June 2025 | Mike Brassfield
Orlando-based startup Worth AI has secured a $25-million investment to expand its AI-powered fintech platform. The company says it has signed more than a dozen new financial and banking clients this year. Worth was co-founded by brother-and-sister CEOs Sal Rehmetullah and Suneera Madhani, who are known for previously founding the successful startup Stax Payments.
AUTO DEALERSHIPS
- Tesla, whose auto dealerships have been targeted by protestors opposing Elon Musk, is planning a 35,000-sq.-ft. dealership on a vacant plot of land east of the Tomoka Town Center mall, located along I-95 in Daytona Beach. Tesla already has about 25 dealerships and service centers in Florida.
BANKING
- SouthState Bank, based in Winter Haven, sold and leased back about 170 of its bank branches in six states throughout the Southeastern U.S. It’s not closing any of the branches, just leasing them from its new landlord, affiliates of Blue Owl Real Estate Capital. “This structure unlocks significant unrealized capital on our balance sheet,” says CEO John Corbett. The 14th-largest bank in Florida, SouthState has 93 Florida branches and nearly $14 billion in Florida deposits.
HEALTH CARE
- PeopleOne Health and RosenCare have inked a partnership with the Orange County Tax Collector’s Office and its 300 employees. Unlike most health insurance companies, PeopleOne Health and RosenCare prioritize prevention and offering care without copays or deductibles. Their health plans are fully funded by employers. The tax collector’s office is PeopleOne Health’s sixth client in Central Florida.
TRANSPORTATION
- The Greater Orlando Aviation Authority, which oversees the Orlando International Airport and Orlando Executive Airport, named Lance Lyttle as its new CEO. Lyttle, who was managing director of Seattle-Tacoma International Airport, replaces Kevin Thibault, who’s resigning due to family health concerns.
- Orlando International Airport is adding a dozen flights in 2025. Breeze Airways started flights to Gulfport, Miss.; Ogdensburg, N.Y.; and Wilmington, N.C., in February, and began service to Raleigh-Durham in May. Discover Airlines began service to Munich, Germany, in March. Air France began service to Paris starting May 21. Spirit Airlines will start service to Chattanooga Metropolitan Airport in Tennessee on June 4 and to Columbia Metropolitan Airport in South Carolina on June 5. Southwest Airlines will start flights to and from Fort Myers, Sarasota and West Palm Beach on Aug. 5. And the Spanish airline Iberia plans to begin flights to and from Madrid in October, kicking off winter seasonal service.
“We now have a letter of intent towards financing our state-of-the-art, 45,000-capacity domed stadium right in the middle of the tourist corridor, where we will welcome approximately 80 million tourists this year.” – Jim Schnorf, co-founder of the Orlando Dreamers, a group of investors seeking to bring the Tampa Bay Rays or another Major League Baseball team to Central Florida.
LOGISTICS
- Construction is complete on the largest distribution warehouse ever built in Volusia County: Amazon’s 2.8 million-sq.-ft. robotic fulfillment center, located just south of Daytona International Speedway.
HIGHER EDUCATION
- Beacon College, which serves students with learning differences, will break ground later this year on a $11-million, 28,000-sq.-ft. Intramural and Fitness Center at its campus in Leesburg. It’s the cornerstone of a $14.5-million fundraising campaign.
AEROSPACE
- A new bridge on the NASA Causeway is finished six months ahead of schedule. The $128-million project included two new, high bridges over the Indian River Lagoon, eliminating the need for drawbridge openings. The design and construction of the bridges, which serve Kennedy Space Center and Cape Canaveral Space Force Station, was a partnership between NASA, Space Florida and the Florida Department of Transportation. The second of the two bridges opened in March.
Gigabay Incoming
NASA’s famously large Vehicle Assembly Building, where the rockets that went to the moon were built, stands 525 feet tall. It remains a recognizable landmark at Kennedy Space Center, so big that you can’t possibly miss it.
Now SpaceX is building a brand-new rocket garage at KSC that’s nearly as big. They’re calling it the Gigabay. Standing 380 feet tall, it will have 46.5 million cubic feet of interior space, including 815,000 square feet of workspace.
The Gigabay will be used to assemble SpaceX’s Super Heavy boosters, which will be used to launch the company’s Starship spacecrafts from Cape Canaveral.
Starships are designed for deep space exploration, like missions to the moon and Mars. They’re also supposed to be reusable. However, first SpaceX will have to prove that they’re safe. Two different test flights in Texas this year have resulted in Starships exploding into fiery debris shortly after takeoff.
As for the Gigabay, it’s expected to be ready by 2026.
- 75,969 — The number of people added to the Orlando-Kissimmee-Sanford area between July 1, 2023, and July 1, 2024, raising its population to nearly 2.9 million, according to the U.S. Census Bureau. It ranked seventh for growth among major metro areas in the U.S. (Miami-Fort Lauderdale-West Palm Beach ranked fourth.)