Florida Draws Down

Even as the state works through important negotiations to get its fair share of water from riverways shared with Georgia and Alabama, Florida's flow of new corporate facilities has not been stymied in the least.
        Led by strong metros like Orlando, Tampa, Jacksonville and Miami, the state's industrial economy is as fortified by service and distribution as it is by heavy manufacturing.
        A $73-million, 600-job, 1.3-million-sq.-ft. (117,000-sq.-m.) distribution center for Lowe's Home Improvement is going to Osceola County, on a 150-acre (61-hectare) site in Poinciana Industrial Park III. The regional center is one of nine the company operates nationwide. The total incentive package could be more than $5 million, including $300,000 from the city for road upgrades, $1.42 million from the county toward impact and permitting fees and $1.4 million from the state contingent on meeting job creation and wage goals. Another $2 million is coming from the state to help with widening a road.
        In an interesting parallel, that same amount from the state's road fund was pledged the very next day by the City of Alachua for an access road to a new 1.2-million-sq.-ft. (111,480-sq.-m.), 600-job Wal-Mart regional distribution center, expected to serve the same Florida/Georgia region, but from a point about 170 miles (274 km.) further north.
        Wynnelle Wilson, the state's chief analyst for policy and incentives, says that fund annually averages 25 grants of around $250,000 each.