Monday's Daily Pulse
Luring Jobs is Worth the Initial Costs
A $26 million nursing operation. A 75,000-square-foot light manufacturing plant. An insurance company headquarters. These are among the job-producing prospects being dangled in Sarasota County these days, prospects that could help tip a troubled and meandering commercial real estate market in a healthy direction. Commercial real estate has a direct benefit from creation of work, but the rest of the economy gains from it, too. [Source: Sarasota Herald-Tribune]
Theme Parks Hope to Strike Gold with "Ultra-affluent"
The economy could be teetering on the edge of a double-dip recession, and Orlando's theme parks are still tossing discounts at reluctant travelers. But there are encouraging signs from at least one small segment of consumers: The super rich. New data compiled by credit-card giant American Express Co. suggests that what the company calls "ultra-affluent" consumers are beginning to open their wallets wider when inside theme parks — much more so than everyone else. [Source: Orlando Sentinel]
Aerosonic Poised to Shed bad Karma, Take Flight
Aerosonic Corp., a Clearwater airplane instruments maker, appears to be setting a new course to success, having completed a profitable year not long after a series of setbacks, including a devastating fire that destroyed critical equipment and allegations of executive fraud. [Source: St. Petersburg Times]
Crist, Not Drilling, May Be Target of Special Session
Amid mounting bitterness between the independent governor and Republican legislators, a special session prompted by the Deepwater Horizon oil spill will open Tuesday. But rather than focus on a referendum to ban offshore drilling in the Florida Constitution, as the governor wants, the gathering is likely to be a gripe session with most of the rhetoric aimed not at BP or the oil industry, but at Crist himself. Crist might not say so publicly, but that's just fine with him. He wants to use Tallahassee politicians as a foil, and lawmakers appear to be playing into his hands. [Source: Times/Herald]
» Seepage Detected Near Well [Miami Herald]
» Florida's Point Man Draws Praise [St. Petersburg Times]
» RICO Law Made to Combat Mafia Used in BP Lawsuits [AP]
» Busy Lab Yields Answers to Beach Communities [St. Petersburg Times]
» Flying Over the Leak Site with a Coast Guard Crew [WUSF]
ALSO AROUND FLORIDA:
› Crist Applauds Florida’s Number One Workforce Ranking [FLgov.com]
Florida has been ranked number one in the nation for its workforce. The ranking came in CNBC’s fourth annual America’s Top States for Business rankings -- a study of all 50 states that examines 10 different categories, including workforce, to measure each state’s ability to attract businesses. Florida moved up from the number three spot in 2009, reclaiming the number-one ranking the state held in 2008.
RELATED:
»
Florida's Business Climate Gets Mixed Reviews
[St. Petersburg Times]
» America's Top States for Business 2010 Rankings
[CNBC]
› Jackson Lab Could Jolt SW Florida Economy [Fort Myers News-Press]
In the picturesque tourist destination in coastal Maine, lobsters and moose are the town's unofficial mascots. But the mouse may just be king. Bar Harbor, population 4,800, is home to the 81-year-old Jackson Laboratory - a global leader in genetics research, thanks in large part to its specially bred mice, and one of eastern Maine's largest employers. Now, the lab stands to receive $260 million in taxpayer money to build another research campus on 50 acres in eastern Collier County. Supporters say Jackson Lab would be an economic engine in Southwest Florida, just as it has been up north. Opponents complain of the possible tax increases that would bring the lab to Collier County. Not even Maine was willing to do that, they note.
› Employee Theft a Pressing Issue for Businesses [Florida Times-Union]
Businesses are getting robbed and the perpetrator is often on the payroll. Businesses are 15 times more likely to be defrauded by employees than non-employees, according to the National Federation of Independent Businesses (NFIB), a small business lobbying group. And, when employees steal, it can be disastrous for the bottom line. In fact, 30 percent of business failures are related to employee theft or fraud, according to the U.S. Department of Commerce.
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Foreclosures Bring Wealth, Rebukes for Fla. Lawyer [St. Petersburg Times]
You could call him the foreclosure king of Florida. As lawyer for several major banks, David J. Stern handles 20 percent of all foreclosure cases in the nation's fourth most populous state. It is from Stern's law firm that well over 100,000 Floridians have received the dreaded notice to pay up or face losing their homes. The foreclosure business has been good to Stern, who lives in a $15 million Fort Lauderdale mansion and reaped $58.5 million by selling his back-office operations to a new public company in which he is a major shareholder. But as his case load has grown, so have the controversies.
› Biltmore, Gables Wrangle Over Past-due Rent [Miami Herald]
The Biltmore Hotel, which in its 84-year history has housed kings and queens, movie stars, wounded veterans from World War II and even an occasional gangster or two, is having trouble paying its bills. Its revenues are off by nearly 25 percent, its operating profits are down by more than 50 percent, and it hasn't paid rent to its landlord -- the city of Coral Gables -- since April 2009. Its rent tab: $2.3 million and growing.
› COLUMN: Interesting Companies Lurk Under Radar [Sarasota Herald-Tribune]
CounterBalance Corp., a maker of "modular torsion spring systems," has just entered an exclusive contract with the U.S. Army Tank-Automotive Command, called TACOM, to provide upper rear door torsion bars in M1117 armored security vehicles. The great thing about Southwest Florida's business community is you just never know what interesting companies you're going to find out there.
Go to page 2 for more stories ...
› Fla. Economic Picture Brightens, Employers Remain Gloomy [Miami Herald]
Joe Andriola finally has enough work to hire more architects, but memories of past financial traumas hold him back. "In 2007, I would have already hired 12 or 14 people for the workload that caused us to hire six or seven," said Andriola, a partner at SB Architects in Coral Gables. "You're just so paranoid." Andriola's cautious outlook helps explain today's employment climate, which increasingly has ripples of confidence but still a strong undertow of worry. Figures released Friday show Florida's private employers added 11,000 jobs in June -- a modest but welcome gain after months of declining payrolls.
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Mortgage Fraud Not Big in Attorney General Race [Sarasota Herald-Tribune]
Rampant mortgage fraud during the housing boom played a major role in the state's real estate collapse. Yet for the five candidates running to be the state's next attorney general, the issue has not been on the radar. The lack of attention to mortgage fraud is striking. Florida has led the nation in mortgage fraud every year since 2006. A Herald-Tribune investigation uncovered more than 50,000 potentially illegal cases at a cost of $10 billion. Homes and other properties bought and quickly resold, often by real estate insiders, fed the glut of bank failures, foreclosures and inflated property values that have combined to devastate Florida's economy.
› To Find Concealed Profits, Open Your Mind [Miami Herald]
If you were to Google "search for more profits," you'd most likely come up with several SEO experts plus a kettle of vultures and con specialists offering the latest schemes. Candidly, there is no quick fix. However, if your mind is open to innovation, you can identify significant sources of concealed profits. The day World War II ended in 1945, Toyota was struggling to survive. Cash flow was almost a fatal problem. Even so, Toyota's then president Toyoda Kiichiro set an amazing challenge: "Catch up with America in three years. Otherwise, the automobile industry of Japan will not survive.'' And catch up they did.
› Running Industry Picks Up Pace [Florida Times-Union]
Alice Lawson dropped her gym membership in early 2009 to save money and prepare for a possible job loss. Rather than let herself go, she took up running and completed her first half-marathon last month. Running is booming in the U.S. as more people seek inexpensive ways to manage stress amid economic uncertainty. That's true in Jacksonville, too, representatives from area running supply stores say.
› Major Law Firms Bouncing Back Slowly [Miami Herald]
Things are starting to pick up at South Florida law firms. Many are surviving by shifting their focus to capitalize on economic misery, such bankruptcy and foreclosure litigation. Those relying on areas such as corporate transactions and commercial real estate development are slower to recover.
› Electronic Message Signs Exceed City's Limits [Florida Times-Union]
Jacksonville's commercial thoroughfares are dotted with electronic message boards that change messages every few seconds - far more frequently than the city's sign ordinance allows, according to city officials. The city is asking contractors that install the signs to inform their customers about the rule. Sign contractors say they've been doing that all along, but once the sign is installed, it's up to the owner of the sign to make sure the programming is in compliance.
› Sun Setting on Key West Shrimping Business [Miami Herald]
The weathered sign that points past the trailer park to show the way to the Shrimp Shack Dockside Grill on Stock Island beckons: "Eat with the Fleet." But 60 years after commercial fishermen from St. Augustine discovered the Dry Tortugas shrimp grounds -- starting the "pink gold rush'' that transformed the sleepy working waterfronts of Key West and Stock Island into thriving ports -- the local fleet is down to just three: Shep Owen's Capt. Bud, Ricky Toomer's JT and Theodore Dickerson's Gulf Queen.
› Pizza Joints Fight for Slice of the Pie [Florida Today]
Amici's Italian Restaurant & Pizzeria in Suntree and other non-chain pizza joints are finding themselves in the crossfire of a Domino's Pizza-Papa John's-Pizza Hut price war. Owner David Amici maintains his pies make the chains' offerings seem like something from the frozen food section at a grocery store. Yet as those pizza super powers battle it out with their $10-any-size pizzas and other, sometimes even cheaper, specials, Amici finds reputation only takes him so far.
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