GlobeSt.com’s Florida Blog
A few interesting odds and ends from the National Multi Housing Council’s apartment strategies conference and annual meeting last week in Boca Raton:
• GDP growth over the next several quarters is expected to resemble the signal bars on a cell phone, according to Tony Pierson, managing director of portfolio management with Hartford, CT-based Cornerstone Real Estate Advisers. “We may be headed out of the Great Recession, if we’re not already,” Pierson told the NMHC audience.
It appears the $500-million investment in Panama City’s new international airport is already starting to pay dividends, with Southwest Airlines pledging to start jet service to and from the Panhandle vacation spot next spring. The popular Dallas-based low-fare carrier has a strategic alliance agreement with the airport’s developer, Jacksonville-based St. Joe Co., for eight daily nonstop flights.
Southwest’s arrival is expected to stimulate job growth and economic development within Northwest Florida, along with providing another option to bring travelers from around the country to its beaches, says Britt Greene, St. Joe president and CEO. The major state landowner is building the airport on 4,000 acres as part of its massive 75,000-acre Bay West development.
Happy Birthday, Commercial Grove! It’s been an entire year since the fine folks at GlobeSt.com unleashed this blog. We’ll try to pass around enough cake so you don’t wind up like Milton.
• Even after an entire year, one of the most popular items on this blog is an early one about the prospect of Trader Joe’s opening stores in Florida. Much to my surprise, people are such fans of the retailer that they seek out any information they can find and they invariably wind up here.
Real Capital Analytics last week reported $2.2 trillion in distressed assets from coast to coast. In Florida, the total comes to $12 billion.
Miami leads the pack in the Sunshine State with $4.6 billion in 142 properties and ranks seventh in the US among markets tracked by RCA. Development accounts for the biggest segment of distress with $2.1 billion, followed by apartments at $1.5 billion.
Lee County has been cited many times as being “ground zero” for the nation’s housing crisis. Now it’s getting better recognition from Money magazine as being among the nation’s top 25 job markets.
Money ranks Lee County No. 23 in the US, based on nearly 57% job growth over the past eight years. The article also cites affordable commercial real estate, low corporate taxes and tax incentives such as the $25-million “First Initiative” program.
Wait a minute, Mr. Postman! The latest issue of Real Estate Florida is being delivered strictly online.
That’s right, the magazine you look forward to getting in your traditional mailbox is available only in digital format this time around. All of our issues are accessible online so that’s not new, but this is our first edition that you can flip through and read exclusively on your computer screen.
Lee County is putting up $25 million in cash incentives to fund expansion and relocation at a time when money for economic development is limited. It ain’t nearly as much as the $787-billion stimulus being put up by the Obama Administration, but it’s still significant.
The Lee County Economic Development Office will manage the initiative, dubbed FIRST (Financial Incentives for Recruiting Strategic Targets), aimed at high-value business projects. Target industries include life sciences, aviation, shared services, information technology and manufacturing.
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.
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.)
Robyn Wright, a transaction specialist with Woodyard & Associates in Fort Myers and one of 25 Women of Influence in last month’s issue of Real Estate Florida, died in a traffic incident in Hendry County over the weekend. She was 51.
A report in the Naples Daily News says Robyn and her husband, Ronald Wright, were riding a motorcycle Saturday afternoon when they were hit by an SUV driving south in the northbound lane. An investigation was continuing Monday.
A memorial service is scheduled for 11 a.m. Saturday at St. Michael’s Lutheran Church, 3595 Broadway Ave. in Fort Myers. Funeral arrangements are being handled by Fort Myers Memorial Gardens Funeral Home & Cemetery.
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