Florida's Retail Hit Hard By Wilma!

When I saw this article in FURNITUREToday, Florida retailers hit hard, I was confronted once more with how devastating Hurrican Wilma was to Florida and how Katrina, Rita and Wilma have affected the lives and economy of the Southeast.

Furniture stores were cleaning up and trying to get back to business last week, almost two weeks after Hurricane Wilma cut a swath of destruction across south Florida from Fort Myers to Fort Lauderdale.

City Furniture, for example, had damage to 19 stores,

The most serious was to City’s store in West Palm Beach, the company’s second- highest volume producer, where the roof collapsed, said President Keith Koenig.

“It will be closed for eight to 12 months. That hurts a lot. That’s going to be a five, six or seven million dollar loss,” he said.

[...]

Retail damage losses will be astronomical and will be compounded by out-of-pocket costs not covered by insurance, said Julius Feinblum, president of New York-based Julius Feinblum Real Estate. Stores will lose business, and won’t be able to advertise to drive sales, he said.

Retailers I’ve spoken to and seen are in a state of shock,” said Feinblum.

[...]

Getting contractors in for repairs and insurance adjusters to look at damage “is a nightmare,” (Pedro) Capo, (El Dorado chief operating officer) said, because damage was so widespread.

Then you can't start repairs until insurance adjusters have seen the damage and there is a shortage of adjusters.

They’re going to people who lost their entire buildings first.

[...]

City’s Koenig said it’s impossible to get low insurance deductibles in Florida, and that his company will suffer about $1.5 million in out-of-pocket losses, since the stores had $100,000 deductibles.

Bev & Mike