Ramada Inn Expansion Designed By Cuhaci & Peterson Architects Wins Eagle Award from Associated Builders & Contractors

ORLANDO, Fla. --- The Ramada Inn expansion on International Drive added 134 new units to the hotel property and an impressive award for construction contractor Welbro Construction. The new tower consists of 12 floors with rooftop pool and bar amenities as well as meeting space. Lonnie Peterson, chairman of Cuhaci & Peterson Architects Engineers Planners, which designed the Ramada Inn expansion, said Welbro deserved credit for its contracting effort. “They did an outstanding job,” Peterson said. Welbro won an Eagle Award, the Chapter’s highest recognition in the Associated Builders and Contractors (ABC) annual Excellence in Construction competition.

International Affairs and Business Administration Graduate Adds Two New Words to Her Resume: Business Owner

ORLANDO, Fla. – A 25-year-old world traveler who backpacked through 15 third-world countries, climbed Mount Kilimanjaro and won best-in-show at a Central Florida art festival, recently took on her most daunting challenge ever by starting her own business. Alexandra Gramatikas and her partner, Tripp Driskell, are the masterminds behind ALTR, a new off-site internet business client of the University of Central Florida Business Incubation Program–Orlando. The product: decorative button covers. “We had a nautical-themed wine tasting and we wanted our blazers to have gold buttons, but we didn’t want to sew on new ones or buy new blazers just for the buttons,” Gramatikas said. After creating button covers for style, she quickly realized there was a huge market for branded button covers. “UCF and University of Florida button covers inexpensively customize whatever you’re wearing and they’ve helped us build a grassroots market during our early stages,” she said. A Florida State University graduate, Gramatikas majored in international affairs and minored in business with an emphasis on marketing. She received her MBA from the University of Central Florida earlier this year and soon afterward decided to become her own boss. With the idea in mind, the two entrepreneurs needed a model in hand. They turned to Mydea, a graduate of the Incubation Program, to create their first button cover. Once the prototype – a molded plastic cover with a slip-on, fork-like back – was complete, Gramatikas said Mydea also helped build her first injection mold machine and create the final product. She and Driskell used the prototypes to win a UCF “joust” for new business ideas and were awarded $10,000 in seed money, which they have used to produce about 10,000 button covers. Melissa Wasserman, site manager at the UCF Business Incubation Program-Orlando on Colonial Drive, is excited about ALTR’s rapid advancement. “They’re about to secure the UCF license and launch locally,” said Wasserman, who worked with Gramatikas when she was a marketing executive for Brand Advance, another UCFBIP client. “ALTR is a great example of how to take an idea, create a product and turn it into a valid business.” The button covers currently are being produced in gold and orange and are decorated with a UCF Pegasus or a capitol “F.” They come in two sizes in boxes of four or six. When the products officially launch later this month, each set will sell for $12. “Our five-year plan is to offer button covers for all the schools,” she said. “We’d also like to do customized covers for holidays, elections and other special occasions.” For now, she may just sell button covers, but Gramatikas doesn’t want her company to be pigeonholed. That’s why the name ALTR [the founders’ initials] was chosen. “We plan to look beyond the button cover,” she says, keeping her eyes and ears open to other ideas for ALTR to latch onto. As her business card reads: “Life Was Made to ALTR.” To learn more about the company and its products, visit www.madetoaltr.com or call 407-492-1423. About the UCF Business Incubation Program: Since its founding in 1999, the UCF Business Incubation Program has helped more than 300 emerging companies (including more than 134 current clients) create over $363 million in annual total economic output and more than 3,120 new jobs (taking direct and indirect and induced impact into account) with an average salary of $60,000. With ten facilities across the Greater Orlando community, the Business Incubation Program is a collaboration in economic development among the University of Central Florida, Orange County, the City of Orlando, Seminole County, the City of Apopka, the City of Winter Springs, the City of Sanford, Lake County, the City of Leesburg, Osceola County, the City of Kissimmee, City of St. Cloud, Volusia County and the Florida High Tech Corridor Council. For more information about the Program and its clients and graduates, please visit www.incubator.ucf.edu and UCFBIP on Facebook, on www.facebook.com/ucf4bip.

NAI Realvest Negotiates Two Office Lease Agreements totaling 3,200 Square Feet at Wekiva Center in Apopka

MAITLAND, Fla. --- NAI Realvest recently negotiated a new lease and a lease renewal, both for 1,600 square feet of office space at Wekiva Center located at 1706 E. Semoran Boulevard near the intersection of U.S. 441 in Apopka. Tom R. Kelley II, CCIM, principal at NAI Realvest represented Landlord Wekiva Center Partnership of Maitland in both transactions. NAI Realvest Associate Chris Adams assisted Kelley in negotiating the new lease with tenant Allied Controls, Inc., an industrial machinery and equipment firm that relocated from Altamonte Springs. Kelley also negotiated a lease renewal with Tenant Laboratory Corporation of America, which is headquartered in Tampa.

Lennar to Start Construction of Four New Model Homes at ChampionsGate South of Orlando near Disney

ORLANDO, Fla. --- Lennar will start construction of four new model homes in December at ChampionsGate, located south of Orlando off I-4 at ChampionsGate Blvd. Mark Metheny, president of Lennar’s Central Florida Division, said the home builder plans to host a Grand Opening for area Realtors and potential home buyers at ChampionsGate in January. All four model homes will be fully furnished priced from the $200s. The Bali model home is a vacation home with five bedrooms and four-and-a-half baths in 2,766 square feet of living space with a two-car garage. The Maui model home, also a vacation home, will offer eight bedrooms and five baths in 3,826 square feet of living space with a two-car garage. Lennar is offering both vacation homes and single-family homes at ChampionsGate, Metheny said. The Hideaway, a single-family model home, will offer four bedrooms and two baths in 2,246 square feet of living space with a two-car garage. The Sand Dollar model home, also single-family, will offer four bedrooms and three baths in 2,460 square feet with a three-car garage. Single family homes by Lennar at ChampionsGate will range in size from 1,800 square feet of living space to 2,500 square feet. Lennar’s vacation homes at ChampionsGate will range from 2,200 square feet to 3,800 square feet, Metheny said. For more information, visit www.Lennar.com.

Orlando Company Wins License to Convert NASA Technology to Commercial Use in Maintenance and Repair Operations

ORLANDO, Fla. --- Diversified Industries, Consulting and Investment Services, Inc. in Orlando, has earned an exclusive copyright license for NASA’s System Maintenance Automated Repair Tasks (SMART) software. Created by a team of United Space Alliance (USA) and NASA software engineers, SMART was used by the shuttle program to generate repair instructions for maintenance technicians. Martin Belson, chief executive officer of Diversified Industries, Consulting and Investment Services, said SMART software is a collection of repair instructions issued over 30 years of shuttle maintenance operations. The software was designed with intelligence to select appropriate instructions for specific shuttle problems and organize them into a repair procedure for use by shuttle technicians. “SMART greatly reduced the time needed to process a shuttle for its next launch, significantly improved repair procedure accuracy, and helped increase overall shuttle program safety,” Belson said. A former USA mechanical design engineer, system engineer and project manager, Belson worked on the development and deployment of SMART for shuttle operations. Diversified Industries is targeting aircraft and spacecraft Maintenance, Repair, and Overhaul (MRO) operations as its primary customer for SMART technology. Belson estimates the market potential for the software is several million dollars. “SMART can significantly reduce the time it takes to engineer repair and maintenance protocols for sophisticated industrial equipment by 30% to 40%,” Belson said. “That savings can number in the millions of dollars, depending on the critical nature of the equipment and the extent of the work to be done,” he said. Diversified Industries is a client company of the University of Central Florida Business Incubation Program in the Central Florida Research Park in east Orange County.

Lennar’s Year-End Closeout Sale Offers New Home Buyers Whopping Incentives to Buy Before Nov. 30

ORLANDO, Fla. --- Lennar is hosting a Year-End Closeout Sale at communities in the Orlando, Clermont and Space Coast regions that offers new home buyers whopping incentives to buy before Nov. 30. Mark Metheny, president of Lennar’s Central Florida Division, said buyers of select new homes can choose between two new iPads, a Summer Kitchen Grille or a 60-inch flat screen TV if they close on the sale of their new home by Nov. 30. Metheny said the offer is good in select Lennar communities throughout Central Florida that have available inventory homes for sale. Lennar Homes builds new single-family homes and town homes priced from under $100,000 at communities in the Orlando region, including Clermont and Melbourne. For more information, visit www.Lennar.com.