Sound Bytes

BUSINESS NEWS SOUNDBYTES CAPITAL

LOCAL HAPPENINGS

» Seven Hillz Productions

Foundation, a Florida-based production company founded by Florida MOSES A&M University graduate Breion Moses, has announced the establishing of the Benjamin Moses, Jr. Scholarship Fund benefiting students from historically black colleges and universities. The Seven Hillz Foundation hosted the inaugural ReelBack Film Summit on the FAMU campus and awarded students with $500 scholarships. Breion Moses created the first film summit at FAMU.

» Shawn Kalbi, PSA, ASLA, has joined Kimley-Horn’s Tallahassee office. For nearly two decades, Kalbi has worked in planning and landscape architecture in both the public and private sector. At Kimley-Horn, he will provide comprehensive master planning, urban design and landscape architecture solutions for complex multidisciplinary projects.

» MoLab, Inc. is partnering with All Points North Foundation to complete the transformation of its mobile science laboratory, MoBus, into a Solar Science Sustainability Lab. Funds from the grant partnership will also provide innovative solar science education programs to nine Title 1 middle schools in Leon and Gadsden counties during the fall of 2021. The MoBus Solar Science Sustainability Lab will educate students about sustainable practices and the importance of solar as an alternative renewable resource.

» Capital City Bank has promoted three members of its Tallahassee team of associates. Retail training manager Erin Crane has been named vice president of training, development manager Missy Briggs has been named assistant vice president of development and SupportU manager Rod Mayo has been named vice president of SupportU. Crane and Briggs are members of the Capital City Bank internal associate training and development team, known as Star University, and Mayo serves in the SupportU area, which provides operational policy and procedure support to front-line bankers in every banking office.

LOCAL HONORS

» Thomas Howell Ferguson

P.A. CPAs, a professional accounting, assurance, tax and government consulting services firm headquartered in Tallahassee, has been named one of “America’s Top Recommended Tax and Accounting Firms” by Forbes magazine for the second year in a row. Forbes partnered with the market research company Statista to create a list of the most recommended firms for tax and accounting services in the U.S. based on surveys of tax and accounting professionals and clients. Of the more than 18,000 tax firms in the United States considered for this award, only 200 were recognized in the accounting category. The firm congratulated Ying Wang and Megan Townsend on their new leadership roles with community boards. Wang is on the Girls on the Run board of directors. Townsend has been appointed to the Board of Emerging Leaders of Tampa Bay (ELTB) and to the Associate Board of Ambassadors of Tampa Bay (ABOA) for the American Cancer Society.

EMERALD COAST

LOCAL HAPPENINGS

» Progress Bank

Okaloosa and Walton County market president

REDDING

Dewayne

Youngblood announced that Lane Redding has joined the bank as senior lender, business banking. Redding graduated from Baylor University with a degree in business administration and went on to graduate from Eastern New Mexico University with an MBA. She has 10 years of banking experience with large institutions, primarily in credit analysis and commercial banking.

» The Emerald Coast Children’s Advocacy Center

(ECCAC) has announced Cindy Cole as its newest board member. Cole is the top-selling Realtor in the Keller Williams five-state Gulf Coast region. She has been named as one of “America’s Best Real Estate Agents” by RealTrends and the Wall Street Journal. Her Cindy Cole Fine Homes brand is widely recognized as a top luxury real estate brand in the Destin area. In addition to her successful business career, Cole has been active in the nonprofit community with a focus on improving the lives of women and at-risk children. She contributes time and resources to local and regional charities, including Sinfonia Gulf Coast, Alaqua Animal Refuge, Sandcastle Kids, Althea’s Legacy, Mercy Multiplied and now the Emerald Coast Children’s Advocacy Center.

» Gulf Power donated $134,500 to area organizations in December. The contributions were distributed in five focus areas to local nonprofit organizations throughout Northwest Florida: Community Outreach/COVID-19 support, $71,500; STEM Support, $10,000; Community Holiday Support, $17,500; Meal Support for Elderly, $11,500; and Utility Assistance Programs: $24,000.

LOCAL HONORS

» The Mattie Kelly Arts Foundation (MKAF) announced that Demetrius Fuller has been named chief executive officer. Fuller will replace Marcia Hull, who served as MKAF CEO for past 22 years prior to her retirement on Dec. 31, 2020. Fuller will continue to serve as the music and artistic director of Sinfonia Gulf Coast. MKAF is a not-for-profit charitable arts organization founded in 1995 as a Northwest Florida champion of cultural arts and arts education for all.

» Newman-Dailey Resort Properties Real Estate

Division honored

Shannyn Stevenson

as the top producer for the third quarter STEVENSON of 2020. Stevenson was the “Top Sales Agent” and the “Top Listing Agent” for that quarter. Stevenson specializes in selling and buying rental investments and second homes; her clients reside locally and throughout the country.

» Bullock Tice Associates has been awarded a prestigious Merit Award in the 2020 USAF Design Awards Program for excellence in design for their work in coordination with the U.S. Air Force Research Laboratory to design the Virtual Warfare Munitions Simulator Facility on Eglin Air Force Base. The USAF Design Awards Program is coordinated by the Air Force Civil Engineer Center and recognized seven innovative designs in 2020. Those projects demonstrated aesthetic merit, overall cost control, energy efficiency, functionality and sustainability.

NEW & NOTABLE

» Scratch Biscuit

Kitchen recently opened in WaterColor Town Center. The restaurant serves madefrom-scratch biscuits and its signature coffee blend, as well as a breakfast and lunch menu, in a casual, family-friendly environment designed to evoke the feeling of being home away from home.

» Progress Bank opened its 11th location in Santa Rosa Beach on U.S. Highway 98. This marks the bank’s third Florida location, joining Destin and Inlet Beach. Dewayne Youngblood, executive vice president and Okaloosa and

Walton County market president, and Brock Rice, vice president and branch manager, will expand their leadership roles to cover the new office. Progress Bank is an Alabama state-chartered commercial bank offering commercial, consumer, wealth management/investment services and mortgage banking services.

BAY

NEW & NOTABLE

» Coca-Cola UNITED has announced plans to base a sales center at the Cedar Grove Commerce Park in Panama City. With more than 60 locations throughout the Southeast, Coca-Cola UNITED is the second largest privately held Coca-Cola bottler in North America and the third largest bottler of Coca-Cola products in the United States. Construction will begin later this year. The $8 million facility will include a distribution center with 18 loading docks, fleet maintenance center, warehouse and administrative offices at the commerce park, which is owned by the St. Joe Company. The Birminghambased company already employees 80 associates at its existing Panama City sales and distribution facility at 6130 Bayline Drive. It is anticipated those employees will carry over to the new 24,000-square-foot distribution center upon its completion in late 2021, where they will help circulate about three million cases of CocaCola products annually.

» Gulf Coast State College

and the Bay Economic

Development Alliance

are partnering with local manufacturers to provide a

Federation for the Advanced Manufacturing Education

(FAME) chapter. FAME is a national work-study program that develops global entrylevel, multi-craft maintenance technicians. Companies combining to establish the Gulf Coast FAME Chapter include Trane Technologies, Berg Pipe, Merrick Industries, Eastern Shipbuilding, ACMT, EPS and Maritech Machine.

» David Smith, a certified divorce financial analyst (CDFA) with Sand Oak Divorce Solutions, LLC, has been elected to a three-year term on the board of advisors for The

Institute for Divorce Financial

Analysts. The Board is the final authority on CDFA certification requirements and disciplinary action and is responsible for developing strategic goals for the IDFA organization.

I-10

» E-commerce giant Amazon will be opening a last-mile delivery facility in Marianna. Zach Gilmore, the director of business development for the Jackson County Economic Development Committee, told a Jackson County Commission meeting in January that the facility will be located at 3529 Russel Road. Last year, Amazon announced plans to launch 1,000 delivery hubs in cities and subdivisions across the country. Last-mile delivery centers receive customer orders, which are then sorted and loaded into trucks for delivery to customers. Set to open this year, the Mariana facility, in addition to fulfilling the Amazon Prime service’s two-day delivery promise, will sometimes allow for same-day delivery to the region.

—COMPILED BY REBECCA PADGETT