Irma sinks the lobster fishing biz in the Keys
STOCK ISLAND — The Florida Keys have reopened, but Capt. Billy Niles and his fellow lobster fishermen have to find their traps before they are really back in business.
“We’re locating them, but it takes a while,” said Niles, a veteran of the Keys lobster trade for the past seven decades. “Some storms lose more than others.”
Irma lost plenty of them. Or better said, the Keys lost plenty in Irma.
Last week, just after Gov. Rick Scott declared the Keys open for business, the shoulders of U.S. 1 from Key Largo to Key West still bore the evidence of a region in the midst of rebuilding and recovering. Appliances, pieces of destroyed trailer homes, totaled vehicles, all waited for pickup by the side of the road like bulk pickup day in your average neighborhood.
Power is pretty much restored, but the damage is evident. Rather than lit neon signs, stores told the traveling public they were open with spray paint on plywood planks previously used to protect against Irma’s winds Sept. 10.
Lots that hosted trailer home communities are now vacant lots. Half-sunken boats still litter the coves. Blue tarps cover roofs. But not all the impact is visible from land.
In the lobster sector, said to be the Keys’ second most-important industry, the damage is underwater.
The massive storm’s powerful winds blew commercial traps out of place up and down the coast, and now the lobster fishermen are out looking to find them. It’s literally finding a buoy in a vast ocean, but thanks to Florida Sea Grant, they have help.
Florida Sea Grant, a partnership between the state university system, National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration and the state’s coastal counties, is paying two pilots to scour the seas to spot and mark the location of the buoys. The GPS marks are then given to the fishermen so they can go out on their trawlers to the precise location, pull up the traps, harvest the lobsters, fix damaged traps and, generally, get back to work.
“Irma hit right in the middle of lobster season. Every day the lobster fishermen are out of the water they are losing money,” said Karl Havens, the director of Florida Sea Grant College Program. “If we can get the lobster industry up and running, it will put money back into the economy.”
Florida Sea Grant, which is housed at the University of Florida, generally focuses on things like making aquaculture more productive, developing tools to help manage fisheries, offering programs to better water quality and habitat and proactive help for communities in dealing with storm surge and sea level rise.
Fins
side of the city between the Flagler Memorial Bridge and Royal Park Bridge, which in turn link the mainland to Palm Beach.
Having just suffered through months of traffic tie-ups over the Flagler Bridge redo, to now eliminate the eastern lanes of Flagler Drive is “goofy” as well as anti-business, Hammond said.
Hammond said his firm relies on Flagler Drive and other roads to allow staff and clients to travel to its offices. SandPointe employs 22 people at its 15,000-square-foot headquarters on the 18th floor of the west tower of Phillips Point.
Christopher Roog, West Palm Beach’s economic development director, said the experiment is far from unfriendly to business. “I would counter that these same folks also value the great public space and the recreational aspects that we provide,” Roog said. “The waterfront is a very important place for (our residents), so what can we do to make it better for everyone?”
But Hammond is not persuaded, especially since the city has branded this portion of the city the Flagler Financial District in a bid to attract more financial firms to the area.
On Oct. 5, Hammond did his part to boost the effort.
His firm hosted a seasonal kickoff event for the Palm Beach Hedge Fund Association, a growing group of hedge funds and private equity firms opening offices in the area. More than 100 people attended the event, despite the evening’s inclement weather.
West Palm Beach and Palm Beach County’s Business Development Board specifically have targeted hedge funds and private equity firms for recruitment.
Mayor Jeri Muoio even backed a failed bid by the Related Cos. of New York to win City Commission approval for a new office building, One Flagler. The 25-story waterview building, proposed for church-owned land at Okeechobee Boulevard and Flagler Drive, would have catered to hedge funds and private equity firms by offering luxury finishes, concierge building services and soaring water views, like those found at SandPointe’s offices.
Hammond said when the Palm Beach hedge fund event ended, departing guests were confronted with street cones, including cones blocking a left turn going north onto Flagler Drive from behind Phillips Point. Hammond added that if the city wants to encourage people to have “pavement lunches on Flagler,” this effort should be tried during weekends, when fewer people work.
“West Palm Beach is not a retirement center,” Hammond said. “A lot of us try to carry on normal business.”
But Roog said setting up and taking down the cones every week would be too costly.
Of course, all bets are off when President Donald Trump starts his expected regular weekend trips to Palm Beach, where he has a parttime home and private club. Mar-a-Lago is near the Southern Boulevard Bridge, the most southern bridge to the island, but traffic often is rerouted to the middle Royal Park bridge when Trump is in town.
Roog is optimistic that Flagler Shore will work out, especially now that the Flagler Bridge is open: “If I had to guess, I’d say the traffic will be able to handle it just fine,” Roog said.
Hedge fund heaven?
Four years ago, five people got together at E.R. Bradley’s Saloon in
West Palm Beach to create a new group, the Palm Beach Hedge Fund Association.
Today the group boasts 1,560 members from Jupiter to Miami and continues to grow, said David Goodboy, the association’s founder. The state’s low tax environment and warm weather increasingly are drawing firms to the area, and the trend shows no signs of slowing, Goodboy said.
On Oct. 5, about 118 attendees mingled at SandPointe Asset Management’s offices in West Palm Beach, discussing their funds’ performance and swapping ideas for new ventures.
Goodboy said he’s noticed that smaller funds are being created from larger funds already here. In addition, “there’s interest coming globally to South Florida,” he said. Of course, having the president’s Winter White House on Palm Beach also helps boost attention to the area.
Among the new players in the market: DRI Fund of Michigan. In August, DRI leased offices at 625 N. Flagler Drive, the Jupiter Medical Center/ Mount Sinai New York building.
Steven Kirsch, chief operating officer of DRI Fund, said Palm Beach County is becoming “Wall Street South,” filled with private equity firms and family offices. DRI had an office in Fort Lauderdale for a year, but Kirsch this year decided to make the move up to Palm Beach County.
Kirsch said the area has a better talent pool for his industry, which is mortgage investment. In addition, “being around all the other hedge funds and private equity funds was a big draw for us,” he said.
On a personal note, Kirsch also said the county’s schools and lifestyle made West Palm Beach an attractive place to raise his family.
Thomas Glanfield, president of Boston Portfolio Advisors in Fort Lauderdale, said his firm provides services such as compliance and back-office operations to hedge funds. Up until last year, all his firm’s clients were in the Northeast.
But the South Florida area is exploding with funds now, so much so that Boston Portfolio has hired someone to build its presence locally among firms. “We expect our Florida presence to be every bit as big as New York,” Glanfield said.