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Central Fla., Space Coast Business Briefs - September 2010
APOPKA
» Former commercial developer Michael Young has launched American Soda Blast, which uses highly pressurized sodium bicarbonate and dry ice to clean and strip surfaces such as building exteriors, food service equipment or antique cars. The process replaces sandblasting, using biodegradable materials that don’t harm the environment or the surface under the paint.
DAYTONA BEACH
» Stirling Sotheby’s International Realty sold a $2-million home in Ponce Inlet that ranks as the most expensive in the Daytona Beach area in two years. Florida residents purchased the oceanfront property, which was listed for six months at $2.3 million. Realtors say the sale indicates the luxury market is improving.
HARMONY
» The town of Harmony, built as a “green” community, is set to begin construction on the first phase of a LEED-certified 330,000-sq.-ft. town center office, retail and dining complex across from the town’s main entrance on U.S. 192.
LAKE MARY
» Pershing LLC, a BNY Mellon company based in Jersey City, N.J., plans to expand its operations in Lake Mary over the next three years, adding 300 jobs to its local workforce of 450 and spending $4.5 million to add office space at Colonial TownPark.
MELBOURNE
» Clean and Green Enterprises, a renewable energy company, has opened a headquarters and research center in the Technological Research and Development Authority facility. The company has partnered with the Florida Institute of Technology and reportedly plans to bring 10 to 20 new jobs to the area in the next year.
» This fall, FIT will offer students an option of minoring in sustainability, which it describes as “meeting the needs of the present without compromising the ability of future generations to meet theirs.” The university says it’s responding to an uptick of job openings and research funding in sustainability.
» Harris Corp. has received several major contracts and orders recently: A six-year, $97-million contract to continue maintaining the weather and radar system the Federal Aviation Administration uses for directing aircraft; $30 million in follow-on contracts for upgrading a digital aircraft mapping system for the Navy, bringing the total for that job to more than $140 million since 1997; an $11-million order from the Department of Defense for multiband radio systems used in battlefield communications; a 30-month, $25-million contract to update high-bandwidth network cabling at Air National Guard sites throughout the United States; and a $30-million contract to unite public service and public safety agencies under one radio communications system in Monroe County, N.Y.
 WINTER PARK — Blue Cross Blue Shield of Florida has opened a retail center in the Winter Park Village shopping area, its fourth in the state. |
ORANGE COUNTY
» Walt Disney Parks & Resorts says it will sell 30 luxury home lots this year in Golden Oak, a planned 450-home gated residential community near the Four Seasons Resort under construction by the theme parks. The first houses are expected to be completed in mid-2011. Prices in the community will range from $1.5 million to $8 million.
» The $3.5-million, mixed-use Legacy Resort project is on hold, and the Shingle Creek community development district has taken developers to court after making a bond payment when the landowners defaulted, the Orlando Business Journal reported. The project was spearheaded by Rob Miller, head of West Palm Beach development firm Main Street.
ORLANDO
» The U.S. Department of Homeland Security has awarded Orlando International Airport $7.5 million to add several hundred cameras to its closed-circuit television surveillance system.
» Intelligent Global Pooling Systems, a logistics company that manufactures pallets that contain high-frequency radio tracking devices, is expanding its downtown headquarters and plans to add 75 employees to its current workforce of 79 in the next three years.
