development | Capital Analytics Associates

Face Off: Osceola County Cities Sharpening Economic Growth Plans

By: Yolanda Rivas

2 min read January 2020 — Amid the growth in Orlando’s economy and population, local cities are emphasizing the unique characteristics of their respective business communities. The city of Kissimmee is taking advantage of its aviation industry, while the city of St. Cloud is looking to expand its experiential and entertainment retail offer. The Invest: team spoke with Belinda Ortiz Kirkegard, economic development director at the city of Kissimmee, and Antranette Forbes, St. Cloud’s economic development manager, about their efforts to grow their economies while taking care of their existing businesses.

What are the key industries for the city’s economy?

Belinda Ortiz Kirkegard: Aviation is a growing industry in Kissimmee, as the city owns a general aviation airport, Kissimmee Gateway Airport. This airport is predominately the airport of choice for corporate jets or private plane owners arriving to go to the Orange County Convention Center or a Central Florida theme park. Kissimmee Gateway Airport is also a relief airport for Orlando International (OIA), providing services for noncompatible OIA uses. Additionally, understanding the value of high-wage aviation jobs, the city launched its Aerospace Advancement Initiative to attract companies to our airport. A recent Florida Department of Transportation study showed our airport yields a direct annual economic impact of $190 million. In the last seven years, the airport has grown by over 300 jobs.

Another growing field in Kissimmee is the medical sector. The city of Kissimmee is home to two strong, growing hospitals, AdventHeath-Kissimmee and Osceola Regional Medical Center. Combined, these hospitals have invested over $300 million in campus expansions or are growing their service lines. To capitalize on that growth, the city launched its Kissimmee Medical Arts District, providing economic development incentives specifically to attract more physicians and medical companies to the area. When new medical companies enter the market, they provide new job opportunities, but it also results in more medical services available to residents. It’s a win-win.

Antranette Forbes: Retail and professional services are our key industries. In fact, 35% of our business is service-oriented. In the medical industry, St. Cloud Regional Medical Center is our largest nongovernmental employer. They have over 500 employees and the majority are in medical or medical-related professions. We also have a large population of dentists. From a business recruitment standpoint, that is a great opportunity for medical device providers, assisted living facilities and other related companies.

We are focusing on diversifying our retail footprint. We are looking to attract experiential and entertainment retail. We have places to shop and eat, and now we are focusing on providing options to play. We also need more diversity in our industrial sector. While we may not have a high amount of space to do industrial, we do have talent who can perform in the sector.

How do you support the interests of residents, while focusing on expanding the city’s business community?

Ortiz Kirkegard: Meeting the needs of our residents is always at the forefront of economic development. Programs are designed to attract companies that provide high-value, high-wage jobs to the community. As our economic development program has evolved, so have the job opportunities, and that helps advance our household income levels. Additionally, the evolution of the program has worked toward diversifying our economy by no longer being solely tourism centric with jobs circling retail and hospitality. Although tourism will always be at the heart of Central Florida, diversifying industries increases our economic resilience.

Forbes: We are implementing numerous strategies to diversify our economy. We have over 1,300 registered businesses in St. Cloud. Over 35 percent of those are home-based businesses. These types of businesses are an important contributor to our economy. These “mom and pop” types of companies are a major focus for us. We are looking to move them out of their homes and into office or storefront space. By helping them to reach that next level, these are the businesses that will be hiring more employees and supporting our growth.

To learn more about our interviewees, visit:

City of Kissimmee: https://www.kissimmee.org/government/economic-development/economic-development-office

City of St. Cloud: http://stcloud.org/926/Economic-Development

Spotlight On: Shaun Kwiatkowski, General Manager, The Godfrey Hotel and Cabanas Tampa

By: Max Crampton-Thomas

2 min read January 2020 — The hospitality industry in Tampa Bay welcomed several new hotel offerings into the marketplace in 2019, and 2020 is going to see the introduction of even more inventory. Invest: spoke to Shaun Kwiatkowski, the general manager of one of the newest offerings to the Tampa Bay region, The Godfrey Hotel and Cabanas Tampa. Besides a bountiful 2019, Kwiatkowski also spoke about the importance and benefits of operating as an independent brand in a market that is saturated with corporate offerings, as well as his view on the impact of the sharing economy in the Bay.

How would you describe The Godfrey’s performance in 2019?

In 2019, we enjoyed the continued market penetration of our brand. We are still pretty new and usually the ramp-up period for a hotel brand in this market can take up to five years to really penetrate and become established, especially a new, independent hotel like The Godfrey. We do not have the Marriott or the Hilton behind us, so we have to rely on a lot of specific strategies to execute. We feel that we have been able to penetrate the market effectively in a short period of time. We have had a lot of growth, which we measure by ADR growth. We had almost double-digit ADR growth last year, which equates to RevPar growth in the hotel’s revenue results. We’re very thankful and proud that we have been able to grow that ADR a little bit faster than the market as a whole. When you look at the Tampa Bay market this past year, occupancy rates had stayed pretty much flat, but I believe that has a lot to do with the additional room supply coming into the market.

How has operating as an independent brand been beneficial and a challenge to the hotel?

Being an independent brand can create benefits, but there are also challenges to that. As the business and the industry have evolved, demand has changed and today, many people want something different from the corporate type of hotel. Not to take anything away from those brands, but people do want to have the unique and fun experience that an independent brand can provide, similar to our food and beverage experience in WTR Pool & Grill. That is exactly who we are. If we look at the market as a whole, we are starting to see some of those big-name brands evolve into a more independent style. We are seeing those independent, millennial-focused brands growing in popularity, especially in this area.

A big challenge for us across the industry is employee retention and finding the right talent. We drive employee retention through the culture that we create within the hotel. If we find a good employee, we reward them and we guide them through their career. When we are looking at recruiting people to fill our open positions, it is more about the person than their skills. I can teach you most of the skills to be a front desk agent or to be a server, but I can’t teach you to smile. I can’t teach you to be positive and warm. This means we always have to be in our recruiting mindset and look for those individuals who have the hospitality spirit.

How has the sharing economy impacted your business, if at all?

In regards to the impact from the sharing economy and things like Airbnb, there’s enough room for everyone to play, from our perspective. The Godfrey has not seen a major impact from the sharing economy. If the average person does a normal search of Airbnbs in this region, there is not as large an inventory as you might find in Boston or Chicago. That being said, when we look at what Airbnb is doing and the future of their booking channel, that is something that’s on our radar. If there is an opportunity there that works for us, we are going to investigate it and see if there is enough return on investment to try and implement something similar.

To learn more about our interviewee, visit:

https://www.godfreyhoteltampa.com/

Gloucester County Emerges as the Jewel in South Jersey’s Crown

By: Sara Warden

2 min read January 2020 — In a roundtable published in Forbes this week, the magazine’s Real Estate Council made a definitive ranking of the 14 Up-and-Coming Real Estate Locations to Watch. Coming in at No. 13 was none other than South Jersey’s very own Gloucester County. “For the most inspired growing area, look to Gloucester County in South Jersey!” said panelist Nancy Kowalik, owner of Nancy Kowalik Real Estate Group.

But why is this county gentrifying so quickly? According to Kowalik, it’s because Gloucester County has everything. “Located close to the city and the shore, we have green spaces, room to breathe, wineries, a quaint Downtown and bike paths,” she said. “It’s all here, and that’s why world-class Rowan University is growing. A new 1,000-bed, state-of-the-art hospital is opening, too.”

The hospital to which she is referring is the Inspira Medical Center Mullica Hill, 465,000-square-foot development over 100 acres with 210 private rooms, a maternity center and 62-room emergency department. The project, the county’s first new hospital in almost 45 years, was built with raised funds of $23 million, a campaign that took just seven months to reach its target.

“This is a tremendous day for South Jersey, Gloucester County and our health system,” John DiAngelo, Inspira Health’s CEO and president, said at the hospital’s ribbon-cutting ceremony in December. “With this new hospital, our commitment to providing exceptional care for our community, in our community, reaches a new level. We are excited to bring the latest in healthcare to the people of Gloucester County and surrounding communities.”

As far as the university expansion, one of the main developments has been the $400 million, 26-acre Rowan Boulevard project.

As well as the healthcare sector and academia, Gloucester County is also proving to be attractive for the private sector, and has become somewhat of a home to craft breweries. The most recent addition is Core3Brewery, a new player that joins the ranks of Human Village Brewing Co. in Pitman, Eight & Sand Beer Co. in Woodbury, Cross Keys Brewing Co. in Williamstown and Death of the Fox Brewing Company in Clarksboro.

“We were really drawn to the way they are building up the area around the college and definitely see the positive direction the area is moving in,” Krystle Lockman, owner of Axe and Arrow Microrewery, told South Jersey Business Journal. “It’s great to be on the ground floor of this redevelopment project in an area we have so many ties to.”

And Core3’s owner, Lawrence Price, told South Jersey Business Journal that the ease of doing business in the county will only contribute to its continued growth. “[The borough] has been so supportive and helpful and business friendly. Everything they could do to help us, they did,” he said. “Mayor Tom Bianco has always been upfront with us and in the mix of things, stopping by at least once or twice a week to see how things are going and if there is anything he can do.”

To learn more, visit:

https://www.nancykowalik.com/

http://www.inspirahealthnetwork.org/mullicahill

https://www.rowan.edu/

http://www.core3brewery.com/

https://axeandarrowbrewing.com/

Spotlight On: Alan Higbee, Managing Partner, Shutts & Bowen

By: Max Crampton-Thomas

2 min read January 2020 — Expertise on the local market is a must in the legal sector, especially within the competitive landscape of the Tampa Bay region. Understanding the nature of the business community within the region and the apparent challenges are keys to a successful practice. Shutts & Bowen law firm’s Managing Partner Alan Higbee discusses the benefits of having specialized practices in the Tampa Bay area, as well as how to deal with economic cycles and not lose talent in the process.

Why is Tampa Bay a good location for a firm such as Shutts & Bowen?

A full service firm like ours has experience in many areas, including some areas that are not necessarily customary for this market, such as our experience in international trade and transactions, experience with large industrial companies and experience representing large and small federal government contractors. Interestingly, the demand for these specialty practices is actually pretty high in this market. Such specialties have often been sourced from larger markets in the past. In our experience, businesses in this market are generally very happy to see that these specialty resources are available here to help and that they don’t have to look to other markets such as Washington, D.C., or New York. For areas like federal government contractors, it makes sense to have that expertise here. I believe Florida is the third-largest market for federal contracting in the country and we are sitting outside the doors of MacDill Air Force Base, which has virtually every federal agency you can name, from all the defense agencies and divisions to the IRS.

How does the firm take part in the business brought to the Tampa Bay Area by new companies and startups?

Startup businesses in the Tampa Bay area come in many varieties, but some of the most promising are often spinoffs: people who have had very successful careers in larger businesses and have decided to go out on their own. Many of these companies have a need for legal services in areas of high specialization, such as healthcare, technology and government contracting. We also see an awful lot of companies that are relocating some kind of division or business unit, or their entire U.S. operations, to this market and, candidly, besides being a pretty sophisticated business center, this area is also a pretty nice place to live.

In the market for legal services, we also see an increasing need for trusted advisers. Lots of lawyers can tell you what the law is, but very few have the industry and business experience to also tell you what you probably should do and should not do. Lawyers who have seen the good, the bad and the ugly in a particular industry or business segment and can tell clients, “we’ve seen this movie before and we know how it ends,” are extremely valuable to their clients and are in greater demand than ever before.

What are the top challenges for the legal profession in the area?

The tightness of the labor pool is difficult, there is no question about that. It is certainly a major challenge for us. The other challenge is the general expansion of the needs of the market. We are becoming more sophisticated. When I moved here in 1980, the needs of this legal community were really pretty basic. In 2019, the businesses in this market are extremely sophisticated and that means their problems and issues are also very sophisticated. I think law firms generally need to consider developing or acquiring some of the specialty areas that are not necessarily indigenous to the Tampa Bay area. Acquiring such specialists can be hard. We have to go out and convince them that they will have enough work here.

How would a legal firm such as Shutts & Bowen deal with a potential economic downturn?

Things always happen in cycles. Like any business, we have to be prepared to handle those cycles. You have to position yourself to be adaptable and flexible, to learn to change what you are doing when necessary and to be able to pick up different kinds of work in the down cycle and be able to look outside your box to keep your talent busy. The down cycles are actually the best times to hire talent, because if your platform is doing well and you are able to find talent on other platforms that are doing well personally while their current platforms are struggling, you have a unique chance to capture that talent.

After every down cycle there is an up cycle. If you failed to keep your talent pool, and were not able to keep the collective resources and experience that you had, you start at a huge disadvantage when the market goes back up. On the other hand, if you are able to keep your talent pool intact through a down cycle, you generally have a huge advantage when the market recovers.

To learn more about our interviewee, visit:

https://shutts.com/

Spotlight On: Scott Lyons, Business Unit Leader, SE Region DPR Construction

By: Yolanda Rivas

2 min read January 2020— DPR Construction is leading the charge in delivering large construction projects faster and with better quality by employing prefabrication solutions and utilizing their own self-perform crews to put the work in place. Central Florida Business Unit Leader Scott Lyons discusses the prospects for the construction industry in Central Florida.

What has been the impact of DPR moving into Downtown Orlando and what opportunities are you finding there that promoted the move?

We moved Downtown in October 2018, which helped us combine two existing DPR Orlando offices into one. There is a great vibe Downtown, and many of our business partners and clients are now our next-door neighbors. This has been a path to strengthening our connections to the local business community with close proximity for lunch meetings or spending time with people in-person. Our new space was designed to host large groups, with a large training room and 10 conference rooms.

Our Orlando office is one of the largest for DPR, in terms of square footage, which provides us with the unique ability to host meetings for our national and regional teammates. Providing our visitors with walking-distance access to some of the city’s best restaurants and venues means they get the very best of what Orlando has to offer and DPR gets to contribute to the economic success of our Downtown district. We just fell in love with the Downtown vibe, it is where the energy is.

What are the most relevant projects DPR is working on in the region?

We are finishing the KPMG Learning & Innovation facility, which will be completed by the end of 2019. It is the largest project being built by DPR in the Southeast this year. KPMG performed a lot of due diligence in choosing Orlando and the Lake Nona area and it has been one of the more rewarding, incredibly designed and fastest projects for us in a long time. Mega projects are historically tough to execute on time and on budget in the Central Florida area since finding enough skilled craftsmen to build these projects can be a challenge. However, our collaborative approach with the client and the design team plus integrating a lot of prefabricated components into the design has allowed the project to be built at a very good pace. This was truly a collaborative effort and success on behalf of our entire team, including the designer and our owner. KPMG is a huge regional project and a huge win for the city.

What are the clearest trends in construction in the Orlando area in recent years?

At DPR, we are very passionate about driving forward the concept of prefabrication in our construction projects. There are multiple reasons for this. There is a shortage of skilled construction workers, so prefabrication decreases the demand for workers onsite and when you prefabricate components they are usually of a higher quality and safer generally, resulting in a better product for the client. For the KPMG project, we prefabricated 800-bathroom pods. We built them in a factory here in Orlando, called SurePods, and the quality was beyond anything we could get building them in place. It changed the dynamic of how the project was executed, resulting in a faster speed-to-market with fewer people needed on the project. Prefabrication is the way of the future for construction and DPR is well-positioned to lead this trend.

What other advanced technologies are you employing in your work?

We are believers in technology where we can find a great use for it, and where it adds immediate value. We beta test a lot of ideas and technology, apps and software, and generally settle quickly on things that help the client or our people. One is laser scanning. We use it before rebuilding a client’s existing space, like a corporate office, to create a digital model that captures the exact reality of the designed space.

We are also working in partnership with Reigl to utilize LiDAR technology and bring some of their technology into the vertical construction market. It is a drone-borne scanning technology that flies over an existing site, scans it and provides the contours of the land, so you can see elevation changes and other useful data. A civil engineer can take that data to minimize how much dirt is moved around, for example. This type of real-world use of technology on our projects keeps us nimble. We are innovating in ways that not only change the landscape for the construction industry, they are helping our client successfully expand their products into new markets.

What kinds of projects are in greatest demand in the Orlando area?

The attractions companies have very robust plans for the next few years and we also see healthcare companies continuing to invest in their existing and new facilities. We also believe that advanced manufacturing will play an increased role in the Orlando economy as well, so we’re also keeping close tabs on those upcoming projects.

To learn more about our interviewee, visit:

DPR Construction: https://www.dpr.com/

Spotlight On: Andrew Burnett, Senior Principal, Stantec

By: Max Crampton-Thomas

2 min read January 2020 — The Broward County Convention Center and Hotel is one of the largest projects underway in Broward County. A project of this magnitude requires the utmost care in regards to design and architecture, as well as the foresight to plan for future environmental challenges. Invest: spoke with Andrew Burnett, the senior principal for Stantec, which is working on the Convention Center project. Burnett addressed the company’s ongoing projects, how shifting demands have changed its focus and the National Flood Insurance Program.

What are some of your most significant projects in development within Broward County?

We have multiple projects throughout Broward County, including the Fort Lauderdale region, Pompano Beach, Sunrise and Miramar. For instance, we are the architect of record and landscape architect for the Broward County Convention Center and Hotel, which is around a $1 billion project. This is an extremely large and involved project requiring integrated services from Stantec that also has many resilient aspects being built into it that we hope to use as a model for future growth and development throughout the county. As we are expanding the convention center and building the new hotel, we have done a series of wave-height analyses. These are not just focused on the floodplain and how high we need to build the building to stay out of the floodplain, they also address storm surges and how to design the building to be more resilient in those situations. It has been great to have the county’s support on these matters. Our other projects in Broward County include the new AC Hotel by Marriott in Sawgrass Mills, Manor Miramar, Las Olas Walk and 1380 South Ocean Boulevard.

How have you seen demand shift in the last couple of years and how are you adapting to this shift?

Historically, we would see the demand for smaller residential units in the Downtown urban core because of the density of the population. As we moved away from the urban areas, the units were constructed bigger to attract more people, but now we are starting to see smaller units becoming attractive away from the urban centers. This indicates that people are looking for alternative solutions that are more affordable. It may also be partially due to having more flexibility and adaptability in the way that we live and the way that we engage the community as Broward becomes more connected and dense. We foresee more of these deals for smaller units outside of the main urban areas making sense for investors.

We are seeing more residential projects that want to permit themselves as or like a hotel. There is some gray area with the rise of services like Airbnb and WhyHotel that can allow owners to operate as a short-term rental while they’re leasing up their building. Owners and investors are starting to take advantage of this. This is shifting how we design our projects. For instance, if we need to design for things like ADA bathrooms, which you would find in a hotel, we are starting to look at an earlier stage how we might design the spaces to be more flexible to do this.

How have you seen Opportunity Zone legislation affect your business?

We have seen an increase in requests for test fits on properties that fall in Opportunity Zones. The market is starting to ask questions on sites and locations that they hadn’t previously. There are a lot of regulations that are being finalized and released in the near future that are going to help increase investor confidence to go forward in these Opportunity Zones, but it may be too early to see the fruit of the test fits in these sites. We are expecting to see more of this in 2020.

How much of a focus do you place on possible future changes to the National Flood Insurance Program?

We are looking more broadly at what is happening with the National Flood Insurance Program and what may happen in the future in terms of how we go about flood insurance regarding how much of it is subsidized by taxpayers. At some point, taxpayers are going to say that they do not want to be subsidizing flood insurance for landowners who may not be doing enough to protect their buildings. As risk starts to shift from insurance entities to owners, they are going to be asked what they are doing to make their building more resilient. What we are trying to do with our integrated team is to find solutions to this so we can go back to our clients and suggest to them what they need to do to mitigate this risk.

For more on our interviewee visit:

https://www.stantec.com/en

Spotlight On: Anddrikk Frazier, President & CEO, Integral Energy

By: Max Crampton-Thomas

3 min read January 2020 — A growing economy in the Tampa Bay region equates to growth mode for most local businesses. One of the most important aspects of keeping this growth consistent is reducing costs in a smart and consistent manner. This can be achieved through an emphasis on reducing energy consumption. Full-service energy management companies like Brandon-based Integral Energy have recognized the opportunities in the market and have found demand for their multiple services throughout the Tampa Bay region. Invest: spoke with the president and CEO of Integral Energy, Anddrikk Frazier, about his business, demand for services and much more.

How is Tampa Bay a strategic location for your business operations?

My first job was in the energy sector in Tampa and watching the growth in the region over the course of my lifetime is impressive. What separates Tampa from other cities across Florida are features like ports, airports and the ability to connect to anywhere in the Florida within three hours.

Where have you seen the most demand among the variety of services you offer?

Integral Energy is a full-service energy management company. We provide natural gas marketing services for commercial customers throughout the state of Florida. We also provide solutions for transportation companies as it relates to alternative fuels. Thirdly, our energy management division helps large businesses that consume large quantities of energy to understand their operating costs on a per plate or per widget basis and then we find ways to reduce those operational costs. I think the biggest demand for service comes from energy management requests and natural gas marketing. Many of our customers do not understand how energy costs are passed on, simply because that is not where the priority lies for hotels, convention centers and other large businesses. We have the ability to reduce energy costs without reducing the quality of their product, which is a huge bonus for them. That has been our biggest growth opportunity.

A lot of demand comes from the private sector, mainly because public procurement processes can be intensive. We do get enquiries from the public sector, but most of the time they are looking for the cheapest price. Our value is based on return on investment, which does not always translate well to public sector work. In the private sector, there is greater understanding of the concept that each dollar spent now is an investment in future CAPEX reductions. We have had a lot of success in working with companies such as Saddle Creek Transportation and Waste Connections because we are able to explain to them the true cost they are saving with our services.

How have the needs of your clients evolved over the last three to five years?

We are the only minority-owned natural gas marketing company in the state of Florida, and this is what started our relationship with Waste Connections. But as we began to evaluate their business, the largest overhead was their employees. We had to find ways to work with them to increase service while keeping rates the same. Over the course of the last four years, we have saved Waste Connections around $2.5 million.

On a local and national level, what emerging or continuing trends could have an impact on your business?

There is so much development in the Tampa area, and with new residents come new commercial activity, which is part of our core business. As long as the economy is growing at this pace, we will have the opportunity to provide our services. Regulation is a big indicator for us, and one thing we are monitoring closely is the recent push for carbon footprint reduction. We all have to be mindful of environmental impact and, primarily in the private sector, the main goal is to save money. If we can provide ways to do this while also reducing their carbon footprint, these are the best business models for all parties.

It is vital for everyone to work toward clean energy solutions. We take pride in being subject-matter experts and understanding what our customers need. CNG and liquid natural gas (LNG), while more environmentally friendly than traditional petroleum options, may not be suitable for all modes of transportation. There is room for electric and hydrogen technologies too, so we need to understand which technologies pair better with which fuel source and the impact that has on the environment.

How is new technology impacting how companies develop and administer environmental energy solutions?

The smaller the company, the lesser the disruption. Take a huge company that has made large investments in a particular technology. It takes a lot of momentum to make that company change course. Small businesses are nimbler and have the flexibility to try things out on a smaller scale before launching. On the metering side, we have AMR-AMI, which allows meter readings to be sent out electronically, meaning customers can understand energy usage on a daily or even hourly basis. There will only be greater focus placed on data collection and analysis going forward.

To learn more about our interviewee, visit:

http://www.integralenergyus.com/

Public-Private Partners Devise Future of Queen City

By: Felipe Rivas

2 min read January 2020 — In the last decade, Charlotte rose from the devastating effects of the Great Recession to become the 16th-most populous city in the United States. The Queen City has experienced continuous years of growth thanks to the diversification of its economy, its budding headquarters relocation culture, steady commercial and residential development, and its “cool” appeal favored by the young workforce moving to Charlotte and its surrounding region. As the city prepares for another decade of evolution, growth, and development, public and private partners have their eyes set on the year 2040. Several complementary plans are underway that will help guide the future of Center City, the city of Charlotte and Mecklenburg County for the next 20 years.

Spearheaded by nonprofit Charlotte Center City Partners, in partnership with the city and county, the “ALL IN 2040” plan aims to establish a new blueprint for the growth and development of Center City, an area that encompasses Uptown and South End. Simultaneously, the city of Charlotte is working on its 2040 Comprehensive Plan, which will guide the growth of Charlotte overall, while Mecklenburg County rewrites its Park and Recreation master plan.

Michael Smith, president and CEO of Charlotte Center City Partners, said the Queen City has a strong legacy of careful planning for long-term development. “We’ve had four decades of deliberate planning and this decade has really defined Charlotte,” Smith told Invest: Charlotte. “Charlotte has launched a new, renewed Center City vision for 2040, called the ‘ALL IN’ plan. This is a great opportunity for Charlotte to carry on its legacy of planning. This is a 50-year tradition of creating these blueprints, each time looking several decades ahead, but renewing that vision every 10 years. This provides us with an opportunity to listen to our community, and to bring subject-matter experts in to help us understand some of the best practices around the world,” he said.

Much of the successful growth and development in Charlotte that occurred in the past decade was a result of strong public-private partnerships, which the “ALL IN 2040” plan will continue to develop and strengthen. “The plans and projects are co-created and co-owned with the private sector. In Charlotte over the last 50 years, we’ve had the public sector making transformative, shaping, stimulating investments in infrastructure, and the private sector responding in a collaborative way,” Smith said.

Infrastructure will be a strong focus of the “ALL IN 2040” plan, as well as the city’s 2040 Comprehensive Plan. “With the growth we have, we know we have to invest in transportation,” Smith said. Both plans account for major transit expansions to the city’s rapid bus transit and light rail systems. “All that infrastructure development is really needed as the city is booming with construction on the residential, office and hospitality fronts. Right now, there are almost 2.2 million square feet of office space under construction. Of that, there are about 700,000 square feet in South End, and more in Uptown. This is not speculative; there is a lot of pre-leased space in South End. As a matter of fact, about 90% of what’s under construction is pre-leased. It provides us with great confidence,” he said.

The “ALL IN 2040” plan and similar city and county efforts are meant to complement one another. Throughout 2020, residents are encouraged to attend public engagement sessions where they can give their input regarding the future of Charlotte and Mecklenburg County.

By the end of the process, a final draft will be created that will eventually head to the city council for approval and implementation.

To learn more, visit:

https://www.charlottecentercity.org

https://www.allin2040.com/plan

Philadelphia, South Jersey Prioritize Transit, Affordability, Sustainability in 2020

By: Sara Warden

2 min read December 2019 — Although under slightly different time frames, both South Jersey and Philadelphia’s local and state governments are prioritizing investment in three key axes for the coming years: transit, affordability and sustainability.

In 2011, Philadelphia’s City Planning Commission outlined Philadelphia2035, a comprehensive plan for managing growth and development in the city. Updated every year, the first phase includes a Citywide Vision, that encompasses broad planning goals, while the second phase will build upon these with specific policies related to 18 different planning districts. The program invites public and private investment for the development of the city over the medium term. The blueprint is based on three key themes: Thrive, Connect and Renew.

According to the 2035 planning document, the Thrive element will focus on promoting affordability in housing, strong neighborhood centers, economic development and land management. Connect will center around improving transportation and utilities, including transit, streets and highways, ports, airports and rail. Finally, with an eye on sustainability, Renew is all about creating more open spaces, effective use of water resources, air quality and historic preservation.

“Philadelphia 2035 envisions a city with an expanded transportation network that better connects home and workplace; ensures convenient access to sources of healthy food; supports the productive reuse of vacant land; and provides modern municipal facilities that serve as the anchors of strong neighborhoods,” said former City Mayor Michael Nutter when launching the plan in 2011.

The new year was already off to a good start for the City of Brotherly Love even before the calendar turned. National Geographic Traveler in November named Philadelphia one of the top 25 must-visit destinations in the world in 2020.

And across the Delaware, South Jersey faces many of same issues are at the top of Gov. Phil Murphy’s priority list. The four pillars of the 2020 budget signed in June 2019 include creation of over $1.1 billion in sustainable savings, stabilizing New Jersey’s credit-worthiness and ensuring tax fairness for the middle class. This foundation will support the final priority of investments in education, infrastructure – in particular NJ TRANSIT – and an innovation-driven economy.

“The budget enacted today is a victory for working families in New Jersey in many different ways—it supports middle-class priorities, invests in education, makes a record investment in NJ TRANSIT, provides property tax relief, and so much more,” said Murphy when he signed the budget into force.

But Murphy also has his eye on further priorities to strengthen the 2020 plan amid more effective tax revenues. “This is a budget that does not include tax fairness, does not ask opioid manufacturers to help fund addiction services, and does not raise gun fees that have been untouched since 1966,” he said. “These common-sense revenues would have allowed us to save for a rainy day and sustainably fund necessary investments for New Jersey’s nine million residents.”

To learn more, visit:

https://www.phila.gov/departments/philadelphia-city-planning-commission/

https://www.jerseycitynj.gov/cityhall/mayorfulop

Face Off: Osceola County Cities Sharpening Economic Growth Plans

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