• It’s rare downtown projects are finished when the developer says they’ll be, but the new parking garage by the Arena is one of them. Metropolitan Parking Solutions built the 473-space garage (with nine handicap spots) in conjunction with The Haskell Company. Republic Parking will handle the management of the garage. A second garage in the area is coming this spring. It’ll hold 866 cars and include 66 handicap spaces.
• The Laura Street Cafe isn’t just getting a make-over, it has a new owner. James Batteh, owner of the Atrium Cafe in Independent Square, bought the Bank of America building cafe and plans to reopen next week as Tower Cafe. It’s the third downtown eatery for the family. Batteh’s father Jimmy owns Bay Street Cafe in the Blackstone Building.
• Wachovia is cutting back its local workforce by 51 jobs. Each employee let go will receive severance pay, pay for unused leave and assistance with finding a job within the company or elsewhere. The 51 jobs are expected to be eliminated by Sept. 30.
• Mayor John Peyton is still getting Christmas cards. One of the latest came from NFL Commissioner Paul Tagliabue and his wife Chan.
• Meredith Connell, previously senior director at the Jacksonville Regional Chamber of Commerce, was recently named vice president of administration.
• Police and Fire Pension Fund Administrator John Keane has a wish for the new year that would cheer City Hall as well as Wall Street. Keane wants the stock market back to its pre-recession level of 11,500. The increase in investment earnings would reduce the City’s annual contribution to the Fund, said Keane. The City will contribute about $30 million this budget year to the Fund.
• If you doubted any of the hype about Florida’s rapid growth, here are some interesting census figures cited by a recent labor report from the Agency for Workforce Innovation: The 1920 census was the first to record a metropolitan area. The population was too spread out before. By 1950 about 48 percent of the state lived in metropolitan areas, By 2000, more than 90 percent of the population was clustered in a metropolitan area.