- This is a production of WEDU PBS, Tampa, St.

Petersburg, Sarasota.

[Music] - Where would we be without pioneers?

In business they're the risk takers who break new ground with no guarantee of success.

And when they're successful, it can be a catalyst for economic and social change.

Not all pioneers are tech entrepreneurs.

Far from it.

You're about to meet a third generation family business owner who's breaking new ground in hospitality, retail and wellness.

Next on the Suncoast Business Forum.

- Suncoast Business Forum, brought to you by the financial services firm of Raymond James, offering personalized wealth management advice and banking and capital markets expertise, all with a commitment to putting clients' financial well-being first.

More information is available at raymondjames.com.

[Music] - Try to imagine this.

The average McDonald's restaurant serves an average of 500,000 meals each year.

In 2022, Tampa Bay's Caspers Company's 60 McDonald's franchise stores were serving about 30 million meals a year.

That's the year Blake Casper, his sister Allison and her husband, Robbie Adams, sold their family's franchise back to McDonald's after building it into Florida's largest McDonald's franchise over three generations.

With all that entrepreneurial and management experience, what do you do for a second act?

You perform business alchemy and take hospitality, retail, and wellness in a new direction.

Blake Casper is CEO of the Casper Company and co-owner of Oxford Commons.

Blake, welcome to the Suncoast Business Forum.

- Thank you, Geoff.

Glad to be here.

- It's good to have you.

Now, back in 1958, your grandfather, Fritz Casper, left his business in Illinois.

It was a men's clothing store and opened a McDonald's franchise in Tampa.

The first one in Florida in South Tampa.

It was a big risk.

And at that time there were only 68 McDonald's in the entire country.

Now there are 40,000 around the world.

What led your grandfather to take that risk?

- Well, a lot of it had to do with who was selling the franchises.

So Ray Kroc, he was he was very convincing.

And Ray and Fritz hit it off.

Well, they were they were both golfers.

They loved great clothing.

So so they had a lot of, um, you know, just common interests.

Uh, but, but really what happened was Ray's first successful McDonald's was in a little town north of Chicago called Waukegan, Illinois, and that's where my grandfather's men's clothing store was.

And so Fritz got to witness firsthand the crowds, the demand.

And it really was a phenomenon that that hit this little town.

- Tell us about Fritz a little bit more and tell us about your dad, Joe, because together they were a really dynamic team.

And they built this one store in '58 into a very substantial franchise.

- They did.

And Fritz though, um, you know, because Ray was excited about going to Florida, he did do something special for Fritz.

And he, Fritz got a territory, which was not the case for most McDonald's franchises.

They're individually franchised now, but Fritz actually had the territory of Tampa.

So, so from the get go, Fritz had bigger visions for for what you know, he thought we could do, he could do down in Tampa.

And so Ray was doing nothing but selling and and having to write.

And so anybody that he knew, he was like trying to convince.

And Fritz happened to be right down the street in a men's clothing store.

And Ray walks in and likes, you know, immediately connects with, with Fritz.

And so is doing what, you know, Ray does.

And that is sell McDonald's.

And Fritz was impressed.

He saw the crowds.

His kids really were excited to be there.

And and they convinced him that this was a good idea.

And so when when Ray was Fritz's answer to Ray was, I'll open up a McDonald's when you get to Florida, let me know when you get to Florida.

And I'll move down there and open up your McDonald's.

And that's how it all got started.

- But it's a it's a big leap going from selling men's clothes to selling fast food, because fast food was a brand new concept.

And it wasn't just leaving Illinois.

He was coming to all the way down to Florida and bringing his family along, taking a big risk.

- Yeah, but he loved to fish.

And so fishing was more important than anything.

McDonald's was just a means to go fishing.

And that's that was the motivation.

I don't think he ever really loved the hamburger business, but it it got him to Florida and it got him fishing, which is which was his his true love.

- Your dad worked for him as a kid, went off to college, came back.

Yeah.

Tell us about your dad, his work ethic, his his approach to the business and to the business world.

- He was a competitor, so.

And he, and he approached business like a game.

I mean, they really did.

He wanted to win.

He wanted to see his team win.

He he really loved his people and his company.

Um, and but but it was a game.

I mean that that was how he raised us.

Really was like, find something that you love to do.

First of all, you do have to love the whatever it is and be the best at it you can possibly be.

And he was a competitor, you know.

So was my grandfather.

So was Ray.

Ray, Ray.

You know, there was a famous quote that we still talk about at McDonald's today.

And that is, "If your competitor is drowning, stick a hose in his throat."

That was the philosophy in the Casper household, too.

I mean, they were competitors.

And so whatever it was my dad was getting into.

He wanted he wanted his team to win and be the best they could possibly be.

And that that was the kind of leader he was.

- When did you start working at McDonald's as a kid?

- My first job, I was 14 years old at the Carolwood McDonald's.

- And what did you do when you worked at McDonald's at 14?

- I was front counter and lobby.

Um, and that was at 14.

That's all you could do.

You couldn't work in the grill.

Um, they wouldn't put you in drive through just because that, you know, might slow things down.

But but, you know, 1 in 8 Americans start at McDonald's and it's a great place to start.

You know, it's a great, you know, area to, to learn.

Um, and that was what we always did, I think exceptionally well at McDonald's was, was starting people on the path, um, you know, of responsibility of, you know, training and accomplishment and achievement and, you know, and working your way up.

- After high school, you went to University of Colorado and then you came home and you had a unique work experience.

- Yeah, I did.

I ended up working a summer at a little pub that had just opened up down the street from my mom's house, and she was enamored with the owner and got me this job busing tables for the summer.

And that was at Mad Dogs and Englishmen with Wilton Morley.

Um, so it was a fascinating summer of kind of watching and the antithesis of McDonald's, you know, McDonald's, where everything, you know is in order and extremely efficient and consistent to Mad Dogs and Englishmen, where the name, I think, explains, you know, everything.

And that would get me interested in in all things English.

And, and actually, I would eventually, you know, end up in school over there.

- So after the summer at Mad Dogs and Englishmen, you were inspired to actually go to London and go to the London School of Economics.

What were you intending to do at the London School of Economics?

- That same summer that I. I worked at Mad Dogs.

I read a book called Liar's Poker, and Michael Lewis starts the book at the London School of Economics.

And so reading that book got me motivated to to go to LSE.

So that that's the real the real story.

Yeah.

- And what did you take away from the London School of Economics.

- That I didn't want to do?

Economics.

[laughter] Yeah.

That there are a lot of smart finance people out there that I was.

I was going to have to find something else to do.

- In 1996, he came back to the United States for family reasons.

For business reasons.

Right?

- Yeah.

My my father had gotten sick for the second time.

And he, you know, basically the, the heart, you know, of, of, if, you know, if you were thinking about getting back in the family business now, now would be the time.

And so, um, so I did, so I came back, started working for him in '97.

- In 2000, you had the opportunity to purchase a McDonald's franchise in Tallahassee, a troubled McDonald's franchise, and you built it from 13 stores to 27 stores with your partners.

How did you do that?

That's explosive growth.

You're in your late 20s.

Yeah.

- That's right.

- That's quite an entrepreneurial achievement.

- I got a great start working for my dad and working for what is arguably the most successful McDonald's franchise in the country.

And we were recognized as such.

So that having that experience, you know, allowed for us to have amazing success in the Panhandle.

Nobody had really run, you know, restaurants like we we did the organic sales numbers, which are, you know, in a restaurant.

That's always the metric that is most impressive is, you know, you can add restaurants.

I mean, that's, that's one way to grow and an important way to grow.

But the, the most telling is how are you doing growing your existing customer base?

Um, and we, we reached double digit customer count growth for seven years straight.

You know, compounding.

- In 2005, your father, Joe, passed away.

Yeah.

And you became the chairman and CEO of Casper Company, the family business that owned 40 McDonald's franchises stores at that time.

- Yeah.

That's right.

- Yeah.

What challenges, what opportunities were you facing back in 2005 when you took over?

- You know, one is the organization like, you know, they worked under my father for 35 years.

I mean, it was, you know, geared towards his leadership and leadership style.

So that's always, you know, transitions are always difficult, no matter no matter what it is.

Um, and I was, I was feeling very big shoes and very successful shoes.

And so that's not easy.

Like I said, it's always better to take over from somebody that's not successful.

Taking over from somebody that, that, you know, is, is, is honestly sometimes more difficult.

Um, so that, that I think was probably the biggest was just now.

Now everybody had watched us, our, the success that we had up in Tallahassee.

And so that gave, you know, myself and the team that I was bringing with me a lot of credibility.

Um, I think it had been much more difficult had I not had that success.

- So you came back to Tampa, became chairman and CEO of Caspers company 40 stores, which you continue to grow the stores.

Worked your way through the Great Recession.

Company did well.

Caspers did well.

In 2012, you started an entirely new business called the Oxford Exchange.

Nobody had heard about it.

It was a new idea.

- Well, back to the London experience.

You know, having lived in London for almost four years, I was always, you know, very impressed by what they do in hospitality spaces in London.

I mean, they really are creative.

They're really, they reimagine old buildings.

I watched a particular restaurateur, designer, Terence Conrad, redevelop a Michelin Tire company headquarters.

And it was it's called Bibendum.

It's still there.

Um, it's in Chelsea.

And it was this really amazing rehab of an old building into what became a restaurant, a design store, a bookshop, a flower shop.

And I just, I was always just kind of blown away with, with the creativity and the ingenuity.

And I and the seeds were definitely planted at that point where, you know, if I ever had the opportunity to do something like that in my own hometown, you know, I'd really love to do that.

And, um, in 2010, we, you know, right.

That's when we started, started as a bookstore.

Um, the building that we picked was a lot bigger than what I thought could sustain a bookstore.

And so that was the start of this idea.

Like, all right, we found this really interesting old building.

It wasn't as interesting as it looks today.

We made it much more interesting and better looking.

It was this idea, this iterative idea, you know, creation of like, what would we put in there that we think people would enjoy and would come back to.

And so what you see today is a result of that, of that process.

And it had a big impact on, on Tampa.

And so we saw that we were like, wow, you know, I, you know, we could do more of this.

And so that would, that would then lead to more.

And then we needed a, you know, hospitality company.

And that's how you, how we got to Oxford Commons.

- So Oxford Exchange was the first.

Then came the library, which is over in St.

Pete.

Let's go through the different companies that are part of Oxford Commons.

- Yeah, sure.

So the library started.

Johns Hopkins had taken over all children's.

They were building a new research building.

They were very impressed with the Oxford Exchange.

And they wanted something like that on their campus.

And so that was how we started.

The library was, um, you know, was, was creating what they wanted was an activation of their, of their research tower.

So that got us to the library.

The Stovall House would would open in 2021.

Um, and that was a totally different concept.

People responded very well to the Oxford Exchange.

And so I thought, what, what was the other thing that I saw in, in London that really impressed me and that was the, the nightlife social clubs that they have in London.

That was also a very different, you know, concept, you know, was, was a risk that people would, you know, want to join something that didn't have, you know, golf, didn't have tennis, but had a very elevated experience.

And we have a lot of programming there that, that we do, um, that, you know, I think brings people together and is a very community gathering space and promotes, you know, community.

- In 2023, you ventured into the hotel business, very different business.

- We did.

And we didn't build the current.

Um, but some friends of ours that did put it up for sale and we bought it.

And yeah, it's been a whole different venture.

It kind of fits well with, you know, our brand.

And, um, it's interesting.

My sister had already, there's a little Oxford Exchange retail space in the current.

And so we were already kind of in there a little bit.

Um, but we would, we would go on to buy it and then we redid the, the top floor, which is now Casa Cami, which is a great Mexican restaurant with phenomenal views.

And it's a beautiful ocean, you know, waterfront property that, you know, really, um, showcases Tampa Bay really well.

- And 2023, you also opened another restaurant called Predalina.

- Yes.

You know, we're close to Jeff Vinik and, and watching what he was doing in Channelside and knew a lot of the players that were involved there.

And so when restaurant space came available, we thought it would be really neat to be a part of that.

And so we concepted the restaurant based on our great grandmother who was from Brazil.

She would go back and forth between Brazil and Portugal.

So the the menu is, you know, loosely Mediterranean.

We do have a couple Brazilian menu items.

- In 2025, you returned to your roots with Mad Dogs and Englishmen.

You weren't busing tables, you owned it and you had your partners who were the original owners, and you reimagined Madogs and Englishmen.

- We did, we did.

We built a whole new, uh, new location, much bigger.

And in some ways it's more like a pub than, than the original one, but it's still Mad.

You know, that's the beauty of it.

It's still it's got a lot of charm and a lot of personality.

- In the midst of all this transformation, the Oxford Commons opening new restaurants, hotels, the Casper Company sold its 60 stores, the 60 McDonald's stores backed to McDonald's Corporation.

Tell us about that.

- Yeah.

So we had, you know, owned and operated McDonald's since that 1958 for 64 years.

It's all we knew.

I mean, really.

I mean, I mean, I grew up with it.

I didn't know another time, you know, in my life without McDonald's.

And so our family history is tied, you know, very much still to this day.

You know, if you hear about people always say, oh, the Casper's, the, you know, the McDonald's people.

So we were on our way into a lot of different activities.

Um, and, um, and while McDonald's was, um, you know, and still is exceptionally run, um, you know, we, we were, we were ready to, to move on and, and the opportunity came to sell and, and that, that was, you know, that's what happened in 2024.

- You had the opportunity to buy an institution in South Tampa.

Wright's gourmet had been in business for over 60 years.

It's a cafe, bakery, deli, a little restaurant, catering.

It's a one-off kind of business.

It's not a multi-unit business.

It's a one location.

Um.

And its not part of Oxford Commons.

It's actually a separate brand within Casper Company.

- Certainly anybody that grew up in South Tampa, but maybe anybody that grew up in the Tampa Bay area knows of Wright's Gourmet.

And it really is a unique.

It's an institution.

It's iconic.

We all grew up eating it.

Um, you know, it was literally my mom's when she was diagnosed with stage four pancreatic cancer.

It was the meal that she wanted to go have first.

You know, it was with some trepidation that we're taking over this icon.

And I can't tell you how many people and messages and, and we do a lot of things like you've just brought up, there's a lot of activities that we're doing.

But the thing I hear most about is rights.

That's what I hear most about.

- Several years ago, you established a company, Oxford Design, which is a full service design studio, also different than everything else that you've done.

Yeah.

And it's one of your branded companies.

- Yes, it is.

And it, it also it came out of this effort of space making and, and the importance of design and great design in, in building these spaces.

That's something Alison and I have always felt strongly about, whether it's our houses or, you know, even our McDonald's, which we took great pride in, but especially with the Oxford Exchange, like we knew what we were building something very special, very unique when it opened.

You know, we had all this interest in, you know, who did this.

How did you do this?

So I thought, well, why don't we try to, you know, make a business out of this.

Right?

And so that was the start of Oxford Design.

And it has it's grown to be a full service, um mostly residential.

Um, but we do some commercial.

Um and then we do all of our own projects.

- Another one of your branded companies is Casper Service Corporation.

- Yep.

- It's more linked to your original business.

Restaurant business.

Tell us about it.

- So Casper Service Company it grew out of a department.

Our maintenance and our M & R department for Casper's.

That got started back in the '70s by my dad.

So my dad started these departments.

Uh, one was distribution.

We actually used to distribute to ourselves.

Um, and then the other one was M & R service because he was very frustrated with the level and quality of service that he, he was receiving, um, by, by his vendors.

We took that and, you know, offered it to other McDonald's franchisees who were equally as frustrated.

And then it kind of grew from there.

So it's been an organic growth for the last 17 years.

Now we service all kinds of restaurants.

We service schools, hospitals, really anything with food service equipment, um, HVAC, refrigeration.

- A number of years ago, you opened Riverside Recovery for drug and alcohol treatment.

Addiction treatment?

- Yeah.

- Very different than anything else.

- It is very different, very personal.

So I got sober 17 years ago.

And um, and so I've been through the, you know, the, the wringer on rehabs and recovery.

And so I got a firsthand look at what's out there.

And so when the opportunity came to build something really world class, um, for our community, um, you know, that that was something that, um, was of, you know, very important interest to me.

So, um, so that was the start of Riverside Recovery.

- In the summer of 2026, you announced a very bold new project, a wellness resort, 550 acres just north of Tampa called Clay Hill.

Yeah.

Tell us about that.

- Yeah.

So a year ago, I, um, I had just come back from the Cotswolds, um, which is just outside of London and, and in the Cotswolds, there's like a bunch of these kind of wellness retreats.

They were mostly been converted like farm estates to these, you know, really kind of interesting resorts with, um, a lot of outdoor activities.

And I thought, you know, maybe there it's worth looking around.

I really didn't know exactly what I was thinking.

And once I saw the property, the Clay Hill 550 acres, that's when it really hit me of what we could do.

- Traditional resorts often have golf, tennis, sports, all of the above.

Is that this kind of resort?

- Yeah, there won't be any golf.

There will be tennis.

There will be racket sports or pickleball.

Clay Hill will have hiking, biking.

There will be an equestrian center.

So there'll be horseback riding, there'll be fishing, um, other kind of water sports.

There'll be a large wellness component spa and then farming.

There'll be right now it's, it's, it's used for farming today.

And we're going to incorporate, um, some of those, some of the livestock that are on it today.

And then, and then other aspects of farming.

Um, so really leaning into the farm to table, um, ideas.

- What are the words quality, service and cleanliness mean to you and to the Casper Company?

- Yeah.

So those were the, the QSC was drilled into our heads at McDonald's.

It was what Ray Kroc um, stressed over and over again, quality service cleanliness and, and, and they are, they're still the fundamentals of, of what we do and everything that we do quality service and cleanliness.

And, and if you, if you, if you hold those, right, if you really do, you know, stick to that and, and being the very best, you know, whatever it is we're doing, we're going to be the very best.

Um, you know, you could take that in a lot of different areas.

And, um, and that's what has made us successful.

I mean, we're doing a lot of different things today.

Geoff.

I mean, that is the one thing that, you know, gets a little bit, you know, um, challenging is just the amount of different activities.

I mean, we go from bookstores to cupcakes, fish, and chips, but it's the quality service and cleanliness.

It's that dedication to excellence in everything that we do.

If you're able to do that and get the best people and get the best out of the best people, which we have been able to do for 60 something years.

Um, you know, the, the, the potential is, is enormous.

- Well, Blake, I want to thank you so much for being our guest today.

- Thank you, Geoff.

I appreciate it.

- If you'd like to see this program or any of the other CEO profiles in our Suncoast Business Forum archive.

Again, you can find them on the web at wedu.org/sbf.

Thanks for joining us for the Suncoast Business Forum.