Long ignored, Charlo�e County shines as place for manufacturing

Our secret is out. For a long time, Charlotte County has been passed over for larger neighbors to the south and north, but no longer. Charlotte County has been discovered. That’s wonderful news for Economic Development as we showcase our community to businesses, developers, builders, and investors from across the country.

Sunseeker Resort started this trend. This concept was originally conceived 10 years ago by Allegiant Travel Company. They chose Charlotte Harbor from the dozens of destinations served by Allegiant Airlines. A $600-million-plus investment in our community to include 785 keys, 19 unique-concept restaurants, bars and cafes on an elevated boardwalk open to the public, 60,000-square-foot conference facilities, and 1,300 jobs. Scheduled to open in May, Sunseeker will forever change how residents enjoy the beautiful Charlotte Harbor.

Across the harbor, Punta Gorda reviews plans for the City MarketPlace. The site has been dormant since 2004 when Hurricane Charley destroyed a grocer-anchored center. GEIS Companies out of Cleveland designed a mixed-use project encompassing five buildings with 364 residential units and 41,000 square feet of retail/office space in the heart of downtown. Residents and shopping experiences will boost the charm of our only incorporated municipality.

In November 2020, Charlotte County Commissioners passed a Mixed-Use Zoning Ordinance that allows greater density and higher heights on larger parcels adjacent to major arterials. It worked. The owner of the Promenades Mall, an older grocer-anchored strip center on Tamiami Trail, submitted plans to repurpose the mall into Parkside Village. Preliminary plans show this $100-million project will include 1,100 apartments over 174,000 square feet of office/medical office over 360,000 square feet of walkable retail –a true vertical mixed-use development.

A potential use of the Mixed-Use Zoning Ordinance will likely attract national devel- oper interest as owners of the 1 million square foot, Port Charlotte Town Center Mall market the mall and its 54acre site for sale. Our office had several discussions with interested parties with a vision for the future.

Residential development exploded across the county. Kolter Land Group has taken the Murdock Village property, formerly owned by the county, and created West Port. The West Port community has five national homebuilders constructing over 2,000 homes, apartment developers lined up for several hundred units, and a commercial development ready to provide retail opportunities in a walkable setting around the County’s Centennial Park.

Charlotte County is home to the tenth fastest growing master-planned community in the country – Babcock Ranch. As the nation’s first solar-powered town, Babcock Ranch set records with over 2,000 homes sold. As the project rapidly moves forward to a future population of 60,000, residents live in 19,500 homes with over 6 million square feet of commercial space on 18,000 acres of developable land.

Our mission is to attract businesses/industry to grow the county’s job base to diversify our economy and tax base. We are fortunate to have several thousand, industrial-zoned acres surrounding our Punta Gorda Airport for just that purpose. The Enterprise Charlotte Airport Park (“ECAP”) is home to dozens of aviation, distribution, and manufacturing companies with dozens more in the works. I equate it to the dominoes we set up as kids, where all are lined up and as soon as one falls it triggers the rest. Here are a few of the “dominoes” we are working…