Good News From Florida’s CRAs

The City of Miami Gardens is proud to announce the launch of the City’s latest technological advancement – The Miami Gardens “Virtual City” Metaverse Experience, kicking off the first phase of an exciting immersive experience available to all through cutting-edge 3D virtual reality technology. The City of Miami Gardens Virtual City teleports viewers to sites…

At the beginning of 2020, there were around five new hotels planned for downtown St. Pete. When COVID-19 hit, financing for new hotel construction dried up. Most of the proposed hotels were either reconfigured into apartments or scrapped altogether. Only two hotels found a way to move forward. Today, with COVID under control and the…

Walloped by Hurricane Ian, Bayshore Drive is still The Greatest, and that’s official. The neighborhood around the south suburban Naples boulevard has won this year’s Great Places in Florida competition sponsored by the American Planning Association (APA) Florida. Officials will present the award Dec. 13 at a Collier County Board of Commissioners meeting. “The improvements…

If you’ve gone into downtown Tampa, chances are you’ve seen the TECO Streetcar on the road. City leaders say more than a million people ride the streetcar every year. The Streetcar took to the streets October 19, 2002, after a 56-year hiatus. It provides a glimpse into Tampa’s past, while propelling us through the present…

Mayor Mark Sheldon says he believes adding more parking is crucial for the Beach. He and other members of the City Council last week approved a $153,000 work order with the Corradino Group for the development of a parking and mobility plan to go along with the Front Beach Road Community Redevelopment Area Plan. The…

NewDay USA has just celebrated taking occupancy at its second headquarters with the unveiling of a new company sign at 360 Rosemary, the Related Cos.’ recently completed office tower in West Palm Beach, Fla. NewDay’s move into a 53,300-square-foot space at 360 Rosemary is just the beginning of a planned expansion in the bustling West…

Join us in keeping our neighborhoods clean and safe! A neighborhood cleanup for residents in Ensley South will take place on Wednesday, Nov. 2. This is a chance for residents to dispose of items such as old furniture, appliances and household waste free of charge. Yard debris is eligible for removal during this cleanup. Only…

City Theatre and the Adrienne Arsht Center for the Performing Arts of Miami-Dade County present the Southeastern Premiere of Heidi Schreck’s WHAT THE CONSTITUTION MEANS TO ME, a buoyant and provocative examination by one woman of her civil rights and wrongs. A New York Times critic’s pick, a Tony Award nominee, and Pulitzer Prize finalist…

Residents and visitors in several South Florida cities, including Hallandale Beach in southeastern Broward County, will soon have access to free door-to-door rides they can order from their smartphones. Freebee, an electric vehicle shuttle headquartered in Miami, currently provides service to 24 Florida cities and Virginia Beach, Virginia. Plans call for the service to soon…

Main Street in Ormond Beach goes by another name, Granada Boulevard. It was a blighted stretch some city officials weren’t too proud of years ago. That changed after the city established the area as a Community Redevelopment District and partnered with businesses through Ormond Beach MainStreet. “If we pull up a picture from 12 to…

Christine Burdick, the former president and CEO of the Tampa Downtown Partnership and a longtime champion of Tampa’s downtown, has died. Lynda Remund, the group’s current CEO, announced Burdick’s death in a memo to partnership board directors on Friday afternoon. No cause of death was immediately given. “Christine was an iconic urban leader and contributed…

The Central Avenue block that houses businesses such as Dirty Laundry and The Burg Bar and Grill – and the former home of the Hideaway Cafe – will be the site of a mixed-use residential project. During a Thursday city council meeting, the councilmembers, meeting as the Community Redevelopment Agency, unanimously approved Trammell Crow Residential’s…

The City of Pensacola has been awarded with a $500,000 African-American Cultural and Historical grant from the State of Florida Department of State for the preservation and restoration of the Alice S. Williams Library, the first library in the city serving African-American residents dating back to 1952. An additional $300,000 that was provided by the…

A team of researchers from the University of South Florida has received a $1.5 million grant from the National Science Foundation to help build more equitable communities.  The award, which also includes researchers from the University of California, Berkeley, will fund a project to establish practices to improve civil and environmental engineering curriculum by providing…

Lake Worth has become one of the most attractive cities in Florida. With the increase in prices in most areas in the state, “Lake Worth Beach is still probably the best bet for your money,” Joan Oliva, executive director of the Lake Worth Beach Community Redevelopment Agency, told Invest:. Read the full interview with Joan…

Homestead City Council met Wednesday September 21 for its final budget hearing. Council then convened as the Local Planning Agency on two items, prior to its regular monthly meeting. The Chick-Fil-A franchise filed its proposed site plan including a drive-through feature from Campbell Drive, for a restaurant next to the Palace Gardens Retirement Community. The…

The Delray Beach Community Redevelopment Authority is soliciting bids for the construction of a new Commercial Redevelopment Agency (CRA) building in Delray Beach, Florida. The submittal date for this project is Oct. 21. Scope of Work This project involves construction and painting of the Delray Beach CRA Development in Delray Beach, Florida. Exterior work involves…