by Joe Wilhelm Jr.
Staff Writer
Gov. Rick Scott, who campaigned on creating jobs and emphasized job creation Tuesday during his State of the State address, came to Jacksonville on Monday with economic development on the agenda.
Scott stopped in Jacksonville Monday for an “economic development meeting,” according to his schedule.
Scott spent an hour at EverBank Field from 7-8 p.m. for the meeting and did not schedule time for media availability.
University of North Florida President John Delaney was seen walking into the stadium, but said Tuesday he couldn’t comment.
Jacksonville Regional Chamber of Commerce spokeswoman Lisa Daniel said Monday afternoon that she could not comment about the meeting.
“There are always economic development opportunities that we are pursuing, but at this time we cannot comment on anything specific,” she said this morning.
EverBank Field Assistant General Manager Tracey Evans said she had no knowledge of the governor’s visit. Representatives of the Jacksonville Aviation Authority, Jacksonville Port Authority and the Jacksonville Jaguars said they did not receive invitations to the meeting.
Scott is scheduled to be in Jacksonville again Friday as the featured speaker at the chamber’s Cornerstone luncheon. The 11:30 a.m.-1:30 p.m. event is at the Hyatt Downtown.
“You won’t want to miss the opportunity to hear Gov. Scott present his plan to secure Florida’s economic future and emerge as a top competitor in economic development, sustainability, education and growth,” said the chamber’s website, www.opportunityjacksonville.com.
According to the News Service of Florida, Scott told the Legislature Tuesday that four business leaders were attending who had decided to move or expand in Florida.
Scott named Armand Lauzon, president of aviation parts manufacturer Chromalloy, which recently opened a manufacturing plant in Tampa and created 400 jobs in Hillsborough County.
He said David Meers, the chief operating officer of Vision Airlines, recently began flying to 23 cities from Destin less than a year after the economic damage from the Deepwater Horizon oil spill.
Scott said Reinhold Schmieding, founder and president of Arthrex, a manufacturer of state-of-the-art medical devices, is “here to announce that Arthrex is breaking ground on a 160,000-square-foot facility in Southwest Florida that will create 150 new jobs every year for the next five years.”
And Scott said Dean Minardi, CFO of California-based Bing Energy, was courted by offers from several other states but decided in December to bring operations to Tallahassee.
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