Wednesday's Top Stories

WEDNESDAY, APRIL 2, 2008

No bids were placed on 67 of 99 entries at an east coast real estate event last week. “This was a disaster,” says one broker. “They’re basically going to have to give them away.” Bidding on the first property, a waterfront lot in Miami Beach, started at $1 million. The auctioneer lowered the price to $100,000 — and didn’t grab one bidder. A few homes did generate interest. Brownstones priced in the $500,000 - $600,000 range, garnered bids of between $230,000 - $275,000. But higher priced properties drew silence from the crowd. Some of the deals happened after the event and behind-the-scenes. Interestingly, an European buyer made an offer in excess of $17 million on an "enormous” Mediterranean-style villa priced at $23 million. A Venezuelan bidder made a pre-emptive offer on a 20,000-square-foot nine-bedroom estate. [Source: Sarasota Herald-Tribune]

TALLAHASSEE:
Florida Sues Poe Family Over Insurance Company's Failure

Former Tampa Mayor Bill Poe Sr. and 19 others, including his wife and five children, have been sued by Florida regulators for engaging in what the state alleges was an elaborate scheme to divert more than $140-million from three property insurance companies even as the companies hurtled toward bankruptcy. The 94-page lawsuit filed by the Florida Department of Financial Services alleges that as the Poe companies were taking huge losses from the eight hurricanes that struck Florida in 2004 and 2005, management began to move money around to protect itself from potential creditors. The Poe companies were hit with more than $2.5-billion in wind damage claims from the storms of 2004-05 and suffered a net loss of $369-million. Those losses triggered a series of assessments on all Floridians' insurance bills that are still in effect.
[Source: St. Petersburg Times]

MIAMI:
Emphasizing the Outdoors in Building

The new trend in home building: Open-air loggias. The hallmarks of New Urbanism include plenty of pedestrian-friendly avenues, open gathering spaces and private residential courtyards. [Source: Florida Trend]

STATEWIDE:
Growth of High-Tech Jobs Comes Up Short

High-tech job growth slowed in Florida from 2005 to 2006 after two years of improvement. The "Cyberstates" report found that although Florida added 5,733 net jobs, it still lags many other states in the concentration of high-tech workers -- a key factor as the state works to expand beyond service-based employment. "We have a lot of work to do if we truly want to diversify our economy," said Maryann Fiala, executive director of the Florida Council for AeA. Companies are exiting the state because they can't get enough high-quality workers, or highly qualified workers." Florida had the third-highest number of technology companies in the nation as of 2006, the latest year for which state-level figures are available, but the state ranked 31st in concentration of technology employees, with high-tech firms employing only 41 of every 1,000 private-sector workers. [Source: Orlando Sentinel]

ALSO AROUND FLORIDA:

›Truckers Protest Rising Fuel Cost [Tampa Tribune]
Freight rates have not risen in years, the truckers said, even though the price of fuel has quadrupled.

›Car Island Port Is Running Out of Room [Florida Times-Union]
Blount Island may go vertical to keep competitive in the automobile import/export market. The Jacksonville Port Authority officials is looking into building garage space to store more vehicles near the roll-on/roll-off cargo piers. Tenants want it. Authority officials say they need it. But there are questions of money and feasibility.

›New Work Visa Rules Anger Companies [Miami Herald]
Businesses in South Florida and elsewhere are upset over a limit on the number of skilled foreign workers they can bring into the United States through the ''H1B'' visa program.

›Financing Hinders Lightning Purchase [St. Petersburg Times]
The group can't come up with 50% of the purchase price before financing as the NHL prefers.

›Nuisance Gators End Up On the Menu [Miami Herald]
When gators wander into backyards or roadways, they can end up at All American Gator Products -- and eventually on someone's dinner plate.

›Palm Beach County Backs Water Fee Hike [Palm Beach Post]
Customers may soon be paying more for water even though they are using less. County commissioners on Tuesday approved a 15% surcharge on water rates.

›Bill Bans Teen Cellphone Use While Driving [Palm Beach Post]
Drivers under 18 would be banned from gabbing on cellphones under a bill approved unanimously by the Senate transportation committee on Tuesday.

›Engineer to Build High-Tech Marina [Palm Beach Post]
Richard Lydle said he is buying the 4-acre site on the Intracoastal Waterway near Palm Beach Gardens for $18 million. He wants to build climate-controlled indoor storage for about 400 boats using hovercraft technology from the aerospace industry.

›Rubio Amends 2006 Disclosure Form After Report [AP]
House Speaker Marco Rubio on Tuesday described his failure to disclose a $135,000 home equity loan on his 2006 financial disclosure statement as an embarrassing mistake. Related column: Why Rubio's equity loan is our business

›Bills Proposed to Offset Future Job Loss in Space Industry Pass Key Hurdle [Tallahassee Democrat]
Key among the bills sponsored by Sen. Bill Posey, R-Rockledge, was a measure providing $15 million to refurbish a launch complex at Kennedy Space Center; facility improvements backers said are essential to attract more businesses that could have a minimum $150 million impact.

›Florida Attempts to Go Green [Daytona Beach News-Journal]
Lawmakers' proposals seek to reduce greenhouse-gas emissions, increase energy efficiency and help build more nuclear-power plants. At the same time, some lawmakers and interest groups worry the proposals would drive up electric bills for consumers

›Holy Cross Hospital to Close North Ridge [Miami Herald]
In the latest indication that South Florida hospitals are being battered by intense financial pressures, Holy Cross Hospital in Fort Lauderdale announced Tuesday it had completed its purchase of the nearby North Ridge Medical Center and planned to quickly shut down the money-losing facility.

›River Lovers Wary of Gas Plant Expansion [St. Petersburg Times]
Progress Energy announced plans Tuesday to quadruple the size of its power station on the banks of the Suwannee River, stirring protests from environmentalists concerned the project could harm an ecosystem already beset by drought.

›Budget Cuts Lock More Out of State Universities [Miami Herald]
Top high school students once considered Florida International University a ''safe'' fallback for those rejected by more-elite colleges like the University of Florida. Now that a budget crisis has forced drastic cuts at all state universities, that's no longer the case.

›Project Tackles Water Reuse [Miami Herald]
On Tuesday, officials celebrated the start of a $628 million upgrade to Miami-Dade's wastewater plant. The work will expand the plant's capacity, allowing the county to recycle nearly 300 million gallons a day of wastewater by 2014.

›Tupperware's Business Is Up in Down Times [Orlando Sentinel]
E.V. "Rick" Goings, 62, chairman and chief executive officer of Orlando-based Tupperware Brands Corp, spoke recently with the Sentinel.

›Legislators: Deport Illegal Immigrants in Florida's Prisons [Sun-Sentinel]
The measure, approved on a bipartisan vote in its first Senate committee stop, is billed by supporters more as a cost-saving measure than a bid to crackdown on illegal immigrants.

›Consultant: X-Way Brass Made Me Do Fundraising [Orlando Sentinel]
Four leaders of Orlando's toll-road agency pressured their former marketing consultant to raise money for politicians, the jilted Ron Pecora has charged in sworn testimony.

›Mega Church Submits Data For Senator's Financial Inquiry [Tampa Tribune]
U.S. Sen. Chuck Grassley of Iowa is asking the Tampa church and the heads of five other mega-ministries for financial and business information to make sure they aren't abusing their tax-exempt status.

›Rural Florida Legislators Balk at Replacing State Song [St. Petersburg Times]
Black lawmakers, who have tried for more than a decade to establish a new state song, entered the session with an alternative song selected in a statewide contest and the support of Gov. Charlie Crist. Related from Trend: New State Song Out of Tune