Throughout North America, cities struggle to manage active nightlife. Increased crime, fights, noise, litter, and DUI are among the common challenges. Resources and budgets are limited to address these issues. Yet practical, cost‐effective solutions do exist. The RHI State Summit series showcases the best strategies to plan, manage and police nightlife. Learn how your city…
BARTOW | Six months after reorganizing the Bartow’s Community Redevelopment Agency, the city is still searching for a permanent executive director. City Manager George Long, who now supervises the agency’s director, said he’s expanding his search, hoping to elicit more applicants. “We have a few applications — 12,” he said, “but I want to do…
The man who helped sell Pensacola residents on his grand vision of an elaborate waterfront park faced a barrage of questions during the third day of a sprawling and complex federal trial.For much of Friday, Scott Davison parried with the park board’s attorney over whether he perpetrated an elaborate “bait and switch” scheme to win…
NEW SMYRNA BEACH — The look and vibe will be Key West, complete with lush palm trees and a tiki bar. The location will be about seven hours and 400 miles north, along the North Causeway in New Smyrna Beach. Construction recently started on a roughly 4-acre, multimillion dollar project known as New Smyrna Harbor…
Tampa Mayor Bob Buckhorn did right by indulging in some drama this week with his cleanup plan for Sulphur Springs. The central Tampa neighborhood has come to symbolize urban blight, and having the mayor crash a piece of heavy equipment through an abandoned home said as much about the need to transform the area as…
ORANGE PARK – County commissioners have approved a local company’s plans to redevelop a seven-acre site along Kingsley Avenue, and the project could set the tone for future construction up and down the busy thoroughfare that connects unincorporated Clay County with the town of Orange Park. Initial plans call for Kings Tree apartments and the…
Almost 200 people have been helped off the streets of Tarpon Springs in the past three years thanks to the help of a patrol officer, a mental health caseworker and other resources around town. The Tarpon Springs Police Department expanded Officer Jose Yourgules’ role in 2010. His added duties included the title of Homeless Outreach Officer. “Yourgules…
How city of Ocala property owners and their neighbors may develop their land has changed. The Ocala City Council has voted to change the city’s comprehensive plan’s Future Land Use Element by reducing the roughly 18 different permitted land use categories to six uses. That means property owners and their neighbors may be able to…
ST. PETERSBURG — One downtown resident said he can’t fall asleep until after 3 a.m. on weekends because of the music blaring from the outdoor bar below his condo. Others complained that sidewalk cafes take up too much of the sidewalk during special events. But none of the small group of residents and business owners…
ST. PETERSBURG — The man who helped ignite redevelopment in Midtown in 2005 and is now working to open a restaurant in a public building there is mired in financial problems. Larry Newsome, whose company built Tangerine Plaza, has faced several million dollars in foreclosures, court judgments and tax liens since 2010. There was no…
TAMPA — The little house on East 24th Street is getting a makeover after years of neglect. The termite-eaten foundations have been replaced and the sagging bedroom floor shored up. The 86-year-old kitchen has been dressed up with new cabinets and granite countertops. Outside, the house has gotten new siding and will soon have a…
DELAND — Volusia County Council members aren’t likely to reach a speedy consensus — or find simple answers — to their questions about what to do with the special taxing districts known as Community Redevelopment Areas. A three-hour workshop Thursday in council chambers in DeLand only served to demonstrate how complicated the issues are —…
ST. PETERSBURG — A group of community leaders is forming to help give Central Avenue a unified feel, while emphasizing the unique traits of its adjoining neighborhoods. The Conversation on Central group started about two years ago to help the city with its Central Avenue Revitalization Plan, adopted last fall. The plan calls for banners…
Integrity Florida report questions Enterprise Florida’s fairness Integrity Florida will release a report this morning questioning Enterprise Florida’s performance over the past 16 years and whether it’s fairly picking business partners. Dan Krassner, executive director of Integrity Florida said Enterprise Florida has failed to meet the goals it set to achieve when the state’s public-private…
The Use of Incentives in Economic Development Competition among states and cities for new business projects is nothing new. Economic development incentive use accelerated as the federal government cut back on economic development programs in the late 1980s early 1990s. The impact of the recession during that period resulted in plant closures, lay-offs, fewer new…
The Ocala City Council reached consensus at Tuesday’s workshop meeting to give a group of local developers an exclusive six-month right to assess the feasibility of building a boutique hotel on the former Chamber of Commerce site downtown. This will include discussions with the city about a conference center and possibly a parking garage. After…
Brand showcases Florida’s status and reputation as a super-state for business (TALLAHASSEE, FL) January 31, 2013 – Today, Enterprise Florida (EFI) and Governor Rick Scott unveiled Florida’s first-ever business brand in front of EFI’s board of directors and key stakeholders. The brand reflects the state’s existing business foundation, economic power, capabilities and resources, all of…
We would like to highlight Florida Power & Light’s (FPL) presentation at the Stakeholders Council meeting regarding the launching of their new Resource Center website for EDO’s across the state: www.poweringflorida.com<http://www.poweringflorida.com> FPL’s economic development team will be traveling around the state in the coming months to offer hands on training for local economic development organizations.…
The Volusia County Council seems likely to cast a weary and skeptical eye on any further requests for Community Redevelopment Areas, or CRAs. A CRA takes new property-tax revenue from a blighted area and pours it into improvements. That diverts new property-tax revenue from Volusia County government and some other taxing districts, causing controversy through…
BRADENTON — The Bradenton Downtown Development Authority approved $13,000 in grant money Tuesday to support a new craft beer brewery coming to Bradenton. The projected two-story, 15,000-square-foot brewery at 1014 Ninth St. W. will include brewery tours, a tasting room, an outdoor patio and a beer garden. The beer manufacturing facility, which has yet to…
When Miami last invited businesses to submit proposals for a restaurant and marina on city-owned property, companies with outstanding property taxes were automatically disqualified. The rule no longer exists, according to a revamped version of the request for proposals published this month. That’s good news for the current operator, Scott Wessel. Wessel bid on the…