AVON PARK – It has now been over a year and a month since the vote was taken to officially pursue grants in an effort to beautify and upgrade the blight while bringing back the positive vibrancy of its yesteryear. Jan. 8, 2014, the five-member Avon Park Southside Community Redevelopment Agency (CRA) voted unanimously to…
BRADENTON — The future of Bradenton’s community redevelopment agencies may depend on who controls the money. A prolonged debate between Bradenton officials broke out Wednesday morning over the future of the four city CRAs, including the 14th Street West CRA, Central Community Redevelopment Agency in East Bradenton, Bradenton CRA and the Bradenton Downtown Development Authority,…
A fragment of rare pine rockland is not a slum — for the time being, anyway. Miami-Dade County Commissioner Dennis Moss said Tuesday he was indefinitely postponing a plan to declare land around Zoo Miami blighted to help pay for a Disney-style theme park while he worked out a better way to balance environmental concerns…
The company that owns and runs the largest mall in America wants to build an even bigger one in northwestern Miami-Dade, a roughly 200-acre entertainment complex with submarines, a Legoland, sea lions and an artificial ski slope. Backed by the owner of Minnesota’s Mall of America, American Dream Miami is proposed for land at the…
SEBRING – A two-year artistic journey came to a close Tuesday for Michigan sculptor Ray Katz as “Stargazer” glided onto a concrete pad at downtown’s Centennial Park. The 600-pound sculpture made of welded and fabricated aluminum is one of nine artistic pieces on display for viewing as part of the 2015 Downtown Sebring CRA Sculptures…
INVERNESS — Merriam-Webster defines blight as something that spoils the appearance or completeness of a thing. Urban blight is an area in a “damaged or worsened condition,” according to the dictionary. Then there is the Inverness City Council’s definition of blight, as spelled out in a resolution passed this week: A condition detrimental to the sound…
DELAND — An Orlando-based developer — which recently opened a beachside hotel in Daytona Beach Shores — has bought an old building with plans of turning it into downtown DeLand’s only large hotel. Avista Hotels & Resorts has purchased the Gould Building at 308 N. Woodland Blvd. for $900,000 in a transaction that closed Thursday.…
Carmike Cinemas opened a new 12-screen theater Friday along U.S. 1, bringing the movies back to New Smyrna Beach for the first time in almost a year. The city’s old movie complex, the Beacon 12, had been open at 1401 S. Dixie Freeway in the New Smyrna Beach Shopping Center since 1995, but closed in…
DELAND — An Orlando-based developer — which recently opened a beachside hotel in Daytona Beach Shores — has bought an old building with plans of turning it into downtown DeLand’s only large hotel. Avista Hotels & Resorts has purchased the Gould Building at 308 N. Woodland Blvd. for $900,000 in a transaction that closed Thursday. The…
Saturday’s Downtown Marketplace starts around 6:30 a.m. on Friday for Ahmet Sezgin. He starts to mix 12 batches of dough that will eventually turn into around 80 loaves of bread spread across his table for hungry shoppers at the weekly market. In its 21st year, the market set in the Park Avenue Chain of Parks…
Ocala Mayor Kent Guinn said he is not heartless when it comes to homeless people. He just wants them out of Ocala’s downtown so others can visit the shops and restaurants without being harassed by panhandlers who, he contends, sometimes become aggressive. Guinn said he has reached out personally to down-and-out individuals outside Starbucks, his…
SCOPE OF WORK The City of Deerfield Beach is requesting sealed proposals from qualified contractors, herein called the Contractor, each Contractor is asked to provide prequalification documents demonstrating experience in constructing Park Projects equal to or larger than the construction of Sullivan Park Expansion Project. The scope of services consists of furnishing all labor, supplies,…
