Orlando Business Journal

Loews Hotels & Resorts isn’t letting Universal Orlando’s newest attractions hog all the spotlight — it’s got big plans going on, too. The long-time partner of Universal is working toward opening the 1,000-room Loews Sapphire Falls Resort by 2016, which will be the fifth hotel the company oversees at Universal Orlando Resort. That hotel will incorporate a strong Caribbean theme of British influence, and it’s being designed by the same creative teams that worked on Harry Potter, Despicable Me and Transformers. In addition, Loews plans to add more than 55,000 square feet of meeting space at Royal Pacific.

The city of Orlando gave the OK for incentives for BookThatDoc.com to move from Altamonte Springs to downtown. The city’s Community Redevelopment Agency will give $250,000 to lure the firm into downtown space, with plans to grow to as many as 200 employees by 2021, up from its current staff of 12. Long-term plans for BookThatDoc.com include eventually becoming one of the first tenants at the future Creative Village development.

It’s looking like the University of Central Florida will get a boutique hotel and conference center sometime in the next couple of years. UCF expects to negotiate a contract for a boutique hotel with KUD International LLC, pending a protest filed against the award by a competitor. The $24.2 million dollar, six-story hotel will have 100 to 130 rooms and will be built on 4.4 acres with 15,000 square feet of conference space. Hotel amenities would include a restaurant, cocktail lounge, fitness center, pool and a water feature.

SpaceX and Boeing will be the two firms sending future U.S. astronauts into space. NASA officials said the two companies were awarded a $6.8 billion dollar contract to transport astronauts to the International Space Station from Cape Canaveral. That is a huge boon for Central Florida, as it now boosts the region’s identity as an all-in-one commercial space port. The launching of astronauts to the International Space Station will begin by 2017.

One Blood Inc. plans to merge with Pittsburgh based Institute for Transfusion Medicine to increase operational efficiencies between the organizations.