Manatee Economic Development Council

Bradenton is home to U.S. Soccer’s Residency program for future FIFA World Cup atheletes

Eric Basinger — Tue, 08 Jun 2010 16:53:42 +0000

What does a city on Florida’s Gulf Coast have in common with the 2010 FIFA World Cup in South Africa? Several of the U.S. players trained in Bradenton at the IMG Academies, home to the U.S. Soccer Under-17 Residency Program.

Since its inception, 170 players have been through the full-time Residency Program, and more than 60 of those players have moved on to Major League Soccer or the professional leagues in Europe. Fifteen players have also registered at least one cap with the full MNT: Freddy Adu, DaMarcus Beasley, Kyle Beckerman, Michael Bradley, Landon Donovan, Bobby Convey, Eddie Johnson, Justin Mapp, Oguchi Onyewu, Santino Quaranta, Chad Marshall, Eddie Gaven, Jonathan Spector, Heath Pearce and Josmer Altidore.

The U-17 players live on campus at the Academy and train in the morning under the guidance of Wilmer Cabrera and assistant coaches Paul Caffrey, Gerson Echeverry, Keith Fulk and Paul Grafer. In the afternoon, the players attend classes at Bradenton Preparatory Academy. While in the full-time residency program, the U.S. team not only trains daily under Cabrera, but also has access to the IMG Academy’s spacious facilities.

The team regularly uses IMG’s state-of-the-art strength-training facilities, as well as some of the nation’s best sports psychologists that work at the Academy. The IMG Academy includes top-of-the-line soccer equipment, three Bermuda grass fields, an indoor dome with artificial turf, two swimming pools, newly renovated student housing and dining facilities.

The EDC is proud that Manatee County is home to this wonderful program that trains the Team USA atheletes that we are all getting ready to watch in this year’s World Cup in South Africa .

Florida poised to be #1 State in Medical Device Manufacturing

Eric Basinger — Thu, 03 Jun 2010 15:55:06 +0000

With the recent action that was taken by Governor Crist and the Legislature of the State of Florida

(Link to release on HB 5311 release at Maddux News Wire: http://bit.ly/9dRepI)

to eliminate excessive fees and duplicative regulations that had been placed upon Florida medical device manufacturers, Florida now has a strong opportunity to move from being the state with the second highest number of medical device companies to become the #1 state in the US in this category. California currently holds the honor with over 900 licensed medical device manufacturers according to California’s department that regulates this industry.

Florida already has a strong business case to sell to medical device companies looking to expand to another state with low taxes, job creation incentives, immediate access to more consumers than any southeastern state, tons of direct flights to popular international and domestic locations, right-to-work laws, and an extensive network of supporting suppliers and services. By telling this story to companies that we already have the best business climate for medical device manufacturing and establishing an even better business climate for medical device manufacturing by virtue of this new legistlation, we can feel confident about possessing the business case to make to enough new companies to expand or relocate here that will make us number one.

SRQ Airport adds two new direct flights – Is Germany Next?

Eric Basinger — Sat, 22 May 2010 17:54:37 +0000

As an economic developer trying to recruit companies to locate within Manatee County, I have to say that the airport is a key driver for the EDC when we are recruiting to the area. Many companies that we visit with are pleasantly surprised that we offer direct flights to so many destinations from this area. The current non-stop service destinations served from SRQ airport include the following: Atlanta, Baltimore, Boston, Charlotte, Cincinnati, Detroit, Indianapolis, New York, Toronto, and Washington D.C.

In the last couple of weeks it has been announced that AirTran will bring a direct flight to Milwaukee starting on November 18. Jet Blue also announced that they will begin providing daily service from Boston also starting on November 18. The airport is also closing in on a deal with Condor Airlines in Germany to provide two direct flights a week to the world’s 4th largest economy starting in 2011. The EDC is keeping its fingers crossed on that deal as well since Germany is a country that holds a lot of economic development potential for Manatee County.

This is obviously incredible news as our ability to gain more exposure to the world will increase significantly through these airport offerings. We are fortunate to already be in a region of Florida that offers direct flights all over the United States and world. Having this critical resource makes us that much tougher to compete with for a new company that is looking to invest in the region.

Gearing Up for Panama Opportunities

Eric Basinger — Fri, 19 Feb 2010 22:11:39 +0000

If you are like me, the only things you knew about Panama was that it was a really good Van Halen song in the 80′s and something about a canal down there that the United States was a former owner. Well, now as an economic developer I’ve come to learn of the importance of Panama both for connecting to other continents in international trade and for establishing export partners.

In order to establish business connections with those that could help us increase our business at Port Manatee, Manatee County will be sending a delegation to Panama next week. I will be a member of the delegation so I am getting prepared for this trip as I write this.

The conventional wisdom is that the Panama Canal expansion will be completed in 2014 and will give eastern US deep water ports and opportunity for more business that traditionally would have come in to the west coast ports. Even a one percent increase would be a substantial amount of business to be created. Since Port Manatee is the nearest deep water port to the Panama Canal, Manatee County has an excellent opportunity to secure some of this new business. This new business would in turn create many more jobs which is what is of the most interest to the EDC.

Because Florida and Panama have such strong trade connections, its also going to be worthwhile to speak to people in Panama that can connect us with companies that could buy goods from Manatee County businesses. There will be future opportunities for Manatee County companies to visit Panama as a delegation in order to seek business opportunities so this mission will be very helpful toward advancing that goal.

It is a really exciting feeling that I have right now knowing that someone that I will meet with in Panama can be the link that create jobs and new investment in Manatee County. Its so awesome to be part of a delegation that is opening a new market for our community.

EDC has many ways to impact the economy

Eric Basinger — Fri, 18 Dec 2009 14:34:39 +0000

We had a big month and year that was capped off with the EDC’s annual “Excellence in Industry” awards lunch at the Polo Grill in Lakewood Ranch.

As each company received their awards they said something to the audience. It was very interesting to hear what they had to say.

The winner of this year’s Innovation Award, Sleek Audio, gave credit to the EDC for getting their technology mentioned in a press release because this led to a new piece of business coming into the company which led to even more from the same industry (three hockey teams and the Tampa Bay Rays are now using their custom headphones.)

That’s the kind of thing that we have to continue to do at the EDC. It’s never just enough to get a high impact company to locate, we must continue to look for ways to assist them and promotion is one of those ways.

EDC Collaborates with SCF Students

Sharon Hillstrom — Fri, 04 Dec 2009 21:18:43 +0000

Recently, I had the pleasure of working with two State College of Florida Manatee-Sarasota film students in the creation of a short video for the upcoming 2009 EDC Excellence in Industry Awards luncheon. Their charge was to film 5 high impact, Manatee County companies in the following targeted sectors: Clean Energy, Agriculture Technologies, Maritime & Distribution, Sports Performance and Life Science–a very diversified group of businesses and cultures. To say that I was impressed with these kids is an understatement! The students, Eric Gillen and Allison Shives exemplified professionalism from the onset to the completion of this important project. It was an added pleasure to interact with Del Jacobs, SCF, Professor of Film & Media Studies and Don Guy, SCF Film Department instructor and Executive Producer at Blue Sky Creates Inc. We are very pleased with the final product as it communicates the message that Manatee County does have a diversified base of high impact companies, and the EDC intends to capitalize on that great asset.

We are very excited to announce the winners of the Manatee EDC 2009 Excellence in Industry Awards. The event is almost sold out, so if you haven’t made your reservation, please do so soon by contacting Debbie Scott at DebbieS@ManateeEDC.com or 941-748-4842 ext 126.

Gardening Anyone? Economic Gardening That Is… Does Your Business Qualify?

Lauren Kratsch — Wed, 25 Nov 2009 21:16:49 +0000

The Economic Gardening Business Loan Pilot Program (EGBLP) is designed to support those small businesses that are in the best position to use the loan to continue making a successful long-term business commitment to Florida. If your business meets the following criteria, affordable loans are available for a limited time (until the money runs out, that is!). Click here to download the application today!

Eligibility Pre-Qualifications

An applicant must be a business eligible for assistance as provided in Statute 288.1082.
The business must be a for profit business legally authorized to do business in the state of Florida.
The business must employ at least 10 but less than 50 employees.
Must generate at least $1 million but no more than $25 million in revenues annually.
Must have maintained its principal place of business in the state of Florida for at least the previous 2 years.
The business must qualify for the tax refund program for qualified target industry businesses.
The business must have increased both its number of full-time equivalent employees and gross revenue in the state of Florida during 3 of the previous 5 years.

Such business loans will be a minimum of $50,000 and a maximum of $250,000 and may be used for working capital purchases, employee training, or salaries for newly created jobs. One (1) job must be created for every $50,000 borrowed.

Interest only is due during the first 12 months of the loan, after which the loan is amortized over four years. Interest rates will be a minimum of 2% and a maximum of prime rate published in the wall Street Journal, PLUS 4%.

QUESTIONS: Contact Lauren Kratsch at laurenk@manateeedc.com

Visit our website to download the application

A skilled workforce leads to economic growth

marybmanateeedc — Tue, 24 Nov 2009 21:03:47 +0000

We all know that Manatee County is a most special place. Beautiful location aside, our community has a combination of many elements that makes us poised for tremendous growth. A key to this growth is our awareness that attention must be given to the way in which our community’s pool of available labor is trained and developed. A highly trained and highly skilled workforce will help in the attraction of high impact businesses. Working closely with local learning institutions has never been more critical. Through the development and expansion of educational programs, we as a community have the ability to attract the best and the brightest students, and keep them here as young professionals, a key component to our workforce. The greater the ability to create high-paying and high growth sector jobs, the greater chances our county will enjoy longer periods of stable, long-term economic growth.

Germany and England lead all Foreign Direct Investment in Tampa Bay

Eric Basinger — Fri, 20 Nov 2009 22:02:07 +0000

Much of my experience in economic development has been in working with companies that are headquartered outside of the United States. Because of this I have been looking for trends that show which countries do the most business inside the Tampa Bay region. Fortunately for me, the Tampa Bay Partnership just completed a study of Foreign Direct Investment (FDI) in the region. I thought it would be worth noting some of the findings of this in-depth study.

Key Findings

394 companies with 824 locations in the Tampa Bay region
34 nations
18 industries
Over 37,000 employees
Total sales in excess of $13.6 billion

The top six identified investor nations and industry sectors are:

Investor Nations	# of Companies
Germany	64
England	56
Canada	48
France	41
Japan	35
Switzerland	20

Industry Sector	# of Companies
Manufacturing	105
Wholesale Trade	85
Retail Trade	41
Professional Services	32
Administration & Support	24
Finance & Insurance	23

My main thought is that I am not very surprised. I was amazed to see how many people have relocated to Manatee County from Germany, England and Canada. That fits right in to the top countries that also invest in business in this area.

Most importantly, according to the study, 94 foreign owned firms that are located here employ more than 100 workers each with some employing many more than that and a total of 37,000 employees come from FDI. This is why we have to make a push to attract FDI. We can create a lot of jobs with a strong and strategic FDI program.

If you are interested in reading the full FDI study here is the link: www.tampabay.us/FDI.

Port Dolphin Announcement – Signals Manatee County is serious about Economic Development

Eric Basinger — Fri, 13 Nov 2009 18:46:42 +0000

Recently it was announced that Manatee County and Governor Crist approved the plans of Port Dolphin Energy, LLC (a subsidiary of Norway based Höegh LNG AS), deep water port project which will provide a new source of natural gas to the state. In this project, liquid natural gas (LNG) tankers arriving at the port would link up with a natural gas pipeline running from the offshore terminal to Port Manatee and then inland for four miles before interconnecting with the state’s natural gas pipeline grid.

If I was an outside company looking in at this deal in Manatee County I’d be impressed. With any economic development deal, there are various concerns by the company and the community that need to be addressed before a project can go through. Impressively, the company and local governments found common ground at each critical juncture of the early discussions. What this demonstrates is Manatee County’s unique ability to secure a major project. To someone who wishes to locate a business here, the ability to deliver on a project of this magnitude should tell you what you need to know regarding the business environment in Manatee County. Not many communities have a project of this caliber on their resume.

Last Thursday night I attended a reception where Höegh was kind enough to thank the community for all of the progress that was being made on Port Dolphin. The economic impact to the community over the life of the project will be substantial, an estimated $150 million and hundreds of jobs in construction and administration.

Website for Port Dolphin: http://www.hoegh.com/portdolphin/.