A partnership between three healthcare powerhouses in the Tampa-St. Petersburg area could be a model for healthcare in the future. Under a new agreement, pediatric surgeons from Johns Hopkins All Children’s Hospital will provide pediatric general surgery and related services at Tampa General Hospital’s Children’s Medical Center. The surgeons from Johns Hopkins All Children’s also […]
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Under a new agreement, pediatric surgeons from Johns Hopkins All Children’s Hospital will provide pediatric general surgery and related services at Tampa General Hospital’s Children’s Medical Center. The surgeons from Johns Hopkins All Children’s also will open a pediatric general surgery clinic on the Tampa General campus, and there will be additional learning opportunities for USF Health medical students and graduate medical education trainees.
Dr. Paul Danielson
“This is one example of what has to happen in healthcare overall,” said Dr. Paul Danielson, chair of the Johns Hopkins All Children’s department of surgery. “With the rising cost of healthcare, our attention to how we spend every single dollar is more important now than it’s ever been. When it works out and it’s beneficial for everybody, I think these kinds of partnerships are the wave of the future. There will always be competition. We don’t want to have a monolithic system. But for something like this, I think it will raise the standard for all the kids on the west coast of Florida.”Surgeons from Johns Hopkins All Children’s, a 259-bed hospital in St. Petersburg, have helped cover when needed at Tampa General for several years, but this is a whole new enterprise, Danielson said. “We’re not just providing coverage. We’re there to essentially be their pediatric service line. We’ll develop not only the clinical side of it, but we’ll be involved with the quality program, with education, and with research. Essentially, we’ll become their division of pediatric surgery.”
Johns Hopkins All Children’s currently has three surgeons in Tampa with plans to hire a fourth. The Tampa staff also will include two advance practice providers. Administration will remain in St. Petersburg, Danielson said.
He said the move is in the best interest of children in the area.
“Their best interest is what our mission is all about, and if you stop to think about it, Tampa General has that same mission and USF has that same mission. So it made sense that we collaborate as opposed to compete for something like this,” Danielson said.
Surgeons who perform procedures on adults often become sub-specialists, but that’s not happened as much among pediatric surgeons, Danielson said.
“For the basic standard cases that pediatric surgeons do — everything from appendectomies to treatment of newborns with congenital anomalies — that happens on both campuses. It has historically and will continue to do so,” he said.
Still, each hospital has its own specialties. For instance, Johns Hopkins All Children’s has a heart center where it does heart transplants. But All Children’s currently does not do kidney transplants, and Tampa General does. It would not be cost-effective to duplicate those services and would dilute the expertise available to try to do so, Danielson said.
“If your child has appendicitis or a gall bladder problem, you can go to Tampa General or All Children’s and you’ll get the same high-quality care. But if your child has a very unique disease or condition, they may be better served at one hospital or the other,” Danielson said. “Before, that sometimes got almost got competitive in nature … Now it’s more clear. If it’s best for the patient to be taken care of by these specialists, then that’s where the patient should go, no matter which campus it happens to be.”
The partnership also will expand services to children who otherwise might not have access to All Children’s doctors.
“A lot of families whose kids are sick are poor. Many of them are on Medicaid. It’s hard for them to make it to the hospital. They might be a single-parent household and if the parent has to work, how do you get your kid to the doctor? If the doctor is closer to where you are, it’s easier. We think the kids will get more care, more frequent care and more timely care, if we make it easier for the kids to have access,” he said.
Danielson said he couldn’t talk about the financial arrangements between the partners.
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Terry Tomalin had a lot of canoes. He had lots of kayaks, too, and surf skis and surfboards and other floaty things. As an avid outdoorsman, he kept personal watercraft for every occasion. When the longtime Tampa Bay Times journalist died of a heart attack in 2016, at the age of 55, the new St. […]
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When the longtime Tampa Bay Times journalist died of a heart attack in 2016, at the age of 55, the new St. Petersburg Pier was still just a gleam in Rick Kriseman’s eye. Now, Tomalin’s legacy has its own little corner of the 26-acre recreational center: His favorite wooden canoe, a 20-foot Old Town, has been fashioned into a memorial outside of Doc Ford’s Rum Grille.
“This canoe, he used for lots of adventures locally,” said Tomalin’s widow, Deputy Mayor Kanika Tomalin. “He would keep it in the Times delivery bay because whenever there would be a flood on Snell Isle, or anything that gave photographers or reporters a hard time traversing the city, he’d paddle them around. And they could get pictures from the canoe.”
Terry Tomalin
So it was something of a no-brainer, Tomalin said, when novelist Randy Wayne White, an adventuring pal of her husband’s and a part-owner of the Doc Ford’s franchise, and his partners were looking for some way to honor his friend in the city he called home.“I don’t remember exactly how it came up,” Kanika Tomalin said, “but it was ‘Wouldn’t it be awesome to have Terry’s canoe at the restaurant? What a great remembrance. So much of what he loved is represented right here – the bay, the waterfront, the city.”
Terry, she added, was one of the founders of the Tampa Bay Frogman Swim. “Before it was formalized, as a fundraiser, he would do it on his birthday – get a group of his closest buddies together and swim across the bay just for grins. And the prize was a cold beer on the other side.
“Randy was in on one of those first swims. They’ve always had a kind of loving relationship, co-adventurers.”
Tomalin’s quarter century of outdoors and environmental reporting made him a Times favorite, and when he wasn’t writing about it, he was living it.
“He had a crew that he traveled closely with,” said Kanika. “They’d go in an outrigger canoe to Bimini, or the Bahamas, from here. All over.
“If it wasn’t quite that, he was in a kayak, or this canoe.”
An Adventurer’s Canoe
Terry Tomalin, 1960-2016
He learned magic from a shaman in the rainforest and how to wrestle alligators in the Everglades. He backpacked across New Zealand and saw the run rise over Mount Cook. Terry Tomalin’s adventures took him to the far reaches of the world and kept him close to home. A husband, father and fabled outdoors writer, Tomalin answered with words, wherever adventure called …
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The three at-large candidates for Pinellas County School Board District 1 shared their platforms, along with their thoughts on school reopening and equity in education, at Wednesday’s Tiger Bay virtual candidate forum. The candidates are: Laura Hine, a local businesswoman, Navy veteran and public education advocate with an undergraduate degree in aerospace engineering from the […]
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The candidates are:
- Laura Hine, a local businesswoman, Navy veteran and public education advocate with an undergraduate degree in aerospace engineering from the U.S. Naval Academy and an MBA in finance from USF.
- Stephanie Meyer, a middle school history teacher at Keswick Christian School with a sales and marketing background.
- Tom Topping, the founder of a business training and coaching company and 23-year veteran Pinellas County teacher, coach and administrator.
“Our kids aren’t statistics or numbers. They all have individual needs,” said Meyer, noting that she’s the only candidate who has experienced distance learning from both the parenting side and the teaching side. “The more options we can provide for our families, the better.”
Topping, who pointed out that he’s the only candidate with public teaching experience, said that although Pinellas County’s plan provides a number of options for students, he’s concerned that teachers don’t have the same amount of choices.
“There are very difficult choices not only for our parents and students but for our teachers,” he said. “I appreciate the hard work of the superintendent, but I also think that there needs to be more consideration for returning to school right now under current conditions.”
What’s most important in terms of reopening, Hine said, is that the decisions are made locally and include data from health officials.
“First and foremost, we have to keep the health of our students, teachers and staff in mind,” said Hine, the parent of two elementary-aged children. “That means not just physical health, but also mental and emotional health.”
On the subject of racial equity and diversity in schools, the candidates all agreed more work needs to be done, though they have different approaches on how to achieve those goals.
“The biggest influence on students outside the home is their teachers,” said Topping, who considers closing the achievement gap a top priority. “We need to train the teachers we have, retain and recruit so we get the best teachers in front of those students. It’s not just about throwing a lucrative compensation and benefits package at them – it’s about providing support, tutors and working with the community to help students.”
Hine, who opted to send her children to her low-rated neighborhood school, North Shore Elementary, said having gross inequities in education is unacceptable. To bridge the gap, she calls for extending the school day, adding school counselors, paying attention to bias and devoting funds to areas of need identified by each individual school.
“We really need to understand where our priorities are,” she said.“Creating community and access, listening and learning and having relationships is the most important thing we can do.”
Those conversations, Meyer said, need to start with parents. She said she’s spoken with many Title I teachers who agree that the key to bringing about educational equity is engaging with parents. And that goes beyond simply calling for parents to visit schools, which she said isn’t working.
“What we need to do is go to them,” she said. “We need to do outreach to let families know that we need their support in the education of their child. We need to meet them where they are.”
Joanne Lentino, the District 1 incumbent elected in 2016, is not seeking reelection. Other school board seats up for election Aug. 18 include Districts 4, 5 and 7.
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Candela, a fast-growing company headquartered in Wayland, Massachusetts, struck a deal with Jabil Healthcare to manufacture its energy-based laser devices. Jabil (NYSE: JBL), the largest company based in St. Petersburg, now is making Candela’s products at Jabil Healthcare’s Baja facility in Tijuana, Mexico.
David Panneton, Jabil Healthcare
The partnership allowed Candela to save money and improve manufacturing efficiency, said David Panneton, vice president of diagnostics for Jabil Healthcare. It also helped make Candela’s skin treatments more broadly available.“Companies like Candela move these [treatments] from a specialized high-cost hospital environment to a more accessible setting, such as a clinic at a community-based level. So in working with them, we’re learning how to take these complicated technologies and make them simpler and more widely available,” Panneton said.
Some of Candela’s treatments are focused on aesthetics and cosmetics. Others are for burn victims or people with skins cancers or various skin disorders.
“We’ve been able to democratize skin treatments and make them more broadly available,” Panneton said.
Consolidation
Candela has developed laser devices to treat a variety of conditions, ranging from hair removal and wrinkle reduction to traumatic scarring involving wounded warriors and burn victims. The company has more than 700 patents and more than 50,000 medical devices deployed worldwide.Candela was manufacturing the devices on its own at its plant in Massachusetts, as well as a third-party manufacturer’s plant in Israel and at a newly acquired company in Denmark.
But Candela didn’t have the capacity or capabilities from a manufacturing and supply chain standpoint to achieve its long-term growth goals, Todd Van Horn, the company’s chief operating officer, said in a case study released by Jabil.
Candela issued an RFP for a manufacturing partner.
“When they came to us they were looking for someone to consolidate their global operation. They were manufacturing a product in a high-growth market, which was of interest to us, and it was an opportunity for Jabil to leverage our global manufacturing footprint and our global supply chain footprint,” Panneton said. ‘We were able to take a look at their manufacturing and supply chain that was spread over multiple sites and develop a solution to hep them save money and be more efficient. Additionally, we were able to bring in our design and engineering services to help them accelerate their innovation.”
One of Jabil’s first steps was to consolidate manufacturing operations at its Baja site, a three-building, healthcare-regulated facility where Jabil Healthcare makes products for multiple customers.
Jabil etablished a dedicated team, called a Workcell, to collaborate with Candela. As part of the Workcell model, Jabil held a five-day “kaizen” workshop, said Michelle Saro, director of marketing for healthcare and additive manufacturing at Jabil.
“We embedded a kaizen approach for continuous improvement within the Workcell model. The customer came to the table with challenges in quality and the teams collaborated in design and engineering and developed process improvements in that Workcell model. They felt the Jabil team was an extension of their own team, and that kaizen model allowed them to do that collaboration,” she said.
Lessons learned
Within 18 months, Jabil had production lines in place for 11 Candela products.In addition to manufacturing the devices, Jabil’s supply chain management team found vendors who could ensure a consistent and economical supply of core components for the Candela products.
The result is double-digit business growth at Candela, a news release said. Candela hopes to have $1 billion in sales in the near future.
Jabil already is working on a supply chain and design process for new laser systems in Candela’s pipeline, Panneton said.
Jabil’s experience with Candela will help Jabil going forward, he said.
“The aesthetics or skin care industry was relatively new for us. People don’t realize skin is the largest organ in your body. We learned a lot about how to work with laser-based system. A lot of these technologies use lasers for skin treatment so it allow us to improve our expertise in working with lasers,” Panneton said.
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Feldman Equities is recapitalizing First Central Tower, a high-rise office building at 360 Central Ave. The recapitalization opens opportunities for real estate investors to get an ownership stake in the property. It is one of just four Class A office buildings in downtown St. Petersburg, where top-quality office space is very tight. “We’ve had this […]
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The recapitalization opens opportunities for real estate investors to get an ownership stake in the property. It is one of just four Class A office buildings in downtown St. Petersburg, where top-quality office space is very tight.
“We’ve had this recapitalization planned for about a year and we’re very excited to go live tomorrow,” Mack Feldman, vice president at Feldman Equities, told the St. Pete Catalyst. “A longtime partner is transitioning to a focus on industrial assets and asked us to look at options for buying them out. We were able to secure a price discount after COVID, and given the building’s stable lease profile, realized it would be an attractive investment alternative to endless stock market volatility. So far we’ve received more interest on this raise than any other project we’ve marketed, so we’re hopeful we oversubscribe pretty quickly.”
First Central Tower at 360 Central Ave.
First Central Tower recently underwent a multi-million dollar renovation and is 95 percent leased with high-credit tenants, according to CrowdStreet, an online crowdfunding platform. Feldman Equities is partnering with CrowdStreet on the deal, and investors also can invest directly through the Feldman Equities website.“We call this our ‘white label’ and it could become an important part of Feldman Equities’ future growth. We leverage CrowdStreet’s existing software so investors have a consistent experience no matter where they decide to invest. It also allows us to manage all of our investors from the same dashboard,” Feldman said.
The minimum investment is $25,000 and the offering is only available to accredited investors, generally people with earned income that exceeds $200,000 (or $300,000 together with a spouse) or with a net worth over $1 million.
Feldman Equities, one of the larger property owners in St. Petersburg, has crowdfunded other properties recently, including the Morgan Stanley Tower at 150 2nd Ave. N. and Castille at Carillon, two Class A office buildings in Carillon Office Park.
For First Central Tower, Feldman Equities is estimating a 15 percent internal rate of return for investors, and an equity multiple of 1.9 percent. The equity multiple is the ratio of investment returns to paid-in capital.
Feldman Equities will retain a controlling interest in the property, Feldman said.
To learn more about First Central Tower, click here.
Feldman Equities, headed by President and CEO Larry Feldman, together with partners, owns or manages over four million square feet of Florida office space.
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About six months after Lucky’s Market shuttered its Tyrone Square operations, the property has reopened as Hitchcock’s Green Market. The store, at 6765 22nd Ave. N., features organic and natural items and many of the same brands Lucky’s carried. “It’s the same experience as Lucky’s but with our own touch,” said Giselle Alvarez, whose family […]
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The store, at 6765 22nd Ave. N., features organic and natural items and many of the same brands Lucky’s carried. “It’s the same experience as Lucky’s but with our own touch,” said Giselle Alvarez, whose family owns Hitchcock’s Markets, an 11-store grocery chain based in Alachua.
Lucky’s filed for bankruptcy earlier this year and Hitchcock’s Markets was the winning bidder for the St. Petersburg store.
“People in this area like the concept of Lucky’s. This location was one of the best Lucky’s locations. That’s why we tried to maintain something very similar,” said Carlos Alvarez, Hitchcock’s CEO and Giselle’s father.
The new Hitchcock’s in St. Petersburg is different than the chain’s other stores. “This is more of a natural concept. Our other stores are conventional products with a hint of natural products. This is mainly natural, green and organic products with a hint of conventional,” Giselle Alvarez said.
Hitchcock’s added 150 feet of shelf space for conventional grocery items in the St. Pete store, so customers wouldn’t have to shop elsewhere for those products.
There have been some challenges in opening during the COVID-19 pandemic, Carlos Alvarez said. Hitchcock’s is using the same suppliers that Lucky’s used, but the suppliers don’t consistently have all the products in stock.
Hitchcock’s has installed “Tell us what you’re thinking” boxes around the store and at checkout counters so customers can suggest products that they would like to see in stock.
The mall location means parking sometimes is tight, but Alvarez isn’t worried about speculation that malls are struggling. He said the family-focused opportunities at Hitchcock’s — kids can eat a pizza in the cafe while their parents sip wine or beer while strolling the aisles, for example — along with continued Lucky’s traditions such as featuring local musicians in the store on the weekends, is a good fit with malls shifting to experiences that go beyond transactional shopping.
The store expects to employ about 120 people and is still hiring, Giselle Alvarez said.
Hitchcock’s Markets is in expansion mode and looking for other opportunities in good locations. It expects to open a store in Homasassa in late July or early August.
Hitchcock’s Green Market had a soft opening on July 9 with a grand opening planned for Saturday, July 18. The store opens at 8 a.m. and the first 100 people in line on Saturday will get $100 gift cards. The first 500 shoppers will get a reusable shopping bag.
Get a first look inside the new store in the photo gallery below.
[See image gallery at stpetecatalyst.com]
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Roger Curlin, owner of Club Savor, and Miguel Miranda, chief client relations director at My Restaurant CFO, are providing free individualized consultations to local restaurants that are struggling amid the COVID-19 pandemic.
Roger Curlin, Club Savor
“Our outreach is for any restauranteur that wants to help themselves and is open to pivoting,” Curlin said. “That’s a big ask because a lot of restauranteurs have had the same strategy their entire life, so we’re asking them to do new things.”During the consultations, they focus on a wide range of issues, from operations and finance to marketing and customer demographics.
The pair bring years of expertise to their work. Club Savor is a membership organization that offers discounts at participating restaurants and bars. My Restaurant CFO is a financial services agency for restaurants and provides restaurant accounting services. Curlin said he and Miranda have worked with thousands of hospitality leaders and know all the trigger points.
They fear that without some intervention, the local restaurant industry will suffer, with negative implications for the overall area economy.
Survival at stake
Miranda and Curlin earlier teamed on creating a series of 20 videos in partnership with the Hospitality Leadership program at University of South Florida St. Petersburg. Miranda is the lead instructor at that program. The videos, available here, covered every aspect of what a restaurateur needs to consider, including marketing, finance and operations, and provide a baseline for activities restaurants should undertake to pivot.But restaurants – especially the locally owned independent restaurants that are so prevalent in St. Petersburg – are unique, and the individual consultations are designed to serve those needs.
“We must do everything we can to help our local hospitality community pivot to profitably or we risk losing much about what makes the Bay area special,” Curlin said. He said that about 30 percent of the restaurants in the area could permanently close as a result of the pandemic. “It’s a single-digit profit business on a good day and then to throw what in many cases is a 50 percent or larger drop in revenue is unsustainable. We are trying to find those organizations that have the DNA to survive and help them. We can’t save everybody, unfortunately.”
Miguel Miranda, My Restaurant CFO
The area’s economy is tied to the local hospitality scene, with industries ranging from real estate to technology to the arts benefitting from the presence of restaurants.“The [employees at] companies moving here aren’t just working. They also are living in the area, so what does it look like? Food is the one piece where people come together. If there’s not a vibrant food scene, there’s not a vibrant shopping or arts scene. They all go together,” Miranda said. “From a real estate point of view, for a lot of the developers I work with, food is the anchor. They look to bring in the right food partner for their properties and from there, they grow to retail and arts.”
Miranda said the overall economy currently is being propped up by unemployment checks, while restaurateurs are using funding from Payroll Protection Program loans. “What we’re seeing now will be different in the next few months. That’s when the real shakeout will happen.”
Pivot points
The pandemic has exacerbated long-standing issues for some restaurants, Miranda said.“First, we look at the strategy from a long-term point of view, not just how are we going to get through the next few weeks or months. In some aspects, it’s more like brand redefinition,” Miranda said.
He cited food supplies and labor issues as among some of the concerns restaurateurs are dealing with right now. For instance, a menu might be redesigned to take into account potential food shortages, while the labor model could be revamped to look at different ways to pay workers.
Other new strategies could focus on adding delivery, takeout and outdoor dining, when possible, as well as hours and demographics of customers.
“Many restaurants in the St. Pete area rely on the retirement community to fill their seats. In the COVID environment, that’s a category that’s tough to grab right now because those folks are concerned. They may not be dining out as much or at all,” Curlin said.
Neither Curlin nor Miranda said they expected their own companies to benefit directly through the free individual consultations. By strengthening the local restaurant scene, there could be indirect benefits for their businesses, but Curlin said that’s not what is driving the consultancy outreach.
Their goal is to provide about 10 consultations each per week. To find out more email Curlin at roger@clubsavor.com
Curlin and Miranda have drawn support for their consulting efforts from several local businesses, who are helping get the word out. A list of their supporters includes:
Club Savor
My Restaurant CFO
LocalShops1
Johnson Jackson
Gaunce Law
HIVE VOC
Pineapple Pickup
USF Hospitality Leadership Program
GoZone WiFi
Take Out Button
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Area startups founded or co-founded by women entrepreneurs received more than half of the total early-stage funding for local companies in the second quarter of 2020. The companies — Telepathy Labs, Venuetize and Base Culture — drew a combined $18 million in funding, according to the newly released Venture Monitor, a quarterly report from the […]
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The companies — Telepathy Labs, Venuetize and Base Culture — drew a combined $18 million in funding, according to the newly released Venture Monitor, a quarterly report from the National Venture Capital Association and Pitchbook.
Altogether, six firms headquartered in the Tampa-St. Petersburg-Clearwater metro area received a total of $30.22 million in venture funding in the second quarter of 2020, Venture Monitor said.
It was the lowest number of deals in a quarter since Q3 2013 and the lowest deal value since Q3 2018 for the metro area.
Nationally, deal value and deal count also were down compared to the same quarter a year ago.
“The second quarter of 2020 was truly unprecedented for the venture capital industry, as the COVID-19 pandemic, nationwide lockdowns, stay-at-home orders, and a major economic downturn shook the entire country,” the report said. “Venture firms generally became much more conservative around dealmaking as the pandemic hit the U.S. in March and early April, leading to a downturn in both VC invested and number of deals completed in Q2.”
Venture investing began to pick up in May, the report said. Valuations did not decline as much as many industry professionals expected, and the ample dry powder in the industry — committed but unallocated capital — has allowed VCs to continue making investments during the second quarter, Venture Monitor said.
Here’s a closer look at the five local deals Venture Monitor highlighted.
Josselyn Boudett, founder and CEO, Telepathy Labs
Telepathy Labs, TampaDeal size: $13 million
Deal type: Angel (individual)
Close date: June 29
Industry sector: Information technology/software
Telepathy Labs’ artificial intelligence platform helps people and computers interact more efficiently, founder and CEO Josselyn Boudett told the St. Pete Catalyst.
The company filed two disclosures with the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission in late June, indicating it raised $6.6 million and $6.4 million.
Ed Buckley, founder and CEO, Peerfit
Peerfit, TampaDeal size: $10 million
Deal type: Later stage VC
Close date: April 30
Industry: Consumer products and services
Peerfit, led by founder and CEO Ed Buckley, is a digital health company that uses technology to provide wellness benefits through both commercial or employer-provided health insurance coverage as well as Medicare Advantage plans. The company raised $10 million in January in a funding round led by Tampa Bay Lightning owner Jeff Vinik and Virgo Investment Group, a San Francisco-based investment firm and previously reported by Venture Monitor. It was not immediately apparent if Venture Monitor was referencing the same investment or a different one in its report on Q2 funding.
Chris Sullivan, Omnivore chairman
Omnivore, ClearwaterDeal size: $4 million
Deal type: Angel (individual)
Close date: May 14
Industry: Information technology/software
Omnivore is a restaurant software company with a platform that allows restaurants to easily participate in ordering and payment technology. Omnivore Chairman and Outback Steakhouse co-founder Chris Sullivan, insurance executive Lowry Baldwin and ConnectWise co-founder Arnie Bellini participated in the most recent funding round.
Karri Zaremba, founder and COO, Venuetize
Venuetize, TampaDeal size: $2 million
Deal type: Later state VC
Close date: April 28
Industry: Business products and services
Venuetize is a mobile technology company with a platform which allows people attending sports and entertainment events in stadiums or arenas, or at hotels or casinos, to make payments, get rewards, find parking, buy tickets and see videos and photos, among other things, through an app on their phone. The company was founded by Jon Romm, who is CEO, and Karri Zaremba, who is chief operating officer.
Jordann Windschauer, founder and CEO, Base Culture
Base Culture, ClearwaterDeal size: $1 million
Deal type: Later state VC
Close date: May 27
Industry: Consumer products and services
Base Culture makes baked goods consistent with a paleo diet. Base Culture was founded in 2012 by Jordann Windschauer, who is CEO.
Venture Monitor did not disclose the sixth area company to receive funding in Q2.
Statewide, there were 58 deals totaling $607.3 million in Florida in the second quarter of 2020, according to Venture Monitor. Among the other major metro areas in Florida in Q2, the Miami metro had 31 deals totaling $522.8 million, and the Orlando metro had 10 deals totaling $36 million. There were no deals reported in the Jacksonville metro area.
A separate venture capital report, MoneyTree from PwC and CB Insights, said there were 21 deals totaling $434 million in Florida in Q2 2020, led by a $350 investment in augmented reality firm Magic Leap in Miami. MoneyTree did not list any Tampa-St. Petersburg area deals among the top deals in Florida.
MoneyTree counts only actual dollars invested in a quarter, while Venture Monitor tags a broader array of deals.
See the full MoneyTree report here, and the Venture Monitor report here.
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Just under 69,000 people visited the new St. Pete Pier during its inaugural week. Due to the ongoing COVID-19 restrictions, attendance was capped at 10,000 people per day, allowed to explore the 26 acres of parkland, scenery and restaurants at will. Free tickets were required for the first week, to ensure capacity was not exceeded. […]
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Free tickets were required for the first week, to ensure capacity was not exceeded. The ticket requirement was then lifted.
According to the City of St. Petersburg, the most-visited days were Thursday and Friday, July 9 and 10.
From the City:
PEAK OCCUPANCY PER DAY (People at one time)
7/6 – 7,263
7/7 – 4,138
7/8 – 4,123
7/9 – 4,855
7/10 – 5,606
7/11 – 3,657
7/12 – 3,342
Total through gate: 68,474
“Our goal,” Mayor Rick Kriseman told the Catalyst, “was to regulate attendance during the first week to avoid the ‘rush’ associated with opening an exciting new amenity, and I think we largely succeeded.
“We really want the St. Pete Pier treated like all of our outdoor amenities and restaurants. It is an extension of our waterfront park system, not a single building like the old pier that everyone piled into.”
On social media, reaction to the new pier was overwhelmingly positive. An informal City survey declared the architecture and landscaping the most talked-about features of the facility, followed by the Splash Pad and the restaurants.
Face masks were omnipresent during Week One, which Kriseman applauded. “All the COVID-19 government orders related to restaurants apply to those at the pier,” he said. “While we have no outdoor mask mandate, we encourage people to wear masks as often as possible, but certainly when near others who are not a part of their immediate family or people they cohabitate with. There will be opportunities in the future for bigger celebrations.”
The St. Pete Pier opens at sunrise daily, and closes at 11 p.m., although restaurants are permitted to remain open later.
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“OneBlood is experiencing more than a 500 percent increase in hospital orders for COVID-19 convalescent plasma,” said Susan Forbes, Senior Vice President of Corporate Communications and Public Relations for OneBlood. “We are urging people who have recovered from the coronavirus to step forward and donate their plasma. They are urgently needed.”
Those who’ve recovered from COVID-19 have antibodies to the virus that remain in the plasma portion of their blood. By transfusing plasma from a person who has recovered from COVID-19 into a patient still fighting the virus, it can boost their immune system and potentially help them recover.
“More than a thousand units of convalescent plasma are being transfused each day throughout the nation,” said Peter Marks, M.D., Ph.D., Director of the U.S. Food and Drug Administration’s Center for Biologics Evaluation and Research. “We’re very concerned that convalescent plasma is going to become in short supply if we don’t have more people come out and donate.”
Dr. Paul Lewis, medical director for evidence-based medicine at BayCare Health System, cited a recent study showing safety in transfusing this plasma, along with promising results in some patients who are severely. Further, large trials are needed to fully understand the benefits of convalescent plasma, he said. Right now, however, his main concern is that the demand is greater than the supply in Florida’s hospitals.
“We encourage patients who have been diagnosed with COVID-19 to consider donating their plasma,” Lewis said. “Their donation could help save a life.”
Directed donations to an individual are available. One donation can treat up to three people
Speaking to the Catalyst, Forbes said a number of people in the Tampa Bay area have donated plasma, and she encourages them to do it as often as they’re able. Plasma can be donated every 28 days.
“There’s no end in sight for the coronavirus. We’re filling orders constantly – it’s like a revolving door,” she said. “We have to have a ready supply, and these donors are the potential key to helping people recover.”
Forbes also noted that the high number of cases is adding to the potential donor pool and said that many of those being diagnosed now will recover and will possibly go on to meet the eligibility requirements to become donors. Those who are treated with convalescent plasma and recover are eligible to donate after three months.
“This is a way for people who have gone through this to be able to help other people,” she said. “It’s another way for them to give back.”
People who have recovered from the coronavirus can visit www.oneblood.org to see if they meet the eligibility requirements to be a convalescent plasma donor. In addition to meeting all FDA donor eligibility to be a blood donor, convalescent plasma donors must have complete resolution of symptoms at least 14 days prior to donation and provide either a prior diagnosis of COVID-19 documented by a laboratory test or from a hospital, or a positive serological test for SARS-CoV-2 antibodies.
OneBlood is also testing all blood donations for the COVID-19 antibody. The antibody test will indicate if the donor’s immune system has produced antibodies to the virus, regardless of whether they ever showed symptoms. Donors who test positive for the antibody will be eligible to become COVID-19 convalescent plasma donors.
Just under 600 new infections were reported in Pinellas County Monday, just a day after the state shattered records with more than 15,000 new cases. It was the highest number of new infections in a single day by any state since the pandemic began. Seven more deaths were also recorded in Pinellas County, bringing the number of fatalities to 236.
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