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Daugherty sentenced
U.S. District Court Judge John Steele sentenced Thomas Daugherty, 54, a well-known commercial real estate broker in Fort Myers, to two years in prison for tax evasion.
Steele also ordered Daugherty to pay the Internal Revenue Service more than $2 million in restitution.
In January, Daugherty pleaded guilty to evading about $1.6 million in federal income taxes between 1998 and 2005. He converted money he earned into cashiers' checks and put real property in others' names to evade taxes. He cashed the checks whenever he needed to pay for living expenses, according to U.S. Attorney Robert O'Neill.
NAFH buys Green shares
North American Financial Holdings, the Charlotte, N.C., investment fund that acquired Naples-based TIB Financial last year, recently bought a 90% stake in Tennessee-based Green Bankshares for $217 million.
TIB Financial is the parent of TIB Bank, the fourth-largest bank on the Gulf Coast with $1.7 billion in assets.
Green Bankshares is the parent of Green Bank, a 65-branch network with $2.4 billion in assets based in Greeneville, Tenn.
NAFH, led by former Bank of America Vice Chairman Gene Taylor, now owns bank stakes in the Southeast with a total of $7.3 billion in assets and 149 branches from Florida to the Carolinas.
Marazzi sells dealership
Auto dealer John Marazzi sold his interest in the Audi Jaguar Land Rover Fort Myers dealership back to his business partner, West Palm Beach-based auto dealer Terry Taylor.
Terms of the deal were not disclosed and Marazzi was not available for further details. In a statement, Marazzi says the Audi dealership's sales rose 12% year-over-year since he acquired the business with Taylor more than a year ago.
Marazzi continues to be managing partner of another car dealership he owns with Taylor, John Marazzi Nissan in Naples.
Commercial deals rising
Commercial real estate transactions in the Tampa market are on the rise, even though the value of those deals isn't keeping quite the same pace, according to new figures released by Real Capital Analytics.
Transactions valued at $10 million or more over the prior year totaled 67 through the first quarter, nearly double the volume of the previous year, while values totaled $1.1 billion, up 27% over the year. Apartment deals made up the bulk, with 22 sales totaling $542 million.
Among other commercial sectors, 17 office deals in the past year totaled $232 million, 11 hotel transactions totaled $194 million and 14 industrial sales were valued at $71 million.
Wheat to Panama City
John Wheat, former COO and interim director at Tampa International Airport, was hired as executive director of the Northwest Florida Beaches International Airport in Panama City.
Wheat, 60, will be responsible for leading operational and strategic efforts at the Panhandle airport, which opened a year ago as part of the major West Bay redevelopment by Jacksonville-based St. Joe Co. He was previously finance director for Salt Lake City International Airport.
Wheat briefly served as TIA interim director and left in January when new CEO Joe Lopano took over.
Flood could cost $27B
A storm surge from a hurricane could cause $27 billion worth of flood damage to residential real estate in Tampa, based on an estimate by CoreLogic, a Chicago-based research firm.
CoreLogic considers Tampa one of the top five urban areas nationwide in terms of potential storm surge damage. More than 278,000 local properties are considered to be at risk.
Tampa's damage estimate is higher than that for Houston at $20 billion, but lower than New Orleans at $39 billion, while New York's Long Island ranks highest at $99 billion. The figures represent the total value of all properties within an area.
School adds program
The movement to combine higher education and Hollywood continues to grow in the Sarasota-Manatee region.
The latest announcement: USF Sarasota-Manatee and Sanborn Studios formed a joint venture that offers a master's degree in business with a concentration in TV and film production. The program will teach skills students need to develop, market and finance TV shows and movies, USF officials say. Sanborn Studios is a Lakewood Ranch-based TV production facility founded by local entrepreneur Ken Sanborn.
Ringling College of Art and Design in Sarasota also recently added filmmaking production classes and programs to its curriculum.
Agency interviews finalists
The Bradenton Downtown Development Authority, without a permanent executive director since Mike Kennedy left in January, has begun to interview finalists for the position. It hopes to have a replacement by June.
The DDA narrowed the pool of about 60 applicants down to five finalists. Candidates include Manatee County Project Manager David Gustafson, who previously ran land planning for University Park-based Benderson Development; Rick Smith, coordinator of community redevelopment areas for St. Petersburg and a former urban planning official in Gainesville; Pasco County Senior Planner Alberto Vargas, who previously ran the Community Redevelopment Agency in Winter Park; onetime Casselberry community development director Gerald Paradise; and Jayne Kocher, a Realtor and past DDA board member.
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