Fort Lauderdale To Seek Developers For 64-Acre Site Around Stadiums

Fort Lauderdale will offer developers the opportunity to build an entertainment/athletic venue, plus potential commercial development, around Lockhart Stadium and Fort Lauderdale Stadium.

Lockhart Stadium will be part of a request for proposals for a development lease in Fort Lauderdale

On Tuesday evening, the City Commission approved a resolution declaring its intent to lease the 64-acre site at the northwest corner of Commercial Boulevard and Northwest 12th Avenue. It’s on the outskirts of Fort Lauderdale Executive Airport.

City Manager Lee Feldman said his staff is preparing to issue a request for proposals (RFP) for a lease and development agreement on the site within 10 days. The deadline to respond will be July 6.

Feldman said the RFP will call for an entertainment and/or athletic venue with at least four fields that can be used for soccer and lacrosse. At least one of the two stadiums must remain and be renovated, although the other stadium could be removed, Feldman said. No residential development would be allowed on the site, but there could be commercial development that contributes to the entertainment/athletic uses, he said.

Lockhart Stadium has a lease with the Fort Lauderdale Strikers soccer team through Dec. 31. Fort Lauderdale Stadium previously hosted MLB spring training, but has not been frequently used in recent years. The RFP will give the developer the option of demolishing either stadium, but not both. The RFP will also cover vacant land south of Lockhart Stadium.

“The city owns the property and we are looking to have the lease generate income for city and provide for an economic engine,” Feldman said.

The RFP applications must be submitted to Fort Lauderdale’s procurement division. The sealed bids would be reviewed by the city commission on Aug. 22.

 

Source: SFBJ

Broward Poised For Biggest New Hotel Boom In Years

A boom in new hotels suggests happy days are here again for tourism.

About a dozen hotels will open in Broward this year — the biggest surge in the county in the past decade.

  • Home2 Suites by Hilton Fort Lauderdale Airport-Cruise Port, Dania Beach — 130 rooms
  • Plunge Beach Hotel, Lauderdale-by-the-Sea  — 163 rooms
  • Hyde Resort & Residences, Hollywood—407 rooms
  • Hampton Inn Fort Lauderdale/Pompano Beach—102-room hotel expected to open on May 26
  • Fairfield Inn & Suites Downtown Fort Lauderdale —108-room hotel slated to open in December
  • Residence Inn Center Port Business Park, Pompano Beach—112-room hotel in will open in the June
  • Tryp by Wyndham Maritime Fort Lauderdale—150-rooms
  • Conrad Fort Lauderdale Beach Resort—290 rooms
  • Dania alone could welcome four new hotels, including Morrison —143-rooms; Comfort Suites Downtown Dania—104-rooms; Wyndham Garden—142-rooms; and a former Sheraton rebranding to Le Meridien.

It’s “super-exciting,” said Stacy Ritter, president and CEO of the Greater Fort Lauderdale Convention & Visitor Bureau, the county’s official tourism marketer. “And it’s due largely to an influx of affluent travelers and greater recognition of the destination as an attractive and competitively priced place to do business and enjoy the benefits of our appealing lifestyle and surroundings.”

Preliminary visitation numbers released by the bureau show Broward welcomed 12.27 million domestic visitors in 2016, up 4 percent from 2015, according to preliminary numbers from the bureau. A million international travelers visited last year, excluding Canadians.

Hoteliers and industry analysts seem fairly confident the county can easily absorb the room surge. But some areas may fare better than others.

“Most of the new supply of rooms is not on the beach. The beach will fill up first, so Fort Lauderdale will be fine,” said Christian Charre, senior vice president of Miami-based CBRE Hotels. “For limited service hotels on the outskirts, the situation may be more competitive … still travel is up, and the expansion at Fort Lauderdale-Hollywood International Airport is working so 1,800-plus more rooms is not major. I think it should be easily absorbed.”

So far this year, Broward’s tourist arrivals are about even with 2016, but room rates and occupancy in traditional hotels are down, Ritter noted.

Currency and economic woes in source markets like Canada and Brazil helped to keep some would-be visitors at home. And as non-traditional accommodation alternatives such as Airbnb and HomeAway become increasingly popular with travelers, traditional hotel occupancy has taken a hit.

“The hotels are coming on line as Broward becomes a more powerful and attractive market,” said Daniel Peek, senior managing director at commercial real estate firm HFF. “Miami has become more expensive, busy and crowded, while Fort Lauderdale offers a different experience. Fort Lauderdale has seen dramatic changes in 20 years in terms of investments on the beach, the cruise port and airport and in retail, all of which bodes well for future tourism demand. I anticipate that over the next 10 to 20 years, Fort Lauderdale will continue to be a very attractive market. It’s a pretty dynamic market, generally speaking.”

“South Florida is still doing great,” in terms of tourism. Patel pointed to expanded airline service, a strong cruise market and the soon-to-launch Brightline passenger express train service,” said Jay Patel, president and CEO of Luckey’s, which has eight hotels in Broward and recently broke ground on its ninth.

Other hoteliers like Doug Barrow, general manager at the newly opened Plunge Beach Hotel, also aren’t too worried about the influx of new rooms, having experienced rapid absorption of even more rooms in other top Florida tourism destinations such as Orlando.

“This area has such a strong demand from leisure travelers all over the world and so I think there’s still plenty of room for growth in hotels in these parts,” Barrow said.

Ritter is optimistic about the summer. “We’re going to be better than OK,” she said. “Americans will travel more domestically than in summers past. So I think summer looks good in terms of visitor numbers.”

 

Source: SunSentinel

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West Palm Industrial Building Sells For $127 PSF

McCraney Property Company sold one of three industrial facilities at the Vista Business Park in West Palm Beach for $8.9 million.

The Vista Business Park in West Palm Beach

Berger Commercial Realty/CORFAC International represented the buyer, who paid $127 per square foot, for the fully occupied industrial building at 2361 and 2365 Vista Parkway.

Berger also retained its position as exclusive leasing agent and property manager for the 70,000-square-foot building.

The property’s new owner is McNab Commerce, a long-established partnership between commercial real estate developers Austin Forman and Jack Loos.

The multi-tenant building is a small bay facility with front-load, grade-level doors and ceilings 18 feet high.

Vista Business Park is a 500-acre, master-planned business park near Interstate 95, Palm Beach International Airport and downtown West Palm Beach.

 

Source: The Real Deal

Developers Win In First Hurdle For Mixed-Use Project On Agricultural Land In West Boca

Developers of a planned mixed-use project on one of the last pieces of agricultural land in Palm Beach County just moved a step closer toward building the project.

The Palm Beach County Commission on Wednesday approved a multiple land-use amendment for the Johns Glades West property. Schmier & Fuerring Properties, Giles Capital Group and Rosemurgy Properties want to develop the 38-acre property, at 95th Avenue and Glades Road just east of State Road 7 and west of Boca Raton, into a mix of apartments, restaurant and retail space.

According to the county’s approval, the developers, who declined to comment, could potentially build 304 apartments and about 165,000 square feet of commercial and/or retail space in the as yet unnamed development.

But that number is raised to 456 units with a bonus density. All multifamily developers in unincorporated Palm Beach County are required to build workforce housing, and since the developers plan to build 25 percent of the apartments as working housing — more than required — they are entitled to a bonus density of 50 percent. That translates into an additional 152 units.

The multiple land-use amendment was approved with certain conditions, such as an agreement to limit the bulk of potential traffic to off-peak hours, a feat to be accomplished by an emphasis on entertainment and restaurant venues that would attract more traffic at night than during the day.

The next step is a rezoning hearing on May 25. The land is currently zoned for agriculture with a future land-use designation of low-rise residential (three units per acre). The developers are requesting to change the zoning to higher density residential (eight dwelling units per acre) and commercial.

 

Source: The Real Deal

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How Motorola Office Park Renovation Is Paying Community Dividends

34309962 - silhouettes of construction and power lines at sunset

Chicago-based investment firm is about to complete the $35 million re-positioning of the former Motorola office park into an office/retail campus in Plantation.

The renovation of this iconic property has injected new life to the city. Specifically, the renovation is attracting innovative tech and healthcare companies as tenants and adding restaurants, landscaping, lighting, a fitness center, a jogging trail around a manmade lake and other amenities for tenants to enjoy. The campus is now home to Motorola, Magic Leap, a company developing virtual reality technology, and health care company Amsurg Corp., among others.

GlobeSt.com sat down with Arnstein & Lehr Attorney Josh M. Atlas to discuss the behind-the-scenes of transforming the former Motorola campus into Plantation Pointe. Atlas is a partner in the law firm’s West Palm Beach office and a member of the Construction Law and Commercial Litigation Practice Groups.

Atlas represented Illinois-based Blue Water Builders, the general contractor for the developer Illinois-based Torburn Partners. In part one of this interview, GlobeSt.com asked him what is the main takeaway from the transformation of the iconic Motorola Corporate Park into a sprawling retail/office campus designed with Millennials lifestyle-preferences in mind?

“The main takeaway is that a forward-thinking developer can restore and revitalize an entire community by taking the right approach to a project like the re-positioning of the former Motorola Corporate Park,” Atlas says. “Growing up in South Florida, everyone recognized that the Motorola Corporate Park was an important part of the local community because it was so noteworthy that such a high-profile company would have a large presence in a suburb like Plantation. “

By transforming the project into a multi-tenant corporate campus and adding both retail and lifestyle amenities, he says, the developer created a platform to bring in a much more diverse group of tenants. And that is benefiting everyone.

“The transformation of this campus gives tenants the ability to satisfy the demands of a workforce that is increasingly populated with Millennials who want more out of their professional experience than just having an office to go to work,” Atlas says. “The transformation should also serve as a boost to the local economy by increasing the tax base, creating opportunity for local business and giving more people a reason to move into the community to be near work.”

 

Source: GlobeSt.

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South Florida Aviation Company Sold To Iowa Firm For $8.6B

Wellington-based B/E Aerospace, an aircraft cabin interior products and services manufacturer, has sold to Rockwell Colllins of Cedar Rapids, Iowa for $8.6 billion.

B/E said it will close its South Florida headquarters at the close of the acquisition. The number of employees affected was not immediately available.

B/E Aerospace was among South Florida‘s top public companies with $2.7 billion in revenue in 2015.

Effective immediately, B/E Aerospace is rebranded as Rockwell Collins. Werner Lieberherr, former B/E Aerospace president and chief executive officer, is now executive VP and COO of Rockwell Collins’ newly created interior systems business. He will report to Kelly Ortberg, chairman, president and chief executive officer of Rockwell Collins.

With the acquisition, Rockwell Collins now has about 30,000 employees and annual revenue of more than $8 billion based on calendar year 2016 results.

The acquisition also expands the Iowa-based company’s portfolio with a wide range of cabin interior products for commercial aircraft and business jets including seating, food and beverage preparation and storage equipment, lighting and oxygen systems, and modular galley and lavatory systems.

“Today marks a major step in advancing our vision of being the most trusted source of aviation and high-integrity solutions in the world,” Ortberg said. “The industry-leading products and solutions being brought together by this acquisition give us a much broader offering, increasing value for our customers and ultimately driving long-term, profitable growth and shareowner value.”

 

Source: SFBJ

Monitoring Evolving Trends In South Florida Industrial Real Estate

As part of Colliers International South Florida’s annual Industrial Owners Forum, more than 50 institutional owners gathered in Miami.

They converged to take part in a closed discussion on the state of the industrial market in South Florida, where they own properties.

Steven Wasserman, executive vice president of the Colliers International’s South Florida industrial services team, hosted the forum. He sat down with GlobeSt.com to highlight the main takeaways from the discussion and the sentiment these influential leaders have about South Florida’s industrial market. In part two of this exclusive interview series, he spoke about evolving industrial market trends.

“There’s still a lot of excitement surrounding e-commerce and the impact it’s having on brick and mortar retailers,” Wasserman tells GlobeSt.com. “While many retailers are downsizing their retail stores, there is a growing demand for distribution space as consumers are buying their products online. Distribution centers near urban cores are in high demand.”

Wasserman pointed out another trend shaping the industry: construction costs. Construction costs have been on the rise, but he expects they will most likely remain flat in 2017 as the condo construction market slows down.

“Institutional owners expect the cost of labor and construction materials to start to level off after years of increasing costs,” Wasserman says. “New development construction costs are ranging from $70 to $100 per square foot for new class A warehouse space and will most likely remain at that price throughout the year.”

On the other hand, he says, cumbersome environmental and permitting issues continue to slow the construction process down. That is forcing tenants to holdover because space takes so much longer to build out in South Florida.

Another topic of discussion was the trend of parking requirements. Institutional owners discussed the significant increase in employee and trailer parking requirements for all sites nationwide, especially “last mile” sites.

“This used to be a requirement from larger tenants but they’re now seeing it from smaller tenants in the 80,000-square-foot range,” Wasserman says. “We’re also seeing growing demand for cold storage facilities. As population continues to increase and lifestyle patterns change, we’re seeing increasing demand for cold storage facilities. This particularly true in South Florida where suburbs are becoming urbanized.”

 

Source: GlobeSt.

Commercial Real Estate Is The Surprising Winner From The ‘Trumpcare’ Debacle

When the effort in Congress to pass a health-care bill failed – the American Health Care Act, designed to replace the much maligned Affordable Care Act – the thing that wasn’t supposed to happen happened: The industry that had whined for years about this, that, and the other in the Obamacare law, breathed a huge sigh of relief.

Despite the general unease in the stock market, heath care stocks rallied. Well, they didn’t exactly rally, they edged up. But it made them the best-performing sector among the 11 S&P 500 sectors. But no one apparently breathed a bigger sigh of relief than the over-indebted and teetering Commercial Real Estate sector. Investors, including the largest asset managers in the world, had experienced the rich benefits of a multi-year mega construction boom of hospitals, medical office buildings, and other health-care facilities to accommodate the ballooning industry that is taking over the US economy and provides 16% of its private-sector jobs.

Property prices had soared over the years as part of the overall commercial real estate bubble. It has gotten so huge that if it deflates, it risks taking down the banks, particularly smaller banks where CRE lending is heavily concentrated. Even Federal Reserve governors admit its policies since the Financial Crisis have helped fuel this bubble, and it admits that it is a bubble, and references to it keep showing up in their statements and speeches as the fretting has begun. Among them, Boston Fed President Eric Rosengren, a Fed “dove,” is now worried that the commercial real-estate bubble in the US has once again become a risk to “Financial Stability.”

Just how relieved are commercial real estate investors really?

Chris Muoio, Senior Quantitative Strategist, Ten-X Research, of online CRE platform Ten-X, put it this way on Monday: “We noted at the beginning of the year that the new presidential administration in D.C. potentially increased risks for certain commercial real estate sectors as proposed regulatory and legislative changes could alter the growth trajectory of industries and with that the demand for certain types of commercial real estate. One of the sector’s that faced the most acute possible changes was medical office/retail as the new administration proposed sweeping changes to health care legislation. Hospitals and medical offices faced the prospect of lower demand for health care services as the proposed legislation would have reduced the number of insured patients and the growth pace of federal spending on health care.”

Which sums up what the sector has been expecting year-in and year-out: endless growth in revenues, paid for by government entities, insurers, and the flow of premiums. Throw doubt on these endless growth stories, and health-care focused real estate quakes in its foundations.

The note goes on: “Following the withdrawal of the proposed American Health Care Act, real estate investors in the medical and health care space can breathe easier as it appears this risk has dissipated. The proposed legislation was scuttled late last week as it became clear it lacked the votes to pass the House. The current rhetoric out of Washington signals a desire to move off of the issue and towards other policy initiatives. Commercial real estate investors should continue to monitor the machinations in Washington carefully, as the administration could revert to the issue at a later time, but for now it appears the existing fundamental story underlying health-care based real estate, which has produced uninterrupted growth in health care services, should remain intact.”

CRE investors are among the biggest beneficiaries of the health care monster that has been draining consumers, businesses, and governments for years, starting way before Obamacare was even a word. And for as long, this health care monster has been cannibalizing other sectors of consumer, business, and government spending.

So it makes sense that commercial real estate investors, at the peak of this bubble, are dreading any little thing that might possibly derail that gravy train. Booms and busts have historically been driven by speculation and over-borrowing, often triggering recessions. This time, the health care sector, after years “of unsustainable growth,” has become the biggest “systemic recession risk” to the US economy, as the debt binge that funded it, hits its limit.

 

Source: The Real Deal

Developer Claims $350 Million ‘Plantation Walk’ Is A ‘Game-Changer’

31118274 - clock with words time for change on its face

Plantation Walk is the new name of South Florida’s latest live, work, and play destination, with Encore Capital Management recently labeling its $350 million mega-center that’s replacing Plantation’s former Fashion Mall.

Rendering of Plantation Walk (Courtesy of Encore Capital Management)

Located at 321 North University Drive, the 32-acre property will feature 700 luxury rental apartments, 200,000 square feet of retail, and an existing 160,000-square-foot Class A office building. It’s about a 20-minute drive from the 65-acre Metropica, which is currently under construction in Sunrise. The office building is expecting to open by the end of 2017.

The project has been billed a “game-changer” by Encore Capital Management CEO and Principal Arthur Falcone, who is also on the development team of another city within a city in Paramount Miami Worldcenter.

“The name Plantation Walk describes what this will be – a walkable, enjoyable hotspot unique to Plantation and South Florida,” Falcone said. “This is a game-changer for the city and region. Once people arrive, whether to work, shop, or live, they’ll have little reason to leave.”

The current parking garage and the 263-key Sheraton Hotel, which remains open, are undergoing renovations as well.

 

Source: Curbed Miami

Boynton Beach To Consider Proposal For Apartments, Retail And Hotel On Federal Highway

Boynton Beach officials will consider plans for the mixed-use Ocean One project along Federal Highway/U.S. 1.

Click on the photo for a SFBJ slideshow of the Ocean One project

Ocean One Boynton LLC, an affiliate of Washington, D.C.-based Washington Real Estate Partners, wants to rezone the 3.63-acre site at 114 N. Federal Highway to allow 358 apartments, 12,075 square feet of commercial/retail, a 120-room hotel and 439 parking spaces. The property runs along the highway from Boynton Beach Boulevard to Ocean Avenue. It is not along the water, but it’s a quick drive across the bridge to the beach.

The City Commission will hold the first vote on Ocean One on March 21 and, should it pass, then a final vote on April 4. Attorney Bonnie Miskel, who represents the developer in the application, couldn’t immediately be reached for comment.

The vote would cover the rezoning and the site plan for the first phase, which would be developed on 1.93 acres of the site. The first phase calls for an 8-story building with 231 apartments in 218,935 square feet and 6,175 square feet of retail, including a health club, and a 7-story parking garage with 359 spaces.

The building would feature a public plaza, an interior courtyard with a pool, summer kitchen, grilling stations and a fountain wall. It would also have a clubhouse. The apartments in the first phase would break down to 152 with one bedroom, and 79 with two bedrooms. Units would range from 560 to 1,600 square feet.

Cohen, Freedman, Encinosa & Associates is the architect of Ocean One. The developer hopes to acquire 0.47 acre of the development site from the Boynton Beach Community Redevelopment Agency. Ocean One Boynton acquired the rest of the site for $9 million in 2005.

According to the Palm Beach Post, Washington Real Estate Partners Chairman F. Davis Camalier is seeking an incentive deal with the CRA to provide millions in property tax rebates for the project.

 

Source: SFBJ

Fort Lauderdale Development Likely To Intensify South Of The New River

Intense real estate development in Fort Lauderdale may shift from the downtown area and the beach to neighborhoods south of the New River and other areas.

“You’re going to see a tremendous development amount of activity downtown, and that will continue,” said Fort Lauderdale Mayor Jack Seiler. But in upcoming years, “I think you’re going to see more on South Andrews Avenue.”

Seiler was one of five members of a panel who spoke Wednesday night at the sales center for the Gale Residences Fort Lauderdale Beach.

Another panelist, Ken Stiles, co-CEO of Fort Lauderdale-based Stiles Corp., cited the potential for development of the area around the Broward Health Medical Center at 1600 South Andrews Avenue.

“It’s just waiting for somebody to step in and do something there,” Stiles said. “There’s not a lot of opportunity downtown anymore … so you’re going to have to look elsewhere. Yet assembling large tracts of land in the South Andrews Avenue corridor is a challenge. There are a couple of big landholders there that make it difficult for us to go in there.”

Fort Lauderdale-based developer Dev Motwani said the city’s planned streetcar system, the Wave, will reinvigorate the South Andrews Avenue corridor when it starts operating there.

“Imagine what’s going to happen when the Wave starts operating,” Motwani said. “Housing is an obvious play” for developers in the South Andrews area, “but there’s also retail opportunity. You can bring restaurants and shops that you didn’t have the daytime population for.”

Sean Jones, vice president of Milton Jones Development Corp. in Dania Beach, said he expects more new construction to unfold northwest of downtown Fort Lauderdale in the Sistrunk Boulevard corridor.

“You’re going to see more intense development in the northwest,” Jones said, citing such catalysts as the summer startup of the Brightline passenger train service at its Fort Lauderdale station, located at 101 Northwest Second Avenue.

The Fort Lauderdale economy is on a roll. Employment in metropolitan Fort Lauderdale increased by 28,604 jobs in 2016, more than in Palm Beach County and Miami-Dade County combined, according to the Bureau of Labor Statistics.

“But financing development in Fort Lauderdale still can be difficult,” Jones said. “It’s a great place. But many times, banks are looking at things on a national basis, and on a national basis, they’re starting to pull back on financing.”

 

Source: The Real Deal

Free Publicity President Brings To Palm Beach May Overshadow Negatives

While airports and some retail locations have been hurt by traffic and road closures during President Donald Trump‘s four visits to his Mar-a-Lago estate since Inauguration Day, leaders of Palm Beach County area business associations see his visits as priceless free marketing.

“There is no question that President Trump’s Winter White House in Palm Beach has clearly elevated the profile of the island and the surrounding areas,” said Kelly Smallridge, president and CEO of the Business Development Board of Palm Beach County. “There is no way we could have ever been in a financial position to have the name ‘Palm Beach’ mentioned so many times on national and international media outlets as often as when the President visits Mar-a-Lago. Our county clearly benefits.”

In addition to the free marketing, the exposure is bringing more people to the region, although any net benefits are hard to deduce because it’s high-season for tourism in Palm Beach.

“All we’re hearing is that it’s good, there’s a trickle down of people coming down into town … they rent hotel rooms and go out to restaurants,” said Penny Pompei, chair of Palm Beach SCORE, an office of the national business counseling and development organization.

Rick Rose, who leads walking tours in the posh Worth Avenue shopping district and is a proprietor at the Grandview Gardens Bed and Breakfast, says he’s seen “no uptick at all” at either of his businesses since Trump has been president. That’s partly because this is the height of the tourism season. However, he gets more questions about Palm Beach and Mar-a-Lago on his walking tours, especially from international visitors and journalists wanting to know more about the history of the area.

“They’re a little more interested in Palm Beach than they have been in the past,” Rose said.

According to Marley Herring, president of the Worth Avenue Association and owner of Marley’s Palm Beach Collection, the first Trump weekend visit presented some obstacles like traffic, but Palm Beach has since adjusted and is benefiting from the exposure. The first presidential weekend stay brought closures which blocked a normal entrance to Worth Avenue, but now visitors are getting used to the traffic detours.

“It’s equaled out. At first, that initial weekend, because no one knew the traffic patterns, that was hard to deal with. But you can see an uptick every weekend since,” Herring said.

During the president’s fourth weekend visit, it was back to business as usual along Worth Avenue.

“It’s been positive, and the fact is it’s getting better every week,” Herring said. “I think he’s just doing what he normally does, and what a great place to do it. It’s just beautiful here.”

Like airports, the waters around Palm Beach and Mar-a-Lago have restrictions put in place when the president is in town. But the marine industry doesn’t seem to be as affected as the airports. In fact, Chuck Collins, executive director of the Marine Industries Association of Palm Beach County, seems to have an opposite view.

“It’s probably one of the best things that have ever happened to us,” Collins said.

Collins is a marine veteran, having served as the former South Regional Director for the Florida Fish and Wildlife Conservation Commission. For Collins, who joined the Marine Industries Association a little over two years ago, Trump’s visits to Palm Beach County are some of the best advertising for the region’s beaches and waterways.

“Think of what happens when President Trump comes down here. This is the ‘Winter White House.’ What do you see when they film down here? Palm trees, greens, beaches, you see all the different boats in the marine industry, you see all different people paddle boarding, in swim suits,” Collins said. “People are watching this, and you know what they’re thinking? That’s where I want to be when I retire. That’s paradise.”

Collins is familiar with the benefits of free publicity. While at Fish and Wildlife, he was part of the team that decided to launch the python challenge, a special hunting season where hunters were allowed to target invasive Burmese pythons. And although at first there was some criticism, the python hunt netted Fish and Wildlife millions of dollars in free publicity.

“I got a bunch of criticism and I said, ‘Are you kidding? I’ve got 20-foot snakes down here.’ I ended up getting $40 million in free publicity,” Collins said. “That was one little event. Trump’s visits are going to be worth hundreds of millions of dollars in free publicity.”

This is Part IV and the final installment of the Business Journal’s series on the impact of President Donald Trump‘s weekend visits to Mar-a-Lago.

Click here to go to Part I of the Business Journal’s series on the impact of Trump’s visits to Mar-a-Lago, “Trump’s Winter White House visits hamper some businesses in Palm Beach, help others.”

Click here to go to Part II, “Regional airports suffer when Trump touches down.”

Click here to go to Part III, “The free publicity Trump brings may overshadow the negatives.”

 

Source: SFBJ