Things To Do In SW Florida

With plans for a new high-rise apartment tower and office building stalled, Creative Village master developer Craig Ustler is pushing ahead with plans for a smaller, mixed-use building — the only type of project he believes is currently doable downtown.

Ustler Development and co-developer Brooke Myers with Velocity Red are seeking to expedite the purchase of the 1.2-acre lot known as “Parcel H” in the master plan to build a 7-story mixed-use building with 122 units of market-rate housing just south of Luminary Green Park. High interest rates and escalating construction costs have made larger projects difficult to finance, he says.

“As you know, there are no large-scale projects under construction in Downtown Orlando,” Ustler told GrowthSpotter. “This is because they are not viable based on current market conditions.” Ustler hopes his Parcel H project, for which he recently submitted plans to the city, will be a catalyst for planned apartments and a larger office development. read more

When Spirit Airlines filed its Chapter 11 bankruptcy petition in New York last week, one of its top executives offered the court a note of optimism.

The troubled South Florida-based airline, said Fred Cromer, an executive vice president and chief financial officer in a court declaration, was entering its financial overhaul process “with an eye towards continuing to deliver low-cost, high-quality service to its loyal customers, and to do so for years to come.”

The question is, does the pioneering discounter have enough time to transform its service profile from a maverick bare-bones carrier to a more upscale airline?

On approach to one of the busiest Thanksgiving travel seasons in memory, Spirit flew as usual last week after filing a “prearranged” Chapter 11 bankruptcy petition designed to quickly reduce a large chunk of debt in a restructuring deal with lenders that calls for the creditors to take $350 million in newly created equity in the airline. They’re also lending Spirit a fresh $300 million to finance operations during the Chapter 11 process. read more

By MAE ANDERSON, AP Business Writer

NEW YORK (AP) — Starting a small business is hard. Figuring out what to do with a small business when an owner is ready to retire can be even more difficult.

Small business owners say it is best to have a plan well in advance of making a big change like ceding a business to someone else.

Mike Roach started Paloma Clothing in Portland, Oregon, as a co-owner with his mother in 1975. In 1981, he became co-owner with his wife, Kim Osgood. But after nearly 50 years of owning the business, Roach, 74, knew he needed to start thinking about what came next.

His manager, Traci Burnes, helped steer the company through the pandemic, during a fraught time when they could have shuttered, by figuring out how to retain employees and stay afloat during the shutdown.

“At that point, we started thinking, this is really a lot more than the manager. She should be a co-owner, right?,” Roach said. “So then we sort of started trying to think about how we could engineer that and and really got serious about it about a year ago.” read more

By KELVIN CHAN, Business Writer

LONDON (AP) — Looking for a new social media platform because X, Threads and Mastodon just aren’t cutting it? You could try Bluesky.

People seeking to avoid chaos, noise and political bluster in the aftermath of the U.S. elections are noticing a different mood on the Bluesky social platform, where the vibe is seemingly welcoming and there are noticeably fewer trolls.

The site announced it had rapidly added more than a million new users in the week after Election Day, and has emerged as one of the fastest growing rivals to Elon Musk’s X and similar platforms.

If you’re tempted to check out the new space, here’s a guide on how Bluesky works:

Getting started

Maybe you’re not ready to commit to adding yet another social media account. No problem — you can still look around on Bluesky without signing up because all posts and profiles are public.

You might get a sense of deja vu because the platform’s look and feel are very similar to X. That should be no surprise because Twitter co-founder Jack Dorsey was an early Bluesky champion. (Dorsey’s no longer involved with Bluesky, which is owned and run by its executive team as a public benefit corporation.) read more

KENNEDY SPACE CENTER — Zoey Romero is only 12 years old, but in her new job as space reporter this week, she got to do something most reporters have yet to do. She was able to tour Blue Origin’s New Glenn factory.

“We got to see where all the rockets and the stages are made,” said the student who attends Cornerstone Charter Academy in Orlando. “They were actually huge, and it was really exciting to see.”

Romero was standing in the rocket garden at Kennedy Space Center Visitor Complex, one of eight children from across the United States who won a contest to become members of the SpaceKids Press Squad, the brainchild of Central Florida nonprofit SpaceKids Global.

When asked to compare them to the likes of the Gemini- and Mercury-era rockets at KSC, Zoey used her new descriptive skills of reporting.

“These are tiny little models compared to the ones in the factory,” she said.

It’s been a whirlwind week for Zoey and her fellow student press members, who range from ages 8-12. They were able to tour United Launch Alliance’s facility on Cape Canaveral Space Force Station, and actually watch Thursday morning’s launch of a SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket only a couple miles from the pad. read more