Otto Investment Group, a real estate investment firm headquartered in Clearwater, paid $10.6 million for a seven-property multifamily portfolio in St. Petersburg. The properties include Old Southeast Apartments, Tropical Shores, The Palms Apartments, Bayside Apartments, Park View Apartments, Lakewood Apartments and Uptown St. Petersburg, according to a news release from CBRE, which negotiated the sale. The portfolio traded at $83,730 per unit. The seller, Second Half Properties, maintained 95 percent rent collection in April and May, CBRE said. Joseph Thavis and Cameron Barbas of CBRE represented both the buyer and seller in the deal.
Paradise Inc. in Plant City has sold its plastics division to Portage Plastics Corp., a multi-national thermoforming company headquartered in Wisconsin. Financial terms were not disclosed in a news release announcing the sale. Hyde Park Capital in Tampa served as the exclusive investment banker to Paradise for the transaction. Hyde Park previously advised the Paradise management team on the sale of their candied fruit business to Seneca Foods Corp.
Tampa Bay Software CEO Council donated $10,000 to Think Big for Kids, a nonprofit that provides career exploration, mentorship and skills development for underprivileged youth. Think Big for Kids' efforts to end the cycle of poverty and get young people excited about careers was cited as the reason for the donation in a news release. The CEO Council is part of Tampa Bay Tech, a nonprofit technology council, and its member companies include A-LIGN, Accusoft, AgileThought, Bond-Pro, FairWarning, Geographic Solutions, Haneke Design, MercuryWorks, Sourcetoad, Spirion and SunView Software. Think Big for Kids was founded in 2016 by Tony DiBenedetto, tech executive and entrepreneur. Read more about the donation in the St. Pete Catalyst's Impact section.
Bank of America, the largest retail bank operating in the Tampa-St. Petersburg area, gave grants totaling $875,000 to 18 local nonprofits to address issues related to COVID-19. Those local groups are: Boys & Girls Club of the Suncoast; Boys & Girls Club of Tampa Bay; CDC of Tampa; Crisis Center of Tampa Bay; Daystar Life Center; ECHO of Brandon; Feeding Tampa Bay; Homeless Empowerment Project; Meals on Wheels of Tampa; Metropolitan Ministries; Pinellas County Urban League; Pinellas Education Foundation; St. Petersburg Free Clinic; Starting Right, Now; Tampa Bay Job Links; United Way Suncoast; University Area CDC; and YMCA of St. Petersburg. Separately, Bank of America (NYSE: BAC) has made a $1 billion, four-year commitment of additional support to help local communities nationwide address economic and racial inequality accelerated by a global pandemic. Those programs will be focused on assisting people and communities of color that have experienced a greater impact from the health crisis, a news release said. Local recipients of the $1 billion commitment have not yet been determined.
Pinellas County reported a total of 2,103 confirmed cases of COVID-19 on Saturday morning, an increase of 162 cases from Friday. That's the largest single-day increase to date in Pinellas County since the Florida Department of Health began providing daily case counts by county in early March. A separate dashboard by the Tampa Bay Partnership says the rolling 14-day average of new cases is 60.2 cases per day in Pinellas County, as of today. In Pinellas, 64,957 COVID-19 tests have been performed and 3.2 percent of them were positive. A total of 102 Pinellas County residents have died from COVID-19 since the outbreak began.
The executive council of the regional accrediting agency that oversees higher education in the southern United States approved University of South Florida’s plan to consolidate its three campuses. The decision by the Southern Association of Colleges and Schools Commission on Colleges (SACSCOC) authorizes a single accreditation for the Tampa, St. Petersburg, and Sarasota campuses, a news release said. It allows USF to comply with a Florida law that mandates consolidation effective July 1, 2020. It's an historic milestone, said USF President Steven Currall. “Consolidation will provide USF students and faculty on all of our campuses with access to a broader array of opportunities and now every USF student will earn their degree from a Preeminent State Research University," Currall said. Still ahead is a site visit by a SACSCOC committee later this year or early next year to all three campuses, the Morsani College of Medicine in downtown Tampa and possibly other off-campus instructional sites.
Rich Hume, CEO of Tech Data Corp. joined the board of directors of The AllState Corp. (NYSE: ALL) effective today. “Rich is an accomplished leader with an extensive technology background who will help build on the strategic capabilities of Allstate’s board and support our Transformative Growth Plan,” said Tom Wilson, chair, president and CEO. “He brings a passion for innovation and a deep knowledge of global business services that will be invaluable as Allstate grows by connecting consumers.” Hume has served as CEO of Tech Data (Nasdaq: TECD) since 2018. He joined the company in 2016 as chief operating officer.Tech Data, an IT distributor headquartered in Clearwater and the largest publicly held company based in the Tampa-St. Petersburg area, has agreed to be acquired by funds managed by Apollo Global Management and become a privaely held company.
One day after announcing several cases of COVID-19 at the Pinellas County Jail, the sheriff's office has outlined a series of actions underway to curb the outbreak. Among the steps: Law enforcement agencies are being asked not to make physical arrests for misdemeanors, except for those charged with domestic violence, violations of injunctions or people who are a threat to public safety. All court appearances will be by videoconferencing, and judges have been asked to refrain from remanding defendants to custody, according to a news release from the Sheriff's office. Thirteen staff members and five inmates have tested positive for COVID-19, while test result are pending for 14 jail employees, the news release said.
Pinellas County reported 116 newly confirmed cases of COVID-19 as of Thursday morning, the most new cases reported in a single day in the county since the pandemic began. There were 1,862 total cases in Pinellas as of Thursday, compared to 1,746 cases on Wednesday, according to the Florida Department of Health. Thirteen residents at Bon Secours Maria Manor Nursing Care Center in St. Petersburg tested positive on Wednesday, according to Bay News 9. Bon Secours is in the 33716 ZIP code, which posted a total increase of 17 cases on Thursday. Three other ZIP codes, all in south St. Petersburg, posted large increases as well: 33705 and 33712 each had 13 new cases and 33711 had 11 new cases. Those ZIP codes, which all have majority Black populations, have consistently posted the most daily increases in COVID cases in Pinellas County over the past several days.
BREAKING: 13 COVID-19 patients have been identified at Bon Secours in St. Pete. They are being transferred to area hospitals. #bn9covid19 #COVID19 #LongTermCare @BN9
— Cait McVey (@CaitMcVey) June 10, 2020
There were 110,520 first-time claims filed by Floridians for unemployment benefits in the week ended June 6. It was the lowest number of first-time unemployment claims in Florida for one week since mid-March, when the financial impacts of the COVID-19 outbreak began to be felt. However, Florida still had the third-highest number of initial unemployment claims among the states for the week ended June 6; only California with 258,060 first-time claims and Georgia, with 134,711 claims had more than Florida. Nationally, 1.5 million people filed first-time unemployment claims last week. The advance seasonally adjusted insured unemployment rate nationally was 14.4 percent for the week ending May 30, a news release from the U.S. Department of Labor said.
The St. Pete Catalyst, the City of St. Petersburg, Spectrum, the St. Pete Chamber of Commerce and the St. Petersburg Group are launching a search for a fun video PSA (public service announcement) called “How Do You Remember Your Mask?” The hunt is on for a creative, 30-second video, and the winner will be broadcast via Spectrum. Rules and the deadline for submissions are available at www.stpetecatalyst.com/maskpsa.
Ghasan Awad, the former owner of a St. Petersburg grocery store, is one of three men charged with conspiracy to defraud the U.S. Department of Agriculture. Awad, who lives in Safety Harbor, along with Ahmad Al Saleh and Bassam Al Saleh, who both live in Tampa, also are charged with making false statements to the USDA regarding the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program, according to a news release from the U.S. Attorney's Office for the Middle District of Florida. An indictment said that Awad was the former owner of Express Meat Market, a grocery store in St. Petersburg that accepted SNAP benefits. According to the indictment, after Awad was disqualified from SNAP, he conspired with the other defendants to fraudulently transfer ownership of the store to Ahmad Al Saleh. The indictment also said Awad unlawfully paid cash to store customers in exchange for their SNAP benefits.
