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Central Florida, Space Coast Business Briefs - July 2009
BREVARD COUNTY — Royal Caribbean’s new Freedom of the Seas, the world’s largest cruise ship with the capacity to carry more than 5,700 people, started sailing out of Port Canaveral in early May.
LAKE COUNTY — The county and the town of Astatula have been soliciting comments from residents about future development along County Roads 561 and 455.
OCOEE — Demolition teams razed an Ocoee landmark in mid-May, the seven-story pink Colony Plaza Hotel, which was built in the 1960s to accommodate Walt Disney World visitors and had been vacant for years.
ORANGE COUNTY— Former Mirabilis Ventures principal and founder Frank Amadeo, convicted of $181 million in tax fraud, was sentenced to 22½ years in prison.
ORLANDO — Executives with Hilton Orlando have announced the 1,400-room hotel is on track to open in September, when it will become the first facility accessible to the Orange County Convention Center by a covered open-air walkway.
» To boost travel agents’ interest in central Florida, the Orlando/Orange County Convention & Visitors Bureau has launched a six-week online education program at OrlandoTravelAcademy.com. Agents who complete the program receive continuing education credits from The Travel Institute and a designation of Orlando Travel Expert.
» Travel site hotwire.com has named Orlando the “Top Destination for Deal-Seeking Travelers” in its 2009 Travel Value Index, which evaluates 50 U.S. markets.
» Data Transfer Solutions, an Avalon Park company that provides geographic information systems technology and other services to state and local government agencies, has launched Earth Eye, a subsidiary that uses precision technology to measure and observe objects from a distance. The parent company has secured more than $2 million in contracts this year to work with Texas, the Florida Department of Transportation, Charlotte County and the city of Klamath Falls, Ore.
» Working with a three-year, $1.2-million NASA grant, three University of Central Florida professors will research the health and performance of astronauts working as a team in space, and their findings will be used on a Mars mission planned for 2030 that requires 36 months of travel. The researchers are Eduardo Salas, Kimberly Smith-Jentsch and Stephen Fiore.
» Downtown Orlando now has a movie theater with the long-awaited opening of the Plaza Cinema Café in the Plaza tower on Orange Avenue between Pine and Church streets.
» The Burnham Institute for Medical Research opened its $80-million campus in Lake Nona’s future “medical city.”
» Just weeks after the Orlando Opera folded, citing the economic downturn, the 35-year-old Orlando Ballet shortened its 2010 season and dismissed several dancers to cut costs.
» The Greater Orlando Aviation Authority, which operates Orlando International Airport, has cut its staff this fiscal year by more than 80, or about 12%.
SEMINOLE COUNTY — Sanford has opened its new gasifier plant, operated by MaxWest Environmental Systems.
The project converts solid waste to energy that is used to power the facility’s equipment and is expected to save the city $9 million over time.
» Orlando Sanford International Airport added $4.7 million in new and expanded shops this spring.
VOLUSIA COUNTY — Engineering company Eastport QLH has purchased a 10,000-sq.-ft. building in Port Orange for $925,000 for its new headquarters.
WINTER PARK — The Winter Park Playhouse plans to upgrade its venue and double its seating capacity with a $39,000 loan from the city’s microloan program, offered in partnership with a BankFirst initiative on socially responsible banking. The theater is the first recipient of funds from the program, which loans $5,000 to $40,000 to qualified small and startup ventures at prime plus 1%.
