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Central Florida Business Briefs - Aug. 2007
DAYTONA BEACH —
» First Data Corp. is closing its call center on west International Speedway Boulevard by next spring and will lay off 400 in phases beginning in October.
MELBOURNE —
» Harris Corp. (NYSE-HRS) has signed a $400-million deal to acquire privately held Multimax, a 1,100-employee company in Herndon, Va., that provides information technology and communications services for the U.S. government.
» Melbourne International Airport will begin offering non-stop flights to Berlin in November through LTU International Airways.
ORLANDO —
» The city has opened a small-business incubator at Colonial Landing, formerly Herndon Plaza on Colonial Drive west of State Road 436. A partnership between Orlando and the University of Central Florida, the center is a prototype that will be duplicated in other districts to foster entrepreneurship. Business
owner Jacqueline Barton has been appointed executive director.
» RSM McGladrey and McGladrey & Pullen have acquired Orlando-based Tedder, James, Worden & Associates, the fifth-largest accounting firm in central Florida, boosting employment at the McGladrey firms to more than 400 statewide.
» After being turned down twice, Nemours has won state approval to build a specialty children’s hospital at Lake Nona in southeast Orlando.
» The University of Central Florida has begun construction on the Burnett College of Biomedical Sciences building, expected to open in fall 2009 as the first structure at the UCF Health Sciences Campus at Lake Nona.
» The Metro Orlando Economic Development Commission has officially launched bioOrlando, a council aimed at fostering central Florida’s budding biotech industry. Florida Hospital President and CEO Lars Houmann and Florida’s Blood Centers President and CEO Anne Chinoda head up the council.
» Arnold Palmer Hospital for Children has opened a pediatric sports medicine center. Its director is Dr. Jay Albright, one of a few physicians nationwide specializing in both pediatric orthopedic surgery and orthopedic sports medicine.
» Florida’s first hydrogen station is open for business, supplying alternative fuel for a fleet of Ford shuttle buses that carry customers, tourists and employees between Orlando International Airport and the convention center and other tourist sites.
Links: For more on Florida's hydrogen initiative, go to the Links page.
» Myregion.org is planning a “How Shall We Grow?” regional summit Aug. 10 at Omni Orlando Resort at Champions Gate to unveil a regional action plan compiled during 15 months of research and community outreach about how central Florida could look in the future.
PALM BAY —
» South Florida-based Sky Development is building Villas at Palma Bella, a community of 40 two-story luxury town homes scheduled for completion in mid-2008.
WINTER PARK —
» The city has agreed
to pay Central Park Station Partners
$3.7 million to buy out its purchase
of the Winter Park post office property, where the developers had planned to build the Carlisle, a mixed-use complex that drew criticism because of its size and its location next to Central Park.
