BY DAN HILDEBRAN
The Northeast Florida Economic Development Corporation hosted a collaborative workshop with government and business leaders on Friday, June 12, at the Gov. Charlie E. Johns Conference Center.
The group sketched out short-term, intermediate, and long-term goals to foster business development in Bradford County and the surrounding area.
The approximately 30 government and business leaders said the EDC should achieve the following objectives over the next 12 months: finalizing the county’s warehouse lease with Canadian aerospace company MHD Rockland, crafting an economic development strategic plan, achieving widespread, high-speed internet access, developing incentives for businesses to relocate to the area, drafting an eco-tourism marketing plan, and developing the local workforce.
Other segments of the workshop included a presentation by Dwight Hewitt on his east-downtown development he calls City Walk, a presentation by Patricia Evans and Pam Whittle about the county’s prior efforts in economic growth, and updates from Bradford County Manager Scott Kornegay, Keystone Airport Authority Chair David Kirkland, the City of Starke’s Jimmy Crosby, and Hampton Clerk Mary Lou Hildreth about how governments are attempting to attract employers to the area.
Evans also discussed Rural Days, a partnership of 28 rural Florida counties that aims to improve the visibility of rural communities in the Florida Legislature.
The session also included presentations by consultants working with the economic development corporation. Those were Roger Phipps of the marketing firm Seven Lights, Rusty Causey and A.J. Graves of Creative Engineering, Rick Anderson of railroad contractor W.J. Sapp, Carol Saviak of Florida Power and Light, and Jeanie Rickman from Congresswoman Kat Cammack’s office.
At the end of the half-day workshop, Amber Shepherd of the economic development corporation led a discussion to help craft the organization’s upcoming goals.
In addition to the short-term objectives, attendees recommended seven goals for the two to five-year horizon. Those were extending water and sewer service to the Starke Bypass, establishing a business incubator to foster local business development, performing a gap analysis of infrastructure shortcomings like affordable housing, continuing to develop an inventory of local sites, marketing the Starke-to-Gainesville rail spur, commonly known as the Peggy Line, identifying international trade opportunities and taking advantage of the state’s emphasis on attracting semiconductor businesses to Florida.
The group also recommended two long-term goals: extending infrastructure to the south part of Bradford County and improving public transportation.
Past efforts
Evans and Whittle said economic development efforts began in Bradford County before they became involved. The pair credited Community State Bank President Jerome Johns, Bradford County Telegraph Publisher John Miller, Chiropractor Virgil Berry, and former and newly elected Starke City Commissioner Bob Milner for leading the effort to develop an industrial park south of Starke on State Road 100 and organizing the county’s predecessor economic development organization.
Whittle said attracting employers to an area is a long process, recalling that retailer Aldi first contacted her office in 2018 and opened its Starke location four years later.
Evans said the previous economic development organization was hindered by the fact that it was a special district with a board appointed by the governor and was required to operate in the sunshine.
The banker added that when the legislature abolished the special district overseeing Walt Disney World, the legislation also dissolved the previous Bradford development authority and four other special districts created after 1969.
Now organized under a non-profit private corporation, Evans said the previous restraints on economic development efforts have disappeared. She added that with the addition of Shepherd, the full-time contractor can move projects along faster than the previous collection of part-time board members with other responsibilities.
“She’s helping coordinate the meetings,” Evans said. “She’s helping do the outreach. We’ve got marketing materials, which Pam and I were trying to create on Word and PowerPoint on my computer at the office.”
Evans said that although the area’s economic development efforts are better, there is still room for improvement.
“We’ve got everything that’s ready to move forward, except that we’re still partially being reactive,” she said. “We’ve got to have a strategic plan. We’re having these meetings, our board meetings, and community meetings, and we’ve got some great ideas, but we don’t have our map of exactly what we need to do.”
She said the purpose of the workshop was to develop that plan.
County, cities, and airport
Kornegay briefed the group on Bradford County’s so far successful effort to attract an international business to the community. He said MHD Rockland had already been operating out of the Keystone Heights Airport and was looking for additional warehouse space.
“If you were to fill 40-foot shipping containers full of these parts that they have and put them end to end on trucks, the line of containers would be 150 kilometers long,” he said.
The county manager added that the Douglas Building, across U.S. 301 from Walmart, would have been a good fit for the Canada-based aircraft company. The building was owned by Florida’s Division of Emergency Management. Since the division’s head and Kornegay worked together previously at Jacksonville Fire Rescue, he had an opportunity to ask for the structure and property on the county’s behalf.
The agency chief said yes, and a year and a half later, the state conveyed the property to the county.
“Now, we’re in the final stages of negotiating the lease with MHD Rockland so that they can move into the facility,” he said. “They’ve already said that they’re going to do anywhere from $3 million to $4 million worth of upgrades and renovations to the facility before they even move in. Revenue to the county is going to be somewhere around a million dollars a year in lease revenue.”
Kornegay concluded by saying that the parcel on which the warehouse sits consists of 30 acres, but the Canadian company is only going to use seven acres.
“So, the county is going to have an opportunity to develop that other remaining acreage in whatever way we see fit,” he said. “MHD Rockland’s long-term intent is to move their international headquarters from Montreal, Canada, to Starke, Florida.”
The City of Starke’s Jimmy Crosby said that the county’s financial commitment to extend water and sewer service to the bypass will create extensive opportunities for the area.
The city employee added that expertise and contacts are the two necessary ingredients for economic development.
Crosby said most local residents should share his motivation for attracting new jobs to Bradford and Union counties and the Lake Region.
“For me, it’s personal,” he said. “I’m getting to the age now that what I care about is my kids staying here and being able to find a good job, so my grandkids are here, and I can play with them, and that’s what I see happening. That’s why I care.”
Keystone Heights Airport Board Chair David Kirkland said the airport is focusing on growing the facility’s economic base, and he is looking forward to working with the economic development corporation to achieve that goal.
“Many of you here have seen our airport grow from a small airport to a $14 million entity,” he said. “We serve a lot of transit pilots; we have people flying in from all over the nation to visit North Florida.”
Hampton Clerk Mary Lou Hildreth highlighted her town’s recent Dollar General and potential Circle K additions, Thermacell, and recent state grants to upgrade the Palatka-to-lake Butler State Trail that runs through Hampton.
Rural Days
Evans said that six years ago, she envisioned Rural Days in Tallahassee after seeing Clay County leaders implement Clay Day at the state capitol and thought Bradford County should imitate its eastern neighbor.
“Nobody in the State of Florida understands the importance of rural communities,” she told the group. “Nobody knows who you are. That’s why they keep calling you Broward instead of Bradford.”
She said that on the recommendation of State Rep. Bobby Payne, the idea expanded from a Bradford County event to include more rural areas. In its first year, Rural Days included representatives from Bradford, Baker, Union, and Putnam counties and the city of Keystone Heights.
Over the next two years, participation in the event doubled to 10 governments in the second year and 20 in the third year. Last year, 28 of Florida’s 31 small counties participated in Rural Days.
Evans declared that face time with lawmakers and their staffs ultimately results in more state money for local projects.
“You’re not going to get the appropriations you need until you build the relationships, and they know who you are,” she said of Tallahassee lawmakers.
Evans claimed the effort had succeeded.
“Twenty-eight of the 31 rural counties from the state of Florida worked rural county days last year,” she said. “Every single community that I spoke with got appropriations last year. It’s working. The state of Florida knows who we are. Rural counties are a force to be reckoned with.”
Evans said that maintaining the momentum for the event is essential.
“We’ve got to stay in their faces,” she said. “We’ve got to keep those relationships going.”
The Capital City bank market leader said the 2025 Rural Days will occur on March 19th and 20th.
