Bank spends nearly $60 million on facility for employees in Tampa

Naples/Fort Myers

Build, rent, repeat: Naples real estate private equity firm Halstatt Real Estate Partners is starting construction on its new build-to-rent community in Fort Myers, dubbed Argos by Soltura. The new community, being developed along with Soltura Development Group, will be within five miles of the firm’s two others — Odyssey by Soltura and Altair by Soltura — for a total of 429 units. Argos by Soltura will be made up of 140 one-, two-, and three-bedroom units in a two-story cottage format. Each home will have a private first floor entryway and private fenced-in backyards with patios, giving each unit an additional 533 square feet.

Up in smoke: Some Collier County property owners won’t be cashing in on one of the hottest retail trends in the country. Collier County commissioners on Feb. 14 unanimously voted to ban medical marijuana dispensaries in unincorporated parts of county. The ordinance was passed, according to the agenda item introducing the ordinance, “to protect the health, safety and welfare of citizens.” Marijuana is only allowed to be sold for medical purposes in Florida and dispensaries have been booming along the Gulf Coast, with companies taking thousands of often hard-to-lease square feet and several chains opening multiple locations. MJBIZ Factbook, an industry publication, reports retail sales of cannabis in the U.S. passed $33 billion in 2022 and will exceed $52 billion by the end of 2026. The publication expects 2022 medical marijuana sales in Florida to fall somewhere between $1.3 billion and $1.5 billion.