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Central Florida Business Briefs - Nov 2006
DAYTONA BEACH -- Embry- Riddle Aeronautical University is expanding its global educational activities with a worldwide campus adjacent to the current campus in a new research park. The new campus will be housed in an $11- million facility to be completed by 2009. The university plans to add as many as 20 graduate and undergraduate programs and is looking to expand into China, Brazil, Spain, Ireland, Canada and the Middle East. The university has also opened a women's center in Canaveral Hall to welcome female students, who make up only 18% of the campus population.
DAYTONA BEACH SHORES -- Volusia Properties has sold a 200- foot stretch of beachfront where it had planned to build Key Largo Condominiums. JMC Corp. of St. Petersburg purchased the property for $10.8 million.
KISSIMMEE -- Marathon Flight Services has opened a 16,500- sq.-ft. corporate hangar at Kissimmee Gateway Airport that can accommodate planes as large as a Gulfstream G500. The company plans to add another 8,000-sq.-ft. hangar.
LAKE COUNTY -- The county plans to purchase two parcels in the Wekiva River basin with more than $2.5 million in grants it has received from the Florida Communities Trust to purchase environmentally sensitive lands. The county must provide 55% in matching funds.
MELBOURNE -- The microwave communications division of Harris Corp. (NYSE-HRS) is merging with Stratex Networks based in San Jose, Calif., to form Harris Stratex Networks, the largest independent provider of wireless transmission network solutions with about $600 million in revenue and customers in more than 150 countries.
ORLANDO -- In response to requests from local residents familiar with similar exhibitions, the Orlando Science Center opens an exhibit this month called Our Body: The Universe Within, which will include 20 plastinated cadavers and more than 200 anatomical displays. The exhibit, which runs until mid-2007, is similar to the popular but controversial Bodies: The Exhibition that drew more than 600,000 visitors to the Museum of Science & Industry in Tampa and recently opened in south Miami.
? Hospitality industry recruiting firm SearchWide has been hired to find a candidate to replace Bill Peeper, who is retiring as president/ CEO of the Orlando/Orange County Convention & Visitors Bureau at the end of December.
? The Cornerstone Group has started construction on Solaris at MetroWest, which will contain 216 condominiums and town homes ranging from the $200,000s to $300,000s. Completion is set for December 2007.
? Luxury home builder Toll Brothers, the parent company of Landstar Homes, has moved into its new 35,000-sq.-ft. facility in Southridge Commerce Park in south Orlando. The building also houses Toll Architecture, the company's title company, administrative offices and an expanded design studio.
? Baker Barrios Architects recently designed the state's first LEED-CS-certified environmentally friendly industrial building, a single-story office complex called Discovery Tech Center II in the Central Florida Research Park in east Orlando. Construction is to begin late this year or early next year. Through rain retention systems and special roof construction, among other measures, the building will save more than $37,000 a year in energy and water costs.
? Largo-based investment group Royal Bay Orlando has sold the 165-unit Royal Bay Apartments on Curry Ford Road for $9.24 million to MPI Orange Orlando of Atlanta.
? Central Florida Cardiology Group has moved from its 29-year Colonial Drive location to a new 30,000-sq.-ft. facility, twice the size of its previous location, at 1745 N. Mills Ave.
SANFORD -- Southeast Biodiesel/ Florida, which converts used cooking oil to biofuels for vehicle engines, plans to start construction by the end of the year on a biodiesel conversion plant at Airport Commerce Park.
WINDERMERE -- Tavistock Holding S.A. de C.V., the subsidiary of central Floridabased private investment company Tavistock Group, will help market and distribute German-based Puma AG's sports-lifestyle products in Mexico.
WINTER PARK-- The city and the Winter Park Chamber of Commerce have broken ground on a two-story welcome center on Lyman Avenue scheduled for completion by mid-2007.
WINTER SPRINGS -- James Doran Co. has started construction on the 353-unit Isis Condominiums as part of the first "new urban" community in the city. Winter Springs Town Center eventually will have 1,000 residential units, 600,000 square feet of retail and 400,000 square feet of office space on 63 acres.
