Hotels Score Big from Bowls

Think there are too many college football bowls on TV lately? You’re not likely to hear that complaint from hotel operators, especially in Florida, where seven of this season’s bowls are being played.

Some cities are getting a double portion of pigskin, particularly South Florida, which will host the traditional Orange Bowl on New Year’s Day, followed one week later by the BCS Championship. Some luxury hotel operators, such as Fort Lauderdale’s Il Lugano, are offering special discount packages to fans attending either of those games.

Tampa Makes Three for Ikea

Much has been written about Ikea’s ongoing expansion into Florida, whether in magazine form in Real Estate Florida or occasional updates on GlobeSt.com. Now that the blue and yellow paint is on the walls of its unfinished Tampa store, the excitement is really building.

The Swedish merchant of practically all things chic yet inexpensive still plans to open its 353,000-square-foot location, just east of Downtown Tampa on a former 29-acre industrial site, sometime this summer. In the meantime, construction crews are working away on the basic structure, which lately entails bare concrete floors soon to be occupied by thousands of furnishings and a 350-seat restaurant.

Grove Sound-Off: Developers Want Bailout

Just when I thought this was going to be a slow news week, this bit of information shows up on GlobeSt.com: With so many other industries groups getting TARP funds lately, commercial real estate developers are now asking for a bailout of their own.

The Wall Street Journal reports Monday that a dozen real estate trade groups sent a letter to Treasury Secretary Henry Paulson stating that billions of dollars worth of commercial mortgages are resetting in 2009. The article cites figures of $530 billion coming due for in the next three years, with $160 maturing in just the coming year.

CNL Gets Big Jax Assignment

CNL Commercial Real Estate is getting a big boost lately, having picked up the leasing assignment for the 30-story AT&T Tower in Downtown Jacksonville. With just over a million square feet, the multi-tenant office building is the city’s largest and second-biggest in all of Florida (behind Miami’s Wachovia Financial Center).

The 25-year-old building, currently 85% occupied, has a wide range of amenities and on-site services and is convenient to Jacksonville Landing and the new federal courthouse. El-Ad Group owns the building, which is managed by Element National Management.

Grove Alert: JaxPort Owes Lawyers $10M

Who says eminent domain law doesn’t pay? The Jacksonville Business Journal reports that a judge has ordered the Jacksonville Port Authority to pay $10.5 million in legal fees to Brigham Moore LLP, which represented Keystone Coal Co. in its two-year fight against being forced to give up its 70-acre waterfront industrial site.

GlobeSt.com previously reported that a jury sided with Fort Myers-based Keystone in May, awarding a record $67 million even though the company bought the land for about an eighth of that amount. JaxPort decided in July not to pursue taking the property further, though it does intend to appeal the lawyers’ bill.

Duffy Departs Colliers Arnold

After a quarter-century of growing Colliers Arnold from a fledgling brokerage to a statewide commercial real estate powerhouse, J. Patrick Duffy has walked away from his position as the firm’s president. Talk of his departure began making the rounds Tuesday and was confirmed by the Tampa Bay Business Journal the next day.

Duffy, a panelist at our RealShare Central Florida conference in Kissimmee back in October and a frequently humorous presenter, cited conflicting “strategic direction” as his reason for leaving, adding that he discussed the move with CEO Lee Arnold over the past three months. He also termed the parting of ways as amicable, while his former employer stated that Duffy left to pursue other opportunities. (Both phrases are open to interpretation.)

Grove Alert: Proscenium in Peril

The Sarasota Herald-Tribune reports that the $1-billion Proscenium mixed-use project may be drawing to a close. Sales contracts on 18 land parcels totaling seven acres in Downtown Sarasota are expected to lapse later today.

Quite frankly, this project seemed overly ambitious from the outset when it was announced in May 2007. The developers, who had not previously attempted anything of this magnitude, were adamant that it would be finished by late 2010. Maybe they could have pulled it off, absent of this latest recession, but now we may never know.

Grove Sound-Off: Boards Share Blame

An Orlando area banking veteran raises the following question amidst all the current chatter involving federal bailouts of major corporations: Where were the boards of directors as these problems were arising?

Geof Longstaff, chairman of the new Emergent National Bank being organized in Winter Park, says it’s easy and justifiable to criticize CEOs for getting their companies into situations that now require bailout money. However, he points out that the boards should shoulder just as much fiduciary responsibility.

Miami CBD Changes Colors

Downtown Miami used to be known as a colorful city during its 1980s “Miami Vice” heyday, with pastel shades in particular getting overused. Now one hue—green—matters most, literally and figuratively.

My colleague Crystal Proenza has penned a very informative article on current major office projects under way in the world-renowned central business district that are aiming for LEED or Energy Star certification. These buildings are expected to become prime examples of large-scale environmental sustainability, at least in Florida if not nationally, and may end up being the envy of all other CBDs statewide that have been slower to catch on to the green effort.

Jeb Bush Going to Washington?

The name of former Gov. Jeb Bush hasn’t been in the headlines in a pretty good while. This week, he made news twice.

GlobeSt.com informed you that Bush has been appointed to the board of directors of Jacksonville-based Rayonier Inc., a timber REIT with significant land holdings in Florida and the Southeast. After US Sen. Mel Martinez announced that he would not seek a second term in 2010, Bush quickly expressed interest in running.

Bush, now a Miami-based consultant, had an extensive background in real estate development before being elected in 1998 to the first of his two terms as governor, even without prior experience in Tallahassee. How do you think he would do in Washington?