SHARE:
Southwest Business Briefs - Oct. 2004
Fort Myers -- Southwest Florida International Airport Mitigation Park is one of two airport projects nationwide to win the 2004 Airports Council International-North America Environmental Achievement Award. The 7,000-acre mitigation park was created to compensate for long-term development plans at the airport and includes some of the most pristine land in the region.
Naples -- Stellar Technologies (OTCBB-SLLR), an employee internet management provider, has acquired CompuSven, an e-mail data manager, also based in Naples, for $889,985 and 43,353 shares of stock.
Sarasota -- Florida State University will open a regional medical campus in Sarasota next year. Dr. Bruce Berg, who has practiced pulmonary medicine in Sarasota for 19 years, will head the satellite campus.
Medical Education Technologies, the creator of human patient simulators, has won a contract from the Simulation & Training Technology Center in Orlando to develop the world's first stand-alone interactive medical mannequin. The Stand-Alone Patient Simulator will be able to internally house a carbon dioxide supply and fluids representing blood, mucous and saliva. Current models must have the fluids fed into them.
The county's Information Technology Department will set up a Wi-Fi network at Selby Public Library adjacent to Five Points Park. The technology allows anyone with a wireless handheld or laptop equipped with a wireless card to access the internet for free. The department plans to expand Wi-Fi to the Fruitville Library and the North County Library.
Southwest -- Beach closings and advisories throughout Florida more than doubled last year from the year before, according to the National Resources Defense Council. In southwest Florida, beaches were closed or advisories were issued a total of 1,092 days, up from 524 in 2002.
St. Petersburg -- Coupon provider Valpak will move its operations from Largo and Elm City, N.C., to St. Petersburg's Gateway area, bringing 530 jobs. Its new, 500,000-sq.-ft. production facility should be fully operational by 2007. The move will cost Valpak's parent company, Largo-based Cox Target Media, nearly $200 million. Cox will also receive $3,000 in corporate income tax rebates for each new job it creates and another $2,500 for each job created under the state's brownfields program. The city of St. Petersburg has applied for a $1-million state grant to build an access road to the property.
Catalina Marketing Corp. (NYSE-POS) recently received a five-year, $125-million credit line and will seek additional financing to purchase its St. Petersburg headquarters building in Carillon.
Tampa -- EarthFirst Technologies (OTCBB-EFTI), which converts waste into fuel, has acquired Electric Machinery Enterprises, an electrical contract company also based in Tampa, for an undisclosed price.
The University of South Florida's Clean Energy Research Center has received a $2.5-million grant from the U.S. Department of Energy to continue researching the development of hydrogen as a fuel.
Pinnacle Place Development Partners has bought six acres near Tampa's Channelside district for $14.5 million. It plans to build two 40-story condominium towers with 170 condos each, ranging from $300,000 to more than $2 million a unit. Construction on the first tower is scheduled to begin in February.
The National Summit on Cuba will be held this month at the University of Tampa, focusing on U.S.-Cuba relations. Trade opportunities between Florida and Cuba will also be discussed.
The Tampa Bay Buccaneers have established a 24-hour cable TV channel available through Brighthouse Networks to digital cable subscribers in Tampa Bay and Orlando. Details were not disclosed.
University of Tampa
AN $80-MILLION EFFORT
TAMPA -- In its first fund-raising effort in its 73-year history, the University of Tampa has raised more than $80 million since 2000, including $28 million from call-center operator John H. Sykes and his wife, Susan. The money will be used to build the John H. Sykes College of Business building, a student center, the R.K. Bailey Art Studios and a communications production studio. Several buildings will be renovated or updated, including the Macdonald-Kelce Library, the criminology department's forensics lab, the psychology behavioral lab and the nursing lab.
