BARTOW | Six months after reorganizing the Bartow’s Community Redevelopment Agency, the city is still searching for a permanent executive director. City Manager George Long, who now supervises the agency’s director, said he’s expanding his search, hoping to elicit more applicants. “We have a few applications — 12,” he said, “but I want to do…
The man who helped sell Pensacola residents on his grand vision of an elaborate waterfront park faced a barrage of questions during the third day of a sprawling and complex federal trial.For much of Friday, Scott Davison parried with the park board’s attorney over whether he perpetrated an elaborate “bait and switch” scheme to win…
NEW SMYRNA BEACH — The look and vibe will be Key West, complete with lush palm trees and a tiki bar. The location will be about seven hours and 400 miles north, along the North Causeway in New Smyrna Beach. Construction recently started on a roughly 4-acre, multimillion dollar project known as New Smyrna Harbor…
Tampa Mayor Bob Buckhorn did right by indulging in some drama this week with his cleanup plan for Sulphur Springs. The central Tampa neighborhood has come to symbolize urban blight, and having the mayor crash a piece of heavy equipment through an abandoned home said as much about the need to transform the area as…
ORANGE PARK – County commissioners have approved a local company’s plans to redevelop a seven-acre site along Kingsley Avenue, and the project could set the tone for future construction up and down the busy thoroughfare that connects unincorporated Clay County with the town of Orange Park. Initial plans call for Kings Tree apartments and the…
Almost 200 people have been helped off the streets of Tarpon Springs in the past three years thanks to the help of a patrol officer, a mental health caseworker and other resources around town. The Tarpon Springs Police Department expanded Officer Jose Yourgules’ role in 2010. His added duties included the title of Homeless Outreach Officer. “Yourgules…
How city of Ocala property owners and their neighbors may develop their land has changed. The Ocala City Council has voted to change the city’s comprehensive plan’s Future Land Use Element by reducing the roughly 18 different permitted land use categories to six uses. That means property owners and their neighbors may be able to…
ST. PETERSBURG — One downtown resident said he can’t fall asleep until after 3 a.m. on weekends because of the music blaring from the outdoor bar below his condo. Others complained that sidewalk cafes take up too much of the sidewalk during special events. But none of the small group of residents and business owners…
ST. PETERSBURG — The man who helped ignite redevelopment in Midtown in 2005 and is now working to open a restaurant in a public building there is mired in financial problems. Larry Newsome, whose company built Tangerine Plaza, has faced several million dollars in foreclosures, court judgments and tax liens since 2010. There was no…
TAMPA — The little house on East 24th Street is getting a makeover after years of neglect. The termite-eaten foundations have been replaced and the sagging bedroom floor shored up. The 86-year-old kitchen has been dressed up with new cabinets and granite countertops. Outside, the house has gotten new siding and will soon have a…
DELAND — Volusia County Council members aren’t likely to reach a speedy consensus — or find simple answers — to their questions about what to do with the special taxing districts known as Community Redevelopment Areas. A three-hour workshop Thursday in council chambers in DeLand only served to demonstrate how complicated the issues are —…
ST. PETERSBURG — A group of community leaders is forming to help give Central Avenue a unified feel, while emphasizing the unique traits of its adjoining neighborhoods. The Conversation on Central group started about two years ago to help the city with its Central Avenue Revitalization Plan, adopted last fall. The plan calls for banners…
