November 30, 2023
Southeast
A Palm-Sized Solution
Like a lot of parents driving the family to Orlando, Rob and Daniella Sladen had some quiet time when the kids fell asleep. Unlike other parents — but somewhat understandable as Daniella was a structural engineer and Rob a project engineer — they spent the quiet time noodling ways to cut the amount of lubricant and oil in aircraft engines.
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Published on 11/30/2023
Sewage Fuels Brown Tide
A Florida Atlantic University Harbor Branch Oceanographic Institute study added to the evidence that the root cause of the nitrogen pollution in the Indian River Lagoon responsible for algal blooms and brown tide — leading to seagrass, fish and manatee die offs — is homeowners' septic systems, not lawn fertilizer.
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Published on 10/24/2023
Making Progress
As Florida focuses on growing its economy, experts say one of the most productive places to expand is in manufacturing. The sector pays about 117% of average annual wages in Florida, creates both blue and white-collar jobs and has one of the highest multiplier effects for return on investment. Every $1 in manufactured goods produces $3.60 across all other sectors.
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Published on 10/17/2023
Towering Uncertainty
Sonja Przulj loves her two-bedroom, two-bath condominium in Miami, located on the 21st floor of the 27-story Palm Bay Yacht Club, with spectacular views of Biscayne Bay, downtown Miami and South Beach. She paid $285,000 for the corner unit in September 2021 after renting in the building for years.
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Published on 10/17/2023
Fantasy Fest
What started in 1979 as a way to gin up tourism during slow fall months has turned into a “10-day Halloween celebration for grown-ups in paradise.”
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Published on 10/13/2023
Seeking Protection
Three activist groups served notice to the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service that they intend to sue to force the agency to invoke Endangered Species Act protection for the ghost orchid. The groups are the Institute for Regional Conservation in Hollywood, the Center for Biological Diversity and the National Parks Conservation Association. They say the orchid is threatened by poaching, habitat loss and degradation and by winds from intense hurricanes. The groups say the agency should have made a protection decision in January but the agency workplan indicates a decision won't be made until as late as fall 2026. The orchid is protected at Big Cypress National Preserve and other government and private preserves and sanctuaries.
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Published on 9/28/2023
Helping Babies Thrive
Founders Glenn and Chelly Snow's LactaLogics processes breast milk from donor moms for use in feeding premature babies. The company is locating its headquarters and a processing facility in Port St. Lucie in the former Liberty Medical building on U.S. 1.
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Published on 8/24/2023
The Art of Play
Kevin Daniels and Jimi Dennison share a love of the “flow arts” — a mix of skills and creative expression. Think of juggling meets dance. In 2010, they founded Fun in Motion Toys to bring “movement-inspired” toys to the world.
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Published on 7/25/2023
Land Grab
Okeechobee County, historically a place where ranchland goes for a high price, drove an increase in prices in Florida in 2022, according to the Lay of the Land report from real estate firm SVN Saunders Ralston Dantzler.
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Published on 6/21/2023
A Sign of Things to Come?
In a signal of just how much South Florida remains in demand and that investors are betting on a return of business convention travel, a joint venture of Credit Suisse Asset Management and Hawaii-based Trinity Real Estate Investments purchased the 1,000-room Diplomat Beach Resort in Hollywood for $835 million from New York-based Brookfield Asset Management.
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Published on 5/25/2023
Name Game
Broward's seaport is one of the three busiest cruise ship home ports in the world. It ranks among the nation's leading container ship ports and is South Florida's main seaport for gas, jet fuel and alternative fuels. Some 7,000 people work at companies that provide direct services at or to the port.
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Published on 4/20/2023
Bionic Hands
Florida Atlantic University engineering and computer science college researchers received $1.2 million from the National Science Foundation to improve the functioning of prosthetic hands. Current prosthetics allow only one grasp function to be controlled at a time.
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Published on 3/21/2023
Paddleboarding for a Cause
At age 4 in 2011, Piper Suits was diagnosed with an aggressive form of cystic fibrosis, a genetic disorder affecting the lungs and other organs.
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Published on 2/21/2023
Southeast Florida's economic forecast for 2023
“Most people don't realize the University of Florida has made two big plays in our county. The University of Florida is going to take 12 acres in the heart of downtown West Palm Beach for a graduate school in data analytics, cybersecurity, AI, aviation and aerospace. The second area the University of Florida has taken over is the Scripps Research Institute — to really build out that cluster the way we envisioned in 2004.
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Published on 1/1/2023
ChemTech opens plant in Fort Pierce to showcase environmentally friendly wood treatments
Lumber treatment company ChemTech opened an eight-employee plant in Fort Pierce to showcase to sawmills, lumber dealers and others its “environmentally friendly” protective treatments for soft woods, plywood and engineered wood.
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Published on 12/15/2022
FPL's first-ever commercial drone helps quickly identify and restore power outage issues
FPL has launched the first-ever commercial, fixed-wing drone of its scale designed to capture high-quality images and videos of its infrastructure and thousands of miles of power lines.
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Published on 11/28/2022
SMG Delivering Data gathers infrastructure data for utilities
For 12 years, Hadley Doyle-González and her pilot husband, Jorge, ran a business based in Palm Beach County towing airplane banners. That led them to the idea of using their flight skills and manned and unmanned aircraft — she's a drone pilot — to gather infrastructure data for utilities.
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Published on 10/31/2022
Celebrity real estate developer wants to develop land in Martin County
If a developer's customers include global celebrities, it makes sense to call in the big names when seeking approval in growth-adverse Martin County.
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Published on 9/19/2022
Palm Beach homeowners wanting renovations and new construction face challenges with Architectural Commission
Like a lot of people in the pandemic, Sylvester and Jennifer Stallone came to Florida and bought a home. The house they purchased via a trust has five bedrooms, six full baths, 10,539 square feet under air, an elevator and key-shaped pool. It sits on a one-acre lot fronting the Intracoastal near the northern tip of the island of Palm Beach.
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Published on 8/31/2022
West Palm Beach-based SYN Ventures raises $465 million to invest in cyber-security companies
Jay Leek and Patrick Heim bring impressive resumes to their West Palm Beach-based SYN Ventures, which has raised $465 million in two funds to invest in cyber-security companies.
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Published on 8/30/2022
The Denison family ends 70-plus years of ownership legacy with sale of Fort Lauderdale yachting business
SPOTLIGHT
End of an Era
Sale ends 70-plus years of family’s yachting ownership in South Florida.
For more than 70 years, one or another member of the Denison family has...
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Published on 7/31/2022
Digital Twin Marine creates virtual ship models with 360-degree and laser-scanning cameras
Nicky Bruger and her husband Tom worked side-by-side in the pandemic from their Fort Lauderdale home — she in construction management and he as a ship surveyor, akin to a home inspector for ships. One day, he saw her using a digital model of a job site to plan work. “He was like, ‘Why don't we do that for ships?' ”
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Published on 6/21/2022
Couple's nausea-easing candies are infused with natural oils - including CBD
Tracy Ernst got the idea for her nausea-easing candies after seeing a friend with cancer battle the side effects of chemotherapy. An avid cyclist, she was riding solo one day when an image of the friend came to mind. She says she later received a “divine message to make hard candies with essential oils.”
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Published on 5/31/2022
St. Lucie County gets a green light to reorganize its foreign trade zone
The foreign trade zone in St. Lucie County sat largely dormant for the 26 years since it was created, covering the Treasure Coast Airport near Fort Pierce and three nearby parcels. This year, the county received federal approval to reorganize the zone to allow expedited designation of sites for companies ready to conduct trade-zone activity such as manufacturing. The zone was expanded to include all of St. Lucie, Indian River and Okeechobee counties...
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Published on 5/31/2022
A one-stop shop for boat buyers
INNOVATION
One-stop shop for boat buyers
Entrepreneurs Bryan Lenett of Hallandale Beach and Michael Muchnick of Aventura founded TreatMD, a telemedicine company later acquired by GlobalMed. Both boaters, they launched...
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Published on 4/21/2022
