Newsletter 111

NEWS FROM THE SUNCOAST

LOCAL ECONOMY, GLOBAL THREAT

Normally, Shorewalk Vacation Villas gets a good number of French visitors during the summer and an influx of guests from the United Kingdom and Germany starting in October. But this year is markedly different. The business had only a few international visitors this summer, and travel restrictions between the U.S., European countries and Canada mean that trips keep getting pushed back. Shorewalk is used to hosting international tourists who come to nearby IMG Academy, or make Bradenton their “home away from home” during extended vacations of up to six months, director of operations and marketing Rob Ondo said. To read more on this story, courtesy of the Sarasota Herald-Tribune, please click here: Local Economy, Global Threat

SRQ PASSENGER TRAFFIC DROPS DURING AUGUST

Passenger traffic fell slightly in August at Sarasota-Bradenton International Airport compared to July as travelers struggled to come back during COVID-19. In August, 58,115 passengers traveled through the airport, down slightly from 62,405 in July but up from June, when 52,845 people made their way through Sarasota-Bradenton. Compared to August 2010, when 135,467 passengers came through the airport, passenger traffic is down 34%. The airport said in a press release that it is currently outpacing the national passenger traffic average, despite the fact that the pandemic is ongoing. For more on this story, please click here: SRQ Passenger Traffic Drops

LOCAL HOME CONSTRUCTION STRONG IN Q2

New home construction has shown resilience in Southwest Florida during the coronavirus pandemic. Builders poured slabs for 1,751 local single-family homes in the second quarter, down by 4% from the previous quarter but even with year-ago levels, according to a report from data supplier Metrostudy. The annual starts pace of 7,441 homes in the Sarasota-Manatee-Charlotte region was flat compared to the previous quarter but jumped 18% over the year. The latest annual starts pace is the second highest since the boom days of third-quarter 2006. It ranked at the top of all major Florida markets. Lakewood Ranch led the region with 1,383 annual starts in the second quarter. There’s more on this story here: Local Home Construction Strong

AREA HOME PRICES CLIMB BUT LAG STATE

Home prices continue to accelerate in Southwest Florida, but at a slower pace than the state and the nation. Sarasota-Manatee home prices gained 3.6% over the year in July, trailing increases of 4.8% in Florida and 5.5% throughout the U.S., according to a recent report from real estate database CoreLogic. The two-county region ranked 130th lowest for price growth among the 403 U.S. metros studied. But the increase topped the 2.8% annual gain posted in June. Home prices have shown resilience during the coronavirus pandemic, even though some expected price gains to slow as the economy ground to a halt. Please follow the jump for more on this story: Home Prices Lag State

HIGHER UTILITY BILLS ARE COMING

Sarasota County doesn’t have enough money to address its aging water and sewer infrastructure. That’s why elected officials recently agreed to increase usage rates by 1.5%. The county is also poised to raise its stormwater environmental utility rates. The dedicated revenue source that helps improve flooding and water quality issues hasn’t been addressed since 2008. This has placed Sarasota at a disadvantage as revenues have remained flat but the cost of providing services has increased, officials say. To do that, county officials will look to update policy, rate methodology and credit programs in an effort to reflect the changes in development patterns. This also opens the door for funding for water quality and other improvements that will impact resilience to coastal and inland flooding. There’s more on this story here: Higher Utility Bills for Sarasota County

BEST BUILDS

Murray Homes of Sarasota led the way among a number of residential and commercial properties in Southwest Florida that were honored at the recent 41st annual Aurora Awards. The 2020 Southeast Building Conference drew nearly 200 entries in 54 categories for attached and detached housing designs, including interior design, detailing, custom and re-use and renovation work. It also honored diverse commercial, recreational and specialty buildings. Murray Homes nabbed three awards, including the best-in-show “Golden Aurora” for its 4,233. square-foot
Sarasota Modern Retreat designed by the Guy Peterson Office for Architecture. Please click here for more: Best Builds

FLORIDA ATTRACTING MORE NORTHERNERS

According to a Douglas Elliman August report, new contracts for single-family homes and condominiums continued to rise in five south and central west coast Florida counties – after having doubled in July. In Palm Beach county, new single-family and condo contracts remained significantly above levels from a year ago, with a 268% increase in single-family contracts over $1 million. In Miami-Dade, Pinellas and Hillsborough counties, much of the annual gain was at higher prices. Brokers say that many of those moving to Florida are coming from northern cities. Click here for more: Florida Attracts Northerners

LIDO BEACH RENOURISHMENT AHEAD OF SCHEDULE

Dredging for the latest beach renourishment project on Lido Key has been moving “a little bit ahead of schedule” since it began last month, according to Sarasota City Manager Tom Barwin. As of last week, crews already had moved more than 200,000 cubic yards of sand to the southern shores of Lido Key beach from a shoal in Big Pass – a primary navigational access point frequented by boaters between the Gulf of Mexico and Sarasota. At this rate, Barwin says, the sand-pumping part of the project is on track to be finished by the end of October. The Lido Beach Hurricane and Shoreline Damage Reduction project is one of the largest contemplated by the state. It will ultimately remove up to 1.3 million cubic yards of sand from Big Pass and place 710,000 cubic yards on about 1.56 miles of Lido Beach, with the rest of the sediment expected to be lost in the dredging process.There’s more here: Lido Beach Project Ahead of Schedule

ARTIFICIAL REEFS CREATE HABITAT NEAR DOCKS

In the mid-1990’s, when David Wolff was a student at the University of South Florida, he interned for the Marine Habitat Foundation, a Lee County-based nonprofit that hoped to develop a sustainable way to farm-raise stone crabs and Florida lobsters. Wolff went on to work at the nonprofit. But the plan failed because the wood and fiberglass structures were not strong enough to survive hurricane season and in part because filter feeders would attach to them. But out of that failure grew an idea to construct artificial reefs that could encourage the growth of barnacles, tunicates and other filter-feeding organisms that clean seawater, as well as recreate an environment that mimics the safety of mangroves for juvenile fish. In 2014, Wolff founded the nonprofit Ocean Habitats Inc. that now creates, sells and maintains artificial reef structures that can be attached to docks in canals and waterways. Please follow the link for more on this story: Artificial Reefs Near Docks

FLORIDA KEYS TO RELEASE GENETICALLY MODIFIED MOSQUITOES

Sometime next year, genetically modified mosquitoes will be released in the Florida Keys in an effort to combat persistent insect-borne diseases, such as Dengue Fever and the Zika virus. The plan approved recently by the Florida Keys Mosquito Control District calls for a pilot project in 2021 involving the striped-legged Aedes aegypti mosquito, which is not native to Florida. But it does transmit several diseases to humans, particularly in the Keys island chain where nearly 50 cases of Dengue fever have been reported so far this year. The plan is to release millions of male, genetically-altered mosquitoes to mate with the females that bite humans because they need the blood. The male mosquitoes, which don’t bite, would contain a genetic change in a protein that would render any offspring unable to survive – thus reducing the population of the insects that transmit disease, in theory. To read more about this story – please click here: Florida Keys Mosquitoes