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Arthrex wins incentives
Collier County commissioners voted to approve $2.3 million in incentives for medical manufacturer Arthrex to expand its facilities and add 600 jobs.
Naples-based Arthrex plans to build a 200,000-square-foot facility in eastern Collier County near the town of Ave Maria and expand its current facility off Immokalee Road in Naples by another 100,000 square feet.
Arthrex reported $1.1 billion in revenues in 2011 and has 1,551 employees. Founder and President Reinhold Schmieding controls the privately held company, which makes surgical devices for orthopedic surgeons.
The taxpayer-funded incentives for Arthrex include $1.2 million for the creation of 600 jobs, about $1.1 million for impact-fee assistance and $25,000 for the broadband incentive program.
Donor pledges $5 million
College science textbook author Elaine Nicpon Marieb pledged $5 million to Florida Gulf Coast University in Fort Myers, which announced plans to name its new health professions facility in her honor.
Marieb, who has a Ph.D. in zoology and a master's degree in nursing, established two endowments. The first is to enhance the activities of faculty, students and staff and the other is to fund a scholarship for students majoring in health professions. The scholarships will be given to “nontraditional” students who have interrupted their education for three or more years.
FGCU opened the newly built health professions building this semester. The $28 million facility includes classrooms, conference space, an aquatic-rehabilitation pool and laboratories that simulate operating rooms.
HMA splits regions
Health Management Associates has split the management of its 66 hospitals among three regional presidents starting in January, the company says.
The Naples-based hospital company named John Starcher Jr. as eastern group president. He joins Alan Levine, who is president of the Florida hospitals, and Joe Pinion, president of the southern and western group. All three report directly to HMA President and CEO Gary Newsome.
Firm adds jobs
Feld Entertainment Inc., a company behind many popular circus acts, will move production operations from Palmetto to Ellenton, a move within Manatee County that will likely require additional hires.
Feld expects to hire 235 employees over the next five years to help staff its new 47-acre space, according to a release from the Manatee Economic Development Corp. State and local officials committed nearly $3.8 million in incentives to support Feld's move and projected hires: $1.17 million from Florida's Qualified Target Industry fund; $650,000 from the state Quick Action Closing Fund; and $1.5 million from Manatee County.
Feld's corporate operations are based in Vienna, Va. But the company says it will gradually move those resources to the Ellenton facility.
Sales growth lauded
Lakewood Ranch, a master-planned community in east Manatee County, made a nationwide top 10 list of new home sales.
The list, compiled by California-based John Burns Real Estate Consulting, ranked Lakewood Ranch ninth in the country, with 391 new home closings in 2011. Lakewood Ranch, developed by Schroeder-Manatee Ranch Inc., ranked 14th on the list last year.
The Villages, a central Florida retirement community, ranked first on the latest John Burns list, with 2,307 closings last year. Four of the other comminutes on the list are from Texas.
Hoveround relocates
Customized power wheelchair manufacturer Hoveround has moved its facility and corporate headquarters from Manatee County to Sarasota County.
Hoveround, with $93 million in 2010 revenues, moved into 58,333 square feet of space in a building on Cattleridge Drive in Sarasota, according to a press release. Osprey Realty Services manages the three-story building.
“Hoveround's search for the right space in the right place went on for nearly a year,” Hoveround President Tom Kruse says in a statement. “We were so pleased to find the Cattleridge facility.”
Humana to hire 149
Humana Cares, a division of Humana Inc., the health insurance firm based out of Louisville, Ky., plans to hire 149 employees at its call center operation in Tampa Bay.
The 75,000-square-foot facility, located in St. Petersburg, will hire 84 registered nurses. The firm will is also seeking social workers, care managers, community health educators, referral specialists and health coaches.
A company announcement says hiring will start immediately at the location, which began operations in early 2009.
Tampa tech firm acquired
BMC Software, a Houston-based tech firm with more than $2 billion in revenues in its last fiscal year, recently acquired Tampa-based Numara Software. Financial terms were not disclosed.
Numara was founded in 1991, as Blue Ocean Software. Intuit paid $177 million to acquire the company in 2002, then sold it for an undisclosed price to a private equity group three years later.
Numara serves more than 13,000 customers with its business software, a release says.
Hospital names new CEO
Brandon Regional Hospital has appointed Bland Eng as its new chief executive officer.
Eng, who has an M.B.A. and Master of Healthcare Science degree from the University of Florida, previously held the same title for five years at Palms West Hospital in Palm Beach County. He has held executive positions at three other hospitals as well.
Eng succeeds Mike Fencel, who left the position last year to become CEO of Health Management Associates' North Florida division.
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