Things To Do In SW Florida

Troubled Spirit Airlines has obtained some financial leeway, borrowing $300 million and obtaining another extended deadline for refinancing a large chunk of its debt, the company has disclosed.

The Dania Beach-based discount airline, which is still the predominant carrier at Fort Lauderdale-Hollywood International Airport in terms of passengers carried, said in a filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission on Friday that its credit card processor advanced a 2025 note extension deadline to Dec. 23. The borrowing consumed the entirety of the available amount of $300 million under a revolving credit facility.

“Spirit has to address debt payment timing and resizing the fixed cost structure, and it is still unclear if this can be completed with/without Chapter 11,” Raymond James airline analyst Savanthi Syth said in a weekend note to investors.

In the regulatory filing, management said Spirit expects to end 2024 with more than $1 billion in cash. The report drove Spirit’s flagging common stock price up by 31% to $1.91 in after-hours trading on Friday. The shares have plunged by 90% for the year. read more

DEAR TRAVEL TROUBLESHOOTER: I booked a roundtrip flight from Dallas to Denver on Frontier Airlines recently. Frontier charged my wife’s credit card $583 on the same day. I never received a confirmation email. Frontier does not have a way to call anyone — there’s no customer service phone number — so I emailed the airline. I received a message from a reservations specialist the next day, who asked for my flight details. I provided them, but never heard from her again.

I continued emailing her but never received a response from her or Frontier Airlines. I found a phone number that I thought was for Frontier, but when I called it, they put me on hold for 15 minutes. A person came back on the line and said they were in the “queue” with Frontier and needed my full credit card number because they “knew Frontier would need that information.” This is when I knew it was a scam, and I hung up.

I decided to drive to the airport to try and speak with a ticket agent. I just needed our confirmation number, which is required to check in. But there weren’t any Frontier agents at the airport. As a last-ditch effort, I tried to dispute the charges on my wife’s credit card, but her bank sided with Frontier. read more

Now that Hurricanes Helene and Milton have savaged countless homes on the Gulf Coast and across Central and South Florida, perennial post-storm questions are again being raised among beleaguered homeowners: Is now the time to get out for good? And for those who do decide to move, what will the real estate picture look like for people in search of new dwellings?

Post-Hurricane snapshots suggest many have little choice amid the chaos and calamity: fetid debris piled high in Gulf Coast towns and cities, homes flooded beyond repair, a massive construction crane collapsed in a heap on a downtown St. Petersburg street, an alligator languishing on a bed as it floated along a canal in Florida’s Big Bend.

A number of frustrated Gulf Coast home and business owners have informed visiting news reporters they have had enough and are contemplating an exit from paradise. Overall, the hurricanes appear to have further dampened a once explosive real estate market already slowed by high mortgage rates and insurance costs,  relegating a large potential buyer pool to the sidelines. read more

Jay Work opened his first of five Grateful J’s smoke shops in Margate in 1995. He sells familiar smoking products: water pipes, rolling papers, and lately, an array of THC-infused hemp products that distributors contend were legalized under the 2018 Farm Bill.

Customers might be surprised to see signs that Work posted around his stores urging them to vote “No” on Amendment 3, the measure that would legalize adult-use marijuana in Florida.

The number of smoke shops in Florida, like Grateful J’s, has increased by more than 1,000 since 2019, according to data by the state Department of Revenue. Hemp entrepreneurs say an explosion of hemp products since 2018 has fueled the growth.

They’re identified by the department as retail stores engaged in the sale of “retailing cigarettes, electronic cigarettes, cigars, tobacco, pipes, and other smokers’ supplies.” Their number increased from 630 in 2009 to 1,579 in 2019, and by another 1,053 over the past five years. They totaled 2,632 in 2023. Taxable sales at smoke shops increased from $615 million in 2019 to $1.7 billion in 2013. read more

By JENNIFER McDERMOTT

One of the largest solar projects in the U.S. opened in Texas on Friday, backed by what Google said is the largest solar electricity purchase it has ever made.

Google executive Ben Sloss said at the ribbon cutting, about two hours south of Dallas, that the corporation has a responsibility to bring renewable, carbon-free electricity online at the same time it opens operations that will use that power. Google expects to spend $16 billion through 2040 globally to purchase clean energy, he said.

U.S. Energy Secretary Jennifer Granholm, who attended, said the solar project is a posterchild for the administration’s efforts to incentivize manufacturers and developers to locate energy projects in the U.S.

“Sometimes when you are in the middle of history, it’s hard to tell, because you are in the middle of it,” she said. “But I’m telling you right now that we are in the middle of history being made.”

SB Energy built three solar farms side by side, the “Orion Solar Belt,” in Buckholts, Texas. Combined, they will be able to provide 875 megawatts of clean energy. That is nearly the size of a typical nuclear facility. In total, Google has contracted with clean energy developers to bring more than 2,800 megawatts of new wind and solar projects to the state, which it says exceeds the amount of power required for its operations there. read more