St. Petersburg creates master plan for downtown waterfront Beneath the overwhelming noise of debate over the future of the Pier and the Tampa Bay Rays, a project that could be even more important to the city’s future is about to begin. On Sept. 9, almost two years after voters decided St. Petersburg needed a new…
New restaurants spice up downtown Fort Walton Beach It wasn’t long ago that downtown was really struggling. Many storefronts were empty and pedestrian traffic was low. But in recent years the area has undergone a transformation of new businesses that have brought new life. Downtown now is becoming known for its eclectic mix of restaurants offering…
LaSalle company purchases Southernmost Hotel Collection $184M (Key West) Sweeping changes to the lodging landscape of Key West continued this week with the $184.5 million sale of a downtown hotel collection. LaSalle Hotel Properties announced in a statement released Wednesday its purchase of the 260-room Southernmost Hotel Collection, which includes the Southernmost Hotel, Southernmost on…
FEMA to partially fund Warren sinkhole remediation in Live Oak On Tuesday night at the Live Oak Community Redevelopment Agency meeting, Live Oak’s engineer Lane Lucas informed the board the Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA) would not be fully funding the remediation of the sinkhole on Warren Street. “FEMA won’t pay for the full project…
Climbing out of the Channelside morass (Tampa) The effort to turn around Channelside Bay Plaza in Tampa was daunting enough before this week’s news that its Irish owners have moved the property under the protection of an out-of-state federal bankruptcy court. This is bad news for the Tampa Port Authority, which owns the land under…
PALM COAST — Most cities in Volusia and Flagler counties started with a downtown, grew outward with single-family homes and then worked to revitalize the downtown areas after the suburbs took shape. But in places like Palm Coast and Deltona, where a city was developed by a corporation, the process gets reversed. First come the…
SEBRING — The Sebring Community Redevelopment Agency (CRA), in conjunction with the Downtown Sebring merchants, is bringing two new programs to the downtown Sebring area. First, the CRA recently purchased new audio equipment to play Sirius/XM satellite radio in Circle Park and the merchants are collectively paying monthly service fees and the royalty fees. Sirius…
LARGO — The big vacant lot has tall grass, an assortment of oaks and pines, a bit of crumbling blacktop, and what seems like a billion dragonflies. The city is selling the nearly 1-acre lot at 158 Ridge Road near the northeast corner of Clearwater-Largo Road and West Bay Drive in its ongoing effort to…
LAKELAND | There are many examples of residents who bought homes and property at the wrong time before the real estate crash several years ago. And then there is the $8.4 million purchase in 2005 of 14 acres by the city of Lakeland. The city bought 53 parcels in the neighborhood that backs up to…
Delray Beach officials have heard plenty of noise about the city’s noise ordinance. The problems, and complaints have been around for almost a year, after Delray unveiled a draconian new ordinance in September that featured steep fines, some as high as $15,000 for repeat offenders. Many business owners, who rely on music to keep customers…
Now that the Ocala City Council has approved new Community Redevelopment Areas to remove blight along the city’s gateways, each of the advisory committees for the East Ocala CRA and West Ocala CRA held meetings Tuesday to begin drawing up plans to revitalize those areas. The two committees, prodded by consultant VHB MillerSellen and city…
Casto announces at the August 20, 2013 ICSC Florida Conference, its Casselberry’s CRA Development Project, Concord Village. Casselberry joins neighboring Maitland and Winter Park in developing a new and innovative downtown mixed use project of luxury apartments, restaurants, office and retail tenants, and place making. The Florida ICSC is second largest Shopping Center Conference in…
