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Around the State
Although Amendment 4, which would have put a penny per pound tax on Florida-grown sugar to clean up the Everglades, was defeated in the November election, Clay Henderson, president of the Florida Audubon Society, which drafted amendments 4, 5 and 6, said the issue isn't over. Amendments 5 and 6 overwhelmingly passed. These two amendments, which hold Everglades polluters responsible for cleanup costs and set up a special cleanup trust fund, would ultimately - through a series of legal battles - make polluters pay, says Henderson. Amendments 5 and 6 will invalidate the rules that give sugar polluters a break in Everglades water quality standards, he adds.
The value of Florida's citrus crop rose 24% to $1.1 billion last year, according to the latest Florida Agricultural and Statistical Service report. Lower fruit supplies, increased demand, and greater marketing efforts are responsible for an increase of about $1 per box of citrus, the report says.
Florida ranked ninth in the country in fastest income growth in 1995. Florida's per-capita income rose 5.8% to $23,061 a person. This is .5 percentage points above the national average.
Seven Florida cities made American City Business Journals' annual list of top 100 U.S. labor markets. The cities and rankings are: Fort Lauderdale and Sarasota-Bradenton, 7 (tied); West Palm Beach-Boca Raton, 25; Tampa-St. Petersburg-Clearwater, 27; Orlando, 31; Miami, 40; and Jacksonville, 46.
In a recent Florida Chamber of Commerce poll, 43% of business people with operations in Florida said the state's overall business environment isn't attractive enough for them to expand. This is up 18% from last year.
Northwest
Five northwest counties, Dixie, Franklin, Gulf, Taylor and Wakulla, have been designated as enterprise zones by Governor Chiles to assist areas impacted by the fishing net ban. Businesses in these counties are eligible for tax credits, sales tax refunds and sales tax exemptions.
AlliedSignal of Lynn Haven has completed its contract with Chrysler to manufacture 4.5 million disc brake pads for Jeep Grand Cherokees and Wranglers. About 42 permanent jobs were created.
Northeast
Over 2 million tons of containerized cargo passed through the docks of Jacksonville Port Authority in 1996 - the single busiest year ever for the port and the seventh straight year it has set tonnage records. According to the Jacksonville Port Authority, tonnage has risen about 35% since 1989.
International engineering and technology company Westray Group will move its international headquarters from Hong Kong to Jacksonville in February. The company expects to hire 200 engineering and support staff members.
Calling Clay County "the best-kept secret in Florida," an unnamed manufacturing company will bring 40 jobs to the area in early 1997. A grant from the Department of Commerce's Economic Development Fund played a large part in the relocation, which represents the first success of a joint economic development marketing venture between Duval and Clay counties. The company prefers to remain anonymous until the move.
AccuStaff, a national provider of staffing and consulting services, acquired Scientific Staffing of Stuart in November. Terms of the deal were not disclosed. AccuStaff announced the acquisition as part of an aggressive national expansion plan.
US Diagnostic of West Palm Beach became the largest nuclear cardiology outpatient provider in the market with the purchase of 16 imaging facilities from New York-based Lee Imaging Group in November. US Diagnostic, which now owns or manages almost 100 radiology facilities in 12 states, plans to acquire another 32 facilities in 1997.
The University of Florida College of Business Administration received an $11 million gift from Texas businessman and alumnus Alfred C. Warrington IV, the business administration school's single largest cash gift ever. Administrators plan to rename the school in honor of Warrington.
Central
Lucent Technologies, the AT&T spinoff communications software developer, will hire 300-400 people by the year's end at the company's Orange County plant. In related news, AT&T in November closed its Maitland computer software office and transferred the 163 jobs to East Brunswick, N.J.
Bar-code laser scanner manufacturer PSC Inc. of New York announced plans to close its Sanford laser engineering division by April and transfer the 70 jobs to New York.
About 10,900,000 domestic visitors traveled to Orlando during the second quarter of 1996, a 14% increase from the second quarter of 1995, according to D.K. Shifflet & Associates. Of that number, leisure visitors accounted for 9.2 million and about 1.7 million were business travelers.
Charles Schwab, the largest stock broker in Central Florida, announced its plans to lease an additional facility in Orlando and hire another 110 employees in 1997.
Ohio-based Huntington Bancshares paid about $134 million in stocks and cash for Leesburg-based Citi-Bancshares' eight banks in November. The banks, to be renamed The Huntington National Bank of Florida, are part of Huntington's efforts to increase its presence in Florida.
Tampa Bay
JCPenney of Plano, Texas, agreed to buy Clearwater-based Eckerd Corp., the nation's third largest drug store, for $3.3 billion, pending shareholders approval. The resulting JCPenney subsidiary will continue to use the Eckerd name and be based in Clearwater. JCPenney already owns the Thrift Drug Store chain and has a deal pending to buy 200 Rite-Aid stores.
Nationwide Insurance of Columbus, Ohio, the nation's fifth largest property and casualty insurance company, chose Tampa for its new consolidated national claims processing center. The center will employ about 300 workers.
Tampa-based Kash n' Karry Food Stores agreed to be acquired by Food Lion of Salisbury, N.C. for about $341 million in November, subject to regulatory and shareholder approval. The 100 Kash n' Karry stores will continue to operate under the same name and Food Lion will spend $150 million over the next four years to upgrade some stores.
St. Petersburg-based Empress Cruise Lines plans to launch a ferry service between Tampa and Cancun, Mexico, in February. The company expects the service to be popular with Mexican and Central American tourists for shopping trips to Florida.
USF&G announced plans to transfer many existing claim processing operation duties from offices around the country to its Tampa claims center. The move will create an additional 50 jobs by early 1997.
Oxygen supplier Lincare Holdings of Clearwater acquired three oxygen service companies, two in New Mexico and one in New York, in October. The combined annual revenues of the three companies are about $15 million.
Medical Manager Corp., a Tampa-based provider of computerized services to physician practices, plans to sell five million common shares in an initial public offering. The company plans to price the shares in the $14 to $16 range.
Two years after breaking away from St. Petersburg-based Raymond James Financial, Herbert Ehlers will sell his money management business, Liberty Investment Management, to Goldman Sachs of New York. Terms of the deal were not released, but Ehlers will continue to manage Liberty's $5.4 billion in assets.
In an effort to return to profitability, software marketer Quarterdeck Corp. of California laid off about 86 of its 226 employees in Clearwater in October. Its stock price, as high as $35.50 last December, closed at $4.38 in November.
Competing against hundreds of U.S. and Australian entrepreneurial companies, Catalina Marketing Corp. won one of four 1996 Enterprise Awards for Best Business Practices, sponsored by Arthur Andersen's Enterprise Group. The St. Petersburg-based electronic coupon distribution and marketing company won for "fostering innovation." Another Florida company, Oldsmar-based ESCO Manufacturing, was a finalist in the category of "fostering and motivating employees."
Treasure Coast
Iowa-based Universal Gym Equipment Inc. received a $120,000 development grant from the Business Development Board of Palm Beach County to move its headquarters to downtown West Palm Beach. The company plans to hire 100 people within a year.
DB Environmental Laboratories of Rockledge received a Small Business Innovation Research grant from the Department of Agriculture to fund the development of a technology that uses wetland plants to remove excess phosphorous from rainwater and irrigation runoff.
Southwest
DHA Productions of Naples was awarded a General Motors contract to produce three $50,000 commercials for the 1997 line GM cars and trucks. The commercials feature rural Florida landscapes and will run until mid February. It's the fourth year DHA Productions has landed a contract with the automaker.
1.9 million pounds of air freight and 598,000 pounds of air mail traveled through the Florida International Airport in September - the busiest mail and cargo month in the history of the airport.
Southeast
H. Wayne Huizenga's Republic Industries Inc., the Fort Lauderdale operator of the AutoNation used-car retail chain, will acquire Alamo Rent-A-Car in a stock deal valued at about $625 million. The deal is subject to regulatory approval.
Blockbuster Entertainment will move its headquarters from Fort Lauderdale to Dallas, Texas, this spring. It is uncertain what will happen to the 1,000 jobs.
Miami-Fort Lauderdale leads the state in number of manufacturers, 5,215, and in the number of manufacturing jobs, 122,100, according to the U.S. Census Bureau. Tampa-St. Petersburg came in second with 2,583 manufacturers and 83,700 manufacturing jobs, followed by Orlando with 1,574 manufacturers and 53,300 jobs.
BankAtlantic Bancorp of Fort Lauderdale closed on its agreement to purchase Bank of North America, Fort Lauderdale, for approximately $54 million in cash. With the acquisition, BankAtlantic solidified its position as the state's largest independent community bank. Billboard giant Republic Media of Fort Lauderdale acquired Orlando-based Rite Media. Republic has purchased almost 1,000 billboards in Florida in 1996. With the latest acquisition Republic now owns 301 billboards in Central Florida.
Ocean Reef Management, a Miami investment group that recently acquired a controlling stake in retailer L. Luria and Son, has made a preliminary offer to buy financially troubled jewelry retailer Jan Bell Marketing. The $103 million deal, which is still subject to negotiation, regulatory and shareholder approval, would give Jan Bell shareholders $4 a share in cash. Sunrise-based Jan Bell, which markets its jewelry primarily through Sam's Club outlets, lost $3.4 million on sales of $254 million for the year ended in February 1996.
Kellstrom Industries of Sunrise signed a definitive agreement to pay $26.5 million in cash for California-based International Aircraft Support. The deal also includes warrants to purchase 500,000 shares of Kellstrom stock at $9.25 per share.
