April 24, 2024
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Business Florida 2015 - The Regions
Southwest Florida
Cape Coral, Estero, Fort Myers, Naples, Punta Gorda
ECONOMIC LIFE
Life Sciences/Healthcare
- • Site preparation has begun on the newest addition to the Arthrex family of facilities in Southwest Florida — a state-of-the-art “finishing” plant at Arthrex Manufacturing East (AMIE) in Ave Maria. The planned 54,000-sq.-ft. building will be used to complete the finishing stages of surgical device manufacturing, packaging and sterilization. Construction is expected to take 12-18 months; when completed, an estimated 50 employees will be assigned to the new facility, of which 30 will be new hires. AMIE, a 190,000-sq.-ft. surgical device and implant manufacturing plant in east Collier County, opened in October 2013.
- • Fort Myers-based cancer genetic testing firm NeoGenomics has acquired Path Labs (dba Path Logic), a provider of anatomic pathology services to hospitals and physicians in northern California. Operating as a subsidiary of NeoGenomics, Path Logic will provide specialized services for its clinical trials and pathology clients nationwide.
- • Ground was broken in April 2014 at HealthPark Florida in Fort Myers for the new 128-bed, stand-alone Golisano Children’s Hospital of Southwest Florida. Scheduled for completion in 2017, the $250-million project of Lee Memorial Health System will replace the 98-bed Golisano “hospital-within-a-hospital” that is currently located inside HealthPark Medical Center.
Corporate Headquarters
- • A little more than a year after deciding to move its world headquarters from Park Ridge, New Jersey, to Lee County, Florida, rental car giant Hertz Corporation is settling in. Construction is under way at the Fortune 300 company’s 34.5-acre campus at the intersection of Williams Road and U.S. 41 in Estero, and some 300 headquarters employees are already at work in Florida. The three-story, 300,000-sq.-ft. glass-covered structure that is slated to become Hertz’s permanent Florida home is expected to be ready for occupancy by the end of 2015. In the meantime, Hertz plans to increase the number of headquarters employees in Southwest Florida to 500 by the end of 2014. Projections are for a total of 700 jobs by the headquarters’ grand opening, and as many as 1,000 jobs by 2017.
Business Services
- • Global media/technology company Comcast is expanding its customer service “Center of Excellence” in Fort Myers, with plans to add 200 new customer service agents and 20 leadership positions to an existing Lee County-based staff of 400.
- • Wisconsin-based Alta Resources has begun hiring and training the first of 1,200 seasonal health insurance sales and customer service representatives the company will employ at its Fort Myers location to handle anticipated heavy call volume during the annual “open enrollment period,” which begins in mid-November 2014.
Logistics/Distribution
- • Riviera Beach-based Cheney Brothers Inc. broke ground in March 2014 on its much-anticipated $40-million West Coast Distribution Center in Charlotte County. The nation’s 11th largest food distributor, Cheney Brothers plans a complex near Punta Gorda Airport and I-75 that will include an administration building, plus 150,000 square feet of dry storage and 75,000 square feet of cooler and freezer space; 380 jobs are expected.
