Economic developers in Palm Beach County predictably boast of the area's attraction to industry, and there is reason for it. Though the county has been hard hit in recent years by the loss of jobs at such defense contractors as Pratt & Whitney -- which in the 1980s employed about 9,000 but now has a work force of about 1,300 -- local officials point to the emerging technology economy as pumping new life into the region.

"This has been our best year in the 18-year history of this organization," says Gary Hines, senior vice president for the Business Development Board of Palm Beach County. "For the fiscal year, we've created 4,300 jobs. It looks like we're going to continue to mushroom in the next few years."

As with many communities, the prospects of attracting future business hinge on a wide range of factors, including local recruiting efforts, naturally attractive locations, company needs and, yes, sometimes luck. One fortuitous circumstance for Palm Beach County focuses on a new company called Cenetec LLC, which is based in Boca Raton and is building another office in Miami.

Cenetec was founded last February by South Florida entrepreneur Scott Adams, after he sold a Web hosting company he had built called Hiway Technologies. Cenetec is a privately funded high-tech business incubator, which company officials like to call a "technology accelerator." The idea is to buy into good high-tech concepts and help develop business plans, all the while providing all levels of expertise and funding to nurture a new business.

"We have a team of people with expertise in everything from finance to product development to technology to marketing and sales," says Richard Rogers, Cenetec's vice president of marketing and communications. "We put together a 26-week program and then provide a yea or nay to venture capitalists as to the idea's potential. We're trying to accelerate the process a company goes through, starting with the initial idea and getting a product to market as quickly as possible."

Cenetec has 30 employees and continues to add staff. It's primary office is a 25,000-sq.-ft. (2,323-sq.-m.) facility in Boca Raton, once used by IBM, that has state-of-the-art space for 10 startup companies. A four-story building near downtown Miami is also being completed; Cenetec will occupy the building's top floor (which also will have space for 10 startups) and lease the rest.

Cenetec sees South Florida as fertile ground for the emerging Internet and related high-tech ventures. "Florida has historically been overlooked in this field," Rogers says. "But we plan to expand and have a major presence here. There's a fertile environment here. All the major companies are here for one reason or another, and it's the gateway to Latin America. We see huge opportunities working with government and the universities."

Jacksonville Industrial Market
Lease Rates-Suburban ($/sf):
Less than 5000 sf	$2.75-7.00
5,000-19,999 sf	$2.50-4.75
20,000-39,999 sf	$2.50-4.00
40,000-59,999 sf	$2.50-3.75
60,000-99,999 sf	$2.50-3.50
100,000-250,000 sf	$2.00-3.50
More than 250,000 sf	$2.00-3.50
High Tech/R&D	$4.50-12.00
Construction ($/sf):
Less than 5,000 sf	$28.00
5,000-19,999 sf	$25.00
20,000-39,999 sf	$18.00-24.00
40,000-59,999 sf	$18.00-24.00
60,000-99,999 sf	$18.00-24.00
100,000-250,000 sf	$18.00-22.00
More than 250,000 sf	$18.00-22.00
High Tech/R&D	$25.00-35.00
Source: 2000 Comparative Statistics, Society of Industrial & Office Realtors

While South Florida counties expand the InternetCoast marketing and promotional concept, important infrastructure is being developed privately to give the idea real meaning. Miami is in the process of becoming the nation's fifth major Network Access Point (NAP), which is being developed by local public and private telecommunications carriers. The Miami NAP will provide Florida companies with lightening fast, more reliable and less expensive Internet access, all key ingredients necessary to turn the concept of the InternetCoast from just a marketing program into a viable, attractive cluster of Internet-related businesses with critical infrastructure support.

Such businesses, of course, already have been springing up. A Dun & Bradstreet study estimates that South Florida has 5,800 high-tech companies that employ 75,700 people and generate $29 billion annually in revenues.

Much of the attraction of South Florida is similar to the sun-and-beach allure of the rest of the state. But it also has other key advantages, including its multicultural society, which ties it tightly with the Caribbean and Latin America. If a company wants to develop business opportunities and serve customers in Latin America, South Florida is undoubtedly the place to be.

"We have a lot of companies that are European based looking to share the North American and Latin American markets," says Norman Taylor, director of the Office of Economic Development for Broward County. "They find South Florida a good place to be. South Florida serves companies as a gateway to Latin America. We've been doing very well, especially with Internet e-commerce companies."

Taylor ticks off the county's statistics: With 1.4 million people, Broward is Florida's second most populous county (behind Dade), and it has a work force of 749,000, many of whom work in neighboring counties. Many of the businesses based in Broward are there for geographic reasons. One of them -- Lucent Technologies -- is siting a new Latin American headquarters there.

Lucent now has four offices spread across Dade and Broward counties that serve the company's Latin American market. The company's area headquarters is now in Coral Gables in Dade. But Lucent will consolidate them into one location in 2001 in Mirimar, a city in southwest Broward. Lucent will occupy all of a four-story building that will have 240,000 sq. ft. (22,297 sq. m.). The company's 1,000 local employees are expected to be joined by 300 more workers when the new building is fully operational.

Lucent's new South Florida headquarters will be, predictably, a function of location and proximity to markets. Lucent sells to such growing markets as Mexico, Argentina and Brazil from its South Florida offices.

"South Florida, particularly Miami, is viewed as the economic capitol of all of Latin America for work being done out of the U.S.," says Robert H. VanName, Lucent's South Florida regional director of real estate. "Most of the multinational companies set up their headquarters here. South Florida is very attractive in that it's attracting a lot of high-tech companies. Nortel and Motorola are in the area. The economy is strong here. The community is growing. The weather is great. It's just a young, dynamic area."

Lucent chose Mirimar as the site of its future South Florida home, VanName says, largely because many of its workers already lived nearby, and the new offices will have easy access to Miami's International Airport.

Angela Fiffe, Lucent's South Florida branding and advertising director, points out another key attraction of the area: It's easy to hire well-educated employees who are multilingual, a key criteria for a company developing its Latin American market.

In Dade County, Miami development officials are anxious to promote the breadth of what the area has to offer new and expanding companies.

"For years our economy was pretty much tourist based," says Frank Nero, president/CEO of the Beacon Council, Miami's economic development agency. "But a diversification is taking place. We're seeing the economy expand. The aviation industry has grown up around the airport. We probably train more pilots and mechanics here than any place in the world. A lot of our growth is related to Latin America. Miami is developing an international economy."

Nero says last year was one of Dade's better years in terms of attracting new and expanding industry, accounting for more than 26,000 new jobs (compared to 12,000 four years ago) and a 3 percent growth rate (compared to 1.2 percent in 1996). And he's careful to point out the allure of Miami's climate and its glitzy center of nightlife: "It ain't bad to be around South Beach in the winter."

On the other side of the state, a new state university and a recently expanded international airport are ushering Southwest Florida into a new era of business connectivity.

Florida Gulfcoast University -- the state's 10th university -- opened for business last year in the I-75 area east of Fort Myers. A dedicated business and liberal arts school, the university was set up to meet the work-force needs of the region's growing economy. The same can be said for Southwest Florida International Airport, which now features daily flights to and from Germany and other international runways. The European connection -- courtesy of the airport near Lehigh Acres in eastern Lee County -- is bringing a mix of business and tourist traffic that is driving the Fort Myers-Naples economy.