SPOTLIGHT
In 1956, before Disney, before “Where The Boys Are,” before much of modern Florida tourism, brothers Bob and Jack Thornton dropped a then-record-setting $350,000 to create the most expensive restaurant project in the nation that year: A Polynesian-themed restaurant on U.S. 1 just north of Fort Lauderdale. They added a dinner show a few years later. The Mai-Kai became a Fort Lauderdale landmark. It’s on the National Register of Historic Places. It closed in 2020 after a plumbing failure caused extensive damage.
It reopened the week before Thanksgiving after a $20-million restoration under current managing partner Bill Fuller, who partnered with the Thornton family and investors.
LOGISTICS
- Nutrition and health products company SportLife Distribution will add 30 jobs to its 13 in Fort Pierce and expand its headquarters and operations with a new, 25,000-sq.-ft. facility.
- Delray Beach private equity firm Redfearn Capital paid a total of $10.8 million for two industrial properties in Boynton Beach and Jupiter. The deals took Redfearn’s portfolio to 4.7 million square feet.
- Gas turbine service provider Power Systems MFG, a Hanwha Impact company, signed a 10-year, $22-million, 185,000-sq.-ft. lease at Foundry Commercial’s South Florida Gateway Distribution Center in Stuart. Colliers represented Power Systems MFG. Cushman & Wakefield represented the landlord. The Treasure Coast is seeing an increasing number of industrial users move in as space farther south becomes scarce and expensive.
EDUCATION
- Florida Atlantic University received an $800,000 federal Energy Department grant for a feasibility study for an ocean current test facility off Palm Beach County.
- FAU received a $10-million federal Education Department grant to help youths and working-age adults with disabilities get certified skills for jobs in the tech sector. The program will offer career counseling and training for jobs in cybersecurity, cloud computing and computer-aided design and 3D printing.
REAL ESTATE
- Lloyd Jones subsidiary Aviva Senior Living opened a 159-apartment, 55-plus Aviva adult living development in St. Lucie West. Rents start at $4,300 per month.
- New York real estate firm Naftali Group and hospitality company Viceroy launched sales of 45-story, 370-condo Viceroy Residences Fort Lauderdale in Flagler Village.
LAYOFFS
- Control Techniques/KB Electronics closed some of its departments and laid off 76 in Coral Springs.
- Amerihealth Caritas closed its Palm Beach Gardens facility and its Florida Medicaid Plan, laying off 79.
- Frozen dessert company Gelato Petrini laid off 35 full-time employees in Delray Beach.
IN MEMORIAM
“‘It’s all about the fare’ is what we’re sort of internally using to remind ourselves that’s really what most of our customer base cares about when they’re deciding to fly. It does cost the airline to process bags, and there’s no reason that a customer who doesn’t check bags should have to pay for that.” — B. Ben Baldanza Jr., 62, CEO of ultra-lowcost air carrier Spirit Airlines from 2005 to 2016, in a 2007 FLORIDA TREND interview. Baldanza died of ALS in November.