The Florida Wall & Ceiling Contractors Association had their Annual Convention last week at the Gaylord Palms Resort in Orlando. Cheryl Foley and Sarah Drinnan represented Florida Surety Bonds for the second year in a row. This year was better than ever! It was held at a beautiful location, there were over 70 exhibitors and [...]
According to an article on bizjournals.com, "Construction starts increased 3 percent in South Florida in 2017, led by residential projects, according to Dodge Data & Analytics. Based on its monitoring of construction permits, the firm said $10.9 billion in projects started in the tri-county region, up from $10.6 billion in 2015. Residential construction starts were [...]
This week the Florida Transportation Builders’ Association “FTBA” had their Annual Construction Conference in Orlando. It was a very well attended event; there were over 500 attendees consisting of General Contractors, Subcontractors, Suppliers, Professional Services Companies, etc. There were several break out sessions that allowed companies to learn more about certain opportunities that could help [...]
By now, you may have heard of the Orlando Round Building demolition contractor walking off the job. Demolition of the old American Federal building downtown was to have been completed by November 2014, in time for the opening of the new Dr. Phillips Performing Arts Center. Many deadlines have been missed over the course of [...]
The sounds of construction have returned but the skilled construction workers have not. Construction industry advocates say there’s a severe shortage of skilled workers nationwide- including in Florida. In Florida, construction employment is down about 40% and across the country there are $1.4 million less people employed in construction than there were in 2007. These numbers reflect the volume [...]
Since the devastating 2004/2005 hurricane season, Floridians have had to pay an additional tax on their insurance policies to help pay off damage from strong storms. This tax percentage of 1.3% was included on Surety Bonds as well. After nearly a decade, as of January 1st, Floridians are no longer forced to pay the [...]
Tampa's cruise industry has a problem. The Sunshine Skyway Bridge is too low to accommodate the “mega” cruise ships of the future. The Florida Department of Transportation organized a pre-feasibility study to assess their options of either replacing the 27-year-old structure, or building a new port seaward of the bridge. The 4.1 mile Sunshine Skyway Bridge [...]
Despite how the Fed or the Congress spends our money, it is a real law of economics that every nation has a limited amount of money. You may or may not be impressed at how much a country has, but for everyone, it is limited. In beginning economics, we learned if a country spent more [...]
In case you haven’t heard, there are big things happening at the Panama Canal. It is being made deeper and wider. If you understand the country and the terrain, that is not as simple as it sounds. Not surprisingly, it is taking the contractor longer than he first thought to complete the project. Not surprisingly, [...]
You may desperately need work, but be careful to avoid bad work. You don’t need to be kicked when you are down. When margins are thin for all the contractors, it is very easy to pick up bad work. It is also very easy to pick up bad work when the owners (public or private) [...]