St. Pete Emeritus: Mario Farias

As he steps away from the city he’s called home for nearly six decades, Mario Farias is looking back with a mixture of pride, wistfulness and the satisfaction of a job well done.

“My father always told me that legacy isn’t something isn’t something to leave to somebody, it’s what you leave in somebody,” he said. “And over these years I’ve been able to mentor young entrepreneurs and help found a great company.

“I look around at different things and know that I’ve had a hand in those. And that’s legacy.”

Farias Consulting Group will continue even as Farias and his wife Susan pull up stakes for Hickory, North Carolina this week.

It’s not retirement, Farias insisted. “I’m re-allocating my time. At 68, I’m not going to continue the pace that I’ve been running the last 15 years.”

An economic strategy development firm, Farias Consulting Group specializes in public/private partnerships, helping new businesses connect and form relationship with governmental entities and make progress. They’re proficient at clearing red tape.

As representatives for Harborage Marina, the company helped built the first mega-yacht marina on Florida’s west coast. They’ve built affordable housing units, apartments and retail. The FCG team, Farias explained, has experience in renewable energy, marketing, transportation, hospitality and international business.

“I’ve surrounded myself with people who understand government. And I understand the business end, because I’ve been an entrepreneur since I was a very young age. We’ve been able to build that bridge, between business and government, just to facilitate. I guess I’m a facilitator – that’s probably the best description of what I do.”

Other FCG clients include Marinetek NA, Angelo’s Recycling and St. Petersburg’s Commerce Park.

While Farias will no longer serve as Managing Partner, he will remain a stockholder in FCG. He will also continue as managing partner at The Big Catch at Salt Creek restaurant, which he and several business partners opened in 2019.

He is Board Chair of the Shirley Proctor Fuller Foundation, which creates educational opportunities for traditionally underserved South St. Petersburg youth.

The move to North Carolina – where Mario and Susan will be close to their much-loved 3-year-old grandson – is permanent, but, Farias insisted, merely “transitional” at this early stage.

“We have some important projects going on with the marina right now, which will require me to come back to St. Pete about every other week, for a couple of days,” he explained.

“So I’ll remain with the projects I have now, but we’re taking nothing on in St. Petersburg after this. We’re involved in several projects in Kissimmee, but I have another team on that.

“My focus will be mainly the marina, and work with the Innovation District to get re-zoning for multi-use development. Stuff that I like doing, instead of having to do.”

Eventually, he admits, those projects “will wind down. And at that time I will wind down. St. Pete will always be my love and my home. St. Pete made me, from elementary school all the way on, and gave me a really bright career here at the end.”

His father, Mario Farias Sr., was a Portuguese immigrant who spent his early American years in Connecticut; he moved his wife and two young sons to St. Petersburg in the mid 1960s, when Mario Jr. was 10.

As owner/proprietor of the Astor Hotel and Mike’s Happy Lounge/Mario’s Bar downtown, Farias Sr. instilled in his boys both a strong work ethic and a sense of community pride.

Younger brother Rui Farias taught high school history for many years, and is the director of the St. Petersburg Museum of History. It was Chris Steinocher of the Chamber of Commerce who observed: “There’s one brother who protects the past, and one brother who looks at the future.”

Mario Farias is optimistic about St. Petersburg’s future. “I love the skyscrapers downtown,” he said. “It shows growth, and vertical growth is always smart growth.

“But I believe that every time there’s a development like that, it should have a master plan. And that master plan should envelope everything that’s needed in that neighborhood, be it recreation, be it offices, doctor’s offices and all sorts of different housing. I think there’s a place for everything if it’s master planned.”

Still, he added, “My fear for St. Petersburg always is that we lose the identity that made us great.”

He feels as if he’s “left his mark” on his beloved city, and can put it in the rearview mirror. “I’m leaving St. Petersburg physically, but I don’t know if I’ll ever leave St. Petersburg,” Farias stressed.

“There’s parts of me that are going to stay here. I’m just doing what’s best for my family.”