People to Watch: Bridges builds up development resume

From hotels to housing to commercial projects, development firm Jebco Ventures has a heavy workload for 2016 — which is just how Jim Bridges likes it.

Bridges, as CEO of Jebco, is the hands-on head of a small company with a demanding portfolio of developments. For more than four decades, Bridges has embraced his workaholic tendencies, pouring his energy into his career.

“I look forward to Mondays where most people look forward to Fridays,” Bridges said. “When my wife married me, she would ride around with me on Saturdays and Sundays looking at real estate.”

Bridges moved to Sarasota 12 years ago to consider retiring; he and his wife made an offer to purchase a unit at the Ritz-Carlton, Sarasota. They didn’t get that spot, but Bridges did discover a nearby condo project on Golden Gate Point trying to get built. That property, the Phoenix, soon became his first venture into the Sarasota development market.

Today, Bridges seems to be as far from retirement as possible. Jebco is developing townhomes in Golden Gate Point and along Ringling Boulevard, two hotels in downtown Sarasota and a mixed-use condominium and commercial project on the North Trail.

Jebco is also handling several smaller commercial efforts, and the company is responsible for more than $250 million in new projects right now. Bridges says Jebco sees even more possibilities — this is only the amount of work that he wants to take on.

“Every new project I see that I consider an opportunity that I think would be fun, then I keep an open mind,” Bridges said. “If it’s not fun, I don’t do it anymore.”

Bridges has earned praise for his ability to work well with others. When the Tahiti Park Neighborhood Association sought to address a traffic issue with a proposed Starbucks on the North Trail, members went to Bridges for help. He owns the neighboring property at 1889 N. Tamiami Trail where he is pursuing a condominium project, and they were wondering if he might reroute his site’s internal traffic to let Starbucks customers use it, too.

Jebco agreed to draw up a preliminary site plan that would do just that. Starbucks eventually withdrew its plans, but the gesture left a lasting impression.

“He gets nothing out of it except for just being a nice guy,” association President Jennifer Ahearn-Koch said. “I’ve been around a while, and I don’t know too many people who would do that.”

Bridges thinks it’s important to maintain a healthy relationship with your neighbors, even if that can get in the way of maximizing immediate profits.

“It’s not always about the money; it’s trying to do the right thing,” Bridges said. “Some people aren’t going to agree with you, but we try to make sure most people — especially people we’re affecting — have an opportunity for input.”

He’s developed an eye for the right investment at the right time.  The Embassy Suites is Jebco’s first hotel project, and it took two years for the development to get out of the ground. It’s ahead of a potential downtown hotel building boom, and last month became the third of eight proposed hotels to break ground.

Already, Bridges is preparing another hotel on Fruitville Road. With all of his developments, he’s looking to find a niche: townhomes were a scarce product, the North Trail was an unexplored market, the hotels will have distinct price points. With a surge of new hotel and residential projects poised to flood the market, though, he’s concerned about the overall impact on the downtown landscape.

Entering 2016, Bridges is prepared to exercise more caution when selecting projects to move ahead with — but don’t expect him to slow down too much.

“It’s just an instinct — I feel like I was born with it, but it’s something you tend to get better at as you get older and you get more experience,” Bridges said. “It’s my passion.”