Tag Archives: Justine Griffin

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Tampa Bay Times: Whatever happened to the Zika epidemic?

By Justine Griffin

Aedes aegypti mosquitoes are responsible for transmitting Zika. Cases of the virus are down dramatically in Florida. Associated Press

Remember Zika?

The last time Gov. Rick Scott warned Floridians about the potential threat of the mosquito-borne virus was in July, when he urged residents to still be vigilant against bug bites and standing water. At the time, doctors and researchers were bracing for what was supposed to be another active summer season for the virus. Some expected it to be even worse than last year, when 1,100 travel-related cases were reported statewide and Zika spread into pockets of South Florida.

But it’s been quiet on the outbreak front ever since, as Zika cases have dropped dramatically this year.

The state Health Department counts only 180 Zika infections in Florida so far in 2017, on track to come in well below the 1,456 cases reported all of last year. The vast majority are travel-related cases brought to Florida by people who came from somewhere else, like Zika hotbed areas in Central and South America or the Caribbean, already infected with the virus. The rest, about 40, were cases where officials could not determine exactly where the patients contracted the virus or instances where people acquired it locally last year but weren’t tested until 2017.

Officials say they have determined one thing for sure: This year, there are no reported areas in Florida with active, ongoing local transmission of Zika, which means no known instances of mosquitoes carrying the virus.

Another piece of good news is that the number of pregnant women with the virus appears to be declining. With only 101 cases reported so far this year, it would be difficult to match last year’s total of 299 cases.

Read more here.

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Tampa Bay Times: One Florida bank is willing to risk it all on cannabis when others won’t

First Green Bank, a community bank based in Orlando, is the first in Florida to work with licensed medical marijuana companies. [Photos courtesy of First Green Bank]

By Justine Griffin

Opening a medical marijuana dispensary in Florida naturally comes with a lot of red tape.

Marijuana is still considered an illegal substance at the federal level, despite the 29 states that have legalized it for recreational or medicinal use in recent years. That makes it nearly impossible for banks to fund marijuana distributing companies, which in turn makes it hard for those companies to sign a lease for a store or warehouse or even get insurance.

But one Orlando area community bank is willing to take on the risk.

First Green Bank, a community bank that began in 2009, is working with six out of the seven currently licensed medical marijuana dispensing companies in Florida.

“It all comes down to compliance and transparency, since we’re subject to enhanced money laundering rules,” said James Whitcomb, the chief financial officer of Surterra Holdings Inc., an Atlanta-based medical marijuana company which has grow operations and dispensaries in Florida, including in Tampa. Surterra is a client of First Green Bank. “In order for banks to be compliant with us as customers, they have perform a lot more due diligence. It basically means they have to track every single transaction we make to ensure that no dollar goes to any gang or criminal enterprise,” Whitcomb said.

Because federal law makes it illegal to possess or distribute marijuana — no matter the laws passed in an individual state — it’s considered money laundering, according to the American Bankers Association. It would take an act of Congress to change that. Because of this, most banks in Florida have steered clear of working with the state’s seven licensed growers and distributors of cannabis.

Read more here.

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Tampa Bay Times: Florida’s first walk-in clinics for medical marijuana are opening in Tampa Bay

Patient Julie DiPietrantonio, 67, of St. Petersburg, is examined by Dr. Howard Riker of Tetra Health Care. DiPietrantonio suffers from chronic pain caused by spinal stenosis, degenerative arthritis, and sacroiliitis. She is looking for relief by using medical marijuana. [SCOTT KEELER | Times]

By Justine Griffin

TAMPA — Inside a nondescript white-washed office building across from St. Joseph’s Hospital in Tampa is one of the state’s first walk-in clinics for patients seeking medical marijuana.

Similar to a walk-in urgent care center, Tetra Health Care is a place where patients can see a licensed doctor about obtaining medical marijuana as a form of treatment.

Tracilea Young, president and founder of the California-based chain of clinics, saw an opportunity to expand in Florida after the most recent round of legislation passed in Tallahassee earlier this year. She’s opened six Tetra Health Care clinics in Florida so far. Five of those are in the Tampa Bay area, including St. Petersburg, Clearwater, Tampa and Brandon locations. She plans to open 20 more across the state by next year.

“With such a high population of aging communities, medical marijuana is needed here,” Young said. “You wouldn’t believe the patients we see who come in here with Excel spreadsheets detailing all the medications they’re on and when they take which pill. I just want to cry for them.”

Medical marijuana is a new but burgeoning industry in Florida, with laws that change nearly every year. Lawmakers have limited the selling and growing of marijuana to seven companies, but that number will expand to 17 this year, based on last-minute legislation that came out of a special session in Tallahassee earlier in this summer.

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Tampa Bay Times: Tyrone Square Mall redevelopment a sign of the times for retail

A developer has demolished the Sears store at Tyrone Square Mall and is replacing it with a Dick's Sporting Goods and Lucky's Market. [CHERIE DIEZ | Times]

By Justine Griffin

ST. PETERSBURG — The fences are up and the construction has started. The former Sears department store at Tyrone Square Mall, which had been open for nearly 50 years, closed months ago to make room for new development: Tampa Bay’s first Lucky’s Market organic grocery store and a Dick’s Sporting Goods.

It’s a classic sign of the times for the American shopping mall — traditional department stores are closing at a remarkable rate while newcomers are gobbling up the prime real estate left behind after their funeral. But in an intriguing turn of events, the flailing, though long-standing Sears store that closed in St. Petersburg and the new tenants that are coming in after it, are all benefiting the same company. Or at least, the same owner.

Seritage Growth Properties is the New York-based real estate company in charge of a redevelopment plan at Tyrone Square Mall, which includes demolishing the 188,515-square-foot department store to make way for a new 151,952-square-foot shopping center for tenants like Dick’s, Lucky’s and Petsmart, with room for one more anchoring retailer. Seritage, which went public in 2015, is responsible for developing more than 200 Sears department store sites across the country. It’s the same company that turned half the Sears space at Westfield Countryside Mall in Clearwater into a Whole Food Market.

The link? Billionaire Eddie Lampert.

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Tampa Bay Times: Finally, Jeff Vinik’s vision has a name: Water Street Tampa

Strategic Property Partners announced the name of its new development: Water Street Tampa. This rendering shows the Tampa skyline with SPP's future buildings in place. [Photos courtesy of SPP]

By Justine Griffin

TAMPA — For years, Tampa Bay Lightning owner Jeff Vinik and the real estate executives he employs have been dreaming how to transform 53 acres of downtown Tampa into a major hub of living, working and entertaining in the city’s core.

And for more than two years, they’ve been designing that new neighborhood without a name.

Today, Strategic Property Partners, the real estate firm backed by Vinik and Cascade Investment, is unveiling an official name for the highly anticipated $3 billion revitalization project.

It’s Water Street Tampa.

“The goal of the project is to be grounded in what makes Tampa, Tampa,” said James Nozar, CEO of SPP, in an interview on Monday. “We’ve been dealing with pretty much a clean slate, with surface parking lots that don’t have a lot of history. One of the key attributes that we picked up was Water Street, which has always been part of downtown, even though it’s changed names over the years.”

Read more here.