GROVELAND — Dan Murphy has been named the city’s new community redevelopment agency manager and economic development project manager. Murphy, an international economic-development specialist with broad marketing experience, will manage Groveland’s 1,000-acre CRA district, which includes all of historic downtown Groveland and generally runs along State Road 50 from east of Green Valley Boulevard to…
OCALA, Fla. (July 26, 2018) – Demolition of the former Royal Oak Charcoal manufacturing plant will begin Wednesday, Aug. 8 at 8:30 a.m. The plant, located at 1921 NW 17th Place, was purchased by the City of Ocala in early 2018. The Florida Department of Environmental Protection performed Phase I and II Environmental Assessments funded…
Dozens of new homes could rise on the site of an old dump, as well as an old tree nursery in Delray Beach. The Delray Beach Community Redevelopment Agency will discuss plans at an Aug. 15 meeting on its next steps to transform West Atlantic Avenue and its surrounding neighborhoods to continue to combat an area residents complained…
The City of Tallahassee Community Redevelopment Agency (CRA) is kicking off its 2019 Promotional/Special Event Grant Program. The CRA has $50,000 available to fund the program, which supports smaller events taking place in the Greater Frenchtown/Southside (GFS) redevelopment district areas. The grant funds will be available to qualified not-for-profit organizations that will host promotional/special events…
Leaders with four Broward County cities discussed their efforts to spur development in downtown urban districts July 24 at the Breaking Ground with Brian Bandell real estate panel. With few vacant sites remaining for development in Broward, the future of growth lies mostly in infill development. Residents are moving into both traditional downtown on the…
CRESTVIEW — Locals of Crestview gathered with their canine companions Monday at Twin Hills Park where the city’s first dog park will be located. The groundbreaking ceremony for the new Bark Park began with a quick word from Mayor David Cadle and then, from the woman behind it all, April Meier. Meier said she got…
All the rage in North Miami is Cafe Creme, a French restaurant that serves breakfast, lunch and dinner. It’s the kind of place that you wouldn’t dream to find in this working class Miami suburb a few years ago. Cafe Creme co-founder Cory Finot and his partner Claude Postel were lured to North Miami by some…
Cafe Creme in North Miami was the place to be last Friday morning for France’s World Cup quarterfinal match against Uruguay. By the time Miami-Dade school superintendent Alberto Carvalho sauntered in during the second half — he’s something of a regular there — it was standing room only. Business is good for owner Cory Finot…
Florida Community Loan Fund has closed its latest New Markets Tax Credit project with Orange Blossom Family Health to build and operate a new federally qualified health center in the Ivey Lane area of Orlando. FCLF also provided community development financing for the project. Here are links to more information: Community Healthcare Expands to Reach…
You can drink to it: North Miami Beach is days away from soliciting businesses to create the area’s first microbrewery district. Businesses seeking to set up shop here will compete for one of three grants — as much as $200,000 in taxpayer money in the way of equipment for them to craft their own beer. If the…
North Miami Beach, FL – The City of North Miami Beach Community Redevelopment Agency Board approved a new Direct Financial Incentive Program that provides incentives for redevelopment projects within the Redevelopment Area. The proposed project must create at least $2 million in new taxable values for a commercial or mixed-use development. The guidelines require an…
New Markets Tax Credit Program will finance replacement of existing clubhouse. Orlando Florida (June 25, 2018) – Florida Community Loan Fund (FCLF), a statewide source of flexible financing for community and economic development, announced the closing of a transaction that will replace the Boys & Girls Clubs of Manatee County’s (BGCMC) worn out, obsolete 50…
Residents, business owners, media members and local, state and county leaders joined the City of St. Cloud during its Historic Downtown Revitalization Groundbreaking Ceremony. “The concept of transforming our downtown area has been discussed for years. To finally break ground on this historic endeavor, marks the beginning of many exciting things for our current and…
City officials, along with the Citizen Advisory Committee for the South St. Petersburg Community Redevelopment Area (CRA), will host the first annual CRA Summer Summit at the Enoch Davis Center Auditorium, 1111 18th Ave. S., on Tuesday, June 19. The meeting begins at 4:30 p.m. and will continue until public comment is finished. The public is invited to attend…
MARIANNA, Fla. – Counties from Escambia, to Jefferson, and everything in between, have vacant properties that just aren’t helping economic development. The Florida Department of Environmental Protection hosts an annual program that teaches county officials ways to help redevelop the properties. Often times, gas stations, laundromats, landfills and other old properties will be left vacant for years,…
The city of Port St. Joe will seek to extend the term of its redevelopment agency, though the Board of County Commissioners has expressed its dissent. The Port St. Joe Redevelopment Agency, followed by the City Commission (all five commissioners sit on the PSJRA board with two at-large members) has approved moving ahead with extending…
One of the big questions in urbanism is the degree to which culture shapes economic development. Traditionally, it was thought that culture follows from economic development: The more developed and affluent that a city becomes, the more money that it has to spend creating art galleries, museums, concert halls, and other cultural venues. But my own writing…
Tampa Mayor Bob Buckhorn remembers how underutilized, underappreciated, and unattractive the city’s waterfront was when he first arrived in 1987. The blocks of offices and surface parking lots located downtown, near the confluence of the Hillsborough River and the bay, provided few reasons to come downtown beyond work. “The city had turned its back on…
Nine groups are competing for up to $3 million in arts funding from the Tallahassee Community Redevelopment Agency. “The nine eligible applications will now be reviewed for compliance with Phase One criteria,” CRA Executive Director Roxanne Manning said. That criteria requires that the project be located within one of the two CRA districts and be…
The Live Oak Community Redevelopment Agency rejected the bids on the project at Tuesday’s meeting, which would have added landscaping and bulb outs to the Court Street corridor in downtown. The low bid received was $83,774.06, which was more than $30,000 above the amount the board had budgeted for the project. The board had previously…
Fort Lauderdale, FL (June 7, 2018) – On Friday, June 8th, 2018, the Housing Authority of the City of Fort Lauderdale (HACFL), members of the StepUP Apprenticeship Initiative, along with Atlantic | Pacific Communities (A|P Communities) will be planting fruit trees donated by The Fruit Tree Planting Foundation (FTPF) to the Northwest Gardens Pocket Park,…