Location: Santa Isabel
Date Established: 1907
Date Ceased Operations: 1911
Annual Production Graph: N/A
Average Annual Production: N/A
Best Production Year: N/A
Family Ownership: Valdivieso, Cabrera
Corporate Ownership: Central Aguirre Sugar Compnay

 Central Florida is not to be confused with the Hacienda Florida located in Yauco, nor this Cabrera family confused with the Cabrera family that owned Central Boca Chica.  ​​Hacienda Florida was established by the Perez-Valdivieso brothers of Ponce during the first quarter of the 19th Century when the town of Santa Isabel was still part of Coamo.  The only information found about the Valdivieso brothers is in the book Ponce y su Historia Geopolitico-Económico y Cultural by Manuel Mayoral Barnés which  states that Spanish Army Captain Pedro Perez-Valdivieso is the trunk of the Perez-Valdivieso family of Ponce.  It is worthwhile noting that the original last names were Perez y Valdivieso, but through the years the Perez was changed to the initial P and eventually eliminated.  Mayoral states that Pedro's brother Luis remained in Ponce but brothers Antonio, Joaquin and Vicente ived in Ponce many years but retired in Spain and other European countries.

According to the website santaisabelpr.com, two years after the founding of the town of Santa Isabel in 1842, José María Colón Ortiz (1786-1879), its first Mayor, acquired for 30,826 pesos two hundred thirty seven acres, the sugar factory, eight slaves and other assets of Hacienda Florida from the Valdivieso brothers.  ​In 1854 Colón sold the hacienda to Nicolás Márquez Márquez ( -1871) who had established Hacienda Isidora in Salinas and also owned a hacienda in Ponce.  After Nicolás' death, the hacienda was owned by his estate and administered by his daughter Carmen's husband Pedro R. Morales.  

Between 1846 and 1886 an irrigation system was built by the owners of three contiguous haciendas in the area; Florida, Santa Isabel, and Destino.  Funds for the construction came from their own money and help from the Spanish Crown.  It consisted of a set of structures built in brick, stone and lime mortar masonry with concrete plastering to transport water from the Coamo River to the fields of their sugarcane plantations.  Known as the Irrigation System of the Three Haciendas, it was included in the National Register of Historic Places on December 13, 2016.​

In 1874, Hacienda Florida was sold by the estate of Nicolás Márquez to brothers Enrique and Carlos Cabrera Martinez (1806-1885).  Eventually Carlos and his wife Francisca Paz Valls (1833-1915) bought out his brother Enrique's interest and became sole owners of Hacienda Florida.  The hacienda was inherited by Carlos sons Carlos (1857-1930) and Adolfo (1867-1940) Cabrera Paz.  The two brothers married two sisters; Adolfo married Margarita Benvenutti Ducler (1878- ) and Carlos married twice, first time to Norberta Cuesta Haro (1866-1931) and second time to Carolina Benvenutti Ducler ( -1920) who had a previous marriage to Eugenio de Anca. 

The Cabrera Paz brothers always had the desire to have their own sugar mill.  When the South Porto Rico Sugar Co. established the Guanica Centrale, there were plans to establish a second sugar mill in Santa Isabel which included the Cabrera's.  However, this plan never materialized and eventually in 1909, the South Porto Rico Sugar Co. acquired the nearby Central Fortuna.   Because the plan with the South Porto Rico Sugar Co. did not materialize, in 1902 the Cabrera's entered into a colono or sugar planter agreement with Central Aguirre who then processed all the sugarcane grown on the lands of Hacienda Florida.​

Despite the colono agreement, in 1907 Carlos Cabrera Paz, started the construction of a central sugar mill.  Financing for this new venture came from investors well known in the sugar indistry at the time:

• Guillermo Cortada Torruella, son of Ramón Cortada Quintana whose family owned Central Cortada

• Carlos Armstrong Toro, businessman, banker and politician, founder of the mercantile firm Carlos Armstrong, later Carlos Armstrong e Hijos, Sucres. at Ponce Playa importers and exporters.

• Fritze, Lundt & Co., firm established by German immigrants Heirich Carll Fritz, German Vice-Consul in Ponce and the German Consul in San Juan Karl H. Lundt, the largest sugar exporting firm o the island at the time.  It was organized in Mayagüez in 1892 to continue the business of Kraemer & Co. where Karl H. Lundt was a shareholder

• Eduardo Georgetti who owned Central Plazuela

• Manuel Gonzalez Martinez, Spanish immigrant from Asturias who arrived in Puerto Rico ca. 1875  and established residence in Salinas where he bagan acquiring land and growing sugarcane becoming one of the largest colonos of Central Aguirre, he also started raising oxen instead of cattle to supply the needs of the growing sugar industry.  

• Rafael Fabián Fabián part owner of Central Mercedita in Yabucoa, Central Constancia and Central Cortada and was President of Banco Territorial y Agricola the island's 2nd largest bank in 1910 and was part owner of the long time established restaurant La Mallorquina in Old San Juan

• Juan Carlos McCormick Hartman owner of Central Machete

• Ramón Aboy Benitez whose family owned Central Arcadia in Vieques

Due to the colono agreement, Central Aguirre brought a lawsuit which was decided in their favor and in 1910 acquired Central Florida.

It is a vast misconception that Central Florida never operated, although that might have been the case under the Cabrera ownership.  The May 27, 1911 edition of The Louisiana Planter and Sugar Manufacturer reports; "Mr. John  H. Hafemeyer, the affable and popular sugar maker is back in New Orleans, having completed the crop at the Florida Centrale in Porto Rico, whither he went several months ago.  Mr. Hafemeyer reports that the campaign at Florida was curtailed somewhat, it being found desirable on account of the scarcity of wood fuel to grind a portion of the cane intended for Florida at a neighboring factory operated under the same auspices." 

The January 20, 1912 edition of the same periodical reports; "Central Aguirre in the south, which bought out the Central Florida a couple of years ago and has been continuing to run the factory, will try this year to grind the whole crop at the former factory and will probably endeavor to sell off the machinery of the latter, which is in pretty good shape, while not just up to date."  Based on these reports, it is evident that Central Florida did operate while under the ownership of Central Aguirre.​

Since 1974 the lands of Central Florida belong to the PR Land Authority.  On December 8, 1977  the PR Land Authority leased the land of the former Hacienda Florida and Hacienda Destino to Roy M. Spear in representation of John Scussel and his Land Management Inc.  In 1981 Land Management Inc. filed for Bankruptcy and the PR Land Authority regained title to the properties.  The land used to grow sugarcane for Central Florida is currently being used to grow produce. 

Remains today only include the processing building as seen on the first picture below and the overseer house.  The plaque on the house states it was a typical overseers colonial house of the 19th Century owned by the Spanish families Cabrera and Valdivieso.  ​The last three drone photos were taken by Carlos Alemán in 2023.  They show the processing building as well as the manor house which can be identified between a group of trees to the right of the processing building towards the open fields.