• Former Jacksonville University basketball star and new Hall of Famer Artis Gilmore with JU Chancellor Emeritus Frances Bartlett Kinne at the Rotary Club of Jacksonville Monday. Kinne, a past Rotary president and JU dean and president, congratulated Gilmore from the podium, followed by Gilmore, who had to lean down to the microphone, thanking the community. Gilmore, 7-foot-2, led JU to a berth in the 1970 NCAA Championship game and went on to a professional basketball career. He will be enshrined in the Naismith Basketball Hall of Fame Aug. 11-13 in Springfield, Mass.
• Parkway Properties Inc. of Jackson, Miss., through its Parkway Properties Office Fund II LP, bought the St. Joe Building along Riverside Avenue for $18.5 million on March 31 from Eola Capital, which will manage the property. Parkway said it will buy six office properties from Orlando-based Eola. Eola Chair Jim Heistand will become executive chair of Parkway, while Eola COO Henry Pratt joins Parkway as executive vice president. The 135,286-square-foot St. Joe Building is 94.6 percent leased.
• Jacksonville is one of Kiplinger’s 11 “Comeback Cities” It said 8.5 percent of Jacksonville’s jobs disappeared during the recession, but financial services firms, especially large banks, are hiring again, as are hotels, health care, restaurants and warehousing.
• Clockwork Marketing Services promoted Taylor Mueller to public relations and research manager. She is responsible for day-to-day management of the public relations and marketing needs of clients, which include companies in real estate and development, architecture, sports management, finance, manufacturing and retail as well as nonprofits.
• FCC Equipment Financing notified the state Monday it will lay off 57 finance and insurance employees as of Aug. 31. The company operates at 12740 Gran Bay Parkway W. Its website shows it is a direct lending division of Caterpillar Financial Services Corp. offering loans and leases to the construction industry and for-hire truck fleets and private carriers throughout the U.S.
• Federal Reserve Bank of Atlanta Regional Executive Chris Oakley started his presentation Friday to The Civic Round Table with an invitation to “go back to your Econ 101” days. “Do we have to?” responded several members.
• Chasing a job rather than letting one chase you? The WorkSource job service plans “How to Be Found: Getting Opportunities to Come to You” from 10:30 a.m.-noon April 21 at the Southeast Regional Library along Deer wood Park Boulevard. The speaker is Candace Moody, WorkSource’s vice president of communications. Reserve a spot at the event by calling Patsy Partin at 798-9229 or email [email protected].