Monday – March 5, 2007

DELAND AREA BUSINESSES RECEIVE $140,000 IN RECOVERY LOANS – The county’s economic development team has issued $140,000 in emergency small business recovery loans to six local businesses impacted by the February 2 tornado. Emergency Bridge Loans assist companies that were damaged or impacted by the storm and provides six-month loans of up to $25,000 interest free. The state has made $1 million available to Volusia businesses. The program is being administrated by the county Department of Economic Development in cooperation with SunTrust Bank, Riverside Bank, Wachovia, Bank of America, Main Street Community Bank, Prosperity Bank and Harbor Federal. Loan applications are available at Floridabusiness.org or by calling Paul Mitchell at 386/274-3439.

DEPOSITS INCREASE IN VOLUSIA COUNTY BANKS -- According to the latest information available from the Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation (FDIC), there are 27 federal and state chartered financial institutions operating in Volusia County. As of June 30, 2006, these financial institutions have 151 offices with deposits of $8.1 billion.

SMALL MANUFACTURER SEEKS INDUSTRIAL SITE WITH OUTSIDE STORAGE – The county Department of Economic Development has a request from a small manufacturer seeking industrially zoned property of one - five acres that permits outside storage. If you have or know of a site please call John Kizer at 386/248-8048.

ADVANCED COMPOSITE SOLUTIONS TO EXPAND – Advanced Composite Solutions (ACS), New Smyrna Beach, is expanding into an additional 8,000 square feet at the New Smyrna Beach Airport. ACS is a state-of-the-art composites design, rapid prototyping and production company that makes parts and prototypes for the aircraft, marine and building supply industries. For further information, contact Aaron Duncan, president, at 386/426-7795.

DAYTONA BEACH MANUFACTURER CERTIFIED BY NASA -- The Space Foundation's Certified Space Technology program recently welcomed Axiom Worldwide as a sublicense partner along with XR-1, Daytona Beach, as a Lifetime Certified Space Technology. The Axiom DRX9000 True Non-Surgical Spinal Decompression System is a device that decompresses and heals the spinal column without pharmaceuticals or surgery. Inspired by data collected on NASA Skylab missions, this FDA-cleared device accomplishes spinal elongation similar to that experienced in a micro-gravity environment. Axiom uses X-1R lubricants on its critical subsystems. This alliance combines X-1R's extreme performance lubrication research and Axiom’s spinal expertise to help people who suffer from lower back pain. For more information about these and other space technologies visit the Space Certification Program www.spaceconnection.org.

SITE SELECTORS SEEK AVAILABLE OFFICE FACILITIES – The county Department of Economic Development has been contacted by several national site selectors seeking office facilities. The needs are: an immediately available facility of 35,000 - 50,000 square feet for a communications group; an office of 30,000 - 40,000 square feet for an insurance claims operation with Q4/2007; a collections center of 10,000 - 15,000 square feet with Q3/2007; a technical support center of 25,000 - 35,000 square feet with Q4/2007. If you have or represent an available office facility that could accommodate any of these projects, contact John Kizer, Business Specialist, at 386/248-8048. Your facility’s description will be sent to the client for review and follow-up. Deadline for submission is Wednesday, March 7.

PRECISION ENGINEERING SYSTEMS RECEIVES STATE TRAINING GRANT – An Incumbent Worker Training grant of $16,500 has been awarded by Workforce Florida to Precision Engineering Systems, Daytona Beach, to support the company’s ISO9001 training. Workforce Florida provides financial matching grants to support companies in providing advanced technological training of existing workers. For more information contact Doug Vimmerstedt, Special Projects Coordinator with the county Department of Economic Development at 386/274-3438.

NEWS ITEMS WANTED! – Please send your business news items to Dave Byron, Volusia County Community Information Director, 123 W. Indiana Ave., DeLand, 32720-4612, by fax at (386) 822-5072 or by e-mail at dbyron@co.volusia.fl.us.