- December 15, 2025
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Progress Bank auction set
Electronic equipment and office furnishings belonging to Progress Bank of Florida will be auctioned to the public Feb. 1 at 10 a.m. at the bank's former Tampa branches, 5537 Sheldon Road and 15028 N. Dale Mabry Highway. Tranzon Auction Resolutions of Cypress, Texas will conduct the proceedings.
Items up for bid include flat-screen televisions, computer monitors, printers, network equipment and desks. A 15% buyers premium will be added to the highest bid on each item, with payment due immediately and advance credit card deposits required.
Federal and state regulators shut down Progress Bank on Oct. 22. Tampa-based Bay Cities Bank took over the offices and deposits under a purchase and assumption agreement with the Federal Deposit Insurance Corp.
Progress Bank had $110.7 million in assets and $101.3 million in deposits through the second quarter of 2010.
Accounting firms merge
Hevia Beagles & Co. P.A. merged with Gregory Sharer & Stuart P.A., with both St. Petersburg-based accounting firms creating a single company with nearly 60 employees. Financial details were not disclosed.
Executives with the combined firm emphasized the importance of remaining independent while other small firms join larger national competitors.
Gregory Sharer & Stuart is based at 100 Second Ave. S., while Hevia Beagles was previously at 9400 Fourth St. N.
Vision eyes area flights
Vision Airlines, a Suwanee, Ga.-based charter service, said it will begin offering flights to and from St. Petersburg-Clearwater International Airport starting in March. The discount airline is offering fares as low as $49 each way.
Flights are available to several Florida destinations, including Fort Myers/Punta Gorda, from cities throughout the Southeast and as far north as Niagara Falls, N.Y. Vision flies Boeing 767 and 737 planes.
Vision started in 1994, offering sightseeing flights to the Grand Canyon. It is known for private charter flights for celebrities and government officials, and is much smaller than its hometown competitor, Atlanta-based Delta Air Lines.
Jackson expands search
The Jackson Laboratory, a Maine-based nonprofit research institute, says it has started discussions with officials in Hillsborough and Sarasota counties about expanding there.
Jackson recently withdrew its proposal to build a facility in eastern Collier County using $260 million in state and local taxpayer money. However, it plans to discuss expansion in Florida with the new administration of Gov. Rick Scott and has left open the possibility of submitting a new plan for Collier.
A group of Collier County taxpayers and some businesses have objected to the cost of subsidizing Jackson Laboratory. Besides the taxpayer subsidies, the lab planned to raise $120 million in private contributions.
NeoGenomics raises funds
Board members, executives and current investors recently invested $3 million in Fort Myers-based cancer-testing company NeoGenomics, the company announced recently.
Five members of the board of directors and senior management team as well as two institutional investors participated in the transaction for 2 million shares of NeoGenomics priced at $1.50 a share, a 24% premium to the closing price of the stock before the announcement (symbol: NGNM).
The company says it plans to use the proceeds to strengthen its financial position and fund growth initiatives.
CallMiner appoints CFO
CallMiner, a speech-analytics company in Fort Myers, appointed Bob Orlando as its chief financial officer.
Orlando is a veteran of the technology industry, having successfully raised capital, merged companies and taken several of them public.
Large companies such as Microsoft, Verizon and Comcast use CallMiner's technology to sift through thousands of recorded phone conversations with their customers. So far, CallMiner has raised nearly $25 million from investors to grow the company.
Home sales rise
The Sarasota real estate market ended 2010 with a solid monthly increase in sales.
Overall, there were 681 single-family homes and condos sold last month in the market, according to data from the Sarasota Association of Realtors. That's up 28% from the 534 sales in November.
The median price for a single-family home also rose month-to-month, from $160,100 in November to $165,000 in December. There was a $1,000 gain in the median sale price for condos, rising to $160,000.
“Word of mouth indicates we are seeing more showings and more closings this season than we have in quite a while,” says Michael Bruno, president of the Sarasota Association of Realtors.
Project moves ahead
Homebuilder Taylor Morrison, which already has a presence in several Gulf Coast communities, announced plans to build a 450-home neighborhood in east Manatee County.
The development, to be called Esplanade, will be built on 195 acres north of State Road 70 and east of Interstate 75 in Lakewood Ranch. Construction is expected to begin by the middle of the year, with sales to follow by the first quarter of 2012.
The community is part of a larger planned development in Lakewood Ranch on 1,500 acres that's approved for more than 4,400 homes, 200,000 square feet of commercial space and 100,000 square feet of office space.
Negotiations slow down
Manatee school district officials declared an impasse in contract talks with the teachers union after at least six months of negotiations.
The district sent a letter to the Public Employees Relations Commission, which mediates disputes between government agencies and unions statewide. The school district declined mediation and instead asked the commission to appoint a magistrate who can review the dispute and issue a recommendation.
District and union officials disagree over several issues. Pay raises are one contentious point and so to is the district's proposal to raise health insurance premiums for teachers by at least 45%.
