fun
Some theme park industry futurists see the future in ultimate-experience parks like Sea World's Discovery Cove, which opens in Orlando this year. Visitors will get personal attention -- not just from the dolphins they swim with, but from the park's staff. Each group of guests --reservations are required -- will be assigned its own tour guide. The price: $179, about four times as much as sister Sea World and nearby big-name parks.
Victor G. Abbey, 44, executive vice president and general manager of Sea World Orlando since 1997, has directed Sea World through the most aggressive expansion schedule in its 27-year history and now leads development of Discovery Cove. Abbey himself dictated that the package include a gourmet meal, swimming and snorkeling gear, personal guides and a week of unlimited visits to Sea World. "I thought it was important that, if we were going to charge $179, we offer terrific value," he says. International visitors get a bonus -- guides who speak their language. Abbey sees Discovery Cove's philosophy of personal service setting the industry standard. "We shouldn't work our guests so hard," he says, pledging no lines -- guides will serve food and drink on demand.
Just out of college in 1978, Abbey joined Anheuser-Busch Adventure Parks at Busch Gardens in Williamsburg, Va., where he served in various operations, financial management and corporate planning roles. Years later, he managed Anheuser-Busch's participation in Port Aventura, a $400-million theme park and resort project near Barcelona, Spain.
The acknowledged mastermind behind Discovery Cove refuses to take too much credit, however. "That goes to my management philosophy, which is to put together a team of very capable people and turn them loose," says Abbey.
Hotels: Higher Power
Larry Walker, 56, is president and COO of Cypress Companies, which owns or manages some 70 hotels and restaurants in six states. From one hotel in 1986, Walker and partner Tom McIntyre have built a hospitality empire. The company anticipates almost $140 million in sales this year from its three divisions, up from $80 million in 1999.
Cypress has been an industry leader in co-branding Denny's restaurants and hotels. It also has a real estate division, Signature Realty & Development Inc., that helps the other two divisions find sites. Cypress Hotel Management Company owns eight of the nine hotels it manages in Florida and Georgia under internationally recognized flags: Sheraton, Holiday Inn, Best Western and Travel Lodge.
Cypress Restaurant Management is the third-largest owner of Denny's franchises, with outlets in Florida, Georgia, Alabama, Tennessee, South Carolina and Virginia. It owns franchise rights to Houlihans on Florida's west coast and is developing new chains, including an upscale steak restaurant called Julians and An Tobar, an Irish pub.