Kohl’s expands in South Florida
By Darcie Lunsford
Recession. What recession? Shoppers swamped the new Kohl’s on its April 9 opening day. The 88,000-square-foot store on Congress Avenue marks the chain’s first in South Florida.
In all, the Menomonee Falls, Wis.-based department store plans to open eight stores in the region. Store officials are remaining mum on where.
But you can add the new Caligo Crossing in Coconut Creek and Southern Palms centers in Royal Palm Beach to the list, according to marketing brochures for both centers. The 232,385-square-foot Southern Palms, at the corner of Lyons Road and Southern Boulevard, will have a 92,369-square-foot Kohl’s and an 80,000-square-foot Dick’s Sporting Goods, another South Florida first. Developed by Panattoni, Southern Palms is expected to open early next year.
Kohl’s also is set anchor the 113,510-square foot Caligo Crossing, which is now going up at Hillsboro Boulevard and U.S. Highway 441 in Coconut Creek. Jacksonville-based Regency Centers is developing that project.
“Kohl’s looks for communities with high concentrations of families with children,” said Kohl's spokesperson Elizabeth DeLuca. “ When it makes sense, we build stores in new communities near communities we already serve.”
In 2008, the chain expects to open as many as 75 stores nationwide. And generally, South Florida retail experts say the drag of the residential market and economy is starting to tug at rents and vacancy, but it is far from yanking them way down.
Vacancy rates in Palm Beach and Broward counties are about 5 percent, according to retail manger and brokerage firm Terranova’s most recent market data. Miami-Dade County’s vacancy rate is less than 4 percent. Rents in all three counties also rose in 2007 compared to 2006, data sowed. Palm Beach County experienced the largest boost with average rents spiking almost 11 percent. Broward saw the smallest with 2.6 percent growth, data showed. Miami-Dade rents grew nearly 8.5 percent.
But an extended economic downturn will likely whack away at retail’s stability, experts say. “I think that it is really more of a waiting game now,” said Sharon Dresser, a broker with the Shopping Center Group. “I think it really depends on the category. Anything to do with the housing market is not doing a whole lot.”
By the close of 2008, she said, retail rents in South Florida may fall as smaller retailers wipe out in the harsh economic waters and bigger ones pull back.
New Eastern Airline Could Soar:
By Brian Bandell
Seventeen years after the last Eastern Air Lines flight, the airline is on the verge of a revival. But who will be in the cockpit is up to federal judges.
The lone employee of Eastern Air Lines, which folded in 1991 amid a bankruptcy filing, sold its assets and trademarks to an aviation industry veteran who's geared up to slap the Eastern Air Lines name on his new airline. But a challenge before the U.S. Patent and Trademark Appeal Board has been brought by a Pennsylvania businessman seeking to register the Eastern Air Lines name and logo for a new airline of his own.
Both parties have motions for summary judgment that could help them claim sole rights to the Eastern Air Lines trademarks. The winner could have an open runway for a re-launch of the aviation legend.
Eastern Air Lines was an economic engine in Miami for decades. Besides the nostalgia factor, bringing back the famous name could create a viable airline - possibly based in Miami once again.
Although it had about 35,000 employees before it entered bankruptcy in 1989 and folded two years later, Eastern Air Lines VP Ronald T. Bevans Jr. is the sole remaining employee. He is the steward of its remaining assets and trademarks, for which he signed a deal in late 2007 to sell to Aviation Capital Partners Group. That company is controlled by Edward Wegel, who started his aviation executive career at Eastern Air Lines in 1985. He has held executive positions at Atlantic Coast Airlines, BWIA, Chautauqua Airlines, Mesa Air Group and Travelogix. Wegel, of Connecticut, said he hopes to restart Eastern Air Lines in Miami by summer 2009.
Bevan's attorney, Miami-based Steven Eisenberg, wrote in his motion for summary judgment to keep the trademarks: "After a short absence in its long and storied existence, under the leadership of well known aviation businessman Edward Wegel, Eastern Air Lines is preparing to return to the skies where, once again, it will fly passengers throughout the United States and the Western Hemisphere while at the same time recall the early days of commercial aviation and participate in its future."
The motion says Wegel has deployed significant capital and effort into a business plan to use the Eastern Air Lines trademarks for domestic and international service for passengers and freight. The original Eastern would have a continuing financial interest in the use of its marks and the success of its purchaser.
Job incentives for Eastern? Perhaps coincidently, another startup airline is billing itself as the first Miami-based passenger airline since Eastern shut down. It received approval from Miami-Dade commissioners for job growth incentives on April 8.
The company, whose name hasn't been disclosed, could get nearly $1 million in state and county funds over six years if it hires 245 employees with average wages of $65,816 a year. According to its application, the startup airline would invest $14.8 million in renovating and equipping 52,000 square feet for its international headquarters in the Doral/Hialeah area.
The airline would be a commercial and cargo carrier serving Miami, New York and the Caribbean. It is also considering Queens in New York City. Wegel said his company will be funded by private investors without public assistance. He said he doesn't know who applied for the incentives.
State College, Pa. resident Edward Lauth III wants to get Bevan's plans grounded so he can use the Eastern Air Lines trademarks for his own venture. In 2005, the founder of Aquapenn Spring Water Co. filed an application to declare the Eastern Air Lines trademarks and logos canceled so he could proceed with his application to trademark them himself. Lauth's motions contend the original Eastern Air Lines abandoned those marks by not using them for air transportation for over a decade.
Planet RV To Land In Deerfield Beach:
BY ED DUGGAN
Plans are under way to convert the 74,000-square-foot Deerfield Beach Sport Complex into one of the nation's largest indoor RV centers.
The arena and a separately owned adjacent parking lot are under contract for a combined $10 million by Gigi Stetler, CEO of RV Sales of Broward, a 24-year-old company. The sports arena has two rollerblade rinks on a 55,000-square-foot ground floor and offices and other facilities on the 19,000-square-foot upper level.
What Stetler has planned for the new site is not your father’s RV store. In fact, it’s more like a destination resort.
Planet RV will feature variable spaces for independent vendors with compatible RV-related products and services. Stetler envisions a child care facility, a chiropractor, tanning services, an indoor grill, bar and dance floor.
Greg Gobel, owner of Holiday RV in Key Largo and the former local chapter president of the Florida Recreational Vehicle Trade Association, said: “Good for her! She’s a very aggressive young lady who has really done well in this industry.
Gobel noted that 30 years ago, there were more than a dozen major RV dealers in Palm Beach, Broward, Miami-Dade and Monroe counties. “Now, there are just five,” he said. Stetler said she plans to relocate her three existing RV facilities – two in Broward and one in West Palm Beach – to the new location this fall. The locations that are owned may go up for sale, she said.
At Planet RV, there will be six inside service bays for cosmetic and reconstructive upgrades, but no mechanical work. Other companies do those services.
Nationwide, the RV business is a $14.7 billion industry, according to a spokesman with the Reston, Va.-based Recreational Vehicle Industry Association.
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