Three to be interviewed for Live Oak CRA director Live Oak — The Live Oak Community Redevelopment Agency selected three candidates to interview for the director position at their board meeting Tuesday night. Three individuals, Lisa Kiernan (Jacksonville), Ronald Vanzant (Lawtey) and Timothy Williams (Wellborn), tied with five votes each and were selected to be…
DetailsWest Palm Beach mulls private CRA This northern Broward County city and West Palm Beach have about the same population. Both have great weather, palm trees, and a mix of well-to-do, middle-class and blighted neighborhoods. And Kim Briesemeister. Briesemeister was, until last week executive director of West Palm Beach’s Community Redevelopment Agency since 2004. At…
DetailsNew Smyrna Beach’s downtown revival – from the ashes: New building occupies prominent NSB location The site at the southeast corner of Canal and Orange streets ran the gamut of businesses over about 90 years — home to five-and-dime and dollar stores, a restaurant and most recently a furniture shop. Since 2008, however, the prominent…
DetailsSt. Petersburg creates master plan for downtown waterfront Beneath the overwhelming noise of debate over the future of the Pier and the Tampa Bay Rays, a project that could be even more important to the city’s future is about to begin. On Sept. 9, almost two years after voters decided St. Petersburg needed a new…
DetailsNew restaurants spice up downtown Fort Walton Beach It wasn’t long ago that downtown was really struggling. Many storefronts were empty and pedestrian traffic was low. But in recent years the area has undergone a transformation of new businesses that have brought new life. Downtown now is becoming known for its eclectic mix of restaurants offering…
DetailsLaSalle company purchases Southernmost Hotel Collection $184M (Key West) Sweeping changes to the lodging landscape of Key West continued this week with the $184.5 million sale of a downtown hotel collection. LaSalle Hotel Properties announced in a statement released Wednesday its purchase of the 260-room Southernmost Hotel Collection, which includes the Southernmost Hotel, Southernmost on…
DetailsFEMA to partially fund Warren sinkhole remediation in Live Oak On Tuesday night at the Live Oak Community Redevelopment Agency meeting, Live Oak’s engineer Lane Lucas informed the board the Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA) would not be fully funding the remediation of the sinkhole on Warren Street. “FEMA won’t pay for the full project…
DetailsClimbing out of the Channelside morass (Tampa) The effort to turn around Channelside Bay Plaza in Tampa was daunting enough before this week’s news that its Irish owners have moved the property under the protection of an out-of-state federal bankruptcy court. This is bad news for the Tampa Port Authority, which owns the land under…
DetailsPALM COAST — Most cities in Volusia and Flagler counties started with a downtown, grew outward with single-family homes and then worked to revitalize the downtown areas after the suburbs took shape. But in places like Palm Coast and Deltona, where a city was developed by a corporation, the process gets reversed. First come the…
DetailsSEBRING — The Sebring Community Redevelopment Agency (CRA), in conjunction with the Downtown Sebring merchants, is bringing two new programs to the downtown Sebring area. First, the CRA recently purchased new audio equipment to play Sirius/XM satellite radio in Circle Park and the merchants are collectively paying monthly service fees and the royalty fees. Sirius…
DetailsLARGO — The big vacant lot has tall grass, an assortment of oaks and pines, a bit of crumbling blacktop, and what seems like a billion dragonflies. The city is selling the nearly 1-acre lot at 158 Ridge Road near the northeast corner of Clearwater-Largo Road and West Bay Drive in its ongoing effort to…
DetailsLAKELAND | There are many examples of residents who bought homes and property at the wrong time before the real estate crash several years ago. And then there is the $8.4 million purchase in 2005 of 14 acres by the city of Lakeland. The city bought 53 parcels in the neighborhood that backs up to…
Details