Florida Council of 100 and partners launch statewide tech expansion to reshape Florida’s economy

Florida is no longer waiting for the next economic boom to arrive. This week, The Florida Council of 100, a private, nonpartisan organization of influential business leaders, announced an expansion of its Ambition Accelerated platform. The move signals a strategic shift in how the Sunshine State competes for the next generation of high-growth companies. By launching new accelerator tracks focused on healthcare and resilience, the Council and its partners aim to move beyond organic growth toward a model of “intentional” economic development. More from Refresh Miami and Florida Politics.

Tech group says lawmakers should not pass AI bill of rights

A technology trade group is speaking out against Florida’s proposed artificial intelligence bill of rights as lawmakers prepare to deliberate the legislation during a Special Session starting this week. The Computer and Communications Industry Association (CCIA) is warning that states passing their own laws will create a regulatory nightmare for developers and companies. The AI bill of rights calls for sweeping changes meant to protect consumers and children that include beefing up parental controls, requiring AI platforms to regularly disclose that the technology is AI, and more. [Source: Florida Politics]

Florida tightens animal import rules

As the threat of New World screwworm edges closer to the United States, state officials are ramping up biosecurity measures, and the ripple effects are already being felt across the livestock industry. Last week, Florida Agriculture Commissioner Wilton Simpson announced an emergency rule placing temporary restrictions on the importation of animals from certain South Texas counties after confirmed detections of the pest in Mexico within 60 miles of the U.S. border. [Source: Ag Daily]

Hurricanes devastated Florida’s East Coast – then seagrass made an unexpected comeback

Florida’s Indian River Lagoon has been an ecosystem in decline going back to 2011, when harmful algal blooms led to a severe decline in seagrass, the foundational component of shallow coastal ecosystems. In the fall of 2022, hurricanes Ian and Nicole struck Florida’s east coast within six weeks of one another, bringing intense rainfall, storm surges and coastal erosion. In the immediate aftermath, seagrass declined even further. But a few months later, in the spring of 2023, seagrass began to return. Satellite imagery revealed rapid and widespread regrowth. [Source: The Invading Sea]

Real Brokerage is acquiring RE/MAX in an $880 million real estate mega-merger

A Miami company is buying one of Denver's longtime publicly traded companies in a deal that will move the combined company's headquarters to Florida. The Real Brokerage Inc. (NASDAQ: REAX) and Re/Max Holdings, Inc. (NYSE: RMAX) have reached an agreement for Real to buy Re/Max in a cash-and-stock transaction, the companies said in a joint announcement Monday. Re/Max has been headquartered in Denver since the 1970s and is one of the largest franchisors of residential real estate brokerage services in the world. More from the Denver Business Journal and Quartz.

ALSO AROUND FLORIDA:

› The $5M+ push to develop a massive solar farm in Nassau is stalling [Jacksonville Business Journal]
If all went to plan, Miami-based NextNRG Inc.’s solar farm on 1,600 acres in Nassau County would’ve already been operational. But the sprawling site envisioned by the energy and microgrid developer still sits mostly on paper, and in the increasingly critical public eye. Site securement was announced in September but landing a power purchase agreement with JEA has proven more difficult than originally projected.

› Kennedy Space Center gets its hands on biggest Artemis III puzzle piece [Orlando Sentinel]
A massive piece of NASA’s Artemis project floated into the Space Coast on Monday with the arrival of the biggest portion of the Space Launch System rocket for next year’s Artemis III mission. The top four-fifths of what will be a 212-foot-tall core stage arrived to KSC’s Turn Basin after making a 900-mile trip laying horizontally on NASA’s Pegasus barge, which picked up the hardware from the Michoud Assembly Building in New Orleans last week. The arriving segments include the liquid hydrogen tank, liquid oxygen tank, intertank and forward skirt.

› Key Biscayne spent $8M to make a climate-resilient flood plan. Then they tossed it [Miami Herald]
On days with heavy rain in Key Biscayne, golf carts can stall out in the middle of the street, electric cars get stranded in rising water and residents wade through inches — sometimes feet — of flooding. The problem has grown increasingly worse and six years ago, the village council decided that it was time to come up with a plan to keep flooding from disrupting life on the island. But when presented with launching its long-awaited, climate-resilient solution, village leaders and residents rejected it — deciding the disruption of fixing the problem outweighed the cost of living with it.

› Tampa Bay nonprofit is bringing cheap groceries to more stops on the road [Tampa Bay Times]
At the Grocery on the Go, peanut butter costs $2. A box of corn flakes is $1.70. And everyone is welcome, regardless of income. The truck makes eight stops a week, from the Tampa Housing Authority to Hillsborough College in Plant City. On Thursdays, it parks beside Bay Pines National Cemetery, where veterans line up to get canned tuna, pasta and almond milk. You can’t buy Coke or cupcakes at the mobile grocery. All the offerings are approved under new SNAP guidelines, which went into effect last week.

More stories ...

› New bank set to launch in South Florida [South Florida Business Journal]
A new South Florida bank is set to launch with headquarters in Coral Gables and its first branch in Hialeah. Tidestone Bank filed a new bank application with the Federal Deposit Insurance Corp., backed by the Monasterio family — Fernando, Osvaldo and Ernesto Monasterio and Carlos Krutzfeldt, whose business interests span banking, agriculture, consumer goods real estate and media.

› Wholesale distributor puts nearly 400 Tampa employees on notice amid pending sale [Business Observer]
A national wholesale distribution company for wine and spirits has placed 393 Tampa employees on notice as it pursues an asset sale, according to state filings. While the firm says the potential layoffs will be permanent, some employees could receive employment offers from the new owner as a result of the sale.

› Phoenix Arts & Innovation District preparing to rise [Jacksonville Daily Record]
Propelled by a new partnership with a building contractor, developers of the Phoenix Arts & Innovation District in Jacksonville are preparing to launch their first new construction in the mixed-use project. An announcement is expected soon from Miami-based Future of Cities, the lead developer of the district in North Springfield, for groundbreaking of an affordable housing project in the district where plans call for a $500 million combination of renovated industrial buildings and new construction.

› Florida’s Sloth World won’t reopen following dozens of animal deaths [Tampa Bay Times]
A planned Orlando attraction called Sloth World will not open following dozens of animal deaths, conservation groups said, as its 13 remaining sloths were placed in the care of animal experts at Central Florida Zoo & Biological Gardens. The 13 sloths arrived Friday and are in quarantine at the Sanford zoo, said Richard E. Glover, CEO of the zoo. Sloth World owner Ben Agresta reached out to zoo officials early in the week, Glover said.

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