Hurricane season: Systems ‘beginning to bubble’ in the Atlantic

Developments in the eastern Caribbean Sea and off the coast of Africa have caught the attention of National Hurricane Center forecasters this week as the tropical conveyor belt in the Atlantic basin chugs punctually to life. “Right on schedule, systems are beginning to bubble in the Atlantic,” said Bob Henson, meteorologist and writer at Weather Underground, part of IBM. “In general, you expect the deep Atlantic tropics to become more active as we get into August and that’s exactly what’s happening.” More from the Florida Times-Union, TCPalm, and the Palm Beach Post.

Construction starts in South Florida fall almost 40% in June

Construction starts in South Florida fell significantly in June amid continued signs that the commercial and residential real estate markets are slowing down after years of rapid growth on a national and local level. Total construction starts declined 39 percent on a yearly basis in South Florida to $1.01 billion, according to Dodge Data and Analytics. [Source: The Real Deal]

Florida Supreme Court pulls out from insurance dispute

Pointing to a law passed this spring, a divided Florida Supreme Court on Monday scrapped plans to take up a closely watched case about the controversial insurance practice known as assignment of benefits. Justices, in a 4-3 ruling, reversed course on a December decision and said they would not hear a case that stemmed from water damage to a St. Lucie County home. More from the Orlando Sentinel and Law.com.

Florida’s prison population will stay above 95,000 and grow slightly, report says

Despite a new law that revamps some aspects of the criminal justice system, Florida’s prison population is expected to remain above 95,000 inmates in the coming years, according to new estimates released by state analysts. Prisons had 95,613 inmates at the end of June, a number that is expected to remain virtually flat as of June 2020. See the Executive Summary from the Criminal Justice Estimating Conference and read more at the Orlando Sentinel.

Florida gas prices down 12 cents in 11 days

The Sunshine State is seeing lower gas prices at the end of July. The price of gas in Florida dropped nine cents during the past week, combining for a total discount of 12 cents in the past 11 days, AAA reported. The average price of gas in Florida dropped 9 cents over the past week. That price is 4 cents less than last month, 22 cents less than this time last year and 21 cents less than this year’s high daily average price of $2.80 per gallon. More from WFLA and NorthEscambia.com.

ALSO AROUND FLORIDA:

› A broken water pipe left Fort Lauderdale dry for a day. Now, businesses are suing FPL [Miami Herald]
Businesses left without water in a day-long outage in Fort Lauderdale earlier this month are suing Florida Power & Light for “gross negligence.” The utility was overseeing construction work that led to the rupture of a pipe that cut off water to thousands of customers.

› Downtown Sarasota retail buildings sold to Canadian investor [Sarasota Herald-Tribune]
A group of retail properties in the heart of downtown just sold to a Canadian company for $10.3 million. The Main Street-Lemon Avenue buildings, totaling 30,188 square feet, are leased to such businesses as Hyde Park Prime Steakhouse and Sur La Table. The seller was an affiliate of Isaac Group Holdings, a Sarasota company that years ago had assembled property there for what was going to be a large mixed-use project called Pineapple Square.

› Downtown Orlando’s Catalyst coworking space to shut down after 5 years [Orlando Sentinel]
The downtown Orlando coworking space Catalyst will shut down Wednesday after five years of hosting young companies, bringing to a close one of the first startup-dedicated spaces in the region. Catalyst has served as a local meeting site for tech and entrepreneurial events like Orlando Tech and Beer, Florida Funders and Orlando Healthcare Innovators.

› Tampa Bay condo owners say their association is a ‘shill'’ for a billionaire real estate company [Tampa Bay Times]
Condo owners in Lansbrook Village are suing their association, alleging it is a "shill'' for a billionaire real estate company that is trying to force them to sell so it can convert all 774 units to rentals.

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› Dr. Phillips Charities president quits arts center’s board [Orlando Sentinel]
The president of Dr. Phillips Charities — the organization that donated $35 million to Orlando’s downtown arts center and gave the venue its name — has resigned from the center’s board of directors.

› City funding proposed for Jacksonville’s historic Norman Studios [Florida Times-Union]
One million dollars has been set aside in the new city budget to renovate the only remaining piece of Jacksonville’s once-busy silent film-making past so its silver screen history can be opened for regular public visits. Announced last week in Mayor Lenny Curry’s budget proposal, the funding would be used to renovate the inside of the National Historic Landmark Norman Studios’ Production Building.

› Tampa Bay area ranks high in risk for mortgage application fraud [Tampa Bay Times]
The Tampa Bay area is among the U.S. metro areas most at risk for mortgage application fraud. According to the real estate information firm CoreLogic, the bay area ranks sixth in the rate at which borrowers lie about their income or engage in the other types of potential fraud when applying for a mortgage.

› Sarasota, Florida’s Tableseide restaurant group opening several new eateries [Sarasota Herald-Tribune]
From the outside looking in, it seems like Tableseide Restaurant Group is on a serious growth curve. The Sarasota-based company just opened three new restaurants in the past few months and has immediate plans for several more. But CEO Joe Seidensticker said what looks like a lot of growth at once is actually just the culmination of several projects coming to head at the same time unexpectedly.