Ferg’s Sports Bar & Grill — a longtime staple on St. Petersburg’s main drag — is USA Today’s best local sports bar of 2025. The two-block establishment is across the street from Tropicana Field, where the Tampa Bay Rays will return for their 2026 season following post-hurricane stadium repairs. With its 90-plus TVs, craft beer, burgers and wings, and live music, Ferg’s large crowds speak for themselves. Bottoms up!
TAMPA’S LEADING LADIES:
$918 million
— The combined revenue that Tampa Bay’s women-owned businesses raked in during 2024, according to the Tampa Bay Business Journal. Clearwater-based PostcardMania reigned as the top-earning firm, bringing in more than $119 million — a 165% increase from 2015.
ENVIRONMENT
- The Southwest Florida Water Management District purchased the 974-acre Kirkland Ranch in the Wesley Chapel area for $30.8 million, reserving it for conservation land.
- Mote Marine Laboratory & Aquarium opened three research facilities dedicated to reversing Florida’s seagrass decline. They comprise a new research compound at the Mote Aquaculture Research Park in Sarasota.
- A hodgepodge of government, private and nonprofit entities permanently protected 2,317 acres along Lake Kissimmee’s shores at Eagle Haven Ranch.
BANKING
- St. Petersburg’s BayFirst Financial Corp., the parent company of BayFirst National Bank, exited the SBA lending business with the $103-million sale of its loan balances to Miami-based Banesco USA.
EDUCATION
- The U.S. Army awarded a five-year, $85-million contract to the University of South Florida that will fund research across 16 subjects, including cybersecurity, biotechnology and quantum sciences.
- A $200-million high school is coming to about 88 acres of Lakewood Ranch in Manatee County by August 2027.
FILM
- Film Tampa Bay has partnered with online education platform Stage 32 to offer a free hybrid training program in production assisting to 12 local filmmakers.
ENERGY
- Lakeland Electric will become the first utility in the country to pilot a 5-megawatt power generation system that runs on solar thermal energy and liquid nitrogen.
DEVELOPMENT
- James Nozar, the former CEO of Tampa-based commercial real estate firm Strategic Property Partners, is now president of development at Kettler, the Virginia-based company building the 50-acre Gasworx development in Ybor City.
- After a $54-million capital improvement project, the renovated and expanded Bradenton Area Convention Center opened this fall with 95,000 square feet of conference space.
MANUFACTURING
- Palm Beach Gardens-based Chromalloy opened a second manufacturing facility in Oldsmar, the $30-million project creating aerospace components and hundreds of jobs.
- Pharmaceutical developer and manufacturer Catalent moved its corporate headquarters from New Jersey to 12,000 square feet in downtown Tampa.
SPORTS
- Tampa-based Suncoast Credit Union secured the naming rights for the Tampa Bay Sun Football Club’s soccer field at Blake High School in Tampa.
STARTUPS
- Startup accelerator Tampa Bay Innovation Center named Rebecca Brown — a former Goldman Sachs executive — its new CEO.
HEALTH CARE
- With a $500,000 planning grant from Bloomberg Philanthropies, the Pasco County school district is partnering with AdventHealth to design a health care-focused high school program.
- The Lee Health hospital system is launching an obstetrics and gynecology residency program with Florida State University’s College of Medicine at Cape Coral Hospital.
HOTELS
- Moffitt Cancer Center and Tampa-based Mainsail Lodging & Development will open a 200-room, $84-million hotel on Moffitt’s McKinley Campus by 2028.
TECHNOLOGY
- Ossio, an orthopedic medtech company founded in Israel, has established its U.S. headquarters in Palmetto.
HOUSING
- Atlanta developer Brook Farm Group will bring a 217- unit multifamily community — the Sinclair at Ellenton — to 14 acres of north Manatee County by 2027.
- Miami-based Lennar Homes plans to build Anclote Townhomes, a subdivision of 190 townhomes, on agricultural land in Pasco County.
GOVERNMENT
- Manatee County purchased the 39-acre Mixon Fruit Farms for $13.5 million, planning to incorporate educational programs, community-based agriculture and library services into the property that started as a fruit stand in 1939.
Change on the Runway
After three decades piloting the Sarasota Bradenton International Airport, president and CEO Rick Piccolo retired on Nov. 30. His replacement, as voted unanimously by the Sarasota Manatee Airport Authority Board: Paul Hoback Jr., a 25-year leader in the aviation industry who will now shepherd the fast-growing airport through its next era. Hoback — whose background is outlined below — started his journey at SRQ in October. Piccolo will play an advisory role until June 30, 2026.
EDUCATION: BS (mechanical engineering) and MBA from Geneva College, a private Christian school in Pennsylvania
MOST RECENT JOB: Executive vice president and chief development officer for the Allegheny County Airport Authority in Pennsylvania, and operator of Pittsburgh International Airport
BY THE NUMBERS: Hoback oversaw a $1.7-billion new terminal program at Pittsburgh International Airport that generated $2.5 billion in economic impact for western Pennsylvania.
New USF Prez
The University of South Florida’s Board of Trustees unanimously chose Moez Limayem, president of the University of North Florida and a previous dean of USF’s business college, to be USF’s next president. Florida’s Board of Governors, which oversees the state university system, is expected to vote on his appointment in late January.