IRISS buys Lakewood Ranch building for $5 million

A niche manufacturing company in Lakewood Ranch bought its own building for $5 million last month.

IRISS has clients around the world with headquarters in Lakewood Ranch, the United Kingdom and Australia. The Lakewood Ranch office was built in 2013 by the Starling Group, a Sarasota-based full-service commercial real estate agency.

The Starling Group built the property and IRISS was leasing it until the purchase was made last month, according to IRISS marketing director Michelle Detweiler.

Inside the 33,500-square-foot building, IRISS manufactures infrared windows that can be used on “any big electrical asset like transformers or switch gears,” Detweiler said. “They go on any big, huge electrical equipment so they can do safe inspections so the inspector is not exposed to electrocution. The inspector can determine if there are issues by looking in these windows so they don’t have to shut down operations.”

IRISS received a $13,000 transportation impact fee relief incentive from Manatee County, according to records from the county economic development office. The transportation fee incentive requires the creation of at least five jobs. Before the money is paid to a company, Manatee County requires copies of the proof of payment of permit fees, a certificate of occupancy and a signed building permit.

The Florida Department of Economic Opportunity also signed an agreement with IRISS requiring 20 full-time jobs be created by the end of 2015 in order to receive the incentive money. The agreement, under the state’s qualified target industry incentive program, also would have required a local match from Manatee County.

For IRISS, the incentive agreement with the state wouldn’t pay off.

“We decided that it was just not going to work for us,” Detweiler said. “It was very cumbersome to go through that process for what it was. There was a lot to it and it didn’t fit well with what we were doing at the time.”

The incentive package was set to pay IRISS $60,000 over five years, but is now listed as “terminated” on the DEO’s website.

“IRISS submitted its first performance claim, which showed the company created six of its 10 required jobs,” DEO spokeswoman Morgan McCord said in an email. “Because the company did not meet its full job creation requirement, its incentive contract was terminated and it received no incentive funds.”

As a result of the termination, Manatee County never contributed to the incentive package, according to Manatee County economic development official Karen Stewart.

The company applied for and was awarded another incentive package by the Manatee County Commission, according to county economic development records, but IRISS never signed on to the agreement.

This story was originally published April 5, 2017 at 4:06 PM with the headline "IRISS buys Lakewood Ranch building for $5 million."