SHARE:
Big Bend: Growing New Jobs
One growing employer is Unisys. The company wrested administration of the state-employee insurance contract from Jacksonville-based Blue Cross Blue Shield and has added 227 workers, with plans to add 50 more over the next few months.
In addition, incentives offered jointly by the city and state governments helped convince General Dynamics to expand the work force at its combat radio plant in Tallahassee from 400 to 550.
Even a failed attempt to lure a major employer, insurer United States Fidelity and Guaranty Co. (USF&G), may bode well for similar efforts in the future. USF&G had Tallahassee on its list before deciding in January to locate a 500-employee service center in Tampa.
"Getting on the short list gave us tremendous credibility," says Joe Kelley, vice president of the Economic Development Commission of Tallahassee (EDC). "And it really pulled us together as a community. We paid lip service to cooperation before, but the USF&G effort really got the private sector, local government and the two universities on the same page." Since the near-miss with USF&G, Kelley says prospective employers working with the Economic Development Commission have visited Tallahassee sites at an average rate of one per week -- more than double the number of site visits before the city's courtship of USF&G.
Meanwhile, the state government last year added 800 jobs to its work force of 42,700 in the Tallahassee area, while creating 4,100 jobs elsewhere in Florida -- a result of the state's continuing policy to expand its payroll beyond the capital city.
The impact of that policy may intensify this year as Gov. Chiles renews his push to privatize the Florida Department of Commerce and fold its tourism and economic development units into a pair of public-private sector partnerships, the Tourism Commission and Orlando-based Enterprise Florida. If Chiles can get the Legislature to agree, his plan could shift as many as 150 of the Commerce Department's 300 positions from the Big Bend region to Central Florida.
"We support privatization," says Mark Mustian, a local attorney who chairs the Tallahassee Area Chamber of Commerce's governmental relations committee. "But obviously we don't think the jobs should leave Tallahassee. We hope to lure them here the way we would any other business."
The loss of 150 local jobs at Commerce could cause further erosion of airline service in Tallahassee. But efforts are under way to reverse this trend. Commerce is one of the heavier government users of Tallahassee Regional Airport, which already is reeling from the loss of service from Air South, American Eagle and Continental Airlines and a recent decision by USAir to convert its jet service in Tallahassee to commuter flights.
The service cutbacks reduced the number of daily departures from Tallahassee Regional Airport from 83 to 68 -- still more than in many comparably sized cities, according to airport manager Bill Johnson. To counter the cutback in airline service, the city of Tallahassee hired Namack & Associates of Annandale, Va., to help in luring a discount airline such as Southwest or ValuJet.
Beyond The Capital City
Beyond Leon, job growth has been slow in some counties due to sluggish expansion of state-government payrolls, softness in the textile and timber industries and the constitutional ban on gill nets once used widely by commercial fishermen.
In some of the Big Bend's smallest counties, a lack of economic development apparently appeals to residents.
"We're basically a farming community," says Frank Grant, chairman of the Economic Development Authority in Gilchrist County, which has seen its population double to an estimated 11,401 since 1980. "About the only thing we've got is a prison and the dairy business. We've got one traffic light and four caution lights in the whole county. But we have excellent schools and low crime. It's a great place to raise a family."
In Madison County, new truck stops at Interstate 10 and U.S. 53 make local headlines. "Five years ago, we had a motel and campground" at the intersection of Interstate 10 and U.S. 53, says Howell Waring, executive vice president of the Madison County Chamber of Commerce. "Now we've got three truck stops, couple of restaurants and three motels, with a fourth one under construction."
By contrast, Columbia County -- the largest population center between Tallahassee and Jacksonville -- is home to a cluster of expanding businesses. Among them are Homes of Merit, a mobile home manufacturer that intends to fill as many as 70 new jobs by the middle of summer, and Aero Corp., a 650-employee company that maintains and refurbishes commercial aircraft. Aero hired an additional 250 workers in the past year.
Lumber And Timber Troubles
Less optimistic are Big Bend lumber and timber companies. In Dixie County, Georgia-Pacific's Chip-N-Saw plant, which produces lumber for the building industry, twice has resorted to week-long furloughs in recent efforts to avoid layoffs.
"The lumber business is extremely weak," says Chip-N-Saw plant manager George Bowen. "In part it's the terrible weather in the Northeast. And in part it's the Canadian competition; because of government subsidies, they can land it in Florida cheaper than we can produce it."
Dixie County also lost Great Bear Industries, a manufacturer of clothes for Wal-Mart and JCPenney that employed 70. Management blamed the closing on continued weakness in the apparel market. In Baker County, meanwhile, men's clothing maker and distributor Macclenny Products shuttered its garment-cutting operation, laying off a third of its work force of 150. Macclenny Products now concentrates solely on distribution.
The region's coastal counties -- Taylor, Wakulla and Dixie -- have felt the impact of Florida's voter-approved constitutional ban on gill nets. The ban has deprived about 350 commercial fishermen along the Big Bend coast of their primary source of income.
The impact of the ban has been eased by a state buyout of the banned nets; many fishermen used the state money to fund a switch to harvesting that doesn't require gill nets. Mike Deming, director of the Taylor County Chamber of Commerce, predicts commercial fishermen in the area may begin to actively seek other types of work later this year.
Both Taylor and Wakulla counties will get a boost from one of the state government's biggest sources of new employment: prisons. A new prison in Wakulla and a doubling of the size of an existing facility in Taylor will add about 300 jobs to the employment rolls of each county.
Since 1989, the state government has built new prisons in six counties in the Big Bend and expanded facilities in five others, generally locating in counties willing to donate land or front the costs for utilities. Outside Leon County, prison jobs now constitute nearly 10% of employment in the Big Bend region.
Structured Approach
The famous line from the movie "Field of Dreams" -- "If you build it, they will come" -- is also a popular rule of thumb among Big Bend economic development officials. When cities and counties court prospective employers, the ability to offer a selection of suitable buildings is a major advantage.
When Homes of Merit wanted to add a third manufactured-housing plant in Lake City, the Columbia County government offered to build it and lease it to the company. Homes of Merit accepted; this summer, 70 new hires will commence operations in the county-owned plant, located in a business park owned by the Lake City government. Says the Lake City Chamber of Commerce's executive director Jim Poole: "There's a lot of cooperation between the private sector and both governments, especially in the last three years. We're very fortunate."
Homes of Merit's neighbor, Aero Corp., already is expanding its aircraft maintenance and refurbishment business for Continental Airlines, ValuJet and other carriers. "Right now we're at 650 employees," says Aero President and CEO Mark Owen. "We'd like to be at 700 or even 750 workers by the end of the year."
Elsewhere in the Big Bend region, however, economic development leaders say adequate commercial space isn't always available.
"No question, the two major successes we've had, the National High Magnetic Field Laboratory and General Dynamics, would not have happened if we hadn't had buildings in place," says Joe Kelley, vice president of the Economic Development Commission of Tallahassee. But a lack of suitable space may have led insurer USF&G to choose Tampa over Tallahassee as the site for a 500-employee processing center. "They could lease an existing building in Tampa, while here they couldn't," Kelley says. "Even though we put together a very attractive package of incentives for them, I think that was the difference."
