Things To Do In SW Florida

To get a sense of how much demand there is for luxury lakefront homes in the Orlando market, look at what happened this year along Park Avenue in Winter Park.

After mansions located next to each other were torn down, two separate buyers jumped at the opportunity to snag the now-vacant lots on Lake Maitland with plans to build their dream homes from scratch.

They paid a premium. One lot sold for $5.5 million in August. The other sold for $6.8 million in October.

“There was nothing like this land in Winter Park,” Brian Mitnick, a realtor with Re/Max 200 involved in both deals, told GrowthSpotter. “Here’s the problem: Right now, I’ve got two or three people who are looking for lakefront homes on the Winter Park chain of lakes and they’re just non-existent. The only way to find anything (here) is to tear something down. But you’re going to have to pay for it.”

Across the Greater Orlando metro, there aren’t enough luxury homes on the market — particularly of the lakefront variety — to keep up with demand as more and more move to the area. So when one does become available, people are willing to fork over big money. read more

SEATTLE (AP) — The U.S. online retailer Zulily is closing down, surprising customers and laying off hundreds of workers after efforts to salvage the business failed.

The Seattle-based company said in a notice on its website that it had tried to fill all pending orders and expected to manage that within the coming two weeks. Zulily said it was trying to ensure that orders that could not be filled were cancelled and refunded and offered a contact for customers who did not get their orders or refunds.

“This decision was not easy nor was it entered into lightly. However, given the challenging business environment in which Zulily operated, and the corresponding financial instability, Zulily decided to take immediate and swift action,” said the notice, signed by Ryan C. Baker, vice president at management consultant Douglas Wilson Companies, which is handling the receivership for the company.

Founded in 2010 by Darrell Cavens and Mark Vadon, Zulily made a splash with products catering to families with young children and staged a successful IPO on the Nasdaq in 2013. But it was taken private after it was acquired in 2015 for $2.4 billion by QVC parent company Qurate, formerly known as Liberty Interactive. Zulily’s CEO Terry Boyle left the company at the end of October as financial troubles mounted following its acquisition by private equity firm Regent from Qurate in May. read more