When Easy Picker Golf Products Inc. decided to relocate
to Lee County from Southern California, ocean views were not a factor.
"Compared to Southern California, you just get more for your buck in Florida,"
says George Hedlund, company owner.
This year Picker Golf Products is moving its manufacturing from Costa Mesa, Calif.,
to a new 45,000 square foot facility in Fort Myers. Low land prices, reduced corporate
taxes, no personal state income tax and generous cash incentives provided by Lee
County tipped to scales for Hedlund to make the decision.
Like other areas in the Sunshine State, Lee County offers the full plate of Florida
incentives to attract companies, plus some of its own, such as grants of $2,000 per
new employee with a maximum of $200,000 if the wage rate is 115 percent above the
average county wage.
Like Picker Golf Products, a variety of industries are finding Lee County attractive
these days. Since last summer, the county has attracted 12 new companies to the area.
Sony Electronics, which located a national customer and service product center
in Fort Myers in 1996, helped draw the call center industry to the area. As a result,
Carnival Airlines located an international reservations center in the area, and PP&G
has announced it will open its LYNX Service in Fort Myers. LYNX will handle calls
related to national insurance claims for auto glass replacements.
"PP&G had looked at several areas in the North and Southeast regions
of the country, but were attracted to Lee County because of our telecommunications
links," says Janet Watermeier, executive director of Lee County Economic Development.
Florida economy
Florida is referred to as the "Sunshine State" for many reasons. Lately,
the sun seems to be shining on business expansions there.
Consider these facts: With a Gross State Product of $320 billion, Florida ranks
among the world's top 15 market economies. The state is home to 14 deepwater ports,
12 international airports and 13 foreign trade zones. Florida offers the nation's
largest supply of multi-use, industrial, R&D and office parks -- 800 locations
in total.
With more than 17,000 manufacturing firms, Florida trails only California in aerospace
and defense-related businesses. At 6.8 million, Florida's labor force is the fourth
largest non-farm labor pool in the nation.
Not only does Florida's low cor-porate taxes provide incentives for growth. Local
incentive programs are available to assist companies in setting up shop in Florida.
A tour around some Florida vicinities offers a look of some of the activity that
has been occurring.
German blimps
Volusia County has had success in marketing to a variety of industry groups.
Its latest big catch is U.S. Airship Leasing, a division of WDL Airships, a German
blimp manufacturer. The company is relocating its worldwide headquarters and airship
division from Mannheim, Germany, to Ormond Beach where it will construct facilities
in three phases.
Phase I, to be under construction in early summer, will entail a 38,200-
square foot hangar for a large blimp; Phase II will accommodate offices and manufacturing
in 56,000 square feet, and Phase III will house four smaller blimps in 38,200 square
feet.
"We have been working on this deal for two years," said Drew Page, president
of Volusia County Business Development Corp.
The company chose Volusia County over sites in Texas, Louisiana and other Florida
cities primarily because of the overall incentive package the state and local government
were able to put together. Embry-Riddle Aeronautical University also played a key
role in attracting the company.
Located in Daytona Beach, Embry-Riddle is a renowned university for studies in
flight training, air traffic control, airport management, aircraft maintenance, and
aeronautics computer design and engineering.
"One of our biggest pluses is our outstanding relationship with the area's
institutions of higher education," Page emphasizes. Others include Daytona Beach
Community College (which contracts with the state in offering job training programs),
Stetson University, University of Central Florida, and Bethune-Cookman College.
Given the area's ties with motorcycle races, the county also is targeting this
industry group.
"We are unusual for this niche market in that Daytona Beach is one of two
communities in the United States that hosts major motorcycle rallies," he says.
"Over 500,000 people come here to attend these events annually."
So far five manufacturers in high performance motorcycle accessories are setting
up shop there, including Korbins Pacific Corp., which holds 88 percent of the U.S.
and Canadian aftermarket for motorcycle seats.
Companies in the plastic disposable medical products business are also attracted
to Volusia County. Dial Medical constructed a 38,000 square foot facility in De Land
in 1995 to produce dialysis kits.
Page attributes Volusia County's success in attracting diverse industries to its
low business costs. Volusia County's incentive package adds to the equation, particularly
when matching monies offered to companies by to the state's Opportunity Fund. This
fund is a grant intended to encourage employers to create value-added jobs. Over
the past two and one-half years, Volusia County has participated in 47 such grants,
which has resulted in the county attracting $90 million in new investment and adding
$70 million in payroll to the local economy.
Attracting high tech companies
Nearly lured to California's Silicon Valley, Citrix Systems, Inc., a developer
of multi-user software products, decided to stay closer to home.
Instead of moving across country, last year the company moved its headquarters
across county from Coral Springs to Fort Lauderdale. Plans now call for increasing
its employment base by 200 employees.
"We were faced with the decision to relocate to a high tech area because
it's difficult to recruit people outside of the Silicon Valley," says James
Felcyn, Citrix CFO.
To sway the decision, Broward Economic Development Council City of Fort Lauderdale
executives obtained $840,000 in tax incentives for the company. The award is coming
via the Florida Qualified Target Industry Tax Refund Program, 20 percent of which
will be paid by the county and city.
Alliance Entertainment, the nation's largest full-service music products distributor,
relocated from New York to a 240,000 square foot facility in Coral Springs formerly
occupied by ABB Power T&D. To seal the deal, the Broward EDC assisted in obtaining
a $850,000 transportation grant for ABB Power T&D Co. Inc., which allowed Alliance
to move into its building and for ABB to build a new facility. ABB, a manufacturer
of electrical relays, systems and substation equipment, was considering relocating
to Pennsylvania or North Carolina.
Like much of Florida, Fort Lauderdale also recently attracted back office operations.
First Data Merchant Services Corp. was considering moving its Melville, N.Y., operation
to Texas, Maryland, or even Palm Beach, but settled on Coral Springs for its credit
card processing and merchant services.
"We felt the Coral Springs facility was the best facility and opportunity
for business growth," says Elizabeth Ker, company spokesperson.
No doubt $2.6 million in tax incentives through the Florida Qualified Target Industry
Tax Refund Program, cash incentives through the county direct cash program, and training
incentives through the Broward County training grant program and the Florida Quick
Response Training Program helped in the decision.
Prior to the local incentive offerings, Broward was reported at a disadvantage
because of established incentive programs in Dade and Palm Beach counties.
The biomedical industry is also on the move in South Florida.
Perrine and Cutler Ridge, just south of Miami, are seeing their share of announcements.
Just recently, Swiss Caps USA has located a jell capsule manufacturing plant there
along with Health Technologies Inc., a manufacturer of blood analysis and dialysis
equipment; Noven, a pharmaceutical company that produces medicines absorbed via a
patch, and Pfizer Co., which is manufacturing flee spray for animals.
"These biomedical companies are attracted to our area because of the university
support here," says Steven Kranman, executive director to the Perrine Cutler
Ridge Council. Other pluses include quality of life, available land, and easy access
to Miami International Airport.
The bottom line is synergy, which Florida definitely has.
Customer Service Academy
When executives of Time Customer Service (TCS) sought to relocate its business,
their decision boiled down to Tampa or Kansas City.
"The work force turned out to be key," says Andy Bragg, chief financial
officer of TCS. "Tampa already had a critical mass of technical labor. In fact,
Tampa was attractive enough that we were able to get a core of 200 people to relocate
here from Chicago."
For these and additional reasons, Tampa Bay has become a hotbed for companies
seeking a location for back office operations, branch offices, division headquarters,
manufacturing and assembly plants, and international headquarters.
Not only does the area have more than four million square feet of leasable office
space; U.S. Department of Commerce data shows Tampa Bay will be one of the country's
10 fastest growing metropolitan areas into the year 2000. From 1995 to 2005, Tampa
Bay is predicted to experience the 15th largest increase in employment in the nation,
nearly 338,000 jobs.
So many customer service and support operations have located in Tampa that in
January, a Customer Service Academy opened in Hillsborough County. The academy is
a coalition of educators and business persons seeking to educate potential employees
on data entry, diction and conflict resolution for companies involved in customer
support.
"We are seeing a lot of second and third generation call centers being established
here," says Stuart Rogel, executive director of the Tampa Bay Partnership. Among
them are MCI, which now fields inbound customer service calls for Microsoft's MSN
Online.
Long Island-based Haemacure, a manufacturer of sealant for biological tissue,
located its new operations in Sarasota.
"It's easy to recruit new employees here," says Marc Paquin, Haemacure
president and CEO. "When I mention Sarasota County, people say, 'Where do I
sign?'"
Tampa Bay also offers the infrastructure needed to attract distributors. Recently,
Wal-Mart located a 830,000 square foot distribution center in Polk County. According
to Operations Project Manager William Netemeyer, the retailer's No. 1 criteria was
transportation mileage.
"You want the lowest long-term mileage," said Netemeyer. "You also
want good interstate access to serve your network of stores."
The company also found upon breaking ground that Florida's sandy soil was another
plus. While constructing its center in Winter Haven, Wal-Mart was simultaneously
breaking ground on a distribution center in Mississippi where heavy clay soil, combined
with rain, created big problems.
"It only took us two weeks longer than scheduled, but it had a definite cost
impact," he says.
Crossroads of the Southeast
Besides attracting a new expansion football team, the Jacksonville Jaguars, this
northern Florida city has an impressive record in reeling in distribution companies
and service centers.
"We've seen 3 million square feet come on-line in just the past three years,"
says Jerry Mallot, executive vice president of the Jacksonville Chamber of Commerce.
Among them is a greatly expanded GM parts processing center at 362,000 square
feet. Coach Leatherwear, which entered the market with 350,000 square feet, is expanding
by another 300,000 square feet. And Pilot Pens, a Japanese company that first opened
with 100,000 square feet and is now adding 50,000 square feet for manufacturing and
distribution.
Transportation and intermodal connections are key to the area's success.
Besides Jacksonville International Airport, which has plans to undergo its own
expansion to develop a new passenger terminal, the Port of Jacksonville (JAXPORT)
is the 15th largest in the country. On its drawing board is a 20-year, $560-million
expansion plan to create a major ship terminal, renovate and expand existing terminals
and deepen the harbor channel to attract new port business and maintain the port's
existing business. Jacksonville is also at the intersection of three major railroads.
As a result, the city has more daily intermodal trains than any other South Atlantic
port with 36 departures per day.
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