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Coffee Talk (Sara/Mana edition)
Lined up for the theater
Everyone knew it would happen, but with the first building of the Promenade at Riverwalk condominium project under construction, real estate interest in downtown Bradenton is at a new high. One of the main areas attention is focused on is the current water-view home of the Manatee Players Riverfront Theatre, at 102 12th St. W.
According to Bill Theroux, executive director of the Bradenton Downtown Development Authority, the property, which is owned by the city and leased by the theater for about $10 a year, is in desperate need of repair and the theater has been trying to raise money for a major building remodel for about four years.
Unfortunately, the theater has been unable to find the capital to fund the $4.5 million project. Now talk has turned to a private owner buying the acre-and-half of land from the city and building a condominium tower that would incorporate a new facility for the Manatee Players.
"We know the building needs to be replaced, so what is the highest and best use?" Theroux asks. "How about a bigger, taller building with condominiums so people can see the marina and the riverview? The single biggest resource of the site is the view. I think they could probably get 25 units an acre or so."
Theroux says he has shown the facility to at least three interested parties, one of which has already shown a full-color rendering of a proposed new condominium on the site.
Sell community banks
Punk Ziegel & Co. analyst Richard X. Bove is out with his latest take on the economy.
Citing government data, Bove says Americans have made more money investing in real estate than stocks. For the year ended Sept. 30, that added $2.1 trillion to household wealth.
But sticker shock and rising mortgage rates are slowing home sales and Bove says the appearance of speculators signals the beginning of the end of the current round of rich real estate appreciation. Yet Bove downplays talk of a housing bubble that will be pricked by shelter pricing that outpaces personal income.
Yes, a recession is possible. With it, joblessness would cause more mortgage defaults by already overextended borrowers. But that's not going to happen next week.
"Any of these fears may be realized at some point but the current figures argue that this point is some time (years) off," Bove writes.
Bove is less sanguine about community banks, which have profited handsomely from mortgage lending during the current boom. Some have lowered their loan-loss reserves on the strength of local real estate markets, thereby boosting their bottom lines.
But Bove says the prudent banker builds loss provisions in good times, lest earnings slide faster when times turn bad.
Sell the stock of consumer-oriented banks, Bove tells his clients. That group is peaking. Plow the profits into the issues of larger banks that will benefit from growing demand for business loans, he says.
The 'McClash' Judicial Center?
A little food for thought on the whole battle over building heights.
Manatee County is the developer of what will likely be the tallest building in the entire city of Bradenton. While the new 268,000-square-foot Judicial Center is nine-stories, the center's roof actually reaches 176-feet high (each floor is about 16-feet high).
In the interest of fairness, it must be said that opponents of height in other areas, including Manatee County Commissioner Joe McClash, have stated that height is appropriate in the more urbanized areas of downtown, where it can encourage revitalization and reduce sprawl.
But what does a development like the Judicial Center say about Manatee County as a low-rise community? What would the Judicial Center look like under the 35-foot height limit certain commissioners would like to apply in other areas of the county?
Silence not golden
Gold Bank has hit the publicity jackpot, thanks to a customer and a primetime national television show. The bank's Tampa office announced March 8 that it is providing $10,000 to the children of two victims of a deadly shooting at a Pinellas County electronics store last November.
Gold Bank, a unit of Kansas-based Gold Banc Corporation Inc., got the idea from a customer, Lexington Homes Inc. The Tampa bay area homebuilder was selected by the producers of "Extreme Makeover: Home Edition" to construct a new house for the family of James Dolan, a Radio Shack employee who survived the shooting but is now blind. The new abode in Seminole will let Dolan get around easier at home.
Gold Bank rushed out a news release to inform the public that it will pay additional cash to the children of Dolan and the late Ken Powell, who was shopping when the shooting started. Gold Bank Tampa President Charles Britton says his employer will match the first $5,000 that other donors kick in.
Gold Bank executives, in their haste to get the word out, thought the Community Foundation of Tampa Bay would handle the incoming donations. But, contrary to what was in the news release, the bank will accept the donations directly, without the foundation's involvement.
"Really, the thought is to get a lot of $5 and $10 and $20 donations," says Britton.
Those who want to give to what Britton calls the Heart of Gold Fund may inquire at any Gold Bank office.
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