May 10, 2024
Feature
Robot Training
Tom Mudano, president and CEO of Pasco County-based AmSkills, is aiming for his workforce-education non-profit “to become a destination point for robotics training in the state of Florida.”
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Published on 5/26/2023
Food Chain
Looking for ways to drive more foot traffic to a Kissimmee flea market he purchased in 2015, Nadeem Battla met with Syd Levy, who once owned Flea World in Sanford. Levy told him that people went to Flea World for the food, and they stayed for the shopping, says Battla.
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Published on 5/25/2023
Just in Time Tech Boost
The company behind a project formerly known only as Confidential Project Xray is global IT management and security software giant Kaseya, which is expanding its Miami global headquarters and pledges to create 3,400 jobs paying an average of $107,000.
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Published on 5/25/2023
Beating the Heat
A team of FAMU-FSU College of Engineering researchers at the High-Performance Materials Institute in Tallahassee has conducted experiments that prove a compound of boron nanotubes can withstand temperatures up to 4,000 degrees Fahrenheit.
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Published on 5/25/2023
Sunnier Days Ahead
Coming off a record year of passenger traffic, Punta Gorda Airport is expecting business to get even better with the planned opening this year of the 785-room Sunseeker Resort on Charlotte Harbor.
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Published on 5/25/2023
Driving Successes
As president of Tallahassee Community College and a veteran law enforcement official, Jim Murdaugh knows the value of workforce training in helping people improve their circumstances, including those who have had run-ins with the law.
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Published on 5/24/2023
Touting JaxPort
Competition for cruise business south of Jacksonville is fierce, with active ports at Cape Canaveral, Fort Lauderdale and Miami. However, Jacksonville is a good entry point for local residents or those just north of Jacksonville who otherwise would have to go to Charleston to find a cruise within driving distance, says Alberto Cabrera, director of cargo and cruise development, in talking up JaxPort.
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Published on 5/24/2023
Custom-Made
Peter Quinter doesn't spend much time behind a desk. On any given day, the trade attorney might be at a port warehouse, aboard a freighter or inside a Boeing 747 helping clients deal with import or export hiccups and advocating to get their shipments back on track.
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Published on 5/23/2023
Economic Engine
Brightline's upcoming train service to Orlando is providing an economic boost to Central Florida. The company's $100-million vehicle maintenance facility — dubbed Basecamp — will employ 100 workers, and the train carrier has partnered with Siemens USA (which manufactures its trains), railroad contractor Herzog and Valencia College to create a curriculum to train students for careers as train mechanics.
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Published on 5/22/2023
A Clean Start
For decades, the five-acre site at the eastern edge of downtown Naples was littered with rundown metal buildings once used as warehouses and car repair shops. It was an area where street crime flourished.
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Published on 5/17/2023
Park Place
Sarah Combs grew up a farmer's daughter. From an early age, she harvested crops on the family's spread in a tiny, tight-knit Colorado town, developed a strong work ethic and constantly engaged with neighbors. It was a long way from north Tampa, an area that over the years has been beset by poverty.
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Published on 5/17/2023
Keep on Truckin'
FleetForce is expanding in Florida this spring with six new training and testing centers. The truck-driving school, based in Sarasota, projects it will be able to graduate 3,000 commercial drivers annually, to help reduce a shortage that trucking trade experts say is close to 80,000 nationally.
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Published on 5/17/2023
City Center
Along a stretch of I-4 some 25 miles east of Tampa and 60 miles west of Orlando, a new City Furniture campus stretches for a half-mile. The 87-acre development that opened late last year features 1.3 million square feet of warehouse space and a nearly 190,000-sq.-ft. two-story showroom, complete with a wine and coffee bar.
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Published on 5/16/2023
The Greening of Florida's Brownfields
Over the last quarter-century, Florida has helped to transform almost 200 contaminated sites into clean community hubs. The pace of the redevelopment is about to pick up dramatically.
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Published on 5/16/2023
'Perfect DNA'
John Vo, former vice president of propulsion at electric pickup truck maker Lordstown Motors and head of global manufacturing for Tesla, moved to Florida in 2020. He heads Blue Innovations Group, an electric boat startup based in Pinellas Park. It's working on a line of boats, one of which would have solar charging panels, an 800-hp powertrain and run on a 220-kilowatt battery.
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Published on 5/16/2023
Rocking the Boat
A marine marketing truism holds that the ideal locale for photographing a boat is in the clear blue waters of the Bahamas. Cam Heaps, CEO of electric boat maker Voltari, wanted that Bahamas photo and decided to go for more: Instead of shipping or towing his new Voltari 260 performance boat there, he would seek to set a record for the “first and longest” electric boat overseas crossing — the 91 miles from Key Largo to Bimini.
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Published on 5/15/2023
Seeds of Change
On a drab, industrial street in the shadows of St. Petersburg's Tropicana Field, an oasis of leafy greens is flourishing. It has taken root not on sprawling acres outdoors, but inside 20 former shipping containers just west of downtown. You could drive past Brick Street Farms and never have any inkling of the operation inside — in fact, you might not notice it at all.
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Published on 5/10/2023
Code Red
The Entrepreneur
Michael Ellison, 38 Founder/CEOCodePath, Miami
The Early Years
Michael Ellison grew up in a low-income, single-mother household in rural Maine. “I was not exposed to a lot of...
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Published on 5/9/2023
Miami Grand Prix
For at least the next nine years, Hard Rock Stadium and its environs — also known as the Miami International Autodrome — will host a Formula 1 race, one of 23 that make up the circuit's championship. Tyler Epp, the event's president, says the goal is to ensure “Miami will be one of the must-attend races on the Formula 1 calendar for the next decade.”
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Published on 5/8/2023
Florida Icon: Vickie Smith
I can look out my bedroom windows on a full-moon night, and I can see the moon reflecting on the Weeki Wachee River. It’s heaven on Earth.
When I graduated...
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Published on 5/8/2023
Field Day
St. Petersburg is moving forward with its latest effort to redevelop the city's 86-acre Tropicana Field site — this time with the direct involvement of the Tampa Bay Rays.
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Published on 4/30/2023
Smart Cane
Bay County high school students Henry Jiang and Walker Verenakis have created a prototype aid for the visually impaired. Both seniors at North Bay Haven Charter Academy in Panama City, the two have invented a digital ultrasound walking cane.
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Published on 4/26/2023
A History of Acquisitions
Seacoast Bank, founded at the onset of the Great Depression, is the stuff of homespun Florida. During World War II, the Stuart-based institution provided mothers of service members Blue Star flags.
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Published on 4/25/2023
Altering Fentanyl
INNOVATION
A University of Florida professor and researchers from around the U.S. have found a way to make fentanyl less addictive. Although fentanyl, a synthetic opioid, helps people with severe...
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Published on 4/25/2023
Boardroom Boost
SPOTLIGHT
Only 11% of non-profits in Central Florida have Black board members, but a program launched last year by the Orlando Economic Partnership’s Black Boardroom Leadership Institute is working to...
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Published on 4/24/2023
Business Beat - Week of May 10th
