Well, it finally happened. The area's red-hot real estate market cooled down. And as the housing market goes, so go our top companies. Real estate, construction and contracting companies still make up one-third of our annual list of businesses grossing more than $20 million-the cut-off to qualify for inclusion on this list-but the growth in their 2006 revenues is a far cry from the exploding numbers of 2005. On the bright side, other local industries have stepped up. Despite listing four fewer companies, this year's Top Companies revenues total $600 million more than last year's list. Here are some highlights:

In 2006, construction and contracting companies on our list increased their revenues by an average of more than 9 percent-a promising figure, but still down from last year's average of 30 percent growth. Within that group, residential builders averaged revenues 5.5 percent lower than those in 2005.

Real estate companies were in the same boat. Michael Saunders & Company reported a 35 percent drop in revenues from 2005; still, at $56.9 million in earnings in 2006, the perennial powerhouse easily still ranks in the top half of our Top Companies directory.

Several top companies from previous years-including prominent builder Collingwood Construction Group and real estate titan Re/Max Properties-refused to report their 2006 revenues and we could not rank them. Partly as a result of those withdrawals, this year's list is down to 97 from last year's 101 companies.

Beyond the housing market hullabaloo, other industries continued to thrive and provide the local economy with strength as well as diversity. Many locally headquartered companies do business on a national or even international scale and are relatively immune to the fluctuations of the local market. Bradenton's Gould & Lamb, a seven-year-old medical financial services company with offices around the country, debuted at No. 100 on last year's list with an even $20 million in revenues. This year, jumping to No. 86 with $30.3 million, the company continued to reap the benefits of its niche national market from family-friendly Manatee County-which is simply where its executives preferred to live.

In fact, because so many of our top companies can run their far-reaching business from anywhere they choose, this area's temperate climate and appealing lifestyle are arguably its biggest economic assets. CEOs throughout our list echo the sentiment that their companies are here because Sarasota is a great place to live. And this year's relatively tame hurricane season helped the cause.

In a classic Sarasota-Manatee business conundrum, however, executives who move their businesses here for the area's warm weather still face a dearth of workforce availability. While a national study by Bizjournals recently ranked Sarasota-Bradenton as the country's fourth-hottest labor market based on job growth and unemployment rates, many local companies are forced to look elsewhere for their workers.

LexJet, No. 76 on this year's list, also serves a national market and is headquartered in Sarasota because founders Art Lambert and Ron Simkins "wanted to live in a nice place," according to Lambert. The company boosted sales by 25 percent in 2006, despite importing 70 percent of its young, college-educated workforce from outside of the area. "The good news is, we bring new people into the community," says Lambert. "The bad news is, we have to bring new people in." And while the Sarasota lifestyle is LexJet's biggest selling point to the new college grads it recruits, Lambert points out the primary risk when importing employees: "If we lose somebody, we lose them because they're homesick."

Brian Pruett, the CEO of Pruett Builders, isn't fretting too much, even though his revenues were down 24 percent last year. He's patiently taking the long view. "The demographics haven't changed," he says. "People are still coming down."

VITAL STATISTICS

NEW TO THE LIST:
FanTech
National In-Store
RTI Insurance Services
Vista Products

TOTAL COMPANIES: 97

TOTAL REVENUES: $20.4 billion

AVERAGE REVENUE INCREASE BY INDUSTRY:
Agriculture: 25%
Business services: 9.8%
Construction/contracting: 9.6%

• *Residential: -5.5%
  
• Commercial: 16.7%

*Mixed-use and utilities companies were not included in this sub-calculation.

No. 71

STAYING THE COURSE Like five other homebuilders on our Top Companies list, Pruett Builders saw a decline in revenues in 2006. President Brian Pruett says the 24 percent dip was a surprise, especially since he had a record 2005 fourth quarter. "Sales have definitely slowed down," he says. "We're at 2002-2003 levels, and in 2007 our revenues will be close to flat."

Still, Pruett has no plans to stray from his niche of building luxury custom residences since the profit margins just aren't there for less expensive new homes. And he's optimistic that homebuyers are still out there. He's got homes coming out of the ground all the way through February, and Pruett's sales staff is still talking to potential buyers. Plus, "interest rates are the same and the demographics haven't changed," he says. "It's an inventory issue."