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Business Florida 2014 - The Regions
East Central Florida
Cocoa, Daytona Beach, Kissimmee, Lake Mary, Melbourne, Orlando, Titusville
QUALITY OF LIFE
Higher education opportunites
East Central Florida is home base for many top-notch higher educational facilities, including:
• University of Central Florida, known for its patent portfolio and size (second largest public university in the U.S.)
• Valencia College, serving 70,000-plus students on five campuses and recipient of the first-ever Aspen Prize for Community College Excellence in 2012
• Rollins College in Winter Park, Florida’s oldest college and No. 1 on U.S.News & World Report’s 2013 list of the nation’s "Best Regional Universities (South)."
• Florida Institute of Technology in Melbourne, the only independent technological university in the Southeast, is a Barron’s Guide "Best Buy" in college education
Eclectic housing options
Choose from weathered, tin-roofed bungalows in towns with colorful names like Yeehaw Junction and Holopaw, or brand new Colonials and Victorians in master-planned communities called Harmony and Celebration. One development in Lake County even offers a real Florida rarity — a full basement!
Hungry for hoagies?
No problem now that Wawa’s come to town. The popular Pennsylvania-based combination minimart-café-gas-station chain opened its first Florida outlet in Orlando in summer 2012 and plans 100 stores/3,500 new jobs across the state within five years.
NOTABLE EMPLOYERS
Aviation/Aerospace/Defense
• The Boeing Company Titusville
• Harris Corporation Melbourne
• Lockheed Martin Corporation Orlando
• Northrop Grumman Corporation Orlando and Melbourne
• Raytheon Company Orlando and Melbourne
• Siemens Orlando and Melbourne
Tourism/Hospitality
• American Automobile Association Heathrow
• Darden Restaurants Orlando
• SeaWorld Orlando
• Universal Studios Florida Orlando
• Walt Disney World Orlando
Healthcare
• Adventist Health System Orlando
• Orlando Health Orlando
NOTABLE ADDITIONS/EXPANSIONS
Energy
Siemens Energy plans to create a $7-million, 40,000-sq.-ft. state-of-the-art wind service training center near Orlando International Airport; as many as
2,400 wind-turbine workers from the U.S., Puerto Rico, Canada and Brazil will train here annually.
Financial/Business Services
Construction has begun in Lake Mary on a four-story, 220,000-sq.-ft. finance center for Verizon Communications, scheduled to open in April 2014 and create 750 jobs by 2016.
Manufacturing
U.K.-based Kingspan Insulated Panels has designated its DeLand facility as the company’s new North American headquarters, adding 30 new jobs to an existing staff of 132.
