Smell Test
Parlux (No. 90 on Florida Trend's 150 biggest public companies list) began life in 1984 as the distributor of Giorgio Armani in America and Canada before moving on to create, manufacture and market perfume and other beauty products worldwide. The firm had successfully marketed high-profile names before, selling designer fragrances it created in the 1990s under licenses to use names like Fred Hayman and Perry Ellis. Celebrity scents weren't new ["Fame Game"]. But the Fort Lauderdale-based company hadn't achieved success in the personality-tagged fragrances market that was just beginning to take off. The Hilton license proved to be a bonanza. The introduction of Paris Hilton for Women — Parlux now markets eight Paris Hilton perfumes — boosted the company's gross sales by more than $70 million during fiscal year 2006. "Paris was probably the best thing that ever happened to the company," says President and CEO, Fred Purches. Now he's trying to make sure it's not the last good thing. Continue reading Smell Test.
Key Questions Cloud Medical Pot Debate
On the fourth floor of a hivelike, 1970s-vintage lab building on the University of South Florida's medical campus, Thomas Klein has spent 25 years studying marijuana's effects on the immune systems of mice, blowfish and human beings.
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The phosphate mined for more than a century in central Florida to make fertilizer has yielded thousands of jobs and countless harvests around the world.
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UF Envisions Innovation Square as Site to Give 'Birth to Companies'
University of Florida officials announced plans Monday to transform the neighborhood around the old Shands at AGH site, creating a breeding ground for high-tech companies along with places for their workers to live, eat and shop. Called Innovation Square, the development is planned to include more than 1 million square feet of building space on 40 acres around SW Second Avenue. It includes the Florida Innovation Hub, a business incubator on the former AGH hospital site that is intended to promote the development of companies based on UF research. "The 20th century was a time when that property gave birth to babies," UF President Bernie Machen said. "The 21st century is going to be where that property gives birth to companies." [Source: Gainesville Sun]
Embattled Foreclosure Attorney's Cases Clogging State Courts
Hundreds of mortgage mediation cases in the Tampa Bay area and other parts of Florida have been put on indefinite hold because of growing problems at a law firm that once represented many of the nation's biggest banks.
Beset by allegations of sloppy and fraudulent documentation, the David J. Stern Law Firm has lost some of its lender clients and must withdraw from their foreclosure cases in Pinellas, Manatee and other counties. Until the banks hire new lawyers, efforts to mediate agreements with homeowners in those cases cannot continue.
The delay is a mixed blessing for the homeowners. They will be able to stay in their houses longer though likely at the cost of mounting interest and late fees.
But the need to withdraw from so many cases marks another chapter in the stunning decline of the Stern firm, which once handled a fifth of all Florida foreclosures and made its founder a multi-millionaire.
[Source: St. Petersburg Times]
ALSO AROUND FLORIDA:
› Satellite Fairs Thrive Around Art Basel
There's probably a commentary on tropical indulgence in here somewhere: When it comes to art fairs, Miami enjoys the biggest boom of all.
While the arrival of Art Basel Miami Beach eight years ago thrust the area into the ranks of cities with major art fairs, only Miami (and Miami Beach) have seen the kind of explosion of satellite fairs revolving around the main event. This year, there are 14 major satellite shows -- at least double what one finds in London, New York, Paris and other cities on the contemporary art-fair circuit (including Basel, Switzerland, home to the original Basel fair).
Even with the rapid expansion of satellite fairs -- there's now far more art for sale outside the Art Basel fair this week than inside it -- a feared rollback still hasn't arrived, despite the punishing economy.
› Analysts Say Potter Frenzy Will Last
It is the central question facing Universal Orlando right now: How long will the Harry Potter-fueled attendance surge last?
"Several years," predicts Moody's Investors Service.
In a research note issued earlier this month, analysts at the ratings firm say they expect that Wizarding World of Harry Potter will continue to drive attendance through 2011 and beyond.
"We believe the attendance lift generated from the June 2010 opening of WWHP will continue for the next several years," Moody's analyst John Puchalla wrote in the note. Looking forward, Moody's projects Universal's attendance will climb at least 15 percent during the first six months of next year. And while it says it expects attendance to dip "slightly" during the second half of 2011, that's only because Universal will by then be facing tough comparisons against this year's post-Potter-opening frenzy.
› Supreme Court Declines to Take Fla. Water Transfer Case
The Supreme Court decided today not to intervene in a Florida case concerning the strongly contested question of whether the Clean Water Act requires permitting in order to pump water from one body of water to another. At issue is whether South Florida water managers can pump water from a canal into a lake without applying for a permit.
The legal issue was once before the Supreme Court but was not resolved.
By declining to take up the case, Friends of the Everglades v. South Florida Water Management District, the Supreme Court has again left the question unanswered.
› Groupon Begins Offering Gainesville Deals
Gainesville has joined the Groupon nation.
After months of anticipation, the daily deal website officially launched today with a deal for Blue Highway pizzeria: Pay $10 to get $20 worth of pizza, pasta and drinks at the Micanopy and Town of Tioga locations.
The deal "tipped" at 7 a.m. Monday and by 12:53 p.m., almost 300 had been purchased.
Groupon is currently in larger Florida cities such as Orlando, Jacksonville, Tampa and Tallahassee. Julie Mossler, Groupon spokeswoman, said the company had "strong requests" from subscribers of those cities to expand to Gainesville.
"We have 13,000 subscribers in Gainesville and it increases by hundreds a day," she said. "The customer feedback has been overwhelming and now that it's [Groupon] there, we expect the city to really take off."
› Outgoing Gov. Crist Worries about Divisions
Outgoing Florida Gov. Charlie Crist, who steps down in January after losing an independent bid for the U.S. Senate, says he is concerned that political divisions are preventing elected officials of both parties from working together on the nation's problems.
"It's been a real polarization and I think it's unfortunate for the country. I'm concerned about consensus and common ground being able to be found to help America move forward," Crist said in an interview with The Associated Press. "It's fine to be proud of being a Republican and proud of being a Democrat, but not to the extent that you don't work together for the betterment of the country as a whole."
› Florida Sued over Sale of Drivers' Personal Information
A lawsuit against the state of Florida over the sale of personal driver's license information to a private firm may proceed as a class action, a federal judge has ruled.
The suit claims the state, specifically the Department of Highway Safety and Motor Vehicles, improperly sold personal information gleaned from about 31 million driver's license records to Shadowsoft Inc., an Irving, Texas-based Internet marketer. Shadowsoft then sold the information to other firms that target consumers.
The records sales, which a lawyer in the case said brought in a large yet unspecified amount of money to the state, took place between 2005 through 2009.
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› Holocaust Survivors Lose at the U.S. Supreme Court
Hundreds of Holocaust survivors who have struggled for years to sue a giant Italian company over unpaid life insurance policies got no satisfaction Monday from the U.S. Supreme Court.
The justices refused to reconsider a petition aiming to give victims of the Nazi death camps and their heirs the right to bring lawsuits in Florida and other states against Assicurazioni Generali of Italy.
The high-court setback leaves them with one final option -- Congress -- where they have lobbied for legislation that would allow Holocaust survivors to sue the Italian insurer and other European companies.
"Clearly, I'm disappointed,'' said Thomas Weiss, a Miami Beach doctor whose lawsuit against Generali was dismissed, leading to the Supreme Court appeal. Weiss' father, who lost his first wife and their three children in the Nazi concentration camps, was turned away by Generali after World War II when he tried to collect on a policy then valued at $50,000.
› Unions Finding Florida Nurses Receptive
Registered nurses at three Florida hospitals have voted to align themselves with the National Nurses Organization Committee-Florida, which is affiliated with National Nurses United, the nation's largest RN union and professional association.
The votes, held at Community Hospital in New Port Richey, Central Florida Regional Hospital in Sanford and Osceola Regional Medical Center in Kissimmee, were held over the past two weeks. All three hospitals are part of the Hospital Corporation of America (HCA) hospital system. HCA owns two hospitals in Northeast Florida - Memorial Hospital and Orange Park Medical Center - and is building a third, West Jacksonville Medical Center.
› Reviewing a Question of Worker Residency
Should city employees be required to live in the city they are paid to run? That seemingly innocuous question is being asked by the citizen-run Charter Review Committee, after it learned how few Sarasota city employees actually live in the city.
Less than one fourth of city employees -- 725 staffers ranging from top administrators to part-time school crossing guards to police -- reside within city limits and pay city property taxes, records show.
Another 28 percent do not live and pay taxes in Sarasota County. More than $39 million in salaries and benefits is paid each year to city employees whose taxes and daily spending drifts elsewhere, records show.
› Reporters Get Sneak Peek at Opulent 'Taj Mahal' Courthouse
Officials opened the doors to the state's fanciest new courthouse Monday, but none of the judges, legislators or state officials responsible for the new 1st District Court of Appeal were on hand to talk about it. Patterned after the Hall of Justice built by the Michigan Supreme Court, the first- and third-floor rotundas looked much like the Michigan building, with black and white patterned terrazzo floors and bronze seals embedded in the middle.
There is lots of etched glass and granite countertops, and a virtual courtroom, designed to allow participants to appear from remote areas, features two 60-inch monitors in the back of the dais and two 48-inch monitors on tilt mounts on the side walls. The 60-inch flat screens planned for each judge's chambers were eliminated after the publicity about the extravagances at a time the court system is dealing with tight budgets and layoffs. Several judges lobbied state lawmakers and got authorization for a $33.5 million bond issue included in a transportation bill passed on the last day of the 2007 legislative session.
The court will pay the state $1.6 million a year in rent, far short of the $2.4 million a year the state will pay to retire the bonds, a cost difference criticized by auditors.
› Despite Rough First Year, SeaWorld's Owner Sees Long-Term Growth
Shamu's first year on his own has been one to forget.
Attendance, sales and profit have slumped at Orlando-based SeaWorld Parks & Entertainment, dragged down by a soft economy, negative publicity and a weak slate of new attractions. Three killer whales in the company's care died unexpectedly. And a trainer at SeaWorld Orlando was violently killed by a 6-ton killer whale, a tragedy that triggered government investigations and private lawsuits and forever altered the company's hallmark orca shows.
And yet, exactly one year after the private-equity firm Blackstone Group paid $2.3 billion to buy Busch Entertainment Corp. — in the process renaming it SeaWorld Parks and ending five decades of association with beer brewer Anheuser-Busch Cos. — company executives say they have reason to be confident about 2011 and beyond.
› Worth Ave's $15.8M Makeover Wows Merchants and Shoppers
"Purple bougainvillea, swaying palm trees and bright blue skies form a fascinating backdrop for Yuletide regalia."
That's how Worth Avenue was described in a Dec. 17, 1939, Miami News article . Now, with the famous street's $15.8 million makeover completed, the swaying palms are back.
More than 200 mature coconut palms, from 32 to 40 feet tall, grace the street.
The redo, which began in April, also includes new tabby seashell sidewalks, antique-style streetlights, benches and a new 25-foot clock tower. The electrical system and utility lines were moved underground.
"The last time they did any major renovation was 1983. It was time.