March 19, 2024

Real Estate

Jazzing it Up

The struggling University Mall in Tampa was a sad scene, with empty anchor stores, dusty potted plants and stained carpets beneath the benches. JCPenney left in 2005, followed by Dillard's in 2008, Macy's in 2017 and Sears in 2018. Built in 1974 just west of the University of South Florida campus, the mall had acquired a seedy reputation. Read more »
Published on 3/14/2024

Adapting Anchors

Fifteen years ago, Michele “Mik” Oca was living in his native Italy and working in entertainment marketing and design when he got a call from the White House. Incoming President Barack Obama was toying with the idea of replacing the bowling alley at 1600 Pennsylvania Ave. with a basketball court — and Oca, who'd carved out a niche for himself designing bowling products and alleys, was invited to submit a redesign plan to convince the president to keep the lanes. Read more »
Published on 3/11/2024

Building Blocks

Palm Springs in central Palm Beach County became the debut site for Renco USA's first housing complex — four buildings totaling 96 units — made with molded, interlocking blocks the company calls “Lego-like.” Miami-based Renco says its building method is cheaper, faster and 23 times stronger than concrete. Read more »
Published on 2/27/2024

Building Success

What's the single biggest challenge facing the construction industry right now? Mandy Weitknecht knows the answer: a serious shortage of skilled workers. Read more »
Published on 12/12/2023

Reimagining Racetracks

The nearly century-old Hialeah Park thoroughbred racetrack has hosted luminaries Harry Truman, Winston Churchill, Jackie Kennedy and Elizabeth Taylor — along with the iconic flock of American flamingos seen in the opening credits of Miami Vice in the 1980s. Read more »
Published on 12/8/2023

MIA Facelift

FDR Miami Hotel, a partnership between Fontainebleau Development and Related Cos., is building a 451-room Westin Hotel near the Dolphin parking garage. Guests will be able to cross a pedestrian bridge to enter the airport's Concourse D. FDR will pay the county at least $2.58 million per year in a 50-year lease. Read more »
Published on 10/23/2023

Out with the Old

Coming in 2027: The St. Regis Residences, Sunny Isles Beach, Miami, a two-tower luxury condominium on Collins Avenue. Under development by Fortune International Group and Chateau Group, the project will rise just 5.4 miles from the Surfside site where Champlain Towers collapsed. Read more »
Published on 10/12/2023

Quick Fix

As Pensacola grapples with an affordable housing crisis, local leaders are looking at repurposing an aging motel to help tackle the problem. Read more »
Published on 9/30/2023

Developmental Pitch

Last year, the Philadelphia Phillies spent $22.5 million to buy a strip mall just south of BayCare Ballpark, the 8,500-seat stadium where the team hosts spring training games and the Phillies-affiliated Clearwater Threshers play single-A Florida State League games. Now, after holding private meetings with Clearwater city officials, the Phillies' plans for the 13-acre shopping center site are coming into focus. Read more »
Published on 9/30/2023

Big Deal

The Horse Creek Ranch conservation easement deal, costing $51 million and spanning more than 16,000 acres across DeSoto and Hardee counties, ranks as one of Florida's biggest single conservation agreements in 20 years. As part of the easement, the Carlton family-owned ranch will continue to be used to raise cattle while the land will be permanently protected from development. Read more »
Published on 8/22/2023

Office Optional

Coastal Cloud, a Palm Coast technology consulting company with several major offices across the country, embraced remote work long before the COVID-19 pandemic came along. The business still does, says CEO Tim Hale, though an increasing number of staff are returning to the office — not because of a policy change but “because many people are re-discovering they enjoy the camaraderie and team learning of an office environment.” Read more »
Published on 8/8/2023

Island Plan Revival

After more than 20 years of stalled development, a planned project on Watson Island — a publicly owned enclave between downtown Miami and South Beach — is in the hands of developers known for making big projects happen. In a joint venture, BH3 Management and Merrimac Ventures purchased the 75-year ground lease for the vacant 10.8-acre parcel on the island from Flagstone Property Group. Read more »
Published on 7/31/2023

All Hands on Deck

Leon County officials, concerned over closings and delays of Amazon's national network of distribution centers, are now more optimistic that the e-commerce giant's $200-million Tallahassee fulfillment center is on track to open later this year. Read more »
Published on 7/27/2023

Florida's Future

We asked 13 experts in their respective fields to look into their crystal balls. Here are their thoughts on the decade ahead. Read more »
Published on 7/18/2023

Passing the Baton

The topic for the three panelists at the real estate forum in Fort Lauderdale had nothing to do with Millennials. The focus was “Downtown Fort Lauderdale: A Dynamic Investment Opportunity.” Generational change, however, was center stage. Read more »
Published on 6/15/2023

A Clean Start

For decades, the five-acre site at the eastern edge of downtown Naples was littered with rundown metal buildings once used as warehouses and car repair shops. It was an area where street crime flourished. Read more »
Published on 5/17/2023

Park Place

Sarah Combs grew up a farmer's daughter. From an early age, she harvested crops on the family's spread in a tiny, tight-knit Colorado town, developed a strong work ethic and constantly engaged with neighbors. It was a long way from north Tampa, an area that over the years has been beset by poverty. Read more »
Published on 5/17/2023

The Greening of Florida's Brownfields

Over the last quarter-century, Florida has helped to transform almost 200 contaminated sites into clean community hubs. The pace of the redevelopment is about to pick up dramatically. Read more »
Published on 5/16/2023

Field Day

St. Petersburg is moving forward with its latest effort to redevelop the city's 86-acre Tropicana Field site — this time with the direct involvement of the Tampa Bay Rays. Read more »
Published on 4/30/2023

Tony Cho's New Flow

The Miami real estate investor and developer has done it all, from jet-setting with celebrities to building a fortune — and he's only in his 40s. His new venture — encouraging the building of harmonious communities for 1 billion people — might be his most ambitious yet. Read more »
Published on 4/18/2023

Coastal Construction announced as General Contractor for new downtown Tampa tower

Coastal Construction will be the general contractor on Silverstein Properties' new downtown Tampa development at 540 East Cass. Read more »
Published on 1/10/2023

Florida's hospital construction trend rises to meet population growth

In 2024, Jupiter Medical Center and UF Health hope to open a “neighborhood hospital” with an ER, inpatient beds, operating rooms and other services in Avenir, a new residential development in northwest Palm Beach County — another sign of a boomlet in hospital construction in Florida. Read more »
Published on 12/28/2022

America's first solar-powered town relies on infrastructure after Hurricane Ian devastation

In the aftermath of Hurricane Ian, an estimated 2.7 million Florida homes and businesses lost power. For customers of LCEC, which provides electricity to more than 240,000 homes and businesses in hard-hit towns including North Fort Myers, Cape Coral, Marco Island, Pine Island and Sanibel, more than 90% of the utility's customers lost power. But about 20 miles west of where the storm came ashore, Babcock Ranch, which bills itself as “America's first solar-powered town,” has a different story to tell. None of its nearly 2,000 homes lost power. Read more »
Published on 12/14/2022

Ybor City's Gas Worx project plans to develop homes, retail and office space on former site of Peoples Gas

For the last several years, much of downtown Tampa's redevelopment focus has been on Water Street, the $3.5-billion, 70-acre mixed-use project from Strategic Property Partners, a partnership between Tampa's Jeff Vinik and Bill Gates' Cascade Investment. Read more »
Published on 11/23/2022

Easing other land-use regulations is a growing trend in Florida

Only Gainesville in Florida contemplates a city-wide elimination of the single-family zoning category, but a trend toward loosening other land-use regulations is growing. At the state level, the Legislature in 2020 mandated that affordable housing can be built in zoning categories including single-family, commercial and industrial. Read more »
Published on 10/31/2022

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