One bright spot, perhaps, was that residential real estate prices dropped to more affordable levels—for buyers who could find mortgages amid tightened borrowing standards. And many in the industry argue that the market slump created a good scenario for investing and finding bargains, relatively speaking.

Some of the region’s publicly traded companies had issues of their own. Class-action lawsuits, falling profits and stocks, and at least one federal probe challenged several corporations that typically had performed well in the global marketplace.

But for all of the negatives, many of the stories from the past year were upbeat. Higher education thrived, with expansion at campuses across Lee, Collier and Charlotte counties.

Shopping choices flourished with the arrival of new retailers and shopping-center growth. And road-improvement projects at some former problem spots wrapped up, easing gridlock. The transportation topper was the beginning of the highly anticipated widening of I-75 between Naples and Fort Myers, a clogged and dangerous stretch of roadway.

We also made it through another hurricane season without a big storm.

Here is a sampling of the winners and losers in 2007, as well as a look ahead in some of Southwest Florida’s major economic sectors.

Real Estate And Development
Loser: The Housing Food Chain
The industry that sizzled continued to fizzle. As fall neared, the number of single-family building permits issued year-to-date in Lee County stood at a paltry 3,911, compared with 11,965 the year before, and home sales and prices suffered there as well. Ditto in Collier and Charlotte counties, although the inventories of homes for sale there were shrinking more quickly than in Lee.

With revenues suffering and home inventories high, builders and developers such as WCI Communities, Centex Corp., Lennar Corp., the Bonita Bay Group and others collectively laid off hundreds of employees.

The struggling market also hurt businesses that catered heavily to real estate clients, including some marketing firms. Once-plentiful construction-related jobs dwindled.

The downturn dashed plans for some major projects. Antaramian Development of Naples, for instance, decided not to purchase the Naples Daily News headquarters on Central Avenue, where Antaramian intended to build homes. And its Renaissance Village, a mixed-use development at the defunct Grand Central Station on Goodlette-Frank Road in downtown Naples, was mothballed.

Losing trend: Foreclosure action
Many investors who were stuck with homes that wouldn’t sell—at least at adequate prices—ended up losing them. Failed subprime mortgages added to the woes, making for some stark statistics. In July, Lee County ranked second nationwide in foreclosure action, with 36.2 filings per 1,000 households, according to www.foreclosures.com. Year-to-date comparisons available in the fall were just as troubling, with Southwest Florida counties reporting triple-digit percentage increases in foreclosure filings.

Loser: WCI Communities
Misfortune plagued the Bonita Springs luxury homebuilder. The company reported a net loss of $49 million for the first six months—$33.1 million of that in the second quarter. Company officials announced they would reduce its workforce, and stockholders took a hit as prices fell from a high of more than $24 a share to less than $5 per share. WCI also went through a highly publicized boardroom drama (see the Public Companies section of this story, p.19).

Alleged losers: First Home Builders of Florida, et al.
Dozens of individuals put up money to buy First Home Builders of Florida properties that would eventually be sold to homebuyers in rent-to-own deals, which were supposed to yield a 14 percent return for the investors. Instead, some lost money when the home-sales market began to tank, creating a rental glut. Investors filed a class action lawsuit alleging fraud against First Home Builders, the late Fort Myers commercial real estate broker Frank D’Alessandro, agent Samir Cabrera and others.

Winners: Developments that could
Despite an anemic residential market, several high-profile, multimillion-dollar projects moved forward.
Tarpon Point Marina, Cape Coral: Grosse Point Development Co. is building the upscale project located on the waterfront in southeast Cape Coral. Condos, single-family homes and a condo hotel are among the residential offerings along with restaurants and shops.

Murdock Village, Port Charlotte: Kitson & Partners, developer of Babcock Ranch, sealed a deal with the county to purchase the 1,100-acre Murdock Village. There, it plans to build 3,500 homes as well as retail and other commercial space.

Imperial Landing, Bonita Springs: The city council gave the OK to Antaramian Development’s plans to develop 5.3 acres on Old 41 Road, creating a downtown area with shopping, dining and residences.

First Street Village, Fort Myers: Cameratta Properties’ project in downtown Fort Myers is under way, with plans for 356 luxury residential units, 38,000 square feet of office space and approximately 105,000 square feet of class-A retail space. A new, 39,000-square-foot Publix is among the tenants.

The town of Ave Maria: The 5,000-acre community is rising around Ave Maria University. When built out, the town—being developed in a partnership of Domino’s Pizza mogul Tom Monaghan and Barron Collier Companies—will have 11,000 residences as well as commercial services, parks and public schools, plus a K-12 parochial school already in place.

Winner: Commercial real estate
The markets for office, industrial and retail properties held their own. Commercial developments are often years in the planning, so projects that were green-lighted in prosperous 2003 or 2004 continue to rise. Among the concerns, however, are rising vacancy rates.

Winner: Charlotte County
In June, Publix paid $7.67 million for 87 acres at the Enterprise Charlotte Airport Park, where the grocer plans to build a job-producing distribution center. And downtown Punta Gorda continues to see new businesses and buildings, such as the mixed-use Sunloft Center, rising where Hurricane Charley wiped out their predecessors.

Loser: Collier County moratorium
Commissioners last spring considered a halt on construction until the county, anticipating statewide property-tax cuts, could decide how to pay for growth. Tax cuts by state lawmakers would certainly reduce revenues for local governments. The county board’s moratorium discussion incensed the development community, which promptly made a strong show of solidarity against the idea. (The legislature passed the tax cut in June. In late July, Collier commissioners dropped talk of a moratorium.)

Such related hubbubs might diminish if the proposed Florida Hometown Democracy Amendment passes. Denounced by developers and planners, it would remove responsibility for planning from local planners and elected officials and require the voters to decide on every comprehensive plan amendment.

Winner: School builders
Southwest Florida school districts are still playing catch-up with student population growth, so contractors, engineers, architects, tradespeople and others involved with school construction have been hard at work.

Real Estate Outlook
The local real estate market is locked in a waiting game.
Buyers have been waiting for prices to fall further and sellers are cautious about dropping them too far, which leaves a lot of inventory to reduce before a recovery can begin.

That leaves the question: When will things change for the better?
Analyst Mike Timmerman says 2008 is not likely to be the year. "It will be a little bit better, but not substantially better," he says.

A turnaround could be influenced by various factors that are in the works, including property-tax reform, a reduction in property insurance and lower interest rates, Timmerman says. If lower prices lead to inventory sell-off, supply and demand will begin to even out, but that probably won’t happen until after the first quarter of 2009, he says.

Broker Michael Hughes, general manager of Naples-based Downing-Frye Realty Inc., believes an uptick will transpire sooner, at least in the Naples area. He and others at the agency see the same prospective buyers looking at or calling about properties they’ve inquired about several times before, and sellers continue to negotiate prices, he says.

"Going into ’08, we’ll have three years of buyers sitting on the fence. A lot of these people are trying to time [a purchase] right," says Hughes. "A lot of them won’t."

His company also has noted an increase in the number of showings.

"Most experts predict [positive changes] during the second half of ’08," he says. "I think it will turn around sooner."

Public Companies
Publicly traded companies in Southwest Florida provided plenty of fodder for salacious headlines. A high-profile takeover attempt, class action lawsuits, a Securities and Exchange Commission probe and shareholder malaise were among the reports. Not all of the news was so dramatic, however. Other companies continued to go about their business, increasing profits and growing.

Loser: WCI Communities Inc.
Talk about boardroom drama. The homebuilder’s worsening financial performance concerned major stakeholder Carl Icahn enough that he tried to buy the company, in the hope of turning it around. In the spring, the billionaire investor, who by that time owned nearly 15 percent of the stocks, made a tender offer of $22 a share.

The board rebuffed the unsolicited bid and placed the company up for sale. But there were no takers. Stock prices plummeted, reaching a low of $4.95 a share on Aug. 3. And losses mounted.
Icahn’s next move was to run his own slate of board candidates at the annual meeting later that month in an effort to take control. The two sides worked out a deal that would name nominees from both camps. The lineup was elected, WCI took itself off the sales block and Icahn became chairman of the board.

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.

Despite those difficulties, the industry will continue to meet the demand for healthcare. "Access to healthcare is not an issue," he says.

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.