North Central
1 Commercial Airport
5 Colleges / Universities
Florida’s North Central is a region on the move. From technology and health care to ready accessibility and quality of life, everything about this region is top of the line. Home to the University of Florida, the nation’s 7th top-ranked public university and 15th most prolific patent earner in the world, North Central easily snags workforce talent — first as students, then as permanent residents and entrepreneurs who help to fuel both innovation and this region’s reputation as a great place to live. And for companies whose customers and suppliers are spread far and wide, North Central offers seamless connections to all of the Southeastern U.S. as well as two of Florida’s busiest deep-water ports.
Innovation & Technology
Much of the innovation that takes place in Florida’s North Central region can trace its roots to the University of Florida, which is currently ranked No. 1 in the nation at leveraging its research funding into new companies, new jobs and new ideas according to a report by the George W. Bush Institute and the Opus Faveo Innovation Development consulting firm.
In FY2019, University of Florida research spending rose 7.3% to a record $928.6 million, according to the National Science Foundation. NSF’s Higher Education Research and Development (HERD) Survey showed a nearly $64-million increase in expenditures over the previous year’s record of $865.1 million.
University of Florida faculty earned a record $900.7 million in research funding during FY2020. The total amount of 2020 funding represents a 16% increase over 2019 and surpasses the previous record of $837 million set two years ago by more than $63 million.
Over the past 10 years, research awards to UF have increased 45% from $619 million in 2011. UF-acquired research dollars in 2020 represented a broad spectrum of fields, including medicine, engineering, agriculture and liberal arts and sciences, as well as varied federal sources, such as the Departments of Defense, Education and Health and Human Services; the National Science Foundation; National Institutes of Health; and USDA’s National Institute of Food and Agriculture.
Encouraging innovators and helping to commercialize their discoveries are two UF-supported incubators — The Hub, located in downtown Gainesville, and Sid Martin Biotech in nearby Alachua, which in June 2020 was named “Incubator of the Year” for the third time in a decade by the International Business Innovation Association (InBIA). Since opening in 1995, Sid Martin Biotech has successfully incubated 108 startups.
In other North Central tech news:
• Thanks to a $50-million gift — $25 million from UF alumnus Chris Malachowsky and $25 million in hardware, software, training and services from NVIDIA, the Silicon Valley-based tech company he founded — UF will be the first U.S. university to acquire the world’s most advanced AI system and the fastest in higher education. Working closely with NVIDIA, UF will boost the capabilities of its existing supercomputer, HiPerGator, thus giving faculty and students the tools they need to apply AI to improve lives and grow the economy.
• Alachua-based biopharmaceutical company Ology Bioservices has received $53 million from the Department of Defense to develop and manufacture an antibody treatment and vaccine for COVID-19 and other viral diseases. The company, which employs 200, is charged with developing the vaccine for U.S. Defense officials.
• Gainesville-based digital tech company etectRX has received FDA clearance for its ID-CAP digital technology system, which verifies medicinal dosage to patients and physicians. Developed by University of Florida graduates, the ID-CAP system consists of a sensor inserted into a pill which, once ingested and activated by the patient’s stomach fluid, sends a digital message to a reader worn around the patient’s neck to verify that the medicine was taken and in what dosage. The reader forwards the data to a mobile app and the sensor itself is eliminated via the digestive process.
• San Felasco Tech City continues to be under construction in Alachua County. The development, which is the brainchild of two local CEOs — Mitch Glaeser, of the Emory Group Companies, and Rich Blaser of Infinite Energy — will encompass 82 acres, with 300,000 square feet of tech space as well as 252 single and multi-family housing units.
KEY PLAYERS: Axogen, Alachua; ELISA Technologies, Gainesville; Exactech, Gainesville; Ology Bioservices, Alachua; ThermoFisher Scientific, Alachua
Logistics and Distribution
North Central represents an ideal choice for companies looking to increase their logistics and distribution capabilities. I-75 bisects the region on its way north from Miami to Atlanta, and Gainesville is the halfway point. Another hour to the north, at Lake City, is I-10, providing ready access east to Jacksonville and west to Pensacola. And in reasonably close proximity: JAXPORT (80 miles to the northeast) and Port Tampa Bay (130 miles to the south).
Marion County has taken the lead in this thriving industry sector. FedEx was among the first to take advantage of the region’s ready accessibility, opening its 450,000-sq.-ft. distribution center at Ocala/Marion County Commerce Park just off I-75 in 2016, followed by a 10,000-sq.-ft. delivery center two years later. AutoZone came on board next with a 400,000-sq.-ft. distribution facility to serve its 290+ retail stores throughout Florida and Puerto Rico, followed by online pet products retailer Chewy.com with a 600,000-sq.-ft. distribution center — its first in Florida and sixth nationwide. Then along came North Carolina-based Red Rock Developments, which built the 617,000-sq.-ft. Florida Crossroads Logistics Center on spec. That facility was subsequently leased to e-commerce giant Amazon where its location along the industrial corridor off I-75 allows for same-day delivery to more than 14 million people.
And the wave of distribution center development didn’t end there. At the beginning of 2020, Dollar Tree, a leading operator of discount variety stores, announced plans to establish a distribution facility in Ocala to service Dollar Tree and Family Dollar stores throughout Florida and parts of the Southeast. Plans call for the facility to be built in two phases: Phase I: construction of a 500,000-sq.-ft. facility which will employ 200; Phase II: a 1.2-million-sq.-ft. facility and another 500 jobs.
Meanwhile, Alachua County is attracting logistics interest too. FedEx has begun construction of a 42,000-sq.-ft. distribution center in the Airport Industrial Park just north of Gainesville Regional Airport and UPS is considering an expansion.
Meanwhile, to the northwest of Alachua in Taylor County, work is finally underway on an $8.6-million upgrade to a rail line through the town of Perry. The project is a partnership between OmniTRAX, the company that operates the Georgia & Florida Railway, and the Florida Department of Transportation.
KEY PLAYERS: Cheney Brothers, Riviera Beach; Chewy.com, Dania Beach; Dollar Tree, Charlotte, N.C.; FedEx Ground, Coraopolis, Pa.
Manufacturing
Goods manufactured in Gainesville include medical equipment and supplies, industrial chemicals, HVAC air control devices and the body armor used by first responders. In Ocala, manufacturers turn out everything from hurricane-resistant glass windows and decorative fences to firetrucks and tortilla chips.
Recent developments in this sector include:
• Super-Pufft Snacks USA, a manufacturing staple in Perry for more than 60 years, has launched a $25-million expansion with plans to double its workforce with the hiring of 100 workers over the next year.
• A&M Boat Manufacturing, maker of Riptide and Bull Dog pontoon boats, plans to hire 100 workers at its new Chiefland location within three years. The company currently occupies the once-vacant Central Florida Electric Cooperative.
• Perry-based Georgia-Pacific Foley has completed an $89-million transformation of its local facility from a pulp mill into a producer of specialty grade cellulose. The transformation includes a new 100,000-sq.-ft. warehouse.
• Entegris, a leader in specialty chemicals and advanced materials solutions for the microelectronics industry, has acquired Gainesville-based Sinmat for $75 million. Sinmat designs and produces the Chemical Mechanical Planarization (CMP) slurries used to polish ultra-hard surface materials used in semiconductor manufacturing.
KEY PLAYERS: E-ONE, Ocala; Georgia-Pacific Foley, Perry; R & J Manufacturing, Gainesville; Stahl-Meyer Foods, Madison
Health Care
The North Central region boasts more than 15 hospitals spread across its 13 counties, and one of them — UF Health Shands Hospital in Gainesville — has emerged as the No. 1 hospital in Florida. The 875-bed facility, which is a teaching hospital of the University of Florida, earned Top 50 rankings in nine specialties on U.S. News & World Report’s “Best Hospitals, 2020-21.” UF Shands was singled out for excellence in urology (No. 17), ear, nose and throat (No. 25),
cancer, geriatrics and nephrology (No. 33 all), pulmonology and lung surgery (No. 37) and orthopaedics and gastroenterology and GI surgery (No. 45 all). UF Shands also ranked highest among Florida hospitals in five of nine specialties.
In July 2020, surgeons at UF Health Shands in Gainesville performed a successful first-of-its-kind procedure in the Southeast — a double-lung transplant on a patient who tested positive for COVID-19 for whom a lung transplant was the only treatment option.
In other developments:
• In 2019, UF Health Shands Hospital opened a renovated intensive care unit for burn and serious-wound patients with 34,000 square feet and 19 new patient rooms.
• University of Florida Health has opened a 15,000-sq.-ft. $500,000 Center for Autism and Neurodevelopment in Gainesville.
Also claiming excellence in three categories on U.S. News & World Report’s “Best Children’s Hospitals 2020-21” is Gainesville-based UF Health Shands Children’s hospital, nationally ranked in pediatric cardiology and heart surgery (No. 12); pediatric diabetes and endocrinology (No. 22); and pediatric pulmonary and lung surgery (No. 27).
Other North Central health care facilities making news:
• North Florida Regional Medical Center in Gainesville has begun performing hyperthermic intraperitoneal chemotherapy, used to treat abdominal, colorectal, ovarian and gastric cancers.
• AdventHealth Ocala continues renovation of its maternity ward to include two operating rooms and an operating recovery room; AdventHealth Ocala is the only hospital in Marion County that offers labor and delivery services.
• Ocala-based Heart of Florida Health Center continues work on its new facility in Ocala. The facility, which was originally founded to serve the uninsured and under-insured patient populations, welcomes all in need of health care services.
KEY PLAYERS: Duke Energy Florida, St. Petersburg; Florida Power & Light, Juno Beach
Education
The jewel in North Central’s educational crown remains the University of Florida. One of three designated “Preeminent State Research Universities” by the Florida Board of Governors, UF is continuing to attract nationwide interest with its graduate programs, of which 44 are now ranked in the top 20 among public universities according to the latest U.S. News & World Report’s “Best Graduate Schools” rankings. A total of 23 UF programs moved up in national rankings: business-marketing;education-overall; engineering-aerospace; law-intellectual property; and medical-research.
UF’s College of Veterinary Medicine, ranked in 2020 at No. 9 among the nation’s top vet schools, opened a $6-million, two-story addition to its Small Animal hospital in 2019. The school offers open-heart surgery in dogs, the first program of its kind in the U.S.
Other facilities serving this region’s educational needs are:
• Central College of Florida offering associate and bachelor’s degrees at its main campus in Ocala and its Levy County campus in Chiefland. CF’s Ocala Campus is also home to the Appleton Museum of Art.
• Florida Gateway College, providing a mix of bachelor’s and associate degrees in the humanities, business, education and health sciences as well as specialty programs for high-demand industries such as commercial heating and air conditioning, welding and cosmetology.
• North Florida College with campuses in Madison and Live Oak offering a B.S. in nursing as well as six associate degrees and certificate programs in more than a dozen specialty occupations.
• Santa Fe College in Gainesville, home to one of only two teaching zoos in the country, offering nine bachelor’s degrees in addition to associate degrees and certificates in eight broad areas of study.
Life & Leisure
Gainesville is more than just a great college town. USA Today ranked this medium-sized city among its “Best College Towns in America” in 2019, and the website Livability.com puts Gainesville at No. 5 on its “10 Best College Towns 2019,” citing the city’s appealing mix of arts and culture, outdoor recreation and nightlife in addition to educational amenities. Livability consistently ranks Gainesville among its “Top 100 Best Places to Live.”
North Central’s 13 counties offer outdoor enthusiasts Silver Springs in Ocala, Gilchrist Blue Springs — Florida’s newest state park — in High Springs and Ocala National Forest. Along the coast in Levy County, check out Cedar Key. While you’re near the Gulf of Mexico coastline, try your hand at scalloping in season.
North Central sites of interest in Gainesville include the Florida Museum of Natural History with the Butterfly Rainforest and the Samuel P. Harn Museum of Art. Also nearby are the Cate Museum for Creativity & Invention and the 10-acre Santa Fe College Teaching Zoo.
At just 1,663 square miles, Marion boasts more horses and ponies than any other place in America. In 1999, the U.S. Department of Agriculture named this little slice of the Sunshine State “Horse Capital of the World.” Some 35,000+ thoroughbreds make their homes here, and the acres dedicated to their care and feeding top 70,000. The farms, training centers, equipment, storage breeding and racing stock account for about $3.5 billion. Florida’s thoroughbred farms and training centers have produced 50+ national champions, two Breeders’ Cup champions, six Horses of the Year and two Triple Crown winners — Affirmed in 1978 and American Pharoah in 2015. And coming soon in northwest Marion, the Ocala World Equestrian Center featuring indoor and outdoor arenas, a hotel, commercial space and home plans to be fully open in 2021.