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Northwest Business Briefs - May 2007
CALHOUN COUNTY --
? White Starr Inc. has received a $1.8-million grant toward development of Sky community, awarded under the state's Renewable Energy Technologies program, part of the 2006 Florida Energy Act. The 571-acre community at Clarksville will incorporate energy-efficient technology and environmental protection systems. Plans call for 624 home sites, an equestrian complex, public gardens and open spaces.
ESCAMBIA/SANTA ROSA COUNTIES --
? Pensacola Bay Area Impact 100, which pools women's charitable donations to give them greater impact, enrolled 472 members in 2007, holding onto its title as the country's largest Impact organization. Annual dues will provide four grants of $118,000 to area non-profits this year.
HOLMES COUNTY --
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Doctors Memorial Hospital is building a $17-million hospital at Bonifay. The relocated 25-bed critical-care hospital, at approximately 50,000 square feet and scheduled for completion early next year, will be twice the size of the 1958-built hospital it replaces.
LEON COUNTY --
? Tallahassee is one of three communities sharing a $585,000 grant in the Knight Creative Communities Initiative of Miami-based John S. and James L. Knight Foundation. The economic development ventures will be developed through Knight partnerships with civic leaders and local organizations, and with Washington, D.C.-based Richard Florida Creativity Group. The communities, including Charlotte, N.C., and Duluth, Minn./Superior, Wis., are among those where the Knight brothers formerly owned newspapers.
PENSACOLA --
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Simon Property Group, which owns both major shopping malls in Pensacola, will begin a multimillion-dollar makeover of University Mall by fall, converting it by 2009 to an open-air lifestyle center.
? Baskerville-Donovan engineering firm has established offices in Pasco County, its seventh Florida branch, taking over the business of Cornerstone Engineering and Associates at Dade City.
SANTA ROSA COUNTY --
? Denver-based Quantum Resources Management, a 2006-formed investment firm specializing in the energy industry, has bought ExxonMobil's interest in the Jay oil fields.
TAYLOR COUNTY --
? Florida Department of Community Affairs officials say the county's land-use agreement with J. Crayton Pruitt for development of Magnolia Bay Resort violates state law in skirting public hearings and state review. Pruitt's $700-million project on 3,780 acres calls for dredging a two-mile channel through the Big Bend Seagrass Aquatic Preserve and building a marina on 26 acres of salt marsh.
? A federal judge has doused environmentalists' efforts to shift permitting on a Fenholloway River cleanup project to the federal level, ruling the matter is within state jurisdiction. Florida regulators and Buckeye Florida pulp mill executives have said the state's proposed permit for Buckeye construction of a 15-mile wastewater pipeline to the Gulf of Mexico will help restore the river. Sierra Club and other environmental groups maintain the pipeline would pollute the Gulf of Mexico.
WALTON COUNTY --
? Grand Boulevard, a $250-million, 52-acre town-square development, is staging a first round of grand openings this spring, spotlighting a dozen restaurants and businesses. Destin developer Howard Group also has started leasing office space. The town is adjacent to Sandestin Golf and Beach Resort.
