Miami’s newest city commissioner is flexing his muscle as the chairman of an anti-blight district by moving to replace the agency’s head with the top administrator at the Village of El Portal. Commissioner Ken Russell recommended in a memorandum last week that his colleagues support him in removing Pieter Bockweg as the $150,000-a-year executive director…
DetailsNew restaurants, stores and cultural offerings are flocking to the neighborhoods south of Okeechobee Blvd. in and around the main Dixie Highway thoroughfare in West Palm Beach. So, time for more new homes, too. A townhouse project called Park Slope is planned for 1200 Lake Avenue, across from Howard Park. The development is in historic…
DetailsThe next step in bringing Tampa Bay Lightning owner Jeff Vinik’s $2 billion vision for the redevelopment of Tampa’s urban core to life comes in the form of road work. Strategic Property Partners, the real estate firm owned by Vinik, and capital investment firm Cascade Investments LLC signed a $35 million contract with Tampa’s Kimmins…
DetailsMADEIRA BEACH — Strong opposition is brewing to two proposed hotel-condominium-marina developments that could reshape the city’s downtown. Despite the objections of many in an overflow crowd at last week’s marathon five-hour meeting, the City Commission, with little discussion, approved rezoning the first of the two projects in a 4-1 vote. A final vote for…
DetailsNEW PORT RICHEY — The city is again investing significant dollars in the Greater New Port Richey Main Street program to try to revive the often controversial and struggling non-profit. New Port Richey’s assistance, however, will come in the form of a different business model than in past years with the hiring of a Main…
DetailsSARASOTA – As city leaders debate how to continue their redevelopment agency after its funding expires in September, they have realized their long-running discussion overlooked some basic math. The city and Sarasota County agreed in 1986 to allocate tax revenues resulting from rising property values in targeted areas of the city every year for 30…
DetailsHIGH SPRINGS, Fla. — After years of what seemed to be a code-less city, members of the High Springs code enforcement board met this month for the first time in four years. Their next move? Clean up blight that spans blocks of the city’s neighborhoods. “It’s a hazard,” resident Bill Richards says referring to the abandoned…
DetailsCocoa Main Street recipient of race Proceeds from the Village Idiot Pub’s 2nd Annual “Village Has Lost Its Idiot 5K Run” in Historic Cocoa Village will go to the Cocoa Main Street program. The April 1 race begins at 7:30 p.m. in front of the Village Idiot Pub, located at 4 Harrison Street, and across…
DetailsPalm Beach County commissioners got a sobering update Tuesday on efforts to revitalize urban areas along Okeechobee Boulevard and Congress Avenue. The county had designed a 29-mile section of the county an urban redevelopment area with special rules and requirements designed to spur economic development. But the Great Recession and ongoing storm water retention problems…
DetailsA recent Sun Sentinel article looked at South Florida suburbs building downtown centers. We spoke with the executive director of the Margate Community Redevelopment Agency, Diane Colonna, about that city’s plans. Listen to the interview
DetailsNaples City Attorney Bob Pritt, who previously agreed that a three-story building with an underground garage violates the city’s charter, now has changed that opinion, arguing that a similar downtown development proposal is consistent with the charter. In the city’s first filing responding to a lawsuit by two downtown property owners in Collier County’s Circuit…
DetailsTAMPA — The First Friday block party has long been a fixture of St. Petersburg’s thriving downtown social scene. Now Tampa is poised to launch its own monthly social happening, focused mainly on the museums and theaters that run the length of the city’s Riverwalk. Fourth Friday starts Friday in downtown Tampa with nine cultural venues…
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