NEW PORT RICHEY — As Main Street Landing developer Ken McGurn has acknowledged, “We’ve been beating our heads against the wall for a long time.” The project moved forward recently when the Gainesville-based developer and New Port Richey city officials finalized a pact to resurrect the riverfront project, which has been stalled since 2004, when…
DetailsTavares hit it out of the park with its “America’s Seaplane City” branding and the development of Wooton Park. Now the city is looking to create another success with Tavares Square, a multi-million-dollar block that’s part of the city’s downtown redevelopment master plan. “We were pleasantly surprised that there was a lot of interest in…
DetailsA stretch of sleepy South Dixie Highway in West Palm Beach could be transformed into a complex featuring shops, a park and a bold vision: five glass-and-steel condominium towers, each rising 15 stories. Owners of the Prospect Place office center at 3111 S. Dixie Highway plan a $200 million redevelopment of their 9.4-acre site, which…
DetailsBARTOW — If you’re headed to any county office around the courthouse in Bartow on Monday or any other day between then and next August, expect parking to be harder to find. The parking crunch will be caused by the start of construction on a new $8 million, 679-space parking garage in what is now…
DetailsTampa Bay’s economic progress can be measured by its companies, its job growth and GDP, its population, its corporate headquarters, its entrepreneurs, its graduation rates, its universities and its patents. Even its swagger. But progress can also be captured in its latest signature buildings. The ones with substance. The ones that represent more for this…
DetailsST. PETERSBURG — Wengay Newton, a staunch opponent of allowing the Tampa Bay Rays to look around the region for a new stadium site, said he would support such a deal if the boundaries of the Southside Community Redevelopment Area were redrawn to include Tropicana Field’s much-coveted 85 acres. On Nov. 12, he brought that…
DetailsPORT ST. LUCIE — The Securities and Exchange Commission has frozen the assets of absentee City Center developer Lily Zhong, the agency announced Thursday. It was unclear Thursday how much of Zhong’s money is involved. The SEC alleges Zhong used money from foreign investors, intended for Port St. Lucie’s City Center and residential projects in…
DetailsWhat does it take to make a bad idea die? In the case of an overblown renovation of Delray Beach’s Old School Square, the answer is: quite a bit. Last week, the Community Redevelopment Agency voted 4-1 to proceed with a makeover of the 4-acre campus in the heart of the city’s downtown, in clear…
DetailsA five-year effort to create a special tax status to help economically distressed west Ocala came to fruition Tuesday as the Ocala City Council approved a plan meant to revitalize the struggling community. The vote finalizes a Community Redevelopment Area (CRA) for west Ocala. In CRAs, a portion of the property tax generated from within…
DetailsDUNDEE — A former mayor thinks it’s about time the town creates a downtown vision. Another thinks the town’s focus shouldn’t be on downtown at all. The Town Commission unanimously approved an agreement with the Central Florida Regional Planning Council in October to develop a downtown vision plan. The town will pay the CFRPC $25,000…
DetailsEmployees will lose their jobs and several popular restaurants on Fifth Avenue South will close as part of a plan to demolish a stretch of businesses and replace them with condos and commercial space. Café Luna, Bella Maria Café and Avenue Wine Café will close next spring, per the plan, in addition to real estate…
DetailsBelow are some pictures from the City of Lauderdale Lakes Community and Children’s Gardens. The residents have learned to grow and harvest, and the gardens have been a great success. The skills that the children especially have learned can never be lost. We have 45 individual beds where each family grows what vegetables they like,…
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