The Outsider Texas Consultant Bullish on Cape's Future Michael Rareshide    Site Selection interviewed Michael C. Rareshide, executive vice president of Partners National Real Estate Group Inc. in Dallas, to get an outsider's perspective on Cape Coral. As a national site consultant who has brought major high-tech and back-office deals to Florida, Rareshide offers a unique look at a city trying to make the leap into the ranks of Tampa, Orlando and Miami as a global competitor for corporate projects.    SITE SELECTION: What is your overall perception of Cape Coral as a place to do business?    MICHAEL RARESHIDE: I have visited the area, including Sanibel and Fort Myers, on vacation. I also had a company about two years ago evaluating the I-75 corridor from Atlanta to Fort Lauderdale for a back-office operation. The hurricanes over the past two years and their lingering perception will likely be a concern in the near future. For those companies wanting to be a bigger fish for a back-office operation in a Tier II/III market, Cape Coral would get my recommendation.    SS: What are Cape Coral's best attributes? What are its negatives?    RARESHIDE: Some of the best attributes are: quality-of-life activities; proximity to water and water activities; a less expensive area to live compared to Naples; Major League Baseball spring training in the area; JetBlue flies to the New York area from Southwest Florida International Airport; and the median age of 44 is about 10 years older than the national average, suggesting an experienced population. The negatives are: college-education population of 21 percent is less than the national average of 25 percent; driving to any other major metro area takes about two hours; minimal air service; lingering perception of consistent hurricane hits each year; and, if they want to get businesses' attention, its Web site promotes and has more of a tourism bent, and not necessarily a business focus.    SS: How does the overall business climate in Southwest Florida compare with the business climate in other regions of the state?    RARESHIDE: Markets like Tampa, Orlando and Jacksonville are excellent business centers for the state. I do not perceive the Southwest Florida area to be as aggressive as these other areas, and they need to be to get such relocations and expansions.    SS: What industries are ideally suited to locating a facility in Cape Coral?    RARESHIDE: I would think that a back-office operation or catalogue operations would be a great fit. Companies with a regional or Florida-only focus would appreciate the centrality of this area. Weather concerns, even before the hurricanes, would negate any mission-critical operations.

   Water plays an important role not just in the quality of life on the Cape, but also in its economy. Boat building, marine science and water ecology research form the backbone of the city's fastest growing industries.
   At Marine Concepts, access to a "water wonderland" of canals, rivers and the Gulf of Mexico makes Cape Coral a natural home for one of the nation's leading high-tech R&D companies in the field of marine vessel design and engineering.
   Judy Batten, marketing executive with Marine Concepts, says her firm enjoys being a cutting-edge company in a town that doesn't attract a lot of outside attention. "A great deal of the work we do is highly confidential. That's a good reason for us not to be located in a larger market like Sarasota," she says.
   "This is a very competitive industry. All of our projects have drapes over them," she notes. "We don't offer any plant tours."
   The company's stellar growth last year prompted it to invest $1.5 million, expand by 8,000 sq. ft. (743 sq. m.) and hire several new design engineers at six-figure incomes. "The city and economic development office were very helpful in our plant expansion," Batten says. "Cape Coral is just a beautiful city in which to live and work. Another thing we have going for us here is the weather; you can't work with fiberglass boat materials when it's 25 degrees outside. Here, we can work year round and never have any problem with the weather."
   Batten adds that it's nice to be part of a town that's growing and improving its economy. "You cannot look around anywhere in Cape Coral and not see new construction," she says. "Our company is making a healthy profit here, and we are very happy to be part of the growth of Cape Coral."
   At nearby Ecological Laboratories, water is also the critical ingredient to the company's success.

Nick Simone

The manufacturer and distributor of bacteria-based products used in water quality management recently expanded by 15,000 sq. ft. (1,394 sq. m.) and 20 employees and will soon add another 20,000 sq. ft. (1,858 sq. m.) and up to 10 new workers.
   The firm moved from Long Island, N.Y., to Cape Coral seven years ago at a time when rising costs forced company executives to re-evaluate the cost of doing business in a big Northeastern city.
   Nick Simone, vice president of manufacturing and distribution for Ecological Laboratories, says, "We needed to expand our business, and property values and construction costs in New York were just prohibitive. At the time, Cape Coral was a sweet find because land costs and building costs were very affordable. It's probably still a bargain today."

By the Numbers Population: 145,661 (2005 estimate) Land Area: 115 sq. miles (298 sq. km.) Incorporated: August 1970 Buildout population: 413,000 by 2080 Median Age: 44 Median Household Income: $59,532 (2005) Industrial Vacancy Rate: 0% Office Vacancy Rate: 0% Average Rent PSF: $10.25 (office space) Median Home Price: $200,483 Job Growth: 20.2% (1999-2003) Labor Force: 69,251 workers in Cape Coral (Jan. 2005); 246,493 workers in Lee County; 383,000 workers in tri-county region of Lee, Collier and Charlotte. Unemployment Rate: 2.7% (Sept. 2005) Labor Profile: 32.3% sales and office; 28.6% management and professional; 16.5% service; 12.8% construction, extraction and maintenance; 9.5% manufacturing, transportation and material moving; 0.3% farming, fishing and forestry. Education: 45% have college education; 8% have technical degrees. Average Annual Temperature: 74.4° F. Days of Sunshine: 335 per year Annual Rainfall: 62 in. (157 cm.) Tourism Impact: 2.5 million visitors per year Crime Rate: Third safest city in Florida; lower crime rate than Miami, Tampa, Orlando, Tallahassee, West Palm Beach and Gainesville. Proximity to Other Florida Cities: 71 miles (114 km.) to Sarasota; 123 miles (197 km.) to Tampa; 124 miles (198 km.) to West Palm Beach; 133 miles (213 km.) to Fort Lauderdale; 141 miles (226 km.) to Miami; 153 miles (245 km.) to Orlando. Rankings: No. 1 Best Performing City (Milken Institute, 2004); No. 9 Medium Metro Area for Entrepreneurs (Inc. Magazine, 2005); No. 2 Metro Area for Job Growth (Forbes Magazine, 2005); Fifth fastest growing city, with populations over 100,000, in America (U.S. Census Bureau, 2004 and 2005); No. 5 among Top 50 Locations in America for Locating a Corporate Headquarters (Boyd Study Inc., 2004); No. 1 Housing Market (U.S. Housing Markets, 2003 and 2004). Taxes: Ad valorem rates have decreased in each of last three years; one of three Florida cities with no public service taxes; two Foreign Trade Zones. Sources: DevelopmentAlliance.com; City of Cape Coral; CB Richard Ellis; U.S. Census Bureau; Florida Department of Law Enforcement; Site Selection; Lee Co. Economic Development Office.

   Simone and his partners first looked at the East Coast of Florida before finding the Cape. "Costs were still pretty high on the East Coast, and so we began looking at potential business locations on the West Coast of Florida," he says. "We looked at other industrial parks in Southwest Florida, but we felt that the North Cape Industrial Park was the best place to be. We just had a very good feeling about the developer and the area."
   In the end, Cape Coral beat out competing locations in St. Lucie, Broward and Palm Beach counties on Florida's Southeast Coast.
   Other critical site selection factors for the high-tech firm included close proximity to I-75 and two airports (Southwest Florida International, which just opened the new $438 million Midfield Terminal Complex, and the closer Page Field executive airport), room to grow and the area's overall quality of life.
   "Another factor was that, coming from New York, we wanted to get away from crime," Simone says. What they found in Cape Coral was the third safest city in Florida, according to the Florida Department of Law Enforcement, and a much lower crime rate than Miami, Tampa, Orlando, West Palm Beach, Gainesville and Tallahassee.
   "We could have located anywhere in Lee County, including Fort Myers, but we deliberately chose to locate right here in Cape Coral," notes Simone. "We also benefited from a nice incentive program offered by the city. We received an impact fee deferment because we are developing the last piece of property we own. Plus, we registered for a cash incentive from the Cape. If we hire a certain number of employees who live on the Cape, we receive cash back. The city is doing a number of things like that to attract business."