North Central Florida

ECONOMIC LIFE

Business support

• The University of Florida’s Sid Martin Biotechnology Incubator in Alachua won the State Science and Technology Institute’s 2014 Excellence in Technology-Based Economic Development award for achievement in technology commercialization. Since the incubator’s founding in 1995, its companies and graduates have attracted more than $1.2 billion in funding and created more than 2,000 high-wage jobs.
• Civil engineering firm Jones Edmunds & Associates has won a $20-million contract from NASA for work at the Kennedy Space Center as part of the agency’s Space Launch System (SLS) program for deep space exploration. Among its responsibilities: make sure the 4-mile gravel road from the rocket assembly building to the launch pad can support the weight of the 25-million-pound SLS launch vehicle.
• On the heels of 300 new hires at its Ocala site in April 2015, customer care provider Sitel plans to add more than 700 new full-time positions in Lake City.

Life Sciences/Healthcare

• For the second consecutive year, UF Health Shands Children’s Hospital is ranked among the top 50 hospitals nationwide in seven pediatric specialties according to U.S. News & World Report’s “Best Children’s Hospitals 2015-16”: cancer, cardiology/heart surgery, diabetes and endocrinology, gastroenterology, neonatology, nephrology and pulmonology.
• UF Health Shands Hospital has begun construction of an eight-story, 500,000-sq-ft. building that will house heart and vascular services in one tower and neuromedicine in a second tower. The $415-million expansion is slated for completion in 2018.
• Fort Myers-based Florida Cancer Specialists and Research Institute is replacing its current facility in Gainesville with one twice as large. The new 25,000-sq.-ft. building will house the doctors’ practice and research center. Anticipated opening: spring 2016.
• Medical device manufacturer Apollo Renal Therapeutics and its contract manufacturing division, Artemis Plastics, will establish their North American headquarters and manufacturing plant in Marion County with the expectation of creating up to 21 jobs.
• Construction currently underway at two Ocala Health System facilities — Ocala Regional Medical Center and West Marion Community Hospital — will add a combined 46 patient beds, 75,000 square feet of patient care space and 75 new healthcare jobs. Anticipated completion date: fall 2016.

Logistics/Distribution

• Gainesville-based Optym, a developer of scheduling software for the transportation and logistics industry, has relocated to a new 30,000-sq.-ft. headquarters to accommodate its existing staff of 75 and the addition of 100 more by 2020.
• An 83-acre parcel of the Ocala/Marion County Commerce Park has been designated as Florida’s first “CSX Select Site.” Select Sites are properties identified and vetted as capable locations for future manufacturing facilities along the CSX network and which can be developed quickly since standard land issues and comprehensive due diligence have already been addressed. The Ocala/Marion Commerce Park encompasses 489 acres adjacent to I-75; a rail spur connecting the Select Site parcel to Florida Northern Railroad’s mainline is planned.

Manufacturing

• Just in Time Machining is locating its newest and first Florida production facility in Ocala with an estimated 25 manufacturing jobs. The family-owned firm provides prototyping, computer numerical control (CNC) and CNC-turnmill machining, drilling, milling, turning and sawing, welding and metal fabrication.
• Coates Golf, a manufacturer of high-performance golf clubs specifically designed for women, opened its headquarters and manufacturing/assembly facility in Ocala in early 2015 with the creation of 45 jobs. To help publicize the company’s launch, founders Mollie and Randy Coates signed a three-year contract with the LPGA to sponsor the Coates Golf Championship, the first of which was held in January at the Golden Ocala Golf & Equestrian Club.

Technology/R&D

• University of Florida, both a research powerhouse and a catalyst for economic development, received a record $702 million in research funding in fiscal 2014 and was ranked 20th among universities worldwide and 15th nationally for number of U.S. utility patents awarded in 2014. UF helped launch 16 startups in 2012-13 and another 17 in FY2014, according to a survey by the Association of University of Technology Managers.
• Full-service technology and digital consulting firm eResources will relocate its headquarters from Washington D.C. to Ocala and create up to 50 jobs.
• Info Tech, a Gainesville-based consulting and software company that currently employs 240, is building a new 60,000-sq.-ft. headquarters at Celebration Pointe, the 125-acre mixed-use development in Gainesville’s retail corridor.

Tags: Business Florida