The dispute came to light in April when the Florida Department of Education awarded the lucrative contract for a computer-based testing system to NCS Pearson. The other competing company, CTB/McGraw-Hill, challenged the decision and asked an administrative law judge to give the department a chance to resolve the dispute.
]]> CTB's argument was that they missed out on the contract by a fraction of a point and were penalized for not fully understanding the proposal question. They also argued that Pearson had not responded to all of the requirements set for in the request for proposal.The two competitors and the department of education worked out a solution where CTB would supply some of the test questions and in turn, Pearson will pay them $4.6 million. Pearson was still awarded the contract, but this stipulation essentially resolved the dispute.
The federal Race to the Top grant program that Florida was awarded in 2010 will help to improve standardized testing. It has a budget of $36.8 million and states compete for this grant because it focuses on policy changes within schools.
The new proposed testing system is set to roll out during the upcoming school year and be fully running by 2013-2014. The contract will be for two years and the state has the option to renew the contract for up to three more years.
Source: The Florida Current, "Department of Education Settles Race to the Top contract dispute," Travis Pillow, May 15, 2012
]]>Helgerson Franchise Group is launching a national franchise opportunity for IslandTime Treasures, a new concept that provides a unique sand impression art experience for customers to build their own treasure. The company opened its first location in November 2011 in the Bradenton, Florida, area and has had a lot of success with the concept. The company's founders are now ready to expand their idea by awarding mobile units, retail kiosks or cart franchise opportunities to qualified people nationwide.
]]> The concept of Islandtime Treasures is the idea that a customer can create a sand impression art experience in three steps. First the customer chooses a treasure form in a variety of shapes. Second, the customer decorates the sand impression with shells, sea glass, rocks, etc. and finally, mud plaster is poured into the form and 15 minutes later their project is ready. The cost of these impressions range from $10 to $40 and is similar to a plaster stepping stone.The company hopes that its relatively low start-up costs and the appeal to families, schools, church fundraisers, events, fairs, and parties will be a draw to individuals looking to start their own business.
Moving a concept like Islandtime Treasures nationally takes the expertise of an attorney experienced in franchising. They understand all of the details behind the scenes that will protect the interests of the original owners and understand all of the phases of business operations including the sale and distribution of goods and services and franchise licenses.
Source: Blue Maumau, "IslandTime Treasures Launches National Franchise Expansion," Lonnie Helgerson, May 4, 2012
]]>This week a Florida court sided with the union employees saying that they were subject to unfair labor practices that took place during contract negations in 2010. Now Hialeah must decide if they will appeal this decision to the Florida Supreme Court. Hialeah feels that they did not commit unfair labor practices by enforcing a 30 percent pay cut to its union employees.
]]> With the lower court siding with the union employees, this could cost the city millions in back pay. This particular case involves Hialeah's largest union of employees and it includes the American Federation of State, County and Municipal Employees.The dispute dates back to July 2010 when the city council voted to impose a contract on the union that included a 30 percent pay cut. The union feels that the city council did not follow the proper protocol to impose the contract because it did not consider a last minute union objection that was stated in the 2010 year-end report. The report stated that the contract should, "Rescind the impasse resolution action taken by the city council on July 13, 2010." The union believes that this means that the city must repay employees for the pay cut imposed by the council. Back-wages could mean a cost to the city of approximately $7 million.
The city feels that this doesn't mean that they owe any back-pay and have not been ordered to do so. Nothing has been decided and the issue is going to be postponed for approximately 30 days until the city decides whether they will appeal the latest decision to the Florida Supreme Court.
Source: The Miami Herald, "Appeals court sides with union over Hialeah in 'unfair practices' dispute," Christina Veiga, May 1, 2012
]]>The teachers union is not happy that the mediator sided with the school district to give raises to some of its teachers and others would receive a one-time bonus of $700 to those at the top end of the pay scale and $350 to those hired since pay freezes began in the district. The union feels that the district can afford to give all of the teachers pay raises if back-dated to Nov. 1.
]]> The mediator sided with the district because he felt that a pay raise for everyone could lock them into a budget that they couldn't afford in the long run. The district wants to be careful not to over commit their financial resources, or it could mean future layoffs, which the district has avoided only having to do once in the last five years.When negotiations began, the district offered only one-time bonuses, but an unexpected windfall occurred when enrollment dropped slightly. The district then felt that it could afford some raises and that's why they offered the option.
The teachers union is also going to bring up other issues with their contract and they include:
It will be interesting to see how this contract dispute plays out with the school board. The teachers union is hoping that the school board will understand where they are coming from and both sides hope that they can come to a fair resolution.
Source: FloridaToday.com, "District, teachers head to hearing," Mackenzie Ryan, April 21, 2012
]]>EB-5 is administered by the U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services and it provides a permanent resident visa or green card to foreign investors that invest a minimum of $1 million in a U.S. project that creates or retains at least 10 jobs.
]]> Many developers are open to this program as traditional lending has taken a downturn since the economy fell into a recession.To date, the program has created/retained approximately 65,000 jobs and $3.1 billion invested in the U.S. economy. This is great news for the U.S. economy and some experts believe that this program will produce stronger job growth since overseas economies continue to struggle. In addition, this program allows foreign investors the opportunity to gain access to the U.S. market.
Overall, the program is not used that often with approximately 10,000 EB-5 visas available every year and as of March of this year, only 2,364 EB-5 visas were issued. These visas accounted for approximately 10,000 new jobs for American workers.
EB-5 is emerging as a commercial real estate financing tool because investors can invest through a variety of capital structures including sole proprietorships, partnerships, holding companies, joint ventures, corporations, and business trusts to name a few. Developers are using the visas to help finance real estate projects from speculative projects to condominiums. While EB-5 may not be the answer for all commercial development, it may spur investor activity that will help the overall economy.
Source: Costar.com, "Visa Program Seen Playing Bigger Role in Financing CRE Development," Randyl Drummer, April 18, 2012
]]>Both sides appeared before a mediation session with the Florida Department of Education and neither side could come to an agreement. The dispute will now go to an administrative law judge later this month.
]]> In the meantime, the school will break ground this week and officials from the school believe that the contract resolution will be resolved.At issue is the contract Leon County has with all of its charter schools. As part of the contract, Leon County requires that a charter school report how many students they will serve the next school year by Mar. 1. They have this stipulation in place so that district officials can plan for the next school year and figure out how many students it will have in their traditional schools.
The charter school is in disagreement with this because of the limit on the school-choice law. The school feels that if they reported that they had 500 students on Mar. 1, then they would not be able to take another child whose parents decided after the Mar. 1 deadline. The only exception to this is if a parent removes a child from the charter school, the school can then add another child.
An administrative law judge will decide on this case and either enforces the deadline upon the charter school or will make an exception for this school.
The Tallahassee charter school is projected to have 661 students in its first year and at capacity will hold 1,145 students in grades K-8.
Source: Tallahassee.com, "Charter school protests enrollment deadline," Lisa Fingeroot, April 6, 2012
]]>The Kauffman Foundation, a company that tracks business formation by using census data, also reported that last year, 320 out of every 100,000 adults in the United States started a business. This means that 543,000 businesses were created each month last year, which is the highest growth in the last 16 years.
In Florida, the growth rate was slightly higher with 380 out of every 100,000 people starting a business in 2011. The downside of these new businesses is that many were sole proprietors who went into business for themselves because they lost their jobs. This will not spur more jobs or grow the economy. These startup businesses are being cautious and prefer to be on their own until the economy picks up.
Source: South Florida Business Journal, "Florida among states with most entrepreneurial activity," Kent Hoover, March 20, 2012
]]>The company purchased the 132,000 square foot center in 2009 for $4 million and the center has done really well during the recent tough economic times.
]]> Odyssey Entities is also auctioning off 24 other properties because they feel that the time is right to pay back their investors. The CEO of the company said that with the banks being reluctant to extend or make new loans, it's a good time for them to auction off some of these properties, but he did want to make it clear that no one is going bankrupt. The auctioning of the properties was based on a business decision.Tenants of these buildings were informed of the impending sale and they should expect that their lease agreements will be honored by the new owners.
According to the Urban Land Institute's Real Estate Business Barometer, Florida's commercial property prices are still down by more than 30 percent from their pre-recession highs.
Odyssey Entities chose to go with the auction method because it would expedite the sale process -- a sale could be completed in as little as 75 days whereas listing the properties could take a lot longer.
Those interested in making a bid on any of the properties will need to have a 10 percent down payment the day of the auction and will need to be able to complete the transaction within 45 days.
Source: TheLedger.com, "Palm Shopping Center in Lakeland to Be Auctioned," Elvina Nawaguna, March 28, 2012
]]>Daytona Beach residents don't have to worry whether they will have fire department support as the commissioners can opt to impose the contract as they see fit while the firefighters continue their contract dispute simultaneously.
]]> At issue are wages, pension plan, a union leave bank and policies dealing with rules and regulations. The commissioners all support the city manager's recommendations on dealing with these issues and feel that with the tough financial position that cities are facing with falling revenues, they need to make adjustments. The city feels that it can't continue to make large payouts to the police and fire pension fund and needs to balance the monetary needs to the best interest of the public.If the firefighters ratify the commission votes, their new contract will carry them through Sept. 30, but the commission feels that the firefighters will most likely appeal their decision to the Public Employee Relations Committee. The list of contract disputes dates back to 2006 from both sides and would likely be brought to the Public Employee Relations Committee.
Firefighters feel that the current commission proposal is less than ideal. They won't be getting a raise, the city would give them less towards their pension plans, and they won't get back the leave bank that they had set up for firefighters to be able to take care of union business without tapping into their vacation time.
The last time a contract was agreed upon was 2005, which the city feels directly relates to the economy. Since then, there have been many issues debated regarding the firefighters' contract.
Currently firefighters are waiting for the Public Employee Relations Committee to make a final decision on their 2009-2010 contracts, so these disputes take time to get resolved. If the city or the firefighters aren't happy with the ruling made by the Public Employee Relations Committee, they can appeal to Circuit Court.
Source: The Daytona Beach News-Journal," Daytona commission rejects firefighters' contract proposals," Eileen Zaffiro-Kean, March 15, 2012
]]>According to Costar, a full recovery will take time, but over the past 10 years, the changes that the commercial real estate market has experienced will hopefully not happen again -- in fact, experts believe that it is unlikely that we'll see that sort of bottom out in our children's lifetimes.
]]> The Florida office market has seen a lot of movement with Class A tenants moving to Class B spaces to save money, while Class C tenants are moving to Class B space because the rents are more affordable and the space is nicer. Overall to date, Class A office space has the highest vacancy at 22 percent, Class B has 17 percent vacancy and Class C has the lowest vacancy rate at 12 percent.Tenants have more options for space to choose from and the trend seems to be that tenants are demanding a quality location that has lower rents and removal of all deferred maintenance from their properties. These incentives will continue to attract new tenants in the competitive office market.
Industrial space has remained stable through the recession and the small employment gains in the area have helped the industrial rental market.
The Florida retail market is the strongest of the commercial markets, but it is also directly tied to consumer spending. Until the economy stabilizes further, retail confidence will remain in flux. When the economy does stabilize and shows consistent growth, experts believe that the Florida retail market will rebound the quickest of all the commercial markets.
Source: News-press.com, "Southwest Florida market is showing signs of recovery," Mark Alexander, Mar. 10, 2012
]]>At dispute is a $354 million contract that the Air Force rescinded because it was not satisfied with the documentation supporting the decision to hire Sierra Nevada Corp. Hawker Beechcraft Corp. of Wichita, Kansas, challenged the award claiming that its own aircraft was wrongly excluded from the selection process.
]]> The dispute revolves around which company will build the light air-support aircraft that will support security efforts in Afghanistan. The contract is estimated to be worth nearly $1 billion, depending on future orders.Hawker Beechcraft sued the government after they were dismissed from the contract, but recent developments from the Air Force now state that the Department of Justice will take corrective action and set aside the contract with Sierra Nevada until documentation supporting the award decision is reviewed.
Both companies feel that their company has the superior product for the Air Force. The dispute also brings into consideration which company will provide more jobs to the United States. Hawker Beechcraft claims that if they win the contract, they will support 1,400 U.S. manufacturing jobs and Sierra Nevada claims that the contract for them would mean 1,200 U.S. supplier jobs including 50 new high-tech and engineering positions at its Jacksonville, Florida, facility.
The case is currently being reviewed and no decision has been made as to which company will be awarded the contract.
Source: Air Force Times, "Air Force investigating disputed plane contract," Roxana Hegeman, Feb. 28, 2012
]]>Contract disputes are always complicated, but when the dispute involves a nuclear plant, it makes us all stand up and take notice. Progress Energy, which owns The Crystal River nuclear plant on the west coast of Florida, has been shut down since the fall of 2009. The dispute involves a botched attempt to replace the plant's steam generator. Progress Energy, in an effort to save money, hired an engineering firm to replace the generator. The result of the engineering firm's work was three instances of "delamination," which is an internal separation of the building wall. Each of these separations is the size of a basketball court.
]]> The results of these mistakes have put the Crystal River nuclear plant in crisis mode. The insurer of the nuclear plant, Nuclear Electric Insurance Limited, is trying to decide if it is obligated to pay approximately $2.75 billion for the repairs and replacement power under its contract with Progress. NEIL was not expected to pay the full coverage that Progress sought for these repairs last year, and has since suspended recording further insurance receivables in its corporate accounting statements. To date, Progress Energy has received $298 million in insurance payments and the company has stopped working on the Crystal River site to focus on its refining strategy and budget.While Progress Energy feels that it's not in a dispute phase, the bill for repairs and replacement of this nuclear facility could reach $2.5 billion. It's unclear who will cover these costs. The company is awaiting a decision from the insurer as to whether the claims will be paid for or whether Progress Energy will have to appeal to an arbitrator.
The continued closure of Crystal River could result in steep bill increases for Florida customers who already pay approximately $124 a month for power.
Source: HispanicBusiness.com, "Nuclear Fiasco in Florida Vexes Progress Energy," John Murawski, Mar. 1, 2012
]]>In a recent interview, Qualcomm President Steve Mollenkopf said that the corporation will continue to take advantage of potentially lucrative acquisitions of technology companies, although it doesn't have any particular plans in place to buy businesses.
]]> An example of a recent collaboration with other compatible companies was the May 2011 $3.1 billion merger between Qualcomm and Atheros with plans to develop together wireless technologies for residential use. Atheros makes chips that can conduct Wi-Fi signals.Qualcomm is also focusing on diversifying through market growth in Asia, planning to add employees to its interests in the area. The company intends to build a new $1 billion manufacturing plant in Hsinchu, Taiwan, to produce its versatile, low-powered Mirasol display with potential usability on mobile technology like e-readers and tablets.
The company also sees upcoming opportunity for collaboration with Microsoft Corp. in expanded applications for use with Microsoft's new Windows 8.
Being the owner of a large company like Qualcomm is very rewarding, but there is a degree of risk involved from a business perspective. An experienced business law attorney needs to be a part of the team to represent you in your business interests. An attorney could help you grow your business, draft agreements, handle all aspects of business mergers and protect you by registering your trademarks and other intellectual property rights.
Source: MarketWatch, "Qualcomm president: Continuing with tech M&A," Lorraine Luk, Feb. 17, 2012
]]>The Hayden Ferry II building was purchased February 13 for $86 million and now the REIT owns both buildings -- Hayden Ferry I and II. The seller of the property was not disclosed, but the property was purchased in 2008 for $92.5 million and was built in 2007 by SunCor.
]]> These two buildings are both 95 percent leased because of a recent 50,000 square foot lease to the Silicon Valley bank. The buildings are also home to high profile tenants KPMG and Microsoft.The Parkway Properties Inc. portfolio is a discretionary fund that was formed in 2008 between Parkway and the Teacher Retirement System of Texas for the purpose of acquiring high-quality, multi-tenant office properties.
If you are a business owner interested in selling your investment property, you should contact a qualified attorney that understands the commercial real estate market and its changing environment both locally and nationally. An attorney can guide you in alternative financing sources and see that they are compliant with local, state and national laws. They also understand the challenges that can take place working with developers, city leaders and buyers of commercial real estate.
With the acquisition of the Hayden Ferry II building, the fund now owns 12 properties in Arizona, Georgia, Pennsylvania, North Carolina and Florida.
Source: Phoenix Business Journal, "Tempe's Hayden Ferry II sold for $86 million," Jan Buchholz, Feb. 14, 2012
]]>The MicroEnterprise Program is a specialized program designed to help any aspiring entrepreneur who may be unemployed or underemployed or disadvantaged from a financial standpoint. The grants are provided by Lee County Department of Human Services and those that graduate from the program can apply. The stipulation for the grant money is that the recipient must live in and have their business in Lee County.
]]> The program started a year and a half ago and so far 71 entrepreneurs have graduated from the program. The hope is that these individuals will start new ventures and grow small businesses.One of the winners is planning on opening a wig and hair extension distribution company to help women suffering from hair loss from chemotherapy or a genetic hair loss disorder. She is also going to offer hair extensions for those that want them.
The other winner is going to use her grant money to open a spa that will offer different massage therapies. Her goal is to create a business that is unique and provides holistic experiences for her customers to help them sooth both mind and body.
Like these two women, being an entrepreneur can have many rewards, but there is a degree of risk involved from a business perspective. An experienced business law attorney could represent you in your business interest and help you grow your business, draft agreements, handle all aspects of business formation and protect you by registering your trademarks and other intellectual property rights.
Source: Lehigh Acres Citizen, "Two Cape entrepreneurs receive MicroEnterprise Project start up grants," Feb. 4, 2012
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