SOUTHWEST: Eye Opener
Hard hit by the housing market slump, regional leaders are stepping up efforts to lure businesses and industries to Southwest Florida. “We need to diversify the economy so as to reduce the cyclical nature of the real estate business,” says Mike Jackson, economic development director for Cape Coral, where esidential permits have plunged 78% from 3,501 in 2006 to 760 in 2007.
While Cape Coral seeks new marketing, banking, finance and insurance businesses for its mostly white-collar workforce, Lee County is targeting high-tech computer-related companies and biosciences firms — an effort that should get a boost from the new southwest chapter of BioFlorida. “A key component for us is not only that they’re tech based — because those types of industries mean higher paid jobs — but that they aren’t bound by the local economy,” says Jennifer Berg, marketing and communications manager for the Lee County Economic Development Office.
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Richard Pegnetter, dean of the college of business at Florida Gulf Coast University, is spearheading a regional branding effort to create a cohesive identity for Lee, Collier, Glades, Hendry and Charlotte counties.
Sarasota and Manatee counties, meanwhile, have partnered in an effort to recruit businesses in the computer software and health and life sciences industries. “If we’re really going to be serious players about growing biotech, we need to be doing it as a megaregion really,” says Nancy Engel, executive director of the Manatee County Economic Development Council.
The region’s rural counties face a double whammy from property tax cuts coupled with the housing slump. Glades County Economic Development Director Tracy Whirls says the county stands to lose $3.7 million over the next five years and is implementing a hiring freeze, job reductions and spending cuts.
POPULATION TRENDS
With more than half a million residents, Lee County is both the most populated county and the fastest growing, having doubled its population over the past 20 years. Regional growth will slow, according to the Regional Economic Research Institute at Florida Gulf Coast University’s Lutgert College of Business, because of a scarcity of land, building codes and hurricane restrictions, higher land costs, increased hurricane activity and a smaller cohort of retirees to follow the Baby Boomer generation.
Sarasota
 boom years (Sarasota) Ken Sanborn » Business is booming for Gyrocam Systems, which manufactures security cameras and airborne surveillance equipment for law enforcement and the military, says President and CEO Ken Sanborn. The defense contractor’s revenue has grown from $5 million to $230 million in 1½ years. [Photo: Michael McElroy] |
Local officials are looking into fast-tracking transportation and public works projects to boost the economy and stem further layoffs in the hard-hit construction industry. The 1-cent sales tax renewal approved by voters last November will raise about $1.4 billion over the next 15 years and could provide critical funding for some of those capital improvements. The Greater Sarasota Chamber of Commerce, meanwhile, has announced a $2-million initiative called Sarasota Tomorrow to encourage job creation, a friendlier business climate and a better transportation system.
LEADERS
» Former Sarasota mayor and former Sarasota City Commissioner Richard Martin is spearheading an effort by the Community Alliance of Sarasota County, an umbrella organization for 52 local non-profits, to create a $5-million emergency fund to provide assistance to homeowners on the brink of foreclosure. Martin, who is executive director of the Suncoast Partnership to End Homelessness, says the idea of the emergency fund is to provide education — such as credit counseling and credit repair services — as well as cash to those in need. “What we need is a big pot of money to dole out at $1,000 apiece to keep families afloat.”
HOUSING TREND / SARASOTA
The city issued 71 permits for new residential construction in 2007
compared to 112 in 2006 — a 37% drop. Permits for new commercial construction, meanwhile, rose by 12.5% from 16 to 18.
Home building makes a significant impact on the U.S. economy — comprising about 4% of GDP. Residential construction in Sarasota County makes up roughly 30% of the economy, says Kathy Baylis, president of the Economic Development Corporation of Sarasota County.
Sarasota County
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In the fast-growing North Port area, new economic development manager Allan Lane is making job creation his top priority. “North Port needs to diversify its employment base by seeking to attract businesses and industries that offer higher wage jobs,” says Lane, who came to North Port in January from College Park, Ga. The city must also expand its infrastructure, he says, to accommodate the growth that is predicted over the next several years. To that end, the city recently embarked on a $13.1-million road improvement program and approved a $50-million bond referendum to expand the city’s wastewater treatment facilities. The city is also rezoning properties to support industrial development.
Bradenton
Infrastructure is a key concern in Bradenton and other heavily populated sections of Manatee County. Bradenton and Palmetto have teamed up to tackle traffic congestion problems that plague both cities; the two cities will conduct a nine-month study funded by the Florida Department of Transportation and the Sarasota/Manatee Metropolitan Planning Organization.
The Lake Erie College of Osteopathic Medicine, which opened its Bradenton campus in Lakewood Ranch four years ago to help tackle the physician shortage in Florida, opened a pharmacy school last fall.
LEADER
» Manatee County Administrator Ed Hunzeker is looking at ways to streamline the county’s development review process and designating so-called “encouragement zones” where the county will provide incentives for redevelopment. Hunzeker is pushing for an impact fee to assure new growth pays for itself and wants to create a financing mechanism so that development can pay that impact fee over a 30-to-40-year horizon through tax-exempt debt.
HOUSING TREND / SARASOTA-BRADENTON
| Sales of single-family existing-home sales | ||
| Year | Sales | Median sales price |
| 2006 | 9,067 | $306,100 |
| 2007 | 8,103 (-11%) | $285,700 (-7%) |
| Source: Florida Association of Realtors | ||
| Sales of existing condos | ||
| Year | Sales | Median sales price |
| 2006 | 3,317 | $263,900 |
| 2007 | 3,197 (-4%) | $253,800 (-4%) |
| Source: Florida Association of Realtors | ||
Manatee County
The county has been hard-hit by layoffs related to the lagging home construction industry, but there have been positive developments as well. The Roskamp Institute in south Manatee, known for its research on Alzheimer’s disease, is attracting researchers with its recently announced three-year doctorate research program in neuroscience. Beacon Products, which manufactures outdoor lighting fixtures, lampposts and site furnishings, has just moved into a 50,000-sq.-ft. facility. The company has expanded its line of energy-efficient lighting products for cities and residences. Port Manatee’s new $3.9-million mobile harbor container crane has opened up opportunities in the container shipping business. The purchase of the crane also solidified Del Monte’s decision to renew its port contract for another five years.
Naples
Florida’s housing market crisis has stalled the transformation of downtown Naples. Developer Jack Antaramian has temporarily shelved plans for Renaissance Village, slated for 16 acres in downtown Naples. He was unable to secure the $100 million in reservations he needed to start work on the development, which was to have 300 residential units and 205,000 square feet of commercial space. Phil McCabe, president and CEO of Gulf Coast Commercial, suspended sales for Intermezzo, a luxury midrise community he was planning to build in Old Naples on the southeast quadrant of Goodlette-Frank Road and Central Avenue.
LEADERS
» Tim Cartwright, managing director of a merger and acquisition firm and president of Gulf Coast Venture Forum, is working with the Collier County Economic Development Commission to create a Southwest Florida regional angel fund, which he anticipates will be operational by the end of the year.
» Andrew McElwaine, who took the helm of the Conservancy of Southwest Florida in 2005, is spearheading a $25-million fund-raising campaign to increase the non-profit’s advocacy work, expand and modernize the group’s wildlife conservation center and double the organization’s existing endowment to generate $600,000 a year to support staff and services.
Collier County
The county’s economic development officials are working to keep existing businesses here. Inovo Inc., a Naples company that manufactures oxygen regulators and other respiratory devices, was considering a move to North Carolina or California after it gobbled up a California competitor. In response, county commissioners passed an $82,000 incentive package to encourage the company to stay. Employees at Inovo earn an average wage of $58,187 — 150% of the county average.
Collier Enterprises has scaled back its plans for Big Cypress, a new community that will be built on 2,800 acres in the eastern part of the county. The developer is aiming for 9,000 residential units instead of 25,000 as originally planned, with a town center between Golden Gate Estates and Ave Maria. Site preparation will begin in 2010.
Fort Myers / Cape Coral
 academic strides (Fort Myers) Wilson Bradshaw » Since its opening in 1997, Florida Gulf Coast University has more than quadrupled its student body. Wilson Bradshaw, named president of FGCU in August, says it’s his mission to make sure that the rapidly growing university is responsive to the local economy’s workforce needs. That will involve developing new academic programs — like the doctoral program in physical therapy that FGCU will inaugurate this fall — and seeing to it that more students who graduate from FGCU stay in the region. Another top priority is the school’s expanding applied research programs. Three FGCU researchers recently received a $1.5-million grant from the U.S. Department of Defense to conduct virus protection research that could benefit soldiers. [Photo: Jeffrey Camp] |
Mike Jackson, economic development director in Cape Coral, says the city will have to get creative to refill shrinking coffers. Among his ideas is leasing the air rights above five city parking lots where developers can build vertically — a strategy that was first pioneered in this country by the railroads. Jackson is also toying with the idea of getting the private sector to finance a hotel and ice rink next to city-owned Sun Splash Family Waterpark.
Lee County was awarded a $1-million grant from the state to help develop a Triage Center/Low Demand Inebriate Shelter to provide services to individuals experiencing behavioral crises such as mental illness or substance abuse. Lee County Commissioner Bob Janes says the center will save taxpayers thousands of dollars that is wasted when “citizens in need of mental healthcare are endlessly cycled and recycled through the courts and prison systems.”
LEADER
» Two years ago, Lane Houk, a former Army medic-turned-investor and mortgage banker, says he noticed a quiet crisis in Lee County. “We were losing firefighters and teachers. Lee Memorial couldn’t recruit enough nurses. The price of housing was the key determining factor in a lot of those situations,” he says. A year ago, Houk launched a non-profit organization called HeroCare. The group connects military servicemen, teachers, firefighters and other public servants with local businesses that can help answer their financial needs. HeroCare negotiates a discount with those businesses and professionals that is not available to the general public. Using mortgage lenders, title companies and other firms that are part of the HeroCare network could save customers up to $2,000 when purchasing a home.
HOUSING TREND / FORT MYERS-CAPE CORAL
| Sales of single-family existing-home sales | ||
| Year | Sales | Median sales price |
| 2006 | 8,518 | $273,600 |
| 2007 | 5,383 (-37%) | $257,000 (-6%) |
| Source: Florida Association of Realtors | ||
| Existing condo sales | ||
| Year | Sales | Median sales price |
| 2006 | 2,150 | $298,900 |
| 2007 | 1,706 (-21%) | $236,700 (-21%) |
| Source: Florida Association of Realtors | ||
Charlotte County
Charlotte County’s unemployment rate was 6.8% in January, the highest since after Hurricane Charley hit in 2004. The county recently cut impact fees to encourage development and boost the sagging construction industry. There may be some significant new jobs on the horizon. Fort Myers native Steve Alexander, CEO of Grove Tactical Homeland Security, is aiming to build a $198-million homeland security research and training center on up to 7,000 acres in Charlotte County. The project should begin the early permitting process this year.
Palm Beach developer Syd Kitson is in the design and approval stage for Babcock Ranch, a 20,000-acre community that straddles the eastern edge of Charlotte and Lee counties. At the same time, Kitson nixed plans to build a mixed-use development at Murdock Village in Port Charlotte. Kitson cited “unfavorable economic conditions in both the credit market and housing market” as reasons not to move ahead with the project.
Lee County
Following Charlotte County’s lead, leaders in Lee may cut impact fees to stimulate commercial development in the region. The county is also expediting road and other public works projects to get the economy moving. Already on the fast track are a widening of Summerlin Road, a new EMS hangar at Page Field and an expansion of the Lee County Justice Center. The Horizon Council, a 62-member public/ private organization that advises the county commission on economic development issues in Lee County, has formed a diversification task force.
Hendry / Glades Counties
While Hendry County had the second-highest unemployment rate in the state in January, at 7.2%, there are some new green-collar job opportunities on the horizon. Citrus Energy, a Boca Raton company, is planning to build a 4-million-gallon-a-year ethanol bio-refinery adjacent to the Southern Gardens citrus processing plant in the northeast corner of Hendry County in the rural community of Clewiston. The company received a $2.5-million state grant for the project.
River Forest Yacht Center recently began building a 200,000-sq.-ft. indoor yacht storage center in Ortona in Glades County. The facility, which will be completed this month, will hold up to 280 yachts and be able to withstand up to Category 4 force hurricane winds.
LEADER
» U.S. Rep. Tim Mahoney, who faces a tough re-election battle this fall, sponsored a successful amendment to save the Hope VI Main Street Grant program, a federal program that provides funding to revitalize main streets in small rural communities with mixed-use affordable housing and commercial development projects. Glades County is applying for $1 million from the program to renovate three buildings in downtown Moore Haven.
De soto / Highlands / Hardee Counties
U.S. EnviroFuels, the Tampa-based company that wants to build multiple ethanol plants in Florida, has plans to build a sweet sorghum-ethanol production plant in Venus. The $47-million plant will produce 20 million gallons of the biofuel a year and create 30 jobs with an average wage of $39,000 — 41% higher than Highlands County’s average annual wage of $27,538.
Pacer Marine Engineering, which manufactures marine wire, cable and electrical parts, is building a 40,000-sq.-ft. manufacturing facility near Wauchula in the Hardee County Commerce Park. The facility will employ 30 initially. Also in Hardee County, Organix-South, a manufacturer of herbal body care products and herbal supplements, has moved into a new headquarters and manufacturing facility.
GEO Group, the Boca Raton-based company that operates the Florida Civil Commitment Center in Arcadia, will replace the 545-bed facility with a 660-bed facility.