Corridors are a proven method of attracting new business, as suppliers cut transportation costs to buyers, and unique employee cultures develop.

The newest officially designated corridor is the "Bio-Medical Corridor" in Miami-Dade County. The corridor is not large ‚ just 4.5 square miles ‚ but 10 companies are already located within those borders, and the designation makes the marketing effort much more cohesive. The classification was approved in March.

"Increasingly, we hear from people in the biotech-biomedical industry that they're looking for clusters," says Frank Nero, president of the Beacon Council in Miami. "They wish to know they're not alone. It gives them more of a synergy."

The designation won't directly benefit companies already located in the corridor, but it does help create a potential worker pool for growing firms.

"It strengthens the area, and helps create a sanctuary of qualified employees," Cranman says.

While the official designation is mostly a marketing tool, other steps may follow which could boost the area's attractiveness. Those ideas might include special incentives, a bio-medical association to open communications, and an educational link for various research projects.

Companies already located in the Bio-Medical Corridor include Noven Pharmaceuticals, Pfizer/Adams Pet Products, Hyperion, Inc., Innovative Medical, Inc., and Swiss Caps USA.

Silicon corridor
One of the corridors that gets the most publicity is called I-4, named after Interstate 4, which dissects central Florida from Tampa Bay on the Gulf to Orlando and Cape Canaveral on the Atlantic side.

This 160-mile stretch of highway is home to some of the largest high-technology companies, including Cirent Semiconductor, Lockheed Martin, Oracle, Litton Laser Systems, and Lucent Technologies.

The I-4 Corridor is anchored on the Atlantic side by Cape Canaveral, so many industries are attracted by space development and related spin-offs. In nearby Orlando, the University of Central Florida has a school called the Florida Space Institute.

The I-4 Corridor has some infrastructure amenities that are hard to match. Deepwater ports are available on either end, and more than 40 universities, community colleges and technical schools are located in region. High-speed, high-capacity fiber optic networks run coast-to-coast along the corridor, bringing broad bandwidth to the front doors of local businesses.

Going where the employees are
Regardless of incentives and corridor designations, it still takes qualified people to do a particular job. That's what prompted Solutia, Inc., makers of nylon fiber, to choose its Pensacola plant as the site for a $200 million expansion project to develop new nylon fiber technology.

Solutia, which officially spun off from Monsanto last year, has about two dozen chemical plants around the world, 19 in the U.S. alone, according to plant manager Joe Oschsner.

"We looked at other plant sites, but the technology is here. The chemists and engineers needed to make this happen are based here," Oschsner says. Ground will be broken on the expansion project in 1999, creating 35 jobs.

"That's a good number in our industry," Oschsner says. "Plants don't take many people to operate."

When completed, the 15-acre expansion will have two processing structures, and should help the company lower its production costs, he said.

Expand rather than relocate
It's no surprise that most companies would rather expand than pick up an entire operation and move. But moving was a possibility for Daws Manufacturing. The Pensacola-based maker of light truck accessories was the target of numerous offers when word got out that it desperately needed more elbow room.

Starting with just 17 employees in 1989, owner Clint Daws has built the firm to where it employs 250 today ‚ just the type of company that could be attracted to cluster regions.

"We looked at offers from south Alabama and neighboring counties (in Florida)," Daws says.

But the work of officials in Escambia County to help secure industrial revenue bonds, plus its existing ties to the area, kept the business in Pensacola.

"This is home, this is where our base is, and where our employees live," Daws says.

Latin American market access
Geography often plays a key role in attracting firms, and Florida's front row view of the Latin American export market makes it a natural launching point for various manufacturing companies.

One example is Tabah International, Inc., a Montreal-based company that is planning on building a 135,000 square foot women's clothing manufacturing plant near Miami. The firm was attracted to the area due to its proximity to Latin American markets. This type of new venture will add to Florida's burgeoning $24 billion export market. The state's top trading partners include Brazil, Columbia, Venezuela, the Dominican Republic, and Argentina.

Other clusters
Clusters are not limited to just the silicon companies along the I-4 Corridor. The state's economic development group, called Enterprise Florida, has noted several other sectors that it wants to target. These include: automotive transportation, aviation/aerospace, information technologies, health care technologies, and simulation technologies.

As these clusters are approved by state officials, they will become eligible for various incentive programs.

Officials say the aviation/aerospace cluster is next in line to be officially designated for particular programs.

The 1997 Legislature created the High Impact Business Performance Grant program. This grant requires a minimum of $100 million capital investment and the creation of at least 100 jobs (for R&D, the requirements are $75 million and 75 jobs). Again, the silicon technology sector has been targeted, with aviation/aerospace expected to follow soon.

For companies that don't fall into a targeted sector, the state still has some programs available, including the Qualified Target Industry program. The Quick Response Training program is the state's job training apparatus.

Into the 21st century
It would be easy for Florida to rely on its sunshine, sandy beaches, and swaying palm trees to persuade businesses to locate in the state.

That may have worked in the 1950s and 60s, but as the state prepares for the next century, it has chosen to capitalize on its space industry, silicon technology, and many other clusters to build its employment base.

Companies are increasingly going where the employees already are, and the corridors of cluster sectors make Florida an increasingly attractive choice.