News-Press from Fort Myers, Florida • Page 4

A4 THE NEWS-PRESS, NATION WORLD, MONDAY, JANUARY 26, 2009 Boulevard in Cape Coral and moved to the current location 19 years ago when Pine Island Road was a two-lane highway. Since the area became a retail mecca, Paul Campbell said, "I get a lot more people coming by. The shopping center added a turn lane and now people actually have a way to slow down and turn." North American also takes the long view, Hafele said. The dearth of financing for new construction isn't, over the long term, a bad thing for owners of centers like the one with Circuit City, he said. Commercial projects take years to execute, Hafele said, and "It's going to be a long time before new centers are built.

So our competition, especially new competition, will be nonexistent until the banks come around to lending again." where he's owned the UPS store for five years. The Publix will open Feb. 5 with a pharmacy and a Publix liquor store, Publix spokeswoman Shannon Patten said. The store is one of 49 purchased in June by Publix from Albertsons. Publix isn't coming a moment too soon, Ponzio said.

"Of course, having your major anchor leave is huge just for traffic we didn't have people coming past our store each day." Other retailers are less worried about short-term fluctuations in the economy and surrounding businesses. Paul Campbell, for example, owns Campbell's Ornamental Concrete just east of the SuperTarget on Pine Island Road. His father, Mason Campbell, started the business in 1972 on Coronado back to affordability again." In the meantime, he said, there's little to do but wait. "I don't think anything's going to get developed in the near future (on Pine Island Road) just because there's no lenders out there," he said, noting that although many banks have received federal bailout money they're not financing construction. "As we all know, they're not doing that.

There's no money out there." For owners, said Johnson-Crowther, that means that "the smart tenants are the ones who are saying, 'Wait a minute, maybe I can relocate to a new facility that's better for less But not all retail is equal, with locations in central, well traveled spots better able to compete. In the North American center where Linens n' Things used to operate, for example, "We're in the process of replacing Linens with Bed Bath Beyond, a bigger, stronger Hafele said. Other areas are more problematic, experts say. Estero, for example, in the area near the Coconut Point Mall, there are centers sitting empty because the building of retail "got way ahead of the market" as developers failed to anticipate the collapse of the housing boom in late 2005, said Gary Tasman, executive director of Cushman Wakefield of Florida. Occasionally, however, even now, a small retailer will catch a break.

Matt Ponzio, for example, said it will be "very welcome" to have a Publix grocery store open next month in the shopping center at San Carlos Boulevard and Sum-merlin Road in south Fort Myers ri.j'-' I m1 fa'' MARC BEAUDINTHE NEWS-PRESS FGCU biotechnology student Jessica Strnad works on a new chemical process to make photocatalysts at a Green Technologies Research Group project in a lab at the university. y'L-- HAVE AN IDEA? Do you have ideas for diversifying Lee County's economy? What fields should the region target? Send your suggestions or ideas to economy Photo gallery: Researching green technologies at FGCU Multimedia: Watch a special presentation about ideas that will help Lee County in the effort to improve the economic outlook. participants, or we'll just be a backwater to everyone else," Barreto said. Just east of Southwest Florida's populated coastline, the $11 billion Everglades restoration project is under way. Janet Watermeier, Lee County's former economic development director and president of Watermeier Property Services, said there's no reason the area cannot capitalize on the thousands of workers who will carry out that project.

"They will be located on one coast or the other coast," Watermeier said. "I don't see why Southwest Florida couldn't capture the environmental restoration people that come with that." RETAIL Continued from A1 in Lee County, it can be tough going for local owners. "The retail market is soft," acknowledged Dale Hafele, the Fort Myers-based president of the Florida division of North American Properties, which developed the SuperTarget and Circuit City-anchored shopping centers on Pine Island Road. But he's encouraged by the recent explosion in the number of people buying houses here, particularly in Cape Coral. "We're closer to having an end user living in those homes rather than someone just speculating," Hafele said.

"It's one step closer to having someone living there who's going to shop at one of our centers and it gets Lee County DONOR Continued from A1 They were reasonable conclusions. "They (the registry) give you this book as a thank you," Namkung said earlier this month by phone. "It's a story of all these matches, and in every story it's the same ethnic group." So they knew each other only by assigned numbers and erroneous assumptions. At the eight-month mark, Valdivias sent Namkung a card that said, "Thank you for saving my life." Then the year passed and Valdivias made a call. "I was overwhelmed as I have waited for this call for a year," Namkung wrote in an e-mail to family and friends.

"It was emotional and amazing. He says that we are now 'blood for Valdivias admitted being surprised when he saw a picture of Namkung. But not for long. "Everybody's the same. A different face, maybe, but the same.

She's my sister." "I certainly consider him a relative," Namkung said. "It's a great thing we'll have for the rest of our lives." GIFT OF LIFE Namkung was Christmas shopping in December 2005 in Beverly Jrlills when she got a call from the registry that she was a tissue-type match for someone. "I felt like I won the lottery," Namkung said. Meanwhile, Valdivias believed he was dying and felt like it. He knew he needed a peripheral stem cell transplant.

No match could be found in his family, but the bone marrow registry was testing a couple of people who were preliminary matches. One was Namkung, who had registered in 1995. She had heard about a little girl of Korean and Irish ancestry who had leukemia. But despite their unusual shared heritage, Namkung was not a match. So she had moved on with her life, writing for Style and USA Today, covering events such as the Golden Globes.

Meanwhile in Fort Myers, the 25-pound baskets of chicken Valdivias carried at Carrabba's felt heavier. He would often come home from work and fall asleep in his clothes, said his spouse, Maria Avila. He was out of breath; carrying a 24-pack of bottled water into their house in Pine Manor was exhausting. Avila took Valdivias to the doctor she sees for her diabetes. Another doctor confirmed with tests Valdivias had acute myelogenous leukemia.

That was just two months after his supervisor convinced him to buy health insurance through Carrabba's. Avila had been telling him it was time to go to a dentist for teeth cleaning, anyway. "Everybody over there has insurance now," Valdivias said. "They sawwhat happened to me." 7 i Hi miini. ly'l ECONOMY Continued from A1 Center in Cocoa.

Instead, about 14,000 solar panels will be trucked into Florida for FGCU's project. One company has noticed that business opportunity. Advanced Solar Photonics is building a factory in Lake Mary, north of Orlando, that will be operational next fall. The solar market is entirely theirs, at least until it has some competition. "You can have a good business model that also helps the environment," said Edgardo Rodriguez, vice president of sales and marketing.

"It's the best of both worlds." In addition to its solar project, FGCU hopes to be on the cutting edge with its new Green Technology Research Group. The university won a $1.5 million Department of Defense grant to develop technology that combats biological weapons. Part of that research includes a chemical that destroys germs when activated by ultraviolet lights. It's considered a green project because it has no negative effects on the environment. Faculty also are researching algae to see if it can be converted into biodiesel fuel.

"We're not going to be the only people in the game," said chemistry professor Jose Bar-reto, who leads the research group. "Everybody is trying to develop green technologies. If we don't do it, someone else will, and we'll be left behind." President Obama's New Energy for America plan calls for a $150 billion investment into green technologies, creating 5 million new jobs. Barreto said FGCU and Southwest Florida can be players in developing green technology, but he is realistic about the region's chances of being the Silicon Valley of green research. "It's grandiose to say we'll be the epicenter of green technology, but we have to at least be "You can have a good BANKRUPTCY Continued from A1 has filed for bankruptcy.

But the Bankruptcy Court has no authority to change the terms of his mortgage that is more than double the value of his home. A bill to give judges authority to alter loan terms for primary residences may be the quickest way to arrest the housing market's collapse. Most Democrats in the House and Senate support that plan. President Obama told Democratic leaders Friday he also backs it. But 10 groups representing the lending industry and other businesses are fighting back fiercely.

Several have engaged portions of their lobbying machines to stop the legislation. The groups spent $83 million in lobbying on multiple issues in 2008, a figure that shows the power of the banking and investing industry and their business supporters. One Democratic backer of the bankruptcy proposal, Rep. Maxine Waters of California, said the banking industry "has owned this Congress far too long." Butler, the GM worker, and an industry lobbyist see things much differently. "I'm living from day to day, hoping to make it through the day.

I worry about my family, where we're going to live, how we'll survive," said, Butler, who VALERIE ROCHE THE NEWS-PRESS Jaciel Valvidias, a line cook at Carrabba's, is alive today because of a bone marrow donation. Two years after his transplant he is back to work. SPECIAL TO THE NEWS-PRESS At left, Valvidias and Victoria Namkung of Los Angeles, recipient and donor, meet in Miami two years after the operation that saved Valvidias' life. BONE MARROW AND STEM CELL DONATION There are two ways to donate, said Pam Jeffers of the National Bone Marrow Program. Either bone marrow is harvested for transplant or peripheral stem cells are transfused.

Both are used to treat leukemia. Bone marrow donation is done under anesthesia. Some liquid marrow inside the bone is removed with hollow needles, and the donor's body makes more over the next few weeks. The donor may feel tired and sore in the lower back for a couple of days. A peripheral blood stem cell donation is a nonsurgical, outpatient procedure in which blood is taken from one arm, passed through a centrifugal machine that collects the cells necessary for transplantation, then returns the blood to the donor through the other arm.

Any nausea, bone or muscle pain or fatigue disappears shortly after donating. Victoria Namkung, who recently donated stem cells to Fort Myers resident Jaciel Valdivias, said she could handle the pain after donation with extra-strength Tylenol. Of those who register, only about 1 in 200 will go on to donate. Of them, 70 percent donate stem cells; 30 percent bone marrow. Only 30 percent of donations come from family.

The rest are found through unrelated donors. To register which normally involves a kit sent to your home with instructions for painlessly swabbing cells from inside your cheek go to marrow.org. Chemotherapy darkened his skin, blistered his mouth, swelled his lips and his face, and almost killed him. That was rather the point All of the diseased bone marrow had to be destroyed so Valdivias could start anew. That's what doctors at the Moffitt Cancer Center in Tampa did during Valdivias' 30 days in the hospital.

No matter how bad it got, he said, "I just remember that the next day it will be over. And I was praying all the time." FAMILY FORMED On Jan. 23 and 24, 2006, at UCLA Medical Center, Namkung donated stem cells. "Everyone asks, 'Did it Namkung said. "No.

But the real question is, 'Did he She got to see for herself the day before Thanksgiving last year, when donor and recipient met in Miami Valdivias and Avila gave Namkung a statue of an angel. Namkung learned that Valdivias was a fan of Jackie Chan. A few weeks later, an autographed photo of Chan arrived addressed to Valdivias. They are making plans for their extended families to meet. This relationship is not unusual, said Pam Jeffers of the National Bone Marrow Donor Program.

"It's like a new definition of a blended family." Although everyone hopes and prays it's unnecessary, Namkung remains the match who saved Valdivias once and promises she would do it again. business model that also helps the environment." Edgardo Rodriguez, vice president of sales and marketing at Advanced Solar Photonics MORE ON THE SERIES As Lee County's economy continues to tumble, The News-Press is exploring the community's economic failures, achievements and assets through a series of news stories, panel discussions and video presentations. The project will identify possible solutions as Lee looks toward recovery in the coming months and years. Here is a series rundown: Jan. 11 Millions: Lee's economic development office was given $25 million for business recruitment and expansion, but the agency has struggled to attract new industries.

Jan. 18 Problems: A string of challenges looms as the community regroups, problems that must be addressed before resurrecting the local economy. Sunday Ideas: The community is down, but not out, thanks to some key assets and a willingness to develop new industries. Today Solutions: The News-Press will feature a solution each day this week, using ideas generated by residents and community leaders. the mailbox was full.

The application never arrived. The key to passage of the bankruptcy bill is the Senate, where Democrats need 60 votes to stop a possible filibuster. Ten Democrats all still in the Senate would not back the plan in a vote a year ago. Sen. Dick Durbin, the chief Senate sponsor of the bill, said Obama persuaded him in a White House meeting Friday to remove the bankruptcy proposal from an economic recovery package to ensure it doesn't jeopardize the stimulus bill.

But Obama pledged his support for the bankruptcy solution, Durbin said. Obama said he would work with Durbin to attach the proposal to other "must pass" legislation with the hope that supporters of the overall bill would not vote against it because of the bankruptcy provisions. Of the 10 organizations that asked the House Judiciary Committee to oppose the bill, the largest is the U.S. Chamber of Commerce. It spent $57.9 million on lobbying in 2008, according to the Center For Responsive Politics, an organization that tracks lobbying expenditures and political donations.

The Mortgage Bankers Association, which represents 2,400 member companies in the real estate property industry, spent $3.8 million and the American Bankers Association totaled $6.8 million. has a disabled wife and two children, ages 15 and 11. The chief lobbyist for the Mortgage Bankers Association, Steve O'Connor, said new homebuyers would end up paying higher interest and bigger down payments if lenders are saddled with the risk that a judge could change mortgage terms. "We're going to defend the industry (against) bad public policy," O'Connor said. The association's 23-member government affairs team is trying to persuade lawmakers to kill the bankruptcy legislation.

The team includes six lobbyists and nine policy experts who double as lobbyists, said O'Connor, senior vice president of government affairs. The bankruptcy solution would not cost taxpayers money, as would mortgage modification programs that could become part of the government's huge economic bailout package. But it certainly would harm the bottom line for lenders and investors holding mortgages. The lending industry has voluntary programs in place to change mortgage terms. But Butler's lawyer, Peter Bagley, said it was a nightmare trying to contact his client's lender.

First, he was told the application for a loan modification would take at least 30 days to process. Bagley then called someone with authority to stop any sale of the home, but only received voice messages that "I'm living from day to day, hoping to make it through the day. I worry about my family, where we're going to live, how we'll survive." Troy Butler of Saginaw, Mich. 0.