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Southeast Florida Roundup
Sixt success: Fort Lauderdale lands Sixt headquarters
Business Briefs
BOCA RATON — Simon Property is renovating the Town Center at Boca Raton. U.S. Customs and Border Protection opened a $4.5-million inspections facility at Boca Raton Airport. The move allows airport users to clear Customs in Boca without stopping at Palm Beach International or Fort Lauderdale Executive. Aircraft are charged $50 to $500, depending on their size, to clear Customs.
BROWARD — Broward County commissioners moved to raise the county’s bed tax 1 cent to 6%, bringing the total tab lodging guests pay with the sales tax to 12%, a percentage point below the tax rate in Miami-Dade and Palm Beach counties. The county wants to spend the money on a convention center expansion. Broward officials removed a courthouse statue of Gov. Napoleon Bonaparte Broward, the county’s namesake, because of the long-deceased governor’s views on segregation. Nuveen-affiliate TH Real Estate paid Principal Global Investors $54 million to acquire industrial parks Pointe West in Davie and Westpoint in Tamarac.
CORAL SPRINGS — Hoerbiger abandoned plans to consolidate administration and production and employ 420 at a 245,000-sq.-ft. site here. Afterward, Pennsylvaniabased Exeter Property bought the factory site for $14.88 million.
DAVIE — Nova Southeastern University received preliminary accreditation for its new allopathic medical school, which opens to 50 students in the fall. It will be Broward’s only M. D. program. Nova already has an osteopathic medical school.
DELRAY BEACH — Two-term Mayor Cary Glickstein won’t run for re-election.
FORT LAUDERDALE — Lake Nona-based Tavistock Development dropped Hyatt Regency as the fl ag for its newly acquired Pier 66 hotel and renamed it Pier Sixty-Six Hotel & Marina. Tavistock paid $163.27 million for the property. It recently acquired The Sails Hotel Marina & Shops across the street for $24 million. The 290-suite Conrad Fort Lauderdale Beach opened on North Beach. The Florida Venture Forum returns its annual Florida Venture Capital Conference to south Florida Jan. 30-31 at the Marriott Harbor Beach.
PORT ST. LUCIE — A U. S. Securities and Exchange Commission receiver and the city hired Avison Young to market 20 acres at the City Center at U.S. 1 and Walton Road after the project’s developer stumbled. The larger 46-acre site is anchored by a city-owned civic center.
WEST PALM BEACH — Miami-based Driftwood Acquisitions & Development began construction downtown of its 14-story, 150-room Canopy by Hilton scheduled to open early in 2019. Drive Shack plans to open its 60,000-sq.-ft. facility featuring golf practice bays across from the airport.
Players
Broward Health appointed Alice Taylor CEO of Broward Health North medical center and Sandra J. Todd- Atkinson CEO of Broward Health Medical Center. Taylor had been CEO of the system’s Imperial Point hospital while Todd-Atkinson was COO at Broward Health Medical Center and Salah Foundation Children’s Hospital.
Spotlight: Roy Anthony
His goal is to be south Florida’s ‘rock guy'
Roy Anthony, 60, is among the entrepreneurs hoping to ride to success in the music festival business. For his second annual RockFest 80’s, a two-day festival at a Broward park in early November, the promoter signed Joan Jett and the Blackhearts, Cheap Trick, Sebastian Bach, Little River Band and others.
The ’80s rock that Anthony loves draws people in their 40s to 60s rather than Millennials, who make the most successful festivals go. His show budget was less than $2 million. He drew 6,000 for Saturday, up 20% from 2016’s Saturday, but didn’t reach 5,000 on Sunday.
Nationally, research firm Nielsen counts more than 800 major festivals. In Broward, the festival field includes the Riptide and Tortugas festivals along with Anthony’s. In Florida, only SunFest in West Palm Beach and Ultra in Miami made the latest Festival 250 global ranking. Anthony is already planning a third RockFest as well as events in February and March and a Latin rock show.
“I want to be south Florida’s rock guy,” Anthony says.
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