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Economic yearbook 2009
Southeast Fla. Yearbook 2009
No despair -- just concern over access to capital.
“Overall, I think people are optimistic that we will see improvement in the economy sooner rather than later.” — Paula Pearson, executive vice president, SunTrust Bank, South Florida
Fort Lauderdale / Broward County
See population, income and job statistics from this region. Explore |
“The Boca Raton market seems to have fared better than other communities, but there are still signs of a weak economy,“ says SunTrust’s Paula Pearson. [Photo: Eileen Escarda] |
Businesses to Watch
Who's Hiring |
» Campus Management in Boca Raton is adding 60 jobs in software development, support and other fields. |
» New York-based Cambridge Security Services in Fort Lauderdale, a new entrant in the market, plans to hire 30 to add to its first 20 and grow to 500 within five years, says Regional Vice President Marco Lopez. |
» Tran Construction of Miami will hire 227 to construct a $12.3-million, 41-acre container terminal at Port Everglades. It becomes the third major port project begun in the last year following a petroleum terminal and a $75-million passenger terminal to handle Royal Caribbean’s two Oasis-class ships, the largest in the world. When the new cargo terminal is finished in 2010, 254 will work there. |
» PartsBase in Boca Raton, an online aviation marketplace, plans to hire 60, at an average salary of $70,000, to its staff of 75. |
» Wafer World in West Palm Beach, a silicon wafer maker, plans to add 11 jobs — machine operators, engineers, mechanics and salespeople — paying an average salary of $45,000. It currently employs 19. |
» SV Microwave in West Palm Beach will hire 12 over two years at an average salary of more than $46,000. |
» Kaplan Higher Education, which bases its executive offices in Fort Lauderdale, has 85 openings for academic, finance, marketing, technology and operations jobs. |
» The Broward Alliance says a manufacturing company — which it has not identified — already in the county will add 335 jobs in the next two years, taking an additional 117,000 square feet of office and manufacturing space.
People to Watch
» Ray Ferrero Jr., president of Nova Southeastern University and chairman of the Broward Alliance, the local economic development group, hopes to break ground this year on the $750-million first phase (residential, retail and academic space) of Nova’s “academical village.” The university just completed two other major building projects. Meanwhile, enrollment is up, and Nova’s adding faculty “in some programs fairly substantially.” While professing to be as “cautious and wary” as everyone else, he also says, “everything as far as we’re concerned is looking very positive.” He’s also bullish on the progress of a Broward Alliance initiative to work through local CEOs to lure jobs to the area and retain existing employers.That planning is “now bearing fruition.” Both Nova and the alliance will be ready when the economy turns better, Ferrero says.