2013 - A Big Year for Ave Maria
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Published on Tuesday, 31 December 2013 23:09
The year 2013 was one of significant changes in Ave Maria – perhaps the most change in a single year since the town's opening in 2007.
Real estate construction and home sales picked up dramatically throughout the town. The new Maple Ridge development near the town center was announced early in the year and by year's end, there was a new road, the start of construction on several homes, a sales center, eight model homes and the developers said they had signed a total of 80 sales contracts.
Homebuilding also increased considerably at Del Webb, particularly following the opening in January of the new Oasis Club amenities center. The Emerson Park neighborhood expanded as well, with new homes built by Lennar Homes.
And in the Ave Maria town center, all but a few of the 70 condominiums on Annunciation Circle remain unsold.
There were a few changes with the merchants on the ground floor of those buildings. The Scoopz ice cream parlor (right) opened in January but another source of sweet goodies in town, the St. Laurent candy shop, closed in the summer along with the Conrad Moroder statue store adjoining it. Medical services in the town center underwent some changes as well. The EPN urgent care clinic closed abruptly in the late summer, with a new medical operation specializing in OB/GYN and family practice taking over the space. Across the road, a dermatology practice began offering services, working out of the Ave Maria Dentistry offices.
South of the town center, the long-awaited gas station and convenience store, which had been "coming soon" since the first cars drove up Ave Maria Blvd. in 2007, finally opened in June. Just down the road, Collier Family Farms opened its farmstand early in the year.
Another business that had been part of the town's initial plans – medical device maker Arthrex – also opened a major manufacturing plant in Ave Maria that by year end employed close to 500 people with another thousand planned to be hired in the next few years. Gov. Rick Scott (left with Arthrex founder Reinhold Schmieding) was one of a number of dignitaries who attended the facility's official opening in October. It was Gov. Scott's second visit of the year to Ave Maria – he was the commencement speaker at Ave Maria University's graduation exercises in May.
The month of May was an eventful month for AMU, in a year of major developments and milestones for the university.
In May, AMU President Jim Towey said that the school's finances had stabilized, due in part to its ability to restructure its debt in a bond offering that got the nod as "investment grade" by rating agency Standard and Poor's. At the same time, Mr. Towey also announced that it had reached an agreement to divest its Latin American campus in Nicaragua, transferring it to Keiser University.
AMU marked its 10th anniversary in 2013, having opened in Florida in 2003 at a temporary campus in the Vineyards development in Naples, which now is home to the Ave Maria School of Law. Right, part of the celebration for the Feast of the Annunciation sponsored by AMU and held on the university mall.
Academically, AMU expanded its offerings, adding majors in Education and Accounting in the fall of 2013 and announcing that it expected to offer Nursing as a major in 2014.
The university's football team, which began playing its home games on campus for the first time, also had a turnaround year, winning its last eight games of the season to go 8-2 for the year after having won a total of won game in its first two seasons. The baseball team also had its best season ever, finishing 37-17 and making the NAIA playoffs.
Not to be outdone in football, the Donahue Academy 7-man football team also had a standout season, undefeated until they lost their final game of the season – at the state championships.
And the Donahue Academy also continued to sponsor one of the town's signature events, the Sunshine State Steak Cook Off (left). The 2014 cook off Saturday, Jan. 25, promises to be the largest yet.
The town also welcomed a new leader for the Parish of Ave Maria Oratory, Fr. Cory Mayer, and bid farewell in 2013 to its first pastor, Fr. Robert Tatman, who was transferred to another assignment in the diocese after leading the Ave Maria parish since its formation in 2008.
