Real Estate

A company headquartered in Hong Kong has bought a piece of property at the Edison Mall in Fort Myers. That property includes the closed Sears store, which used to be a popular shopping spot. A Fort Myers council member said the Sears may be torn down to make way for multi-family housing.

NAREB, Home ownership, Black wealth, Fort Myers, Southwest Florida, Fair Housing Act

Local real estate agents are scrambling to figure out the effect on them of the National Association of Realtors’ anti-trust settlement last week to pay $418 million in damages and eliminate some rules dealing with commissions.A judge still has to approve the settlement. The new rules will take effect in July, if approved.

Between COVID19 and Hurricane Ian, the Southwest Florida commercial real estate market has seen very erratic the last few years. Southwest Florida Business Today Publisher Karen Moore takes a look at the most recent trends.

Of the top five spots, the Naples-Immokalee-Marco Island area reported a median home price of $810,000; Miami-Fort Lauderdale-West Palm Beach was at $610,000; North Port-Sarasota-Bradenton was at $513,000; Cape Coral-Fort Myers reported in at $445,000, and the Crestview-Fort Walton Beach-Destin was at $441,500.

For 10 years, Skyplex at the regional airport in Fort Myers has been heralded as a commercial zone that would change the region. To date, only a few office buildings by major players have been built there. Karen Moore reports on the latest updates provided by the head of commercial real estate firm Cushman Wakefield.

Karen Moore, publisher of Southwest Florida Business Today, attended an economic summit recently and heard from Matt Simmons, managing partner of Maxwell, Hendry and Simmons, a local real estate appraisal firm. He shared his views on how Lee County is responding to the economic impact after Hurricane Ian.

Where does SWFL commercial real estate stand as we enter the second half of 2022? Karen Moore, publisher of Southwest Florida Business Today, attended the CCIM-SWFL Chapter Mid-Year Commercial Real Estate Update session to learn the answers.

Carefree Community is a lesbian neighborhood in North Fort Myers that was developed by married couple Gina Razete and Cathy Groene. Resident Sharon Rodgers has lived in the community for over twenty years, and she describes it as a sisterhood. There are still the usual spats between neighbors, but at the end of the day everyone is there for one another, and that’s what she thinks makes Carefree a special place.

In South Florida, top considerations for choosing a new home have shifted, thanks to climate change.