Dozens of Leesburg residents, business leaders and political figures turned out Friday morning to witness the cutting of the ribbon and the ceremonial opening of Main Street following a year-long renovation. The project was conceived as a way to transform a tired, blighted section of the city into a vibrant, inviting gateway into downtown. The…
DetailsTampa Mayor Bob Buckhorn unveiled a 2016 city budget Thursday that seeks to share some of the spoils that have been showered on downtown. After a decade of heavy spending in the city center, and with corporate investment downtown finally taking off, next year’s budget is an appropriate course adjustment that returns the focus to…
DetailsTAMPA — After years of its structural condition and future prospects going from bad to worse, there is hope for Tampa’s historic Jackson House. Over the past year and a half, owner Willie Robinson Jr. has deeded the storied rooming house to a nonprofit group, the Jackson House Foundation. A local firm, Bracken Engineering, has…
DetailsNEW PORT RICHEY — Owners of residential rental property are likely to a get a lot more scrutiny from the city starting Jan. 1. During a meeting Tuesday night, the New Port Richey City Council unanimously approved on first reading an ordinance that will establish an inspection program requiring residential rental property owners to meet…
DetailsST. PETERSBURG — After at least seven years on the market, lawsuits, angry neighbors and a toxic plume, the long-vacant Raytheon facility is about to get new life. Commercial Development Co., a St. Louis company that specializes in challenged properties for development or resale is poised to buy most of the 32-acre property with 500,000…
DetailsThe architects hired to create a revival plan for the Kass Circle neighborhood in the heart of old Spring Hill said, basically, that the area currently doesn’t look like much. Nearby houses are “unsightly,” according to a report produced by the University of South Florida School of Architecture and Community Design. The lack of landscaping…
DetailsDELAND — A need for more space prompted Jim Cara to move his downtown pop-culture business from the east side of Woodland Boulevard to the west, but the afternoon sun bearing down on his storefront pushed him to move even faster. “That’s the sunny side of the street. There are no tall buildings on this…
DetailsDELTONA — A mishmash of vacancies and re-purposed small businesses adjoin the city’s only motel, the former Deltona Inn, along a boulevard that City Commissioner Heidi Herzberg calls “sad.” Herzberg, who represents the city’s southwest side, and her fellow commissioners unanimously passed a resolution declaring Deltona Boulevard blighted and asking the Volusia County Council to approve…
DetailsSanford Mayor Jeff Triplett sat in the driver’s seat of an excavator on Tuesday and knocked off a large chunk of a concrete wall to kick off the city’s demolition of a vacant one-story building on East Commercial Street near the Lake Monroe waterfront. The razing of the building, city officials said, is one of…
DetailsThe city-owned parking lot at the southwest corner of Southeast 47th Terrace and Southeast 10th Place will be getting some much needed improvements after the CRA Board of Commissioners voted 7-1 Monday night in favor of paving and streetscaping work. The lot, located behind Nevermind, currently is not paved. “I think in this day and…
DetailsAre you more likely to succeed in starting a small business in one Florida city over another? Nerdwallet thinks so. Statewide, cities based in Central Florida and the suburbs of Miami are among those topping the list of 268 Florida cities for launching a small business as rated by Nerdwallet, a website that crunches financial…
DetailsTAMPA — Ten years after Donald Trump announced plans for a 52-story tower on the Hillsborough River, a developer has filed preliminary plans for a 52-story tower on the same site. Trump Tower Tampa never was built, a victim of overambition, foundation problems and the real estate bust. But now Feldman Equities wants to erect…
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