OMPHOY HAS A NEW OWNER 

Palm Beacher Jeff Greene buys Omphoy Ocean Resort; calls it 'a fun investment.' Greene took ownership of Omphoy Ocean Resort on April 15 through a new limited liability company. The purchase price for mortgage note was estimated to be approximately $42 million.  

For more information read the full story here. 

SOUTH FLORIDA FORECLOSURE SALES DOWN in Q1 

Foreclosure-related sales in South Florida dropped by more than 50 percent, year-over-year, in the first quarter, with the greatest drop recorded in Broward County, according to a new RealtyTrac report.
Broward had 6,876 foreclosure-related sales, an over-the-year drop of 68 percent, while Miami-Dade had 7,257 such sales, a 64 percent drop, and Palm Beach had 4,734 such sales, a 57 percent decline, according to the report.

Palm Beach saw the biggest drop (63 percent) in activity in the first quarter compared to the fourth quarter of last year, with 12,652 such sales. Broward recorded the second-largest drop (45 percent) with 12,488 foreclosure-related sales. And Miami-Dade had the smallest decline (42 percent), recording 12,578 sales.
Overall, foreclosure-related sales were down in Florida by 32 percent, year-over-year, in the first quarter. Still foreclosure-related sales made up one-third of all sales activity.

According to RealtyTrack Foreclosure homes account for 28% of Q1 2011 sales in all U.S. residential sales. The average sales price was nearly 27% lower from an average sales price of non foreclosure sales. More about the results here.  

PASSENGER TRAFFIC UP IN FORTH LAUDERDALE 

Passengers to Fort Lauderdale-Hollywood International Airport soared in April.
Total passengers climbed 9.3 percent to 2.15 million from April 2010's 1.97 million. International passengers also rose to 341,064 from 313,507. Domestic travelers saw the largest increase in April climbing 9.4 percent year over year to 1.81 million from 1.66 million.
Passenger traffic was led by low-cost airline Spirit Airlines.

 

News From Finland

FINNISH CONSUMER CONFIDENCE DIPS

Statistics Finland's consumer confidence indicator fell to +15.4 points in May from +17.8 points in April but remained unchanged from the year-ago figure, the agency said in a statement Friday.

"Of the four components of the consumer confidence indicator, only the expectations concerning consumers' own economic situation improved somewhat in May from the month before," the statement added.

Stephen Elop swept into his new job as Nokia President and CEO less than five months ago, and like the proverbial new broom he has shaken up a lot of dust - already shaping a new strategy for the iconic Finnish corporation. Nokia has about 21,000 emlopyees in Finland and layoffs are expected. 

Read more here.   

Google pioneers seawater cooling for datacentre

Google has released a video showing off the sea water-based cooling system which will used by its new data centre on the southern coast of Finland.

Due to go live later this year, the company's Hamina data centre was built on the site of a former paper mill and the facility will be cooled entirely with water from the Gulf of Finland.

According to the video Google runs sea water to the facility through a tunnel that was built for the paper mill in the 1950s.

The water is run through a heat exchanger, where it is used to dissipate heat from the facility's servers. Before the water is released back into the gulf, it is mixed with fresh seawater in a tempering building to cool it.

FINNISH TOP FIRMS' INVESTMENTS HIT RECORD LOW IN 2010

According to STT, Finland's top 500 companies invested a record low of 3.6 per cent of their combined sales last year, business daily Talouselämä reported Friday.

According to Talouselämä's annual investment report last year's biggest investors were government-controlled utility Fortum, government-controlled refiner Neste Oil and mobile phone maker Nokia.

October 5, 2011

8:00 AM to 2:00 PM

Charlotte Harbor Event Center

75 taylor Street

Punta Gorda, FL 33950

For more information or sponsorship opportunities,

please email FloridaEDO@charlottefl.com

or call 941-627-3023

FACC National Meeting in D.C.

FACC Florida participated again at the FACC National meeting at the Finnish Embassy in Washington D.C.. Chamber representatives from all over the U.S. and Canada were sharing best practices and creating strategies for future.

Some practical decisions and suggestions were to created a common event calendar for all FACC's which we be available at

www.facc-usa.com 

Secondly a shared LinkedIn account will be created for both FACC and AmCham Finland.  

Other plans were discussion also, but more about those later. FACC Florida wants to thank you Ambassador Lintu for your generosity in hosting the event. 

FACC-FL at inauguration of the 11th  

ABICC World Business Month 2011

The Florida chapter of Finnish American Chamber of Commerce took part in ABiCC (Association of Bi-National Chambers of Commerce in Florida)  inaugaration and ribbon cutting ceremony at Hyatt Regency Hotel in Coral Cables, Miami.  

The event was organized by ABiCC with participants from nearly 20 different chambers and attracted approximately 400 people.   

The inauguration was also reserved for international food tasting and networking organized by all of the chambers.  

The Finnish American Chamber of Commerce provided the event with traditional Finnish Karelian pasties, Finnish chocolate from Fazer and Finlandia cheese from Valio. The event ran smoothly with plenty of food, wine and business card exchange.

We would like to encourage FACC members to participate future ABiCC events with us. 

In the latest chapter of hockey's classic Nordic rivalry, Finland demolished Sweden 6-1 in the gold medal game of the 2011 IIHF World Championship held in Slovakia, Bratislava.  

The first round of the final went without goals. The second round Sweden scored first, with Finland evening the situation later to 1-1. In third and final round Finland started scoring goal after goal, leading up to 6-1 situation with the final goal being scored 55 seconds before the end of the game.

The 16-year wait for Finnish fans is finally over. Finland's one and only previous World Championship gold came in 1995 in Stockholm with a 4-1 final win over Sweden.

The Finnish celebration was on, not only in the arena, but from Helsinki to Rovaniemi.  

It is a refreshing pace of change for Finland, which had grown accustomed to heartbreaking losses to Sweden. Two recent examples include Sweden's rallying from a 5-1 deficit to down Finland 6-5 in the 2003 World Championship quarter-finals in Helsinki, and Tre Kronor's 3-2 victory in the 2006 Olympic gold medal game.

For full match info, standings and score details read more here. 

The mobile passport unit arrived to the Lake Worth Honorary Consulate on Tuesday 10th and left Friday 13th.   

50 passports were granted during these four days and the Finnish citizens of Florida and surrounding states were extremy glad to have the opportunity to have their passports renewed. 

Lake Worth Honorary Consulate of Finland

was glad to assist Finnish citizens with their passports. The mobile passport renewal unit should arrive to Lake Worth again later this year. Further information will be released when the exact date and month are established.

Since the Finnish passport is biometric, the applicant must be physically present for the process. Outside of these dates the renewal can be processed in Los Angeles, Washington D.C. or New York.

For inquiries or assistance, please feel free to call 561-582-2335 

Stop by and get your Welcome to Florida, "Tervetuloa Floridaan" brochure while it last.

The brochure offers practical advice for new comers in many areas, such as how to start credit history, open a bank account, ge

t drivers license, about traffic, schools, health c

 are and much more.It also makes a great welcome gift to your client and by adding your own logo to the back you can personalize this gift and make your clients feel welcome!

The brochure cost is $5.00/members and $6.00/future members.

Bulk pricing starting from $3.00 available for orders more than 10 pieces.

Inquire by sending an email to info@facc-fl.com or visit us at 523 Lake Ave, Lake Worth, FL

Lena Hartikainen
Finnish American Chamber of Commerce