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Baker County, Florida

Choosing Baker County a “No Brainer”

Kevin Donohoe started his timber framing business in Ireland but in search of more business, he relocated to Northeast Florida and found a site for his company, KD Walls, in Baker County.

Baker is a relatively small county with a labor force of about 11,000. But Darryl Register, executive director of Baker’s economic development commission, says those workers were an ideal fit for KD, which expects to employ about 100.

Baker County at a glance
Baker County FloridaPopulation 28,042
Labor Force 11,393
Total Households 8,995
Per Capita Income $24,109
Retail Spending $175.2 mil.

“We have a great blue-collar workforce here that can fill those jobs,” says Register.

Besides the workforce, the county is ideally located off of I-10 and close to I-95 and I-75, making it easy to reach customers in every direction.

“It gave us everything we need from a logistics point of view,” says Adam Goode, KD’s director of operations. “It was literally a no brainer.”

KD, which provides pre-manufactured wall and floor panel services, fits in with several of Baker’s key industries: manufacturing, logistics and distribution and logging and timber.

Donohoe says Baker County reminds him of Ireland, because of its open spaces. KD Walls bought a vacant industrial building that’s bigger than he needs right now, but that will give him room to grow.

“It’s better to grow into a place than grow out of place,” he says.

Register hopes the county’s efforts to recruit KD will help attract more companies.

“It gives a signal of what the Board of County Commissioners will do to attract new jobs and industries to Baker County,” he says.