AMELIA ISLAND —
» The Cooper family, owner of Amelia Island Plantation for more than 30 years, sold a 51% stake in the resort company to Redquartz Developments Atlanta for $60 million. The family will retain 49% ownership. The company says the cash will help fund several projects, including an expansion of the Amelia Inn and a hotel at the Amelia River Golf Club.
ATLANTIC BEACH —
» A Jacksonville bankruptcy judge ordered an $8-million partial repayment to 650 dentists around the U.S. who lost money in connection with E-Z Pay Dental, an Atlantic Beach financing company that grew to a $26-million business by helping patients finance dental care. When E-Z Pay couldn’t collect enough from patients to pay dentists what it had promised, it signed up more dentists and patients in what the dentists’ lawyers called a Ponzi scheme.
FERNANDINA BEACH —
» The city has made more than $100,000 selling old fleet vehicles and other items on eBay, according to the Fernandina Beach News-Leader.
GAINESVILLE —
» University of Florida President Bernie Machen asked deans and faculty to prepare 10% budget cuts, about $75 million worth, for the fiscal year that begins July 1.
JACKSONVILLE —
» The Navy chose Mayport Naval Station over a Virginia site as the home port for a nuclear-powered aircraft carrier that is expected to bring thousands of jobs when it arrives sometime after 2014.
» A Florida administrative law judge recommended that the St. Johns River Water Management District approve Seminole County’s plan to withdraw 5.5 million gallons daily from the St. Johns River. The plan had been challenged by Jacksonville, St. Johns County and the environmental group Riverkeeper.
» The Jacksonville Aviation Authority postponed plans for a new concourse at Jacksonville International Airport because airplane traffic dropped 18% in 2008.
» A recent report by the U.S. Conference of Mayors that analyzes job losses and unemployment rates in major metro areas projects that Jacksonville will lose another 22,300 jobs by the fourth quarter, and that its unemployment rate will rise from 6.7% to 8.3% in that time.
» After a seven-month investigation of the yet-to-be-built Duval County courthouse project, a grand jury concluded the eight years and $64.6 million spent so far is an “embarrassment” and that taxpayers are right to feel “disappointment” and “frustration,” but the project must move forward. The City Council has set a final budget of $350 million for a project that was supposed to cost $190 million and be finished in 2007.
» Jacksonville-based Florida Rock Industries filed a $1.4-million civil suit against U.S. Sugar for breach of contract for a 7,500-acre quarry that was to be constructed in fields that U.S. Sugar now has agreed to sell to the South Florida Water Management District for Everglades restoration.
» Contact lens maker Vistakon laid off 85 of its 1,800-employee local workforce.
» Jacksonville-based distributor Interline Brands eliminated 85 positions and shuttered a small local distribution center, part of a larger plan to consolidate centers across the country.
» Smurfit-Stone Container Corp., a Chicago paper products company with several facilities in the Jacksonville area, filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection. It has not revealed how the move will affect local operations.
» Jacksonville City Councilwoman Glorious Johnson, an African-American Republican who led an audience in the singing of “Dixie” during the Sons of Confederate Veterans observance of Confederate Memorial Day last year, switched political parties to Democrat, changing the balance of power on the City Council. Johnson is among those speculated to join the race to succeed Mayor John Peyton in two years.
LEVY COUNTY —
» The Department of Environmental Protection gave Progress Energy approval to start construction on a 2,200-megawatt nuclear power plant in southern Levy County.
MELROSE —
» A Canadian company called Little Big Sturgeon has proposed a 10-acre sturgeon farm outside Melrose. But local residents are fighting the farm’s request to the St. Johns River Water Management District for a 450,000-gallon daily groundwater permit, saying the area’s lakes are already drying up.
PALATKA —
» The city commission gave the go-ahead for Community Development Partners to begin a $20-million riverfront development plan for downtown. The plan, which includes a 120-room hotel with a conference center and retail and restaurant space, could begin construction in 2012.