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Hotel tax for Rays?
Pinellas County commissioners are considering using part of the current 5% lodging tax to fund a new baseball stadium for the Tampa Bay Rays. The tax already services debt on Tropicana Field in St. Petersburg, where the Rays now play.
An estimated $70 million could be raised from a penny of the tax charged to guests of Pinellas hotels.
That portion of the tax could be extended once the stadium debt is paid off in 2015.
The Rays are under a lease agreement to play at the Trop until 2027. Discussion of the need for a replacement stadium has been rampant on both sides of Tampa Bay this past season.
Progress Bank fails
Tampa-based Progress Bank of Florida became the state's 27th bank failure this year. Both branches of the $111 million bank, on Sheldon Road and North Dale Mabry Highway, were purchased by Bay Cities Bank under a 75% loss sharing agreement with the Federal Deposit Insurance Corp.
Progress Bank, formerly Bay Financial Savings Bank, was warned earlier this year by state banking regulators that it was undercapitalized. The FDIC estimated a $25 million loss to its Deposit Insurance Fund resulting from the bank closing.
Bay Cities, also based in Tampa, was chartered in 1999 and has six other locations in the Tampa Bay area. It now has nearly $634 million in assets, including those from Progress Bank.
TIA ranks third
Tampa International Airport was ranked as the nation's third-best airport in the latest annual business traveler survey by Conde Nast Traveler magazine. Nearly 26,000 readers participated in this year's poll.
The local airport also received top rankings for comfort and design, as well as location and access. The View at CK's Restaurant was also highlighted as a favorite airport dining spot.
Portland International Airport and Ronald Reagan Washington National Airport were ranked ahead of TIA, while Orlando International Airport and San Diego International Airport rounded out the top five.
Distressed sales fall
Sales of distressed homes in the Fort Myers area fell in September, boosting the area's median sales price.
The median home price in the Fort Myers area in September was $86,000, a 21% increase over August, according to the Realtor Association of Greater Fort Myers and the Beach.
Sales of distressed properties in foreclosure or short sales represented 62% of all home sales in Fort Myers in September. That's a drop of 6.2 percentage points from the prior month.
The association warned that future price reports would likely be skewed by the recent bank moratoria on foreclosures.
Builder plans homes
A Fort Myers-based company plans to build 64 coach homes in the Gateway area of the city one mile from the Boston Red Sox spring training stadium that's under construction.
Santa Luz Operating Ventures plans to build the attached homes in 16 buildings on 8.4 acres it bought for $2.4 million in the Gateway community. The homes will cost from $170,000 to about $200,000.
A previous developer had acquired the land in 2003 but abandoned the project when the real estate downturn took hold.
New interchange planned
Collier County is developing a plan to create a new interchange on Interstate 75 at Everglades Boulevard.
The new interchange would provide another gateway to the agricultural lands of the eastern part of the county and the Golden Gate residential neighborhoods. It would be located between the existing interchanges at Collier Boulevard and State Road 29.
In response to demands from environmentalists, the Florida Department of Transportation agreed to perform additional evaluations of the project in light of its impact on protected wildlife.
The results of the study could stop the project, which has already received $1 million in federal grants.
Financier sentenced
Arthur G. Nadel, the Sarasota man responsible for a Ponzi scheme that did $162 million in damage to hundreds of investors, was sentenced to 14 years in prison for his actions.
The sentence issued by U.S. District Court Judge John Koeltl is slightly above the halfway point of Nadel's defense attorneys' request of five years and prosecutors' demands for a 24-year sentence. Koeltl also recommended Nadel, 77, be sent to Butner Federal Medical Facility in North Carolina, where he would join fellow convicted financial swindler Bernie Madoff as a prisoner. Nadel pleaded guilty earlier this year to 15 counts of mail, wire and securities fraud in federal court.
Bank increases capital
Lakewood Ranch-based Community Bank of Manatee earned $105,000 in net income in the third quarter, a result that represented the bank's second consecutive profitable quarter.
The bank also recently received an additional $7 million in capital, which it will use to satisfy “high levels of local loan demand,” according to a release. That new capital gives the bank a Tier 1 leverage ratio of 11.6%, and a total risk-based capital ratio of 16.2%.
Deposit activity is up as well. President Katie Pemble says Community attracted “hundreds of new accounts” in the recently concluded quarter. The bank manages roughly $250 million in assets.
Staples announces expansion
National office supply chain Staples plans to open a store in downtown Sarasota late next year.
The store, designated for a vacant lot at Fruitville Road and Links Avenue, takes the place of what was originally going to be a luxury condo complex spread over two 16-story towers. That project, however, was a casualty of the real estate market collapse.
The Staples store, developed by Sarasota-based Ruben-Holland, is expected to be a little less than 18,000 square feet. Construction for the $3 million project could begin early next year.
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