The Tampa Bay Beaches Chamber of Commerce has named Theresea Crane its 2023 Tourism Person of the Year. Crane is a senior account executive for Duke Energy and oversees the hospitality industry, municipal and several commercial accounts. She also served on boards for the Tampa Bay Women in Tourism, the Tampa Bay Beaches Chamber, Florida Restaurant and Lodging Association and Empath Health Hospice, and co-founded the Bay Area Concierge Association.
St. Petersburg-based company Spoor Bunch Franz, one of the area’s most prominent accounting practices, is opening an office in Knoxville, Tennessee as its first satellite office after one of its employees, Alexia Pappas, moved there. Pappas and another SBF employee are currently work in a co-working space west of downtown Knoxville. SBF hasn't identified the new office location, but said it will be in the heart of the city.
Sarah Schellhase, a senior biomedical engineering senior at the University of South Florida, recently won $20,000 for Meditrack GEO at Florida Blue’s 10th annual pitch competition. Schellhase emerged from 14 finalists representing six universities. The USF Center for Entrepreneurship hosted the event at the USF Health Center for Advanced Medical Learning and Simulation in downtown Tampa.
A University of South Florida researcher and professor has set a record for the longest time spent living underwater without depressurization. Saturday, May 13, marked Dr. Joseph Dituri’s 74th day at Jules’ Undersea Lodge, located 30 feet below the surface in Key Largo. He plans to continue conducting research from the facility until June 9, which will mark 100 days underwater.
Three Tampa eateries received the city’s first Michelin stars Thursday. South Tampa’s Koya, Tampa Heights’ Rocca and Water Street’s Lilac received the prominent designation, which denotes a standard of excellence in the restaurant industry. Anonymous Michelin inspectors did not visit any Pinellas County establishments, as Visit St. Pete-Clearwater was not part of the agencies that facilitated bringing the guide to Florida.
A 2021 economic analysis by the Tampa Bay Regional Planning Council found that small businesses account for $17 billion of Pinellas County’s $51 billion economic output. However, many small business owners remain unaware of significant incentives and programs to boost their companies and support their workforce. CareerSource Pinellas officials will discuss those local resources through webinar series starting Tuesday, May 16. For more information, visit the website here.
The University of South Florida’s honor students will no longer gather in the oldest building on the Tampa Campus. School officials formally opened the Judy Genshaft Honors College Friday, named after the former president who stepped down in 2019. She and her husband, Steven Greenbaum, contributed $20 million to the 85,000-square-foot, $56 million mixed-use building that will house around 2,500 students.
The Compass Group, which manages over $1 billion of client assets from Wells Fargo Advisors, joined the RIA DayMark Wealth Partners group, which is affiliated with St. Petersburg-based Dynasty Financial Partners. The new team includes Kimberly Fitzgerald (senior director of client relations), Jacquelyn Gibbons (director of client relations) and Karen Suskowicz (director of client relations), according to a Wednesday press release. DayMark Wealth Partners is an RIA based in Cincinnati, Ohio and now has approximately over 2.5 billion in assets under management via the new acquisition.
U.S. News & World Report has ranked St. Petersburg’s Stetson Law as the nation’s best school for trial advocacy. The institution’s legal writing program placed third nationally in the annual rankings. The College of Law’s overall ranking jumped from No. 111 to No. 84 this year.
According to a pollution notice, a Clearwater wastewater treatment plant malfunction caused around 500,000 gallons of untreated wastewater to pour onto the ground and into a manhole that leads to Stevenson Creek. The spill lasted about two hours Tuesday night. Stevenson Creek empties into Clearwater Harbor, and in April, about 45,000 gallons of reclaimed water flowed into Boca Ciega Bay after a Duke Energy contractor broke a pipe doing construction work.
Mutts and Martinis, a new concept that combines a dog park and a full-service bar into one location, will debut May 26 at 2900 Central Ave. The Mutts and Martinis concept is the brainchild of the operator behind the Love My Dog Resorts and the Love My Dog Grooming and Boutique businesses in St. Petersburg.
The Pinellas County Economic Development team received two awards in the past four days for its Employment Sites Program. The initiative won a Tampa Bay Regional Planning Council Future of the Region award under the economy & energy category May 5. The 10-year economic development capital incentive program’s first complete project - Booker Creek South - received the Florida Economic Development Council’s Urban Deal of the Year award May 9.
