Northwest: Right Time, Right Place
 Demographics for the Northwest Region can be found at Business Florida's interactive map of Florida. |
 Companies choosing to expand in northwest Florida enjoy the best of two worlds — business sites with global connections and a family-friendly setting with great views like this off the Gulf Coast at Destin. |
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Family Appeal
Population in the Tallahassee metro area is on the rise, according to University of Florida’s Bureau of Economic and Business Research. In Wakulla County alone, the population jumped 3.5% from April 2008 to 2009. “We have people moving here to raise families,” says Tallahassee real estate appraiser Greg Lane. “I think people come here to stay.” |
| Regional Assets
Universities/Colleges Airports Seaports |
“It’s the best of both worlds,” says Murdoch, who partnered with Chief Technology Officer Joel Smith nearly eight years ago to found AppRiver. “I live in paradise, and I have a business that is global.”
AppRiver offers spam and virus protection to more than 35,000 subscribers worldwide. Since opening in 2002, the firm has maintained a 97% customer retention rate, and Murdoch expects close to $29 million in revenue for 2009.
The majority of AppRiver’s skilled employees have come directly from classrooms at the University of West Florida and Pensacola Junior College (PJC). But when the firm needs to hire from outside, Murdoch says “recruiting efforts are easier once prospective employees experience Gulf Breeze — its natural beauty and quality of life. It’s what I like to call a ‘lifestyle by design.’”
The pro-business environment is another plus. As a targeted high value-added industry, AppRiver received a Qualified Target Industry (QTI) Tax Refund from the state of Florida in exchange for creating high wage jobs. In addition, the company partnered with PJC, which teaches Microsoft certification courses on-site at the “AppRiver University” training facility.
“There’s a pro-business environment here — from Tallahassee down to the local level — that makes it easy to start a business,” says Murdoch. “I don’t know if I’d get the same level of help somewhere else outside of Florida.”
PENSACOLA/ESCAMBIA COUNTY
Wind power: GE Energy is expanding its existing plant in Pensacola to begin assembling a new 2.5-megawatt wind turbine. The expansion means 80 additional jobs and about $3 million in new payroll.
New facility: The University of West Florida’s new School of Science and Engineering complex, complete with prototype robot fabrication and testing laboratories and a 3-D virtual reality simulator, is slated to open at the Pensacola campus in February 2010.
 Science, technology, engineering and math programs will come together in this new complex at the University of West Florida. [Rendering: University of West Florida] |
SANTA ROSA COUNTY
Under construction: 400 employees are slated to begin working at the Blackwater River Correctional Facility in East Milton when it opens in January 2010. GEO Group is constructing the $120-million project that will house up to 2,000 prisoners.
OKALOOSA COUNTY
Incubating technology: The University of West Florida Combs Campus in Fort Walton Beach hosts the area’s technology incubator facility for entrepreneurs like Jerry Pfeiffer. Pfeiffer co-founded GovernmentSupportJobs.com, a firm that specializes in helping companies with government contracts find skilled staff to complete their contracted jobs. The technology incubator, jointly launched in April 2009 by UWF and the Economic Development Council of Okaloosa County, aims to assist defense-related and technology startups by providing low-cost furnished office space and technical/business support.
WALTON COUNTY
Access plus natural beauty: With proximity to three airports, two deepwater seaports, CSX rail and solid roads (Interstate 10, U.S. 20 and State Road 331), Walton County is an excellent choice for businesses seeking ease of access. Moreover, the beaches of South Walton make up perhaps the neatest 26-mile stretch of shoreline anywhere, earning the “Blue Wave” certification for cleanliness from the Washington, D.C.-based Clean Beaches Council and helping to retain this area’s popularity as a favorite “drive-to” destination; more vacationers have arrived so far in 2009 than in the previous year.
HOLMES COUNTY
Making a comeback: AUS Manufacturing Company is enjoying a renaissance of sorts thanks to the recent push for cleaner energy along with new emission standards that require utilities to upgrade their power plants. The Bonifay-based manufacturing and fabrication company builds the multi-fuel burners used by power plants across the United States and overseas to produce electricity.
AUS President Jimmy Rich, Vice President James Sellers and partner Carlton Treadwell have more than 50 combined years of experience in the burner industry and a shared history in Holmes County. They all grew up in Bonifay, and the 56,000-square-foot building that today houses the AUS headquarters used to be a textile factory where Sellers’ mother once worked.
Although it hasn’t always been smooth sailing for this company, which was founded in 2001 with the assistance of a California-based firm, Sellers says the firm is flourishing now. “We’ve got a really good workforce in our county and good quality people in our area,” says Sellers. “We’re here because we wanted to be successful in our environment.”
JACKSON COUNTY
Crystal clear success: The Canadian company Ice River Springs is drawing water from several sources in the region for its newly opened bottling plant in the Jackson County Industrial Park in Marianna. Water drawn from the Marianna city well is being bottled and repackaged for clients who sell it under their own brand names. Water drawn from springs in neighboring Liberty and Bay counties is being bottled and distributed under the Ice River Springs brand.
WASHINGTON COUNTY
Cementing a deal: Foley Products Company, the largest supplier of precast concrete manholes in the southeastern United States, chose Washington County as the site of its first Florida facility. Key to inking the deal, which brings 150 new jobs and an estimated annual payroll of $5.1 million to the region, was the county’s commitment to build a dual rail spur. The spur will be available to Foley Products now and to other companies that locate in Washington County. A $2-million grant from the Florida Department of Transportation is being used to construct the spur.
CALHOUN COUNTY
Gearing up for growth: The city of Blountstown received a $300,000 grant to hire an engineering firm to study improvements needed at the Calhoun County Industrial Park, a 146-acre park with an airport. Connected to Interstate 10 via Highway 71 and just 16 miles away from rail, the park is due for a facelift thanks to its designation as a RACEC catalyst pilot site. Industries targeted for the area include: green engineering and building materials, storm-resistant buildings, innovations with composite material, distribution and logistics and other cutting-edge technologies. Calhoun, Gadsden, Gulf, Holmes, Jackson, Liberty, Washington and a portion of Walton counties make up the Northwest RACEC — Rural Area of Critical Economic Concern.
PANAMA CITY/BAY COUNTY
Aloft at last: Bay County is gearing up for the opening of the new Panama City-Bay County International Airport in May 2010. The first international airport to be built in the U.S. since September 11, 2001, it is also the first to feature a LEED-certified terminal. Total costs for the project are expected to reach $318 million, of which federal, state and local governments are contributing equal amounts. The airport is expected to host 600,000 passengers annually by 2020.
Firmly grounded: Approximately 30% of the 71,000 acres adjacent to the new international airport is being developed as an “aerotropolis.” Plans include a regional employment center for time-sensitive goods-processing industries, car rental outlets, hotels, office buildings, an intermodal truck and rail facility that will be linked to the airport area and the Port of Panama City.
GULF COUNTY
More power to you: Biomass Gas & Electric will begin building its $160-million Northwest Florida Renewable Energy Center at Port St. Joe in early 2010. When completed in fall 2011, Biomass will sell the electricity it generates from the Port St. Joe plant to Progress Energy Florida. Biomass President Glenn Farris notes that Gulf County offered everything his firm needed: easy access to roads and rail, plus a barge port that will enable the company to export fuel should it choose to do so in the future. “We have flexibility and additional options,” he says, adding that the Port St. Joe location “really is an ideal place. And on top of that, the community really supported us.”
FRANKLIN COUNTY
Planning for the future: Franklin County has received grants from the Federal Aviation Administration and the Florida Department of Transportation to buy 70 acres of land to serve as a buffer zone and protect future growth at Apalachicola Municipal Airport.
Coming Home As a boy growing up on St. George Island just off the Florida Panhandle in Apalachicola Bay, Ben Bloodworth instinctively knew that the sun was the area’s best natural resource. “It’s what you either avoid or look for every day,” he says. But like many boys who hail from small towns, Bloodworth felt the lure of the city and moved to Atlanta. But long commutes and congested roads proved too much, and he came back to Franklin County, where he started Sol Verde Renewable Energy Solutions in January 2008 Together with his brother Michael, Ben Bloodworth installs solar photovoltaic and thermal panels in new spaces and retrofits older spaces for solar technology. Sol Verde’s future is bright in large part because of federal and state tax incentives that are reducing the costs of going green. In December 2007, for example, the Florida Public Service Commission adopted a net metering rule that allows customers to sell back some of the power they generate on their own from renewable technologies to publicly held utility companies and save on their utility bills in the process. Combining their green approach with a commitment to leave the world a better place, Sol Verde has applied their ingenuity to helping protect sea turtles. All along the beaches in Florida female sea turtles crawl ashore to lay their eggs. When the hatchlings emerge, their tendency is to move toward the brightest light, which, on a natural beach, is usually the water. On developed beaches, it’s more likely to be a busy road. Sol Verde’s solution is energy-efficient lights to guide the newborns in the right direction. The Bloodworths are working hard to get them placed on shores where turtles nest. Given that 27 Florida counties have marine turtle protection ordinances, the market is ripe. |
WAKULLA, GADSDEN AND LIBERTY COUNTIES
 Goods move smoothly along an interconnected highway system linking northwest Florida to other southeastern states. |
Ready for development: Ready access to Georgia, Alabama and the rest of Florida via I-10, U.S. 90 and U.S. 27 makes Gadsden County an ideal site for commerce. Approximately 20 square miles of the county, including several business and industrial parks served by CSX rail lines, are contained in Enterprise Zones.
JEFFERSON COUNTY
Easy access: I-10, which offers east-west access, and U.S. Highway 19, which runs north-south, are two good reasons to do business in Jefferson County. Another is proximity to Florida’s capital city, Tallahassee. In Monticello — the county seat and a designated National Historic District — a new 2,400-square-foot emergency operations center was completed in June 2009.
TALLAHASSEE/LEON COUNTY
Training to fit industry needs: The $20-million Advanced Manufacturing Training Center opening in January 2010 at Tallahassee Community College focuses on curriculum to prepare a ready pool of technically trained candidates for general and/or aviation-based manufacturing companies in the county.
 Dr. Ben Wang, director of the High-Performance Materials Institute at Florida State University, leads a team of students, researchers and faculty that is nationally recognized for its innovative work with nanofiber buckypapers. [Photo: Ray Stanyard] |
Recycling pays off: Southern Leon County is the site of a new recycling operation. Marpan Recycling is a Class III facility (it accepts most materials, from construction and demolition debris to leaves, grass, tree trimmings and traditional household trash). The $5.5-million plant can handle up to 500 tons of debris a day, operating as many as 309 days out of the year. Kim Williams, president and majority owner, expects first-year revenues of between $2 million and $3 million, but operating at full capacity, with about 20 employees, the company should take in more than $5 million. Marpan Supply, the parent company, which hauls debris for commercial customers, will be the plant’s largest customer, having paid more than $1 million last year in landfill tipping fees alone.