Cementing the recovery

Condo cranes could soon make their reappearance on the Southwest Florida skyline.

That's a good sign the real estate market is recovering, says Gay Rebel Thompson, president of Cement Industries in Fort Myers. Thompson supplies cement to construction companies for large-scale projects like condos, so her company's performance is a good gauge of the local economy.

But Thompson isn't proclaiming a full-on recovery yet. “I don't know that this is sustained,” she says. “It's up and down.”