Hourly wages in the Tampa-St. Petersburg metro area were up 1.19 percent in December, compared to the previous year — the lowest increase among 20 large cities in the United States, according to the latest Paychex|IHS Markit Small Business Employment Watch. Nationally, hourly earnings growth closed the year at 3.07 percent. Hourly earnings averaged $24.64 in Tampa-St. Pete in December, compared to $27.64 nationwide and $25.05 in Florida. See the full survey results here.
The Tampa-St. Petersburg housing market is expected to outperform the national average in 2020, according to the Zillow Home Price Expectations Survey.The survey, sponsored by Zillow and conducted quarterly by Pulsenomics LLC, asked more than 100 economists, investment strategists and real estate experts to rate their 2020 expectations for home value growth compared to the nation in 25 large markets. On average, panelists said they expected U.S. home values to grow by 2.8 percent in 2020. In Tampa-St. Pete, 38 percent expected better performance than the national average, 53 percent expected the area to performa about the same, and 9 percent expect underperformance, for a total score of 29. Austin, Atlanta and Charlotte, scored highest among the panelists, with scores of 76, 59 and 51, respectively. See the full survey here.
Rich Heruska, accelerator director at Tampa Bay Wave, will transition out of his current role at Wave at the end of February. Heruska, a serial entrepreneur who joined Wave more than two years ago for what was supposed to be a 90-day consulting gig, is planning "the next chapter in his career," Linda Olson, Wave CEO, said in a Dec. 31 announcement. "I am extremely grateful for Rich’s leadership during an important period of transformation and growth for Tampa Bay Wave, and I am thrilled that Wave and the companies we serve will continue to benefit from his ongoing involvement beyond this transition," Olson wrote. Tampa Bay Wave, in downtown Tampa, is a nonprofit that houses and services technology startups. Heruska was the first guest on Startup Report; listen to that interview here.
Federal officials aren't raising any objections to the planned $6 billion sale of Tech Data Corp. (Nasdaq: TECD), a Clearwater-based IT distributor, to funds associated with Apollo Global Management. Both companies filed premerger notifications on Nov. 29 as required by the Hart-Scott-Rodino law, designed to alert regulators about planned mergers so they may perform a review of the action based on antitrust laws. The waiting period for a review expired late Dec. 26 satisfying one condition of the sale, Tech Data said in a Dec. 30 filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission. Provided Tech Data stockholders OK the sale and it receives other required regulatory approvals, the deal is set to close in the first half of 2020, when Tech Data, currently the largest publicly held company in the Tampa-St. Pete area, will become a private comapny.
To celebrate its 100 year anniversary, Rotary Club of St. Petersburg will raise $100,000 during 2020 for the St. Petersburg Free Clinic. The Rotary Club of St. Petersburg will support the Free Clinic’s Pack-A-Sack program, which provides meals for hundreds of food insecure children throughout St. Petersburg .
As one of the first 200 clubs of Rotary International, the Rotary Club of St. Petersburg was founded by William Straub, the former editor of the St. Petersburg Times. in his honor, the club will also refurbish the Straub marker at Straub Park.
The Rotary Club will hold its 100th Anniversary gala event at the St. Petersburg Yacht Club on Saturday, January 25th, where it will kick off the donation drive. All proceeds will benefit the Pack-A-Sack program. Tickets and sponsorships are available by contacting the Rotary office at 727-822-3277.
For the third time, eight Tibetan monks will visit St. Petersburg's Florida CraftART exhibition gallery to create a sand mandala.
The monks, hailing from the Drepung Gomang Monastery, will hold an opening ceremony Jan. 7 at 10:15am. Throughout the week, they will create a mandala by pouring colored sand from a the funnel-shaped tool called a chakpur, methodically tapped to release just a few grains at at time.
The exhibition will take place from Jan. 7 to 12. On the final day, the monks will hold a dissolution ceremony, in which they sweep up the mandala and hold a procession to the bay. There, the monks will perform a blessing and release the sand into the bay.
Events of the week include:
Jan. 7 at 10:15am: Opening ceremony
Jan. 8 at 5:30 to 7:00pm: Reception with display of Tibetan culture (tickets from $20-30)
Jan. 11 at 10:30-2:00pm: Rock painting with Tibetan monks (tickets $15-25)
Jan. 11 at 5:00-7:00pm: Second Saturday ArtWalk meet and participate in a worldwide meditation
Admission to Florida CraftArt outside of event hours to see the monks create the mandala is free. The monks will chant daily at 10:15 a.m. and 4 p.m.
Paradise Advertising & Marketing has a new agency-of-record partnership with ZooTampa at Lowry Park. Paradise will lead brand strategy, creative and integrated media services to brand and promote ticket sales, special events and annual pass memberships. Paradise also has an in-house digital division that builds customized client dashboards. For ZooTampa, dozens of data points for earned, paid, owned and leveraged marketing communications channel initiatives will be annotated and attributed in real-time against key performance indicators such as ticket sales, membership sales, and in-park revenue, to yield efficient and accurate campaign management, a news release said. Paradise is a full-service agency based in St. Petersburg.
Par Technology Corp. has completed the acquisition of Restaurant Magic, a Tampa provider of back-office restaurant management software. Par (NYSE: PAR) is a New Hartford, New York-based company that provides software, systems and services to the restaurant industry. The $42 million purchase price included $13 million in cash, $27 million in restricted Par stock and $2 million subordinated promissory note. There's also an opportunity to earn additional purchase price consideration subject to the achievement of post-closing revenue-focused milestones, a news release said. The combination of the two companies will create an industry-leading front to backend cloud technology solution for restaurants, the company said when it announced the deal last month.
Moody's Investors Service has changed the outlook for TECO Energy, TECO Finance and Tampa Electric to positive from stable. The positive outlooks for TECO Energy and Tampa Electric reflect the debt reduction that has occurred at parent company, Emera Inc., as well as the two companies' ability to maintain strong credit metrics, Moody's said in a news release. Moody's also affirmed the Baa2 senior unsecured ratings of TECO Energy and TECO Finance, Inc., and the A3 issuer and senior unsecured ratings of Tampa Electric. Both are investment-grade ratings and reflect Florida's regulatory framework, which provides for stable and predictable cash flow generation and enables the utility to maintain a solid financial profile, Moody's said.
Wawa is warning customers that it experienced a data security incident that may have led to fraudulent charges on their payment cards. The company's security team discovered malware on Wawa payment processing servers on Dec. 10 and contained it by December 12, Chris Gheysens, CEO, said in an open letter to customers. This malware affected customer payment card information used at potentially all Wawa locations beginning at different points in time after March 4 until it was contained. The malware no longer is believed to pose a risk, and customers will not be responsible for any fraudulent charges on their payment cards related to the incident, he said. The company is offering credit monitoring to customers who may have been impacted. Click here for more information. Wawa, based in Pennsylvania, has 870 convenience retail stores (over 600 offering fuel),in Pennsylvania, New Jersey, Delaware, Maryland, Virginia, Florida and Washington, D.C.
Dr. Anthony Baldizzi, a physician who lives in Treasure Island, was sentencd to one year and a day in federal prison for his role in a scheme to pay and receive kickbacks for prescriptions billed to Tricare, a healthcare program for the military. Baldizzi also was ordered to forfeit $100,000, including a BMW that he had received as a kickback, according to a news release from the U.S. Attorney for the Middle District of Florida. Baldizzi, who pleaded guilty last year, will be surrendering his license to practice medicine in January 2020, prosecutors said. He was one of several people who have pleaded guilty in the scheme that involved Centurion Compounding Inc., including Centurion owners Frank Monte and Kimberly Anderson. More than $48 million in claims to Tricare have been repaid or reversed since the probe began.
