Winners, Losers and, of course, Real Estate

Loser: HMA
The giant, Naples-based hospital operator found itself facing a class-action lawsuit not long after second-quarter profits fell 85 percent from the previous year. HMA officials in part blamed bad-debt expense for the inability to collect from uninsured patients. Furthermore, the company lowered its profit outlook for the year, spurring stockholders to unload shares, which dropped to a low of $7.94 a share the day of the report from a high of $10.96 the day before. Analysts began downgrading the stock. And then came the lawyers. One class-action suit claimed "HMA engaged in a scheme to manipulate Health Management’s policies in order to create the impression that the company had its ‘bad debt expenses’ under control in order to borrow additional money."

Loser: Whitney Information Network
The Cape Coral company, which teaches courses for would-be real estate and financial market investors, came under investigation by the Securities and Exchange Commission and Florida and Kansas attorneys general, who were looking into allegations of deceptive advertising. Subsequently, Whitney became the subject of class-action lawsuits. Furthermore, some board members called for the ouster of company founder and CEO Russ Whitney.

Loser: Chico’s FAS Inc.
The Fort Myers women’s apparel leader also hit some turbulence this year. Second-quarter profits dropped 28 percent and same-store sales languished for a few months. Chico’s was among others in the women’s clothing niche experiencing sales challenges. One analyst downgraded the company’s stock. In October, the company appointed a new chief financial officer.

Loser: Radiation Therapy Services
The operator of radiation therapy centers acquired treatment centers in North Carolina and northern California. After the company lowered its full-year earnings guidance, share prices fell 18 percent and the stock was downgraded before the Fort Myers-based company announced in October it was being acquired by Vestar Capital Partners, a private equity firm based in New York.

Loser: Miva
Shares sank more than $1 a share, from $4.34, after the digital media company predicted that its third-quarter results would fall below its earlier outlook.

Loser: Source Interlink
The Bonita Springs magazine and entertainment distributor faced delisting by Nasdaq of its common stock because the company failed to provide timely notification that it wouldn’t hold its annual meeting on Jan. 31. The matter eventually was resolved, but later in the year, the company’s second-quarter profits dropped 46 percent. On the upside, the company entered various distribution and acquisition agreements, including the acquisition of Primedia’s Enthusiast Division, which includes magazine titles Motor Trend and Soap Opera Digest.

Winner: Bank of Florida
Bank of Florida Corp. of Naples acquired Old Florida Bankshares Inc. and Old Florida Bank. The company also expanded in its Tampa Bay market.

Loser: NeoMedia Technologies
The company, which specializes in camera-initiated transactions for mobile devices, announced its plan to relocate the corporate headquarters from Fort Myers. Atlanta and Washington, D.C., were among the prospects. The company also made some major changes in its executive lineup, including the resignation of founder and chairman Charles W. Fritz, and the addition of a new chief executive, operating and financial officers.

Transportation
Winner: I-75
he highly anticipated I-75 Road Expansion Project, IROX for short, is under way. The traffic-choked roadway will receive an extra lane in each direction between Golden Gate Parkway in Naples and Colonial Boulevard in Fort Myers. The $430 million project is scheduled to be finished by the end of 2010.

Winner: The Estero Parkway connection
Earthmovers are blazing on the flyover that will link the roadway from its current dead end at Three Oaks Parkway to Ben Hill Griffin Parkway on the other side of I-75. The $35.1 million, four-lane project is expected to wrap up in early 2009.

Win or lose, no drawbridge: Sanibel Causeway
The streamlined, high-arching structure opened amid pomp and circumstance (a 5K race, ribbon-cutting and other ceremonial activities), overshadowing the acrimonious history of this 2.7-mile, $137 million project. Some islanders had balked at a fixed-span structure, favoring a drawbridge design, which led to a lawsuit, delays and a toll increase from $3 to $6.

Winner: Southwest Florida International Airport
The monthly passenger counts sounded like a broken record: Records continued to break. The airport is on track to surpass the 7.6 million people who flew in and out of the terminal in 2006. Various airlines added flights to Düsseldorf and Munich, Germany, as well as Denver, Toronto and other destinations.

Winner: Charlotte County Airport
Passenger service was scheduled to begin in December with Skybus Airlines offering commercial flights from the airport for the first time in more than 20 years. The low-cost carrier connects with its hub in Columbus, Ohio.

Loser, then winner: Naples Municipal Airport
Delta Air Lines left the airport by eliminating flights to and from Atlanta; the jets it used were to be discontinued and replaced by craft too large to land on the Naples runway. Not long after Delta’s departure, VPJ (Vintage Props & Jets) of New Smyrna Beach announced it would initiate nine weekly, roundtrip flights at the Naples airport.

Loser: Coconut Road
The controversial proposal to study an interchange at I-75 and Coconut Road failed by a slim 6-5 vote of the Metropolitan Planning Organization. It raised serious gripes about potential traffic congestion, effects on environmentally sensitive lands and how $10 million for the study would have been diverted from the I-75 widening budget.

Winners: Flyovers
Call them the bridges more traveled. Projects that spanned problem intersections wrapped up, helping to ease gridlock at Golden Gate Parkway and Airport-Pulling Road in Naples, Summerlin Road and Gladiolus Drive in Fort Myers, and San Carlos Boulevard and Summerlin Road in Fort Myers.

Higher Education
Winner: Ave Maria University
The Catholic school that Domino’s Pizza mogul Tom Monaghan founded moved into its new campus in eastern Collier County amid much jubilation, but not all was joyous among the university’s brethren up North. Faculty, students and alumni of the Ave Maria School of Law in Ann Arbor, Mich., were fuming at the decision to relocate the school to Southwest Florida, which was announced earlier in the year.

Winner: Hodges University
International College became Hodges University. A $12 million gift from longtime Naples residents Earl and Thelma Hodges cinched the name change.

Big wins, big losses: Florida Gulf Coast University
Florida’s newest state university turned 10 in a year marked by a mix of expansion, budget constraints and scandal.

The school broke ground on two new buildings: Herbert J. Sugden Hall, which will house the Resort and Hospitality Management program, and the Lutgert Hall building for the Lutgert College of Business, named for the FGCU benefactors Raymond and Beverly Lutgert of Naples.

The state cut funding to universities by 4 percent, forcing FGCU to tighten its belt. That included plans for a hiring freeze and led to the discontinuation of the popular University Lecture Series, which in years past booked such heavyweights as Mikhail Gor-bachev and Co-lin Powell.

A somber mood enveloped the campus and community when university president Bill Merwin, a driving force in the school’s growth, resigned after admitting to an extramarital affair with a faculty member.

After an extensive search for his replacement and the last-minute withdrawal of one of the three finalists, Wilson Bradshaw was tapped as his replacement. He left his position as president of Metropolitan State University in St. Paul, Minn., to take up his new post in November.(See story p. 28.)

Winner: Edison College
More students will be able to earn a bachelor’s degree without transferring from this community college. The Florida Board of Education OK’d two baccalaureate programs—one in math and the other in biology. Edison’s only other four-year degree is in public safety management.

Healthcare
Healthcare services expanded as a handful of new facilities either went online or underwent construction.

Winner: Acute care
Physicians Regional Medical Center-Collier Boulevard, an acute-care hospital, opened in February, adding 100 beds to serve eastern Naples and southern Collier County. The HMA facility features private rooms, 24-hour emergency care, a women’s center and other services.

Winner: Psychiatric services
Lee Memorial Hospital admitted a mental healthcare provider into service. Reliant Healthcare LLC fills a gap that has existed since 2000 when Charter Glade hospital closed, leaving the area without a psychiatric hospital.

Winner: Lehigh Acres expansion
A 15,000-square-foot addition at Lehigh Regional Medical Center’s emergency room was completed earlier in the year.

Healthcare Forecast
The region’s healthcare industry will face its share of challenges in the coming year, but the sector should remain in growth mode, providing opportunities for those who seek them.
Healthcare providers can expect to treat rising numbers of uninsured and underinsured patients who can’t pay—many of whom lost their jobs in the struggling construction and housing markets, says John Wiest, chief financial officer for Lee Memorial Health System. "It’s going to make us try to tighten our belts and enhance our productivity," he says.

Another revenue-crippling trend: anticipated cuts in Medicare reimbursement that should go to cover increased Medicaid services for aging baby boomers, who continue their migration to Southwest Florida. "[The reimbursements] are not keeping pace with medical salaries and [the need for] supplies," Wiest says.