The private space race is spurring a luxury hotel land grab for Florida oceanfront property

Private space investment is reshaping Florida's Space Coast property market as hotel groups position for rising demand from launch-related business travel. Driftwood Capital is preparing to open the $420 million Westin Cocoa Beach Resort & Spa next year, adding to a portfolio that the firm says will dominate much of the area's beachfront supply. More from CNBC and Trader's Union.

Florida Trend Exclusive
Branded protection

As South Florida's wealth influx continues, developers believe branded condominiums sometimes can draw more buyers and higher returns. There's only one place in the world with more branded condominiums, British brokerage house Savills reported last year, and that's Dubai. [Source: Florida Trend]

Property tax plan could be unconstitutional. Here’s why

Gov. Ron DeSantis’ property tax proposal has a provision meant to entice Floridians at the ballot box in November: New residents will have to wait five years to benefit from it. It’s not a new idea. But it could be an unconstitutional one. More than 40 years ago, the Florida Supreme Court struck down a nearly identical five-year waiting period for new residents to benefit from a property tax break. It cited U.S. Supreme Court decisions that have consistently ruled that states can’t discriminate against their residents by limiting which ones can receive state benefits. [Source: Tampa Bay Times]

Florida's labor market adds education jobs. They're not in public schools

The latest labor data shows a bump in Florida's education sector. Over the past year, the state added 36,400 jobs, up 2.3%, in the education and health services industry, according to data released in May by the Bureau of Labor Statistics. But the growth is not in public schools. The data shows that while the state added 1,400 jobs, an increase of 1.6%, in private schools, local government education services lost 5,600 jobs, a decrease of 1.6%. [Source: WUSF]

Tropical Storm Arthur degenerates, but still a Gulf Coast flood threat, hurricane center says

The National Hurricane Center on Wednesday said Tropical Storm Arthur formed off the Texas coast making it the Atlantic season’s first named storm, but it had fallen apart by Wednesday night into a post-tropical cyclone. As of the NHC’s 11 p.m. advisory, the center of the remnant low of what had been Arthur was located about 35 miles north-northeast of Galveston, Texas and 85 miles west-southwest of Lake Charles, Louisiana with maximum sustained winds of 35 mph moving northeast at 9 mph. [Source: Orlando Sentinel]

ALSO AROUND FLORIDA:

› Ross wants ex-IBM site in Boca to make it a 'micro city' [Palm Beach Post]
Stephen Ross, the West Palm Beach real estate titan, is expanding his real estate empire into Boca Raton. Ross is close to inking a deal to buy the Boca Raton Innovation Campus, the former IBM complex known as BRiC, for an undisclosed price, a Ross official confirmed.

› JEA leadership earns mixed reviews in companywide survey [Jacksonville Daily Record]
JEA leadership, including embattled CEO Vickie Cavey, drew mixed reviews from JEA employees in a recently conducted survey, the results of which were provided to the Daily Record by JEA. While the city-owned utility scored well compared with similarly-sized utilities in some categories, employee approval of those at JEA’s helm was lower compared with those entities.

› Former Tampa Bay Bucs player launches aviation company [St. Pete Catalyst]
Jim Pyne has strong ties to the local region. He once played and coached for the Tampa Bay Buccaneers. After spending years with the National Football League, Pyne found a fitting new career in air transportation. He learned about the benefits of private travel firsthand as an athlete. In 2024, Pyne began to develop Tampa-based company PLS Aviation. An official launch announcement was made Tuesday.

› Tourism economy remains healthy in the Keys [Keys News]
Key West and the Florida Keys continue to be a premiere destination for travelers, according to the latest tourism data from the Key West Chamber of Commerce and Visit Florida Keys & Key West. The latest available data that includes up to April, reveals both areas of improvements and decline, but maintains a healthy tourism economy for the Florida Keys so far this year. Data gathered from various sources include hotel occupancies, cruise ship passenger counts and port calls, ferry passenger counts, airport passenger arrivals, bed tax data, labor force data and sales tax data.

More stories ...

› Sarasota trust company leader, former FDIC chair announces retirement [Business Observer]
Longtime banking executive and national public official Bill Isaac, whose career ran from chairman of the Federal Deposit Insurance Corp. during the 1980s to helping grow a Sarasota trust firm in the 2020s, has announced his retirement. Issac, who has lived in Sarasota’s Lido Shores neighborhood for some 20 years, had most recently been chairman of Sarasota Private Trust and Cleveland Private Trust.

› Downtown DeLand businesses struggle as closures, slow summer take toll [Click Orlando]
Downtown DeLand is sounding the alarm. Several high-profile shops and restaurants have closed in recent weeks, and business owners say they are struggling to keep their doors open. About a half-dozen businesses have shuttered in the last month. Some shop owners estimate foot traffic is down nearly 50% this summer compared to previous years. Taylor Bass, a local business owner, says a combination of seasonal slowdown and mounting costs could be to blame.

› Court ends fight to build Miami Wilds water theme park [Miami Today]
A long-sought waterpark plan beside Zoo Miami that had struggled for years with the Miami tiger beetle, Bartram’s scrub hairstreak, Carter’s small-flowered flax and threats to Miami-Dade County’s pine rocklands has finally succumbed not to wildlife but to the courts. County officials last week announced a victory after the Eleventh Judicial District circuit court granted the county’s motion for summary judgment.

› Despite tourism dip, World Ballet Competition cheers move to Steinmetz Hall [Orlando Sentinel]
Last week, poets descended on Orlando for the Southern Fried Poetry Slam. This week, the City Beautiful will see an influx of dancers from around the world, who’ll be competing and performing in a theater that has earned world-class recognition. The World Ballet Competition, which began Tuesday, has moved from its longtime home at the Orange County Convention Center to Steinmetz Hall at the Dr. Phillips Center for the Performing Arts.

Northwest Florida districts step up recruiting as public school enrollment declines