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Southwest Business Briefs - Dec. 2004
COLLIER COUNTY -- Tom Conrecode has been named chairman of the Economic Development Council of Collier County's board of directors. Conrecode is vice president of governmental affairs of Collier Enterprises.
MANATEE COUNTY -- Tourism spending in the county hit an all-time high in 2003 at $597 million, up 6.6% from 2002. However, the area is still not attracting as many visitors as it did before Sept. 11, 2001. In 2000, the county attracted 2.6 million people compared to 2.45 million last year.
NAPLES -- Health Management Associates is awaiting approval from the Army Corps of Engineers to start building the Collier Regional Medical Center, a $75-million, 100-bed hospital in east Naples. Though HMA received approval from the state Agency for Health Care Administration in 2002, the company had been locked in a legal battle since then with NCH Healthcare System, which sought to increase the amount of poor people Collier Regional was required to care for. The 1st District Court of Appeal disagreed with NCH. HMA executives hope to break ground in early 2005.
SARASOTA -- Malibu, Calif.-based CurtCo Publishing, which publishes the Robb Report, ShowBoats International and Worth magazines, has acquired Sarasota-based Gulfshore Media, publisher of Gulfshore Life and Sarasota magazines. The purchase price was not disclosed. The more than 60 employees at the publications will continue in their current positions, including Gulfshore Media founder Dan Denton and group Publisher Jimmy Dean.
SOUTHWEST FLORIDA -- The Pinellas County Teachers Credit Union has changed its name to Achieva Credit Union in an effort to recruit customers who may have thought that the credit union served only teachers. Achieva has more than 56,000 members.
Washington Mutual recently added 10 locations in Spring Hill, Brandon, Lakeland, Sarasota, St. Petersburg and Tampa. In a pilot project, the bank opened a branch with a Starbucks in Sarasota.
ST. PETERSBURG -- Verizon Information Services, a unit of Verizon Communications, will consolidate its local Verizon Super Pages sales divisions, now in St. Petersburg and Tampa, at the Koger Center in St. Petersburg.
Freedom Scientific, which makes computers with Braille screens for students and software that reads aloud to users, received the Braille Institute of America's annual Reflections Award.
Alex Sink, former Florida president at Bank of America and wife of 2000 gubernatorial candidate Bill McBride, has been appointed to the board of directors of St. Petersburg-based Raymond James Financial (NYSE-RJF) and Raymond James Bank. Sink had been with Bank of America, formerly NationsBank, for more than 25 years when she retired in July 2000.
TAMPA -- Charles C. Pasano has been tapped as executive director of the Florida State Fair in Tampa. A Tampa native,
Pasano currently works as the CFO of the Wisconsin Center District, which owns and manages arenas and convention centers in Milwaukee.
The Center of Urban Transportation Research at USF has been named one of the best workplaces for commuters by the Environmental Protection Agency and the Department of Transportation. The center won the designation in part by offering employees environmentally friendly commuter benefits such as telecommuting, compressed workweeks, flexible hours, bike lockers and subsidized transit fares through USF.
VENICE -- Osprey-based Turvis Tumbler plans to build a new headquarters building on 6.5 acres in Venice, increasing its space by 2½ times to 60,570 square feet. Turvis, which manufactures and sells plastic tumblers, will invest $7 million in the project, which should be completed by the summer.
