Corridor In The News

HOLDING OUT HOPE FOR ECONOMIC UNITY

Volusia, Flagler among 7 counties teaming up to recruit businesses, generate jobs

By Jim Witters

August 14, 2009 –The future of Volusia and Flagler counties is inextricably bound with that of their neighbors, and area officials are promoting increased collaboration in keeping the jobs that are here and presenting a united effort in recruiting new businesses to the region.

"We are not an island to ourselves," Volusia County Chairman Frank Bruno said. "You don't know what may come from the sharing of information."

Bruno, who also serves as chairman of the seven-county Congress of Regional Leaders, said, "You can't do this county by county. It takes a regional approach."

Local, regional or national, an improving job market can't come too soon to the multitudes without jobs.

Unemployed workers in Volusia and Flagler counties who once could turn to the larger markets in Jacksonville or Orlando for jobs no longer enjoy that option. Unemployment numbers in those cities now are comparable to local figures.

Jennifer Wakefield, spokeswoman for the Metro Orlando Economic Development Commission, said there is a natural competition between counties, and many times counties compete head-to-head for businesses seeking to move here from elsewhere.

"But we found we are much more successful when we collaborate," she said.

Mark D. Soskin, an economist at the University of Central Florida, said "circling the wagons" and protecting existing jobs "is an area we've fallen down on" in Central Florida.

Efforts to recruit out-of-state businesses are wasted if existing local businesses are hemorrhaging jobs, Soskin said.

"It's a situation where you are rolling out the red carpet in front of you, but the carpet is rolling up right behind you."

MORE IMPORTANT THAN EVER

Beginning about 10 years ago, the Florida High Tech Corridor Council began uniting communities along Interstate 4 from Tampa to Daytona Beach. Cooperative efforts were initiated in marketing, work-force development and funding.

Since then, the Virtual Entrepreneur Center was established at Daytona State College as a resource for businesses, and the University of Central Florida teamed with Embry-Riddle Aeronautical University to develop a master's program in simulation.

"Cooperation like this is always important, but it is even more critical when times are tough," Wakefield said.

Phil Ehlinger, Volusia County's interim director of economic development, said liaisons with surrounding counties and the state are crucial.

"It's important to share notes with your peers," Ehlinger said. "Most large companies now use site selectors when they are looking for a place to relocate. We need to know what the site selectors are looking for. Then, you adjust your marketing."

Volusia, he said, is not usually competing with Orlando for businesses.

With statewide unemployment at 10.6 percent and area counties reporting figures ranging from 8.6 percent in St. Johns County to 15.5 percent in Flagler County, economic development leaders are focusing their efforts on ensuring the jobs that are here stay here.

Rick Fraser, executive director of the Workforce Development Board of Flagler & Volusia Counties Inc., said another component is ensuring talented and skilled workers remain here, too.

Fraser is part of a three-county task force examining the impact of the 2011 termination of NASA's space-shuttle program. The program employs about 3,500 directly and as many as 7,000 total, he said.

"We are looking for ways to keep all these talented people in the area until the next project comes along or find a company here that can use their skills permanently," he said. "We have economic development officials, work-force development people and private business involved in this."

REGIONAL PARTNERS

Flagler County has allied itself with the Cornerstone Regional Development Partnership in Jacksonville, which takes a regional approach to economic development in Northeast Florida. The agency shares leads on prospective business moves and helps recruit companies for the seven counties it serves.

Bob Williams, vice president for economic development at Daytona State College, said Cornerstone is "a model for regional economic development."

And, he said, a regional approach to business retention and recruitment and job creation is imperative.

Southwest Volusia is a bedroom community for Seminole and Orange counties. Many Southeast Volusia residents work in Brevard County and will be affected by the NASA program cuts, Williams said.

Soskin said Boston, California's Silicon Valley, the District of Columbia and Ohio are model areas where businesses or government functions create "aglomerations," with a central entity attracting spinoff enterprises and suppliers.

Rather than recruiting "one big firm," he said, regional officials should be trying to "deepen the economy" by helping existing firms grow and attracting wholesalers and distributors that serve a larger market.

Williams said the Volusia-Flagler area is positioned to benefit from its proximity to Orange and Seminole counties, where land is scarce and expensive. The I-95/I-4 area, for example remains untapped.

"If you want to see the future, just look down I-4," he said. "With the completion of the St. Johns River bridge (in 2006), people are starting to move into Volusia. You can see it in the Saxon (Boulevard) area."

Williams said Volusia's DeLand Crossings commercial development is another example of the spread of industry to the county, and more private-public partnerships are needed "if we are going to duplicate the Heathrow-Lake Mary area."

As development from the Jacksonville area spills southward and businesses from Orange and Seminole counties look eastward, the Volusia-Flagler area stands to benefit, Williams said.

"Volusia and Flagler are the last frontier," he said. "We are in a position for growth using new urbanism and the best practices that more-developed counties can't take advantage of."

Building figurative walls at city or county boundaries hampers progress, officials agreed. Collaboration is the key to success.

"We have let diversity divide us," Williams said. "We need to pull together to make us strong."