Loophole lets theme parks cut tax bills
Disney is avoiding some state and local taxes by selling theme-park tickets and other items to itself. According to former company officials familiar with the practice, Walt Disney World sells large quantities of tickets, hotel rooms, meal plans and other components at wholesale prices to another Walt Disney Co. subsidiary. That unit — the Walt Disney Travel Co. — then assembles the items into complete vacation packages and sells them to travelers at a higher, retail price. Disney collects and pays taxes only on the discounted price that Disney Travel Co. pays to Disney World — instead of on the price that consumers pay. Disney's practice is similar to hotel-room rentals by online-travel companies such as Expedia Inc. and Orbitz Worldwide Inc., which negotiate bulk rates with hotels, charge higher prices to consumers and then remit taxes only on the lower room rates. Counties across Florida have sued the Internet companies in attempts to collect unpaid taxes on the rooms' retail prices; Disney has been helping the online-travel industry lobby the Florida Legislature for protection. The vacation-package transactions are legal, thanks to a state law initially adopted because of concerns that Florida was losing revenue in cases of out-of-state companies selling Florida vacations but not collecting or paying the taxes. Disney is not the only Florida business to benefit from the law: Universal Orlando also sells tickets to a company subsidiary — Universal Parks & Resorts Vacations Inc. — that then sells vacation packages to the public. [Source: Orlando Sentinel]
Business Makeover: Honey Lake Plantation
Three years ago, fresh from the $75-million sale of his 16-year-old Horizon Software company, Bob Williamson went shopping in south Georgia and north Florida for property to serve as an outdoor refuge for him and his family. What he bought was 4,700 acres including Honey Lake Plantation, near Greenville in Madison County, bordering the spring-fed, 80-acre Honey Lake. The plantation was among dozens of Red Hills properties purchased mainly in the early 1900s by wealthy Northerners, who turned their acquisitions into quail-hunting preserves. "I looked at 25 of them, and this was the last one I looked at," he says. "Everything else paled into insignificance." The land, he says, is "so like a national park, I wanted people to see it." And today, Williamson is $30 million and 20 buildings — with one to go — into creating Honey Lake Plantation Resort and Spa, a retreat for weddings, conferences, horseback riding, kayaking, hunting, sport-shooting and spiritual rejuvenation.
 Bob Williamson, 64 Family: Wife, Teresa; sons, Jim, Michael and Jon; seven grandchildren Primary former businesses: WASCO (Wildlife Artist Supply Co.), Horizon Software International, Breakthrough magazine Book: Williamson spent two years writing his life story, "Miracle on Luckie Street." » Read about Williamson's hard life, how he turned it around, and more about his plans for Honey Lake Plantation. |
Foreclosure homes starting to lose their appeal
Sales of homes in some stage of foreclosure declined across South Florida during the first quarter, a result of the recent "robo signer" controversy and perhaps a changing sentiment among buyers, observers say. Palm Beach, Broward and Miami-Dade counties posted 8,878 foreclosure sales in January, February and March — down 11 percent from the fourth quarter and 20 percent from a year ago, according to RealtyTrac Inc., an Irvine, Calif.-based foreclosure listing firm. The robo signer furor led to foreclosure freezes last fall, and processing has only started to resume. Another theory is that buyers aren't as enamored of houses and condominiums that have been repossessed, are in default or scheduled for auction. Buying those bargain-priced properties can take months. Also, once-stubborn sellers of homes not in foreclosure are dropping their asking prices to better compete with distressed properties, real estate agents say. "I've had three or four recent buyers who specifically didn't want to look at foreclosed properties," said Michael Citron, an agent in Parkland and Coconut Creek. "I do feel that buyers are starting to get the idea that a foreclosure or short sale might not always be the best deal." [Source: South Florida Sun-Sentinel]
Over $1 million per subsidized job
When subsidizing businesses to move to an area, paying $100,000 per job is generally considered quite high. But in wooing biotech-research facilities and companies, Florida has been paying much more than $1 million — repeat, far more than $1 million — per job. With the state and its municipalities in bad fiscal shape, some officials are screaming "No more!" The big push began in 2003, when then-Governor Jeb Bush seduced La Jolla's Scripps Research Institute with almost $600 million in various kinds of incentives, both from the state and from Palm Beach County. The facility, which opened in 2009, now has 400 employees. Do the math: far, far more than $1 million per employee. By 2014, Scripps boasts that it will have 550 employees —still more than $1 million per job. Before long, two more San Diego biotech research tanks lapped up fat subsidies to put branches in Florida. Sanford-Burnham Medical Research Institute raked in $310 million to set up shop at Lake Nona in Orlando. It opened in 2009 and now has 191 employees —again, far, far more than $1 million per job. The institute says that it will have 300 employees in five years. But they will still be costing Florida more than $1 million per job.
Healthcare Innovation/The Business Side
|
Column: Florida unwisely repeals its growth laws
I do not think enough Floridians realize what this governor and this Legislature have done — are doing — to our state.
Let me tell you, brothers and sisters:
It's bad.
It's awful. It is just about the end of Florida as we know it, and a return to bad old days that we ought to have put behind us forever.
From the end of World War II until the mid to late 1970s, Florida sold itself on the cheap to anybody with a dollar and a shovel.
We didn't care if the roads were jammed and crumbling. We didn't care if we fouled and choked the lakes and rivers and bays. We didn't care if our kids went to school in house trailers.
All you had to do to keep building was to buy off the local Boss Hogg. Right after I moved here, the chairman of the Pasco County Commission was indicted. Not long after that, a quorum of the Hillsborough County Commission was indicted.
Floridians finally got sick of all this. But just as times change, they sometimes change back.
[Source: St. Petersburg Times]
ALSO AROUND FLORIDA:
› Burt Reynolds' Museum might be moved to namesake park
New digs for homeboy Burt Reynolds' museum is scheduled for a preliminary vote by the Palm Beach County Commission on June 21.
The plan calls for the county to lease for $1 a year an acre of vacant property adjacent to Fire Station 18 in Burt Reynolds Park on the east side of U.S. 1. The Burt Reynolds Institute for Film and Theatre would raise about $4 million to build the new 5,000-square-foot museum, said Kathleen Kozinski, chairman of the board of directors of the non-profit Burt Reynolds Institute for Film and Theatre.
The current museum, packed with photos, canoes and other memorabilia from movies such as Smokey and the Bandit and Deliverance, is now in the town-owned former First Union Bank building on the northwest corner of U.S. 1 and Indiantown Road. The town has rented the first floor of the building to the museum for $1 a year since 2004.
› Spirit pares IPO shares, cuts price
Spirit Airlines Inc., the budget carrier owned by Indigo Partners LLC and Oaktree Capital Management LP, cut the amount of money it's seeking in its initial public offering by 37 percent.
The airline may raise as much as $202.8 million later today selling 15.6 million shares for $12 to $13 each, according to a regulatory filing and data compiled by Bloomberg. Spirit previously planned to offer 20 million shares at $14 to $16.
Spirit joined Freescale Semiconductor Holdings Ltd. in paring its projected proceeds from an IPO being priced today. Demand for dot-com IPOs allowed networking site LinkedIn Corp. and Russian search-engine operator Yandex NV to boost their offering ranges ahead of their IPOs this month.
Spirit, which flies mostly between Florida and the Caribbean, plans to raise funds for future plane purchases and to pay off debt. It is seeking to go public as jet fuel hovers near a three-year high, crimping industry profits and forcing carriers to raise fares.
› Ocala in for a relapse of Horse Fever
Horse Fever, the community art project that raised more than $1 million and left the local landscape dotted with dozens of ingeniously designed ceramic horses, is coming back. Marion Cultural Alliance in September will release 31 new horse statues to be painted by local artists in a move that organizers hope will approach the success of the first effort 10 years ago.
Paula King, co-chair for Horse Fever and an MCA founder, said it "feels great" to be organizing the project a decade after MCA's inception and the first Horse Fever. That year, artists painted about 50 horses, and 27 remain in the community today.
"At the time we did it (Horse Fever), the horses debuted two weeks after 9/11," King said, "and we were worried it might seem frivolous to some people, but it ended up being uplifting for the community."
Horse Fever this year will work the same way as before, King said. Local companies can pay to sponsor a horse and temporarily place it in a public location of their choice. In March, the horses will be auctioned at Live Oak Plantation.
» Ocala and Marion County Community Portrait
› Carls Furniture declares Chapter 11
Devastated by the housing crash, Carls Furniture filed for bankruptcy protection this week and will close its Kendall store and could retire a location in north Miami-Dade, too.
The furniture chain, based in Coconut Creek, will close its Boca Raton store and the one at 7501 SW 100th St. in Kendall, according to court filings and an ad on the Carls' website touting discounts up to 70 percent for both locations. In seeking Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection, Carls lawyers listed $6 million in assets and $9 million in liabilities.
Carls has been struggling financially for much of the last four years. As the housing market plummeted, so did the upscale furniture retailer's sales.
To generate cash and reduce overhead costs, the company has tried various strategies, including closing stores and selling off real estate.
› Beach Bistro owner opening Sarasota Main Street restaurant
The owner of the much-praised Beach Bistro restaurant on Anna Maria Island plans to open a somewhat scaled-down eatery this November in downtown Sarasota's Links Plaza downtown.
Sean Murphy's "eat here -- island bistro" at 1888 Main St. will feature smaller portions and less expensive fare, including pizzas, lobster tacos and lamb pot roast.
"The concept is tuned to the times," Murphy said Wednesday. "We've taken a lot of the preparation and methods from the Beach Bistro and put them in a more casual, less expensive atmosphere."
Beach Bistro has for a quarter century been regarded as one of Florida's top restaurants. It regularly scores the highest marks in the state in Zagat's annual "America's Top Restaurants" guide, and, in 2008, was inducted into Florida Trend Magazine's Golden Spoon Hall of Fame.
Murphy expects the average check at the Links Plaza "eat here -- island bistro" to be around $20 to $25. The new restaurant will seat roughly 150 and employ 30 to 40, he said.
The Main Street restaurant will be the second "eat here" for Murphy. The concept debuted last December in Holmes Beach.
» Golden Spoon Awards Hall of Fame
› Govt. seeks $30M from Farkas
Federal prosecutors are seeking a forfeiture judgment against Lee Farkas in excess of $30 million — the amount they say he obtained as the result of criminally fraudulent acts. The former Taylor, Bean & Whitaker Mortgage Corp. chairman was found guilty by a federal jury last month of 14 counts of bank, wire and securities fraud. A jury found that he led a seven-year, $2.9 billion scheme that sold fake loan assets to a major bank and deceived major investors. In a motion filed Tuesday with the U.S. District Court in Alexandria, Va., the government lists how it arrived at its $30,724,959.67 figure.
» Dubious Achievers: Lee Farkas
Go to page 2 for more stories ...
› Gainesville Board wants plans revised for outdoor beer garden
Nearly a year after demolition of the condemned Jack's Bar building at 24 S. Main St., the owner is working with city planning staff to revise plans for a bar with an outdoor beer garden.
William Chick bought the adjacent office building at 16 S. Main St. last year and renovations are under way to convert part of the building into a bar that would open onto an outdoor beer garden on the site of the former building. The plan requires approval from the city Development Review Board.
Planning has taken longer than most similarly sized projects because of vague requirements in Central City District zoning that a bar or restaurant's principal use be indoors with outdoor service allowed as an accessory.
About 4,300 square feet of Jack's would be outdoors, compared to 360 feet inside based on plans submitted to the city. But the code does not provide a ratio for space indoors and out, according to Lawrence Calderon, chief of current planning for the city.
Instead, city planning staff recommended required conditions crafted to keep the principal use inside. They include no bar tending and no live and recorded music outside, among others.
› Woman's touch builds construction company
Not quite 30 years old, her blond hair peeking out from a hard hat, Rebecca Smith certainly caught the attention of workers as she walked onto a construction site.
What was she doing there?
She was -- and still is -- the boss.
Smith, now 51, started her construction management firm, A.D. Morgan Corp., in 1989, during an economic downturn.
Today, she's running it in the midst of another one.
Smith has seen the company hit a high point of $80 million in annual revenue and a staff of about 50. Today, the company makes less than half that, about $30 million, and has a staff in the mid-thirties.
But the downturn hasn't diminished the drive Smith had when she started her company more than 20 years ago out of her home in Tampa with a $10,000 loan from her father.
"I wanted to be a contractor," Smith said. "The fact that everybody else was going out of business didn't matter. If there was one contract let, I was going to get it."
› BayWalk could soon have a new owner
The withering retail complex in the heart of downtown St. Petersburg might have new life yet.
There have been 18 written offers for BayWalk since its owners put it on the market for $8 million in March, according to Mike Milano, managing director for the real estate firm Colliers International Tampa Bay.
"Right now we're looking at the three top bidders," said Milano, whose firm is marketing the center for owner CW Capital Asset Management. "We are in active discussions with one of those three."
He expects to announce the buyer within two weeks.
He wouldn't say how much money has been offered for the largely vacant 74,500-square-foot center the city invested $20 million in 11 years ago.
Money isn't the only factor driving the decision, Milano said.
› Is Florida Ready to take a Gamble?
It's a big bet...With a big payout.
Potentially a billion dollars a year in new revenue if Florida signs off on Vegas-style resort casinos.
Complexes complete with convention centers, bowling alleys, and all the gaming you can handle.
For a state with a continuing budget crisis, political consultant Scott Maddox calls it a prime opportunity.
"We've got gambling with the Florida Lottery, you've got gambling with sweepstakes, you've got gambling at McDonald's where you're pulling off tabs, you're putting them in, you've got cruises to nowhere, you've got Indian casinos, so we need an overall, comprehensive plan statewide."
That's why lawmakers approved a 400-thousand dollar study of all the benefits four to five new resort casinos could bring.
But, the study will only happen if Governor Scott doesn't veto it from the budget.
› Arena Football players have no sympathy for NFL lockout
With sports television saturated with coverage of the NFL lockout, the average fan may not understand that not every professional football player cashes a large paycheck.
Orlando Predators defensive back Kenny McEntyre is a perfect example.
McEntyre is regarded as one of the best players in Arena Football League history and has more interceptions than any professional player. He will receive just a $400 game check, though, when the Predators take on the host Milwaukee Mustangs at 8 Thursday night.
"Most of the guys that are in this league are playing for $400, so it was never trying to get rich for most of the guys that are here," McEntyre said. "Now you gotta love the game, 'cause you know what you're getting into. You know that you're coming in here to make 400 bucks, no questions asked." Those numbers lend perspective to the NFL lockout, with players and owners arguing over billions of dollars in revenue.
"How are you going to tell a young family that makes $20,000 that you can't manage $10 billion?'' asked McEntyre, who has spent time with three NFL teams. "It's a little sensitive topic for a lot of people, because the country is in the state that it is.''
› Ybor eatery Streetcar Charlie's grinds to a stop
Streetcar Charlie's, once the epicenter of the gay community in Ybor City, has shuttered.
The 3-year-old restaurant and bar closed abruptly Monday with tables still set and the bar still stocked.
While the news came as a surprise to customers, others said it had been in the works for a while.
"A lot of people saw it coming because it really had lost its zest," said Manny Alvarez, a representative for Focaccia Mia Management, which owns the building at 15th Street and Eighth Avenue. "It didn't go in the direction that it needed to grow."
Streetcar Charlie's Bar & Grille opened in early 2008 soon after the formation of the GaYbor District Coalition and Ybor's emergence as a prime party spot for gays and lesbians.
Its good food, reasonable prices and festive atmosphere drew gays, straights, locals and tourists alike, anyone who enjoyed the front-row view of Tampa's streetcars passing by the dining room.
› SeaWorld says attendance is rebounding
Attendance is rebounding across Orlando-based SeaWorld Parks & Entertainment's 10 U.S. theme parks, the company's top executive said Wednesday.
SeaWorld Parks President and Chief Executive Officer Jim Atchison said in an interview with the Orlando Sentinel that companywide attendance rose 7 percent during the first three months of 2011.
Atchison said he expects the gains to continue through the busy summer travel months, predicting attendance growth in the mid-single-digit percentages. Though SeaWorld Parks does not own hotels that could provide future booking data, Atchison said advance ticket sales are ahead of last year and reservations at Discovery Cove, the company's limited admission niche park in Orlando, are up by double-digit percentages.
"We've seen very strong attendance across the board with our parks," Atchison said. "We've got good momentum."