Featured Stories

gainesville-fl

Patticakes opens new location

Downtown Gainesville has a new café. Patticakes opened its second location in the newly built café space on the northeast side of Bo Diddley Plaza. Bo Diddley Plaza reopened in March after a year-long renovation. The café addition was part of an initiative to activate underutilized space in the plaza, increase the programming, safety and...
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Key International Acquires Hampton Inn & Suites by Hilton Downtown Gainesville for $27 million

Key International, a real estate investment and development company specializing in hospitality, announced that it has acquired the Hampton Inn & Suites by Hilton Downtown Gainesville. The hotel was purchased from Ashford Hospitality Trust, Inc., for a total of $27 million. Since opening in 2009, the hotel has become a popular destination for business and...
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Costa Vida Fresh Mexican Grill opens in Gainesville

Costa Vida Fresh Mexican Grill, a Utah-based fast casual Mexican cuisine concept opened at 3581 SW Archer Road in the Archer Centro West Shopping Center in early September. This location marks the first opening of Costa Vida Fresh Mexican Grill in the state of Florida. Costa Vida held a day-long grand opening celebration on September...
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LifeSouth is a healthcare innovator right in Gainesville’s backyard

When you think of healthcare in Gainesville, UF Health Shands, North Florida Regional Medical Center and the VA Medical Center may instantly come to mind. But there’s another medical powerhouse that works hard to keep our community healthy: LifeSouth Community Blood Centers. LifeSouth is a nonprofit blood center that serves more than 130 medical facilities...
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How women entrepreneurs can make being a woman-owned business work for them!

Presented by UF Small Business and Vendor Diversity Relations This past summer, I had the incredible opportunity to publish the below excerpt on the White House blog The United State of Women, a global collective committed to improving the lives of women and girls everywhere. I also attended a summit in Washington D.C. featuring celebrities,...
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Delivering nourishment that’s close to nature: Q & A with Carlee Marhefka of Eat the 80

Eat the 80 is a locally owned and operated healthy meal delivery service co-founded in 2014 by husband and wife team Chris and Carlee Marhefka. The Business Report sat down with Carlee to discuss her passion for helping people eat healthily, and how Eat the 80 evolved from an idea into a successful business.  ...
gainesville-fl

Ameris Bank’s Announces 7th Annual Helping Fight Hunger Food Drive Initiative

Ameris Bank announces its 7th Annual Helping Fight Hunger food drive initiative. Helping Fight Hunger is a bank-wide project with one goal: to collect as many non-perishable food items as possible during the month of October. A food bank in every town with an Ameris Bank location will receive the donation of goods collected at...
gainesville-fl

Preparing a business for sale

Preparing a company for sale – whether through a disposition of its equity interests or its operating assets – entails cataloguing the enterprise’s assets, liabilities, contracts, files, licenses, and other operating and regulatory documents, and preparing them for presentation to a prospective acquirer, who will carefully review those items with the aid of accountants, lawyers,...
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Promoting wellness in the workplace

The United States has a reputation for prioritizing work over health or recreation. Productivity is highly valued, and the majority of Americans work long hours and, often, endure lengthy commutes getting to and from work. Because of long work weeks, many Americans feel they lack sufficient time to relax, connect with family and friends, exercise,...
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Pokémon GO Increases Foot Traffic to Area Businesses

Pokémon GO has taken Gainesville, and the nation, by storm. You may have heard the popular Pokémon slogan, “Gotta catch ‘em all!” Well, local businesses are also trying to catch ‘em all – customers, that is. This free mobile application (app) features an interactive game for smartphone users. In its first week alone, the app...