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Monday's Daily Pulse
What you need to know about Florida today
› Water Street Tampa developer announces layoffs, new job for CEO
Strategic Property Partners, the developer of Water Street Tampa, said Friday that it was laying off some of its staff and is moving its chief executive to a new role. The company said the changes were prompted by several buildings nearing completion in its first phase of development, which was its “largest and most intensive phase, representing a total investment to date of approximately $2 billion across 10 distinct new buildings.”
› Miami’s Design District is expanding west — and turning old buildings inside out
The western edge of Miami’s ritzy Design District is being turned inside out — literally — to create a new wing for the luxury shopping and design neighborhood. The Market at Miami Design District, a joint venture between the New York-based Apollo Commercial Real Estate Finance and the Miami retail leasing and development firm The Comras Company of Florida, will take 16 existing commercial properties spanning nearly a full city block and convert them into an open-air marketplace.
› Small army of volunteers bringing holiday groceries to 600 Central Florida families
For 20 years, a devout, mostly-volunteer nonprofit called Servant’s Heart Ministry has been bringing free groceries to Central Florida residents living in poverty. These days, the number in need is double what it was just a year ago. For Thanksgiving and Christmas, the charity hopes to deliver the ingredients for a holiday meal to a record 600 families — though it has only one full-time staff person, one part-time staff person and an old, deteriorating delivery truck.
› Taxpayer cost of Lot J deal far higher than other "transformational" projects in downtown Jacksonville
Jacksonville taxpayers would have far more at stake financially in the Lot J development — a venture with Jaguars owner Shad Khan and The Cordish Companies — than the city has agreed to in the past for downtown projects bearing the "transformational" label. The City Council is weighing whether to approve a deal making the city responsible for up to $233 million in public investments and incentives for the Lot J deal featuring a Live! entertainment district, 400 residential units, a hotel with 150 to 250 rooms, 40,000 square feet of office space, and about 1,400 garage and surface parking spaces.
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