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Talk of the bay: Plaza area to make room for fancy hotel

By Times Staff
Published February 15, 2008

Yet another new property is popping up on the budding hotel row around Tampa's International Plaza. Construction is set to begin soon on a 12-story, 170-room Element hotel on the old location of the Boy Scouts of America's Gulf Ridge Council headquarters. Element is a new, upper-upscale, extended-stay variation of Westin Hotels & Resorts with in-room kitchens, oversized spa-showers and lobbies with multistory window-walls. LaPour Partners of Las Vegas will own the hotel, scheduled to open in mid to late 2009. It will be part of the TriPointe Plaza project, which includes an office building that will be home to the Tampa headquarters of Synovus Bank.

Trade deficit drop a sign of weakness

The U.S. trade deficit dropped to $711.6-billion last year, down 6.2 percent. But the underlying reasons won't make anybody happy: rising commodity prices, falling value of the U.S. dollar and weakness of the U.S. housing market. The Tampa Customs district, which includes all of the state except South Florida, also saw a reduction in its trade deficit, dropping to $8.9-billion from $12.8-billion a year ago. The last time the United States saw a year-over-year decline in the trade deficit was in 2001. The Tampa Customs district saw total trade drop 3.5 percent to $35.8-billion last year, according to World-City, a Miami trade database company.

Caremark settles; Florida gets $2.7M

Florida will pick up $2.7-million from a nationwide $41-million settlement with Caremark Rx, one of the nation's biggest pharmacy benefits managers. Attorneys general in 29 states and the District of Columbia said Caremark engaged in deceptive business practices by encouraging doctors to switch patients to different brand-name drugs, claiming the switch would save patients money. Caremark will pay $2.5-million to patients who incurred expenses because of certain switches in cholesterol medicines. Florida will get $1.7-million to benefit low-income and elderly consumers. The state will also get $1-million from the settlement to cover investigation costs. In addition to the financial settlement, Caremark has agreed to change its procedure for soliciting prescription changes.

[Last modified February 14, 2008, 23:06:57]