Business travel still lags in post-COVID recovery, say Florida hotel industry leaders

Hotel industry leaders joined with Central Florida politicians Tuesday to deliver a message to businesses: Start planning conventions and return to traveling. While planes and roads are crowded this summer with eager tourists, business travel and conventions are still largely absent and not expected to return to pre-pandemic levels until 2024, according to industry experts. A study by Visit Orlando found group travel to be 67% below 2019 levels. [Source: Oralndo Sentniel]

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FP&L expands its solar footprint in Northwest Florida

Florida Power & Light is doubling down on its commitment to expand solar energy production in Northwest Florida. Matt Valle, vice president of development at FP&L, talks about details of the multi-phase project. Solar Fields: We currently have eight sites in different phases of operation or development. Each site will be capable of generating 74.5-megawatts, enough to power 15,000 homes annually. [Source: Florida Trend]

Florida beach town writes Amazon TV series to lure tourists

Hollywood’s flattering spotlight has put small towns on the map, like Wilmington, North Carolina, from “Dawson’s Creek” and the woods of Senoia, Georgia, from “The Walking Dead.” And that’s exactly what travel marketers in St. Petersburg and Clearwater were hoping to capitalize on when they commissioned an original, scripted TV series, seeking to draw quarantine-weary tourists to the area’s sugar sand beaches. [Source: Orlando Sentinel]

No Casinos urges feds to reject Florida’s Seminole Compact

A prominent group opposing the expansion of casinos in Florida has sent a letter to federal regulators asking them to reject the state’s recent deal with the Seminole Tribe. Lawmakers last month ratified Gov. Ron DeSantis and the Tribe’s Compact, and it now awaits the U.S. Department of the Interior’s approval. If given the green light, the 30-year deal is guaranteed to rake in $500 million per year for Florida over the next five years. [Source: Florida Politics]

Analysis: Florida no-fault repeal will benefit few drivers

The no-fault auto insurance repeal adopted by Florida lawmakers is looking likely to be repealed via Gov. Ron DeSantis’ veto pen. The governor has until July 1 to veto Senate Bill 54, which does away with Florida’s 1970 no-fault auto insurance law and, instead, requires the state’s 16.5 million drivers to secure mandatory bodily injury (MBI) coverage. If he takes no action, SB 54 becomes law Jan. 1. [Source: The Center Square]

ALSO AROUND FLORIDA:

› Venture capital-backed tech fund promises economic, innovation growth in Alachua County [Gainesville Sun]
Step aside Silicon Valley, Boston and Chicago — Venture capitalist Dave Scalzo says Florida is the nation’s best-kept secret when it comes to technology growth and innovation. Scalzo’s venture capital firm, Kirenaga, which has invested in startup companies and innovators in the Sunshine State for the past six years, is ready to take on Alachua County businesses to provide the funding and resources they need to become commercial successes.

› Lido Beach named one of the nation's best restored beaches [Sarasota Herald-Tribune]
Now a wide ribbon of Gulf-front sand, the recently renourished Lido Beach has earned national recognition as one of the country’s best restored beaches. Awarded by the American Shore and Beach Preservation Association (ASBPA), the recognition acknowledges beach restoration projects that successfully increase a shoreline’s resiliency against storm damage and flooding while preserving its role in the natural nearshore ecosystem.

› Central Florida's Treadwell Farms eyes next opportunities in hemp industry [Orlando Busniess Journal]
Treadwell Farms, which launched its hemp business during the Covid-19 pandemic, already is eyeing its next opportunities — and partnerships — in the growing cannabidiol (CBD) industry and more. The Umatilla-based nursery got its hemp cultivation license in May 2020, already has conducted five harvests, and launched a CBD product line as well as getting it onto retail shelfs.

› Online grocery start-up Farmstead expands to Miami [Florida Trend]
Farmstead, the first online grocer to offer fresh, high-quality groceries, delivered for free, at better prices than local supermarkets, announced that its service is now live in Miami and surrounding areas. Thousands of South Florida shoppers have already signed up for the service which will start delivering today to addresses throughout Miami-Dade county, and to destinations as far north as Boynton Beach and as far south as Key Largo.

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› Hear from Marlins, Fisher Island and EEOC leaders about post-COVID labor issues [Miami Herald]
Executives from the Miami Marlins, Fisher Island Club, and the U.S. Equal Employment Opportunity Commission all feature in a new 2.5-hour video produced by Miami law firm Stearns Weaver Miller exploring post-pandemic employment issues. In lieu of its usual annual conference, the firm has produced a video in which its executives interview top human resources experts about employee management concerns as the COVID-19 pandemic fades and workers return to the office.

› Pair of builders chosen for $60 million downtown Naples theater project [Busness Observer]
A pair of construction firms, one based in the region, one national, has been chosen to build the Gulfshore Playhouse Theatre — a large part of a $60 million project. The partners building the project are Bonita Springs-based Gates Construction and Providence, Rhode Island-based Gilbane. H3-Arquitectonica is providing design services.

› 'Forgotten' Brevard civil rights heroes endure in new film by Mario Van Peebles [Florida Today]
The "forgotten heroes" of the civil rights movement may not remain forgotten for much longer. Harry T. and Harriette V. Moore were among the first Black civil rights activists, laboring for equality in segregated Florida decades before Rosa Parks or Martin Luther King, Jr. Harry Moore, a school principal, established branches of the NAACP across the state and helped register more than 100,000 new Black voters, forming one of the largest "colored" voting blocs in the south.

› 250 gators removed from Disney properties since 2-year-old’s 2016 death [Orlando Sentinel]
About 250 alligators have been removed from Disney properties since an alligator killed 2-year-old Lane Thomas Graves from the shores of Disney’s Grand Floridian Resort and Spa five years ago. Disney management and staff have worked directly with trappers contracted through the Florida Fish and Wildlife Conservation Commission to remove them.