March 28, 2024

Southwest Florida Business Briefs - Aug. 2007

Amy Keller | 8/1/2007

BRADENTON —
Enterprise Associates of Sarasota is planning a mixed-use development called Metro Marquee on three acres in downtown Bradenton.

CITRUS COUNTY—
Longtime Sheriff Charlie Dean was elected to state Senate District 3 in a special election to replace fellow Republican Nancy Argenziano, who left the seat for a position on the Public Service Commission.

CHARLOTTE COUNTY —
The Charlotte County Airport Authority has sold 87 acres to Publix Super Markets, which will build a distribution facility near the airport.

COLLIER COUNTY —
The county approved an amendment to its comprehensive plan allowing 150 units of workforce housing just north of Rattlesnake Hammock Road along Collier Boulevard. The homes would cost less than $225,000.

FORT MYERS —
A group of investors has purchased $4 million in stock from NeoGenomics, a cancer genetics testing lab. The company is using $1.7 million to pay off debt and for general purposes.

LAKELAND —
Publix is expanding its health-focused Publix Greenwise Markets and Publix Apron’s program, which offers cooking classes and meal-assembly.

NAPLES —
Physicians Regional Healthcare System is running a shuttle bus across Alligator Alley three days a week this summer to transport employees from Miami-Dade and Broward counties.

PASCO COUNTY —
The county’s pioneering Starkey family plans to build a downtown retail/office center, hotel, mall, 4,200 homes and a 16-screen cinema on 2,500 acres it owns in the Trinity area, just north of Pinellas County.

SARASOTA —
Hotel Ranola, built in 1926 as an apartment hotel, has been revived as a boutique hotel.

SARASOTA COUNTY —
The county is abandoning its touch-screen voting machines manufactured by ES&S and instead is purchasing optical scanners from Diebold Election Systems. The touch-screen machines recorded
18,000 undervotes — votes for neither candidates — in last year’s congressional contest between Republican Vern Buchanan and Democrat Christine Jennings.

ST. PETERSBURG —
H. Koch & Sons, a California company that makes parachute releases, emergency lighting systems and survival kits for the military, has transferred its manufacturing operations to its St. Petersburg Conax Florida unit.

» Bankers Financial Corp. has launched a professional employer organization called Bankers Employers Services. John Bilchak, previously a principal with Gevity, is president of the new division.

» Jabil Circuit (NYSE-JBL) is laying off 219 workers — including 79 in St. Petersburg — as part of a corporate restructuring. The company is also shuttering its contract manufacturing facility in Poway, Calif., and will take more of its product design work overseas.

TAMPA —
» The University of South Florida Department of Athletics has signed a 10-year, $22-million deal with ISP Sports in Winston-Salem, N.C., allowing ISP to manage USF’s athletic sales and marketing.

» The USF College of Business has teamed up with Broward Community College and the Center for American Education to offer a four-year business degree in Singapore focused on international

» Spain is suing Odyssey Marine Exploration (Amex-OMR) for rights to three shipwrecks the Tampa treasure-hunting company discovered.

» Ballast Point Ventures, a venture capital firm affiliated with Raymond James Financial, led a $3-million investment in the Community Care Health Network, which does business as Matrix Management Services. Matrix, which provides care for patients in long-term facilities, will use the money to expand.

» The Florida Technology, Research and Scholarship Board awarded USF $8 million to create the Florida Center of Excellence for Biomolecular Identification and Targeted Therapeutics.

» The Federal Emergency Management Agency will spend $3.2 million to help fortify Tampa General Hospital so it can withstand Category 5 hurricanes.

Tags: Southwest

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