This is a production of WEDU PBS, Tampa, St. Petersburg, Sarasota.

Coming up, Florida has an estimated 1.5 million condos, and values are dropping in the double digits depending on where you are.

How are condo owners faring in Tampa Bay?

And did the recent legislative session go far enough to help?

The saga of the Tampa Bay Rays and its home stadium continues.

We've got the latest developments, and the governor's office is weighing in on artificial intelligence in the workforce.

He's vetoed a bill to research what I could mean for young professionals.

These stories and more are next on Florida This Week.

Welcome back, everybody.

I'm Lissette Campos.

Joining our panel this week is Danny Kushner.

He is a businessman, a former congressional candidate and a Republican.

Joseph Citro is a former chairman of the Tampa City Council and non-party affiliated.

And Rebecca Leibson is a reporter for the Tampa Bay Times.

Her in-depth news beat is real estate, and property issues is what brings us to our top story.

Florida's condo market, what was once a hot real estate market, is cooling and possibly nearing collapse, according to experts.

South Florida condo sales are sliding after years of growth fueled by pandemic migration and a rush of investors.

New data from the Atlanta Fed shows condo sales have dropped for more than a year straight.

Mid-priced units are being hit the hardest, and prices for buildings over 30 years old are down more than 20% in some cases.

What is driving the downturn?

It's a perfect storm of insurance hikes, tougher building inspection laws after the 2021 Surfside collapse, and a growing list of buildings being blacklisted from conventional financing.

Retirees are among the hardest hit condo owners.

Some are facing tens of thousands of dollars in special assessments and rushing to sell in a cooling market.

Buyers, however, are growing scarce, priced out, with mortgage interest rates still hovering around 7%.

Even well-established HOA's seem to be in trouble.

Sunset Palm Villas, a 75 year old complex in Miami, filed for bankruptcy last month, listing $50 million in debt.

The Florida legislature took action during the recent session.

Provisions include pushing the deadline for safety inspections to the end of this year.

Associations can also pause contributions to their reserve for two years, and boards may take loans or credit lines for urgent repairs.

Legislators say the new rules are meant to improve transparency and oversight.

And does this really stabilize the market, or perhaps create more time for deeper troubles to occur?

It's a question that many folks are asking.

Rebecca, I'd like to start with you.

How do you see all of this playing out?

It seems like a painful time if you're a condo owner.

I think with the most recent legislation that was passed, the situation really remains the same.

It just pushes the deadline a little further down the road.

This may give some condo associations time to get their finances in order and and really bring their buildings up to the current standard.

But for others, I think it might be too late to do something about it.

Unfortunately, they are facing the consequences of past boards who really neglected routine maintenance.

Danny, as someone who's been a professional in real estate for a number of years, how do you see all of this playing out?

It's it's difficult to watch even if you don't own a condo.

It is very difficult to watch.

And, you know, the 2021 disaster of the towers, it just a lot of times I was saying earlier, brings out the best in us and how we respond, and we want to take care of the people that face that disaster.

But then it always shows, depending on the magnitude, who, how many people have to get involved.

And this brought in the state legislature to get involved.

And their first pass at it kind of made costs go up even more.

And now the second pass at it maybe extends the deadlines, as Rebecca said, but it doesn't change the process of them having to put more money, invest more time, more effort into this, into making sure their towers are safe or their condos are safe.

And that's a struggle for many, not necessarily just the elderly folks that are living in these homes, but first time home buyers, where are they going to go?

A lot of them look to a condo, look to a townhome because quite frankly, they've been priced out of the single family homes.

And in the Tampa Bay area, you know, the condo market is not limited to Hillsborough County or Pinellas County.

There are quite a few other communities that are being affected by this currently.

And back in 2005 2006, there was an extension of population in the Spring Hill.

You know, that area up there grown exponentially as the market in Tampa grew.

So from Spring Hill down to Bradenton, into Sarasota, a lot in Pinellas County, of course the hurricanes did.

It didn't help us at all last year.

And so you compile that to this legislation and what these folks are having to do now at the board level, I'm concerned of where they're their next steps are.

What are they?

And Joseph, we've talked about oversight and what is asked what is the responsibility of code enforcement and things like that.

You are a condo owner.

You've been very active with your board.

How do you see all of this playing out?

To your point, we got hit with the milestone inspections.

Plus we got hit with two hurricanes.

So not only are we having to deal with the state, but we're also having to deal with insurance companies.

My condominium, my condominium building was hit with approximately $2.5 million worth of damage during the hurricanes.

So all this is coming down.

And to your point, we need all condominiums should have an adequate, uh, well versed condominium board.

Um, I feel that sometimes the ownership, the condominium owners need to be on the board more than just, uh, investors that rent out the condominiums.

And that's one of the things that Rebecca has said, that during the legislative session, they did put in more things for training.

Correct.

Um, so anyone who sits on the board will have to go through some amount of training.

They'll also be able to be held culpable if there's any negligence on their part, which was obviously inspired by the Surfside board, where they found that the board had delayed repairs that might have possibly saved lives.

And that's that's one of the things that that when you look at the origin of the legislation, a few years ago, the Surfside collapse, there were code violations.

The building had identified some code violations, and the homeowner's association was in the process of going back and forth, appealing with the unit owners.

And so that continued.

And then the day of the collapse came, um, you know, what responsibility do these counties, the oversight, what is the organization that is supposed to keep track of whether or not code violations that have been identified are being addressed in a timely manner, not years later.

Well, the agencies for the cities and counties as code enforcement, but code enforcement can no longer look at or inspect buildings, condominiums that are over three stories tall.

That goes to the business and professional regulation of the state of Florida.

Okay, repeat that again.

The Department of Business and Professional Regulations of the State of Florida.

They are now in charge of condominiums over three stories high.

So hopefully, hopefully they will be able to inspect more and have more personnel to be able to do that.

It's been taken out of the hands of our local code enforcement to do that.

And I think in reality, not such a bad thing as we were speaking earlier to Joseph and I is that, you know, now you as a homeowners association, you're hiring an engineering firm that is certified with the state of Florida is training, and they're coming in and actually doing those inspections.

Whereas before you had code enforcement, you had your local government entities that, quite frankly, are doing a great job at times, but you know, they can be overwhelmed too.

So this may be a good thing.

But, you know, again, with the disaster, it does shed a light on the inadequacies that we do have in some of our local ordinances, our local zoning.

And and then that unfortunately does lead to state involvement in this situation.

Rebecca, where are you going?

Yeah, I think just.

Looking ahead, one thing we're going to have to keep an eye on is whether it's even worth it to repair some of these buildings.

And I do think in the coming months and coming years, we're going to see a lot of condo terminations having those buildings be demolished and redeveloped into something new.

And Danny, before we go to the next segment, I do want to tap into your years of experience as a realtor.

What advice, if any, do you have to someone who is in the process of buying a condo or considering it?

Should they not consider that?

Well, I would hate to say no, of course not.

They should consider it.

It still is a viable option.

And certainly the newer condos are built differently than some of the older ones out there.

But look at your documents.

You know, when you go in to purchase a condominium, the seller, the condo association, is supposed to and is required to provide you with many documents, just like how many times you go on your phone and you say, you know, sign up for and you sign, click the terms and conditions.

Did you read it line by line?

The most important thing you can do you're spending two, three, four, $500,000.

Read the documents that will help you understand your role and what you have to do, and what this association is going to do for you.

Thank you.

We're going to move on to our second story.

I that's maybe reading too many documents instead of the humans that are involved.

Artificial intelligence seems to be reshaping everything from employment to education.

Florida state lawmakers tried to get ahead of possible impacts, good or bad, but the governor vetoed it.

Take a look.

House Bill 827 would have studied how I could impact the state's workforce.

What industries are most at risk?

Changes in wages.

What skills will be in demand and how to prepare Floridians for a rapidly changing job market?

The bill passed with near unanimous support.

Just one lawmaker voting no.

But Governor Ron DeSantis vetoed the proposal, arguing it would be obsolete given how fast AI is evolving.

Days later, in an unrelated event, the governor warned I is, quote, very dangerous, end quote, and pledged to develop a plan to address that.

So was this a smart move or a missed opportunity?

Um, Danny, I'll start with you.

Well, you know, once ASI, artificial superintelligence is achieved, I believe that technological jump will be like handing a Ending a caveman, an iPhone.

That's how huge this is.

Elon Musk has already said many times there's a 10 to 20% chance this will be bad.

But that means there's an 80 to 90% chance this is going to be a good thing.

So why not do the research?

Why not approve the research that the legislature approved nearly unanimously?

Sure, because I can tell you this document right here, like six pages.

I typed in one sentence asking grok this particular one.

Can you give me some information on the new condominium document?

It's all right there.

Everything I need to know.

Now, you got to research a little bit.

Make sure it's not lying to you, because I think it does pose some lies.

Just use an AI and say, hey, what's this going to be?

That is the effect.

Why would we spend money as a legislature, as a taxpayer, when the system's already in place to ask the question?

Seriously, one of the things that the The legislators said when they approved it on their end, was that it would be good for the research to show some of the areas of vulnerability.

Industries and levels of professionals that might be negatively impacted in the news business, for example.

How are you seeing AI really change the dynamic, Rebecca.

Yeah, I mean, I think it's tough because people will go in and ask these AI chat bots a question and not realize that it's pulling the information from different sources.

So at least in the case of journalism, the chatbot might be able to pull from the New York Times.

But if it puts the New York Times out of business, it has nowhere to pull from.

So it's it's definitely tricky.

What did you think about that, Joseph?

You're smirking.

So I know something is going on.

You know me too well.

My mind goes 10 million miles an hour.

This was a bipartisan bill.

One of the few bipartisan things we see in Tallahassee.

The logic that the governor said was that by the time this comes into effect, it will be obsolete.

So by pushing it back now, it's becoming more and more obsolete.

You have House Bill 757 that passed in 2004, uh, to help um, uh, excuse me, campaign, uh, advertisements.

You had House bill?

Uh, good job.

191 that, uh, AI and children's pornography.

So these type of bills have already been passed.

Uh, this bill, in my opinion, AI is out of its infancy, and it's coming into its tweens now, and we need to have some sort of regulation on it now and make sure that it just doesn't get out of hand.

Going off of that, um, it didn't make it into the final law that passed.

But one of the earlier iterations of the Congressional Big Beautiful Bill had a provision that would have prevented state and local governments from enacting AI regulations, so it may be sooner.

Better to be sooner rather than later on this sort of thing.

And and you know, should each state, 50 states have their own regulation regulating a system that is global?

We need a national legislation to control.

We're not control AI because you're not going to control it, but at least have some safeguards and put some guardrails in there.

But honestly, I think, you know, the guardrails, you know, you train a child to do the right thing and they grow up.

This is what you do.

This is how you act when you grow up.

And that's wonderful.

And most all of them do.

And I've got great ones.

Some don't.

Some don't.

Well, AI is also given those guardrails.

Or is all of AI going to be great?

There could be some issues.

So we do need a national discussion on it.

But I think right now it's it's us against China against the other world population.

Who's going to be there first.

So it's out.

It's out of control.

Oh, is that we talked about how this is going to affect Florida in the future.

And we are a right to work states.

Our union's going to have a uprising saying, wait a second.

No, you're going to affect our workers with AI.

How are we going to prevent that here in this state?

Lots of questions, lots of things to keep our eye on.

Certainly not a story that's going away.

Another big story making headlines are the Tampa Bay Rays.

The Rays may soon have a new owner.

A big time buyer from Jacksonville is putting serious money on the table.

His name is Patrick Zalupski.

The other big question remaining and just as big, are the Rays staying in St. Pete or are they destined for a new home?

An agreement to buy the rays is all set, but in writing, the potential price tag $1.7 billion.

While no public announcement has been made, according to The Athletic, a group led by a Jacksonville developer could own the team as soon as September.

The deal would also have to be approved by 75% of Major League Baseball team owners.

When asked about the deal, MLB commissioner Rob Manfred said he had, quote, no reason to dispute reports.

End quote.

The Rays are still playing this season at Steinbrenner Field, which only holds a fraction of fans compared to Tropicana Field.

The Trop in St. Pete still has no roof and damages from Hurricane Milton last October.

The Trop sits on what was once St. Pete's historic gas plant district.

The team owner and City of St. Pete had an agreement for a new stadium that has since fallen through.

And now the question on the minds of fans will the rays move?

Zalupski reportedly wants to keep the Rays in Tampa Bay with a strong preference to Tampa, although rumors persist of Orlando courting the deal or even Jacksonville.

On the panel today, we have the former chair of the Tampa City Council where conversations were going on about whether or not the Rays would come to camp to Tampa.

Um, Joseph, I'd like to start with you.

How do you see all of this?

First of all, let me say I'm very, very excited.

Um, when I was watching the all star game and Mr. Zalupski was there with Mr. Manfred talking about the proposed, um, purchase of the Rays, which may have already gone through as we speak right now.

Uh, let me just break this down a little bit.

I do not see them going outside of the Bay area.

I think St. Pete has a zero chance of having them there.

Hillsborough County is 85%, and the city of Tampa has 65% chance its viewership.

MLB is steering the ship right now.

And why would Tampa have that higher percentage rate in your mind?

In my mind, because other cities do not have the higher viewership TV viewership that city of Tampa does.

We're ranked number 11th.

Everybody else.

Where are these other cities that are vying for the Rays?

They fall far before that.

MLB makes a lot of money off of T.V.

That's how they make their money.

Uh, let's also talk about where in the city of Tampa I'm going to say Ybor Harbor.

We've just heard about that.

We can turn that into an opportunity zone.

Right now, the shipyards there are going further south to Port Tampa Bay.

Excuse me, the Port of Tampa Bay, uh, to, uh, work there.

That is going to open a whole new area for development, making an opportunity zone.

It's not going to be in historic Ybor City, which we know is 13th to 22nd palm to Sixth Avenue.

Uh, for the city of Tampa.

It's going to be great.

But we also have to make sure that the new owner, Mr. Zalupski, doesn't get that sweetheart deal that the glaciers got 30 years ago.

And Commissioner Ken Hagan has said that he has been in talks with Daryl Shaw, who owns the property in the Ybor harbor area overlooking the in the industrial section.

It overlooks certain part of the Port Tampa Bay.

And he has said that Daryl Shore has expressed an interest in building a stadium for the baseball team, instead of the stadium that he was going to build for his women's professional soccer team.

How do you all see that playing out?

Do you think it will really happen?

I think it will happen, but I'm going to side with Joseph on this.

On the sweetheart deal the Glazers got.

You know, I with some of our commissioners here in Tampa and Hillsborough County, I think we will give away the farm to keep them here.

I think there's 1 or 2 on the commission that's willing to stand up for the taxpayer and realize, yes, we do not give away the farm just to keep the team here.

They make millions and billions of dollars.

Look at the... Sternberg bought the team for about $250 million.

He's selling it for 1.6, $1.6 billion.

What a return on his investment.

Does the taxpayer really have to fund this?

I love the Ybor harbor idea.

I think that is great.

As a lifelong Floridian, fourth generation here, I didn't even know it was called Ybor Harbor.

I just called it Port Tampa.

But I love the Ybor harbor idea.

But let's bring it back here to the owners who are the owners, Dreamfinder homes, the CEO of Dreamfinder Homes, and partnering with Union Home Mortgage.

Home building ain't dead.

They're making money out there.

So we talk about the condo crisis and the homes where we are right now in the real estate industry.

Real estate is doing pretty good.

And obviously.

Rebecca, what are you going to add?

Yeah, I think.

Just again, with the idea of not giving the farm away, if this does go through in Ybor Harbor, that site was set to be developed already.

I mean, with or without baseball, I think Ybor harbor will thrive.

So I do think that's something our public officials should be keeping an eye on.

I do have some questions about that site, just in terms of parking, transportation, getting there.

It's going to be difficult.

That's already a tough area to.

To get into.

Not really familiar where that is.

Can you can you describe it for them?

It's in the industrial section of Ybor City and even in Ybor City right now there is problems with parking.

There's not a lot of public transportation.

I mean, you do have the streetcar that goes from channelside to there, but still, I think we're going to need to see, uh, more infrastructure put into getting people to and from the stadium if the.

Opportunity.

Zone will help with the infrastructure.

With that, let's look at the infrastructure for Water Street and for Gasworks.

Uh, Gasworks, put in the infrastructure that the city of Tampa needed to put in sewer water, those type of things, and they were reimbursed 50% through CRA.

As far as your parking goes, you've got three parking garages.

Fernando Noriega has two.

You got 15th Street.

That's two block walk away from the streetcar.

That could get people there.

If you want to park downtown, you got the Po, you got the Pam Iorio garage.

You could park at the streetcar.

There's more that they'll come out, more details that come.

If in fact it does land in Ybor harbor want to do the big story of the week.

Before we end the show, I'd like to start with you, Rebecca.

What?

What's the other story that you think we should be paying more attention to?

So my big story of the week, my colleague Teegan Simonton, and I just published a story today that looks at what happened to our housing market following Hurricane Selene and Milton.

I know we've heard a lot of rumors about investors coming in and about home selling.

Well, we now have the data to back it up.

Um, our reporting found that more than 3000 homes in the most flooded areas sold in the six months following the storms, and that about a third of those went to LLCs and other companies.

Danny.

Well, you know, as a former candidate that ran for Congress, kind of did a silly thing.

I will never do that again.

I would say I'm excited to see that Paul Renner, our former Speaker of the House, is putting his hat in the ring for the 2026 governor race.

Paul, after he left the legislature, he was appointed to the Board of Governors by the governor.

He is from Jacksonville.

I think having a primary with multiple people in it, given the state of Florida, given our party, my party, the chance to choose from a great list is going to be a fun thing in 2026.

Thank you Joseph.

In the time we have.

What's your big story?

Lissette only had me do one.

I wanted to do two right now as we speak.

The city of Tampa is looking over the mayor's budget.

Uh, Gwendolyn Henderson, the recently deceased, uh, representative from district five.

There is nobody representing district five right now.

I'm wondering how that's going to affect the budget talks.

And even though the budget will probably not be passed until sometime in September, Gwen's Henderson's replacement might not be in office when this budget is passed.

There's going to be an even number of city council people.

I hope it doesn't get deadlocked.

Thank you.

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That's it for us.

Thank you to our panel members this week Danny Kushner, Joseph Citro, and Rebecca Liebson.

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