- October 13, 2024
-
-
Loading
Loading
Appliance retailer dies
Wilbur “Bill” Smith Jr., the founder of a retail chain of appliances and electronics on the Gulf Coast that bears his name, died from bone cancer Oct. 17. He was 92.
Bill Smith Inc. is one of the leading appliance and electronics retailers in Charlotte, Collier and Lee counties. Smith founded the company in 1954 and the family-owned business now has seven locations from Port Charlotte to Marco Island.
A native of Tennessee, Smith first came to Fort Myers in 1942 to serve at the Buckingham Army Airfield and settled here after the war.
Smith was deeply involved in business organizations. He was a founder of the Greater Fort Myers Chamber of Commerce and the Horizon Council, an economic development group in Lee County.
Yippy converts debt
Web search engine Yippy Inc. says it has converted $5 million of debt to equity in a deal with Vivisimo Inc., a Pennsylvania-based Internet search company.
Yippy, a publicly traded company based in Fort Myers, provides educational search engines and Web portals. Yippy CEO Richard Granville says the startup has converted all of its debt to equity, likely making future capital raising easier.
Commercial corridor planned
Lee County planners are considering revising land-use codes to encourage economic redevelopment along Palm Beach Boulevard and Ortiz Avenue in Fort Myers.
Lee County's Planning Division is drafting new codes that would guide development in neighborhoods that include Morse Shores, Russell Park and Tice. Planners are considering allowing mixed-use development where residential and commercial uses can coexist.
Fort Myers engineer Dan DeLisi of DeLisi Fitzgerald drafted the community plan and will work with local landowners and government planners to implement it. In addition, DeLisi will work to find ways to attract new business to the area.
NY firm relocates to St. Pete
IRX Therapeutics, a biotechnology firm that develops drugs to treat cancer and infectious diseases, has announced plans to relocate to St. Petersburg in response to incentives, according to a news release.
IRX Therapeutics, which uses technology developed at the University of South Florida, will hire 280 during the five years following relocation and pay an average wage of $90,000 to qualify for incentives.
The incentive package is worth more than $1 million, with $600,000 coming from Florida's Innovation Incentive Fund and $50,000 from USF. Pinellas County will provide $275,000 and the city of St. Petersburg has offered a $275,000 credit toward land it owns.
The move begins at the close of this year, and 40 employees will be initially hired.
CareCentrix to add 153 jobs
CareCentrix, an East Hartford, Conn.-headquartered health care firm, has announced plans to open a new facility in the area and add 152 jobs, the company says in a release.
The new facility is the second CareCentrix location in the Tampa Bay region and will be approximately 31,000 square feet.
The expansion was aided by an undisclosed amount of incentives, including tax incentives from the Qualified Target Industry Tax Refund program. Enterprise Florida Inc. and the Hillsborough County Economic Development Council provided support for the expansion as well.
The additional hiring brings the number of jobs provided by CareCentirx in the area to just more than 500.
Old Harbor Bank fails
The FDIC shuttered Clearwater-based Old Harbor Bank Friday, bringing the number of failed banks in Florida to 12 for the year and the number closed nationwide in the same period to 81.
Boca Raton-based 1st United Bank has assumed the deposits of Old Harbor Bank and taken over the operation of its seven branches. As of June 30, Old Harbor had approximately $215.9 million in assets and $217.8 million in deposits.
The FDIC and 1st United Bank have reached an agreement to share $155.6 million in losses on Old Habor Bank's assets. The FDIC estimates that the closing of Old Harbor will cost its Deposit Insurance Fund $39.3 million.
Port Manatee berth opens
Port Manatee's Berth 12 received the 492-foot-long M/V Sea Brave recently, initiating commercial operations at the Gulf Coast's newest port expansion.
The opening of Berth 12 completes Port Manatee's South Port expansion project, a $200 million undertaking that began in 1999. The new berth can accept ships up to 950 feet long and 106 feet wide.
Port Manatee is the closest U.S. deepwater seaport to the Panama Canal.
Roper posts record revenues
Roper Industries Inc. reported record revenues of $713 million for the third quarter. The revenues represented an increase of 18% from the previous year.
In addition, the Sarasota-based manufacturer's net earnings increased 31% over the third quarter of 2010, to $110 million.
Orders for the quarter also hit a record $719 million, and in a statement, Roper CEO and Preisdent Brian Jellison said the company has a record backlog of $876 million.
Roper is a diversified-growth company that makes products for industrial technology, energy systems, radio frequency devices and medical and scientific imaging.
