Work Local small business

2:43:58to where we can incentivize that and and try and get people to uh look at those spaces. So David, if you don't mind, I'll bring you up. But this was this was born because I'm a small business owner and I was going through the process and felt all the pains and aches that all the small business owners felt and I said how can we streamline this? So this is something we've been working on for a few months.

2:44:25Hi, David Engel, Planning, Development and Economic Growth. Our Board of County Commissioners, for the years I've been here, have been very committed to the local small business community. And in fact, if you look at U.S. Department of Labor data, small businesses are the most resilient hire in the country. They hire more much more people than large Fortune 500 companies. They respond very quickly coming out of a trade. Off from a recession, and they're the last to lay off, and they're very resilient. And in our community, the last time

2:44:55we did a uh a business survey in Pasco County, approximately eighty percent of all the businesses in Pasco are locally owned style small businesses. In fact, um eighty percent had less than twenty-five or less employees, and forty-seven percent of them were people that lived in Pasco and owned businesses in Pasco. And some of the biggest problems with small business is the front end capital load that's required for them to expand and situate here in the county. And we have some

2:45:25great stories and I just want to tell you what the potential is of any incentive program. We have local homegrown businesses that are absolutely outstanding in Class A facilities. We have PharmaWorks, Peter Bazinski, the interim CEO of Amskills, started a business in his home, and now he's one of the largest employers here in Pasco County. We have Lane Mendelssohn, another homegrown resident who lives out in Wesley Chapel, and he is expensive. Expanding Vantage AI, and

2:45:55we have uh we're creating jobs where the average pay is about $100,000, high paying wages. And uh we also have um NVGTN on uh Trinity Boulevard and Commissioner Starkey's district. These folks started a um a high end uh woman's athletic uh clothery in the in basically in their house, and now they have a hundred thousand square foot facility. They're generating about twenty-five million dollars a year in revenue, and they have a lot of jobs there

2:46:25that they've created best.

2:46:29So, I mean, that is our potential here. That's the type of incubator program that we'd like to evolve. So, I had just some antidotes. And what I'm looking for today is just to get some board direction. If you like what you hear, uh just give me the authorization to go do some work and come back with a proposal. Um so number one, um we have a big problem finding leasable space in the county for small Business. Most of our warehouse construction is large demised areas of 15,000, 20,000 square

2:46:59foot minimum. But the small business footprint is much lower. Those are just too large for small business. So Barbara Wilhite approached me with a client. They own property near uh Bellamy Brothers and State Road 52. It's in the IL zone. And he he's a Pasco resident, and he said, you know I've always dreamed for 10, 15 years, about producing a small business spec facility. So I've come up with this concept: small building, overhead doors, but they're at grade.

2:47:29We don't need to have um semis pulling in. And they're dem it's demizable down to 1,700 square feet. So he said, Well, you know, we've got some F dot required potential improvements on the highway. Or do you could you produce some incentives? And I'll s I said, I'll tell you what, would you be open to getting an incentivization package where we're buying down your rent for locally owned small PESCO businesses where we can give them a rent break for five years or so to get them up and running? Very interested. And and

2:48:00I see so much potential here because what we can do through our empowerment mechanism is even do an RFP, asking for people to come in and we'll be willing to incentivize a project if you build the space necessary for our small business. The board did this back in 2017 and 18 with pads and pores. We've gotten spec offices and large warehouses and industrial buildings up, but it doesn't occur. accommodate the small business. So on a smaller scale, we don't need the same level of penny for Pasco funding. We could do it

2:48:30for the small business. Secondly, the capital stack up front. Small business does not have access to commercial capital right now. The banks are risk adverse. They're requiring enormous amounts of uh project equity in by the project. and they're they're they're lending very little and it's a very high interest rate. So I believe that it's timely for us to consider some incentivization for locally owned small business, either redeveloping an existing property or building a new, especially in the West

2:49:00Market area, which is key to creating jobs and creating redevelopment and tax based contribution. So that's kind of the gamut. And you know, the Board of County Commissioners are very empathetic and I really admire everybody, uh Commissioner You know, Yeager is, you know, you've been out there helping the needy and the um the disadvantaged community. Commissioner Starkey, she's very sensitive about people's lives and their interaction with the built environment and all of you do that kind of thing. But we've always been a county of empowerment. Uh we we believe in helping people that are

2:49:30disadvantaged, but the best way qu we can do is empower. We have a tremendous job skills training program. We've introduced massive amount of industrial development. We're not we're not really a bedroom community anymore. We're tilting over to being more balanced. And this will really, I think, get us over the finish line because your small business, these are the guys that come in here, individuals. They they bring their families in, they stake their future in Pasco, they invest in Pasco, then they hire and pay taxes here. And I I'd like to be able to go do some

2:50:00work and support these people and come back to the board. So that's my ask today. Live lo uh work local.

2:50:06What do you think, Ice? Uh

2:50:08uh

2:50:08uh Commissioner

2:50:09Weightman, okay.

2:50:10I thought we'd embarked on something like this years ago in making it easier for s for small business with fees and something similar. I guess.

2:50:26We weren't doing anything until we have a lot of people.

2:50:28Well we no, no, sir. We we have done things. We we first of all in the West Market area we have reductions or elimination of mobility impact fee.

2:50:41board um effectuated a break in locally owned small business mobility fees so they pay a lesser rate. We've been doing things, and in fact, uh we're still doing things and with Commissioner Yeager's sponsorship because of her unique business experience here in the county, we've established uh a development services concierge group. Uh and we have a individual who is trained and skilled who will be helping the small business project. Because these people are lay people. They don't know what a seller is. They don't know anything about this stuff. So we're we are

2:51:11actually providing a very personal concierge service. And every small business application that comes into PDE is value engineered. In fact, I'll give you an example. Sun Coast Recovery was in recently, and I know Commissioner Mariano has been following them because they provide great benefit to the local community and um they're they were on a fixed fixed amount of income and financing and we were able to actually cut over eighty thousand dollars in capital cost by value engineering their site plan and showing

2:51:41them ways that they can meet the code but also save money and we're going to provide that every every opportunity we can so um also building and construction services under uh David Allen's leadership because he's part of this Concierge um system. We're going to establish that also for the building permitting. So we will be giving uh the small business and the citizen um very, very personal care and make sure we save them money and save them time. And lastly, this concierge group in planning development and economic

2:52:11growth, they will also be handling minor rural subdivisions. People should be able to

2:52:21So we'll be helping them uh save money and uh get get legal with their with their lot splits. So basically that's that's what we're doing.

2:52:29Yeah we need to especially with minor rules, this county's made it too daggum difficult. But good work, Commissioner Yeager. Thank you.

2:52:39Well sir, we are we are working on streamlining it now. Thank you.

2:52:44Look forward to seeing your report.

2:52:46All right. Thank you. Thank you very much.

2:52:48Thank you. David doing a great job. Thanks. Even on Sundays.

2:52:54We're going this way.

2:52:55Uh

2:52:55we're commissioned. All right. Cool.