| A visit from a member of Enterprise
Florida reminded many Cape Coral officials just what makes
their city one of the fastest growing areas in the country.
Al Latimer, vice president for external affairs for the Orlando
branch of Enterprise Florida, spent a few days with the Cape
Coral Council for Progress, thanking the city and Lee County
leaders for their partnership with the company responsible
for Florida’s economic development, international trade
and statewide business marketing.
“The Cape Coral and Fort Myers area is the third best
performing city in the nation in terms of job creation,”
Latimer said to a breakfast meeting at Gulf Coast Village
on Friday.
A report from the Milken Institute, a national economic think-tank
located in Santa Monica, Calif., ranks the Lee County area
third for job creation behind No. 2 Las Vegas and No. 1 Fayetteville,
Ark., home of Wal-Mart.
Latimer, speaking about the state of economic development
of cities like Cape Coral, believes the title is a tremendous
benefit as the city moves forward.
Michael Geml, the chair for the Council for Progress, believes
the partnership with Enterprise Florida is critical for the
area.
“We are a growing community of over 132,000 of permanent
residents in Cape Coral and over 150,000 during season,”
Geml said. “We need to have the facts and figures from
an organization like Enterprise Florida to market ourselves.
We only are at 35 percent capacity and have plenty of room
to grow.”
|
Erin Heston, Enterprise Florida’s
communications director, says the company does not play favorites,
but officials did feel the need to come and touch base with
some of its partnerships.
“Southwest Florida has done a really good job and continues
to expand in growth and business,” Heston said. “Cape
Coral should be commended for its progress.”
Cape Coral City Manager Terry Stewart is pleased with the
third-place ranking on jobs, up from 37th place in 2000.
“This is all good news for our area,” Stewart
said.
Although the Lee County area was ranked third in June of 2003,
the new numbers that are to be released in a few weeks could
move the area up on the list.
“I think your area is going to be much more interested
in the information and numbers that are going to be released
this month,” said Skip Rimer, Milken’s communications
director.
Rimer says the new calculations are formulated a little differently
this year.
“Most of the numbers will be through 2003. Wages and
salary numbers, which are always a year behind, will be through
2002,” Rimer said. “And there will be current,
year-to-year job growth stats through April of 2004.”
Last year, Milken tabulated numbers from labor and wages bureaus
all over the nation and found cities with diverse, stable
economies, not high-tech or computer-based economies, were
the overall winners. |
