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Southeast
Broward • Indian River • Martin • Miami-Dade • Monroe • Palm Beach • St. Lucie
Manufacturing
Manufacturing continues to be an important business sector in Florida’s Southeast. Among companies that have planted solid roots here are: HEICO Corporation; Lufthansa Technik; Piper Aircraft; and Sintavia, which recently opened a 55,000-sq.-ft. high-tech additive manufacturing facility in Hollywood with plans to quadruple its production capacity of lightweight precision parts for aviation and aeronautics.
Recent developments include:
• Central Florida-based design-builder and manufacturer Finfrock has begun pouring concrete for a South Florida-based parking project at its new 140,000-sq.-ft. precast concrete manufacturing facility in Belle Glade, which is expected to have a $242 million economic impact on the region.
• And soon to join this busy Southeast sector is Accel International Holdings, which broke ground in Port St. Lucie in December 2021 on a new $55-million, 150,000-sq.-ft. manufacturing facility that is expected to employ 125 workers.
KEY PLAYERS: Automated Manufacturing Systems, West Palm Beach; Lufthansa Technik, Miami; Techtronic Industries, Fort Lauderdale
Education
Seventeen Southeast Florida high schools were named among the top 250 nationwide in U.S. News & World Report’s “2022 Best U.S. High Schools” rankings. One of them — School for Advanced Studies in Miami — moved up a notch this year to claim fourth place overall. And for the third year in a row Miami-Dade Public Schools received an “A” rating from the Florida Department of Education.
This region is also home to 16 institutions of higher education, including:
• Florida International University, celebrating its 50th anniversary in 2022 and launching the world’s first master’s degree specializing in cruise line operations.
• Florida Memorial University, partnering with Slip-N-Slide Records CEO Ted Lucas to launch a Cyber Innovation Hub that helps students at this historically black university land high-paying technology jobs or start their own companies in cryptocurrency, cyber security, renewable energy and other tech fields.
• Indian River State College, winner of 47 men’s and 39 women’s consecutive NJCAA swimming and diving titles, welcoming the executive offices of USA Diving to its main campus in Fort Pierce.
• Miami Dade College, designated a National Center for Academic Excellence in Cyber Defense by the National Security Agency for its cybersecurity curriculum.
• Nova Southeastern University, partnering with the Alan B. Levan NSU Broward Center of Innovation and TD Bank Group to build a 200-job “technology hub” in South Florida.
• The University of Miami, entering the non-fungible token (NFT) market with its launch of Canes Vault, a platform for selling digital Hurricanes football collectibles.
• Broward College, recognized as one of the nation’s top community colleges as a “finalist with distinction” in the 2021 Aspen Prize for Community College Excellence.