< Previous208 MAY 2021 S I T E S EL E C T I O N 208 MAY 2021 S I T E S EL E C T I O N When Cowan Systems LLC announced last month that it would develop a new logistics terminal in Marianna in Jackson County in Northwest Florida, the news only confi rmed what Jennifer Conoley knew all along. The region known affectionately to many as the Panhandle has arrived. The offi cial name of the 12-county region is Florida’s Great Northwest. More than 1.1 million people live in this region, stretching from Escambia County on the Alabama border east to Jackson, Liberty and Franklin counties. Cowan’s announcement was a perfect example of how economic development works in the region. The Jackson County Economic Development Committee received the project lead from the regional partnership known as Florida’s Great Northwest in February and then hosted the company for a site visit in March. “When a company chooses to expand their operations in any part of Northwest Florida, the whole region wins,” says Conoley, president and CEO of Florida’s Great Northwest. The new terminal will create up to 100 truck-driving positions and multiple offi ce jobs. The Baltimore-based company initially plans to hire 50 drivers and offi ce support staff. The logistics, warehouse and distribution sector is growing rapidly in Northwest Florida, but that’s not the only industry kicking the region’s tires, says Conoley. “Leonardo Helicopters in Santa Rosa County, adjacent to Whiting Field, signed an agreement with the U.S. Navy to locate and expand operations there,” she says. “Suzuki Marine is investing into a new R&D center in Panama City; and a new cybersecurity test facility and ammunition test facility is being installed at Eglin Air Force Base. In addition, three squadrons of F-35 fi ghter jets will locate at Tyndall Air Force Base near Panama City.” The surge is not over. “Seven companies looked at our region recently, and more are on the way,” says Conoley. “Travel and tourism are bouncing back strongly. We got hit hard, but we are basically back to normal again. If you look at bed tax collections in the 30A area of Walton County, they were $5.5 million in June 2019. In June 2020, they were $7.0 million.” Capitalizing on this momentum, Florida’s Great Northwest will launch a new marketing campaign this summer. Called “Beyond Our Beaches,” the initiative promotes Northwest Florida as a preferred business destination and seeks to hook employers with the lure of Triumph Gulf Coast funds and the University of West Florida’s Industrial Resilience and Diversifi cation Fund. “The UWF fund of $10 million offers straight cash to companies for job creation,” says Conoley. SLEEP IN NORTHWEST FLORIDA; JUST DON’T SLEEP ON IT by RON STARNER Jennifer Conoley Courtesy of Florida’s Great Northwest210 MAY 2021 S I T E S EL E C T I O N Boyd also applauds Gov. DeSantis for the way he handled the pandemic. “Florida has been on point to avoid the type of lockdowns and fi scal calamity that other states have suff ered due to COVID,” Boyd says. “I will add that Florida’s positive business climate and how it has dealt with the pandemic, including its latest move on tort reform to protect businesses from frivolous lawsuits due to COVID, has made it a magnet for job creators, wealth and corporate investment of all types, including our site selection fi rm, now with operations in Boca Raton.” e commercial rent tax has long been one of the few business climate negatives for the Sunshine State, he adds. “Cutting the tax by more than half to % is signifi cant and should further help the state in its business attraction eff orts, especially as it targets more head offi ce operations. Keep in mind, the Florida legislature recently eliminated its successful QTI incentives program — and the appetite in Tallahassee has not been too keen on tax breaks for businesses, especially in a budget cycle impacted by COVID. So, SB- is a welcomed piece of legislation by Florida’s business community, both large and small.” Crystal Stiles, senior director of economic development for Florida Power & Light Company, says that her team is doing “seven or eight projects around the state now. We’ve redesigned and refreshed our website and data portal to make communities around Florida even more competitive for jobs and industry.” e site, www.poweringfl orida.com, is used regularly by communities and site consultants alike to glean valuable location data and narrow an otherwise complicated site search. We are seeing high demand for cold storage facilities, logistics centers and data centers. Financial services and commercial aerospace rms are also investing heavily in Florida.” — Crystal Stiles, Senior Director of Economic Development, Florida Power & Light Company We are seeing high demand for cold (continued from page ) Courtesy of Enterprise Florida212 MAY 2021 S I T E S EL E C T I O N “During COVID-19, we added virtual site tours,” says Stiles. “We will have 30 of those by the end of this year.” Stiles notes that several product types are quite active now. “We are seeing high demand for cold storage facilities, logistics centers and data centers. Financial services and commercial aerospace firms are also investing heavily in Florida,” she says. “Stalwarts of the finance sector are talking about leaving New York and moving to Florida. In the space industry, Jeff Bezos’ Blue Origin starts launching here next year. Florida is now doing multiple space launches a week.” I-4 Corridor Getting Even Hotter J.P. DuBuque, president and CEO of the St. Petersburg Area Economic Development Corp., says that CrossBorder Solutions is a prime example of the current relocation wave. “They are moving from New York to St. Pete,” he says. “They use artificial intelligence for tax solutions. They have a SIRI-like app they call Fiona. Data analytics, cybersecurity and AI are all strong here. Technology is leading the way on companies moving to St. Pete and the Tampa Bay Area.” CrossBorder Solutions announced March 29 that it will place its new headquarters in St. Pete and hire 300 new employees over the next 12 months. “Our decision to relocate our corporate headquarters represents a significant milestone for our fast-growing company,” said Don Scherer, CEO of CrossBorder Solutions. “Despite the challenges brought on by COVID-19, we felt it was imperative to bring together our growing sales and software development teams in a truly meaningful and collaborative way. The move enables us to continue to provide industry- leading solutions and products to our clients, while also hiring additional talent that will further drive innovation.” DuBuque adds that “Florida is hot right now. It is incumbent on us to take advantage of that to enhance our communities. We are really trying to build a community.” Not being left behind is the interior of Florida. About an hour to the east of St. Pete, across the bridge and down Interstate 4, is Lakeland, where the Lakeland Linder International Airport generated an economic impact of $1.5 billion in 2020. That marked a 160% increase from 2019. According to the folks at LALToday, the sharp increase can be attributed to several major capital investments and expansions, including those of Amazon, NOAA and Draken International. Since 2019, Amazon has announced 1,100 employees at the airport, while Draken has announced 300, NOAA has added 108, and Lakeland-based Publix has hired 582. The future looks bright for Florida too. According to WalletHub, Florida is now home to three of the Top 20 Small Cities to Start a Business: Fort Myers; South Bradenton; and East Lake-Orient Park. Lakeland Linder International Airport had an economic impact of $1.5 billion in 2020.214 MAY 2021 S I T E S EL E C T I O N INVES TMENT PROFILE: FLORIDA POWER & LIGHT COMPANY Florida Power & Light Company (FPL) is helping Florida become more sustainable even as the utility company plays a leading role in bringing new jobs and industry to the state. A recap of the past two years reveals the many ways FPL performed these two jobs at once. In January , FPL unveiled its groundbreaking “ -by- ” plan to install more than million solar panels by , making Florida a world leader in solar energy. Two years later, FPL ushered in a new era of clean power generation by shutting down its last coal- red plant in Martin County. Also, in January of this year, FPL began construction of the world’s largest integrated solar battery system at the Manatee Energy Storage Center in Parrish. e new complex is expected to shatter industry records for this technology. e FPL Manatee Energy Storage Center’s battery system is projected to have four times the capacity of the world’s largest battery system currently in operation. In between these major accomplishments, FPL kept doing what it does best — supplying Florida communities and businesses with enough power to keep industries humming and building an economic development ecosystem that has turned Florida into a top state for corporate facility expansion activity. Overseeing that e ort is the senior director of economic development for FPL, Crystal Stiles, who leads the company’s PoweringFlorida team. Not even a global pandemic and corresponding recession could dent the momentum that FPL had built up in and carried over into . “We are busier today than we were at this time last year,” says Stiles. “We had more project leads in than we did in .” Several factors contributed to this robust performance, says Stiles. “We really bene tted from the transition to remote work,” she notes. “Companies realized that their employee base could be productive from home. Secondly, when the pandemic hit, the FPL team began providing digital tools to support lead generation and help our partners focus on small businesses in their communities. at focus helped to ensure that project activity never stopped in Florida.” Test Bed for Neighborhood Kitchens Among the projects for which FPL provided key support were a $ million investment by Aerion to establish a new aerospace headquarters complex in Melbourne; continued investment by Amazon by RON STARNER ron.starner@siteselection.com Downtown Miami Photo: Enterprise Florida How FPL Powers the Tech Landscape in Florida How FPL Powers the Tech Landscape in Florida S I T E S E L E C T I O N MAY 2021 215 This investment profile was prepared under the auspices of Florida Power & Light Company. For more information, visit www.powering florida.com or follow them at @PoweringFL. into e-commerce ful llment centers statewide; and aggressive expansion by REEF Technology. Miami-based REEF recently raised $ billion in funding and plans to deploy that capital into neighborhood kitchens around the state and country. “We’re busy working to expand REEF’s reach and number of applications, transforming underutilized parking lots into neighborhood hubs, which will become integral infrastructure for the cities of the future,” says Galina Russell, senior vice president of REEF Energy. “REEF has launched nearly neighborhood kitchens and announced partnerships with over restaurant brands. We’re also rethinking urban logistics and recently launched an exciting pilot in conjunction with robotics startup Cartken to bring autonomous food delivery throughout the City of Miami.” Russell says REEF could not have done this without the support it receives by being in Miami. “ e City of Miami has become a global driver of innovation and is integral to REEF’s growth, providing the company with opportunities to test groundbreaking urbanization pilots. More importantly, Miami is home to an incredible collection of innovative and entrepreneurial thinkers, and for that REEF is incredibly grateful to the city.” While the bulk of the company’s revenue still comes from the parking business (it started out as Miami-based ParkJockey), the neighborhood kitchen business is growing swiftly as the rm plan to more than double its locations to , following the recent infusion of capital. e South Florida unicorn held a job fair in Little Havana last month to ll open positions. About , people work at REEF’s , locations nationally. Beast Code Turns on the Jets FPL’s sister company Gulf Power, which serves , customers in the Panhandle region, is working with companies to add jobs and boost the economy. Beast Code, a Fort Walton Beach software engineering rm, is quickly making a name for itself in the tech world. Launched by Matt Zimmerman when he was just years old in , Beast Code surpassed $ million in revenue in and was named to Fortune Magazine’s “Best Places to Work” list. “We develop virtual environments for the Department of Defense to support design, training and logistics,” says CEO Zimmerman. “ ink of it like a video game, but it’s supporting real-life operations at home and on the front line. When we started our company in , we wanted to be di erent. Traditional defense contractors are slow, their work environment is boring, and they focus on administration vs. technology. Beast Code is modern, our workforce is collaborative, and we’re solving some of the DoD’s toughest problems. Having our own company gives us the freedom to explore new technologies, take risks, and actually innovate.’ He adds that “Fort Walton Beach is the perfect location for a defense contractor. Eglin is the largest Air Force Base in the U.S. and is home to several ight squadrons including the F- . Hurlburt Field is Air Force Special Operations Command and NAS Pensacola is headquarters for Naval Education Training Command (NETC). e large concentration of bases supports a wide variety of organizations, including Air Force Research Labs, across many branches of the military. ere are an endless number of opportunities to support the war ghter in our backyard.” Over the last years, Beast Code has grown from seven employees to over . “When the opportunity presents itself, we will establish a more permanent headquarters in Fort Walton Beach,” Zimmerman says. “As we continue to grow, we’ll likely open satellite o ces near other military hubs like Norfolk, Virginia, and San Diego.” A University of West Florida graduate, Zimmerman also notes that area colleges and universities consistently turn out highly skilled computer science grads who make quality employees at Beast Code. Stiles of FPL says that “our university system in Florida is ranked No. in the country, and our startup ecosystem is one of the best in the U.S.” She adds that “a lot of people think that Florida is not a place for education, but our K- education system is ranked third in the country. e quality of our education is a big reason why Florida is winning now.” Fort Walton Beach is the perfect location for a defense contractor.” — Matt Zimmerman, Founder and CEO, Beast Code robotics startup Cartken to bring autonomous food delivery throughout the City of Miami.” Fort Walton Beach is the robotics startup Cartken to bring autonomous food delivery throughout the City of Miami.” Russell says REEF could not have done Florida’s university system is ranked No. 1 in the U.S.K E NT U C K Y Kentucky Lt. Gov. Jacqueline Coleman has made a career out of defying the odds. She decided at a young age that she would champion the cause of the underdog and turned herself into one of the most successful high school basketball coaches in recent Kentucky history. A career educator, coach and mentor, Coleman adopted one of her players and gave birth to a daughter on Feb. , , shortly after being sworn into offi ce as the th lieutenant governor of Kentucky. She completed her coursework for her doctorate at the University of Kentucky while running for statewide offi ce, an election she would win as the running mate of now-Gov. Andy Beshear in November . by RON STARNER ron.starner@siteselection.com S T A TE SPO TLIGHT KENTUCKY 216 MAY 2021 S I T E S EL E C T I O N Louisville, Kentucky Photo: Getty Images Top 5 Projects by Capital Investment COMPANY CITY CAPEX $M Aquabounty Technologies Mayfi eld, Ky 175 Crown Holdings Bowling Green, Ky 147 AppHarvest Richmond, Ky 112 Danimer Scientifi c Winchester, Ky 102 Contemporary Amperex Barren, Ky 98 Source: Conway Projects Database Higher Ed. R&D Expenditure in $000s: 2,475,305 Number of NCRCs: 115,416 | Percent Improvement 2019–2020: 0.31% Business Tax Climate Rank Change 2020–2021: 0 Industrial power cost per kWh: $7.11 Total Revenue as Share of Total Expenses, FY 2004-2019: 104.7% 2020 Workers’ Comp Index Rate: 1.81 Source: Site Selection State of the States Report, January 2021 National Rankings S I T E S E L E C T I O N MAY 2021 217 How a highly decorated coach is transforming cradle-to-career prep in Kentucky. Now a mother of four, Coleman has never wavered in her pursuit of a better life for the people under her care and tutelage. In , she founded Lead Kentucky to help college women in Kentucky prepare for leadership positions on campus and later in their professional careers. More recently, she served as assistant principal at Nelson County High School and is nearing completion of her doctorate in educational leadership from UK. Gov. Beshear tapped Coleman to become Secretary of Education and Workforce Development. In a recent interview with Site Selection, she discussed her priorities for the state and the people she serves. What did you learn from coaching basketball that you are able to apply as Lieutenant Governor of Kentucky? COLEMAN: I would say that playing and coaching basketball did more to prepare me for this position than just about anything else I did. e governor and I have talked a lot about everybody coming together as Team Kentucky during this pandemic. From basketball, I gained the experience around what it means to be part of a team and to lead and to sacrifi ce. Perhaps the greatest lesson I learned was how to be resilient. You can seldom control what happens to you, but you can always control how you react. FROM HOOP DREAMS TO WORKFORCE REALITY Photo courtesy of Kentucky Education and Workforce Development CabinetNext >