The CRA Advisory Board—CRAAB—consists of a group of Fernandina Beach residents who advise the City Commission in its dual role as Community Redevelopment Agency on issues including implementation of the CRA Plan by providing recommendations and assistance in identifying and prioritizing projects to be undertaken as consistent with the CRA Plan. The focus of this…
For Immediate Release: May 17, 2016 Contact: DEO Communications, 850.245.7110, media@deo.myflorida.com DEO SEEKING PROPOSALS FOR COMMUNITY PLANNING TECHNICAL ASSISTANCE GRANTS TALLAHASSEE, Fla. – The Florida Department of Economic Opportunity (DEO) is seeking proposals for Community Planning Technical Assistance grants from communities across Florida. The purpose of the grants is to assist counties and municipalities in…
The Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation (FDIC) and the Office of the Comptroller of the Currency (OCC) are hosting a listening session for bank examiners. The listening session is a group discussion between local community-based organizations and FDIC and OCC Community Reinvestment Act (CRA) examiners and community affairs staff. The goal is to help the examiners…
Leading up to a recent decision to build a futureSanta Rosa County judicial center in downtown Milton, Property Appraiser Greg Brown presented a case to commissioners for a different site on U.S. 90 — one he says is an opportunity to reduce the burden on taxpayers. Brown sent a letter Feb. 3 to all five County Commissioners…
Boynton Beach’s redevelopment agency will for the first time Tuesday hear about its newly created citizen advisory board’s progress. In October, the city voted to change the makeup of its redevelopment agency board. It’s now made up of the city’s five commission members, a change from its former composition of five commissioners and two independent…
There are no classes taught at the University of Florida’s East Campus along Waldo Road. Instead, the majority of the 450 or so employees working in the complex of brick buildings behind a wrought iron fence handle mostly administrative duties. Departments such as payroll, Web and data services were moved here to free up room…
Nearly 40 years ago, the young architects in a new, untested Miami firm got their first chance to prove their commercial mettle with a devilishly tricky commission: To design an apartment building on a Brickell lot so long and skinny it’s like a sliver of pie cut by a dessert lover on a diet. The…
Retailers and real estate developers are sold on the eastern leg of the Miami River as an up-and-coming culinary and entertainment destination on the verge of a break-through. But are voters? That’s a key question leading up to the March 15 election, when developers Alex Mantecon and Guillermo Vadell will learn whether plans to build…
A new development group expects to file plans for student housing, apartments and retail as soon as this month to complement the proposed downtown campus of theUniversity of Central Florida. A partnership of Premiere-Nelson Group Inc., Unicorp National Developments Inc., T-Rex Capital Group LLC and Jupiter Realty expect to submit the plans for living and shopping quarters that would complement the…
Downtown Miami continues to grow. Developers broke ground Thursday on Miami Worldcenter and Paramount, the mixed-use development’s signature residential tower, according to The Miami Herald. The 27-acre development at 10th Street and NE Second Avenue will include retail, hotel and residences. The Worldcenter launch came just two weeks after the groundbreaking for Canvas, at 90 NE…
The Cape Coral Community Redevelopment Agency is seeking applications for Special Events Sponsorship Grants. The program, which CRA officials say is designed to help support efforts to bring more people to the South Cape, would supply “small monetary grants” next fiscal year to “organizations and businesses whose events directly serve the citizens and visitors of…
Building by building, block by block and street by street. That’s Escambia County Commissioner Lumon May’s long-term plan for the revitalization of Pensacola’s Brownsville neighborhood. May grew up in the Morris Courts projects and still lives in Brownsville. He wants the poverty eradicated and the reputation for drugs, prostitution and crime to be a thing of the past. But…
SEBRING — The buyer of Harder Hall plans to maintain the visual focal point of its tower when transforming the historic hotel into a facility that serves the elderly, an architect said Monday night. Greg Jacoby, the architect for the project, told Sebring City Council members that the buyer will maintain many of the historic aspects…
ST. PETE BEACH – After an initial turn down, city of St. Pete Beach officials are optimistic they will receive Pinellas County Commission approval for a Community Redevelopment Area plan by the end of June. City Manager Wayne Saunders said Feb. 23 that one-on-one discussions with county commissioners are ongoing and the target date for…
PORT ORANGE — The city is expected to come into $1.3 million from a pending land sale, and council members seemed to lean toward the Riverwalk project when asked where they think that windfall should be directed. The city recently entered into a contract to sell a chunk of its land located behind the Lowe’s Home…
Here’s a very, very simple question for all the hand-wringers who seem to regard the decrepit, old Pheil Hotel and Theater building as an historic edifice looming over the city as if the Hanging Gardens of Babylon had been transplanted to Central Avenue. If you succeed in preventing the owners from selling the property in…
Temple Terrace is putting redevelopment back on its drawing board in a major way. After years of delay due to a sour economy and a court settlement with a prior developer, plans to redevelop the city’s downtown are on track for a future with real possibilities. And the city’s efforts are part of a broader…
Upon declaration of an area as blighted, the CRA works to improve conditions. As property tax values rise, most of the increase is funneled back into the redevelopment area for further improvements. An estimate provide by Escambia County showed Century might, in a best case scenario, receive about $5,300 in tax funds for the first…
When it comes to solving the shortage of workforce housing in Key West, city Planner Thaddeus Cohen says it’s time to look up. The allowable height for buildings, which in Key West is limited to 40 feet for certain homes in the flood plain and lower in other neighborhoods, may need to rise to 60…
Visit our beaches and stores, but don’t stay too long. That’s the message Treasure Coast governments are working to convey as they try to decongest crowded downtown streets and oceanfront parking lots. For the last decade, local downtowns have been thriving and packed spaces aren’t a bad problem to have, according to Jim O’Connor, Vero…
Sanford commissioners have selected Torre Companies of South Florida to begin turning 5.4 acres of city-owned property in the downtown district into a development of townhomes, restaurants, shops and a hotel. The property — which is bordered by East Seminole Boulevard, Sanford Avenue, First Street and Palmetto Avenue — is considered to be one of the…