Things To Do In SW Florida

Despite an unflattering audit that had exposed questionable spending, Visit Orlando won a renewed contract Tuesday from Orange County that likely ensures the tourism-promotion agency will continue receiving big piles of public money to spend on luring visitors.

The board voted 5-2 to accept a document that underwent extensive late changes and finally was sent by email at 11:13 p.m. Monday, after being signed earlier in the evening.

Commissioners Mayra Uribe and Kelly Martinez Semrad, the two “no” votes, grumbled about the late-hour delivery of the final draft, arguing they hadn’t had sufficient time to fully study terms imposing new restrictions on an agency that received more than $100 million in tourist-tax dollars in each of the last two years. The contract was first signed in 2019.

Frustrated, both said they had repeatedly sought earlier details of the changes.

But Comptroller Phil Diamond told the board the amended agreement addressed the findings of his auditing team, whose critical review of some Visit Orlando accounting and spending practices sparked the board’s discussion. read more

Developers of a proposed $66.9 million boutique hotel in Montverde secured an incentive grant from Lake County that could potentially save the development up to $824,269 annually in property taxes.

Spencer Schar, president of The Club at Bella Collina, applied for the grant in 2025 for his “Mansion at Bella Collina” project, and Lake County Commissioners unanimously approved it at Tuesday’s commission meeting. It is the first of five grants planned by the county to attract new hotels to the area.

Planned on approximately four acres along County Road 455, near the luxury lakefront Bella Collina gated community and next to the Siena at Bella Collina vacation condos, the proposed boutique hotel is set to contain 100 rooms and a conference center.

Of those rooms, 70 will be standard guest rooms and the other 30 will be suites. The suites will be broken down into 22 luxury suites, four executive suites and four presidential suites.

According to Schar, the hotel will be managed by The Club at Bella Collina, but will not have memberships and will be open to the public. read more

By WYATTE GRANTHAM-PHILIPS, AP Business Writer

NEW YORK (AP) — Paramount is again sweetening its hostile takeover bid for Warner Bros. Discovery, while again extending the deadline for its tender offer as it scrambles for more shareholder support.

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On Tuesday, the Skydance-owned company said it would pay Warner shareholders an added “ticking fee” if its deal doesn’t go through by the end of the year — amounting to 25 cents per share, or a total of $650 million, for every quarter after Dec. 31. Paramount also pledged to fund Warner’s proposed $2.8 billion breakup payout to Netflix under its studio and streaming merger agreement. read more

NASA’s plans to get the first human spaceflight of the year off the pad have to hold off until at least Friday because of weather constraints along the flight path needed in case of emergency. That delay, though, opens the door for a national security mission aiming for liftoff on Thursday morning.

The SpaceX Crew-12 mission is now looking at a launch no earlier than 5:15 a.m. Friday from Cape Canaveral Space Force Station’s Space Launch Complex 40, pushing back another day from what had originally targeted an early Wednesday liftoff.

The flight path for the Crew Dragon Freedom needs to have good weather conditions in case of an abort, and high winds are expected along the eastern seaboard.

So NASA astronauts Jessica Meir and Jack Hathaway, European Space Agency astronaut Sophie Adenot, and Roscosmos cosmonaut Andrey Fedyaev, will wait another day in quarantine at Kennedy Space Center before they get their chance to launch on what is planned to be an eight-month stay on board the International Space Station. read more

By STAN CHOE, AP Business Writer

NEW YORK (AP) — Stocks are hovering near records on Wall Street Tuesday following a mixed set of profit reports from big U.S. companies, as Hasbro jumps but Coca-Cola slips. Hopes are also building that the Federal Reserve will cut interest rates later this year to boost the economy following a discouraging report on the strength of U.S. shoppers.

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The S&P 500 fell 0.1%, but at one point in the morning was sitting just above its all-time high set a couple weeks ago. The Dow Jones Industrial Average was adding 54 points, or 0.1%, to its own record, as of 1:43 p.m. Eastern time, and the Nasdaq composite was 0.2% lower. read more