SEBRING — The Sebring Redevelopment Agency is participating in the 16th Annual Florida Outdoor Sculpture Competition for the third year. The competition is hosted each year by the Polk Museum of Art. This year more than 60 outdoor sculptures were submitted for exhibit consideration in Lakeland, Bonita Springs, in addition to Sebring. The Sebring CRA will…
SEBRING — Successful civic and industrial expansion has spawned some reorganization in both Avon Park and Sebring. Sebring Regional Airport asked for and got an extension of its Community Redevelopment Agency timeline from 2026 to 2045 at Tuesday’s county commission meeting, which should give the CRA time to complete several projects now in the works.…
On Feb. 3, 2016, the Miami-Dade County Grand Jury filed a report entitled “CRAs: The Good, the Bad and the Questionable.” This misguided report makes inaccurate claims and falsely asserts that the highest priority of Florida’s Community Redevelopment Agencies (CRAs) should be affordable housing. This narrow view of CRAs reduces and mistakes their value and…
North Palm Beach’s future is likely to hold more retail stores and housing, plus prettier streets more suitable for walkers and bicyclists. That was the message residents got when a team of professionals unveiled their work-in-progress on the village’s new master plan Friday night. The crowd at The Conservatory School applauded and whistled when Dana…
Change is coming to Lake Ivanhoe’s eclectic business district, and merchants are hoping they can keep their identity as a planned August groundbreaking approaches for the mixed-use project that will include apartments, stores and restaurants. What impact the development known as The Yard will have on parking, traffic and overall character of the neighborhood is…
Often asked about concerns with a recent surge in downtown redevelopment, Naples mayoral candidates Bill Barnett and John Sorey have both taken a consistent stance — the plans to revitalize Fifth Avenue South have worked, and the city should be careful not to abruptly turn its back on those plans. Their position stems from their…
PORT ST. LUCIE — City officials are in talks over buying the City Center property owned by enigmatic developer Lily Zhong, according to a bombshell legal filing last week. The filing — part of the Securities and Exchange Commission investment-fraud case against Zhong — reveals that a receiver over Zhong’s frozen assets has been “in…
Request for Qualifications Professional Services for Neighborhood Commercial Area Market Study for Grandview Street – Mount Dora Northeast Community Redevelopment Agency (PROPOSAL No. 16 – 5151 -001) Statement of Purpose The Mount Dora Northeast Community Redevelopment Agency (NECRA) is in need of professional services for the production of a Commercial Market Study. The NECRA…
To commercial brokers and developers, a 1.3-mile stretch of U.S. 1. is one of the hottest spots in Indian River County. Between Eighth Street and 18th Street, two long-shuttered car dealerships have been leveled and other land has been cleared to make way for new retail stores and restaurants. Signs of the area’s resurgence, which…
Hoping to bolster UCF‘s case for a downtown campus, the city of Orlando on Tuesday revealed $75 million in commitments to the project. An agreement set to be presented Monday to the City Council pledges that Orlando would hand over more than $42 million in land and property alone for the campus, plus road and sewer…
St. Pete City Council will vote on a resolution supporting ten items aimed at improving conditions on the Southside at its meeting Thursday. The items are recommended by the Citizens Advisory Committee to be funded through the first round of appropriations from the newly created Southside Community Redevelopment Area. Five of the proposals would use…
FROSTPROOF — A local grocery store may have taken another step to becoming a reality. At their workshop Tuesday, Town Council members, except for Mayor Ralph Waters who was absent, agreed to offer a $75,000 grant to Save-A-Lot franchise owner Kim Walker to open a store in Frostproof. City Attorney Mark Smith described Frostproof as…
The Century Town Council decided Monday night to hold off on forming a Community Redevelopment Agency (CRA) until they can find out how much of the necessary paperwork might be done with the help of Escambia County. Upon declaration of an area as blighted, the CRA works to improve conditions. As property tax values rise,…
The City of Pensacola, Escambia County and Baptist Health Care have entered into a partnership of sorts to explore the possibility of triggering a portion of the west side into a re-birth. A year and a half ago they hired Live Work Learn Play, a Montreal-based real estate development and advisory firm, to look at how the…
Leon County and Tallahassee city commissioners discussed a range of issues, from the south side, transportation planning, policing and economic development at a town hall-style forum Monday night. More than a hundred residents tucked into the chapel of Bible Based Church on Woodvillle Highway for the Tallahassee Town Hall forum hosted by the Village Square.…
That’s Subculture Coffee co-owner Sean Scott’s idea for opening communications between city hall and downtown businesses. The Clematis Street uber-barrista put out the word last week on Facebook to fellow business owners to join him in meeting with Mayor Jeri Muoio and other West Palm Beach officials on a regular basis about issues of concern: “I…
Just as state transportation officials are preparing a call for bids to rebuild Interstate 395 as an elevated span with a soaring “signature bridge” over Biscayne Boulevard and park space beneath it, civic leaders aiming to create open urban space around the adjacent Arsht Center have done them one better. On Thursday, they released a…
Miami-Dade County’s plan to raze and redevelop Liberty Square could prove detrimental to hundreds of children and the Liberty City public schools fed by Miami’s oldest and largest public housing project, the Miami-Dade School District has warned. Weighing in for the first time since Mayor Carlos Gimenez rolled out his Liberty Square Rising proposal one year ago,…
If you’ve hung out in downtown Lake Worth, chances are you’ve seen Jon Jordan. Jordan, after all, is the co-owner of AOS Live, an outdoor event promotions company responsible for many downtown parties, including Hallowscream this past October. Jordan, 32, also co-owns Propaganda nightclub on South J Street. Music has been in Jordan’s bones since…
Hundreds of concert-goers tote their lawn chairs to amphitheaters in Wellington, West Palm Beach, Delray Beach and Lake Worth for shows that draw few complaints from nearby residents. Amphitheater at Harbourside Place. (Photo by Bill Ingram) Arguments, police calls, protests from residents, petitions from music supporters and a lawsuit by the developer against the town…
Naples City Council approved a controversial Fifth Avenue South redevelopment project last fall, more than a decade after a previous council rejected a near-identical concept based on an analysis that the plans violated the city charter. By voting against a developer’s request in 2003 to construct a three-story hotel above a level of underground parking,…