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Northeast Florida Business Briefs - Jan. 2006
? Hanson Roof Tile will build a 96,000-sq.-ft. plant to manufacture concrete roof tile in Sanderson. The $24-million facility will produce more than 300,000 tiles annually and employ 50.
CHIEFLAND --
? One year after he lost a close race for Marion County sheriff, former sheriff's Maj. Robert Douglas was named Chiefland's new police chief.
CLAY COUNTY --
? According to Metrostudy, a housing market research firm, construction began on 4,010 single-family homes in the Jacksonville metro area in the third quarter of 2005, a 26.2% increase over the third quarter of 2004. Closings on single-family homes rose 31% to 3,759 homes.
MAYPORT --
? The 2006 Congressional Military Quality of Life and Veterans Affairs Appropriations bill has earmarked $80 million for northeast Florida. Spending includes $45 million for a helicopter hangar replacement at Naval Air Station Jacksonville; $20 million for a regional training institute complex at Army National Guard-Camp Blanding; $7.8 million for bachelor enlisted quarters at Naval Station Mayport; and $500,000 to design a nuclear aircraft carrier wharf at Mayport.
GAINESVILLE --
? The University of Florida's Faculty Senate has endorsed the formation of a doctoral program in genetics that will promote greater collaboration between genetics researchers and other academic disciplines. The program, which must be approved by university trustees in March, would combine genetics with high-level statistics, computer science, microbiology and other disciplines.
JACKSONVILLE --
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Merrill Lynch will add 800 employees to its Southside campus by 2007...
? A Jacksonville Circuit Court judge upheld Mayor John Peyton's veto of an agreement that would have allowed a developer to build 1,400 homes on the former Baymeadows Golf Course. Under the agreement, which was approved by the City Council but rejected by Peyton, developer D.R. Horton would have made $5 million in improvements to crowded Baymeadows Road in exchange for permission to develop the golf course...
? Eagle Aviation will build 50 hangars at Craig Municipal Airport on seven acres leased from the Jacksonville Airport Authority...
? Law firms and other groups working on Winn-Dixie's Chapter 11 bankruptcy say they are owed more than $23 million in fees and expenses. The firms, which must have their fees approved by a federal Bankruptcy Court judge, include Irvine, Calif.-based XRoads Solutions Group, which wants to be paid $6 million in fees and $375,000 in expenses.
PONTE VEDRA BEACH --
? The Ponte Vedra Inn & Club has broken ground on a 28,000-sq.-ft. spa. The facility will include 22 treatment rooms and will be nearly three times the size of the present spa.
ST. JOHNS COUNTY --
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After Jacksonville officials missed a key application deadline, a 15-acre parcel near World Golf Village appears to be the only site in northeast Florida in the running for a 120-bed federal veterans care center.
