Chamber welcomes Puerto Rico businesses

s large numbers of Puerto Ricans migrate to Florida, thousands are also bringing businesses.

And the Hispanic Chamber of Commerce of Metro Orlando is preparing to help them with free chamber membership and other resources.

One of them is Carlos Barrio Ruberte, owner of AMB Rental Corp., in Ponce, Puerto Rico.

“Business in Puerto Rico is very low,” Barrio said. “We are in a good position here, but I like the market in Orlando.”

Barrio, whose grandfather moved to Puerto Rico from Cuba decades ago, said he is ready to move his permanent residence to the Orlando area.

He plans to keep an office in Ponce but expand here. The business focuses on party rentals for tents, chairs, audio-visual equipment and other rental items.

He said Hurricane Maria’s destruction was the final kicker that made him decide to move.

According to the chamber, as many as 5,000 businesses are moving to Florida from the island. The group announced the free membership option at its “Savor the Night” cocktail mixer event at Orlando City Hall on Saturday.

“We know starting over and relocating from home during any circumstance is not easy, let alone due to a natural disaster,” said Karla Muñiz, chairman of the chamber’s board. “We hope that by offering complimentary access to our resources, and peer support, business owners from Puerto Rico can thrive here.”

Orlando City Commissioner Tony Ortiz praised the chamber for making the free offer.

“Central Florida is one of the most economically sound regions in the nation, and the Hispanic community contributes a great deal,” Ortiz said.

P House ownership

A Miami company that operates a chain of Asian cuisine restaurants plans to buy Parliament House, the 40-year-old gay resort on Orlando’s west side, as part of a reverse merger process, according to a news release.

But the purchase might be just a financial technicality, and longtime owner Don Granatstein apparently isn’t moving out of the picture. Granatstein confirmed that there have been talks about a transaction, but he said no deal was final yet, and he declined to elaborate on Wednesday.

Under a plan announced in a news release attributed to Miami-based Kenergy Scientific, the resort would continue to be run by Granatstein. Granatstein said this week’s announcement was premature; attempts to speak to Kenergy weren’t successful.

Kenergy is a publicly traded company (OTC: KNSC) that is already part of a reverse-merger process involving a chain of Asian cuisine eateries called Hibachi Grill. The restaurant company said it acquired Kenergy in a reverse merger that started in 2015.

Reverse mergers are often used as a cheaper way to list a company on a public stock exchange, bypassing the lengthy Initial Public Offering process. According to the announcement, Parliament House could become a brand of gay resorts that would be expanded nationally.

The goal for Parliament House is to acquire more resorts, license the name Parliament House to be used for a chain of gay-themed resorts, and build a new major chain boutique hotel with 150 new rooms on the Parliament House property, according to the release.

Parliament House refinanced a loan to beat a foreclosure in 2015. Granatstein registered a new company in 2015 called Parliament Partners Holdings. According to the news release this week, the new company will address all the “needs of the gay community,” including banking, insurance and senior care.

Kenergy’s CEO has been Adel Abu Nassar, who launched the restaurant chain, but the news release says Granatstein will become CEO of the new company upon completion of the Parliament House purchase.

Tax evasion

A federal jury found McKenzie Calixte guilty of one count of conspiracy to commit theft of government property and five counts of theft of government property. He faces a maximum of 5 years in prison on the conspiracy count and up to 10 years’ imprisonment for each of the theft counts.

According to evidence introduced during trial, Calixte conspired with Tanya Fox and others in a scheme involving the filing of fraudulent tax returns using identities that had been stolen from a variety of sources.

Fox then worked with Calixte and the conspirators to withdraw the funds and spend the money.

Calixte had 127 fraudulent tax refunds deposited into this account totaling more than $160,000.

Calixte is the 11th person to be found guilty as a result of this scheme. Approximately 2,400 names were provided to him from other defendants for data at the Orange County Health Department.

Got a news tip? pbrinkmann@orlandosentinel.com or 407-420-5660; Twitter, @PaulBrinkmann

Paul Brinkmann
Chamber welcomes Puerto Rico businesses