Q & A
PETER CRANIS, EXECUTIVE DIRECTOR
SPACE COAST OFFICE OF TOURISM
FLORIDA TREND: What’s going on with the tourism office promoting the Space Coast as an affordable destination now?
Cranis: We are adding a mix of affordability messages into our digital marketing. When looking at hotel average daily rate, Brevard County is one of the lowest beach destinations at around $160, while many others are over $200, and in some cases, $300. This makes us a good value for the money.
FT: Why is the agency doing this? Are there concerns about a potential decline in the number of visitors?
Cranis: We have heard some rumblings from hoteliers that advanced summer bookings are coming in slow. Also, we have seen the Conference Board Consumer Confidence Index is down to its lowest point in 13 years, which gives us some concern. Also, business travel (particularly the federal government) and travel from Canada has weakened.
FT: How does your office promote the Space Coast as a destination?
Cranis: We use a full combination of integrated media from billboards to digital to streaming TV to social media. The affordability messaging will mostly be in the digital and social media advertising, as well as through public relations efforts. We hope to be listed in stories that cover the Top 10 most affordable beach destinations.
FT: Are most visitors coming for the beaches or to watch a launch?
Cranis: According to our 2023 visitor study, visitors listed going to the beach (68%), watching a rocket launch (41%), going to Kennedy Space Center (29%), taking a cruise (28%), along with shopping (61%) and sightseeing (48%) as the main purposes of their trip to the Space Coast.
AEROSPACE
- An undisclosed aerospace company known only as “Project Beep” is planning to invest nearly $250 million to build a facility and create about 1,000 jobs just outside Kennedy Space Center. Its location would include aerospace manufacturing, research and development, warehousing and administrative offices on 25 acres at Exploration Park, a Merritt Island industrial park that’s also the home of Blue Origin’s New Glenn rocket manufacturing plant. Space Florida’s board approved a 30- year lease for Project Beep.
EDUCATION
- Due to declining enrollment, Orange County’s school district plans to pause new school construction for several years. It will open one new school this month and two in 2026, but plans no other new schools until at least 2031. The district says this is because more students are attending private schools or homeschooling due to the expansion of Florida’s school voucher program.
RESTAURANTS
- Bahama Breeze, an Orlando-based chain owned by Darden Restaurants that’s known for “Caribbean inspired food” and tropical cocktails, closed five Florida locations — in Daytona Beach, Fort Lauderdale, Gainesville, Naples and Sunrise. It still has 16 Florida locations, including in Miami, Orlando, Jacksonville and the Tampa Bay area.
DEVELOPMENT
- Howard Dorough — better known as “Howie D” of the pop music group Backstreet Boys — has opened The Surf, a five-story, high-end oceanfront condo complex in downtown Cocoa Beach. Sharing its ground floor are Coa, a restaurant serving modern American cuisine, and Coa Lounge, billed as “a Floridaterranean cocktail lounge.”
- On the nine-acre site of the demolished Griffin Park housing project in downtown Orlando’s Parramore neighborhood, a Miami developer is planning to build four apartment towers with 1,000 apartments, 725 of which would be affordable. There would also be a grocery store in the new development at the southwest corner of Interstate 4 and the East-West Expressway.
- A complex of affordable apartments is being proposed for a site near the former Tupperware headquarters in Orlando, featuring 528 units in 25 buildings near the Tupperware SunRail stop.
HEALTH CARE
- The nonprofit health system Health First is about to expand its Palm Bay Hospital in Brevard County with a five-floor tower adding 60 beds to the 120-bed hospital. It will also add operating rooms, catheterization labs, and pre-operation and recovery areas. Two shell floors will have room for another 60 beds in the future.
EDUCATION
- In Daytona Beach, 15 Bethune-Cookman University students will share $75,000 in scholarship money from bestselling author James Patterson.
RETAIL
- A Massachusetts-based footwear company that sells its shoes and sandals online is opening one of its first brick-and-mortar retail stores at the Florida Mall in Orlando. Oofos sells shoes designed to reduce stress on customers’ feet. It’s also opening locations at Pentagon City in Arlington, Va., and the Mall of Georgia in the Atlanta area.
- Lake Nona West, a pedestrian-friendly Orlando shopping district that’s slated to open next spring, announced tenants including Target, Nordstrom Rack, Barnes & Noble, Total Wine & More, and a second location for a longtime Mexican restaurant in Las Vegas named Cañonita.
EXPANSIONS
- Kimley-Horn, a nationwide engineering, planning and design firm, has opened a second location in Central Florida — an office with more than 60 employees in Lake Nona Town Center. It already has offices in downtown Orlando.
Robots on the Road
The future is here: Self-driving cars are coming to Orlando. Waymo is a taxi service using autonomous vehicles — mostly electric Jaguars. It’s owned by Google’s parent company, Alphabet. The company announced that it’s going to be testing its technology soon in Orlando, Houston and San Antonio. It already operates in Austin, Los Angeles, Phoenix and San Francisco, and it plans to begin service in Miami, Atlanta and Washington, D.C., next year, according to its website.
At first, Waymo’s cars in Orlando will be driven by humans while they learn their way around. “To get to know the city, we’ll have a limited fleet of vehicles, with trained human autonomous specialists behind the wheel manually driving through the most complex parts of the city, including downtown and freeways, to familiarize ourselves with the local environment,” says Waymo spokeswoman Sandy Karp.
Billed as a “road trip,” Waymo’s visit marks its debut in Orlando and likely signals a future rollout of the self-driving taxis for riders here. That’s what’s happening in Miami, where Waymo tested out its vehicles last year and early this year before planning to deploy the driverless taxis for paying passengers in 2026. Like Uber and Lyft, Waymo cars are summoned through a phone app — except there’s no one behind the wheel.
Jags Coming to Town?
Orlando is competing with Gainesville to host Jacksonville Jaguars home games in 2027 while the Jags’ EverBank Stadium is being renovated. The team will likely play at either the University of Florida’s Ben Hill Griffin Stadium or at Orlando’s Camping World Stadium, formerly known as the Citrus Bowl. Once the Jags make a decision, other NFL team owners are expected to vote on the matter at an NFL owners meeting in October.