Drugmaker to close St. Pete factory

ST. PETERSBURG

Pharmaceutical firm to close local factory

Dozens of jobs will move from St. Petersburg to Bristol, Tenn., when King Pharmaceuticals closes its factory at 2517 25th Ave. N at the end of this year. King has owned the plant since 2000 but is consolidating manufacturing of its popular thyroid drug Levoxyl in Tennessee. As many as 100 people have worked at the Pinellas County plant. Pinellas economic development officials said Bristol lured the company away with financial incentives.

ST. PETERSBURG

New Dunkin' Donuts sprinkled with green

When Robert Aziz decided to open a Dunkin' Donuts franchise as a "fun project" a year ago, the Bostonian first looked close to home. But Massachusetts, he said, was "saturated."

More than $250,000 later, the groundbreaking for his store at Fourth Street N and 76th Avenue N in St. Petersburg was held Thursday.

Aziz's store is St. Petersburg's first LEED green-certified restaurant, designed to meet special standards for energy use, irrigation and building design. It is also the first green building of the 7,900 stores in the chain.

Clearwater

Insurer to absorb Citizens policies

Homeowners Choice Property & Casualty Insurance Co., which is based in Port St. Lucie but plans to move to Clearwater this summer, was one of six companies approved to remove 100,000 homeowner policies from state-backed Citizens Property Insurance.

American Integrity Insurance and Avatar Property and Casualty, two Tampa companies, were also approved to take Citizens policies.