Number of foreclosures down nationally but Florida still further underwater

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While the number of home foreclosures was down across the country for the month of March, to 1.5 percent, Florida is not doing quite as well.

The Sunshine State recorded more than double the national average for foreclosures, coming in at 3.2 percent of the broader real estate market, according to the latest Mortgage Monitor report by Black Knight, the financial information systems company based in Jacksonville.

Florida, along with California, led the nation with the highest number of properties… …read more

Improving housing market leads to 150 job openings

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PGT Inc. plans to expand its workforce by more than 8 percent, as it prepares to hire up to 150 people to work at the North Venice-based manufacturing company.

PGT — already the largest employer in Sarasota County with 1,800 workers — has partnered with CareerSource Suncoast to host a hiring event on May 9. Job openings include manufacturing assembly, Class A and Class B mechanics and more, according to an announcement from CareerSource Suncoast, a private nonprofit that is one of 24 regional… …read more

Florida’s brewing industry among the fastest growing in the U.S. (Video)

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Seemed like a new Florida craft brewery opened every time you turned around last year. This was no illusion. Florida has one of the fastest-growing beer industries in the country.

A craft brewing trade group has labeled the Sunshine State No. 5 for the number of craft breweries opened last year.

Forty-two businesses making artisanal beer started in Florida in 2014. Washington led the country with 83, according to the Brewers Association, based in Boulder, Colo.

Five of the biggest barrel producers… …read more

TBBJ’s most-read real estate stories in April

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April was another busy month for real estate in Tampa Bay, from new developments to massive office tenants scouting for sites in the region.

Here are the top 10 most read real estate stories for April:

Tampa Tribune site in downtown Tampa under contract for redevelopment play, sources say(Here’s the follow up to that story: Tribune’s pending real estate deal signals confidence in downtown Tampa.) Carillon developer shares more details on behemoth plan: ‘What we’re doing is building another city’… …read more

25 minutes with Wall Street vet and Ellevate Chair Sallie Krawcheck

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When Sallie Krawcheck was a top finance executive, she had an office the size of a conference room, two assistants, a car, a driver and a private jet. And every day at 3 p.m., she had a plate of warm cookies delivered.

These days, Krawcheck has a grungy desk in a small room a fraction of the size of her old office. She shares it with seven other people (and a few mice).

“And I’m having the time of my life,” Krawcheck said Thursday before a crowd of more than 100 women gathered in Charlotte, N.C.,… …read more