Charlotte County has been officially in existence for a century, but it’s had a tendency over those years to draw somewhat less attention than its southern neighbors. If your mind is on the business landscape of Southwest Florida, it probably hasn’t been much on your radar.
That may be about to change. In “The Story in Charlotte” (p. 44), Nancy Semon explores how efforts over the last decade to establish industrial development near Punta Gorda airport are taking root and paying off. Cheney Brothers became the first major player in 2015 with a facility that now totals more than 427,000 square feet, and recent construction for Zahra LLC, Lane Valente, American Builders, Vestas and other businesses showcases the county’s draws: Undeveloped land is available, and the location puts distributors within two to three hours of Miami, Tampa and Orlando. Affordable housing is elusive, which puts Charlotte in the same boat as the rest of the region, but redeveloping current and defunct malls offers a creative potential solution to that side effect of growth. Big things are coming for our neighbors to the north.
Of course, growth in general remains a major theme all over our area. We make a point of taking some time in the early part of the year to look back on major transactions over the previous year and how they influenced the business scene, and in digging into the “Top Deals of 2023” (p. 30), David Dorsey concluded that while the volume of transactions diminished—due to factors including scarcity of land, rising construction costs and soaring interest rates—the prices attached to the properties that did change hands are continuing to break and re-break records. Any year’s numbers would be swayed by the mega-transaction that made headlines in October when the Hoffmann Family of Companies sold a colossal portfolio of properties to Aspen-based M Development for more than $185 million (Tim Aten breaks down this blockbuster on p. 38), but that deal was far from alone. The former Red Coconut RV Park to Waterline Estero to the Topgolf complex in Fort Myers, the parcels and facilities that sold in 2023 carried substantial price tags even by our current standards. For 2024, experts say that much depends on how the Federal Reserve manages interest rates—if rates decrease, the volume of transactions is likely to heat up—but given the current trends, there could be a good deal of good deals to look forward to.
Plus, since we all have an extra day this month, Artis Henderson has put together a few suggestions and possibilities inspired by Leap Year on p. 94. I think we can all agree that having a little bit more of season to enjoy is nothing to complain about.
