The Tampa construction executive who helped build Vinik's real estate team
By Ashley Gurbal Kritzer
Tampa Bay Business Journal
Published: Apr 10, 2015

What started off as a lunch meeting with a disgruntled season ticket holder ultimately laid the foundation for Tampa Bay Lightning owner Jeff Vinik's real estate company.

Mark House, managing director for strategic integrated projects at Beck Group, was concerned that the first round of renovations to Amalie Arena had been awarded to out-of-town construction firms. It was early 2012, and there had been a dearth of construction work in Tampa for years.

When House expressed that to a Lightning sales rep - who'd been pitching Beck to buy more season tickets - it was team CEO Tod Leiweke who followed up.

Leiweke invited House to have lunch in his office and explained that those renovations were just the beginning.

"I promise you there's going to be a lot more to come,” House said Leiweke told him.

Knowing that more real estate plans were ahead, House said he immediately thought of longtime Tampa attorney Jim Shimberg when Leiweke asked him, months later, for recommendations for a general counsel. Shimberg was the city attorney at the time and had spent 26 years at Holland & Knight LLP as a real estate attorney.

"He brings credibility, local credibility," House said. "He's one of the best land-use attorneys in the country. He's a long-term Tampa person. He's worked with the city, so he knew how the city worked. I couldn't think of a better person to have."

Shimberg is now general counsel of the Lightning and chief operating officer of Strategic Property Partners, Vinik's real estate company. Our cover story this week is a behind-the-scenes look at how SPP came together - and what hiring a well-liked, local person with deep local roots has meant to Vinik's plans. Read that story here.

"Developers will come in and ask for things that are unreasonable or that the city can't do," House said. "He knows not to ask the question. He probably knows as many questions not to ask as questions to ask, which is so valuable."

Ashley Gurbal Kritzer is a reporter for the Tampa Bay Business Journal.