South Central
Seeking wide open spaces and ready proximity to suppliers and key customers? South Central has both. Three interstate highways, four U.S. highways and the Okeechobee Waterway, a system of navigable rivers and canals linking Florida’s east and west coasts through Lake Okeechobee, put 86% of the state’s entire population within a 150-mile radius. Here, in Florida’s heartland, citrus growers and cattle ranchers thrive alongside manufacturing facilities and renewable energy plants. And those who choose to put down roots here get the best of all worlds: the daily joys of small-town life with ocean beaches and big city lights just a short drive away.
Renewable Energy
Thanks to an abundance of two important commodities — available land and sunshine — Florida’s South Central region offers the ideal environment for solar power generation. In 2009, Florida Power & Light chose to site the state’s first solar power plant — DeSoto Solar Energy Center — in this region. And with the addition of FPL’s Citrus Solar Energy Center in 2016 and its Wildflower Solar Energy Center in 2018, DeSoto became Florida’s “solar capital,” generating more solar power than any other county in the state.
A fourth FPL facility — Hammock Solar Energy Center — opened in Hendry County in 2018, further solidifying South Central’s statewide preeminence in renewable energy. With 74.5 megawatts of solar capacity each, the Citrus, Wildflower and Hammock plants collectively generate enough electricity to power approximately 45,000 homes. And the drive to improve and enlarge South Central’s solar power footprint didn’t end there.
In early 2018, FPL unveiled a solar-plus-storage system at the Citrus Solar Energy Center that is believed to be the first in the U.S. to fully integrate battery technology with a major solar power plant in an effort to increase overall energy output. For the Citrus plant, this has meant a potential increase of more than 500,000 kilowatt-hours delivered to the electric grid per year. In addition to immediate energy delivery, the system provides increased capacity to store energy for dispatch to the grid at a later time.
In January 2019, FPL launched its “30-by-30” plan, committing to the installation of 30 million more solar panels across Florida by 2030. Six months later, FPL began construction on 10 new solar power plants, three of which are located in South Central. Blue Heron Solar Energy Center in Hendry County, Cattle Ranch Solar Energy in DeSoto County and Okeechobee Solar Energy Center in Okeechobee County are expected to begin powering customers in early 2020.
Meanwhile, in keeping with its goal of 14 universal solar power plants in operation across the state by 2023, Duke Energy Florida has begun construction on its Lake Placid Solar Power Plant. The 45-megawatt plant on 380 acres in Highlands County is slated to begin operations in December 2019.
KEY PLAYERS: Florida Power & Light, Juno Beach; Duke Energy Florida, St. Petersburg
Manufacturing
Companies making everything from sun screens to fertilizer have found right sites and a ready workforce in South Central Florida. Many manufacturers have chosen to cluster at Hardee Commerce Park, a 264-acre development offering low-cost utilities, easy proximity to rail and highway connections — even an on-site sheriff’s substation providing 24/7 security. Tenants at the park include: PFMan (high precision parts, molds and fittings for a variety of uses and industries); Pacer Group (electrical supplies for boat builders); Florikan (controlled-release fertilizer); KeyPlex (plant nutritionals and biocontrol products); Stream2Sea (eco-conscious skin care products); and Howard Fertilizer, which operates a distribution center here and a manufacturing facility in Lake Placid.
In Highlands County, CitraPac continues to manufacture FruitPearls and other real fruit healthy snacks at its 44,000-sq.-ft. facility in Sebring. The firm’s president Gregg Harshman is a native of South Central Florida who brought his business home “because operating costs are low, and the people are great.” Elsewhere in Highlands, Illinois-based Diversified CPC International has signed a 25-year lease on a 6,000-sq.-ft. combined office building-warehouse at Sebring Multimodal Logistics Center, a 2,000-acre commerce park adjacent to Sebring Regional Airport. The manufacturer of specialty gases, aerosol propellants, alternative fuels and NGL refrigerants will use the building as a distribution terminal to better serve its Caribbean-based customers. And newly opened in Avon Park: Steel Blue Fabrication, an assembly and fabrication plant providing customized measurement and control products such as meters, gauges, filters and valves for the natural gas and propane gas markets.
In Hendry County, a former sugar cane refinery has been re-purposed as an aluminum recycling and manufacturing plant operated by ATIO USA. The plant converts scrap and waste aluminum into parts for the global automobile industry and OEM suppliers.
After relocating its aluminum button manufacturing operations to Glades County in 2017, Maxant Buttons expanded in 2018 with the purchase of Mike’s Aluminum Products and changed its name to Maxant Aluminum Products. Now, in addition to aluminum buttons, the firm manufactures other aluminum products at its facility in Moore Haven.
KEY PLAYERS: Howard Fertilizer, Lake Placid; CitraPac, Sebring; Maxant Aluminum Products, Moore Haven
Agribusiness
Agriculture is big business in Florida, and South Central is ground zero for much of it. This region’s six counties are among the state’s highest annually in value of agricultural products sold. At the top of the list is Hendry at just under $500 million according to the most recent USDA Ag Census, with Highlands and Okeechobee at $273 and $257 million each. With 59,000 acres of citrus land in production, Highland County growers produced 7.9 million boxes of fruit during the 2017-18 growing season, second only to Polk County, which had 10,000 more acres in production.
Delray Beach-based Nuco Citrus is moving ahead with plans to open a citrus processing plant near Arcadia on land previously zoned for agriculture after receiving the go-ahead from DeSoto County officials in February 2019. The 137,000-sq.-ft. plant will convert citrus peels and juice leftovers to pectin, a thickening agent for food processing and other uses; 125 jobs are expected.
Livestock is an important component of South Central’s economy too. All six of the region’s counties were among the top 10 statewide for cattle and calves in 2018 with Okeechobee leading the pack at 175,000 head. Nationwide, Florida ranked 13th in cow inventory in 2018 with just over 1 million head.
KEY PLAYERS: Lykes Brothers, Lake Placid, Okeechobee, LaBelle; Mac-Bee Harvesting, Arcadia; The Mosaic Company, Hardee and DeSoto counties; U.S. Sugar, Clewiston
Education
South Central is home to South Florida State College with four campuses offering bachelor and associate degree programs in such fields as accounting, business, elementary education, health sciences and information technology as well as certificates in a variety of workplace specialties; average class size — 12. Also providing educational support: the Hendry Glades campus of Florida SouthWestern State College in LaBelle and the Dixon Henry campus of Indian River State College in Okeechobee.
Life & Leisure
Real Florida Adventure
South Central represents a slice of “old Florida” where there’s plenty to see and do: paddle along the Peace River; take a walk around Lake Okeechobee; play a round of golf at Mosaic’s Streamsong Resort built on former phosphate mines; find an antique treasure in Arcadia; marvel at the quirky “junk” sculptures at Solomon’s Castle near Wauchula; clown around at a Lake Placid school where dozens of professionals have trained; get to know the first Floridians at Big Cypress Seminole Indian Reservation; end your day with Florida’s best stargazing at remote Kissimmee Prairie Preserve State Park.
Iconic and Heart-Stopping Events
Who needs brackets and basketball? South Central has its own brand of March Madness in the form of three back-to-back events: the four-day Arcadia All Florida Championship Rodeo at Mosaic Arena; the “Mobil 1 Twelve Hours of Sebring” endurance race and four-day car-themed “party”; and the four-day Okeechobee Music & Arts Festival, which typically draws 25,000+ rain or shine.
Celebrations for Practically Everything
South Central loves a good festival, no matter the focus. Typical honorees include: watermelon (Arcadia); swamp cabbage (LaBelle); alligator hatching (Palmdale); sour oranges (Lakeport); caladiums (Lake Placid); and speckled perch (Okeechobee).