The Palm Coast City Council Tuesday approved 4-1 the 45-acre, 117-unit Brookhaven apartments development in Town Center, which will provide housing to lower income residents and walkability to nearby areas.
Local Business
Ken Mattison Named Florida Hospital Flagler CEO, Switching With Ottati in Swift Succession
Ken Mattison, for 16 years the CEO at Adventist Health’s Florida Hospital Waterman, has been named to take over for David Ottati at Florida Hospital Flagler, a $156 million business with 1,017 employees in 2011. Ottati will assume Mattison’s position at Waterman, a $205 million hospital with 1,879 employees.
Sheriff Opens Palm Coast Precinct at City Market Place, Halving Cost, Not Space Needs
On Friday, the Sherif’s Office office opened its newest Palm Coast precinct, at City Market Place, a two-storefront 2,600-square foot space at $2,.000 a month that’ll add new life to the struggling shopping center in the heart of town, and a few doors down from the Palm Coast city offices.
Florida Hospital CEO David Ottati, Major Force in Local Economy, Leaving for Tavares
David Ottati, the CEO at Florida Hospital Flagler for the past seven years, where he oversaw a vast expansion that increased hospital employment past 1,000 and helped cushion the local economy’s severe downturn of the past few years, will be leaving the hospital to take a new post as CEO of the 269-bed Florida Hospital Waterman in Tavares, in Central Florida, in early June.
Flagler’s Tourism Industry Takes Its Pulse, Declares Itself Healthy, and Cheers Its “Heroes”
In Flagler County, 2,600 people work in tourist businesses, which have weathered the recession and are seeing strong, sustained activity. Flagler County’s annual Hospitality Employees Recognition of Excellent Service (or H.E.R.O.E.S.) awards lunch at the Hammock Beach Resort Thursday was an occasion for the county’s tourism industry to cheer its own.
Can’t Say It’s Not Producing: Flagler’s Economic Arm Lands 4th Firm in 11 Months
Gioia Sails South, a supplier of boat interiors for Sea Ray Boats, will move 30 jobs to Palm Coast and create 10 more in the coming year, the latest success for the county’s Economic Development Council.
Forget Rio: Palm Coast Lands Soccer Academy in Planned Expansion of Economic “Niche”
The New Jersey-based Player Development Academy will build up to six fields on 65 acres west of U.S. 1 that will link with the Indian Trail Sp[orts Complex–and with Palm Coast’s sports-niche market, which has turned into an engine of economic development.
County Is Negotiating Acquisition of Old Hospital in Bunnell for New Sheriff’s HQ
Memorial Hospital Flagler’s dead years may be over if its current owners, who are politically well connected locally, can agree on a sales deal to Flagler County. The property is listed for sale at $1.75 million. It was acquired in 2006 for $750,000.
Publix’s Profitable Accommodation With Poverty: Not a Penny More for Tomato Pickers
The Coalition of Immokalee Workers has been trying for years to get Publix to join the Fair Food Coalition, in which suppliers and purchasers agree to pay the workers a penny more per pound of tomatoes picked. Publix won’t even meet with the workers.
Milestone: Flagler’s Unemployment in Single-Digits, at 9.5%, for 1st Time in 5 Years
For the first time since June 2008–almost five years–Flagler County’s unemployment has fallen back to single digits, registering 9.5 percent in March as the local economy continued to mirror the state’s and the nation’s, improving slowly but steadily.