Pizzuti's Fresh Approach to Public-Private Partnerships Pays Off With New Development Projects Across U.S.

ORLANDO, FL-- In a real estate market dogged by recession and cutbacks, Pizzuti SolutionsTM is turning a fresh approach to public-private partnerships into an expanding development model that currently has projects underway in locations around the U.S.

The Pizzuti Companies, founded in Columbus, Ohio in 1976, is a full-service real estate development firm headquartered in Columbus with offices in Orlando and Chicago.

Pizzuti Vice President Tom Harmer, (middle  right photo) head of Pizzuti Solutions, the division that focuses on the firm’s public-private programs, said the new approach is raising the bar of public-private planning and development.

“In the past, developers tended to look at public-private projects as too complicated, especially when other markets were performing well,” Harmer said. “That has all changed with the current economic situation, and public projects have generated much more interest across the board.”

With the difficult economy, though, the public sector is also feeling the pressure and must scrutinize shrinking tax dollars and find more creative ways to meet their agencies’ needs.

Pizzuti Solutions was created at the height of the real estate boom back in 2005.

“Our timing was right and Solutions has quickly become a natural extension of our core business,” said Joel Pizzuti, (top left photo)  president and chief operating officer for The Pizzuti Companies.

“We are fortunate to have a great team in place that truly understand planning and development from a public perspective,” Pizzuti added. “Our public-sector clients quickly recognize the value we add by serving as an extension of their staff.”

The associates of Pizzuti Solutions have more than 100 years of collective experience working for public agencies in areas such as city management, economic development, planning and zoning, public safety and communications.

The team focuses on five business clusters: public facilities, sports and entertainment, education, cultural facilities and strategic planning.

“Our core service is helping to plan and oversee public projects related to these areas,” Harmer said. “We have the added benefit of bringing more than 30 years of private ‘at-risk’ development to the table.

"As a result, we not only understand the ‘ownership’ perspective, but also are able to invest in projects or identify investors that can assist a community in reaching its development or redevelopment goals.”

In Columbus, Franklin County commissioners engaged Pizzuti to serve as owner’s representative for the new Franklin County Courthouse project, (top left photo)  a spectacular seven-story, 300,000-square-foot building with translucent glass walls, a creative rain garden water filtration system and LEED-inspired design and engineering that should rank the project one of the most sustainable and energy efficient facilities in the U.S. when it opens in 2011.

“Working with the leadership of Franklin County, we threw the standard courthouse plan in the recycling bin and started from scratch,” Harmer said. “We hosted an eco-charrette that included all the stakeholders – from budget watchdogs to civic boosters – to identify the goals that would make all of us proud of the project.”

“This project is an excellent example of Pizzuti Solutions serving in that role as an extension of the County staff,” he added.

At NASA’s Kennedy Space Center in Florida, Space Florida selected Pizzuti Solutions to serve as master developer for Exploration Park®, (middle right photo)  a state-of-the-art, mixed-use, multi-tenant technology and commerce park to support government and commercial space activities and to create technology clusters related to energy and energy technologies.

Harmer said the project will help leverage a trained and experienced workforce and the premier address for aerospace research on land adjacent to the world-class Space Life Sciences Laboratory and existing launch and payload processing facilities.

The first phase of the project includes eight buildings that total 315,000 square feet of space on 60 acres, set to break ground in 2010, with the first buildings to be delivered in 2011.

In Dunedin, Florida, on the Gulf of Mexico near Tampa, Pizzuti Solutions is working with the City of Dunedin to develop a 4.1-acre downtown parcel on Main Street and S.R. 580 as Dunedin Gateway, (middle  right photo under Exploration Park photo) a striking, new $30 million retail and office facility that includes plans for a market and Class A medical office space.

Pizzuti’s project list also includes a unique public-private partnership for construction of a 120-room hotel and conference center for Kent State University (bottom left photo)  as part of the City of Kent’s downtown redevelopment efforts, and a site analysis and economic impact study for a new city hall facility in Las Vegas, Nevada.

“We look at development from the public side of the equation, and our projects are recasting public-private ventures to focus on the highest possible quality, innovative aesthetics, efficiency, sustainability, and accountability, and the best and highest use that can be achieved while meeting the community’s goals,” Harmer said.

For more information,  contact:

Bob Monds, Director of Marketing and Communications, The Pizzuti Companies; 614-280-4058; bmonds@pizzuti.com

Tom Harmer, Vice President, The Pizzuti Companies; 407-841-0000; tharmer@pizzuti.com

Larry Vershel or Beth Payan, Larry Vershel Communications; 407-644-4142; lvershelco@aol.com