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Southeast Florida Business Briefs - Feb. 2006
BROWARD -- In an effort to leverage its reputation as a nationally known daily newspaper, the Miami Herald will return "Miami" to the title of its Broward County edition. The Knight Ridder publication has been marketed as "The Herald" since 1994, when it launched an aggressive campaign to win readers from the Tribune Co.'s South Florida Sun-Sentinel...
>> Disappointing economic development officials throughout south Florida, Cincinnati-based Chiquita Brands International has announced it won't relocate its headquarters. Broward was considered a front-runner to land the fresh fruit distributor's 300-person corporate office.
FORT LAUDERDALE -- The $16.25-million sale of a two-story, Mediterranean-style home in Fort Lauderdale's upscale Harbor Beach neighborhood set a record for the most expensive single-family home sale in the county. The sale comes on the heels of a $12-million deal for a nearby home...
>> Adam Kidan, the New York-based buyer of Fort Lauderdale's SunCruz Casinos, has pleaded guilty to charges of defrauding lenders when he and Washington lobbyist Jack Abramoff purchased the company five years ago. Shortly after the sale, SunCruz founder Gus Boulis was shot to death in an ambush while driving home.
HUTCHINSON ISLAND -- A year after selling the Boca Raton Resort & Club and four other hotels, H. Wayne Huizenga has purchased the 176-room Holiday Inn Oceanside on Hutchinson Island through an affiliate of his Fort Lauderdale-based Huizenga Holdings.
JUNO BEACH -- FPL Group (NYSE-FPL) and Baltimore-based Constellation Energy have agreed to merge in an $11-billion stock-swap deal that creates one of the nation's largest electric utilities. FPL's CEO Lewis Hay III will head the combined company, which will be called Constellation Energy. The company will operate dual headquarters in Juno Beach and Baltimore.
NORTH PALM BEACH -- Underscoring a dramatic turnaround from near collapse a few years ago, online banking site Bankrate Inc. (Nasdaq-RATE) has reached an agreement to acquire rivals Illinois-based MMIS/Interest.com and San Francisco-based FastFind.
PALM BEACH -- New Jersey-based Commerce Bancorp (NYSE-CBH) has purchased seven-branch Palm Beach County Bank for $100 million in stock as a foundation for an expansion throughout southeast Florida. Commerce plans 150 branches in Palm Beach, Broward, Miami-Dade and Martin counties...
>> Sony Electronics has opened Sony Style stores in Boca Raton and Palm Beach Gardens, doubling its number of locations statewide.
STUART -- Stuart's Seacoast Banking Corp. of Florida (Nasdaq-SBCF) is merging with Okeechobee-based community bank Big Lake NB.
SUNRISE -- Countrywide Financial Corp., one of the nation's largest mortgage lenders, will lay off about 100 at its Sunrise loan-processing unit. The move is in response to an industrywide slowdown in loan applications.
