Paul Brinkmann: State GDP close to trillion-dollar mark.

The state of Florida contributed 5 percent of the nation’s gross domestic product, according to a new report from the Federal Reserve Bank of Atlanta.

Florida’s GDP was $926.8 billion, the closest it’s gotten to $1 trillion ever.

As usual Florida — the thirdlargest state by population — outstripped other southern states in the Atlanta Fed district, which includes Alabama, Georgia, and portions of Louisiana, Mississippi and Tennessee.

Florida’s main fuels in terms of GDP are real estate, rental and leasing, amounting to $130.5 billion in 2016.

That’s why the state remains vulnerable to downturns in real estate.

The next closest southern state, Georgia, clocked in at $56 billion in that category.

Georgia outperformed Florida in one area, manufacturing, with $48.2 billion in 2016, compared to Florida’s $41.8 billion.

Wyndham whistleblowers

In other business news, Wyndham’s Orlando-based timeshare company has settled a whistleblower lawsuit in Florida federal courts that accused the company of firing two employees after they complained about illegal sales tactics.

The settlement in the case brought by former employees Valerie Penate and Rhonda Hamilton was confidential, but a spokeswoman for Wyndham Vacation Ownership said no payment was made. Attorneys who represented the plaintiffs declined to comment.

“The lawsuit filed was meritless which resulted in plaintiffs agreeing to withdraw all claims with prejudice and releasing Wyndham from any future liability,” the Wyndham spokeswoman said in an email. “There was no payment by Wyndham to the plaintiffs and there has been no adjudication of any claims against Wyndham in this matter, and we continue to deny all claims asserted by these individuals.”

The Orlando lawsuit follows a $20 million award in California courts in November, when another whistleblower, Trish Williams, won her case against Wyndham.

The plaintiffs in the Orlando case had tried to file in California first, but Wyndham had the case transferred to Orlando, where U.S. District Judge Gregory Presnell has handled many cases against locally based timeshare companies.

He had at one point issued an order for the plaintiffs in the case to show why they shouldn’t be sanctioned for being slow to initiate discovery in the case.

The plaintiffs’ attorneys included Andrew Knopf of Winter Park and attorneys from California and Alabama.

They had argued that Wyndham’s complex corporate

structure, and federal notification requirements, had slowed them down.

Penate and Hamilton had alleged that Wyndham’s sales tactics included lying about and/ or misrepresenting the benefits of timeshare ownership, cost of ownership, services and amenities available to owners, and the availability of certain “deals” or incentives available to consumers, according to the lawsuit.

But Wyndham attacked the plaintiffs in court pleadings, saying Penate was fired because she “violated WVO’s sales policies which provided an unfair advantage to some owners and a higher bonus for herself.”

Wyndham said in court filings that Hamilton “resigned from her employment … after having a temper tantrum in front of prospective owners and co-workers because she was assigned customers to tour which she believed were unlikely to purchase from her.”

One big gym

Deltona is now the home of a 23,000-square-foot Crunch Fitness center, which the company says is the largest in the Orlando area. The project transformed an old grocery store at 1200 Deltona Blvd.

Open for workouts since February, the facility includes the latest fitness equipment as well as a functional training center with 25 yards of turf for speed and agility, group fitness class space, HydroMassage beds, tanning beds.