• Jaxson de Ville, in real life Curtis Dvorak, will be the guest speaker Friday morning to the Jacksonville Regional Chamber of Commerce Downtown Council at Currents Riverview Bistro in the Aetna Building on the Southbank. Jaxson is the mascot for the Jacksonville Jaguars. The meeting starts at 7:30 a.m. For information, visit www.downtowncouncil.org.
• Wells Fargo said Tuesday that 62 team members were notified that their last date of employment will be Oct. 14. They are part of the Wells Fargo Banker Connection contact center in Deerwood Park and provided assistance to Wachovia retail store personnel with consumer account transactions, problem resolution, and product, policy and procedures. Wachovia merged with Wells Fargo, which said some positions were eliminated because of duplication or they no longer fit the combined business structure. The bank is offering employees a Career Center to help find jobs within the bank or outside. The team members also are receiving separation benefits, including insurance and salary continuation.
• John Tabor has taken over as interim president at the Clay County Chamber of Commerce, replacing Kellie Jo Kilberg, who resigned Aug. 30. Tabor joined the chamber about 13 years ago. He was treasurer in 2000, chair-elect in 2002 and chairman in 2003. During his chairmanship, he merged the Economic Development Commission with the chamber. He also helped to establish Leadership Clay. He is a financial adviser at Ameriprise Financial Services.
• The City of Jacksonville Animal Care & Protective Services satellite shelter at 10501 San Jose Blvd. will close at the end of September. The City said the last day the shelter will be open to the public for adoptions is Sept. 24. All animals will be available for adoption at the main shelter at 2020 Forest St. The shelter is open to the public from 8 a.m. to 4:30 p.m. Monday through Saturday and is closed Sundays and holidays.
• The area housing market took some positive turns in August. The Northeast Florida Association of Realtors said closed sales for single-family homes and condos rose 1.5 percent over August 2010 to 1,441 sales. Pending sales jumped 24.4 percent to 1,744. Inventory dropped 32.2 percent to 11,167 properties for sale. The number of months’ supply of homes for sale fell from 11.8 months to just 7.9 months, close to the 5-6 month supply considered to be a balanced market.
• Meanwhile, new listings for houses dropped almost 21 percent to 2,319 in August and the median sales price rose 2.2 percent to $138,000. The average price rose 6.6 percent to $180,823.
• Also, lender-mediated sales accounted for about 43 percent of all area Realtor sales, down from August 2010 when more than half were lender-mediated.
• Brooks Rehabilitation has begun infrastructure development on its Bartram campus at Interstate 95 and Bartram Park Boulevard. It will be designed as a destination for those needing rehabilitation and other services focused on the aging adult. The first phase will break ground early next year and will include a three-story, 61-unit assisted living facility, an 18-unit memory care facility and the previously announced 100-bed skilled nursing facility. The design and construction teams include England Thims-Miller, Prosser Hallock, Vallencourt Construction, O’Keefe-Painter Architects, TLC Engineering and Fickling Construction Inc.
• The Main Street America Group has reached an agreement with Spring Valley Mutual Insurance Co. of Minnesota to become an affiliate of Jacksonville-based Main Street America, a super regional property/casualty insurance carrier.