Southeast Fla. Yearbook 2009

Businesses to Watch

» Laurence F. Davenport Jr., executive director of the non-profit Business Loan Fund of the Palm Beaches in West Palm Beach, went to Washington in February to tell Congress about the virtues of community lenders like the Business Loan Fund. It’s a microlender (loans usually less than $35,000) and also does small-business loans and provides technical assistance throughout the Treasure Coast to “the ultimate mom-and-pops.” He’s seeing more businesses coming for help in keeping the doors open and more people downsized out of a job looking to form their own companies. Unlike banks, the Business Loan Fund deploys its cash. “If I get $1 million, 85% of it’s going to be out in the street rather quickly,” Davenport says.

» SV Microwave of West Palm Beach expects to grow about 15% this year. It posted $24 million in revenue last year and has 125 employees, with plans to hire another 12 over the next two years. Under general manager Subi Katragadda, SV makes high-performance microwave components, cables and connectors used primarily in defense and aerospace.

Boca Raton ?

Largely built out as the building bubble inflated, Boca hasn’t had to dispose of new, unsold housing stock — a source of suffering for the rest of the region. Aside from that, though, says Ward Kellog, chairman and CEO of Boca-based Paradise Bank, “the rest of us are in the same boat” as the nation. Boca has known worse times. In the mid-1990s, after IBM pulled out thousands of jobs, Boca had the nation’s highest office vacancy rate.

At Paradise, a commercial lender, Kellog is seeing business owners reluctant to expand until they’re sure of the economy, but he’s also seeing signs of a bottom: Commercial property selling below its construction cost, and buyers purchasing ultra-high-end houses. His commercial bank opened a branch in Delray Beach in February and expects to finish a Fort Lauderdale branch soon. “This is certainly a bad cycle,” he says, but “we’ve seen cycles before.”

Person to Watch

» Sam Zietz’s business, American Bancard, may be something of a business barometer for 2009. One of the fastest-growing businesses in Florida through 2007 with $15.3 million in revenue and 105 employees, American Bancard provides both merchant credit card services and point-of-sale/management systems for small businesses. A few months ago, Zietz rolled out a touch-screen, easy-to-use point-of-sale system for small retailers who until now couldn’t afford the systems that big box retailers used. “It’s gotten phenomenal response. Three weeks ago, a client sent us a cake. It’s been overwhelming, the positive feedback.” Zietz says sales and leasing performance will have a lot to do with the overall economy. Factoring — lending to companies based on their accounts receivable — tumbled with the credit freeze, and his head count fell to 50. “In the next three to six months it’s going to explode — as soon as credit thaws.”

Business to Watch

» Campus Management is expanding its campus and adding 60 jobs in software development, support and other fields over the next two years, adding to the nearly 260 it already employs in Boca Raton and the total of nearly 500 worldwide. The 21-year-old company supplies software products and services to 1,200 colleges, universities and non-profit organizations.

Tags: Southeast