St. Pete marketing firm promotes partner

Pyper, a St. Petersburg-based integrated marketing agency, has promoted Lindsay Petty Wattam to partner. She will continue her role as vice president, as well as her daily duties overseeing the agency’s strategy and client relationships. Petty Wattam joined the agency, in 2016, after working in-house for the University of South Florida, where she built a … Read more

Tampa Bay Lightning Community Foundation donation helps Habitat homeowner

Habitat for Humanity of Pinellas and West Pasco Counties celebrated the Cookinson Family and their journey to affordable homeownership on May 8, at 2174 16th Ave S., St. Petersburg. Single mom, Denise, put in at least 350 sweat equity hours and completed 36 homebuyer education classes to earn a 0% fixed-interest mortgage and the keys … Read more

Museum is celebrating motherhood in Tampa Bay

As Mother’s Day approaches, there’s no better way to honor the essential role of mothers than by supporting the Museum of Motherhood (MoM), in St. Petersburg. This one-of-a-kind museum, housed inside The Factory St. Pete, is dedicated to the art, science and HERstory of motherhood – a vital topic that has been vastly underrepresented in … Read more

Redevelopment site plan for YMCA property moves to city for approval

A partnership between Blake Investment Partners and Greystar Real Estate Partners has filed an application with the City of St. Petersburg’s Development Review Committee for the redevelopment of more than 4.5 acres of the Jim & Heather Gills YMCA campus, on the west side of downtown St. Petersburg. The proposed development, at the southwest intersection … Read more

Suncoast Credit Union names new chief financial officer

Suncoast Credit Union, in Tampa, has named Ben Lemoine as chief financial officer and senior vice president. Lemoine has more than 18 years of experience in the credit union industry. In his new role, he will lead all aspects of Suncoast’s financial strategy, oversee the credit union’s finance, accounting and information technology functions and manage … Read more

Office Pride Commercial Cleaning Services names new CEO

Office Pride Commercial Cleaning Services has appointed Doug Phillip as its chief executive officer. Phillip, who now assumes the day-to-day leadership of the company, has more than 30 years’ experience in national and global franchise business. Prior to joining Office Pride, Phillip was the president of Budget Blinds and executive vice president of Home Franchise … Read more

Tampa Bay Innovation Center names startups for spring accelerator program

The Tampa Bay Innovation Center, a technology incubator, accelerator and coworking office, has announced the startups that will participate in its spring accelerator program. Throughout the program, founders of these companies will receive specific training and mentoring in customer discovery, product strategy, investor readiness and market validation. The startups selected for this program include: •               … Read more

Tampa Bay Thrives utilizes community partners to improve mental health

Mental illness costs the economy about $200 billion in lost earnings yearly. Normalizing conversations about mental health is becoming a more, and more, important factor in running a business, especially if you’re in a leadership position. According to  Tampa Bay Thrives’ 2023 Resident Mental Health Study, 14% of respondents (a 4% increase over the previous … Read more

Tax savings opportunity with R&D payroll tax credit

By Ginny Veit, Tax principal, CLA The federal research and development (R&D) tax credit was originally designed to be applied against income taxes. Under subsequent tax legislation, qualifying companies were permitted to make an annual election to apply up to $250,000 of their R&D credit against the employer portion of Social Security tax. The Inflation … Read more