EDC quarterly reports Q4 and Q1

1:02:19Good morning everyone. Happy Tuesday. It's uh Bill Cronin, Pasco EDC. It's my pleasure to present to you the quarterly reports for our final Q4 of last fiscal year and Q1 of this year. And because we're doing both at once, I'm gonna go through them fairly rapidly and make sure that we've got enough time for for Q ⁇ A afterwards.

1:02:44Oops.

1:02:49Okay.

1:02:54Yeah.

1:02:59The the PowerPoints, not the metrics reports.

1:03:11That's all right. So while he's doing that, I'll just I'll share there's one.

1:03:18We finished off last year really well. Probably one of the most important things that people want to look at.

1:03:30They want to know how we did with the um the jobs, the projects, the capital investment coming into the community. uh with the growth that we've got coming in. So

1:03:41Okay.

1:03:43It looks similar to the The other one, but it's Q four.

1:03:56Okay. Verbally, I'll tell you as they're as they're looking for it. Uh last year we finished the year with 14 wins, and wins are company's uh uh projects. either new companies coming into Pasco County or expansions where we're competing with other places in the United States. And the key driver for those are are always jobs and capital investment coming in, new jobs to Pasco County. Our goal last year was 14. Uh we hit it and it was pretty much

1:04:26at right almost at the very end of the fiscal year. So we did we set our bar just about right. We ended up with 1,182 new jobs for the community for last fiscal year. And um $360 million of new capital investment. And that uh sup subs went over our goal of $250 million for the year. So that one we're really proud of. And that's um that's new bricks and mortar, that's new capital investment

1:04:56in terms of machines, uh things that we get to keep here in this community that go on our tax rolls and also offset. uh the taxes that our residents have to pay. And of that.

1:05:10And you'll remember uh that was an announcement uh that we made for Baduco, I believe, or was that um I'm sorry.

1:05:21Yeah. That was a Zephyrhills announcement. Go ahead. Yeah. There we go. So of the the pipeline and the activity that we've had, you'll see most of it's still in advanced manufacturing, but you see also life sciences creeping up 19%. of our business recruitment activity. A lot of that has to do with MAFA and the the new Cancer Center and Sparrows campus coming in, but also all the smaller uh spin-offs and a lot of IT businesses that cross over with

1:05:51uh life sciences. Distribution logistics, we're seeing that go down a little bit. Uh we're still a big consumer state, but we've got a lot of distribution centers already here. And I think a lot of us Don't necessarily want to see more and more of those large boxes up against our roads like some of our neighboring counties. So that's actually good news there. We went out and again, most of our time is still spent with our existing business. About 80% of our programs are dealing with existing business to help them

1:06:21grow. Work with Career Source. We actually made a referral for one of their programs. Company visits, that's still our bread and butter. That's when our staff goes out, meets the company, looks under the hood, understands. what they're what they're up against, what the obstacles they have, how they can become more efficient. Last quarter at the end of the year, we ended up with 82 direct company visits and then workforce connections. And this is where we work with our partners, several of some of them you've seen here today, PHSC,

1:06:53AMSkills, others to help make sure that our workforce is getting trained. We've made 37 connections for those programs throughout the year. uh 2.5 million dollars in earned media value. And that's when other people are telling our story. So It's one thing when we tell the story, you guys pay us to tell the story. We're pretty much the marketing crew for business in the community. But when the others media outlets and other publications tell our story, we know we're getting their attention. Uh

1:07:23website continues to get big hits. I think it's always interesting to see what they're looking at. Uh Ready Sites is one of the those that they've continued to look at, but you look at where they're coming from. California, New York, Georgia, Virginia, and Texas. Now three of those uh are pretty high tax states, and you know why they're looking at our area, but some of them are competitors in the same industries that that we are, so it's not unusual for them to look at

1:07:53places that does don't do the same industries pretty well. Engagement and followers still growing up there. That doesn't really shrink. People don't really leave the engagement once they start following our social media and those resources. And getting the news out to events, seminars, industry, peer organizations. We still do a lot of that, getting out, doing public speaking, making sure people know what resources are available here and they know what kind of a business. community that we have. Uh that

1:08:24photo you might remember was uh end of last year, one of our staff members received the um Young Innovators Award, the Dan Webster Award from the state. Still really proud of our team to get these statewide recognitions as individuals, makes our team that much stronger. And then uh where are we with our stakeholders? Well, we've got almost 100 now investors. That's the private sector. uh folks that come alongside us and help to invest and offset that burden from the taxpayers

1:08:54so that Uh they understand what we do as economic development and helps their businesses grow as well too. Uh end of the year, we ended up raising $584,000 of private investment from local companies that support our mission. And then uh I'd say also from the Penny for Pasco. I'll just dive right into it and leave some time at the end for QA. My Tech, of course, we had an announcement with one

1:09:24of our ready sites there. Double Branch Ranch, which is corner of 52 and I-75. I'm sorry, double branch, is now, you see them moving dirt that should be going vertical here. soon with a couple of new spec buildings going on site. And we're continuing to give visits and inquiries on the Ready Sites program. You saw last year we had over 24 inquiries, 29 responses to RFPs, people that were looking for sites to move their companies,

1:09:55presentations to consultants, 22, and then seven site visits. That's when they actually come, want to look at the site, kick dirt, and we know they're really serious at that point. point. Those are all really good numbers for us. Um internationally, we joined with Global Tampa Bay to host a trade mission to uh Vancouver. One of your commissioners joined us on that event. We also had a meeting in Mexico City with IMC, followed by one-on-one appointments for foreign direct investment, and

1:10:25did some speaking events down there as well too. Uh export counseling 60. Uh that's where we're actually teaching companies how to export, how to find markets overseas, get their products out and uh make more money and bring it back here to Pasco County. So we had the one trade mission for the year, which is our our goal, which was the Vancouver. Uh this next year we'll we'll have one coming up here in just a few weeks. And then trade-related events throughout the year. We had eight. Yeah. Enhanced marketing continue

1:10:56to tell this story and this is over and above what we do in our general activity. So when special things come out like a new ready site, those things get additional marketing above what we would normally do. And then Workforce Connect, it's still our bread and butter is our workforce and our talent. And that program has really become more of a tool. We still call it a program, but it's a tool that we use in almost all of our business retention and expansion efforts and our business recruitment because people want to know what

1:11:26we've got for a workforce and how they can navigate that spectrum of workforce training providers. Executive success program, that was the last class. So we phased out executive success program and the Pen Network of this fiscal year as we were asked to remain flat for the year in terms of funding. And as we're waiting for the Ernst ⁇ Young strategy and rolling out some of those new recommendations, making room for that. Uh

1:11:57Smart Start continues to do great. Uh I think the the location here in Dade City with the food incubator seems to still be one of the most popular ones. But I think uh the um holiday location is quickly coming up. Is being also as popular because we've got the maker space there, the CNC machines, 3D printers, things like that. And we hosted our very first rapid prototyping boot camp for inventors. So they can go out and make their invention, make

1:12:28a prototype, and then they get access to that facility to use and trained on the machinery. We expect to see more and more of that. um that's not limited to just people on the west side, that's countywide. You can actually use that program.

1:12:43And then uh events with Smart Start. Nine hundred and eighty-three participants throughout the year. That's almost a thousand people in incubators and startups that are looking uh to grow their very small business. A lot of people think that we just work with those big companies that do the groundbreakings and ribbon cuttings. There's a thousand participants right there of those small companies that still need hand holding and they need us to uh to work with them uh to grow their market here. There's nothing better than showing

1:13:14that you're helping your existing business and your startups, especially when we're recruiting other companies, of how we take care of our existing business. It's the best testimonial that we have. There's the team. And uh If you'd like I'd go right into Q one so that uh Okay. Can we get to Okay. Sorry, guys. Have you jumped through hoops today?

1:13:46Well that while that's coming up, Bill, when you mentioned the Incombuter for Food, um Regency Park Library's got a nice little setup there. And it might be good for them if they want to do an event to they could actually go right up there and do it too.

1:13:56Yeah, yeah. So we've used uh some of the incubator members. I think uh we had the event at um uh Sun West last year. We had some uh one of them catered the event. We've also had a pitch competition at uh Saint Leo. Where one of the incubator members won the pitch contest, and now they actually have a bricks and mortar facility within the wellness center. Um it's one of my favorite programs out there. Of course, I like to eat and I like the food that they turn out, but uh it is something that is

1:14:26deep in our roots in terms of agriculture and food in the community too. So it's nice to continue to work in that area.

1:14:33Yeah, they did they did a

1:14:33great

1:14:33job of the Scholar Fellows. She had two actually two vendors whose one couldn't make it one of the nights, but they were phenomenal every step of the way. The food was delicious. People loved it. And good news is Advent Health has already said. gonna sponsor it again so we've got we've got a date's coming up so okay

1:14:47we're

1:14:47gonna get the word out

1:14:48look forward to having again we'll get the word out so uh q one again we had a another ribbon cutting groundbreaking in this case it was a ribbon cutting Gary Line, you might remember the the uh company came last year. Well they're open and they're having at it. I mean they've got so many employees out there over uh 400. Remember this had a uh uh uh a career day or a hiring. Day and they had them lined up around the block. And this is the almost the most northwest

1:15:18portion of our county to be able to show that much workforce in that area really sent a powerful message to people that we've got a skilled workforce that is here and ready, and they don't want to drive down to Tampa and St. Petersburg every day to work. So Bill, how far ahead of the schedule were they to filling up

1:15:34all the jobs we're gonna go get?

1:15:36So um they end ended up it it came so fast that they needed to bring in extra people just to get through the applications. They really didn't anticipate they were gonna fill them that quick. We were way ahead of schedule in that. Um and they were they're very surprised in the process too. So Yeah, speed to market is important for these companies when they're coming in. So everything from how how quickly we get the ground ready, permitting, but hiring, training, all of that. Because up until then, they're not

1:16:06making any money. So the all of these things are important. That's where we all come together as a team. So far this quarter, five wins already. If you look at the jobs and the capital investment numbers, they pr seem pretty anemic. And let me tell you that of those five, two of them we haven't reported the jobs numbers and the capital investment. So next quarter, you're gonna see that we got a commitment from both of those wins already to expand, and we're negotiating, and probably without incentives. Going

1:16:36to be able to get those to expand even further. One of those two wins, I'll give you a little foreshadowing, is a company that we know from Brazil. That uh Had originally committed to four hundred thousand square feet building. We've got them at a million square feet now. So with a million square feet, I don't know if there's media in the room still. Million square feet, we know there's gonna be a lot more jobs coming in the community and capital investment that comes along with that. But first and foremost will

1:17:07be that footprint. So 400,000 to a million, uh, and that's just in this last year that we've worked with them, that they've said, yeah, we want to do more in Pasco. We love you guys. And we want to continue to see that grow. So stay tuned, a little foreshadowing there. Um still heavy in in advanced manufacturing, life sciences, um high-tech still up there and uh you see a good cross set cross-pollination between high-tech and some of these other uh industries that kind of like Peanut butter

1:17:37and jelly, high tech and life sciences now. If you've been to the hospital as a doctor lately, um, you see all the tech that's involved with that. Well, that means that there's jobs involved that you don't have to be a doctor, but you can still be in life sciences. That's really good for our community and our career and technical education uh programs. Already making referrals out to training programs and visiting companies. Like I said, as far as last quarter, 21 already this quarter. And then um I don't know if you recall, but I just showed

1:18:07you the um earned media value for last year. It was 2.5 million for the entire year. First quarter this year, we're already over three million dollars. And one of the reasons is one of our companies. Who started our incubator, started our food incubator, Lanky Lassie's and has the uh I'm giving them a commercial. They've got bricks and mortar right across the street here. Um they were picked up by MSN. And uh it got all over nationwide

1:18:38news, and uh over three million dollars worth of hits really drove that up with their extension and the fact that uh she's a US Marine veteran as well, too. So go buy some some uh shortbread and show show some love. We we really like to see those companies grow. grow and expand and she's exporting now too internationally.

1:19:03Um still top landing sites, California. Georgia, New York, Virginia, same, same location. So it tells you they're still not taking care of those business their business in some of those states. And we're still getting uh uh the same Growth in followers on regular social media too. Already attended 21 events this past first quarter. Attended three conferences and seminars, but made eight presentations to industry groups. And usually most of those groups are anywhere from 50 to a couple

1:19:34hundred people. uh talking about Pasco and doing business in Pasco. We're up to 101 investors. So just as of a couple of minutes ago, I was what, 97? Now we're up to 101. Uh if I stand here long enough, I guess it'll just keep keep growing. But 101 new uh are investors that help uh on the private sector side for Pasco A DC. Um some of the new ones include JP Morgan, uh Bank of Central Florida, Thirsty Buffalo Brewing. You might remember one of our former employees uh started

1:20:04a um business and came back as an investor. So We don't mind when we have alumni that that grow uh their own business. And Goodwin Mills. And then for the um here's a Picture of the uh Uh food vendor fair that uh we have each year at the uh incubator here in in Dade City in Tommytown. And uh BaduCo uh company that I may have just referred to. won the

1:20:34uh Deal of the Year for the Crew Excellence Awards and that was in Zephyrhills. Our Amazon Robotics facility on 52 also broke ground this this first quarter. And we continue to get inquiries in advanced manufacturing for these other sites. So five site inquiries already, five responses to RFPs, three presentations to consultants, no visits yet, but I know that's gonna that's gonna change now that holidays are over and people are back in the swing of

1:21:04things. Promoted Pasco County at the Japanese SUS Japan event in Charlotte, North Carolina. Also attended the governor's trade mission to Italy, which this was something that was barely last minute, you might recall, several people from all over the state, but Tampa Bay very well represented. And we got some uh decent leads out of there as as well too. So Florida showed strong Uh a lot of lot of similarities between uh Italy and Florida

1:21:34these days in terms of the style of government. We're both peninsulas, uh they both have yachts and fast cars. So there's uh they both like food. There's a lot of lot of great things in common. Um, I would say watch Italy uh as far as the EU goes, as far as being a really strong potential partner for Florida and eventually for Pasco too. Uh next trade mission, February 24th to the 27th, is Mexico City. And that will be in conjunction with SELECT USA and the Global Tampa Bay. uh

1:22:05alliance that will be bringing companies down uh from the three counties from Pasco, Pinellas, and Hillsboro, and that's just in a couple weeks. And that actually Anytime we have new flights coming from the airport, going into the airport, new trade lanes, we try to follow that up with a trade mission to show those airlines that it's not just tourist traffic, it's also business traffic. And this is uh this was planned as part of that new announcement of direct flights from Tampa into Mexico

1:22:35City.

1:22:38Uh seven counseling sessions already this quarter, three trade-related events, and then that trade mission that I mentioned will uh will be the one for the the year on that slide. Enhanced marketing, uh launch the double branch superpark ready site video. So any of the ready sites. You know, we do additional marketing and that's videos, uh, do publications in different languages. Um, encourage you to take a look at that site, that video. It's probably one of the best ones that we've done thus far. And it's it's kind of energizing too when you

1:23:08when you watch it and see uh all the things that we're advertising, all the assets that we have locally here for companies that come and invest in Pasco County. And then Workforce Connect, uh Bizblast. We we had our Pasco 50, but we also had Bizblast. That's when we go out and Uh instead of waiting for them to come to us, we go out to the the companies and we set up something in the community, usually industrial park where people can come at their leisure and

1:23:38or their lunch break and talk about uh workforce and the programs that are available for workforce training. And then Smart Start continues to uh to do well. Our three incubators uh and the staff uh have been recognized in the Tampa Bay Business Journal's Innovation Award in the entrepreneurial support category. They got an award this year from TBBJ. And uh already 291 event participants uh just

1:24:08in this first quarter, 46 events. uh from our smart start incubators. And again, there's the team. Couldn't do it without them. They're the ones doing the work. I'm just here presenting to you today, and I'll stop there and see if y'all have any questions. Commissioner Weightman.

1:24:27Thank you. So you mentioned tangible taxes. Um obviously that's what's set at the state level, but has there any been whenever folks are looking at coming here for business? large and and small, has ever been in any conversation around Tangible taxes is probably not something that we think about ordinarily in the impact to their bottom line. Um I'm personally not a fan of tangible taxes. Right. But has there been any conversation in any of your prospects

1:24:57or business dealings uh surrounding

1:24:59taxes there has and uh at the state level as well too so depending and you've seen some efforts in different industries where they've made some exceptions like like for for R R and D and manufacturing and things like that. So uh there's there's recognition at the state level that's there. Um for years, anytime we look to see reduction in some of those, and the same happened back with uh rents on leased buildings, you remember we're we're one of the only states that was charging uh tax on rent. And

1:25:30when we look at that from a competitiveness standpoint, it used to be that the state would come back and say, Well, you know, we don't charge personal income tax here, we've got to charge tax somewhere else. The last few years I've seen that attitude change quite a bit where I think we're starting to see some changes in um that position that we're pretty healthy overall. And I think there is an opportunity for us to continue to whittle way at some of that.

1:25:56So how How do we do that? Do we allow key business to go up to North Florida and and discuss it? Like who's going to walk out there on a limb and

1:26:06Yeah. So I think I think that's where your your industry associations, your Florida Chamber, um, those types of groups that have uh lobbyist ability to do true lobbying. We're a C three. We can ad educate and advocate, which we do. Um C sixes can get out and do some true lobbying for it. I think lots of times there's so much going on here that they just have to pick pick what their priority is. And uh usually there's more than one priority for each legislative session. So making sure

1:26:36that uh it's in those top One, two, or three for an organization sometimes is hard because there's so many things going on here. But that's that's who I see as being. Uh the groups and manufacturers association would be one as well too.

1:26:54Wome ever, pick one. Who you think that might be the most impacted by it and see if they might be willing to share. that information or have a discussion in uh maybe breakout session or something during the EDC or just one-on-one. But um Just find tangible taxes to be An interesting tax. So thank you, Bill.

1:27:15No, I think that would help us become more competitive, that's for sure. Mr. Ruckley.

1:27:19Yeah. Uh Bill, I looks like you've had a great year in um kinda busting it seems which the whole county is with all the development and everything we've got, but You know, we've got I just heard here recently that we've had over 160 uh MPUDs in the pipeline and so we're gonna looking for a bigger and better push in this year too because a lot of things are coming forward. And along that comes a lot of good business, good jobs for people in Pasco County where our

1:27:50citizens can live here, play here, and also work here close to home. Home, and that's what we want to get to be. So we're so close. I think we are our Premier County because we offer an awful lot that we used to not offer. And jobs was one of those. So we brought that up to the forefront. And I I think you'll see continued growth on that.

1:28:11Thanks, Commissioner. I think it's really important for us to continue to focus on the job piece of those MPUDs. A lot of people are seeing in the growth around here and I think some are are panicked about uh uh the residential growth, but once the employment center piece of those MPUDs fills in And people aren't having to get on the road and drive to for their jobs, that congestion will change. And we wanna keep that local. I mean there's no sense that we should house people here and have the job somewhere else.

1:28:37Right. We can't change a whole lot about some of those developments, but we can sure make them look like they should look and we can architecturally and uh with landscape and those issues, we can make that look like we want it to be, especially in East Pasco County's got more growth than probably other areas right now in this county. We need to make it look like we want it to look. And we're very rural, and we want to keep keep that atmosphere out there too. Thank you. Mr. Yeager.

1:29:09No, you guys are doing a great job. It's so exciting to hear all the projects and, you know, everybody interested in our county. And um we're one of the fortunate counties that we still have land. So it's important, you know. I feel that, you know, we're not giving away our land that we really do the research before we, you know, who we have come in our community. So and what that looks like. But thank you for all you do.

1:29:35Well, thank you, Commissioner. We do brag about our green space as well, too. And for a lot of companies, that's that makes a big difference. 84,000 acres of protected green space is a pretty big deal, especially in a state that doesn't have that. We're one of the few places that has people and land. Yeah, we take care of both.

1:29:55Well, I like to say you're doing a phenomenal job as always. I want to tell you about a couple of opportunities coming up. Um recently met with a container homes company that's thinking about where they wanted to locate. Happens to be a local person, so I told him about the Hudson Industrial Park. Very interested in doing that because it's a lot of a coastal impact that'll be there that he wants to kind of do it along that way. Um we're gonna try to have some meeting coming up. I think you might have already been noticed on it. Another one coming up, uh company called Energy Tech. Uh they're expanding the commuter uh

1:30:25commercial launch of this sixth generation advanced sodium ion battery. uh could be a huge thing for the nation. Um especially with trying to relay our you know get off the uh China supply all all the way through. New technology that's out our six generations was not that new, but uh up and coming that I think it's I want to definitely get your involvement so we get some state help uh to bring this one in.

1:30:46You can count on it and thank you again you guys who you're you're some of the best extensions of of our team and uh and we don't have to pay you, you know, I think. Uh you end up to be some of our best economic developers as as a commission, but uh and of course our partners at the county too. And one one

1:31:03suggestion I got for next year, uh I know you can't do it now, but uh on Netfest, I know it's coming up pretty soon, it's gonna be a big event. Uh you you happen to run it the same week as Chasco. If you could maybe take a look next year and and try to avoid that. It's on a Thursday, which is not a bad night, but uh there is a golf tournament going on which I'm

1:31:23I know we tried to do it a little earlier so it wouldn't be so hot. Um but yeah we'll take a look at that and maybe we can arrange for some uh back and forth between the two events as well. Buy your cowboy hats and boots now.

1:31:38Well thank you again for

1:31:38all you do and your support. Thanks for the great work you're doing. Appreciate you. All right, take care. Thanks. And your team.