- December 5, 2025
-
-
Loading
Loading
Construction officially began Dec. 5 on a nearly 110,000-square-foot warehouse project in Charlotte County being developed by a local entrepreneur and former journalist once jailed in Gaza by the Israeli government.
The product of the unusual combination of a Middle East reporter-turned-Florida-businessman is Duffie North, which is being built in the Punta Gorda Airport Commerce Center. Construction on the $15 million industrial project in one of the region's most underdeveloped counties has been underway for a couple of weeks, but Friday’s event was a ceremonial groundbreaking that brought out local officials and the team behind it.
Taher Shriteh, a 65-year-old entrepreneur who immigrated to the States from Gaza in 2000, is behind Duffie North. In addition to his background in the Middle East, Shriteh owns the 19-store Vape King retail chain in Southwest Florida. (Store No.20 is expected to open in January in Port Charlotte.)
Shriteh is also a local real estate investor.
When complete, Duffie North, according to a statement, will include two 54,000-square-foot buildings that will provide modern warehouse and flex space. Shriteh says the complex is expected to generate more than 200 jobs upon full occupancy.
Both buildings will be grey shell facilities that will allow tenants to customize spaces, according to the statement. And there will be a centralized truck court. The project does not have any announced tenants.
Speaking at the groundbreaking Dec. 5, Charlotte Commission Chairman Joseph Tiseo says the project aligns with the county’s “vision for balanced growth.”
“Projects like this ensure we have the facilities, infrastructure and opportunities needed to support the businesses and families who call this community home,” he says.
While Charlotte County officials praise the future economic development opportunities from the project, Shriteh's past, from a journalist working in Gaza to becoming the self-proclaimed Vape King, is unique.
Shriteh, who is Palestinian, grew up in Gaza and graduated from Cairo University in 1983 with a bachelor's in agricultural mechanization.
He was accepted the following year into a master’s program in mechanical engineering at the University of Wisconsin–Milwaukee, but, according to his website, returned to Gaza in 1986 due to financial constraints.
While in the states, Shriteh says in an interview with the Business Observer, he visited Charlotte County — where he would settle years later.
Back in Gaza, the 26-year-old Shriteh would go visit his fiancé — now wife — Zahra in Jerusalem, where she lived. It was during one of those visits where he met Paul Taylor, a correspondent for Reuters, the international news agency.
At the time, Shriteh says, there was no original reporting coming out of Gaza and the news agency was looking for someone who could help fill that void in coverage
After working with Taylor as a translator and helping on some stories, he says he was offered an opportunity to work as a freelance reporter, a stringer in journalism terms.
He remembers being taught how to report and write like a journalist. The key was objectivity, he says, avoiding the use of terms like martyr when referring to people who were killed.
Shriteh’s work for Reuters started around the time of the First Intifada, the Palestinian uprising, in 1987.
He would eventually go on to report out of Gaza for the New York Times, CBS News, the BBC and others. His work, especially because of Reuters, was read around the world and before long he was known as an authority on Gaza.
Because of his work, Shriteh claims he was target of the Israeli military, often harassed and jailed.
The highest profile incident happened Jan. 28, 1991. when he was arrested on suspicion, according to a Reuters story, that “he aided a banned Islamic-fundamentalist group.”
That Jan. 29 story quotes an Israeli army statement saying “Taher Shriteh was arrested for questioning on suspicion that he used his office as journalist to assist the Hamas organization in the distribution of leaflets and statements that Hamas activists wrote and wanted to distribute.”
Shriteh, in the Business Observer interview, says it all stemmed from the use of a friend’s fax machine, then an emerging technology.
The friend was a lawyer named Yusef. Shriteh says Yusef lent him the machine, which he then used to fax Reuters leaflets he’d obtained from his reporting. Those leaflets were how the “Palestinian organizations” communicated their messages at the time, he says.
Shriteh would remain in custody until released on bail March 7, 1991. He was eventually indicted though the charges were dropped, according the Committee to Protect Journalists.
And according to a statement from Shriteh’s spokesperson, Shriteh has no connection to any extremist organizations; has never sent funds overseas to finance unlawful activity; and has never been a member of, supported, or had any association with Hamas in any capacity.
Shriteh remained in Gaza for nine more years, facing, he says, further arrests and a travel ban before life became so unbearable he needed to flee.
He eventually moved to the United States in 2000 and settled in Florida.
Like most immigrants, Shriteh came to the U.S. in search of opportunity, a better life for him, Zarah and his four children.
He found his way back to Charlotte County, bought a small convenience store and over the years became a successful businessman, first selling the store and opening the chain of smoke shops.
But something had happened during those years following the 1991 arrest in Gaza: Shriteh became an entrepreneur.
Over the years as a journalist, he started a service to help foreign reporters work and maneuver around Gaza. And it was the selling of a building he owned for $120,000 that funded his move to the United States. “When I started my life here, I didn’t start from scratch.”
Kay Tracy, the director of Charlotte County Economic Development, says in an email exchange with the Business Observer that Shriteh is someone who invests in the community, supports local business activity and “leads with a calm confidence that younger entrepreneurs can learn from.”
When asked about whether there may be resistance from some in the community because of Shriteh’s background in Gaza and the 1991 accusations, Tracy writes that she is “not familiar with concerns from the past.” She says he is a committed resident and “a business partner who has invested in our community for years.”
“He’s lived through a lot," Tracy says, "and it shows in the best ways: resilience, empathy and an ability to navigate challenges without losing sight of the bigger picture.”
Work on Duffie North is expected to be completed in the middle of next year.
