Fort Myers and her brief fling with Fay
It's now 9 AM. I have been up since 4:30, a normal waking time for me. This morning was a bit different. Fay was coming. Jackson and I padded to the back door for a peak out. The back pool deck looked rather bleak. I had cleared off all the porch furniture yesterday afternoon so Fay would not have a shot at it. Looking at the deck was kind of like looking at a living room carpet with everything removed. I could see where the chairs used to be and there were a few forgotten pool and dog toys scattered about. There was a stiff wind and a fine rain coming horizontally off of the river. The outside dining table (made of concrete and tile and certainly wind proof) glistening in light cast by the hidden fluorescents in the dining cupola.
The house and I are storm tested. Andrew, Charlie, Wilma, George, and a few others have tested our resolve. I am embarrassed to admit that I was a bit disappointed in Fay; lots of hoopla from the around the clock weather teams. Not much punch. She didn't even make it to hurricane status. Not that I wanted a punch, but maybe a few good waves over the seawall to take pictures of. At least something for the price of the entire county shutting down.
Yesterday I stopped and took down real estate signs. It would not look to good for one of my signs to be sticking into someone's living room window, kind of like saying, "Hey here I am, just in case you were looking for a good agent, call the number on this sign! (sorry about the broken window - you'll have to get that replaced before the open house)."
Power was kind of iffy at home, so about a half hour ago I went to the office. (See www.news-press.com for the latest - seems there are 30,000 without power. Lucky me, I can still work here at the office) We are located on Hendry Street between Second and First. We have no road in front of our shop, by the way. All of downtown is in the final stages of rebuilding the roads and infrastructure. Last week they peeled all the asphalt off of our formally bricked street, then they picked up the bricks one by one and sent them away on pallets. The street will be re-bricked with the same brick.
Gail and I had lunch at Delicious Things on First Street yesterday. First Street is already completed with the old brick and we loved the look. Downtown looks spectacular, by the way. Even Gail, who was born here and has been a skeptic of a downtown revival, was suitably impressed. We loved it. It is the kind of downtown that architects spend millions trying to achieve but somehow can't just recapture the character. What we need are places to shop, some retail and then I am so certain that our condo projects will thrive.
Earlier this week I sent letters to all the owners of buildings in downtown. I was offering our services to rent, sell, or manage commercial properties downtown. The owner of Courtyard Shoppes, (Where the Bar Association is located) has asked us to rent out and manage the courtyard shops located there. What a quaint operation that is! A bright alleyway with wrought iron gates, it has the feel of New Orleans,; individual shops available for $400 month (12 x 12). They can be combined for larger shops or offices. Call, me - I would love to work with you - especially if you are looking for a small retail shop!
We have also started a rental and management center for the downtown condos. I know we have many empty condos and who better to handle these than us? Our office is a golf cart ride away from most of the homes and condos.
Ok - so back to Fay. I think I am the only one downtown now. (10 AM) I had the phones forwarded to my cell for the storm, and already there were three calls. One from Tampa, and two from Europe.
We tend to think that when we have a local problem (Like a struggling real estate market or a bad storm), the rest of the world is tuned in. They indeed are not. It's business as usual.
Winds is our area are supposed to reach 35 miles per hour. This will mean power outages as branches fall on power lines, especially in the older neighborhoods like McGregor and the River. There will also be a great deal of rain, which we still need, and it is hoped that Lake "O" will get a boost in reserves as Fay heads right over it.
The routine for a storm like Fay, for those of you that are up north: First we all talk about it while secretly signing on line to watch the path - and then we each resort to our own coping mechanisms; Like stocking up on vodka and beer , or water and batteries - depending on how you plan on spending your time without electricity. Gail and I have a generator (I went and filled all my gas cans) and we have propane cooking - so we stocked up on pasta, canned goods, and meats. I also kept making ice and stockpiling it in the freezer. Your food can go a week without power if you have ice in the freezer to spread around. (We also bought batteries, charged up our emergency radio, and made sure we had vodka and beer!) Then we picked up Gails's mom - who remembers storms around here before they named them!
For those of us in the real estate business we have to consider other properties. The question becomes, how much do we want to invest (in time, sweat, and energy) to prepare? Do we put storm shutters up? Do we empty freezers of perishable foods?
There is an absolute feeling of power, superiority, and security knowing you have prepared for the worst and can now sit tight. I am a big believer of electric shutters - or at least shutters that take no effort.
My friend Kevin put a whole house generator the size of a VW bus and buried a propane tank the size of swimming pool. He had no power from Charlie for ten days and was darned if he would go through that again. (I just called Gail. She has no power but she was on the phone with Terri (with her Kevin's all house generator keeping her lights on) Kevin's smiling now! Kevin, you get the generator plaque! Love ya man!
There were some of us that were secretly thinking (no - not me, of course) that a hurricane might be an interesting boost for the economy; put a lot of contractors back to work, pour insurance money into the area; and sell some homes. This is a short sighted view, in my opinion. Better we should show how well we handle a storm and that our storms are nothing compared to freezing cold, fires, mudslides, and horrible winters.
Tomorrow we are back to the new normal. The new normal in the real estate market is bargain prices on houses that, in my humble opinion, will rapidly escalate in prices in the coming years. Check out www.investinriverfront for some of the riverfront opportunities. We also have some "pocket deals" that you may be interested in. Call me. Also check out www.eandvflorida.com. The Europeans are buying, and we know how to reach out to them.
Our commercial team is feeling pretty strong about our Pine Island Road corridor investments. Diplomat Shoppes is right in the heart of that growth. See this article in today' News Press. They have been at the ICSC Conference at the Gaylord in Olando.
It's time for me to go home and pace around the house, waiting for electricity to come on.
Call me if you need me. Gregg - 800-439-1580 ext 1
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