Seminoles Put On Pressure

The Seminole Tribe of Florida, which already has a potentially lucrative gambling pact with Gov. Charlie Crist, is trying to convince the state Legislature to approve it. Their message, in so many words: We want it all and we want it now!

James Allen, CEO of gaming operations for the Seminoles, made the tribe’s wishes known at the Florida Gaming Summit on Tuesday in Hollywood, as covered by the Miami Herald. Lawmakers might have heard him better had he made his remarks in Tallahassee, but Hollywood just seems a friendlier venue to make an argument for more gambling, doesn’t it?

Cruel Summer for Orlando Hotels

A few random thoughts to close out a busy week…

• The summer tourist season was a tough one for Orlando, the nation’s second-biggest hotel market. According to a report by the Orlando Sentinel, only 58% of the market’s 112,000 rooms were filled in August, marking the worst month since Smith Travel Research started keeping track in 1987.

Huge discounts and other special offers didn’t help, with room rates down 14% over the year to around $76 per night. Theme parks won’t disclose how many people came through their turnstiles, though they did seem less crowded and the wait times for rides and attractions were shorter.

Cameron’s Crepes and Other Stuff

Here’s a six-pack for those of you who didn’t get enough during the opening weekend of the NFL:

• This sounds like something from a news parody site, but it’s legitimate scoop straight from the Orlando Sentinel: Cameron Kuhn, the former high-flying real estate developer, has established a crepe cart business with his wife, Traci Sihle.

Seriously, this is a guy who was once credited with redeveloping Downtown Orlando, and now he’s going to be selling crepes on the street. Well, he won’t actually serve them, but Sihle gives him credit for conjuring the idea.

Ready for RealShare, And More

A few notes and thoughts after clearing out the inbox from a long Labor Day weekend:

• You can now register online for our fourth-annual RealShare South Florida conference, set for Sept. 30 at the Hyatt Regency Miami. We will cover a broad range of topics in a single afternoon, from distressed assets and excess condos to the new wave of office space coming soon to the market.

Featured speakers will include Gene Berman of Marcus & Millichap, Tere Blanca of Blanca Commercial Real Estate, Michael Fay of Colliers Abood Wood-Fay, Keith Jennings of Westmount Realty Capital, Jose Juncadella of Fairchild Partners, Jonathan Kingsley of Grubb & Ellis, David Lynd of the Lynd Co., Jay Massirman of Rivergate Residential, Jack McCabe of McCabe Research and Eric Swanson of Flagler.

What to Do About Fontainebleau

Miami Beach’s famed Fontainebleau hotel, which has appeared in numerous movies over the past half-century, is now starring in its own drama. A report in The Wall Street Journal over the weekend says lenders may default on a $670-million construction loan related to years of renovation aimed at returning the iconic hotel to its former glory. (There was a previous story in The Miami Herald).

Part of the problem is that Fontainebleau’s owners owe at least $60 million to contractors who haven’t been paid for work they performed to get the hotel looking good again. Those contractors have slapped all sorts of liens against the property as a result.

Disney Won’t Mess with Marvel

Two combinations of youthful memories were combined in one Spidey-like swoop Monday with the $4-billion buyout of Marvel Entertainment Inc. by the Walt Disney Co. It might be difficult to keep Spider-Man and the Incredible Hulk separate from Mickey, Goofy and Buzz Lightyear, but it looks like Disney is going to try.

For starters, Disney will keep Marvel’s 70-year-old headquarters in New York City, rather than packing up those offices and moving westward to Burbank, CA. That’s a solid move on Disney’s part; you don’t mess with success, and Marvel has certainly enjoyed plenty at 417 Fifth Ave. in Manhattan.

What’s In A Name, And More

Coming off a much-needed vacation week, here are a few thoughts on things that happened while I was away:

• Now that Chicago’s Sears Tower is now officially called Willis Tower, will people ever get used to calling it by its new name? That building has been around long enough that its moniker has stuck, even if its original namesake left the building long ago.

Many of Florida’s iconic office towers have gone through renamings in recent years, largely the result of bank mergers. But you’ll still encounter people who call them by their original names. Old habits die hard, I guess. It might be easier to give a building a name that will stick for the better part of a century — say, the Empire State Building.

A Few Notes Before the Fourth

Before I take off for a three-day Fourth of July weekend of fireworks, barbecue and guitar-pickin’, please allow me to clean off my desk a bit:

• Florida’s hotels always find a way to fill up for special occasions, no matter how bad the economy gets. A report from the Miami Herald shows few rooms remain available heading into this weekend, and those will likely be taken up by locals at the last minute.

If you had any hopes against crowded beaches and theme parks because of the recession, forget about it. People still find a way to dig into their savings for family fun, allowing personal sanity to overrule finances. And people still love Florida, but they love discounted pricing on rooms even more.

Too Many Rooms at the Inn?

There’s no question that fewer people are coming to Florida for vacations and holidays this summer. Yet new hotels are still unlocking rooms—and there are more to come.

At least five hotels are scheduled to open in Jacksonville between now and Labor Day, even though hotel occupancy is down 13% so far this year, according to a report in the Jacksonville Business Journal. One developer there says the concept of “build it and they will come” no longer works.

Codina Leaves GM Board, And More

Packing up from a few splendid days roaming South Florida, a few parting thoughts:

—Armado Codina, commercial development legend and chairman of Coral Gables-based Flagler Development Group, will not be on the board of directors of General Motors when it emerges from bankruptcy, reports The Miami Herald. Codina, who has served on GM’s board since 2002, is one of six directors not named to the new board, which is being picked with input from the Treasury Department.

“Several of our directors have been on the board for quite a long time, so there is a question of whether they wanted to continue,” GM spokeswoman Julie Gibson told the newspaper. Codina was not immediately available for comment.