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Talk of the Bay: Koger park in St. Petersburg fetches $94m

By Times staff, wires
Published March 10, 2007

Koger park in st. Petersburg fetches $94m

A piece of the former Ira Koger office park empire still collects a king's ransom. DRA Advisors LLC has sold the former Koger Center, 15 buildings totalling 682,311 square feet, for $94-million. The park sprung up at Fourth Street N and Gandy Boulevard between 1971 and 2000. CB Richard Ellis brokered the sale in February to an undisclosed private- equity firm. The late Koger gets credit for inventing the suburban office park, betting tenants would tire of scarce downtown parking. The St. Petersburg property, home to such tenants as Fifth Third Bank and Texas Instruments, is one of 36 parks the Jacksonville businessman built.

Feds drop forecast for Florida oranges

The government is putting the squeeze on its predictions for Florida's orange crop this season. On Friday, the U.S. Department of Agriculture said it expects the state to produce 132-million boxes of oranges this season, down 8-million from its last prediction. The citrus season runs from October to May. The USDA also said that the number of orange trees is declining more quickly than expected. Blame the usual suspects: hurricanes, canker, development. Agriculture Department officials said these factors could cause already-high juice prices (80 cents a gallon over last year) to climb even higher.

Aerosonic moving work from Virginia

Aerosonic Corp. is tightening its belt once again. Five months after closing a repair operation in Wichita, Kan., the maker of aircraft instrumentation is consolidating manufacturing from its Earlysville, Va., plant to its Clearwater headquarters. Though Aerosonic will maintain an engineering and marketing staff of less than 40 at a smaller facility in Virginia, the fate of about 60 workers is uncertain. The company said a handful of manufacturing and administrative staff from Virginia will be offered jobs in Clearwater where Aerosonic has 140 employees. Aerosonic will sell its Earlysville facility, which operates as Avionics Specialities Inc. The consolidation is expected to be completed by September. Former Aerosonic CFO Eric J. McCracken pleaded guilty to wire fraud charges on Tuesday, agreeing to cooperate with investigators and testify at any future court proceedings in return for a reduced sentence.

Correction

Gavin Power is a senior adviser for the United Nations Global Compact. A Talk of the Bay item on March 5 mischaracterized the status of his position.

[Last modified March 10, 2007, 00:16:58]