| 3/1/2011

BRADENTON — Direct sales products company It Works Global will move its headquarters from Grand Rapids, Mich., to Manatee County. The company, to receive $799,785 in state and local performance-based incentives, plans to add 90 jobs over the next three years.

BRADENTON AND CLEARWATER — Wisconsin-based specialty truck maker Oshkosh Corp. is moving two of its manufacturing units to Florida, one to Bradenton and another to Clearwater. The move is expected to generate up to 150 jobs in Bradenton and 50 in Clearwater.

BROOKSVILLE — Accform Signs, which makes signs and safety cones, is planning to add 20 workers to its 225 workforce and expand by 30,000 square feet.

COLLIER COUNTY — Maine-based Jackson Laboratory appears to be broadening its options for building a research lab in Florida. A proposed site near Ave Maria remains an option, but it appears the lab is also willing to consider sites at either the Tampa or Sarasota campuses of the University of South Florida. Barron Collier Cos., meanwhile, has withdrawn its offer to donate 50 acres to the lab for the Collier County site.

LAKEWOOD RANCH — The Lake Erie College of Osteopathic Medicine plans to spend $52-million to establish a dental school. Manatee County commissioners have voted to give the project, estimated to create 200 jobs, $203,300 in incentives.

MANATEE AND SARASOTA COUNTIES — Plans for a business-development lab, to be called the Design & Economic Acceleration Laboratory, were announced by Lakewood Ranch developer Schroeder-Manatee Ranch, State College of Florida and the Gulf Coast Community Foundation of Venice. Plans call for the first phase of the facility to be built near the county border.

NAPLES — Kitson & Partners bought Tuscany Reserve, a 450-acre high-end golf course community in Naples. The development is approved for up to 799 residential units.

Baylis

SARASOTA — Kathy Baylis, founding president and CEO of the Economic Development Corp. of Sarasota County, says she will retire this year. During her 15 years on the job, she's credited with personally working with 215 companies that created 7,000 jobs. A search for her replacement is under way.

ST. PETERSBURG — Raymond James Financial plans to purchase Howe Barnes Hoefer & Arnett, a Chicago brokerage with more than $1.9 billion in assets under management.

» North Carolina-based Duke Energy and Progress Energy plan to merge in a $13.7-billion stock swap, creating an energy company with 7.1 million customers in Florida, North Carolina, South Carolina, Kentucky, Indiana and Ohio.

TAMPA — BankAtlantic is selling 19 branches and two related facilities with $350 million in deposits in the Tampa-St. Petersburg area to PNC Bank.

» HenneCold Storage, a distribution and supply chain management company specializing in frozen, perishable and dry goods, has added 1.4-million cubic feet of frozen-storage capacity. Last year, it added 1.25 million cubic feet of cooler and dry storage.

Tags: Southwest