Away We Go, a feature film shot on location in Metro Orlando, premiered in theaters this past weekend. The movie, which filmed primarily at a home on Lake Harris in Leesburg, stars two popular actors, Maya Rudolph of Saturday Night Live and John Krasinski of The Office. It was directed by Sam Mendes, who received the Best Director Academy Award for American Beauty.

Originally dubbed "Farlanders," the story follows a thirty-something couple on a journey to find the best place to raise their child. The EDC's Film & Entertainment Commission worked closely with film producers on site selection, permitting and vendor identification. The movie was shot over two days, employing 120 local crew members, two local actors and six extras.

Things at Orlando Sanford International Airport are taking off, in more ways than one.

The Father's Table, a dessert manufacturer based in Sanford, announced that it will expand into an 118,000-square-foot facility near the airport. The growing company will make apple dumplings and swiss cake rolls at this location, while maintaining their cheesecake business in their original location. The expansion will create 30 new full-time and 20 seasonal jobs and is expected to generate over $2.5 million in capital investment. Success for this company is particularly sweet, as they donate a percentage of profits to The Father's Table Foundation, which helps to fund women's & children's charities worldwide.

Miami-based Avocet and sister company Aircraft Parts Sales, Inc. also recently announced that they will relocate their headquarters to OSIA. The company - which provides aviation repair and maintenance, tear down services and sales of aircraft parts - will occupy temporary space on airport property while a new 44,000-square-foot hanger is being built. Avocet's anticipated capital investment is more than $5 million. The EDC and Seminole Community College are currently working to help the company secure a Quick Response Training Grant, which will help them hire and train 150 new employees, primarily mechanics who will earn an average of over $45,000 annually.

Seminole's Board of County Commissioners has focused on the airport as a top economic development priority. That focus appears to be paying dividends. According to Maria Arellano, Avocet general manager: "We were being recruited by other locations in and outside of Florida. Orlando Sanford Airport was extremely accommodating in meeting the needs of our company and this played a big part in why we choose Metro Orlando for our new home."

A newly released report by the University of West Florida's Haas Center for Business Research & Economic Development predicts that 190,000 new and related jobs in the biomedical and defense industries will be created in Florida by 2018. Access MediQuip's recent decision to expand its operations in Lake Mary takes Orlando one step closer to that goal.



Access MediQuip LLC, a $200 million health care firm based in Houston, provides medical implant outsourcing to support surgery centers. The company's specialized and technology-driven services assist manufacturers, payors and providers to manage the acquisition, financing delivery and reimbursement of orthopedic and spinal implants, drug pumps and other medical devices.



Last month, Access moved its 18 Central Florida employees into just under 13,000 sq. ft. in Primera in Lake Mary. That is just the first step. Plans are to grow to a 26,000 sq. ft facility and add 145 new jobs within three years. That translates into over $2.5 million in new capital investment and jobs that pay an average of $60,000 annually.



Other signs of success in Metro Orlando's emerging medical industries include:

• The University of Central Florida's College of Medicine was featured on NBC Nightly News. Click here to watch.

• Orlando was ranked as a top medical meetings destination by the Healthcare Convention and Exhibitors Association's 2009 State of the Industry Report. Orlando has been the top healthcare meeting location for the last 12 years.

• AARP The Magazine, the voice for Americans age 50 and better and the world's largest circulation magazine, named Orlando Regional Medical Center and M.D. Anderson Cancer Center Orlando among the leading hospitals in America. Click here to read.

• Nemours received full accreditation for its human research protection program from the Association for the Accreditation of Human Research Protection Programs, Inc. This recognition places Nemours among the top research institutions in the United States. A few weeks ago, Nemours Childrens Hospital broke ground in Lake Nona's 'medical city' with plans for completion in 2012.

Economic development that results in new job creation is the key to economic recovery. Thus, now more than ever, the EDC is pleased to share two of our most recent economic development success stories resulting in new jobs:

124 New Jobs: Seminole County-headquartered Nomad Aviation Inc., one of the world's best-known avionics specialists for commercial, military and civilian aircraft, has announced that they will double their workforce here, adding 124 new positions over the next 2 years. To accommodate this expanded workforce, the company will add 33,000-square-feet to its existing facility, which is based at Orlando Sanford International Airport. They also anticipate capital investment of $300,000.

The EDC and Seminole Community College assisted Nomad in acquiring a Quick Response Training grant in the amount of $180,579, which will be used to train their new hires. The average salary of these new jobs is in excess of $65,000.

75 New Jobs: FedEx Ground's recent opening of a new 112,734-square-foot operations facility on Monroe Road in Sanford has created 75 new jobs here in Metro Orlando. The Sanford terminal -- one of 500 in the company's nationwide network -- houses operations for FedEx Ground and FedEx Home Delivery. This Central Florida expansion is part of the company's national expansion strategy designed to increase package processing capacity to meet customer demand.

The EDC's business development team assisted FedEx in identifying potential sites in accordance with the company's specified parameters.

For more recent EDC announcements, click on the category - Economic Development Projects.

Digimation, a provider of 3D content and related services to the entertainment and defense industries, will relocate their headquarters from St. Rose, Louisiana to Metro Orlando.

The company's headquarters location will result in 30 new jobs; will generate $750,000 in capital investment; and will lease over 4,000 square feet of space on International Parkway in Heathrow/Lake Mary.

Digimation's first two new hires are already operating here and the team will complete their relocation to Metro Orlando in March 2009.

Dream Balloon Productions, a digital media production studio devoted to producing high-quality family entertainment through the use of computer-generated (CG) animation, has relocated its headquarters from New Jersey to Orlando. The company now occupies 10,500 square feet of space in the DrewTina Commerce Center in Orange County. They expect to add up to 60 new employees over the next three years.

Dream Balloon Productions co-founder Michael Attardi wrote and directed the multiple award-winning "Once Upon a Christmas Village", a 15-minute animated short that features the voices of Tim Curry, Jim Belushi and Amanda Davis. The animation, created in collaboration with animators from the DAVE School at Universal Studios Orlando, serves as a prototype for the full length feature, Snowyville, which is currently in pre-production.

Online shopping is at an all-time high. As people flock to the Internet in search of good deals, one Central Florida company is helping consumers easily find and buy products online.

Channel Intelligence (CI) - based in Celebration, Fla. - is a software company that provides e-commerce solutions to online retailers such as Best Buy, Target, Neiman Marcus, Circuit City, Overstock.com and hundreds of others. CI's innovative technology not only enables consumers to find available products (in real-time, in-stock status), but also provides them with information on where to purchase the products whether it be on-line or in stores. The company also helps manufacturers by enabling them to track and manage their inventory levels and pricing, while comparing the data with competitors.

Channel Intelligence recently expanded their headquarters operations, adding 420 new jobs and a capital investment of $33 million.

For more info, click here.

DataSite Orlando announced that it will invest $26 million to renovate an existing 130,000 sq. ft. facility into a 21st century data center that prioritizes energy efficiency. Located in Orange County's South Park on John Young Parkway, building features will include thermoplastic roof membrane, capturing rainwater for liquid cooling, ducted returns to remove warm air before it mixes with cold air and participation in an energy-efficiency program offered by Progress Energy.

In addition to an energy-saving facility re-fab that will put an important new technology infrastructure piece in place here in Central Florida, the project is expected to generate 39 new jobs averaging salaries of $70,000.

Owned by BURGES Property + Company, DataSite Orlando provides a secure facility serving high tech companies with varying needs in purpose-built data centers. The facility offers customizable space and true redundancy with fail-safe power from two independent utility feeds from separate substations.

Online Support Center to bring 750+ jobs to Orange County

Kaplan University, a leading provider of online higher education, announced this week they will open a new online student support center in a two-story, 124,000-square-foot space at 12650 Ingenuity Drive in the Central Florida Research Park. Slated for opening in January, the facility will house admissions advisors, financial aid officers, human resources and information technology representatives who will support Kaplan University's online students.

Kaplan has already begun hiring in Orlando. The University expects to employ as many as 750 people over the next four years. In announcing this location decision, Andrew Rosen, President of Kaplan University, said, "We looked at 20 different cities and decided that the Orlando site was the best fit for the University because of its affordable cost of living and great labor pool."

Kaplan has four other online student support centers in South Florida, as well as centers in Chicago and Phoenix. Kaplan University is part of Kaplan Higher Education, which serves more than 80,000 students through 70 campus-based schools across the United States and in Europe.