Florida Trend

📰 July's issue is here! 🎬 No place like home: Even without state film incentives, the adaptation of A Land Remembered is staying true to its Florida roots. 🚤 Sea change: Some Florida boat builders are banking on drone vessels — but will Uncle Sam buy them? 🌾 Future farming: A farm boy's dream helps U.S. Sugar take a big leap in robotics. 📊 The Florida Trend 350: The state's largest 125 public and 225 private companies, ranked by revenue. ➡️ Explore the digital issue & subscribe today: bit.ly/3hkdN5P #FloridaBusiness #Florida350 #Autonomous #FloridaTrend

Nominations are NOW being accepted for Florida Trend's Legal Elite NOTABLE Women Leaders in Law list, highlighting attorneys who excel in leadership, mentorship, and driving success across the legal profession. We're looking to recognize women attorneys whose work benefits clients, businesses and the marketplace. Deadline: July 24, 2026 | bit.ly/4uZ04SI

Nominations are NOW being accepted for Florida Trend's Legal Elite NOTABLE Women Leaders in Law list, highlighting attorneys who excel in leadership, mentorship, and driving success across the legal profession. We're looking to recognize women attorneys whose work benefits clients, businesses and the marketplace. Deadline: July 17, 2026 | bit.ly/4uZ04SI

Florida's Board of Governors voted to halt new H-1B visa hires at the state's 12 public universities. The pause runs through January 2027. Public universities accounted for 6% of Florida's 10,000-plus approved H-1B visa applications last fiscal year. The University of Florida led all state schools with 749 approved H-1B petitions. The pause follows the Trump administration's 'Project Firewall' and a new $100,000 fee on new H-1B applications. Existing visa holders are untouched, but faculty warn the pause could shrink hiring pools and hamper research. Private universities like Saint Leo aren't bound by the state's hiring pause. Unlike companies in the private sector, institutions of higher education are exempt from the national cap of 85,000 H-1B visas issued each year. @USouthFlorida @uflorida @SUS_Florida @FloridaState @FloridaAtlantic @FAMU_1887 @UofNorthFlorida @UWF @fgcu @FLPolyU @NewCollegeofFL #HigherEducation #Florida #H1BVisa #ImmigrationPolicy #WorkforceDevelopment

Most people call them flying cars. Technically, they are eVTOLs, and researchers at the University of South Florida are studying how they could be safely integrated into Florida's transportation system. Working for the Florida Department of Transportation, the USF team is analyzing where landing sites called vertiports could go and how much road traffic might shift to the air. #FloridaTrend #Transportation #eVTOL #USF #UniversityofSouthFlorida

Nominations are NOW being accepted for Florida Trend's Legal Elite NOTABLE Women Leaders in Law list, highlighting attorneys who excel in leadership, mentorship, and driving success across the legal profession. We're looking to recognize women attorneys whose work benefits clients, businesses and the marketplace. Deadline: July 17, 2026 | bit.ly/4uZ04SI

Florida's public university presidents are increasingly paid like corporate CEOs, with boards benchmarking compensation against the private sector. Salaries for presidents of 49 of the nation's 50 flagship universities rose 56% in inflation-adjusted dollars from 2010 to 2019. Over those same 10 years, professor pay went up on average by $646. Researcher Judith Wilde doesn't expect a slowdown: "It's only going to continue increasing." A decade of soaring pay at the top and a $646 raise at the lectern. Where should a university's money go? #FloridaTrend #FloridaUniversities #HigherEd #FacultyPay

Florida Polytechnic University almost didn't make it. In 2020, the school survived an attempt to be consolidated under the University of Florida. Now, just over a decade after holding its first classes in 2014, it's the No. 1 public college in the South, and its president is talking about reaching 10,000 students within a decade. Inside: the comeback, the leadership shift, the enrollment math, and the Carnegie Mellon and IFF partnerships fueling the growth. What should a fast-growing STEM university focus on first? #FloridaTrend #FloridaPolytechnicUniversity #FloridaPoly #Lakeland #HigherEd

In South Florida, condominiums tied to well-known brands are drawing more buyers and higher returns, and developers say the appeal is trust: a globally recognized name signals that significant due diligence has been done on a building's design, finances, and builders. Only Dubai has more branded condominiums, with 48 completed across the region and 55 more in the pipeline, according to brokerage Savills. #FloridaTrend #RealEstate #Miami #LuxuryRealEstate #BrandedResidences

"At the end of the day, I may not be the smartest person in the room, but I will be the hardest working." Shirl Penney, Founder & CEO of Dynasty Financial Partners, built one of the nation's largest independent wealth management platforms — and he traces that drive back to his grandfather. On this week's #ExecutivePerspectivePodcast, @shirl_penney shares the values his granddad instilled in him — work ethic, integrity, and honesty — and why he's never been afraid to say he doesn't know something, as long as he goes and finds the answer. #WorkEthic #FloridaBusiness #Leadership #FloridaTrend

The Tampa Bay Partnership has released The Housing Equation, the tri-county region's first comprehensive analysis of housing supply, demand and affordability. The findings frame housing as an economic competitiveness issue. Between 2018 and 2023, Hillsborough, Pinellas and Pasco counties added nearly 100,000 households but only 82,000 housing units. The region is short an estimated 80,650 homes affordable to lower-income owners and nearly 70,000 affordable to lower-income renters. Median rents are up nearly 50% since 2018 while median hourly wages rose 29%, leaving a third of owner households and more than half of renters cost-burdened. Researchers project the region needs about 254,700 new units by 2035, an average of 21,225 per year, to keep pace with growth. How should business and government partner to expand the housing pipeline? @Tampasdowntown #FloridaTrend #RealEstate #TampaBay #Housing #Workforce

Off Florida's Treasure Coast, divers still pull Spanish gold and silver from the sea floor. Captain Michael Perna has hunted shipwreck treasure there since 1996, and last year one of his boats hit the jackpot: 1,000 silver coins, five gold coins, a lead document seal, and silver artifacts. But finding it is the easy part. In treasure hunting today, rarely are finders keepers. Hunters battle weather, sand, and, most formidable of all, the government for the right to keep what they bring up. Should treasure pulled from Florida's waters belong to the people who find it? #FloridaTrend #TreasureHunting #TreasureCoast #Shipwreck #Florida

The Castro regime pushed the Pantins out of Cuba. Miami pulled them in for good. Leslie Pantin arrived at 11, thinking it was a six-week vacation. Sixty-six years later, he co-founded Calle Ocho, held the McDonald's local PR account for 30 years, and served on the FSU Board of Trustees. What part of his story surprised you most? #FloridaTrend #FloridaIcon #FloridaBusiness #Miami