Florida Trend
Economic Yearbook 2007

SOUTHWEST: New Directions
A commercial boom.

Regional Trends

TRENDS: A booming commercial construction market is supplanting the stagnant residential market. … In Lee County, two new regional shopping malls have opened, and the Southwest Florida Regional Medical Center and Gulf Coast Hospital are undergoing a $200-million expansion. … In Collier County, government-related building will continue. … In Charlotte County, meanwhile, new office space and distribution facilities are finally lifting the area out of its Hurricane Charley malaise. “We’ve had very little space available for a new company to locate in Charlotte County. Now that picture is changing entirely,” says Charlotte County Economic Development Director Betty Williams.

SARASOTA, FL – Pedro Perez, vice president of Sarasota-based Nuevo Advertising Group, was named an “innovator who is playing an important role as Florida’s economy evolves” in the most recent issue of Florida Trend magazine. Perez and Nuevo Advertising, a Spanish-language marketing agency, were cited for their work creating ad campaigns for clients such as Waste Management, Bealls, Hooters and the Southwest Florida Water Management District. Full Story

Money spent on advertising directed at the United States’ rapidly growing Hispanic population has increased monumentally in the past few years.

But corporations and businesses have yet to fully take advantage of the Hispanic market, with many spending less than 1 percent of their budgets on Hispanic advertising, according to findings by the Association of Hispanic Advertising Agencies.