September 22, 2023
Real Estate
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.
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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.”
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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.
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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.
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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.
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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.
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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.
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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.
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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.
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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.
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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.
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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.
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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.
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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.
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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.
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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.
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Published on 10/31/2022
Affordable housing around Florida
Soaring housing costs are a hazard to Florida's economic growth, leading communities that want to sustain their workforce to respond with new initiatives. Luxury developers to non-profit agencies are stepping up with solutions — both in multifamily properties and individual homes — to address the statewide housing crunch.
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Published on 10/25/2022
Lakeland's long-neglected railyards transformed into a recreational haven
In the 1880s, Lakeland's railyards were a busy hub of commerce, shipping Florida citrus and phosphate to cities and ports across the nation. By the 1980s, however, the railyards were mostly abandoned, the land cluttered by weeds and trash.
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Published on 10/14/2022
Gainesville city leaders move to revise multi-family housing regulations
Florida is in the midst of a workforce housing crisis that is creating ripples across the wider economy. To ease the crunch in Gainesville, city leaders are moving to revise regulations on where multi-family housing can be built, and that's creating new controversies.
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Published on 10/12/2022
Celebrity real estate developer wants to develop land in Martin County
If a developer's customers include global celebrities, it makes sense to call in the big names when seeking approval in growth-adverse Martin County.
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Published on 9/19/2022
Palm Beach homeowners wanting renovations and new construction face challenges with Architectural Commission
Like a lot of people in the pandemic, Sylvester and Jennifer Stallone came to Florida and bought a home. The house they purchased via a trust has five bedrooms, six full baths, 10,539 square feet under air, an elevator and key-shaped pool. It sits on a one-acre lot fronting the Intracoastal near the northern tip of the island of Palm Beach.
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Published on 8/31/2022
Florida Icon: Alicia Cervera
I have done 48 major projects in Brickell. My daughter Veronica says: ‘Mother, when I see the skyline of Miami, I see your name.' Sometimes when I drive on the causeway and I look over at the city, I feel so much joy to see that we've been able to contribute to Miami becoming a global city.
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Published on 8/11/2022
Central Florida's post-pandemic office market sees increase in leasing activity, upgrades to attract more employees
Local companies are leading the way in heading back to the office.
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Published on 6/30/2022
Despite inflation and rising interest rates, Southwest Florida commercial real estate market expected to see growth
The Southwest Florida market is strong and expected to get stronger.
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Published on 6/30/2022
Commercial real estate developer Chad Henderson of Pensacola-based Catalyst CRE, sees ‘immense growth', capital investment dollars
Chad Henderson is founder and CEO of Pensacola-based Catalyst CRE, a commercial developer of health care properties throughout the U.S.
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Published on 6/30/2022
