Winners, Losers and, of course, Real Estate

On the upside, the need for more services means medical facility expansion, which is taking place all across the region, as well as job openings for physicians, nurses and other health-related occupations. "[Healthcare] is going to be one of the fastest areas for growth," says Gary Jackson, director of the Regional Economic Research Institute and faculty member at Florida Gulf Coast University.

Media
Winner: Competition
trio of employees from The News-Press decided to go out on their own. On April 5, Pason Gaddis, Jeff Cull and Jim Dickerson launched Fort Myers Florida Weekly, a 15,000-circulation newspaper serving the greater Fort Myers area. Gaddis is the publisher, Cull is the executive editor and Dickerson is the creative director.

Retail
With the proliferation of new projects rising across the region, some wonder whether we’ve reached a retail glut. Many believe the activity will level out, but retail vacancy in Southwest Florida dipped to a slim 3 percent this year, according to Coldwell Banker Commercial.

Winner: Miromar Outlets
The ever-expanding shopping center in Estero opened Phase Five, welcoming Aéropostale, Lacoste, Eddie Bauer and other outlet stores. There are more to come. Workers broke ground on another 95,716 square feet of retail space—Phase Six, of course—scheduled to debut this spring. That will bring the store tally to more than 160 outlet stores and square footage to nearly 630,000.

Winners: Downtown Naples
The tony shopping districts in downtown Naples have been popular destinations for several years—and business officials want to keep it that way. So the Greater Naples Chamber of Commerce and the Downtown Naples Asso-ciation merged. The idea was to use chamber resources to bolster the association’s efforts. Later in the year, the association launched a marketing plan for the area that encompasses Fifth Avenue South, Third Street South, Bayfront, Crayton Cove, Tin City and the U.S. 41–10th Street area. The "Destination Downtown: The Heart of Naples" campaign targets visitors and residents.

Winner: Waterside Shops
Hermès, Anne Fontaine and Calypso are among the latest luxury brands to open at the upscale shopping center. Work started on Phase II, which will house a new Nordstrom department store, an expanded Saks Fifth Avenue and an 880-space parking structure.

Winner: High-end grocery
Naples welcomed natural and organic grocer Wild Oats Markets just a few months shy of the chain’s acquisition by Whole Foods Market, which will open a location in the mixed-use Mercato, now under development in north Naples. The 30,000-square-foot Wild Oats store is in the Promenade Shops at Naples Center.

Winner: Cape Coral
Not too long ago, Cape Coral residents complained that they had to cross the Caloosahatchee River to find national-retail shopping. This year, a SuperTarget store opened at Pine Island and Pondella roads in Lee County’s largest city—bringing its number of Targets to two. Other chains that arrived in the Cape include Belk, Kohl’s, Sports Authority and Starbucks, which is in the new SuperTarget.

Tourism
Loser: Sanibel beaches
The barrier island is renowned worldwide for its beaches. However, that fame took a negative twist after Sanibel closed off Bowman’s and Blind Pass beaches on Sanibel for several days because the water contained unhealthy amounts of enterococcus bacteria. It was the latest in a series of water-quality problems the island has battled in recent years, from algae-fouled waterways and beaches to recurring bouts of red tide. Citizen and environmental coalitions on the islands as well as Sanibel’s government have directed efforts to study and challenge potential pollution sources.

Coinciding with the closing of the beaches was a new promotional campaign launched by the Lee County Visitor & Convention Bureau, dubbed "The Beaches of Fort Myers & Sanibel is Florida’s unspoiled island sanctuary." Its message will go out through print, television, radio, outdoor and online advertising as well as a "Fun & Sun" motor coach tour that will hit 200 trade and consumer events across the country.

Winner: Charlotte County
Major League Baseball spring training is a tourist magnet and economic boon to host cities, and Charlotte County is happy to get back in on the action. Crews began a $27 million renovation at Charlotte Sports Park for the Tampa Bay Devil Rays, which will begin its pre-season activities there in 2009. Another facility that will attract visitors is the $19 million event center that’s being built in downtown Punta Gorda. When all those folks converge on Charlotte County, they’ll need places to stay. A Sleep Inn and Microtel Inn & Suites that recently opened add 165 rooms to the mix, and more are on the way with other planned hotels.

Tourism Forecast
The tourism industry pumps more than $126 million annually into Southwest Florida’s economy in taxes alone, so hotels, resorts, restaurants and others that rely on visitors’ dollars keep their fingers crossed that Southwest Florida will continue to be spared more hurricanes or other disasters.

Barring the unforeseen, 2008 should be prosperous, says Walter Klages, president of the Tampa-based Klages Group, which analyzes the tourism market in Florida and beyond. "It is looking strong everywhere on the Gulf Coast," he says. Facilities and amenities ravaged by Hurricane Charley in 2004 and Hurricane Wilma in 2005 have been rebuilt and are in better shape than ever before. And Southwest Florida is a highly desired destination, with subtropical warmth and beautiful beaches, he says.

The foreign tourism trade should remain strong, thanks to the strength of the euro over the U.S. dollar, giving more spending power to Germans, Brits and others from across the pond. Canadians now also have more buying power against the dollar.
Among the challenges Southwest Florida’s tourism trade might face is water quality. "Once you have red tide [and algae], it really is affecting the choice of people" to visit this region, Klages says.

Agriculture
Winner: Biodiesel
Lee County hopped on the green wagon by planting several hundred jatropha seedlings. The fast-growing tree can be processed into highly efficient biodiesel fuel. The crop can be used to replace petroleum-based fuel, and is supposed to remove up to four metric tons of carbon dioxide from the atmosphere per acre, experts say. The county plans to use refined jatropha and restaurant grease to power its vehicle fleet.

Winner: Coalition of Immokalee Workers
The group took on McDonald’s and won. The fast-food giant agreed to up wages and improve working conditions for workers who harvest tomatoes that are sold to the company. The CIW, which successfully fought for a similar deal with Taco Bell, has now set its sights on Burger King.

Winner: FLORIDA OJ
When Brazil sells orange juice below U.S. prices, it harms Florida’s growers and processors. At least that’s how the U.S. International Trade Commission ruled. The commission reaffirmed its original decision about the "dumping" of Brazilian orange juice. The vote came after Tropicana Products, owned by PepsiCo Inc., challenged the ITC’s first ruling and asked it to review that finding.

Hello. Goodbye.
Goodbye: Prolific commercial real estate broker Frank D’Alessandro, 52, drowned in a kayaking accident off the New Jersey shoreline, stunning those who knew him and knew of him.
Goodbye: Constituents, friends and loved ones mourned the loss of State Rep. Mike Davis, 60, of Naples, who died after a battle with cancer.
Goodbye: S. Leslie Flegel stepped down as president and CEO of Source Interlink, a company he founded in St. Louis and moved to Bonita Springs.
Goodbye: Bill Merwin resigned as president of Florida Gulf Coast University after admitting to an extramarital affair with a faculty member.
Goodbye: Collier County Schools Superintendent Ray Baker was fired after questions arose about district-wide course-credit inconsistencies.
Hello: Lone candidate Dennis Thompson, a superintendent with the Rockford, Ill., school district, was swiftly hired to replace Baker.
Goodbye: Betty Will-iams left her post as executive director of the Charlotte County Economic Development Office to move to Virginia.
Goodbye: Dennis Gilkey stepped down as president and CEO of the Bonita Bay Group, where he had worked for 23 years.
Hello: Kitty Green became president and CEO of the Bonita Bay Group, where she had been serving as regional vice president.
Goodbye: Naples Daily News publisher John Fish left the paper, where he had helped launch various products, including Studio 55, a TV and Web news broadcast.
Goodbye: Fort Myers-based NeoMedia Technologies saw the resignations of president and CEO Charles Jensen, and founder and chairman Charles W. Fritz.
Goodbye: Cape Coral City Council Member Mickey Rosado had already been stripped of his powers pending a criminal probe. But his re-election bid failed when he lost in the primaries, garnering less than 5 percent of the vote.
Hello: William P. Mitchell became Fort Myers’ first city manager.
Goodbye: Robert Lee resigned as Naples’ city manager.
Hello: Marco Island City Manager Bill Moss was tapped to replace him.
Goodbye: D.T. Minich left the Lee County Visitor & Convention Bureau, where he served as executive director for more than six years, to head the St. Petersburg/Clearwater Area Convention & Visitors Bureau.
Hello: Suya Davenport stepped into the position Minich vacated.
Goodbye: Olympian and artist Al Oerter died suddenly in early October. He had been leading the drive to establish the Art of the Olympians museum in Fort Myers, which continues.