• Landing spokesperson Rachel Kaltenbach is moving on. She’ll become the director of marketing for Nocatee, the 15,000-acre development that will straddle Duval and St. Johns County. According to the Nocatee Web site, by the year 2029 there will be 30,000-38,000 residents. No word on who will take Kaltenbach’s place, but it’ll be two people — an events coordinator and director of marketing.
• If someone invites you to lunch at Currents, you better ask “Which one?” Currents is the name of the restaurant at the Radisson on the Southbank and the lounge inside the Hyatt.
• Our local Sales and Marketing Council — a division of the Northeast Florida Builders Association — won a national award at the International Builders Show in Orlando last week. See the story on page 3.
• Attendance at this year’s Toyota Gator Bowl luncheon was a little off previous years. Planners think holding the luncheon on a Saturday and having Virginia Tech back after an earlier loss in the ACC Championship game held attendance to around 700 people.
• Looks like Jacksonville might be tipping off the entire 2006 NCAA basketball tournament. The Veteran’s Memorial Arena will host first and second-round games from March 16-19. Since Jacksonville’s in the Eastern Time Zone, there’s a good chance that the first game played in Jacksonville will be the first game of the tournament.
• Vestcor and CALEX Realty Group has closed the leasing office at 11 E. The building is 85 percent occupied and if you’d like to look at one of the remaining lofts, you have to make an appointment at the office at The Carling on West Adams.
• Tax Collector Mike Hogan says our story this week on constitutional officers was fine with him except for one thing. “I was quoted as saying that I’m not involved in the decision making,” he said. “I do that all the time. I’m not involved in policy making.”
• Kaman Aerospace was presented the Cornerstone Chair Award at Wednesday’s Cornerstone luncheon. Kaman manufactures structural components for airliners and the Army’s Black Hawk helicopters. The company has 225 employees at its Cecil Commerce Center facility.
• With all the excitement surrounding development on the Southbank and in Riverside, former City Council member Alberta Hipps wanted to make sure the City doesn’t forget about one of downtown’s original turnaround neighborhoods. She touted the Springfield neighborhood at a recent JEDC workshop. “I just wanted to make sure you all keep what’s going on in Springfield in mind,” she said. Hipps, now running her own consulting firm Hipps Group, Inc., said she was speaking on behalf of clients in Springfield.
• The Boys and Girls Club of Northeast Florida launched its inaugural ONE Campaign this week and announced Jags Owner Wayne Weaver as the honorary chair of the fundraising campaign. The goal is to serve at least 250 more children in Northeast Florida. Every $1,000 raised serves a boy or girl at the 11 clubs within three counties. The Boys and Girls Club serves more than 8,000 children annually.
• St. Vincent’s received a $75,000 grant from The Blue Foundation for a Healthy Florida to support St. Vincent’s Mobile Health Outreach Ministry. Over a three-year period, the grant will enable mobile health programs to deliver critically needed preventive, primary and acute healthcare through an enhanced medications assistance program aimed at migrant farm workers.
• Simon’s Wine Bar on San Marco’s Hendricks Avenue has discontinued its lunch service until construction on the street is done. Management says the construction would often block off the bar’s entrances, bringing the lunch business to a standstill. The bar will open at 4:30 p.m. daily while construction is ongoing.