Posts filed under 'Success Stories'
Posted: July 7, 2008: 1:30 pm
Recent decisions to brand the new Polk County USF Campus with the “Polytechnic” term were followed by the release today of a new logo for the facility shown below in the horizontal format.
The campus received preliminary funding from the legislature this year and, to date, the Central Florida Development Council, City of Lakeland and Lakeland Regional Medical Center have announced approximately $10.5 million in additional support. The campus will be Florida’s first polytechnic center within the state university system. Considering this focus it seems reasonable to expect that industry looking for graduates from this curriculum will seek to locate in this area.
USF Polytechnic should serve as an exciting new addition to Florida’s public university system and wonderful asset to Polk and Central Florida. We look forward to the Phase I ribbon cutting and welcome the development of this outstanding new educational asset.
| See other posts filed in: Economic Development, Education, Success Stories, Technology
Posted: June 9, 2008: 2:23 pm
Publix Supermarkets announced today (June 9, 2008) the acquisition of 49 Albertson’s Food Stores throughout Florida. The transaction is expected to close in September and includes store locations throughout the state with 15 locations in North Florida, 30 locations in Central Florida and four locations in South Florida. The Winter Haven Albertson’s location in Spring Lake Square is not included.
The acquisition will allow Publix to operate four stores in Escambia County, a new market area for the company. Publix opened its first store in Winter Haven in September 1930.
You can read the corporate release here.
| See other posts filed in: Commercial Developments, Economic Development, Success Stories
Posted: April 11, 2008: 10:21 am
The Third Annual Central Park Stroll was held April 10 amid picture perfect weather, beautifully manicured parks and ten new outdoor sculptures. This year’s Stroll was unique in that for the first time, one of the ten sculptures was created by a Winter Haven artist. Perhaps most exciting is the fact that Albert Kriston’s “Reach” sculpture (pictured at left) was selected as “Best of Show” by the judges and “Peoples Choice” winner from Thursday evening’s guests.
Reach was inspired by the astronauts who lost their lives on the shuttle Challenger.
The Florida Outdoor Sculpture Competition is organized by the Polk Museum of Art in conjunction with the City of Winter Haven. This is the eighth year for the competition and the third time it has been in Winter Haven’s downtown parks. The City of Winter Haven provides both financial backing for the exhibition and the logistical support to install and maintain the sculptures. The sculptures are selected by a committee of area residents. This year’s judges included Carol Mickett, Ph.D., and Robert Stackhouse, Ph.D Artists.
The Central Park Stroll was sponsored by Cartlon Music Center, CSX Transportation, Food Partners, Haskell Corp., Peterson Myers, P.A., Publix Supermarkets, Inc., Raley Downtown Properties, Richards Fine Coffees, Tampa Electric Company and the Winter Haven Chamber Foundation.
The Chamber joins with Main Street Winter Haven and the City to present the Central Park Stroll. Those who voted for the sculptures last evening received a coupon book good for discounts at downtown restaurants and retailers.
| See other posts filed in: Chamber Events, City of Winter Haven, Cultural Arts, Downtown, Main Street Winter Haven, Parks and Green Space, Success Stories, Tourism
Posted: April 7, 2008: 3:02 pm
Marine Supply … the Boating Center has been selected as 2007 Boat Dealer of the Year in the $5 to $10 million revenue catagory by Boat and Motor Dealer Magazine. In recognizing the dealership Peter J. Gallanis, Editor-in-Chief noted the company is a third generation dealership founded 55 years ago by Gerald Emry. His daughter Tricia and son David now handle the day-to-day operations.
Gallanis noted, “What we find so compeling about the fine dealership is its adaptability to market conditions. Tricia Gurr told us the Winter Haven Chain of Lakes is suffering from a severe drought. In fact, the sales manager mentioned that his is among the worst droughts he’s seen in the areas. However, instead of complaining abou this predicament, the dealership changed its offerings and started promoting saltwater boats. They told me that Pathfinder is now among their best sellers and the dealership is doing well.”
This is the third Haven-based business to make a national magazine cover so far in 2008 joining Precision Collision Auto Body Repair and Painting and A Ward Design Custom Cabinets on the cover of their industry publications. Congratulations!
| See other posts filed in: Success Stories
Posted: : 3:02 pm
Winter Haven-based cnp_studio this week launched the official eBay Corporate Blog (eBay INK) as well as the eBay Insider Blog (both of which are cnp_studio/Voce joint ventures). Voce Communications is headquartered in Silicon Valley.
cnp_studio has developed a niche for blogs customized on the WordPress platform and this is their third project for a nationally known company such as ebay. The ebay launch joins blogs developed for PlayStation (PlayStation.Blog) and Yahoo! (Yodel Anecdotal) - all Voce projects and all designed and built here in Winter Haven. cnp_studio is a division of Clark/Nikdel/Powell Advertising.
Winter Haven has a growing technology sector developing products from software to off-site data backup and web design.
| See other posts filed in: Success Stories
Posted: April 4, 2008: 8:35 am
Kevin Ward’s investments in production machinery and design software have allowed him to position his Winter Haven custom cabinetry company, A Ward Design for success in the high-end residential market. It has also landed him on the cover of Woodshop News, a national publication for professional woodworkers. The company’s growth and success are detailed in a feature article.
Kevin Ward (pictured at left on the magazine’s cover) hails from a family with a long history of construction. His father Ray was a builder here in Winter Haven until his retirement. He and his brother Roger then formed Ward Bros. Construction. His brother later moved to North Carolina and Kevin eventually founded A Ward Design.
About 60 percent of A Ward Design work is done in western North Carolina mainly in the town of Cashiers. Brother Roger is a general contractor there.
With Kevin’s long history in the Winter Haven area his business has had solid growth and the company completes about 20 large jobs a year in Florida from Polk County South to Palm Beach. A Ward Design grossed close to $1 million in 2007 building bathroom vanities, kitchens and woodwork for new homes.
Several examples of the company’s work appear below. Congratulations on bringing national exposure to Winter Haven.
| See other posts filed in: Commercial Developments, Economic Development, Success Stories
Posted: January 17, 2008: 8:56 am
Precision Collision Auto Body Repair and Painting is a Winter Haven-based business. While they do regular collision and insurance work, they also have a great reputation for restoration work on old classic cars and hot rods.
This month’s issue of the national magazine Mopar Enthusiast features a cover photo of a sweet 1971 Dodge Charger owned by a Polk County high school student who is probably headed to Harvard after graduation.
It is quite an accomplishment to have a car featured in a story in a magazine let alone make the cover! Congratulations to Chamber members Rob and Lynn Keenan.
Note: You can see the magazine cover at the link provided but unfortunately the article is not available on line. You’ll have to buy the magazine. You can see fabulous examples of other Precision Collision work on classic autos at their link provided above.
| See other posts filed in: General Announcements, Success Stories
Posted: November 27, 2007: 3:20 pm
If you could help a student become 46% less likely to begin using illegal drugs … would you do it? Consider for a moment a young person who meets with a mentor is…
- 27% less likely to begin drinking alcohol
- 52% less likely to skip school
- 33% less likely to engage in a fight
The Chamber Education Committee is asking you to consider becoming a mentor for a student who needs guidance and a caring adult in his or her life. You can partner with an associate which will allow a child to have the commitment of meeting with either you or your partner each week. Support of mentoring is a primary Chamber goal.
Learn more …
Sign up to take mentoring training on December 5, 2007 from 8 - 10 a.m. at State Farm Insurance on Cypress Gardens Boulevard. (Bring a photo ID to enter.)
Interested? Contact Jan Rooney at jan.rooney.hu2n@statefarm.com or phone 863-318-3339.
Some lucky student is depending on you.
| See other posts filed in: Chamber Events, Education, General Announcements, Perspective, Success Stories
Posted: November 21, 2007: 10:50 am
It is important to note that Alliance, Texas includes both a rail and air hub and the volume of consumer goods and automobiles it handles is three times that projected for the CSX intermodal center planned for Winter Haven. With that in mind the Alliance global hub generates impressive economic numbers … and if Winter Haven and Polk County see just one-third of the Alliance experience … solid, high quality economic growth is in store.
Offices of Hillwood, a Perot Company
Hillwood, the Perot Company development arm responsible for master planning the Alliance, Texas global logistics hub, presents a number of economic indicators as of December 31, 2006. Hillwood estimates that Alliance has had a $31.3 billion impact from 1990 through 2006 and a $2.77 billion impact for 2006 alone. Private investment accounts for 94.71% of the development - more than $6.2 billion.
Direct jobs created - more than 27,700
Indirect jobs created - more than 66,800
Number of Companies - more than 150
Number of Fortune 500, Global 500 and Forbes Top Private Companies - more than 65
You can review the complete Alliance economic impact statement here.
The rail intermodal portion accounts for approximately 300 employees. The true job growth occurs in the industries that locate facilities in the business park. The list of those companies features some of the world’s most successful including: AT&T; Bridgestone/Firestone; Coca-Cola; Con-way Freight; Hyundai; JC Penny; Kraft Foods; Mitsubishi Motor Sales of America; Motorola; Nestle; SC Johnson & Son and the list goes on. You’ll find a complete listing of Alliance corporate and retail businesses here.
Alliance, Texas is a model of how an intermodal facility and related business park can attract high quality corporate businesses and succeed in concert with retail and residential interests. Proper planning, building, landscaping and lighting controls as well as innovative thinking have created a powerful synergy just north of Ft. Worth. I have every reason to believe Winter Haven and East Polk can have the same experience.
| See other posts filed in: CSX - Winter Haven, Commercial Developments, Economic Development, Perspective, Success Stories, Transportation
Posted: November 13, 2007: 8:37 am
Michael Yon
The News Chief reported in this morning’s paper that Michael Yon, a 1982 graduate of Winter Haven High won the 2007 Weblog Award for Best Military Blog.
Yon’s blog is funded by readers and he writes, takes photos and creates video from scenes throughout Iraq. You can visit his site at www.michaelyon-online.com.
He won his award in what is described as the world’s largest blog competition. More than 525,000 votes were cast in the 2006 competition according to Weblog. There were 49 categories in the competition.
Congratulations to WHHS grad, Michael Yon.
| See other posts filed in: General Announcements, Success Stories
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