July 30, 2026 — Northeast Florida (First Coast) new business activity

New business filings across the seven counties of Northeast Florida came to 906 for the week of July 9 to 15, 2026, almost exactly where the same week landed a year ago.

No single kind of business ran the week. The largest group was professional services at 120 new businesses, or 13.2% of the total. Property holding and asset protection followed with 115. Construction and trades came third with 85. That spread means the new prospect pool covers many kinds of buyer, not one trade.

Duval County held 568 of the region's new filings and Jacksonville by itself had 528. St. Johns County was a distant second with 117, then Clay with 83 and Flagler with 66. Most of the week's prospect list sits inside one metro.

Nassau County is worth a look. It recorded 39 new filings, and 30 of those were in Fernandina Beach. The same week, the city review committee carried four separate private projects on one agenda. For a county this size, that is a lot happening at once.

The longer view is flat to slightly down. The last 13 weeks produced 12,284 filings against 12,340 in the 13 weeks before that. No single filing service is behind the activity either. The largest registered agent handled 32 filings, or 3.53% of the region, so the week reads as real local formation and not one batch.

A steady slowdown over the past 13 weeks.

The bold line is the 13-week average. Read it for the longer trend. The thin line is each week's count, which swings week to week.

• 2025-26
• 2024-25
• 2023-24
• 2022-23
• 2021-22

New business formation usually runs highest around Mar and is quietest around Nov, holding near 4,000 a month across the years.

Each line is one year, ending at the current month on the right, so you can read the past year left to right. New Year's Day is left out because the state office is closed, so almost no businesses register that day.

Professional Services grew the most this week, 60 more (up 100.0%). Several smaller sectors also grew.

Duval led the region this week with 568 new filings. Gains were broad, with 6 other counties also up from the week before.

• A Jacksonville City Council committee took up the purchase and construction of a multifamily housing project of about 240 units at 11050 Beach Boulevard, to be called Campbell Cove. Every unit would be set aside for households at or below 60% of the area median income. The city had already approved a $5,000,000 development loan for the project. No final decision had been recorded. About 240 units is a long run of work for concrete and framing crews, electricians, plumbers, roofers, and drywall and paint crews. Material suppliers and equipment rental yards feed off the same job. Once it is occupied, the building needs landscaping, pest control, janitorial and maintenance contracts, plus a property manager and an insurance agent. Construction and trades filed 85 new businesses this week, 9.4% of the region, so the pool of local firms chasing exactly this kind of job is growing. City of Jacksonville Finance Committee agenda, 2026-05-19
• A rezoning covering 161.46 acres at Old Kings Road and Acree Road in Jacksonville would change an existing planned development to allow more uses, including light industrial. The North Citizens Planning Advisory Committee recommended denial. Land Use and Zoning public hearings were set for July 21 and August 18, and no final decision had been recorded. Opening 161.46 acres to light industrial use is site work first: clearing, grading, paving, stormwater and utility runs. Buildings that follow need steel erectors, roofers, electricians and dock equipment installers. Tenants then hire freight and warehousing firms, security, janitorial and landscaping crews. They also buy accounting, insurance and technology services. The item is still under review, so this is early warning rather than work that is booked. City of Jacksonville Land Use and Zoning Committee agenda, 2026-06-02
• The Fernandina Beach Technical Review Committee agenda for July 9 carried four separate private projects. One was a first review for a personal training facility at 3220 Amelia Road. One was a site plan sign off for an aircraft hangar at the Fernandina Beach Municipal Airport. One was a site plan for a duplex and a single family home at 309 S. 3rd Street. The last was a site plan for commercial flex space at 1750 S. 14th Street. Four private projects on one small city agenda is a lot of local building work for a town this size. The hangar needs steel, concrete and airfield electrical work. The flex space needs a shell, then fit out for whoever leases it. The homes feed the usual residential trades. This is in step with Nassau County recording 39 new filings the same week, 30 of them in Fernandina Beach. City of Fernandina Beach Technical Review Committee agenda packet, 2026-07-09
• ZIM Line and Mediterranean Shipping Company added Jacksonville to the ZCP-Amberjack container service, calling JAXPORT's Blount Island Marine Terminal every week. The rotation runs through Qingdao, Ningbo and Shanghai in China, Busan in South Korea, Manzanillo in Panama, Cartagena in Colombia, Charleston, Savannah, Jacksonville and Kingston. Transit time from North Asia is about 28 to 32 days. A new weekly Asia call means steady container volume moving off Blount Island. That is work for drayage and trucking firms, customs brokers, freight forwarders, warehouse and cross dock operators, container repair shops and equipment maintenance crews. It coincides with transportation and logistics filing 49 new businesses this week, 5.4% of the region. JAXPORT, 2026-07-14
• Baptist Health opened the Baptist SilverLeaf Medical Campus at 8595 St. Johns Parkway in St. Augustine. Opening services are primary care, cardiology, rehabilitation and laboratory services, plus a wellness center. Orthopedics and neurology specialists start seeing patients in the fall. An emergency center for adults and children is scheduled to open in September. The campus serves an area with about 1.02 million people within a 30 minute drive. A new medical campus pulls independent practices, imaging, therapy, home health and medical staffing firms toward it. Those are exactly the businesses that register early. It also needs medical waste handling, linen service, specialist cleaning, equipment maintenance and courier runs. This lines up with health care filing 59 new businesses this week, 6.5% of the region. St. Johns County also ranked second at 117. Baptist Health, 2026-06-22
• Flagler County told residents that the Florida Department of Transportation will resurface State Road 100 from the Putnam County border, at the northern end of Crescent Lake, to U.S. 1 in Bunnell. The county published the notice on July 17, 2026. A resurfacing run of this length is steady work for paving and milling contractors, traffic control and barricade firms, surveyors, testing labs, hauling companies and aggregate suppliers. Roadside businesses along the route also buy signage and temporary access work while lanes shift. Flagler filed 66 new businesses this week and Putnam 24, so a job of this size matters in both. Flagler County government, 2026-07-17

This was a normal week for the First Coast. Against the same week last year the count is flat, and the three month trend is drifting slightly down. The week before this one was cut short by the July 4 closure, so we do not measure against it. What is worth acting on is the mix and the map. Construction and trades filed 85 new businesses, retail 66 and health care 59. The public record shows demand behind those numbers. A 240 unit housing project is moving in Jacksonville. Another 161.46 acres are headed toward light industrial use. Fernandina Beach had four private projects on one agenda. A new medical campus opened in St. Augustine. A state road resurfacing job is coming to Flagler and Putnam. If you sell to builders, medical practices, or freight and warehousing firms, the new names this week are worth reaching first. If you sell more broadly, note that 568 of the region new businesses are in Duval County. A Jacksonville focused list will cover most of the week.

These counts come from new business registrations filed with the state for the seven counties of Northeast Florida, for the week of July 9 to 15, 2026. We wait about two weeks after a week ends for the state to finish recording every filing, so these counts are complete rather than early estimates. Industry groupings are our own plain language categories, and a business is counted once. City counts are conservative, because the state record sometimes stores one city under more than one spelling. Every development described in this report links to the government or company record it came from, and we read each of those records before citing it.

Frequently asked questions

Why is there no comparison to the week before?

Because it would mislead. The week before this one included the July 4 closure and recorded only 563 filings, far below a normal week here. Measuring against it would show a jump of about 61%, and no such jump happened. The comparisons we do show are against the same week last year and against the region's normal pace.

Why is so much of the activity in one county?

Duval County holds Jacksonville, the region's largest city by a wide margin. Duval had 568 of the region's new filings this week and Jacksonville alone had 528. That is normal for this region, not a one week event.

Nassau County went from 8 filings to 39. Should I chase that?

Treat it as a signal to watch. Small counties move a lot on a single busy week. Fernandina Beach also had four private projects on one review agenda the same week, so there is real building activity behind some of it.

How current are these numbers?

This report covers the week of July 9 to 15, 2026. We wait about two weeks after a week ends so the state can finish recording every filing. That means the counts here are complete rather than early estimates.