Jacksonville appears to be on the rise among state businesses, according to the annual trend survey by “Florida Trend” magazine.
The St. Petersburg-based publication, owned by a subsidiary of the St. Petersburg Times newspaper, annually lists companies, educational institutions and other measurable areas.
Among the North Flight highlights for 2003:
• The area is still 1-2-3 among Small Business Association lenders. CIT Small Business Lending Corp. is first followed by Wachovia and the Bank of America.
• The VyStar Credit Union remained the state’s second largest behind the Suncoast Schools Federal Credit Union of Tampa. Jacksonville’s Educational Community Credit Union remained 10th and Florida Telco remained 20th.
• Deerwood Park remained the state’s second largest, but its 4.6 million square feet of space is far behind the 15 million at Orlando Central Park.
• Among industrial parks, Imeson moved up a notch to fourth and Westside Industrial Park remained sixth.
• Sleiman Enterprises, which recently added The Landing to its holdings, is now the 10th largest commercial real estate developer, down from its eighth place in 2002. Pattillo Construction rose two spots to 13th.
• The Haskell Company is now the state’s second largest construction firm, moving up from third place. It trails only giant Lennar, which is over 2 1/2 times the size of Haskell. The Stellar Group rose from eighth to fifth.
• The Adam’s Mark is now the state 20th largest hotel. It moved up a place when Miami Beach’s Fontainebleau downsized.
• Jacksonville’s convention center is the state’s 12th largest.
• The University of North Florida is now the seventh largest of the state’s 11 public universities. Increased attendance this year moved it past Florida A&M.
• Florida Community College at Jacksonville remained the state’s second largest, with its 67,500 students trailing only Miami-Dade’s 120,500.
• Winn-Dixie is third among public companies in revenues. Auto Nation of Fort Lauderdale is first and Clearwater’s tech Data is second. CSX is sixth, PSS World Medical moved up four spots to 22nd and Landstar Systems jumped six places to 25th.
• The Haskell Company is now 17th among private companies, up from 25th. Gate Petroleum moved up three spots to 19th.
• Health Options remains the top HMO with a million people enrolled. Second is Aetna, which has its Florida headquarters in Jacksonville, with 830,000.
• The Florida Times-Union remained seventh in newspaper circulation.
• St. John and Partners kept its sixth place slot among advertising and public relations agencies.
• Memorial Hospital is the 17th largest for-profit hospital in Florida, moving up one position. Among not-for-profits, Shands Jacksonville remained eighth and Baptist slipped one spot to 15th.
• The Small Business development Center at the University of North Florida remained the state’s largest.
• The Jacksonville Regional Chamber of Commerce stayed at No. 3 among city chambers. Its 4,000 members trail only Orlando (5,300) and Miami (5,200.) The state Chamber has 30,400 members.
• Reynolds Smith and Hills is the fourth largest architectural/engineering firm.
• Jacksonville International Airport moved past Fort Myers to the sixth place in commercial passengers.
• Only four other electric utilities serve move customers than JEA.
• The Jacksonville metropolitan area is expected to have 1.1 million people by year’s end, which would make it the state’s eighth largest. It was 12th last year but now will pass Sarasota-Bradenton, Fort Walton Beach, Gainesville and Tallahassee.
• Among women-owned businesses, North Florida has nos. 5, 6, 7, 9, 18 and 20. The largest here is J-Bar of North Florida with 147 employees.