Bradenton —
» Amid declines in orange juice retail sales, Tropicana is eliminating up to 60 jobs at its juice plant. The company also cut 40 jobs last October.
Brooksville —
» Chasco Marine and Manufacturing, a parts maker for the aerospace industry, has moved into a 24,800-sq.-ft. facility in the Hernando County Airport Industrial Park. The move will allow the company to expand to 27 employees from 17.
Collier County —
» County commissioners, along with officials from the Economic Development Council of Collier County, are working to create “economic development zones” to attract and support targeted industries, including computer software and services, health and life sciences and clean technology.
Hendry County —
» North Fort Myers-based Goodwill Industries of Southwest Florida has received $2 million from the Department of Housing and Urban Development to build 14 housing units for low-income people with disabilities.
Highlands County —
» Verenium, a Massachusetts biotech company, announced plans to build a $250-million “cellulosic” plant that will convert inedible plants to ethanol. Executives expect the facility to start producing fuel in 2011.
Hillsborough County —
» More than two months after the November 2008 election, elections workers uncovered 440 uncounted ballots from two Temple Terrace precincts.
» The U.S. Department of Labor awarded Hillsborough Community College a three-year, $500,000 grant to expand job training programs for manufacturing workers.
» Funded by a “neighborhood stabilization” grant from the federal government, the county’s Affordable Housing Office has $19 million to spend toward boosting affordable housing opportunities for low- and moderate-income families.
Land O’Lakes —
» A 2,980-acre nature preserve, called Conner Preserve, has opened near the Connerton development. The property, owned by the Southwest Florida Water Management District, had been a ranch. It includes sandhill ridges, marshes, pine flatwoods and cypress sloughs.
Oldsmar —
» Nielsen plans to lay off another 90 workers from its global operations center. In all, more than 350 Nielsen employees have lost jobs at the facility since 2007.
St. Petersburg —
» Downtown’s retail problems continue: Retail center BayWalk is in foreclosure, although its theater, restaurants and many of its shops remain open, and the city’s waterfront Pier attraction has been forced to cut rents to keep struggling businesses afloat.
» The city started work on a $636,000 stormwater-treatment project to reduce nitrogen and other pollutants that are flushing into Tampa Bay. The work includes injecting liquid aluminum sulfate into stormwater draining into Booker Lake. Officials say this will force pollutants to settle to the bottom of the lake rather than wash into the bay.
Tampa —
» Mayor Pam Iorio has outlined how much the city wants out of the federal government’s economic stimulus package: $720 million. Proposed projects include an expansion of the reclaimed water system, an affordable housing project and improvements to Bayshore Boulevard’s historic balustrade.
» CAE USA, which makes aviation simulators, has won $40 million worth of contracts from the U.S. Army, U.S. Navy, Boeing Co. and Lockheed Martin.