During COVID's first wave in early 2020, many Connecticut residents packed up and headed down to Florida, according to data from the Internal Revenue Service.

IRS tax return data for 2019-2020 shows where people moved to from Connecticut by comparing the addresses people filed in from one year to the next. The data shows how many people moved from Connecticut’s counties to other locations out of state, as well as how much income traveled across the two regions.

In Connecticut, the wealthiest movers on average came from Fairfield County and moved to Palm Beach County, Fla. Palm Beach County is home to popular coastal cities like Palm Beach, West Palm Beach and Boca Raton. The data showed that 418 different families totaling 778 people filed their 2019 taxes in Fairfield County and their 2020 taxes in Palm Beach County. That means over $327 million in income moved from Connecticut down to Florida, making the average income per person just over $421,000.

Fairfield County fills the top seven spots of where the wealthiest Connecticut movers came from. Four of Fairfield County movers’ destinations were all in Florida: Palm Beach County, Indian River County, Collier County and Miami-Dade County. From those four counties alone, over $546 million in income moved out of Fairfield County.

Lisa Treu, founder of Palm Beach County-based Treu Group Real Estate, said her agency has seen this increase in Connecticut clientele.

"Treu Group Real Estate has seven current clients looking to buy from Connecticut. Five of them have decided to retire, they are in their early 50s-60s and two own businesses," Treu said. "They feel that now is the time to make the move to Florida. Their decisions are pretty consistent: lower taxes and better weather."

Treu also said that although Florida home prices are going up due to to influx of people, her Connecticut clients have also seen their home values increase at a similar pace, making the decision to move even easier. When asked what her Connecticut clients were looking for in moving down south, Treu said, "the Florida Dream."

"[They want] something on the water. Out of the seven, four are looking for single family homes with a pool. The buyers are looking to spend year round in Florida versus the snowbird approach that was typical prior to COVID."

Outside of Palm Beach County, the next most popular migration areas were Newport County, R.I., Indian River County, Fla. and Dallas County, Texas. People moving to these counties from Connecticut accounted for average incomes of $398,000, $363,000 and $358,000 in each county respectively.

All but two of Connecticut’s eight counties had their wealthiest movers find new residence somewhere in Florida. Only Tolland and Windham counties had their wealthiest movers move to a Massachusetts county.

Palm Beach was the top moved-to county for wealthy Connecticut residents for three counties— Fairfield, Hartford and Litchfield. Outside of Palm Beach, the second most popular county for wealthy movers was Collier County, which is home to the cities of Naples and the Everglades in Florida. According to the data, most wealthy Connecticut movers stayed on the East Coast, but moved to areas with more temperate climates like Florida and South Carolina.

For those who stayed in the Northeast, many moved to states like Massachusetts and Rhode Island. In addition, a smaller number of wealthy Connecticut movers opted to head out West, with areas like Dallas County, Texas, Maricopa County, Ariz., and Denver and Boulder counties in Colorado gaining over $184 million of annual income from Connecticut counties.

Connecticut's pandemic moving trends followed the national wave as well. According to a report from Pew, many people either opted to move from dense cities to nearby suburbs, or they left pandemic lockdown cities "in search of roomier, cheaper Sun Belt homes," just as the IRS data suggests many wealthy Connecticut residents did.

The data in this story only examines outflow migration, or those moving out of Connecticut. It does not examine the net gains or losses of income based on how many people moved into the state in the same time period.

Soft white sand beaches, swinging palm trees, fun-filled outdoor experiences, stimulating aquatic activities, and bustling nightlife makes a Key West spring break memorable. Whether travelers are looking to cruise around blue waters on a jet ski, deep-sea fish with their friends, or sunbathe and sip Mai Tais, the Florida Keys feels like a Caribbean paradise in the United States. From electric sunsets to soporific live music in Mallory Square, there are numerous ways to experience the magic of the islands. Here are the 10 most iconic Florida Keys hotels for a perfect spring break escape to paradise in the sunshine state

People wanting to relax in Old Town Key West will have a memorable experience at Eden House. The hotel offers a comfortable stay, affordable rates, and a perfect and caring staff. Guests can benefit from the famous happy hour at the poolside, a sunset sail, go on a snorkel or kayak trip, deep water fishing, or indulge in the Key West's notorious nightlife.

9 Margaritaville Beach House Key West

Situated along Key West's most extensive beaches, the Margaritaville Beach House Key West offers big suites and guest rooms, contemporary amenities, and courteous service. Guests enjoy modern luxury rooms with sea and garden views, a rejuvenating lagoon-style waterfall pool, and some tasty tropical fare from the on-site restaurant. In spring, people experience everything Key West has to offer, with the beach as their front yard and the free shuttle service to and from the downtown.

8 La Te Da Hotel

Set on a dynamic street, the LaTeDa property presents 15 guestrooms in a vibrant Key West-style atmosphere. It has been recently renovated, and guests can stroll Mallory Square set a mile away and filled with restaurants and shops. The hotel features fully cooked meals for all hotel guests, a piano bar with nightly live entertainment, a cabaret theater, and a terrace bar with a Duval Street view.

Related: 10 Adults-Only Florida Keys All-Inclusive Resorts Worth Booking

7 Fairfield Inn And Suites By Marriott Key West

Fairfield Inn Key West hotel offers stylish rooms with colorful decor and amenities such as microwaves and mini-fridges. This top-rated hotel features luxury perks such as a resort-style pool, cabanas, and outdoor Tiki Bar at the Fairfield Inn value. Just minutes away from the old town and Duval Street, guests enjoy a quick ride using the onsite bike and scooter rental.

6 The Marquesa Hotel

Conveniently set in the center of the historic district of Old Town Key West, The Marquesa Hotel is a quiet escape that awaits travelers looking for luxury, privacy, and amazing food and service. The Marquesa hotel is the most pleasing combination of a boutique hotel and a simple restaurant Key West has to offer. It offers three pools and dense interior gardens. Guests enjoy dinner at Café Marquesa and head to Duval Street to find bars, restaurants, and famous attractions in Key West.

Related: 10 Best Things To Do In Key Largo, Florida

5 The Marker Key West Harbor Resort

The Marker Resort opened as the premier Key West luxury hotel. This tropical waterfront escape is found by the historic seaport and is a comfortable refuge established steps from the finest dining, soundest sightseeing, and multiple iconic attractions in Key West. The Marker features spacious guest rooms with various panoramic views, from beautiful tropical gardens to the scenic Key West Harbor. Each accommodation is covered in soft blue, cream, and gold, featuring lavish linens and various amenities.

4 Pegasus International Hotel

The Pegasus International Hotel is a lovely Art Deco hotel located in the heart of Key West. Within walking distance are situated numerous famous sites, restaurants, shopping, bars, and clubs. It features newly renovated rooms with modern comfort. The rooftop terrace also offers a heated outdoor pool and jacuzzi with views of Southard and Duval Streets. In spring, people can indulge in many outdoor activities, including diving, snorkeling, fishing, golf, pub crawls, bars, nightlife, clubs, shopping, restaurants, and more.

3 Creekside Inn Islamorada

Located in Islamorada, in the heart of the Florida Keys, the Creekside Inn Islamorada is minutes from the Ocean and Florida Bay. The small hotel features old Florida values and welcomes fishermen, boaters, and travelers. Rooms are spacious and newly renovated, and locals try the casual on-site restaurant, Made 2 Order for breakfast or lunch, or the Tavernier Creek Marina, the indoor warehouse Marina in the Keys, with all the fishing and boating needs.

2 Havana Cabana At Key West

Sitting in Key West, the brand-new Havana Cabana is a lush escape from reality. Soaked with charisma and character, it is inspired by the art and culture of the Cuban neighbors. In spring, guests relax and de-stress with a mojito in hand, explore the town on a bike or vintage Vespa, or indulge in Havana's soul and natural setting.

Related: Unwind In Style: 10 Most Stunning U.S. Resorts For A Relaxing Spring Break Getaway

1 Orchid Key Inn

Ranked in the top 10 "Best Small Hotels in the United States," Orchid Key Inn is found on Duval Street and Truman, the identical corners of Historic Old Town. The hotel features an award-winning service and amenities of a luxury resort. Guest rooms and suites are surrounded by tropical landscapes, waterfalls, and a peaceful sun deck. Guests come to experience the five orchid treatments.

Construction has started on what will become a Fairfield Inn and Suites resort on Pensacola Beach.

The developers behind the Hurricane Sally-damaged Best Western at 14 Via de Luna Drive announced the hotel’s new branding this week as crews begin working on the new building's construction.

The $75 million project will include 209 rooms, a lazy river, a hot tub, dune walkover and the reopening of the popular Fish Heads Pool Bar.

Torn down:Best Western on Pensacola Beach to be torn down, rebuilt as resort after hurricane damage

Sneak peek:What the new Pensacola Beach hotel likely opening in 2023 will look like

"We understand that the Beachside Best Western enjoyed a very loyal following here on Pensacola Beach," said Innisfree Hotels CEO and President Ted Ent. "Our goal is not to eclipse what made that property so special, but to replace it with a more modern design that still keeps a warm, family focus as its core mission."

As of this week, crews were at the Via de Luna construction site working on the new hotel, which is expected to open in spring 2023.

Innisfree Hotels, which is working with RREAF Holdings on the endeavor, owns numerous hotels and restaurants on the beach, including Red Fish Blue Fish, Hampton Inn, Hilton Pensacola Beach and Surf & Sand Hotel.

The company owned the Best Western that was in place before this newest hotel endeavor, but it sustained too much damage in Hurricane Sally to repair and instead will be replaced.

The rebuild will be at a higher density of 50 units per acre compared to 30 previously, a move that will allow for a more resort-style of development, Rich Chism, Innisfree's vice president of development and asset management, said at a recent Santa Rosa Island Authority meeting

Emma Kennedy can be reached at ekennedy@pnj.com or 850-480-6979.

It took just over a week after the surprise resignation of Trent Kersten for San Jose State to find the next volleyball head coach.

Todd Kress was hired as head coach for San Jose State Spartans women’s volleyball, announced athletics director Jeff Konya on Wednesday. Kress recently finished his second stint as head coach at Fairfield University.

“We have an emerging program here in the Mountain West, and we believe Todd can continue our rise in the conference,” said Konya.

Kress will bring over 25 years of head coaching experience to a San Jose State program that comes off two straight winning seasons.

“I look forward to working closely with the student-athletes to help them achieve and pursue competitive excellence [and] Mountain West championships,” said Kress.

On January 2, Kersten resigned from San Jose State to take the head coaching job at Loyola Marymount, whose previous coach Aaron Mansfield was hired by Oklahoma nearly two weeks earlier. Kersten went 47-28 in three seasons at San Jose State. The last two seasons set new highs in Mountain West records, at 13-5 in 2021 and 14-4 in 2022. Last season was San Jose State’s first appearance in the Mountain West Tournament championship round.

A Division I head coach since 1995, Kress has over 500 career wins at four different schools, with nine NCAA Tournament appearances. He was named Metro Atlantic Athletic Conference (MAAC) Coach of the Year nine times.

Kress first coached at Fairfield from 1995 to 1998. Inheriting a program that had five straight losing seasons, Kress had three straight winning seasons from 1996 to 1998. They included a 35-2 record in 1998 and three straight MAAC regular season championships. Following back-to-back MAAC Tournament titles, Fairfield appeared in the 1997 and 1998 NCAA Tournaments, the first postseason games in program history.

From 1999 to 2001, Kress was 58-30 as head coach at Northern Illinois, including 24-6 in 2001 with the West Division and tournament titles in the Mid-American Conference (MAC) and an NCAA Tournament berth.

Moving up to the Power Five level, Kress was head coach at Florida State from 2002 to 2007. In his first season, he led Florida State to their first NCAA Tournament appearance in three years. Despite over 100 wins in five seasons, Florida State never finished better than fourth in the ACC standings under Kress. In April 2008, Florida State athletics director Randy Spetman made the unusually late decision to dismiss Kress, explaining that Florida State volleyball “has not achieved the competitive success that we expect.”

Returning to the MAC, Kress became head coach at Buffalo in 2009, taking on a program coming off a 6-25 season with no winning seasons since 1996. Kress turned around Buffalo to 16-16 and 18-16 in his first two seasons, then another 18-win season in 2013 before being fired.

“Our goal remains winning Mid-American Conference Championships, and with that in mind we have decided to go in another direction,” said Buffalo athletics director Danny White on December 3, 2013.

It took under half a year for his career to come full circle when Fairfield re-hired Kress on May 9, 2014, following the resignation of previous head coach Alija Pittenger. Delivering seven regular season and five tournament MAAC titles, Kress not only replicated but expanded on the success of the 1990s.

Jolene Shepardson, Craig Choate, and Dick Montgomery are the other San Jose State volleyball head coaches who had previous experience leading a Division I program, albeit with fewer years in coaching than Kress.

Given that Kress has taken multiple schools to the NCAA Tournament, this hire indicates that Konya had postseason appearances in mind during the hiring process. San Jose State’s last NCAA Tournament was in 2001.

Kress has a background similar to men’s basketball head coach Tim Miles, who joined San Jose State in 2021 having been a head coach for over 20 years. Konya’s hiring decisions at San Jose State have varied from hiring a Power Five assistant coach for women’s basketball, promoting the top assistant coach for women’s soccer, and now choosing an experienced head coach for women’s volleyball.

Terms of Kress’s contract were not immediately available, but the job posting on the San Jose State website indicated a monthly salary range between $11,666 and $12,751, roughly $140,000 to $153,000 per year. That is a far higher starting salary than Shepardson or Kersten had at San Jose State.

Atlanta, GA – The RADCO Companies (RADCO), one of the nation’s leading opportunistic real estate developers, has acquired three new hotels in the Gulf of Mexico resort community of Panama City Beach, FL. The properties add 281 new Marriott and Hilton rooms to RADCO’s fast-growing Hospitality Division. Additional terms of the deal were not disclosed.

The properties include a Home2 Suites, adjacent Fairfield Inn & Suites, and a Hampton Inn. All three hotels will be managed by LBA Hospitality. Hospitality Real Estate Counselors (HREC) served as brokers for the Home2 Suites and Fairfield Inn properties, with Hunter Hotel Advisors brokering the Hampton Inn deal.

RADCO launched a new hotel division in early 2021 in response to the COVID-19 pandemic’s operational and capital markets disruptions in the hospitality sector. RADCO is actively seeking out hospitality assets that are in line with the company’s overall opportunistic investment strategy, according to CEO Norman Radow.

“Select-service and extended-stay hospitality assets in the Southeast have proven very resilient despite numerous challenges facing the sector,” said Radow. “They have maintained strong performance over the past 18 months, and we see a lot of upside potential as these robust leisure and growth markets continue to rebound from the pandemic.”

Bhavnesh Vivek, VP, Hotel Acquisitions at RADCO, states, “RADCO sees tremendous opportunities in the hospitality sector and anticipates adding several more hotel assets to our portfolio in the coming months.”

“We are incredibly excited to be selected by RADCO as their operating partner for these hotels as they expand their investment in the hospitality space,” adds Beau Benton, President, LBA Hospitality. “I am convinced that our similar corporate cultures and combined commitment to those we serve will offer a distinct advantage for all stakeholders.”

One of the properties RADCO has acquired opened in 2021, while the other two will require minor renovations. As part of its value-add strategy, RADCO plans to make additional capital and operational improvements to each of the properties.

The RADCO Companies has a 28-year history of acquiring and investing in opportunistic real estate across all asset classes. The firm’s investment strategy targets underperforming assets that offer immediate mark-to-market opportunities, as well as assets requiring capital infusion to add value. RADCO seeks out well-located assets that have limited access to institutional debt or equity capital for a variety of reasons.

RADCO is no stranger to the hospitality sector. The firm’s first project in 1994 was the re-development of a distressed 53-story Atlanta hotel, office and condominium tower that later became the Four Seasons Hotel. The notable turnaround project put the company on the map and more than 100 successful projects later, RADCO remains a fearless, successful, and flexible leader in the real estate industry.

RADCO was founded in 1994 with the mission of "Building Better Living." Based in Atlanta, RADCO is a national real estate company that specializes in the acquisition and redevelopment of value-add multifamily and hospitality investments across the Southeast and Central US. Over the past 10 years, the firm has acquired and invested in approximately 30,500 multifamily units in 15 markets and six hotel acquisitions in the last year. RADCO has completed more than 100 deals totaling $3.2 billion. For more information, please visit https://www.radco.us.