SPOTLIGHT

A Healthy Alliance

Two years ago, Full Sail University in Winter Park opened the largest e-sports arena in the country — a $6-million, 11,200-sq.-ft. facility known as the Fortress. The venue can seat up to 500 spectators and features 354 LED panels with just under 10 million pixels that display live videogaming competitions.

Full Sail recently announced a naming rights deal with Orlando Health that rebrands the competition space as the Full Sail University Orlando Health Fortress. As part of the partnership, Orlando Health and Full Sail will also collaborate on research projects focused on the “effective and ample care of e-sports athletes.”

Orlando Health will also serve as Full Sail’s official medical team, keeping physicians onsite during gaming events. While gaming isn’t a high-impact sport, it can lead to a number of health issues ranging from vision problems caused by excessive screen time to musculoskeletal injuries of the neck and back. A 2019 article in the Journal of the American Osteopathic Association noted that e-sports athletes can also develop “metabolic disturbances resulting from the light-emitting diode computer monitors as well as mental health concerns regarding gaming addiction and social behavior disorders.”

HEALTH CARE

• KemPharm, a publicly traded pharmaceutical firm in Celebration, won approval from the Food & Drug Administration for its drug Azstarys, which treats attention deficit hyperactivity disorder (ADHD) in children 6 years and older.
• Encompass Health, based in Birmingham, Ala., is buying a parcel of land near Kissimmee, where it plans to build a 50-bed rehabilitation hospital.
• AdventHealth has resumed recruiting participants for its “WholeMe” genetic study, which aims to better understand genetic conditions that can lead to hereditary disease. The study has focused on the detection of familial hypercholesterolemia, a genetic condition that can cause high cholesterol and lead to heart attacks, even in young adults. Now, the study is looking for genetic markers for other heart conditions and hereditary cancers — including breast and ovarian cancer associated with BRCA and colon cancer related to Lynch Syndrome — with the aim of developing personalized health care plans for patients.

REAL ESTATE

• Sean Marks of Orlando Custom Home Builders purchased an AR Homes franchise and will build houses in Bella Collina and other upscale communities in Central Florida.
• The Green Island Ranch, a working ranch spanning about 6,000 acres in St. Cloud, is on the market for $140 million, or roughly $23,000 per acre. A property listing says it’s zoned for the “rapid development” of up to 17,000 residential units with additional commercial and mixed-use projects. The ranch is owned by the heirs of the late Henry Partin, who brought Brahman cattle to Osceola County decades ago and was the founder of the Florida Cattleman’s Association.
• The LPGA International Golf Club in Daytona Beach is back on the market two years after Virginia-based Fore Golf Partners purchased the two 18-hole golf courses and clubhouse for $3.45 million.
• The city of Winter Park is reinstating a building permit fee on new construction projects to raise funds for affordable housing. The fee — 0.005% of a building’s value — is expected to generate up to $250,000 annually.
• The 400-room Crowne Plaza Orlando hotel on International Drive in Orlando, which went into bankruptcy last year, sold at auction for $35.7 million in March.
• Frost Point Capital in West Palm Beach purchased the 74,520-sq.-ft. Shoppes at Kissimmee retail center for $7.27 million.

RECREATION

• The Lake Nona Performance Club, a 130,000-sq.-ft. fitness and sports center under construction in southeast Orlando, is partnering with InClubGolf to create an indoor golf training center that will open in August. Orlando filled in another section of its bicycle beltway with the completion of its Airport Gap Trail Project, which closed in the easternmost gap in the downtown loop trail. The 8½-mile beltway is expected to be completed in 2024.

MANUFACTURING

• Alcom, a Maine-based trailer maker, is opening a manufacturing facility in DeLand.

RESTAURANTS

• Darden Restaurants, the Orlando-based parent of Olive Garden and other restaurants, paid $17 million in bonuses to its hourly restaurant workers in April to ensure no employees make less than $10 an hour, including tips. The company says it will increase pay to $11 an hour next year and $12 an hour in January 2023.

RETAIL

• H Mart, a New Jersey-based Korean supermarket chain, is opening its first Florida location on west Colonial Drive near the Orlando Fairgrounds.

TECHNOLOGY

• Mindstamp, a Melbourne startup that offers an interactive video platform to help businesses with their marketing and sales, won the top ($25,000) prize in the 2021 Crummer Rollins Venture Plan Competition hosted by the Crummer Graduate School of Business at Rollins College.
• Microvast, a Texas-based company that makes fast-charging lithium ion batteries for electric cars, is seeking to expand its research and development operations in Orlando. The company has participated in the University of Central Florida’s incubator program since 2017.

 

 

Read more in Florida Trend's June issue.
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