Newsletter 131

NEWS FROM THE SUNCOAST …..

RECORD TOURISM IN Q1

Florida attracted a record number of tourists during the first three months of 2022, surpassing totals from similar quarters before the COVID-19 pandemic rocked the hospitality and leisure industry. Visit Florida, the state’s tourism-marketing agency, posted information recently showing that 35.982 million people traveled to the state between the start of January and the end of March. With tourism a key engine of the state’s economy, that was 39.6 percent higher than during the first quarter of 2021, a time when COVID-19 vaccines were becoming more widely available. It also was 19.29 percent over the first quarter of 2020, when the virus hit the state. More important for tourism officials, the new total was up 1.35 percent from the first quarter of 2019, before the pandemic started. For more on this story, please click here: Record Q1 Tourism

TRAFFIC AT SRQ RISES

It’s been a record-breaking year so far at Sarasota-Bradenton International Airport, but reduced schedules and pilot shortages could slow that momentum in the upcoming summer months. The airport welcomed 386,013 passengers in April, an increase of 31% over the same month last year, according to the latest numbers provided by the airport on Thursday. Year to date passenger traffic through April is up 71.5% compared to 2021; 1,471,513 passengers have traveled through Sarasota-Bradenton so far this year. The growth at Sarasota-Bradenton has been driven by high interest in Florida as a tourism destination, plus an increase in air service to and from the airport. Last year saw 3,163,543 passengers, its busiest year on record. “We have had more passengers use our airport in the first four months of this year than we typically see for an entire calendar year,” Rick Piccolo, president and CEO of Sarasota-Bradenton, said. “This unprecedented growth continues for our region and the airport.” Still, Sarasota-Bradenton will not be immune to the broader challenges the airline industry is facing this summer, including pilot shortages and rising fuel prices, Piccolo said. These issues have caused many carriers to cut back on their summer schedules. To read more, please click here, courtesy of the Sarasota Herald-Tribune: SRQ Traffic Rises

HOME PRICES UP 4%

A typical Sarasota County home listed for $594,450 in March, up 4.4% from a month earlier, an analysis of data from Realtor.com shows. The median list home price in March was up about 32.2% from March 2021. Sarasota County’s median home was 1,775 square feet for a listed price of $327 per square foot. The Sarasota County market was busy, with a median 34 days on market. The market added 1,352 new home listings in March, compared with the 1,440 added in March 2021. The market ended the month with some 702 listings of homes for sale. Manatee County’s home prices rose 54.4%, to a median $575,000, from a year earlier. The typical house was on the market for 30 days, from 44 days a year earlier. The typical 1,870-square-foot house had a list price of $287 per square foot. Across metro Sarasota, median home prices rose to $575,000, up 5% from a month earlier. The median home had 1,810 square feet, at a list price of $307 per square foot. Across all of Florida, median home prices were $449,950, rising 3.7% from a month earlier. The median Florida home for sale had 1,661 square feet at list price of $270 per square foot.
Please click here to read more: Home Prices Up 4.4%

LWR SETS BLAZING PACE

Lakewood Ranch has never had construction start on more homes in a 12-month period than the year ending this spring, with the developer of the master-planned community reporting 2,638 housing starts through March. That was a 55% increase over the comparable period a year earlier and represented one-fourth of all housing starts in Sarasota and Manatee counties, Lakewood Ranch said in a news release. Laura Cole, senior vice president at Lakewood Ranch, said that before COVID-19 the Sarasota-Manatee area was overlooked and undervalued as a primary home location. “The pandemic blew the doors off that notion and accelerated relocations to our area from across the U.S,” she said. Data from Zonda, a national housing research firm, shows North Port-Sarasota-Manatee statistical metropolitan area had 6,982 home starts in 2020. That increased to 10,622 in 2021. Quarterly data from Zonda for more than 40 metropolitan areas in the U.S. shows the Sarasota-Bradenton area tops in housing starts growth year-over-year, “and now ranks in the top 20 markets nationally in terms of total annual housing starts,” the news release from LWR Communities LLC stated. So far this year, home starts are up 46% for the metro area as a residential building boom continues throughout the area, said Kristine Smale, a senior vice president at Zonda. There’s more on this story here: LWR Blazing Pace

BEST IN THE NATION?

For its desirability, quality of life and cost of living, Sarasota was named one of the best places to live in the country by U.S. News & World Report. The annual rankings, released this week by the media company, put Sarasota at No. 9 on a list of the 150 best places to live in the country, making it the only Florida city to land in the Top 10. U.S. News & World Report describes Sarasota as having “a distinct vibe that’s different from Florida’s relative coastal cities, with its own vibrant arts scene, beachy atmosphere, and burgeoning food culture.””This metro area of just over 800,000 people has a renowned opera house, a number of rooftop bars and the popular beach of Siesta Key,” the magazine wrote. “What makes the region special is its duality – downtown Sarasota boasts resorts and fine dining, but strolling Siesta Key Village or St. Armands Circle offers a more intimate, seaside ambience.” The rankings are determined based on several factors developed by the media company – quality of life; job market; desirability, which asks if people want to move to a place; net migration, which determines if people are actually already moving somewhere and value, which includes cost of living. Home affordability and quality of life were also more important than ever this year in the rankings because of the voracity of the national housing market, according to U.S. News. That did have some impact on the ratings overall, moving Huntsville, Alabama, from No. 3 to No. 1 on the list, despite it having a lower desirability ranking on the lower side of the 150 places ranked. Despite Sarasota’s skyrocketing housing costs, it stayed in the same spot – ninth place – as last year. Please follow the jump for more on this story: Best In Nation?

CLOSED HOME SALES DECLINE

As the Federal Reserve imposed the first interest rate hikes in the United States since 2018 — one in March and another, larger one in May — to fight the highest inflation seen in the country in 40 years, the sizzling local real estate market may be feeling the first effects. The Realtor Association of Sarasota and Manatee noted in its monthly real estate statistics released Thursday that April was the first time “active inventory” — homes for sale — in the North Port-Sarasota-Bradenton metro area showed year-over-year positive growth since May 2019. “At the end of April, there were 1,969 active listings (properties) combined in both counties for both markets, a 14.3% increase from the same month last year,” according to the RASM report. “Compared to last month, active inventory increased month-over-month by 23.5% when combined for the two counties.” Also, fewer homes for sale closed in both the single-family and condo markets, a trend that’s been ongoing for months. Across both counties, closed sales declined 23.6% compared to 12 months ago.
Tony Veldkamp, 2022 RASM president and a senior advisor at SVN Commercial Advisory Group, said in a news release the statistics were anticipated by local realtors. Rising interest rates make purchasing homes more expensive for buyers who require a mortgage, which reduces demand and slows price appreciation, economists say. “As we’ve been anticipating, it appears that the rising interest rates and inflation are beginning to put pressure on our local real estate market,” Veldkamp said. “While we’re still seeing fewer pending and closed sales when compared to last year, we are starting to see an increase in new listings and the amount of inventory of homes and condos for sale.” There’s more on this story here: Closed Home Sales Decline

CITY NIXES TALLER BUILDINGS

After more than three hours of public comments involving about 50 speakers, the Sarasota City Commission on Monday severed building height limitations from a proposal aimed at increasing affordable housing inside city limits. The remaining parts of the proposal — creation of a future land use designation along the city’s major traffic corridors, allowance for higher density for more affordable housing units, staff approval for projects that contain affordable housing and a new zoning district in the Park East downtown neighborhood — passed on a 4-1 vote after the potential for taller buildings had been removed from the discussion. Residents opposed to the proposal spoke passionately about choosing to live in Sarasota specifically because it didn’t look or feel like cities with taller buildings and greater densities. Many residents who opposed the proposal acknowledged the challenges with increasing rents and real estate prices, but didn’t believe the changes would adequately address the underlying problems. Some opponents called for slowing down the process and holding more community discussions. Jim Lampl, president of the Rosemary District Association, suggested the local governments buy more land to build affordable housing instead of providing incentives to developers to build it, which has not worked so far. Incentives available to developers in the Rosemary District have not yielded a single affordable housing unit, though a project along 10th Street and Cocoanut Avenue that does contain affordable housing units was approved last fall. Please click on the link for more: City Nixes Taller Buildings

SARASOTA TOURISM BUDGET INCREASED

Travel to Sarasota reached unprecedented heights in 2021, but the county’s tourism bureau thinks there’s still plenty of room to grow. Visit Sarasota County outlined future growth opportunities – and strategies to tackle them – in its annual budget presentation to the Tourist Development Council last week. The board unanimously approved Visit Sarasota’s request for a budget of $5.9 million for its 2023 fiscal year, including $5.1 million for promotions and $775,000 for sports, at its May meeting. The 2023 budget is an increase over the budget of $5.3 million for the current fiscal year 2022, which ends Sept. 30. Visit Sarasota’s funding comes from a percentage of the tourist development tax, also known as the bed tax, which is a levy collected on short-term vacation rentals throughout the county. Now that it’s been authorized by the Tourist Development Council, the budget can move ahead to the County Commission, which has the final say. In its 2023 fiscal year, which starts Oct. 1, Visit Sarasota plans to focus on attracting offseason business, developing its brand and converting visitors into new residents and business owners. It will use its existing strategies, including advertising, public relations and its sports and sales departments to realize those goals, vice president Erin Duggan said. There’s more on this story: Sarasota Tourism Budget Increased

SEA TURTLES ARE NESTING EARLY

Researchers and volunteers stumbled upon a heartening find last month: the season’s first documented sea turtle nest burrowed at the southern end of Longboat Key. Mote Marine Laboratory and Aquarium’s Sea Turtle Conservation and Research said the nest is indicative of an early start to the sea turtle nesting season — its usual timeline stretches from May 1 to Oct. 31. “Once again, sea turtles have arrived on our beaches just before the official start of season,” Melissa Macksey, STCRP Conservation Manager & Senior Biologist, said in a press release. Macksey leads local sea turtle conservation efforts with more than 300 devoted volunteers who monitor 35 miles of beaches between Longboat Key and Venice. The team scours beaches for turtle crawls as the sun peeks over the horizon every morning. Last year, STCRP counted 3,786 nests — certifying 2021 as the fourth highest count in Mote’s 40 years of monitoring. The top-five years for the number of sea turtle nests in the Sarasota region have all occurred in the last five years. Despite the encouraging swell of nesting, Macksey warns residents and visitors to stay cautious and respectful of Florida’s coastal environment. Beach chairs and trash can create blockades for sea turtles and their young, and streaking lights from waterfront properties can disorient the animals. Sea turtles rise from their nests at night and follow natural light to find the shoreline. Light pollution can also leave hatchlings vulnerable to predators if they struggle to make it to water. But a majority of hatchlings die from exhaustion or starvation from following the artificial light. Click here for more: Sea Turtles Nesting Early

RINGLING RETURNS

Ringling Brothers and Barnum & Bailey will return in a little more than a year with a new and modernized version of its traditional “Greatest Show on Earth.”
Palmetto-based Feld Entertainment announced last week that a new edition of its show will debut in the fall of 2023 as a “multi-platform entertainment franchise” and that its creative team is now searching for acts around the world. Last fall, the company said it would relaunch its touring shows after a six-year break but without animals. There is no reference to the word “circus” in the company’s announcement or in the new logo it unveiled. In an interview, Chairman and CEO Kenneth Feld said the name Ringling and “The Greatest Show on Earth” have come to represent a certain kind of entertainment for the public. “A circus means something different to everybody and it has for centuries. It’s a lot of different things,” Feld said. “I can say for certain that when you see ‘The Greatest Show on Earth,’ I know you will be enthralled. You’re going to be amazed by it.” Along with announcing the new production, the company said it is creating a lifestyle brand “that connects with families and sparks real fun 365 days a year through live performances, digital content, consumer products, school curricula, youth circus arts programs and more.” Click here for more: Ringling Returns

SARASOTA COUNTY COVID COALITION FORMS

Sarasota Memorial Hospital and other local health care providers have formed the Sarasota County COVID Therapy Coalition, to help make it easier for people to learn where to access new antiviral treatments for COVID-19 as cases have been trending upward nationally and in Florida. The goal of the coalition is to make the process less confusing for both residents and health care providers, to help prevent severe illness and hospitalization among the elderly and other high-risk individuals during this next phase of the pandemic. “We wanted to break the cycle of panic and complacency that delays care,” Manuel Gordillo, MD, medical director of SMH Infection Prevention and Control, said in a prepared statement. “We now have effective outpatient treatments, but it’s important that people get prescriptions in a timely manner and start treatment within the first five days of symptoms. Knowing if patients qualify for any of these potentially lifesaving interventions and how to access them can be confusing, even for physicians.” The Sarasota County COVID Therapy Coalition has created a webpage, https://www.smh.com/treatcovid with links, treatment guidelines and physician referral information to help people assess their need, determine eligibility and locate available treatments. The coalition is working to spread the word and ensure a comprehensive referral network for people who have lower incomes, are uninsured or do not have a local doctor to assess their risks and provide the required prescription for treatment. There’s more to read here: Sarasota County COVID Coalition

HOME SHARING COULD HELP CRISIS

Deborah Graves felt confident and hopeful while driving to the matchmaking session on Siesta Key several years ago. A U.S. Air Force veteran and former corporate information technology specialist, her background was perfect for the HomeShare Sarasota program. “I just wanted a temporary living situation until I could find something to buy,” said Graves, now 62. The home was large and clean, with a room and bathroom just for her. Just as important, the homeowner – a widow in her 80s looking for companionship – was kind and respectful, her terms flexible and the rent reasonable. The two hit it off — chatting long after the woman’s daughter and the HomeShare matchmaker left. HomeShare Sarasota pairs homeowners who have extra space with renters searching for an affordable place to live. This type of matchmaking could help hundreds if not thousands of other Sarasota residents, say advocates, amid a major housing crisis and an “epidemic” of loneliness impacting older Americans. Started in 2018 as a pilot project with the Senior Friendship Centers to match older homeowners with young professionals, it was later expanded to include older renters, too. Since then, the demand has soared. Now managed by the nonprofit Sarasota Housing Financing Corporation, HomeShare Sarasota is being inundated with calls by renters – particularly seniors – as they increasingly get priced out of the market, says coordinator Ruth Shaulis.
There’s more on this story here: Home Sharing

SPORTS COMPLEX IN THE WORKS

The Sarasota County Commission agreed recently to dedicate $20 million of tourism tax revenue to building a boathouse and indoor sports complex at Nathan Benderson Park. The county is planning to build a major sports complex that would serve as an engine for sports tourism in the Sarasota-Manatee area, according to the project’s feasibility report. Commissioners voted last month to raise the county’s tourism development tax — also known as the bed tax — from 5% to 6%, after qualifying under state law to charge the higher rate based on its visitors. And recently, the board decided to dedicate $20 million of this sixth “penny” of bed tax revenue to the boathouse and indoor sports complex project. At the recent commission meeting, Sarasota County Parks, Recreation and Natural Resources Director Nicole Rissler estimated that the total project will cost at least $40 million. Since the bed tax is only slated to pay for $20 million of that total, the project will also be funded through corporate sponsorships and donations as well as donations from local foundations and private individuals, said Michael Taaffe, the chairman of the Nathan Benderson Park Conservancy’s board of directors. Chicago-based C.H. Johnson Consulting, Inc., conducted a feasibility report for the project, which recommended that the complex be at least 100,000 square feet and include eight full-sized basketball courts. These could be converted into 16 volleyball courts or 24 pickleball courts. A facility of this size would be able to hold large tournaments. C.H. Johnson Consulting also recommends that the facility have locker rooms, a concession/café bar concept, at least four multipurpose rooms and other amenities.
If you’re interested in reading more, then click here: Sports Complex Coming

SARASOTA’S BUSHWACKER SPIRITS EXPLODES

On vacations to Florida panhandle beach towns in their early twenties, Michael Smith and Carter Echols couldn’t wait to drink the sweet, cold, Caribbean cocktail known as the bushwacker. The drink – a combination of rum, milk, cream of coconut, creme de cacao and coffee liqueur, usually blended with ice – was the perfect refreshing drink for the childhood best friends. They made it a staple of their weekend trips and beachside getaways. But when it came time to get all the necessary bushwacker ingredients for a getaway, there was only one problem. Who keeps creme de cacao around the house? “It’s tough to go to the store and get all the ingredients, and you don’t just go buy a bottle of creme de cacao unless you’re going to make a lot,” Smith said. “It’s tough to make a good one at home.” So with that in mind, a few years ago, Smith and Echols decided to try and put bushwacker in a bottle.Together, the childhood friends founded Bushwacker Spirits, a new Sarasota-based spirit company that managed to recreate the taste of the Caribbean cocktail inside of a 750-milliliter bottle. Echols and Smith founded the company in 2020 in Sarasota, and just two years later, it’s valued at $12 million. Click here to read more on this story: Bushwacker Spirits Explodes