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Northwest Florida Roundup
Money flow: Florida's Gulf counties finally see some money from BP's oil spill
Triumph gets its first $300-million oil spill installment.
Business Briefs
FRANKLIN COUNTY — Franklin County commissioners imposed a six-month moratorium on all applications for construction permits within the business district on St. George Island. The moratorium will enable county staff to write rules governing the exterior appearance of new structures in the island’s commercial core.
GULF BREEZE — Publix purchased the Sea Shell Collections shopping center in Gulf Breeze for $18.6 million.
LYNN HAVEN — The Lynn Haven City Commission has instructed city staff to begin drafting an ordinance allowing marijuana dispensaries in the city. Mayor Margo Anderson says the commission acted in response to Lynn Haven residents who favor allowing dispensaries to operate under new state regulations. No dispensaries have yet approached the city about opening there, the mayor adds.
PENSACOLA — Mayor Ashton Hayward and executives of VT Mobile Aerospace have discussed doubling, from 400 to 800, the number of aviation maintenance jobs the company has committed to create under its current contract with the city. Mobile, Ala.-based VT MAE is scheduled in March to occupy a $52-million maintenance, repair and overhaul hangar under construction at Pensacola International Airport. Alabama real estate developer Nathan Cox’s company has purchased 174 acres near the sprawling Navy Federal Credit Union’s campus in the Beulah community. Cox said he envisions a subdivision, apartment complex, restaurants and a hotel. Two-time Masters Champion Bubba Watson has made a $2.1-million donation to the Studer Family Children’s Hospital at Sacred Heart in Pensacola. Watson, a Pensacola area resident, says the money will help fund a major expansion of Sacred Heart’s children’s hospital.
TALLAHASSEE — The Collier Cos. has partnered with Apex One and Paravest Capital to acquire Avenue 29 Apartments, a 324-unit student housing complex on Sharer Road. In addition, Asset Campus Housing has added the Forum Tallahassee to its portfolio of managed properties. The Cascades Project won approval from the city’s Community Redevelopment Agency to move forward with a development agreement and tax rebates for a major commercial redevelopment project in downtown Tallahassee. Capital City Consulting’s proposed $4.5-million office building at Adams and Duval streets is in its final design phase, with construction expected to be completed in summer 2019.
Innovation -- Firefighting Robot
Researchers at the Florida Institute for Human and Machine Cognition in Pensacola are in the process of developing a robot to fight fires in buildings and aboard ships. IHMC’s robotics team is working with the Pensacola Fire Department to determine how its Atlas robot can best hold a fire hose and withstand the pressure exerted when it’s in use, says research associate John Carff.
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