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Questions and Answers with the speakers Q. Why is St. Johns County considered an unfriendly place to do business? Ron: The permitting process needs to be simpler. In the past no one was paying attention to the cost of doing business in St. Johns County, but that is changing. Q. What is the state of tourism at the beaches in St. Johns County? What kind of indirect jobs does manufacturing create? Ron: Manufacturers outsource work as much as possible in areas like building maintenance, product maintenance, and engineering. Nick: New industries bring money into a community and those worker’s salaries are spent locally which helps to grow the local economy. Tourism is the same in that it brings new money into the community, which is spent in local establishments. Ed: Growth in tourism is predicted at 6 to 8 percent by the end of 2010 for all of St. Johns County. According to national data, tourism is up 26 percent from last year this time. Thanksgiving travel was also up 14 percent over last year. Q. Why is the voice for manufacturing not as loud as other industries? Ron: The First Coast Manufacturers Association was created to give us a collective voice. We are working hard to get the word out about the importance of manufacturing. Many of us have been concentrating on our work and running our businesses, but now we are more involved in politics and public policy. Q. What strengths does St. Johns County have? Ron: We get caught up on quality of life, but businesses could care less about this. They are looking at costs – infrastructure, transportation, and operations. Many of these business owners do not even live locally. We must support the expansion of JaxPort, which will bring more manufacturing jobs to Northeast Florida. Nick: We take having I-95 access points for granted. Some of the other partner counties would love this type of access (i.e. Clay and Putnam counties). It is important that we protect what industry is looking for from a site selection perspective. Incentives are a strong part of the toolkit because it lets prospects know that this is a business friendly community willing to invest in new projects. Incentives can help overcome deficiencies, but will not make up for a poor overall business climate. Q. Is there a plan to reach out to retirees? Nick: St. Johns County’s DRI’s offer an assortment of living choices for local residents. We want diversity in the people who live in the county, but there is not a specific effort to reach out to retirees. We also want diversity in the companies that do business in St. Johns County. Q. What is the plan for rail travel in St. Johns County? Nick: A rail stop is being planned for St. Augustine. Elaine instructed the meeting attendees to break into small groups of 5 to 6 for 30 minutes of small group discussion. The questions and results of the discussions are provided below. Small group discussion reports Opportunities: What does St. Johns County have in its “toolkit” to attract, retain, and create jobs (& businesses)? What has not been discussed? Great multimodal capacity Educated workforce 2434 Atlantic Boulevard
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