The Iguana Trapper

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SPOTLIGHT

For decades after iguanas got established in South Florida in the 1960s, locals could count on regular killer cold spells to keep them in check. But the region hasn’t had temperatures sufficiently cold in more than a decade to kill them. Result: The non-native reptiles are everywhere, damaging the ecosystem, crops, screened enclosures, seawalls and yards and leaving disease-carrying iguana excrement in and around pools, docks and boats. “The problem is getting exponentially worse. You’re talking millions of dollars in damage,” says Pierce Kennamer, a 2023 Florida Atlantic University College of Business graduate and former FAU student body president.

A couple years before graduation, he came up with the idea of building an iguana-specific trap. IggyTrap of Florida cages allow animals such as raccoons to come and go but keep iguanas — up to 25 of them — inside. His company sells the traps, but a key focus is contracting with homeowners, their associations, golf courses and others to install the traps, regularly bait and empty them, and euthanize the vermin. “It’s going great,” he says, “We have hundreds of traps deployed.”

It would seem a market of limited geography, but Kennamer says iguanas are a problem in several parts of the world, and he’s working on ways to handle other pests. “We are always innovating.”

ENVIRONMENT

• The National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration says scientists identified the world’s largest deep-sea coral reef — about the size of Vermont — 35 miles to 75 miles off the Florida coast stretching from south of Miami to South Carolina.

FOOD SERVICE

• Meat packer and distributor Bush Brothers Provision Co. will add 25 workers to its 65-employee staff as it relocates to Royal Palm Beach from West Palm Beach. The company markets to food service clients, yachts and private households. It delivers in South and Central Florida and exports to the Bahamas, the Caribbean and Central and South America.

HIGHER EDUCATION

• Palm Beach Atlantic University in West Palm Beach broke ground on its Marshall and Vera Lea Rinker Business Hall, the first of four major projects in its “God-Sized Dreams” campaign that as of January had raised $48 million toward a $75 million goal. The building will house a stock trading room, a 300-plus-seat lecture hall, the Titus Center for Franchising, the LeMieux Center for Public Policy and the Center for Financial Literacy. The other three projects in the campaign are a health science complex, a performing arts center, and an alumni and student center.
• The National Science Foundation awarded Florida Atlantic University’s College of Engineering and Computer Science a $2.6-million grant to start a cybersecurity scholarship program. FAU is one of six universities given an NSF Cyber-Corps award so far in 2024.

LOGISTICS

• Costco will employ more than 500 at 1.87-million square feet of cold and dry distribution facilities it plans for Sansone Group’s Legacy Park at Tradition after receiving government incentives.

MARINE RETAIL

• Fort Lauderdale-based Nautical Ventures expanded into Northwest Florida by acquiring boat dealer Wefings Marine, based in Eastpoint in Florida’s Panhandle, on undisclosed terms. Wefings started in 1909 as a ship chandler.

REAL ESTATE

• Port St. Lucie will negotiate to sell 20 acres for $6.8 million near Tradition to developer Piticopu for a 100,000-sq.-ft. shopping, dining and entertainment project. Piticopu is developing a site for chain restaurants nearby.
• GCF Development secured from Deutsche Bank a $133-million refinancing of its 1-million-sq.-ft. Hollywood Circle hotel, residence, retail and supermarket project in Hollywood. BayBridge Real Estate Capital’s Jay Miller brokered the deal.

Tags: Southeast, Feature