N. Carolina Targets Florida's Boating Industry

North Carolina is targeting Florida's boating industry.

Opening her term as chairwoman of the Broward Alliance economic development group, Peggy Nordeen, CEO of marketing company Starmark International, warned: "The Carolinas want our marine industry desperately."

North Carolina's so aggressive, echoes Frank Herhold, executive director of the Marine Industries Association of South Florida, "I'm walking around with what feels like a bull's-eye on my back."

Frank Herhold [Photo: Melanie Neale]

Indeed, North Carolina's commerce department says boating is one of its targeted industries. The state offers available working waterfront space, which has dwindled in Florida, a central seaboard location for cutting shipping and transportation costs, and lower costs.

But talk to Herhold's nemesis, Mike Bradley, director of boating industry services at North Carolina's Small Business Technology Development Center (they run into each other at events like last fall's Fort Lauderdale Boat Show) and you get a different view of the threat: "I probably am involved in 80% to 90% of boating industry efforts in North Carolina. They used to be successes, and now they're efforts."

North Carolina lured 17 or so marine companies over the years, he says, but the recession, which devastated boat making, changed things. Companies with Florida ties that North Carolina won over, such as Sarasota-based Chris-Craft, now have shut their Carolina factories and laid off workers there. Relocation is costly, so few are considering it. Florida, meanwhile, is good, Bradley says, at arranging export opportunities for its companies and is a favored location for international companies looking, with the weak dollar, to establish a U.S. operation.

Nevertheless, Herhold says, his association is working with the Broward Alliance and Enterprise Florida on a strategy to retain industry players.

"We don't want to see our critical mass deteriorate," Herhold says.

Tags: Southeast