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Northeast Florida Business Briefs - June 2006
GAINESVILLE --
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The University of Florida and Shands HealthCare broke ground on a 28,000-sq.-ft. ambulatory surgery center. The $8.5-million facility will open next May and include eight operating rooms stocked with $2.5 million in new equipment.
? City commissioners approved $68,000 in incentives over five years to subsidize construction of Dayjet's maintenance and operations facility at Gainesville Regional Airport. Dayjet executives say they will use jets built by Eclipse Aviation -- another airport tenant -- to fly "flexibly scheduled" flights across the Southeast U.S.
JACKSONVILLE --
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City Council President Kevin Hyde has created a Council Task Force on Affordable and Low-Income Housing to address the future of affordable housing for the city's workforce. Councilwoman Elaine Brown will lead the group, which has given itself until Labor Day to devise a plan to deal with the shortage of "quality" affordable housing citywide.
? St. Vincent's Health System opened its $20-million, 15,000-sq.-ft. Mary Virginia Terry Cancer Center on the hospital's Riverside campus. The center, which combines all of St. Vincent's cancer treatment resources in one facility, includes a linear accelerator for image guided radiation therapy and three-foot thick concrete walls for the radiation unit.
? Faculty at the University of North Florida received substantial retroactive pay increases as part of the school's first-ever contract with its teachers. The contract also includes provisions for department-specific tenure criteria, merit pay and summer class rotation.
? Suddath Relocation Systems purchased Nashville-based Hudgins Moving & Storage for an undisclosed amount.
? The developer of Berkman Plaza residential high-rise will break ground next month on the second phase of its downtown project. DB Holdings announced the 23-story second tower will have 222 units, including studios and one-, two- and three-bedroom condominiums, with prices starting at $170,000.
? Diversified Therapy and California-based Praxis Clinical Services plan to merge. The combined wound-care management company, to be named Diversified Clinical Services, will include 150 programs nationwide.
ORANGE PARK --
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Owners of the Spindrifter hotel agreed to pay $99,000 to settle a race discrimination lawsuit brought by the U.S. Equal Employment Opportunity Commission. The EEOC sued Jax Inns Inc., charging the company fired a white employee after learning she had biracial children.
PONTE VEDRA BEACH --
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A long-running dispute over public parking along coastal Ponte Vedra Boulevard ended when a judge ruled that St. Johns County is free to enforce a parking ban as it sees fit. The Surfrider Foundation had sued over the ban claiming the prohibition unfairly limited beach access in the upscale neighborhood.
? County Schools Superintendent Joseph Joyner brought a three-year debate to a close when he recommended a new northeast high school be built on 76 acres within Nocatee and adjacent Davis Park along County Road 210. An influential coalition of Ponte Vedra residents had wanted the school built east of the Intracoastal Waterway on land within Guana State Park, but state officials rejected that plan.
ST. AUGUSTINE --
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The Boys & Girls Club of Northeast Florida will build a 15,000-sq.-ft. facility at Chase Park that will double the number of children the agency serves. Ponte Vedra Beach-based PGA Tour will donate $750,000 toward construction of the $2.75-million facility, which will include a gym, art room and computer lab.
ST. JOHNS COUNTY --
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Centex Homes has purchased 238 acres in Nocatee and will build up to 400 single-family homes and 100 townhomes.
