Science First, which supplies much of the equipment budding young scientists use in classrooms across the U.S., chose Nassau County as its new headquarters site.

Family-owned Science First, a manufacturer of educational products used to teach the natural sciences in schools, had operated out of Buffalo, New York, since 1960, but when high taxes sent the company scouting for new locations, Nassau County, Florida, came out the winner.

“We really, really, really liked the Nassau area,” says Aaron Bell, the company’s vice president and grandson of its founder.

Science First offers everything from the centrifugal hoops used to teach physics and 3-D constellation kits for astronomy lessons to microscopes for school biology labs; all are developed and tested by Science First staff. In addition, Bell notes, the company is also the “best supplier” of environmental studies, an academic area that is gaining popularity nationwide.

Demographics for the Northeast Region can be found at Business Florida's interactive map of Florida.

Regional Assets Universities/Colleges • Edward Waters College • Flagler College • Florida State College at Jacksonville • Jacksonville University • St. Johns River Community College • University of North Florida Airports • Jacksonville International Airport • St. Augustine-St. Johns County Airport Seaports • Port of Fernandina • Port of Jacksonville

After making the initial decision to move his company, Bell looked first at states with low tax burdens such as Florida, Texas and Nevada. A visit to Florida clinched the deal. “This is a good, business-friendly climate,” he says. “There are good incentives for moving down to Florida and bringing your jobs with you.”

Says Bell, “Nassau County was wonderful to work with. They allowed me to get done what I needed to get done, such as permitting for the building, in three months.”

Available land, a good school system and proximity to Jacksonville International Airport and JAXPORT, which has a large container business that suits Bell’s needs, also played into his decision to locate here.

Nassau County, Bell says, even had a program in place to help his employees with down payments on housing. “They have been very accommodating of our employees as well as to us, and we really appreciate that.”

Science First’s new space at the Tradeplex in Yulee will encompass 25,000 square feet with the option of expanding to 55,000 square feet if necessary. That additional space will be needed if the planned purchase of another business — expected to be finalized in 2010 — moves ahead as scheduled. If that acquisition is successful, Bell plans to hire about 20 additional employees, bringing the total staff at Science First in Nassau County to 50.

JACKSONVILLE/DUVAL COUNTY

A winning combination: Duval is the largest county in Florida’s Northeast region, and its primary city, Jacksonville, is an epicenter of economic activity largely due to its winning combination of a business friendly environment and affordable big city living.

With the costs of housing and utilities well under the national average and significantly lower than other Southern cities such as Atlanta, Charleston, Raleigh, Charlotte and Montgomery, Jacksonville remains an affordable place to live, work and play.

In fact, on a list of 20 super cities (population 500,000 and above) where young professionals want to live and work, Jacksonville ranked No. 15, eclipsing the likes of Los Angeles, San Diego and Houston. Published by Next Generation Consulting, the list rates cities based on assets that are important to 20- to 40-year-olds, including earning, learning, vitality, cost of lifestyle, evening entertainment and social capital.

Expanding in place: Boeing — which has had a presence at Cecil Field in Duval County for 10 years with a facility for modernizing the inner workings of its planes — is expanding in place and hiring 60 additional workers. The expansion comes as Boeing moves its structural repair facility from Mesa, Ariz., to Cecil Field. The Mesa facility was charged with repairing aircraft flight surfaces (skins and wings). At Cecil Field, Boeing employees will now work on both the insides and outsides of F-18 Hornets and Super Hornets.

“We wanted a one-stop shop,” says Boeing executive Brad Mudd, “and Cecil Field made sense. We needed room to grow and we wanted to be closer to our customer, Naval Air Station Jacksonville.”

Sixty new specialized skill jobs (average annual salary approximately $50,000) will be created with this expansion, and Boeing hopes to tap into the retired military population in Northeast Florida to fill them.

The physical size of the facility will grow, too — from approximately 500,000 to 610,000 square feet — in order to accommodate additional shop and warehouse space. Boeing also plans to add 16 airplane hangar bays.

Troops from Canada, Chile, Brazil, Peru and Uruguay take part in an amphibious training exercise on the beach at Naval Station Mayport in northeast Florida. [ U.S. Coast Guard photo by Petty Officer Seth Johnson]

Elsewhere in Jacksonville

• Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation (FDIC) has opened a satellite office in Jacksonville, adding 525 new jobs. From this facility, FDIC will manage receiverships and liquidate assets from failed financial institutions.
• Pilot Pen Corporation of America, a division of Tokyo-based Pilot Corporation and 3rd largest writing instrument company in the U.S., has moved its headquarters from Trumbull, Conn., to Jacksonville, creating 66 positions in the process. The company spent $4.5 million to expand an existing building by 50,000 square feet.
• Hanjin Shipping Company of Seoul, South Korea, will build a 90-acre container facility at the Port of Jacksonville’s Dames Point Marine Terminal. The $300-million project is expected to be completed in time for the Asian liner to begin calling at JAXPORT by summer 2013.
• New distribution centers under construction or recently completed in Duval include Dr. Pepper/Cadbury Schweppes, ICS Logistics and Georgia Pacific.

Strong military tradition: With 25,245 jobs at Naval Air Station Jacksonville and another 10,000 jobs at Naval Station Mayport, the U.S. Navy is the largest employer in the greater Jacksonville area. And if the Navy’s choice of Jacksonville as the future homeport of a nuclear-powered aircraft carrier holds, the number of jobs at Mayport could increase by 3,000.

Healthcare hub: Four major health systems give Jacksonville not only high-quality medical care but also the largest professional employment base in the city. Baptist Health System, which includes Baptist Medical Center downtown, Wolfson Children’s Hospital and three outlying medical centers, employs nearly 5,600. At Mayo Clinic, some 5,000 employees serve approximately 2,000 patients per day, and the staffs at St. Vincent’s Medical Center and Shands Jacksonville number 3,796 and 3,500, respectively. The University of Florida Proton Therapy Institute at Shands is one of only five facilities in the U.S. devoted to this type of cancer treatment.

At more than 840 square miles, Jacksonville is the largest city in the continental United States.

“Nassau County was wonderful to work with. They allowed me to get done what I needed to get done, such as permitting for the building in three months.” — Aaron Bell Science First, Yulee

NASSAU COUNTY

Paradise found: Located in the extreme northeast corner of Florida, Nassau County is a unique blend of rural wooded areas to the west and wide-open beaches to the east. The quaint port town of Fernandina Beach on Amelia Island is home to a modern shrimping industry as well as a 50-block downtown district that is on the National Registry of Historic Places.

Road improvements: Work began in August 2009 to improve a 6-mile stretch of A1A in Nassau County between Griffin and Stratton Roads. Fully funded with federal stimulus dollars, the $26.2-million project includes construction of two new bridges and widening of the beachside road from two to four lanes. Slated completion date: late 2011.

Zoning for growth: The Nassau County Commission has given the green light to zoning changes on two large tracts of land: 490 acres near Bryceville will change from agricultural to light industrial and commercial; 200 acres in Yulee will change from agricultural to medium- and high-density residential. The changes, officials say, are needed to accommodate the growing commercial activity that is expected to result from increased traffic at the Port of Jacksonville.

BAKER COUNTY

Preparing to grow: Rural Baker County is on the verge of explosive growth as it moves ahead with two planned industrial parks. Combined, the parks will offer 16 million square feet with prime access to Interstate 10 — the region’s primary east-west artery — and could potentially pump millions of dollars into the local economy. Roberts Land and Timber Company is developing 10 million square feet; Dallas-based Jackson Shaw Development is constructing the 6-million-square-foot site.

CLAY COUNTY

Beltway planned: Northeast Florida’s already solid multimodal transportation system is about to get better with the addition of the First Coast Outer Beltway, a 46.5-mile tollway that will connect Interstates 10 and 95, with a second perimeter ring around Clay, St. Johns and Duval counties. A total of 13 new interchanges will provide easier access and open up new development opportunities in the area.

Pipeline under construction: SeaCoast Gas Transmission LLC, a subsidiary of TECO Energy, is constructing a 50-mile, high-volume intrastate natural gas transmission pipeline that will traverse Clay County. Ultimately, the pipeline will tie into the terminus of the Cypress pipeline in northeast Clay County and will cross the St. Johns River in the Green Cove Springs area.

ST. JOHNS COUNTY

Thriving defense sector: Defense contractor Northrop Grumman, the largest employer in St. Johns County, was awarded a $432-million contract in June 2009 for initial production of the E-2D Advanced Hawkeye aircraft for the U.S. Navy. Up to 70 aircraft will be produced at Northrop Grumman’s 208-acre site, which includes 30 buildings with eight high bay hangars. Combined, the buildings feature 512,024 square feet of manufacturing space and 58,996 square feet of warehouse space.

Job growth leader: CNNMoney.com put St. Johns County in the No. 12 spot on its 2009 list of hottest job growth markets in the U.S. Between 2000 and 2008, the number of jobs in St. Johns grew by 56%. CNNMoney.com cites the county’s business-friendly fee structure and top-rated school district as reasons for the growth.

FLAGLER COUNTY

Incentives produce investment: More than 1,000 Flagler County workers could have lost their jobs this year when AMREP Corporation announced plans to unify two subsidiaries specializing in magazine, membership and direct mail fulfillment services into one company, in one location. Flagler-based Palm Coast Data was one of those subsidiaries, so local officials wasted no time mounting an effort to convince AMREP to stay — and expand — in Palm Coast. They put together an incentives package worth $10.7 million and, as a result, not only did Flagler avert the loss of 1,000 existing jobs, an additional 700 jobs are guaranteed over the next three years.

Key to this crucial deal was finding space large enough to accommodate the growing company. A former warehouse on the same street as Palm Coast Data’s existing facility turned out to be the only option. City officials and staff readily agreed to vacate their offices so Palm Coast Data could move in.

The combination of local and state incentives, plus the company’s own $20-million capital investment in the building, could represent up to $174.6 million annually in direct and indirect economic output throughout Flagler County over the next three years, and about $123.8 million annually thereafter.

More jobs coming: Another 250 jobs will become available in Bunnell over the next two years thanks to a decision by National Direct Response (NDR) Corporation to expand its staff and narrow its focus on healthcare. The call center expects to hire 60 new workers in 2010 and another 190 by 2011. The Flagler County Commission approved $80,000 in incentives for NDR to assist with the expansion.

PUTNAM COUNTY

Room to grow: Large tracts of available land make Putnam County an attractive option for companies needing space. Prime example: a $40-million Wal-Mart distribution center under construction in Crescent City. Situated on 200 acres of land spanning the border between Putnam and Volusia counties, the 850,000-square-foot center is expected to employ upwards of 600 people.

In addition, Putnam County Business Park, a 175-acre fully landscaped facility, features a 50,200-square-foot building that is ready to be customized and occupied.

Sister companies 1st Coast Recycling and Active Demolition have found an ideal home in Putnam County where land is plentiful and county officials are “seriously awesome to work with,” says Mike Orand. [Photos: 1st Coast Recycling]

Opportunity knocks: For Mike Orand and Jim Bugg, northeast Florida has turned out to be the land of opportunity. The former business competitors who came together five years ago to form 1st Coast Recycling in Palatka opened their second Putnam County-based business — Active Demolition — in 2009.

1st Coast Recycling was launched in 2004 with a $9-million investment in land and equipment. The company serves the recycling needs of everyone from individual consumers discarding empty soda cans to the U.S. government disposing of blown-up tanks, worn out military vehicles, even bombs.

Active Demolition takes recycling to a new level by recovering concrete, steel and other metals from vacant or abandoned work sites, such as old factories, refineries or sawmills. In the case of concrete, for example, the company breaks down the material and recycles it into a powder that can be used as a road base. The resulting product is more cost effective and provides a firmer base than available alternatives.

Orand and Bugg decided to locate both of their companies in Putnam County because, they say, there was plenty of land available and county officials made everything easy. Putnam is “seriously awesome to work with,” says Orand.

Combined, the companies have 30 employees. Some Active Demolition employees are new hires; others had worked at 1st Coast Recycling where they received on-the-job training and gained necessary experience.