Writer: Jerrica DuBois
4 min read September 2023 — It’s not a secret that Greater Tampa Bay is growing and thriving. New companies and residents are popping up all over the region, and established companies continue to expand. For example, 97 businesses in the area made Inc.’s list of the 5000 fastest growing private companies in the country. The companies must have been generating revenue by March of 2019, and the minimum revenue required for 2022 was $2 million.
The region will need more housing and office space to accommodate additional workforce, and also provide more restaurants and entertainment. This has led to continued job growth, specifically in the areas of construction and hospitality. The latest Business Trends and Outlook Survey from the U.S. Census Bureau reports that 20% of construction companies in Florida expect to hire more employees in the next six months. The hospitality industry landed a close second at 19.4%.
The job of attracting businesses to a region and ensuring growth often falls on the Economic Development Corporation. EDCs work hand in hand with the cities on strategic planning and implementation to spur local business activity. Despite its successes so far, the EDCs in Greater Tampa continue to explore new opportunities to keep the regional momentum on track.
Invest: caught up with economic development leaders as they discussed the role their organizations play in the continued growth and development of Greater Tampa Bay.
Bill Cronin, President & CEO, Pasco EDC: We have incentives per job and also some that are discretionary in nature. Those are flexible and can be used for training just about anywhere. Our tools also include our SMART Start program and our incubator program. We have three business incubators we own and operate, and we are looking to add two more. One will be at Moffitt and the other at the Tunnel for Towers veterans’ village. This is spending over and above that of the general funds. We also have a micro-loan program for startups. We have a Workforce CONNECT program that is designed for employers looking to navigate the spectrum of different training programs available. This helps them understand the different resources available to aid them in finding the right talent.
Sharon Hillstrom, President & CEO, Bradenton Area EDC: We are very good at understanding who we are as a community and we understand the companies that would be a good fit for us. In developing our strategic plan, we conducted quantitative and qualitative research to identify industry sectors that would be a good fit for Manatee County and where we can be competitive in recruitment.
Steve Morey, President & CEO, Plant City EDC: We have been successful in maintaining our agricultural industry while expanding manufacturing and distribution and logistics. With the massive changes in the way people work now, it opens the door for new industries to be interested in Plant City and for opportunities to diversify our industry base. Diversifying our industry base will assist in addressing one of our top priorities, which is increasing the quality of life for residents. The better our quality of life, the more appealing we are to industries and employees.
To manage our growth sustainably we need to have a strong workforce pipeline. While there are several initiatives to support the college workforce pipeline, a unique organization that we work with is the Future Career Academy (FCA). This organization works with students who are not on an immediate college path. It matches them with local employers to provide careers that don’t immediately require a degree. This is a win for residents and local companies.
Brian Rewis, Director of Community & Economic Development, City of Lakeland: For several years now, we’ve increased incentives for investment in the core by job-producing enterprises of a certain wage. We’re talking about STEM programs, advanced manufacturing, research and development. There’s less interest in logistics and distribution, although Lakeland is probably near the top of the heap in Florida for those kinds of uses, or maybe at Polk County at least. We’ve sort of reached a saturation point with incentivizing that type of development because of its disproportionate impact on our transportation system, so we’ve focused on infill development and innovation, really looking at those tech jobs.
The Lakeland Economic Development Council has a business incubator downtown called Catapult, where they’re working with a lot of budding entrepreneurs from food service and actual maker space all the way up to app and web developers who are creating innovative new programs that the younger generations will certainly take advantage of.
For more information, please visit:
https://www.lakelandgov.net/departments/community-economic-development/
