• Harry Frisch, chairman of Beaver Street Fisheries, will be honored by Junior Achievement of North Florida with the 2012 Thompson S. Baker “Solid as a Rock” award at noon April 19 at the University of North Florida University Center. Frisch will be recognized for almost nine decades of achievement and service in business, community, philanthropy and family. For more information, call 398-9944 or visit www.jajax.com.
• The CoreLogic analytics service reported Thursday that during the fourth quarter of 2011, 44.6 percent of residential properties in Jacksonville with a mortgage were in negative equity, down from 45.2 percent in the third quarter. Another 5.1 percent were in near negative equity, about the same as the third quarter. Negative equity, also called underwater, means the borrowers owe more on their mortgages than their homes are worth.
• Rayonier President and CEO Paul Boynton will make a presentation at the Raymond James 33rd Annual Institutional Investors Conference at 8:05 a.m. Wednesday in Orlando. Jacksonville-based Rayonier is an international forest products company with three core businesses: forest resources, real estate and performance fibers. The company owns, leases or manages 2.7 million acres of timber and land in the United States and New Zealand. A live audio webcast of the presentation will be accessible at Rayonier’s website, www.rayonier.com. Listeners should access the site at least 15 minutes early. A replay will be available later.
• Pianist, performer, singer-songwriter and composer Billy Joel visited the University of North Florida campus Monday for “Questions & Answers ... and a Little Bit of Music” with an audience of UNF students, faculty and staff in the Fine Arts Center’s Lazzara Performance Hall. UNF reported that Joel answered questions from the audience and played a “little bit of music.”
• CoWork Jax scheduled March 12-16 as the 2nd Annual Downtown Coworking Week. CoWork Jax will offer free co-working for the week. For a schedule of events, visit coworkjax.com.
• Jacksonville Jaguars communications assistant Alisa Abbott becomes the assistant to team owner Shahid Khan and President Mark Lamping on March 12. She has worked as the executive assistant to Dan Edwards, senior vice president of communications and media, and the public relations department for 18 years. She said her replacement will be announced soon.
• Lakeland-based Publix Super Markets Inc. reported fourth-quarter sales of $7.2 billion, up 13.4 percent from the last quarter of 2010. There was an additional week in the most recent quarter. Earnings rose 16.8 percent to $399.5 million. For the year, a 53-week period, sales rose 7.3 percent to $27 billion. Earnings rose 11.5 percent to $1.5 billion. The chain operates 1,049 stores in Florida, Georgia, South Carolina, Alabama and Tennessee. It has 151,000 employees.
• Space is being built out for Siemens in Flagler Center. The City approved a permit for Flagler Construction Corp. to renovate 16,192 square feet of space at 12735 Gran Bay Parkway W., No. 150, at a project cost of $280,000.
• The Outback Steakhouse along Point Meadows Way is being remodeled. The Register Co. of Jacksonville will handle the 6,600-square-foot project at a cost of $91,000.
• Barbara Truncellito, a retail consultant and former Macy’s executive, has been named executive director of Dignity U Wear, the Jacksonville-based nonprofit that provides new clothing to Americans in need. She has been director of development the past year. The group’s signature event will be this fall in New York and hosted to actor Mark Wahlberg, the national spokesperson for Dignity U Wear.