Hindsight 2005

Hurricanes were still on the brain in Southwest Florida in 2005, as recovery efforts from Hurricane Charley continued, hurricanes Katrina and Rita affected fuel prices and construction costs, and then Wilma took aim at southern Florida. But sharing headlines were the continuing population surge and its effects on the real estate market-both good and bad. Investors and homeowners rejoiced as sales prices leaped skyward-to more than half a million dollars in Collier County. But employers trying to recruit workers to the area and those who don't have a few hundred thousand to drop on a home were in a jam.

Prices went only higher as building material, fuel and labor costs headed upward in the construction industry-a trend that accel-erated when Katrina crashed ashore on the upper Gulf Coast.

Here's how these and other stories unfolded in 2005.

AFTER THE STORMS

Southwest Floridians were feeling fortunate by October that the year's hurricanes missed the region, but then came Wilma. While Everglades City, Marco Island and Immokalee suffered most, the majority of the region escaped the kind of devastation that Charlotte suffered in 2004 from Charley. Businesses were temporarily shut down in some areas. Agriculture took a major hit for the second year in a row from the winds as well as the citrus canker, which was expected to be spread by the wind and rain. In the tourism arena, although direct impacts were relatively small, officials feared the cumulative effects of the busy storm season and water quality issues would deter visitors, and they planned to ramp up an advertising campaign.

The scars that Charley left also lingered. More than a year after it ravaged Punta Gorda and Port Charlotte, nearly 2,500 Charlotte businesses had reopened and slightly more than 100 more expected to do so by the end of the year, but another 116 had permanently closed. A major boost: Publix's decision to locate its new distribution center at an industrial park adjacent to the Charlotte County Airport. It's expected to employ 300 to 500 people.

Not even Hurricane Charley could slow growth, however. The median single-family sales price in the Punta Gorda Metropolitan Statistical Area (MSA) leapt from $176,800 in July 2004, before the August hurricane, to $236,600 in July 2005.

Citizens, city officials and businesspeople joined forces under the Team Punta Gorda banner-a rebuilding coalition that earned accolades from Gov. Jeb Bush-and kick-started rebuilding efforts by hiring an urban planner and aggressively addressing the challenges before them.

Hotels, restaurants and other businesses that rely on tourism, Southwest Florida's economic lifeblood, felt the lingering impacts of the hurricanes, although not as sharply as some had feared-partly because of the influx of emergency and construction workers filling what hotel rooms were left. On Sanibel and Captiva, resorts were slow to reopen, missing some or all of the critical January-April business. The story was similar on Pine Island and Useppa, where the famed Collier Inn finally reopened a year after the hurricane.

South Seas Resort, which is the largest hotel on Captiva, remained closed throughout the year as it not only repaired but remodeled. That affected businesses throughout the islands and the county, since the resort is both a significant employer and major attraction.

Already strained by the rate of new growth, construction resources were overloaded after hurricanes created an abundance of repair and remodel jobs. Shortages in aluminum, steel and concrete, which were a problem even before the storm, drove up the prices of materials and construction. Tradespeople and construction workers were also in high demand, increasing labor costs and causing widespread delays.

Good-bye: Naples City Councilman Clark Russell resigned after he was arrested in July on charges of grand theft of a diamond ring that belonged to his brother and selling it for a reported $10,600. He pleaded not guilty to the charges.

Hello: Chosen to fill Russell's term, which ends in February, was Planning Advisory Board chairman Gary Price (not to be confused with the city manager of Bonita Springs).

Good-bye: Kathy Prosser, five-year president of the Conservancy of Southwest Florida, resigned to join her new husband in Colorado.

Hello: Susan Blanchard, dean of FGCU's new School of Engineering. Blanchard comes with experience with a biomedical engineering program jointly offered by North Carolina State University and the University of North Carolina-Chapel Hill.

Good-bye: Longtime newsman Harry Horn lost his battle in August with Lou Gehrig's disease. As an anchorman, he worked at both NBC-2 and ABC-7.

Good-bye: After 25 years as co-anchor for WINK-TV, Jim McLaughlin stepped out of the spotlight. He's focusing on his wedding and special-event photography business.

Good-bye: David Ellis departed Naples and his position as executive director of the Collier Building Industry Association for a similar spot with the Greater Atlanta Homebuilders Association.

Hello: Scott Coulombe replaced David Ellis in July. He had held the executive director's position for Charlotte Builders and Contractors Association in Port Charlotte before spending the past seven years in the same position at the Home Builders Association of Greater New Orleans.

good-bye/hello: Al Hoffman Jr., retired chairman of the board and CEO of WCI Communities and a key Republican fund raiser with close ties to the Bush family, became ambassador to Portugal. Francis Rooney, chairman and CEO of Rooney Holdings Inc., an investment and holding company based in Naples, became ambassador to the Vatican.

Good-bye: female bank executives. After ushering Fifth Third Bank into Naples and 13 years as its much-publicized head here, Colleen Kvetko retired in May. She was president, chief executive officer and chairperson of Fifth Third Bank, Florida, until a merger with First National Bankshares of Florida, when First National's Kevin Hale stepped in as president.

About a week later, Adria Starkey announced her retirement as Gulf Coast regional president of Wachovia Bank.

AVIATION

First, they said it would open in January, and on Sept. 9, it finally happened: the new Midfield Terminal Complex opened at Southwest Florida International Airport and the old terminal closed its doors. The new terminal boasts 28 gates, compared with 17 in the old terminal-old, as in since 1983. In 1984, the airport handled 1,311,937 passengers. In March alone of 2005, it had 1,017,790 passengers.

At the beginning of October, discounter Southwest Airlines finally launched its long-awaited service from Southwest Florida.

Page Field received a grant of more than $4 million, which will go toward a new taxiway and the expansion of an existing taxiway-early steps toward building a second terminal at the general aviation airport.

In Collier County, Naples Municipal Airport won a five-year fight to ban older, noisier Stage 2 jets, clearing the way for $3.2 million in withheld federal grants to be restored to the airport.

Hurricane Charley destroyed Charlotte County Airport. Nearly 100 hangars were built in 2005, replacing those that were lost, and airport officials were still working to entice tenants back to the facility.

REAL ESTATE BOOM

The region continues to balloon with new residents. Cape Coral alone is growing at a rate of about 1,100 people per month, and this year it became the fifth-fastest-growing city of 100,000 people or more in the country.

Population growth is driving real estate prices and fueling the economy-and straining resources, from roads and affordable housing to public access to waterways and water quality.

Winners: property owners. By July, median sales prices for single-family homes spurted to $287,500 in the Cape Coral-Fort Myers MSA and $236,600 in the Punta Gorda MSA. By August, the median price in the Naples MSA was $500,800. In Lehigh Acres, the total value of appraised property shot up 90 percent over 2004.

Winners: Merry Coolidge and Bruce Babcock of John R. Wood Inc., who sold an estate on Gordon Drive for $24.8 million within a week of listing.

Losers: Anyone who isn't wealthy and had hoped to buy a home in Southwest Florida. And any employer who hoped to hire one of these newcomers.

Winners: Condominium buyers, who can choose from a growing inventory in Bonita Springs, Naples, Fort Myers Beach and a few other areas.

Losers: Those who live in the apartments or stay in the hotels that are increasingly being converted to condominiums in those areas. Many renters can't afford to buy the condos they had been renting, nor can they easily find a comparable home they can afford.

Losers: Crime victims. Along with the rush for property came scams in Lee and Charlotte counties. Property owners from all over the world ended up with forged deeds, often in the names of deceased former owners.

RETAIL

Winners: shoppers.

Since Lee County passed the half-million population mark in 2004-that critical mass that piques the interest of major national retailers-a number of companies have announced plans to locate here, including Starbucks, which opened a new store in Fort Myers, and Nordstrom.

The chichi Waterside Shops in Naples is getting a makeover and expansion, opening the door for a new 80,000-square-foot Nordstrom to join Saks Fifth Avenue, which also is expanding. Joining them are a couple of new restaurants as well as high-end stores including Tiffany & Co., Louis Vuitton and Hermès.

Coastland Center expanded and is remodeling part of the mall and adding a new movie theater.

In Lee County, two new malls are rising in the Estero/Bonita Springs area. The Richard E. Jacobs Group Inc. is building Gulf Coast Town Center, which will feature Southwest Florida's first Bass Pro Shops, a cinema complex, Borders Books and Music and other retail anchors, more than 150 specialty shops and restaurants, and two hotels by Marriott, a Courtyard Inn and a Residence Inn.