09/02/2010
• The Wall Street Journal reports that the Downtown Hyatt is delinquent on its mortgage and that the ownership group, Chartres Lodging Group LLC, is negotiating with the lender. Chartres owns the Hyatt Regency in Jacksonville with two other ownership groups. Hyatt Hotels Corp. extended $5 million to the ownership group last year to help keep the mortgage current and Chartres agreed to extend the contract for Hyatt to manage the 966-room hotel, according to the Journal, but the money was exhausted by July. The hotel’s occupancy fell to 52 percent last year from 61 percent in 2008 and its net cash flow fell to $4.2 million last year from $10.9 million in 2008, the Journal said. “We will continue day-to-day activities,” said Hyatt General Manager Dan King this morning. “The Hyatt has a long-term agreement to operate this hotel and we’re committed to Jacksonville.”
• Via a letter to Mayor John Peyton, Public Service Grant Council Chair Alberta Hipps submitted her resignation from the appointed post. Hipps said the City would be best served by a chair who could work during preparations for the 2011-12 budget cycle. Her term ends in March. She said she would serve until a new chair is appointed.
• Haven Hospice reports it has been awarded a Certificate of Need by the Florida Agency for Health Care Administration to build an 18-bed inpatient hospice facility in Clay County.
• Gov. Charlie Crist appointed Barbara Johnston, Regency Centers general counsel, to the 1st District Court of Appeals Judicial Nominating Committee for a term that began Wednesday and ends July 1, 2014. She succeeds Marcia Tjoflat, also of Jacksonville.
• Correction to a July 27 story in the Daily Record: Marc Huber is the current Marine Engineers Beneficial Association Gulf Coast vice president. Tom Suneson, who was listed as the vice president, is a candidate for the seat in the upcoming election.
• Deutsche Bank hired retired Brig. Gen. Michael Fleming as managing director and head of its global business services center in Jacksonville. Fleming was most recently CEO of the Florida Army National Guard.
• Availity LLC of Jacksonville has acquired RealMed, a provider of revenue cycle management services. The company now serves a network of more than 200,000 physicians and care providers, 1,000 hospitals, 1,300 health plans and 500 industry partners.
• Interested in doing business with the federal government and financing a business venture? Those are the topics at a roundtable workshop planned 11:45 a.m.-2 p.m. Sept. 10 at the Small Business Administration North Florida District Office in Baymeadows. Reservations are required. E-mail donna.padgug@sba.gov or call 443-1971.
• A dedication ceremony for Jacksonville University’s new Marine Science Research Institute is 10:30 a.m. Sept. 24.
