Newsletter 43

SARASOTA-BRADENTON FAR OUTPACING TAMPA BAY: As metro areas go, Tampa Bay has a lot in common with the neighboring Sarasota-Bradenton region. Both have beautiful beaches, fine restaurants, high-end retailers and impressive offerings of art and culture. Both also have multitudes of gorgeous homes – but there, the similarities end. Living in luxury costs a lot more south of the Sunshine Skyway bridge. Since January, 13 homes in the Sarasota-Bradenton area have sold for more than $5 million. In the much larger Tampa Bay area – none. Of homes priced from $2 million to $5 million, 131 have sold in Sarasota-Bradenton this year, compared with 67 in Tampa Bay. Of course, the vast majority of residents on Florida’s Gulf Coast can’t afford anything approaching those amounts. But why luxury home buyers choose one area over the other reveals a lot about how each area is perceived in terms of down-to-earth metrics like transportation, entertainment and general livability. Click here for more on this story, courtesy of the Tampa Bay Times: SRQ Tops Tampa Bay

VISITOR BOOM NEEDS ROOMS: Breaking tourist records is great, but without breaking ground on more hotels in the Sarasota-Bradenton area, some tourism officials believe that the visitation boom could be stymied. Visitors to Sarasota County jumped 10.9% when compared with the previous year in the second quarter of 2015, and record-breaking tourism numbers have become a habit. But the area has to be able to provide the hotel beds needed to keep the numbers growing, said Virginia Haley, president of Visit Sarasota County, the county’s tourism agency. The 6,200 hotel and motel rooms in Manatee County and 5,027 in Sarasota County have an average occupancy rate of 95% during the tourist season. There’s more on this story here, courtesy of the Sarasota Herald Tribune: Where Will They Stay?

LONGBOAT KEY ONE OF TOP U.S. ISLANDS: It’s time to invest in a larger trophy case. This time, Longboat Key has garnered national glory. Longboat Key was named the No. 9 best island in the U.S. in Conde Nast Traveler’s 2015 Readers’ Choice Awards. Hawaii’s Maui, Kauai, Oahu and Big Island nabbed the top four slots. Amelia Island, which ranked No. 10, was the only other Florida location to make the list. Longboat Key, the 12-mile island, is known for its elegant and refined personality. Follow the jump for more: LBK Is Top 10

THE NEXT BIG CROP?: They said it couldn’t be done. They said the climate wasn’t right: too much humidity, not enough chill hours. There are bound to be pests, it’s too rainy and olives don’t like too much water. Despite all the naysayers, a number of growers are experimenting with olives around the state, working with University of Florida agriculture professors and entomologists to find out exactly which varieties, planted exactly where and harvested exactly when. The aim? Create Florida’s next big-money crop in an era when our famous citrus industry is struggling. Click here for more: Olives?

WHOLE FISH APPROACH: If you are killing a fish mostly to get its valuable eggs and turn them into an expensive delicacy, what do you do with the leftovers? Healthy Earth, a newly formed private venture in sustainable seafood, thinks it has the answer. The company intends to prove its case in Southwest Florida, building on two fishy acquisitions started here: The Anna Maria Fish Co., which makes bottarga from mullet roe, and Mote Marine Laboratory’s multi-year success story growing Russian sturgeon in tanks to create a sustainable source of caviar. Some of the remains were literally buried, says CEO Christopher Cogan. A more profitable and more ecologically sound solution, says Cogan and partner, Mote, is to make fish chow, fish oil and maybe some fertilizer out of what is left after taking the fish’s roe and its fillets. Read more here: Blue Economy

FLORIDA BEER SUMMIT WILL BE HELD IN SARASOTA: Craft beer industry members will converge on Sarasota next year for the first Florida Craft Beer Summit. The event, hosted by local brewer JDub’s Brewing Co., is scheduled for March 14-16 at the Hyatt Regency on the bayfront. Florida is one of the fastest-growing markets in the nation for craft beer. Want more? Click here: Craft Beer Summit

Thanks for reading our newsletter and please let us know if you have any questions. Feel free to forward to your friends.