North Central Florida

ECONOMIC LIFE

Life Sciences

• Georgia-based Azalea Health is expanding in downtown Gainesville and creating 10 new jobs. Azalea provides software for cloud-based electronic health records and medical practice management.
• Nanotherapeutics has broken ground in Alachua on a 165,000-sq.-ft. manufacturing facility to fulfill a Department of Defense contract worth up to $359 million over 10 years to develop drugs against the effects of chemical, biological and radiological attacks. The firm expects to add 95 workers as a result.
• Applied Genetic Technologies Corporation, an Alachua biotech firm developing gene therapy treatments for genetic eye diseases, raised $50 million in its initial public offering on the NASDAQ Global Market.
• Shadow Health, a graduate of the Florida Innovation Hub incubator, became the first company to receive equity financing through a state program designed to help bring publicly funded research to market when it closed a deal worth $200,000 in January 2014 with the Florida Institute for the Commercialization of Public Research. Training programs developed by Shadow Health allow nursing students to practice patient examinations virtually.
• Alachua-based AxoGen, a developer of products to repair damaged peripheral nerves, has earned the No. 19 spot on “Deloitte’s Technology Fast 500.” The firm, which had nine employees and no revenue when it moved into the Sid Martin Incubator in 2006, today employs more than 70 and reported revenues of nearly $11 million in 2013.

Logistics and Distribution

• Taking shape at the Ocala/Marion County Commerce Park: a 383,161-sq.-ft. FedEx Group Package System hub facility; 165 full-time equivalent jobs are anticipated.
• Refrigerated food distributor U.S. Cold Storage is expanding its warehouse operations near the intersection of I-10 and I-75 in Lake City, creating 15 jobs and investing $15.2 million.
• Wilmington, Ohio-based transportation and logistics firm R+L Carriers has opened a logistics management center in Ocala with the promise of 250 IT and management jobs over four years.
• Hamilton County offers two strategically placed industrial parks — one with 58 acres on I-75 frontage, and the other with 45 acres just minutes from the interstate. Both are shovel-ready with water and sewer available.

Technology/R&D

• Optym, the Gainesville-based developer of planning and scheduling software for the logistics industry formerly known as Innovative Scheduling, will add 100 jobs as part of a $4.8-million expansion.
• Paracosm, a 3-D modeling and navigation software firm founded in Gainesville in 2013, is one of many collaborators on Google’s Project Tango, bringing 3D mapping capabilities to mobile phones and tablets.
• Zeeko Ltd., a British technology company that makes ultra-precision machines used for polishing complex surfaces such as telescope mirrors, is opening a research facility in Gainesville in fall 2014.
• After expanding to Gainesville in spring 2013, Boston-based mobile applications developer Mobiquity has increased its office space to 4,000 square feet and is on track to hire 260 by the end of 2015.

Manufacturing

• Precision machining company ProFab Plastics Corporation has moved its corporate headquarters to Ocala from Waukesha, Wis., with plans to create 60 jobs.
• Creative Foam Medical Systems, a Michigan-based contract manufacturer of diagnostic imaging equipment, will open a manufacturing facility in Ocala and create 20 new jobs.

Tags: Business Florida