Florida Trend | Florida's Business Authority

Wednesday's Afternoon Update

Florida buys Everglades land to prevent oil drilling

Gov. Ron DeSantis on Wednesday announced a massive land buyout that will kill a plan to drill for oil in the Everglades. The state will buy 20,000 acres owned by Kanter Rel Estate LLC, which had won approval for an exploratory oil well west of Miramar. The price is $16.56 to $18 million, depending on when the deal officially closes. More from the South Florida Sun-Sentinel and TCPalm.

KPMG unveils $450M, high-tech Lake Nona training center with 800 ‘hotel’ rooms

The global professional services giant KPMG has long held employee training on its audit, tax and advisory services for its 35,000 U.S. employees in makeshift locations. That often meant the company would rent out space in conference center or hotel basements with no windows. A new 800,000-square-foot KPMG training center just off Highway 417 in Lake Nona will change that. More from the Orlando Sentinel.

Miami’s messy politics slowed down city business. This downtown agency is fed up

One of the city of Miami’s largest tax-funded agencies has a vacant leadership position, and board members are so tired of waiting for bickering city commissioners to approve the board’s unanimous pick that they hired a high-powered attorney to represent them as they press forward with a new executive director. More from the Miami Herald.

Pinellas buys long-troubled golf course for green space

Florida’s most densely populated county could soon have a rare new amenity — 42 acres of green space spared from development. The Pinellas County Commission voted unanimously Tuesday to move forward with buying the abandoned Baypointe Golf Course in Seminole and preserve it as a recreational park and a regional stormwater management area. More from the Tampa Bay Times.

Orlando touting its green credentials while battling charges over power plants

Orlando is celebrating this week its coveted certification as a LEED city for environmental sustainability while on Tuesday its electric utility was in court battling accusations that it has contaminated suburban homes with toxic coal-ash dust. The U.S. Green Building Council, which touts its Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design, or LEED program, as the most widely used in the world for rating green building practices, graded Orlando as a gold city. More from the Orlando Sentinel.

Florida History
Built on sand: The get-rich-quick scams of 1920s Florida

 In 1925, some 7,000 people seeking a new life and perhaps a new fortune entered Florida each day. In Massachusetts alone, owners of more than 100,000 bank accounts used their savings to invest in Florida land. Deposits in Florida banks increased 400 percent in three years. Ohio politicians were so shocked by the size of the wave of cash flowing southward that they banned Florida real estate firms from doing business in their state.

» More from the New York Times and the Wall Street Journal.

 

Sports Business
Miami gets own kicks in Super Bowl LIV sideshows

floridaWith Super Bowl LIV just over two weeks away, there’s no shortage of related happenings throughout South Florida, including many official events hosted by the NFL and Miami Super Bowl Host Committee (MSBHC). Central to those activities is Super Bowl Live, which runs Jan. 25 to Feb. 1 at Bayfront Park, described on the committee’s website as “a week-long fan fest free of cost to guests of all ages.”

» Read more from Miami Today.