2017 Tallahassee Business Journal

2018 TALLAHASSEE BUSINESS JOURNAL AN 850 BUSINESS MAGAZINE SPECIAL REPORT

CAPITAL INVESTMENT

Tallahassee anticipates — and creates — a bright future

FUTURE OF SOUTHWEST TALLAHASSEE | EMPLOYMENT TODAY AND TOMORROW | PHILANTHROPY | PENNY SALES TAX | HEALTH CARE | REAL ESTATE

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Local Research. Global Impact.

Florida State University faculty and students are changing the world—right here in Tallahassee. Every day across campus, cutting-edge research is conducted, creativity is explored and supportive learning environments are encouraged. From finding treatments for Zika, Alzheimer’s and cancer, to helping children with autism through music or art therapy, FSU is propelling our society forward.

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CONTENTS

PRESIDENT/PUBLISHER BRIAN E. ROWLAND

CREATIVE CHIEF CONTENT OFFICER Lawrence Davidson DIRECTOR OF PRODUCTION AND TECHNOLOGY Daniel Vitter SENIOR ART DIRECTOR Saige Roberts DESIGN DIRECTOR Jennifer Ekrut PUBLICATION DESIGNERS Charles Bakofsky, Shruti Shah GRAPHIC DESIGNERS Meredith Brooks, Sarah Mitchell SALES & MARKETING VICE PRESIDENT/ CORPORATE DEVELOPMENT McKenzie Burleigh Lohbeck DIRECTOR OF NEW BUSINESS Daniel Parisi AD SERVICES COORDINATORS Lisa Sostre, Tracy Mulligan ACCOUNT EXECUTIVES Makenna Curtis, Julie Door, Darla Harrison, Anthony Lopez, Rhonda Lynn Murray, Dan Parker, Linda Powell, Sarah Scott, Lori Magee Yeaton EVENTS AND SPECIAL PROJECTS COORDINATOR Mandy Chapman INTEGRATED MARKETING MANAGER Rachel Smith CLIENT SERVICES COORDINATOR Joslym Alcala MARKETING AND EVENTS ASSISTANT Mackenzie Ligas OPERATIONS ADMINISTRATIVE SERVICES/ HUMAN RESOURCE COORDINATOR Marah Rhone CORPORATE CLIENT LIAISON Sara Goldfarb CLIENT SERVICES REPRESENTATIVE/ PRODUCTION SPECIALIST Melinda Lanigan STAFF ACCOUNTANT Jackie Burns ACCOUNTING ASSISTANT Daphne Laurie RECEPTIONISTS Eliza Holtom, Christie Valentin-Bati

PHOTO BY BRUCE PALMER

EDITORIAL DIRECTOR OF EDITORIAL SERVICES Steve Bornhoft MANAGING EDITOR Laura Cassels STAFF WRITERS Hanah Burke, Erin Hoover ASSISTANT TO DIRECTOR OF EDITORIAL SERVICES Kim Harris Thacker EDITORIAL INTERN Sara Santora

22

Autumn Calder, planning manager, Blueprint Intergovernmental Agency

8 G UEST COLUMN Al Latimer, who heads

38 A CCOMMODATIONS Visitors to

up the Tallahassee-Leon County Office of Economic Vitality, is cataloging the reasons that business leaders choose the area as their home.

10 F UTURE OF SOUTHWEST TALLAHASSEE Big changes are taking shape as the “Airport Gateway” project morphs and expands to benefit what is being called the “Gateway District” encompassing an area from the main campus of FSU to Capital Circle.

14 E MPLOYMENT TODAY AND TOMORROW Leon County and Florida have “a lot of people who are not necessarily unemployed but underemployed and who want more work or more highly skilled jobs,” said Tom Feeney, president and CEO of Associated Industries of Florida.

Tallahassee will soon have more options to rest for the night, or longer. Seven hotel projects are either under construction or proposed for Tallahassee, prospectively adding nearly 1,000 new rooms.

42 TOWARD EMPLOYMENT FOR ALL

There is a big gap between abilities and job placements in the professional world; it stems from attitudinal problems, programmatic inconsistencies and a lack of opportunities for people with disabilities to show their abilities to employers.

49 A CENTER OF INNOVATION Florida

State University researchers have been awarded 506 patents that have contributed to manufacturing, business processes, creative endeavors and other positive effects on economic health.

18 PHILANTHROPY Fundraising for

charitable organizations once consisted of an annual signature event and an end-ofthe-year appeal by mail. But these days, fundraising is a year-round endeavor.

53 A NEW PLACE IN THE SUN In February

2016, the Office of Economic Vitality (OEV) was formed as part of a newly created Tallahassee/Leon County department for Planning, Land Management and Community Enhancement — acronym PLACE.

22 P ENNY SALES TAX Three times since

1989, Leon County voters have approved adding a penny to the local sales tax. In the third vote in 2014, voters agreed to extend the tax from 2020 to 2040.

57 L ESSONS LEARNED A trip to Nashville,

26 R EAL ESTATE Dramatic new real

estate developments are changing the streetscapes around Tallahassee and are changing how Tallahasseans live, work, play and shop. The result is new lifestyles.

32 MUSTIAN CENTER Tallahassee Memorial HealthCare is looking at the big picture, one that stretches 50 years into the future, with the building of its new surgery center.

35 COMMUNITY OUTREACH Construction of

two new, freestanding emergency facilities is part of Capital Regional Medical Center’s effort to extend patients quality care in convenient locations, with little to no wait time.

said one participant, exposed local leaders to programs “so inspired, supported and effective that they challenge us to think bigger and act faster back at home.”

61 TOURISM In Tallahassee, sports tourism

is not confined to a flat, rectangular field.

It also includes rolling hills where athletes run without pads.

ON THE COVER: From left, Tallahassee Mayor Pro-Tempore Gil Ziffer, Leon County Commissioner Kristin Dozier and Kevin Graham, executive director of FSU’s Real Estate Foundation, look forward to the completion of the FAMU Way Extension, a vital leg linking the Airport Gateway to downtown Tallahassee. PHOTO BY BRUCE PALMER

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2018 T A L L A H A S S E E B U S I N E S S J O U R N A L / 7

GUEST COLUMN

VITALITY, GROWTH, INCLUSION

L

ast year, I proudly joined the newly established Tallahassee-Leon County Office of Economic Vitality (OEV) to help the community achieve sustainable economic growth. In a rapidly changing field, OEV has met the challenge to be more competitive by creating an economic development organization that does more than just traditional business recruitment and attraction. For the first time, our community is employing a long-term strategic plan to guide its economic vitality efforts, which was adopted by the Blueprint Intergovernmental Agency Board of Directors. Rooted in collaboration and transparency, the strategic plan emphasizes the need to responsibly allocate resources, promote our community as a business generator, support small, minorityowned and women-owned businesses, and continuously engage key stakeholders.

I would like to highlight a few key efforts that OEV has focused on over its first year within the areas of vitality, growth and inclusion — all linked to goals in the strategic plan.

Vitality through engagement OEV serves as Tallahassee-Leon County’s “front door” to business solutions. Engaging the private sector through our Capital Local Outreach Opportunity Program, CapitalLOOP, is part of a comprehensive strategy that promotes economic engagement and provides direct outreach to the businesses in our community. This two-way information exchange enables us to share resources with local businesses, while they share insight into their current status, challenges, and the trends they see in the local business climate. To date, we have met with nearly 40 businesses —

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Latimer

by AL LATIMER

which has generated three leads for expansion opportunities.

To maximize and amplify the voices of our business community, OEV launched a social media campaign last summer seeking opinions on why Florida’s capital is the ide al location to operate a business. This interactive campaign encourages business leaders to share why they chose #FLCapital4Biz as their home.

We are also working to promote TallahasseeLeon County in the global marketplace. This year, OEV led a team from across North Central Florida to develop and win an international bid to serve as hosts for the 8th Americas Competitiveness Exchange (ACE 8). In December, the North-Central Florida ACE 8 tour brought 50 global leaders from more than 27 countries to our community, highlighting the entrepreneurship, innovation, research, industry and talent that make our community economically competitive. It established the foundation for building partnerships between our region and the participating countries.

Promoting economic growth Creating jobs, the recent opening of Senior Life Insurance Company offices in Tallahassee-Leon County was made possible by the coordinated efforts of OEV, the Greater Tallahassee Chamber of Commerce, and CareerSource Capital Region. Senior Life’s decision to open its first Florida location in Tallahassee is a vote of confidence in our community.

Our office is working 16 such projects.

Since April 2016, we have assisted with the creation of 193 new jobs.

An additional initiative helping augment our business retention and recruitment effort is the Targeted Industry Study, to be released

in early 2018. It will identify high-potential industry sectors for our community to target, strategies for developing them and strategies for strengthening our entrepreneurial culture to support them.

OEV has formed collaborative partnerships with key ecosystem partners such as Florida State University and Florida A&M University to leverage resources and assets for developing a technology cluster centered on the National High Magnetic Field Laboratory, which is being used to recruit industry and talent. To support this effort, OEV formed the Magnetic Technologies Task Force to provide guidance and a focused strategy.

Cultivating inclusion Our Minority, Women, & Small Business Enterprise programs contribute a vital element in the local economic ecosystem: inclusion. MWSBE certification provides businesses access to a network of resource partners and members, educational training, and procurement opportunities with local contractors. The launch of the Industry Academies this spring is an example of education and engagement opportunities offered to certified businesses to promote competitiveness and increase demand for their services. Our (re)certifications are up almost 25 percent over last year.

These are just a few examples of the work we are doing at OEV. I strongly believe this collaborative, comprehensive approach to economic vitality enhances our local and regional business climate and reinforces Tallahassee-Leon County’s place as Florida’s Capital for Business — a community that directly promotes vitality, growth and inclusion.

COURTESY OF TALLAHASSEE-LEON COUNTY OFFICE OF ECONOMIC VITALITY

Comprehensive approach yields dividends

NATIONAL ACTS

INNOVATIVE

developed business incubator

at the Capital City Amphitheater

COMMUNITY CATALYST bridging skilled jobs gap

WORLD CLASS

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VISION

A community that is safe, healthy and vibrant.

MISSION

To efficiently provide public services which serve and strengthen our community.

(850) 606-5300 • www.LeonCountyFL.gov 2018 T A L L A H A S S E E B U S I N E S S J O U R N A L / 9

FUTURE OF SOUTHWEST TALLAHASSEE

SOUTHWEST SYNERGY Gateway District projects create lanes for growth and revitalization by AUDREY POST

W

hen the government spends money on infrastructure, private investment follows.

Following that standard philosophy of urban development, Southwest Tallahassee should prepare for big changes in the next few years as the “Airport Gateway” project morphs and expands to benefit what is being called the “Gateway District,” a huge chunk of real estate that encompasses the area from the main campus of Florida State University to Capital Circle on the south and west.

“When you invest in your own infrastructure, it leads to growth, it leads to regeneration,” said Ben

International designations position airport to support economic growth

by AUDREY POST

I

From left, Tallahassee Mayor Pro-Tempore Gil Ziffer, Leon County Commissioner Kristin Dozier and Kevin Graham, executive director of FSU’s Real Estate Foundation, represent key partners in the multilayered Gateway District project. They were photographed at the FAMU Way Extension construction site — a key connector among the airport, the universities and downtown.

Pingree, director of PLACE, Tallahassee-Leon County’s office of Planning, Land Management and Community Enhancement.

Funded through the 1-percent sales tax extension called Blueprint 2020 approved by voters in November 2014, the $58.7 million gateway project will create a muchimproved route from Tallahassee International Airport into the downtown area and to both Florida State and Florida A&M universities — something most everyone

f you’re one of those people who rolled their eyes and laughed when you heard Tallahassee Regional Airport was applying for “international” status, you need to check the chuckles and look at the larger picture.

It’s not about being able to fly off to Paris for a long weekend without changing planes in Atlanta, although that certainly sounds nice and officials hope that international commercial flights happen down the line. Instead, renaming and re-branding Tallahassee International Airport is about economic development, the capital city’s growing air-freight business and the need to accommodate general aviation aircraft, those private planes and jets that can fly in from the Caribbean, Central and South America and points beyond.

“Commerce comes first. You grow jobs. Everything else follows,” said Ben Pingree, director of TallahasseeLeon County PLACE — Planning, Land Management

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and Community Enhancement program — which coordinates planning, economic development and Blueprint Intergovernmental Agency programs.

These days, business is global. Industry is global.

Managing those enterprises is global. As Innovation Park’s leadership works to recruit more high-tech manufacturing companies to work alongside its worldclass researchers — at the Florida A&M UniversityFlorida State University College of Engineering and at FSU’s cutting-edge labs such as the National High Magnetic Field Laboratory, High-Performance Materials Institute and the Aero-Propulsion, Mechatronics and Energy Center — transportation issues loom large. Being able to provide easy access for people and product is a key asset in economic development.

Having an international airport designation facilitates “a broader conversation,” said David Pollard, interim

agrees has been needed for decades. Current routes from the airport through the light-industrial section of Capital Circle Southwest don’t exactly show off the capital city’s charms.

“The current route is certainly less than desirable,” City Commissioner Gil Ziffer said. “The route proposed provides some level of concern for existing neighborhoods that we have to be mindful of, but there’s no doubt we can make it better than it is now.”

The project includes improvements to vehicular lanes along Lake Bradford and Springhill roads, with landscaping as well as bicycle and pedestrian lanes. Along Springhill between Orange Avenue and Capital Circle Southwest, a median is planned that will allow for additional lanes to be added later within the existing footprint. On the stretch of Lake Bradford Road between Gaines Street and Orange Avenue, roundabouts will be added at key intersections, as well. A roundabout is also planned for the intersection of Gaines Street and Stadium Drive.

PHOTOS BY BRUCE PALMER (ZIFFER, DOZIER AND GRAHAM) AND SAIGE ROBERTS (FAMU WAY)

Synergy bolsters multiple projects By connecting the Airport Gateway project with other improvements planned for the area, Blueprint Intergovernmental Agency is leveraging its assets for greater return. For example, the last section of Capital Circle Southwest that hasn’t been widened and landscaped — the section from Orange Avenue to Crawfordville Road that includes the airport — is due to be improved in the next few years.

Planned widening of Orange Avenue, not a Blueprint project, is being factored in, as well.

FAMU Way, which runs west from Railroad Avenue and curves south, paralleling Eugenia Street, will intersect with Lake Bradford Road near its current intersection with Gamble Street. Across Lake Bradford Road, improvements will continue on Stuckey Avenue as it winds through several streets in the Providence neighborhood, eventually connecting on Roberts Avenue to a new road through FSU property.

The collaboration involved in the project is one of its standout features, with key stakeholders in Southwest Tallahassee coming together in ways the community has not seen on previous projects.

“FSU needs a road through its property near where Alumni Village once stood and the existing golf course, which it wants to redevelop with a Jack Nicklaus

airport director. “We were at a competitive disadvantage with other airports in the region.”

The Austin, Texas-based consulting firm that analyzed the Tallahassee airport’s potential for growth in 2014 found it to be the largest general aviation airport in the Panhandle, handling almost 10 million pounds of air freight a year. Having passengers clear Customs and having cargo inspected at a Federal Inspection Services facility in Tallahassee eliminates the need for a stop in Orlando, Miami or Atlanta. In addition, overcrowding at South Florida airports may open up trade opportunities here with Central America.

With international-airport status, Tallahassee will be a “user fee” airport in the eyes of U.S. Customs and Border Protection, Pollard said, covering all the costs of having Customs

The extension begins at the roundabout on Railroad Avenue marking the entrance to FAMU.

design,” said Leon County Commissioner Kristin Dozier. “It is donating the right-of-way for the road, which will become a Blueprint road.”

Better transportation as recruitment tool Having better access to the airport will help not only FSU but also Innovation Park, a zone that was created by special charter in 1978 by the state to attract private companies to work with university researchers. Dozier, who has served on the Innovation Park board for seven years, several as its chair, said having better ground transportation to and from the airport will help recruit new tenants and more jobs to Innovation Park. Improvements under way at the airport, including work to establish a Foreign Trade Zone there, also will help.

“We have room to attract more manufacturing to Innovation Park. We also have 12 acres that could be used for commercial development,” Dozier said. “If we want to be a world-class research center like the

and Border Patrol personnel in place until international traffic reaches a minimum threshold for having them assigned permanently.

He said in early November that he hoped to meet with Customs officials soon to agree on a Memorandum of Understanding. Once that’s done, the airport can submit an application to create a Foreign Trade Zone and send out a Request for Proposals for design of the international arrivals facility, which would also house the Customs office. Such zones allow manufacturers operating there to import parts and components without having to pay import tariffs when they receive them. Instead, the tariff is paid when the final product is sold and shipped out.

In essence, according to the U.S. Department of Commerce, creation of Foreign Trade Zones

helps “level the playing field and improves U.S. competitiveness by reducing the costs of U.S. operations.”

“It opens us up to have a broader conversation, partnering with the Office of Economic Vitality and the Chamber to recruit,” Pollard said. “Adding a Foreign Trade Zone becomes one more feather in our cap and ultimately brings jobs to our community.”

This follows closely $62 million in major improvements inside the Ivan Munroe Terminal and to the runway. Phase 1 added an inline baggage handling system, terrazzo flooring and new ticket counters and rental car counters.

Phase 2, due to be wrapped up by the end of 2017, renovated the security check-in area.

“One of the things that airlines are looking for is a clean and modern (continued on next page)

2018 T A L L A H A S S E E B U S I N E S S J O U R N A L / 11

FUTURE OF SOUTHWEST TALLAHASSEE 111’ R/W - Proposed

International designations position airport to support economic growth

Beautified connector roads are being designed not only with cars in mind but also cyclists and pedestrians.

District will be an opportunity to see growth Research Triangle, getting our transportation and revitalization in the southwest sector of issues resolved, both ground and air, is key.” the city, there are some details to be worked Kevin Graham, ORANGE executive director of AVENUE - [ SEGMENT B ] out,” Richardson said.

FSU’s Real Estate Foundation, sees the Changes from the Blueprint 2020 plan collaboration as a win for everyone. approved by voters are subject to approval by “Right now, FSU has academic, athletic, the Blueprint Intergovernmental Agency, an research and administration offices on the oversight board of city and county officials southwest campus. Pottsdamer (Street) is currently chaired by Leon County Commisa main thoroughfare from Orange Avenue sioner Mary Ann Lindley. when it should be a residential road for the “It’s got a few hurdles but I think they’ve Callen neighborhood,” he said. “The same actually got a pretty good plan,” Lindley said. with Levy, coming off Lake Bradford Road, “Good signage to explain in the Providence neighalternate routes can make borhood. If we can relieve a big difference in how you some of the traffic with the moderate traffic flow.” new road, those streets can She noted that the latest become residential again.” tweak of Blueprint earmarks City Commissioner 12 percent of the sales-tax Curtis Richardson served revenue for economic develon the Blueprint 2000 opment, executed by the committee and on the “We have room Office of Economic Vitality. committee that successfully to attract more “Originally, Blueprint campaigned for Blueprint manufacturing to Innovation Park. We was all infrastrßucture all 2020, which extended the also have 12 acres the time, focusing on recresales tax through 2040. The that could be used ation, transportation and Blueprint 2020 proposal for commercial development. If we the environment,” Lindley called for Springhill Road want to be a worldsaid. “Once the southwest to be the single gateway class research center infrastructure improvefrom the airport, he said, like the Research Triangle, getting our ments are in place, the but FSU’s offer to provide transportation issues poverty and the need for right-of-way through its resolved, both ground small businesses need to be property for a road and and air, is key.” addressed, and this can be the creation of a Gateway KRISTIN DOZIER, a piece of it. There’s potenLEON COUNTY District brought south Lake COMMISSIONER tial for private development Bradford Road into play. partnerships.”

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facility that is convenient for operations and for customers,” Pollard said. “Our IT systems improvements behind the scenes allowed airlines to use more kiosks and fewer ticket agents, which helps the carriers operate more efficiently.”

The announcement in late October that American Airlines will resume daily non-stop flights to and from Washington, D.C., in February underscored both the airport’s commitment to creating a clean, safe and secure environment and the growing connections between Tallahassee and the nation’s capital. The flights ceased in 2015 when American and U.S. Airways merged.

Meanwhile, the airport is advertising for design bids for a state-of-the-art, rental car quick-turnaround service facility with a two-story parking garage. “We hope to select an engineering firm in February or March,” Pollard said. “The design phase will take about a year, and construction will probably take another year after that.”

In addition, city utility customers have already pledged to buy all 20 megawatts generated from the 120-acre solar farm on airport property once the system goes online, and there’s a waiting list of potential customers. The City of Tallahassee Utilities is leasing the land, and Origis Energy owns and operates the farm — with more than 200,000 solar panels. Origis will sell the electricity to the city utility starting in January 2018.

A proposed second solar farm, twice the size of the first and designed to produce 40 megawatts, is currently under review as part of the airport’s master plan. The Federal Aviation Administration requires a number of steps in preparation, Pollard said, “and we’re working through it.”

PHOTOS BY BRUCE PALMER (DOZIER) AND COURTESY OF BLUEPRINT (AIRPORT GATEWAY)

(continued from previous page)

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EMPLOYMENT

OCCUPATIONS IN DEMAND

EMPLOYMENT REBOUND Job market heats up; health, tech jobs in demand

by ROCHELLE KOFF

J

oey Castagnaro “bounced around” for a year after graduating from Florida State University in 2016, but he landed well.

At age 23, he’s now a business analyst for Tallahassee-based Diverse Computing, a technology provider for law enforcement agencies, acting as a liaison between clients and the firm’s software developers.

Karen Shouppe is a former teacher and stay-athome mom who decided to go back to college to become a registered nurse. At 56, she will be graduating from Tallahassee Community College’s Ghazvini Center in December, aiming to get a job in women’s health care.

Castagnaro and Shouppe may be launching different careers but they have something in common. They’ve chosen two of the hottest professions in a post-recession economy — technology and health care.

“Our teachers assured us that there are plenty of jobs out there,” said Castagnaro. “This is exactly what I was looking for.”

While some professions are suffering, the 2017 job market is at one of its strongest points in decades.

Myrna Hoover, director of FSU’s Career Center, at the Seminole Futures career fair in September

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The top 15 advertised occupations in Gadsden, Leon and Wakulla counties (August 2017)

1

Registered nurses

2

Computer systems analysts

3

Management analysts

The U.S. unemployment rate was 4.4 percent in August. Florida’s seasonally adjusted unemployment rate was 4.0 percent in August 2017, down 0.1 percentage point from July 2017, and down 0.9 percentage point from a year ago, according to the state Department of Economic Opportunity. There were 408,000 jobless Floridians out of a labor force of 10,095,000.

The unemployment rate in the Gadsden, Leon and Wakulla counties was 4.2 percent in July 2017, 0.9 percent lower than the region’s rate in 2016 of 5.1 percent, according to the DEO. “Florida has a lot of people who are not necessarily unemployed but underemployed who want more work or more highly skilled jobs,” said Tom Feeney, president and CEO of Associated Industries of Florida.

At the Sept. 28 FSU Seminole Futures career fair, more than 200 participating employers included tech companies, bankers, retail stores, accounting firms, law enforcement and insurance companies. Representatives of Apple, Amazon and the Air Force Office of Special Investigations were among the recruiters greeting eager students milling around the Donald L. Tucker Civic Center.

“I’m networking today to go anywhere,” said FSU senior Blake Tipping, at the fair both as a student job seeker and president of the university’s Career Center Ambassador Program.

His interest? “Project management and business analytics,” said Tipping, currently an intern with DEO. The prospects? “Thirty percent growth within the next four years,” he said. “Business analytics is going to be the next big thing.”

Tipping said he double-majored in finance and management information systems to acquire the hard skills but also gathered experience at leadership and team building.

STEM (science, technology, engineering and

4

Business Operations Specialists

5

First-line supervisors of office and administrative support workers

6

Software developers, applications

7

Computer user support specialists

8

Marketing managers

9

Medical and health services managers

10

First-line supervisors of retail sales workers

11

Heavy and tractortrailer truck drivers

12

Social and human services assistants

13

Web developers

14

Information technology project managers

15

Retail salespersons Source: The Conference Board, Help Wanted Online, prepared by the Florida Department of Economic Opportunity, Bureau of Labor Statistics

Tech companies such as Apple, retailers, financial firms and the U.S. Air Force Office of Special Investigations were among the 200 employers who met with prospects at the FSU Seminole Futures career fair on Sept. 28.

“I’m networking today to go anywhere.”

PHOTOS BY SAIGE ROBERTS

FSU SENIOR BLAKE TIPPING, STUDENT JOB SEEKER AND PRESIDENT OF THE UNIVERSITY’S CAREER CENTER AMBASSADOR PROGRAM

math) jobs are well represented on the list of top jobs but if you’re a history or English major don’t lose faith.

“We hire all majors,” said Teri-Anne Brennan, group talent acquisition manager for Enterprise Holdings, which expects to hire 50 to 60 FSU grads in 2018.

The company promotes from within so is looking for candidates with a good work ethic and professionalism, she said. “At the end of the day the most important thing is leadership,” said Brennan, a 2004 FSU graduate.

Industries will post about 14,000 job listings a year, said Myrna Hoover, director of FSU’s Career Center.

“There are opportunities out there,” said Shereada Harrell, director of the Career and Professional Development Center at Florida A&M University, which also held a job fair in September, featuring more than 100 employers and nearly 900 students.

“We just added 15 more companies than we had last year.”

Along with job fairs and career centers, a new free tool is available to help students assess their potential job outcome based on programs at public institutions and training programs. LaunchMyCareerFL.org highlights in-demand jobs, desirable skills and what students can expect based on their

major. The initiative is a partnership with the Florida Chamber Foundation and the DEO, with funding by Strada Education Network.

“This is a piece of gold that has been given to the folks who work directly in schools,” said Rebecca Schumacher, executive director of the Florida School Counselor Association in a statement to the press.

In Leon County, 92.3 percent have a high school degree and 45 percent have a bachelor’s degree. But help is also available for people who haven’t graduated high school.

“We can help them through the GED process, pay the exam fees and help them figure out what to do next,” said Ruthann Campbell, marketing and communications coordinator for the state’s CareerSource program in the Capital region.

“We’re essentially career coaches but we don’t cost anything,” she said. We help you get a job but our main goal is to get you a career, no matter your age.” Clients have ranged from 16 to over 70.

The career center steers people toward “in-demand careers,” said Campbell. “Those are the ones we pay for, the ones that are growing and have a large need. We’re not paying for jobs that won’t exist in five years.”

Identifying opportunities is just one

of the roles of the state’s CareerSource program, which also helps with resumes, counseling and financial aid.

“It’s not a loan, it doesn’t have to be paid back,” said Campbell.

CareerSource Gulf Coast helped Heather Hunter pay for tuition, books and other costs so she could become a licensed practical nurse and later a registered nurse.

She’s currently working as a case manager for Hospice Covenant Care in Panama City and pursuing a bachelor’s degree at Gulf Coast State College.

“I don’t think a lot of people realize that CareerSource provides this kind of help,” said Hunter, who wants to become a nurse practitioner. “If they hadn’t helped me I wouldn’t have been able to finish.”

Health professions offer growing opportunities at every level, said Campbell.

“Every single month, registered nursing is Number 1” on advertised job listings, she said.

“I knew I would never have a problem getting a job,” said aspiring nurse Shouppe.

“But that wasn’t part of my thought process.

Being a nurse is something I always wanted to do.”

The industry needs more people like Shouppe, said health administrators.

“There’s a shortage of nurses nationally

2018 T A L L A H A S S E E B U S I N E S S J O U R N A L / 15

EMPLOYMENT

Susan Fiorito is director of the Jim Moran School of Entrepreneurship at FSU.

so it’s always going to be a good field of study with guaranteed job placement,” said Dr. Stephanie Solomon, executive director of the Ghazvini Center for Healthcare Education and dean of healthcare professions at Tallahassee Community College.

“There will always be a demand for nurses, but there will probably also be a demand

for EMTs (emergency medical technicians) and paramedics.”

The nonclinical field of health information management is also growing rapidly, said Dr. Solomon. These technicians play a critical role in gathering, coding, managing and maintaining patient health information.

To expand its services, CareerSource

Capital Region, along with local businesses, educational providers and economic development entities, have created a new Career Pathways Project to help people entering their first or second career find local training programs and financial aid opportunities.

Anyone interested in health science medical administration, for instance, can visit www.mycareerpathways.org and learn three possible options, with training and salary information, that could take you from entry level to higher skilled jobs.

For instance, an entry level job as a medical administrative specialist, which requires a certificate and two semesters of training, will pay $10 to $11 per hour. The next steps — health informatics & information management and healthcare management will require a four-year degree but the salary range will increase from $20.19 to $58.44 per hour.

“Entry level jobs are different for every industry,” said Campbell, at CareerSource.

“Retail looks very different from technology

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careers. And entry level positions can change very rapidly.”

Nonprofits can also offer employees the chance to move into management.

Nonprofits are major employers in Leon County, said Jessica Lowe-Minor, executive director of FSU’s Institute For Nonprofit Innovation and Excellence. “One in 10 jobs in Leon County is a nonprofit job,” she said. “These range from institutions as large as Tallahassee Memorial Hospital to small nonprofits with one or two staff.

Altogether, there are 2,000 nonprofits that collect $3.1 billion in revenue.”

Finding a good job doesn’t always require a four-year degree. There’s a growing emphasis on training and short-term certification programs geared to the needs of employers.

The I/O Avenue Code Academy (which stands for Input/Output) is a new 12-week, $6,000 bootcamp tech program that focuses on web development. There’s also a $500 introductory course available.

The Academy is a collaboration between Domi Station, Florida A&M University and the office of Tallahassee Mayor Andrew Gillum “to help fill a need in Tallahassee,” said Ryan Kopinsky, the academy’s director.

The academy will be able to offer “an underserved community” the latest technological developments, he said.

Seventy percent of the 200 applicants for the program’s first classes in September were female, which is “encouraging” in a male-dominated field, Kopinsky said.

“There are 500 tech jobs every year that go unfilled,” he said. “These are highpaying jobs and we don’t have the people to fill them.”

Educators and business leaders have been working more closely in recent years to offer skills needed in Northwest Florida with the educational system and programs like Workforce Development at Tallahassee Community College.

“In 2013, what I saw was a huge gap between what employers were asking for, and what educational institutions were delivering, in terms of what skills students had and the knowledge they had,” said Kimberly Moore, vice president for Workforce Innovation at Tallahassee Community College.

The Workforce program offers courses that can help an employee gain skills or change careers. The program offers short-term certification in fields like air-conditioning, driving a commercial truck, cyber security, maintaining industrial machines and welding. Most classes are offered at night.

“In 12 months or less, students can embrace a new career,” said Moore. “The ultimate goal is for individuals to gain employment. We listened to employers when we designed the curriculum.”

Feeney, of AIF, said “all sorts of companies need people with vocational skills. It’s important “not to be locked into one job or location or learn how to do one thing.”

Plumbing and electrical work are among fields that stay in demand. “You can work with robotics without being a robotic engineer,” he said.

Shifting Economy “Forty or fifty years ago, young people were expected to work at the same facility for decades, retire at 65 and get a gold watch,” said Feeney. “Now it’s not what company are you working for but what project are you working on.”

A shifting economy has helped make entrepreneurship a growing alternative for innovators of all ages.

“There have always been people who have decided to go out on their own,” said Susan Fiorito, director of the Jim Moran School of Entrepreneurship at FSU. “But during the recession, when companies started downsizing, people had to figure out whether they could work for another large corporation or go out on their own.”

In 2015, Jan Moran and The Jim Moran Foundation committed $100 million to FSU to expand the Jim Moran Institute’s operations statewide and create the School of Entrepreneurship.

The university accepted 80 students as entrepreneurship majors in the new school program.

Of those, 60 are pursuing commercial businesses and 20 are going for nonprofits and businesses geared to helping the community or society as opposed to a product or service.

“They have to have that inner passion,” said Fiorito. “Not everyone can be the

CEO of a company but you can be the CEO of your own company.”

Faculty members are entrepreneurs including Mark McNees, the founder of the nonprofit Red Eye Coffee, which now has five locations.

“Entrepreneurship allows you to create the career you want but it’s not for everybody,” said McNees who works with students seeking internships in entrepreneurship.

Doug Tatum, a member of the Jim Moran School of Entrepreneurship faculty, CEO and author, said the school has developed a specialized plan or an “internship in a box” that allows students to work with small or mid-size companies that wouldn’t otherwise have the resources to work with a student.

CAREERSOURCE CAPITAL REGION TOP PRIVATE EMPLOYERS Tallahassee Memorial HealthCare...... 3,674 Walmart...................................... 2,631 Publix.......................................... 1,563 Capital Regional Medical Center....... 968 McDonald’s ................................... 826 Winn-Dixie..................................... 759 Pizza Hut / KFC / Taco Bell............... 685 Tallahassee International Airport..... 620 Capital Health Plan (a).................... 600 Marriott Hotels............................... 489 Chick-fil-A......................................447 Capital Health Plan (b).................... 401 Sears / Kmart................................. 389 CVS Pharmacy................................ 384 Coastal Forest Resources Co............ 350 Westminster Oaks .......................... 350 HealthSouth................................... 343 Target............................................ 330 Source: InfoGroup Employer Database 2017 ed. 2 Prepared by: Florida Department of Economic Opportunity (DEO) Bureau of Labor Market Statistics *Note: DEO cannot verify the accuracy of this vendor’s report ** Note: Some of these employers listed may be duplicative due to this source’s use of telephone book listing

2018 T A L L A H A S S E E B U S I N E S S J O U R N A L / 17

PHILANTHROPY

Tallahassee Museum Executive Director Russell Daws took his nonprofit museum to the next level by installing a zipline and ropes course.

DESIGNING SUSTAINABILITY Nonprofit organizations reinvent fundraising

S

by AUDREY POST

ector Forward: Impact and Opportunity, an overview of nonprofits in Leon County and Florida’s Big Bend, summed it up nicely: “Nonprofit organizations are a critical stitch in the fabric of any community’s economy and quality of life.”

In the Tallahassee region, the documented economic impact of that critical stitch is substantial:

»L eon County has more registered

nonprofits than any other county in Florida. »F rom 2006 to 2015, Leon County saw a 15 percent increase in the number of registered nonprofits, with an almost 50 percent increase in nonprofit assets.

18 / 2018 TA L L A H A S S E E B U S I N E S S J O U R N A L

»D uring the same 10-year period,

nonprofits saw a 30 percent growth in revenue. »N onprofits employ 10 percent of the workers in Leon County, higher than the statewide 7.4 percent and almost on par with the national rate of 10.3 percent.

»L eon County nonprofits generate

$3.16 billion in revenue. »L eon County nonprofits have more than $5.5 billion in assets. »L eon County nonprofits make up more than 20 percent of total GDP. The report, released in February 2017 by the Institute for Nonprofit Innovation and Excellence (INIE), acknowledged that the nonprofit designation covers a lot of organizations and associations such as civic leagues, associations of employees, real estate boards

and chambers of commerce, social and recreation clubs and fraternal societies. The report, however, concentrated on public charities with 501(c)3 tax status, the organizations that people tend to think of as philanthropic charities. But these are not your grandparents’ pet charities, nor are they operated in the same old ways.

PHOTOS BY BRUCE PALMER (RUSSEL DAWS) AND SAIGE ROBERTS (GOODWOOD MUSEUM AND GARDENS)

Changes in Strategies and Tactics

“Nonprofits have become more aware of those generational differences, and perhaps they’ll do a mailer, plus a Family Fun Day and notices on social media,” Stansbury said. “It’s not just about fundraising. It’s about the search for sustainability. Nonprofits are trying to figure out how to fund not just this year’s programs, but the organization going forward.

“Organizations need to ask themselves: What are you doing to groom the next generation of donors?”

Fundraising for most charitable organizations once consisted of an annual signature event, such as a gala, and perhaps an end-of-the-year appeal by mail. But these days, fundraising is a year-round endeavor, and there have been major changes in the ways people give.

“There was a time when you hired a professional fundraiser,” said Alyce Lee Reassessing the Mission Stansbury, a consultant who works with nonprofits and serves on the INIE board.

The leadership at Goodwood Museum & Gardens spent “In today’s world on the internet, anybody can be a fundraiser.” a lot of time the past few years evaluating the historic The influence of technology and the resulting online giving has been tremendous. property’s streams of income and realized it needed to “Online giving has really grown, and it didn’t exist 20 years ago,” said Joy diversify. It also needed to stay true to its core, which is “a Watkins, executive director of the Community Foundation of North Florida, setting where we preserve and share our history, enjoy the which facilitates charitable giving for donors and helps nonprofits by awarding arts and celebrate significant events in our lives.” grants and helping build endowments.

“We asked ourselves, ‘How do we broaden the Another change in charitable giving has been an increase in bequests as part definition of the mission to create partnerships of estate planning, Watkins said. “It’s a trend, as baby boomers are passing their and increase our relevancy to the community?’” wealth on.” said Nancy I.M. Morgan, one of Goodwood’s two Despite the small recession of 2000-2002 and the big recession that began in co-executive directors. “We have this amazingly 2008 that caused a slowdown in charitable giving, Watkins said charitable giving beautiful green space in the middle of the city.” has recovered, in general, and she describes the current climate as “robust.”

Goodwood has created partnerships with several “We’re celebrating our 20th year, and to date we’ve had more than $71 million community arts organizations, including Opening come in to the Community Foundation, and almost $23 million in grants go out.”

Nights Performing Arts, Tallahassee Hispanic Jessica Lowe-Minor, executive director of the Institute for Nonprofit InnovaTheater and Theater with a Mission. It is also evaltion and Excellence, agrees that fundraising methods are changing. uating partnerships with Tallahassee Memorial “Having the online technology to solicit donations has increased the ease of HealthCare, including a “Pathway to Wellness” giving,” she said. “Targeting online platforms and specific events can cost a lot of project which will include walking trails. money, but it’s the go-to strategy for a lot of organizations.”

“We want to develop Goodwood as a center for Payroll deductions for charitable contributions, the so-called “United Way model,” wellness for the community,” said Morgan’s counterhave not held up well since the recession, she said. “Fewer employees are opting to part, Co-Executive Director Jennifer Humayun. “In participate in that type of program, so it’s less of a strategy for philanthropies.” doing so, we gain access to grants related to health and Pamela Goodman, president of the League of Women Voters of Florida, spent wellness, as well as the historic preservation grants.”

15 years as president and CEO of Limited Express. That experience is applicable to the nonprofit world. “Fundraising is not a lot different than retailing,” she said. “You’re selling a product: your organization.”

One group that has been slow to return to charitable giving, Lowe-Minor said, is middle-class donors who routinely gave $100, $150 or $250 a month to a favorite charity but stopped during the recession.

“We have to ask ourselves the question: Have these donors gotten out of the habit of giving, or have philanthropies focused on big donors at the expense of the working-class donors whose contributions also add up?” she said.

Several Tallahassee nonprofits, particularly public radio, have capitalized on the monthly recurring contributions, offering “young philanthropist” societies and “sustainer” memberships in smaller monthly chunks that tend to be less of a burden than one large annual donation.

Goodwood Museum & Gardens diversified to better connect with community priorities.

2018 T A L L A H A S S E E B U S I N E S S J O U R N A L / 19

PHILANTHROPY

Goodwood is not alone in its efforts to find more sources of funding. The INIE report also showed that two-thirds of Leon County’s nonprofits generate less than $500,000 in revenue a year, and more than one-third generate less than $100,000 a year. Building sustainability into fundraising is a must.

“It’s not just about fundraising,” Stansbury said. “If you want to build sustainability, it’s about mission, money and leadership.”

Getting people engaged in an organization’s mission can enhance fundraising, said Ellen Piekalkiewicz, executive director of United Partners for Human Services.

“People want real-life stories,” she said. “They want a human behind where their dollars are going.”

Seeking New Revenue Streams Goodwill Industries set the stage decades ago when it opened its thrift stores to fund its mission. Over the years, it also expanded its mission from a narrow focus on helping people with mental or physical challenges to become productive members of the workforce, to helping anyone with barriers to employment.

Over the past few years, local nonprofits have joined in the entrepreneurial effort: Element3 Church started RedEye Coffee to help fund its humanitarian efforts around the globe, Big Brothers/Big Sisters of the Big Bend collects clothing and other household goods for international bulk resale in purple bins placed around town, and Big Bend Cares operates a wholesale pharmacy.

But the zipline course at Tallahassee Museum has to be the most daring endeavor of all, both physically and financially.

Costing a little under $600,000, the Tree to Tree Adventures course has had a synergistic effect on the museum, Executive Director Russell Daws said.

“It has brought in visitors who weren’t familiar with the museum previously, and some of those visitors have become members and donors,” he said.

The museum borrowed half a million dollars to build the course five years ago, and that note has already been paid off.

For Daws, the lesson learned is to embrace change.

“This started a whole chain of events and has given us a new relevancy, engagement and excitement that has really helped fundraising,” he said. “We needed to listen to our audience, look at what the community needed and be receptive.

It worked. We changed with the community, and we’re celebrating our 60th anniversary.”

Stansbury said it has been interesting to watch nonprofits become more entrepreneurial, while for-profit businesses adopt some of the nonprofits’ tactics. Some businesses, such as 4Rivers Smokehouse, have no marketing budget per se.

Community engagement and charitable giving are the company’s marketing, founder John Rivers of Winter Park told her.

Both build brand and demand for the product.

“For many companies,” she said, “charitable giving is part of good business strategy.”

20 / 2018 TA L L A H A S S E E B U S I N E S S J O U R N A L

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PENNY SALES TAX

WHAT A DIFFERENCE A PENNY MAKES Blueprint leverages sales-tax revenue to bring community enhancements to life

by ROSANNE DUNKELBERGER

22 / 2018 TA L L A H A S S E E B U S I N E S S J O U R N A L

PHOTO COURTESY OF CAPITAL REGIONAL MEDICAL CENTER

A

s Tallahassee and Leon County have learned over the past few decades, it makes sense to mind your pennies.

Three different times since 1989, voters have approved adding a penny per dollar to the local sales tax to fund major road improvements and other infrastructure projects. With each iteration of the tax, local leaders, residents and staff members have refined the process, creatively planning together on how to get the most bang for those pennies.

And there are a lot of pennies. In the third vote in 2014, voters agreed to extend the tax for another 20 years — from 2020 to 2040 — which is expected to generate revenues estimated at $756 million.

Most counties in Florida also have approved an extra tax for improvements, most using them for roadways and facilities such as jails. Tallahassee-Leon County did much the same when the tax was first approved for 1989-1999. The money raised was divvied up between the city and county and used to pay for the Leon County Jail and major upgrades to Blairstone Road, Capital Circle Northeast and other roadway projects in the community.

In the run-up to the second vote held in 1999, a citizen’s group called the Economic Environmental Consensus Committee (EECC) favored the penny-per-dollar tax being extended but asked for more citizen oversight about the projects the penny would be used Autumn Calder, planning to build. “That’s when Blueprint manager at Blueprint 2000 was born,” says Autumn Intergovernmental Calder, planning manager Agency, helps bring projects such as the for what is now known as the award-winning Cascades Blueprint Intergovernmental Park in downtown Agency.

Tallahassee to fruition.

PHOTOS BY BRUCE PALMER (CALDER) AND COURTESY OF OEV AND BLUEPRINT

Also born was a “holistic” philosophy. This joint city-county effort would leverage the penny by partnering with other public entities and private developers to take a single improvement — a roadway, a stormwater pond or the like — and layer multiple benefits for the betterment of the community as a whole.

One of the biggest Blueprint 2000 projects was the widening of Capital Circle Southeast. Already in the plans for the Florida Department of Transportation, “for every one dollar that we spent of local sales tax revenues, we were able to obtain three dollars from the state to put toward the road improvements,” said Calder. “What we were able to do with that one dollar was implement the Blueprint holistic philosophy,” so stormwater ponds became visual amenities instead of eyesores, a multiple-use trail was added and the right of way was widened to be able to accommodate traffic for at least the next 50 years. “These are things that we as a community identified as priorities and were willing to fund through the sales tax,” is how she explained it.

Perhaps the most well-received project funded during the 15 years of Blueprint 2000 was downtown’s Cascades Park. Attempting to solve major drainage and flooding problems, a massive amount of stormwater storage would be required. But rather than just digging a holding pond, Blueprint money was used to create a 24-acre urban park that includes an amphitheater, walking trails, waterfall, memorials, playground, landscaping, dancing fountain and play area, and Florida’s prime meridian marker — the point from which all surveys in Florida begin.

It was immediately popular and reinvigorated a downtown area that was previously deserted after business hours.

After its 2014 opening, Cascades Park would go on to win two prestigious

BIG-TICKET BLUEPRINTFUNDED PROJECTS Water quality and stormwater improvements (annual allocations)

$85 million

Widen Capital Circle Southwest

$70 million

AIRPORT GATEWAY: Springhill Road and Lake Bradford Road

$58.7 million

NORTHWEST CONNECTOR CORRIDOR: Widen Tharpe Street

$53.2 million

Sidewalks (annual allocations)

$50 million

Northeast Gateway Welaunee Critical Area Plan Regional Infrastructure

$47.3 million

NORTHEAST CONNECTOR CORRIDOR: Widen Bannerman Road

$33.3 million

ORANGE AVENUE: Widen from Adams Street to Springhill Road

$33.1 million

2018 T A L L A H A S S E E B U S I N E S S J O U R N A L / 23

PENNY SALES TAX

The Blueprint Governmental Agency breaks down the 27 projects into these five general descriptions.

Gateways

Entryways to different parts of the community that “foster a unique sense of place.”

national awards from the American Public Works Association and the National Recreation and Park Association and serve as an inspiration statewide.

“Going around to other communities, you can see everybody’s starting to … take their stormwater ponds and turn them into amenities, like Depot Park in Gainesville,” Calder said. “The Blueprint Intergovernmental Agency and the citizen’s committee were so visionary in establishing this holistic philosophy. That was very innovative at the time, and now it’s not necessarily innovative anymore because all of these other communities are doing it.

“One of our biggest challenges … moving into these next 20 years is to continue to implement innovative approaches into our community projects,” she continued. “That’s the forward-thinking vision that Blueprint has always embodied and will continue to embrace into the next round of projects. That’s exciting.”

Although the latest tax approved doesn’t kick in until 2020, Blueprint still has its hands full, finishing up the Blueprint 2000 to-do list and ramping up for the 27 projects already earmarked for funding in the future.

The 2020 list (see sidebar on previous page) was recently prioritized. No. 1 on the list is the completion of widening Capital Circle Southwest near Tallahassee International Airport. It was originally supposed to be a Blueprint 2000 project

24 / 2018 TA L L A H A S S E E B U S I N E S S J O U R N A L

but was scuttled for years when sales tax revenues dropped during the Great Recession.

Unlike the previous two taxes, the 2020 plans earmark 12 percent of the money raised for economic development. With some funds set aside for the airport and a planned convention center, there will be an estimated $54 million allotted to the newly created Office of Economic Vitality. Also a joint city-county effort, OEV mirrors Blueprint’s holistic attitude to growing business by not only trying to attract businesses from outside the area, but also by working to help existing businesses connect, grow and prosper.

Calder said the 2020 program has more diversity that will “physically touch more parts of the community and … improve our quality of life by creating more spaces for people to live, work, play and connect.”

Even though the first funds won’t be generated for more than two years, the Blueprint team is already laying the groundwork for projects.

“One of the things we’re starting to think about now is the community and the outreach, how critical it is to start building relationships with the communities that (will be) impacted by our projects,” Calder said. By visiting neighborhood associations, businesses and others, they will learn who the local contacts are and their concerns.

When it is time to sit down and start drawing up plans in the future, “we have something to start from,” she said. “It’s going to take some work, but I think we’re up to the task.”

Community Enhancement

Projects that create special urban places which foster a sense of community, mostly what they call “placemaking.”

Connectivity

Projects to improve and expand local roads, with funds allocated for entry points to Florida A&M University, sidewalks, greenways, bike routes and enhancements to the bus system.

Quality of Life

Projects that promote public recreation and ecotourism while protecting and preserving the community’s environment and natural resources.

Regional Mobility

Creating a holistic transportation network that includes air, mass transit, automobiles, bikes and pedestrians.

For in-depth descriptions of the projects and to view an interactive map, visit leonpenny.org.

PHOTO COURTESY OF OEV AND BLUEPRINT / ADAM COHEN

Penny sales-tax revenue added to state transportation funds enabled the widening of Capital Circle Southeast to be not only utilitarian for motor vehicles but also beautiful and useful to pedestrians and cyclists.

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REAL ESTATE

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Development is changing streetscapes and lifestyles

by KAREN MURPHY

A

s dramatically as new real estate developments are changing the streetscapes around Tallahassee, they are changing how Tallahasseeans live, work, play and shop.

“It’s a good time to live in Tallahassee,” said Edward Murray Jr., President/Broker and Principal of NAITalcor, a local commercial real estate company.

Real estate development boomed over the last decade in Tallahassee. The revitalization of Gaines Street and new development

26 / 2018 TA L L A H A S S E E B U S I N E S S J O U R N A L

in Midtown and around Bannerman dramatically impacted surrounding communities. According to a recent report by the Tallahassee Chamber of Commerce and the Blueprint Intergovernmental Agency, the taxable value of land around Blueprint project areas increased by $4.4 billion in the City of Tallahassee and $6.5 billion in Leon County since 2000. Real estate owners and experts saw land prices and rental income increase as well.

These developments create more than new buildings. They create new lifestyles.

For example, anyone living in northeast Tallahassee knows well the daily mass exodus of residents from the suburbs into town for the morning commute. In the late afternoon, they travel back out to their homes and families.

“You have 50,000 people who live within a five-mile radius with the highest income in the county, but if they wanted dinner out, they had to get on Thomasville Road and drive south, because there was nothing out here.” said Claude Walker, CEO of the Summit Group Commercial Properties and developer of Bannerman Crossings.

“Our vision for Bannerman Crossings was to have enough mix of different types of retail and eating establishments so everybody could stay in their neighborhood. We wanted a community where you could live, work, play and shop.

PHOTOS BY JOHNSTON ROBERTS

NEW COMMUNITIES

Bannerman Crossings

It’s designed to be interconnected, walkable, golf-cart-friendly and to improve quality of life.

Midtown

Creating a new community at Bannerman Crossings are owner Rick Kearney (left) and developer Claude Walker, CEO of Summit Group Commercial Properties. The phased project entails office space, retail, dining, recreational opportunities and eventually residences.

It kind of morphed into us building a little city out here,” he explained.

Bannerman Crossings, owned by Rick Kearney, has three commercial components. Phase 1, the Walgreens at the corner of Thomasville Road and Bannerman Road, with Phase 2, comprising Chick-fil-A, Dunkin Donuts, Battery Source and a host of other businesses, occupy roughly 75,000 square feet of retail space.

Phase 3, a 116,000-square-foot “Destination Lifestyle Center,” was completed in 2016. This open-air shopping area is divided into quads, each anchored by a restaurant in the center of the complex. With mostly perimeter parking, Bannerman Crossings is designed to draw people into the core of the complex, making it more of a destination than a typical shopand-go strip mall. The boutiques are local retailers, and the restaurants include both

high-end and casual dining. Office space occupies the second floors. Summit Group also is developing retail and office space on the north side of Bannerman Road.

Walker said although lunch traffic is good, Bannerman Crossings comes alive in the late afternoon and evening. He said Bannerman Crossings hosts events under its large pavilion to bring people out, and the Friday events get going around 7 p.m.

“This place is packed,” he said.

The next phase is a residential development on the western edge of the shopping center. Preliminary plans call for 147 homes — 22 attached singlefamily homes, 35 detached single-family homes, 43 minimum-lot-line houses and 47 standard single-family lots of one-third acre. Plans also include a 15-acre conservation easement with trails running through it. Walker said they expect to break ground in spring 2018.

Efforts to breathe more quality of life into quaint Midtown began in the early 2000s.

Three or four little commercial developments began to pop up, with Manor at Midtown being most notable.

“Today, you can walk to 15 to 20 restaurants very comfortably,” said Murray, whose own office is in Midtown. “You can’t do that anywhere else in town.”

He described the area as very diverse with lots of housing in all price ranges, serving many demographics.

“Commercial real estate in Midtown is scarce and expensive,” said Murray, “which substantially affects housing too. Everything is driven by location.”

A significant “get” for Midtown was Whole Foods Market. The grocery retailer determined there would be only one Tallahassee store and that it would be in Midtown at 1817 Thomasville Road.

Downtown Closer to downtown, Allan Franklin of Culpepper Construction Company called the new 66,000-square-foot “Ballard Building” at 201 E. Park Avenue the nicest building he’s ever built. He said that with its sloping canopy, copper accents and exquisite interior detail, the six-story building is unique to Tallahassee. The new home of Ballard Partners, the law firm of lobbyist Brian Ballard, features office space, a roof-top terrace, a ground-floor restaurant and 80 parking spaces.

“A few more buildings like this would make downtown really special,” Franklin said.

Other efforts to improve downtown and Frenchtown got underway in the early 2000s with the help of local government.

The revitalization of Gaines Street was a massive project identified and advanced by the City of Tallahassee.

2018 T A L L A H A S S E E B U S I N E S S J O U R N A L / 27

REAL ESTATE

Gaines Street

Shawn McIntyre, North American Properties (NAP) Florida Managing Partner, said, “A lot of people thought it was crazy. I had people in town tell me in 2011 and 2012 that they would never let their daughters walk down Gaines Street at night, let alone live there.”

But McIntyre saw opportunity. He saw zoning and utilities, all in the shadow of the FSU stadium. He saw a pedestrianoriented area where students walk three blocks to campus.

The district now widely called CollegeTown spans from FSU’s intramural fields and the FSU stadium to Macomb Street and Railroad Avenue.

“I decided we needed to go big or go home. Building the Deck (student apartment complex) as an outpost wasn’t going to work; we had to create critical mass. Instead of turning the opportunity down, we doubled down. We built the Deck, the Block and Axis (apartment buildings) all at one time — $72 million worth of property, 790 beds at once.”

McIntyre opened those properties in

Gaines Street, the first paved road in Tallahassee, and its surrounding real estate had experienced decades of decline. Even though the corridor ran between FAMU and FSU, there was little to offer the student population and it consisted mostly of warehouses and industrial-type businesses.

The City of Tallahassee created a Community Redevelopment Area (CRA) encompassing the 1.25-mile Gaines Street corridor and several large tracts of City-owned property. In 2005, the Tallahassee City Commission adopted a Gaines Street Revitalization Plan with the goal of rebuilding the corridor and creating a vital, pedestrian-friendly street blending commercial, resident and cultural uses. It hired Genesis, a Florida-based planning, engineering and landscape architecture firm, to fulfill those goals, according to a report by Genesis CEO Mark Llewellyn.

The City was not alone in seeing the opportunity presented by a revitalized Gaines Street corridor.

2014 and said they continually experience 97 percent occupancy.

“Students accepted this area. I don’t have a vacant bed right now, and that’s why I’ve continued to build,” he said.

“We couldn’t just build the residences.

We seeded (retail) with lower rents to get tenants in there, knowing as we continue to add beds to the district, retail will catch on,” he said.

McIntyre said the new Publix planned for the corner of Gaines Street and Railroad Avenue and expected to open in 2018 will change the game for retail. He predicted within two or three years, the retail space will be full.

North American Properties’ investment in CollegeTown is substantial.

McIntyre explained the CRA gave NAP a $2.1 million tax incentive. NAP invested $66 million for Axis, Court and Lumberyard (a new student housing project) plus $51 million for the original phase.

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more student housing projects (on Gaines between Court and Block and the Field House, south of the intramural fields) for a total of $188 million invested on Gaines Street. We have about two and a half years where I will start a new building every January. So, $2.1 million CRA money yielded a total investment of $188 million.”

He said those figures do not include other developers in the area. He estimated the total economic impact of CollegeTown to be around $1 billion.

“The same thing is gonna happen downtown,” he said, referring to NAP’s $158 million Cascades Project, expected to be completed in 2020.

Cascades Project This massive project will span two downtown blocks and connect to Cascades Park. Plans call for a five-story boutique hotel, retail space, apartments, townhouses and a restaurant.

He said the residential area is designed to attract young professionals working in the downtown.

This rendering illustrates North American Properties’ intention to build a five-story hotel, retail space, a restaurant and residences downtown at Cascades Park by 2020. The targeted consumers are young professionals who work downtown.

According to McIntyre, NAP is building 320 apartments that can sleep 450 people, or approximately 1.5 percent of the 32,000person downtown workforce.

He predicted, “Seventy percent of

residents will be under the age of 35. That’s what the city wants.

“To have a vibrant 18-hour downtown, you can’t just build a restaurant and put it on the edge of a park. You have to build

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REAL ESTATE

something that is cohesive, that’ll work, and you build it in one phase and you take huge risk,” McIntyre said.

With great risk comes the potential for great reward.

“Practically all sectors of commercial real estate are active in Tallahassee. Value is up. Activity is up.

Consumer confidence is up. Unemployment is down.

All that is good,” Murray said.

“A good, healthy, active economy is good for everybody,” he continued.

Property values around new developments are rising.

According to Doug Will, Chief Deputy with the Leon County Property Appraisers office, residential values north of Kerry Forrest Parkway increased 4 to 5 percent last year, with retail increasing 6 to 8 percent and offices 4 to 5 percent.

Around the campus areas, apartments have increased 8 to 10 percent, retail 3 to 4 and office values were flat.

Increased property value brings higher property taxes.

McIntyre said, “Property taxes increased around CollegeTown, but so has rent and other revenue. I think it’s been disproportionate. Revenue has increased more than property taxes on a percentage basis.”

A local business owner on Gaines Street who was not part of the massive development projects agreed.

Sharod Bines, owner of Retrofit Records said, “We have seen an increase in foot traffic. More people results in more record sales, so yes, business has been good.”

Increased property taxes, according to McIntyre and Murray, present their own rewards.

“Accessed values are off the charts,” said Murray, “and that raises the tax base, which gives government more money to concentrate on areas of need.”

McIntyre explained, “Without development in CollegeTown, Tallahassee expected about a 2 percent growth rate in property taxes. (Since the development of CollegeTown) we have experienced about a 200 percent growth rate. It created all this uplift of taxes.”

He asserts that even when the CRA gives an incentive to a developer to defer taxes for a certain amount of time, the City benefits. During that time, tax revenue rises on all the properties in that area because of increased property values. Even after the deferment ends, property values and taxes should continue to increase. That money is available to the public budget and is utilized to support the social programs required to bring people out of poverty.

“We need economic development to establish a tax increment, which increases ad valorem taxes, which allows funding sources for social programs that educate, empower and employee minority workforces.”

Development potentially becomes the catalyst that not only changes the way Tallahassee looks, but changes the lives of all those living here, rich and poor.

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M.T. MUSTIAN CENTER

LOOKING AHEAD M.T. Mustian Center prepares TMH for future of medicine

by JASON DEHART and STEVE BORNHOFT

I

n 1955, Dr. Lowry H. McDaniel, then chairman of the American Medical Association, said, “Medicine has made more progress in the first half of the 20th century than in the 6,000 previous years.” At that time, the average American could expect to live to the age of 68; since then, advances in technology and science have sent the field of medicine rocketing into a realm that even McDaniel, who made some extreme predictions about the future of health care, would’ve said could exist only in science fiction.

Looking ahead, the next 50 years will bring even more advancements to the field of medicine, and Tallahassee Memorial HealthCare, in its seventh decade, is positioning itself to accommodate those advancements by building its new M.T. Mustian Center at the corner of Miccosukee Road and Medical Drive.

The M.T. Mustian Center is named for the hospital’s first CEO, who settled in Tallahassee shortly after McDaniel made his medical predictions, and who saw a few of those predictions (such as radiation being used to treat cancer) come to pass. The Mustian Center stands five stories tall, covers 340,000 square feet and, by the time it opens its sliding glass doors in 2019, will have cost about $260 million to build and outfit with medical equipment.

32 / 2018 TA L L A H A S S E E B U S I N E S S J O U R N A L

“It will be state of the art,” said TMH President and CEO Mark O’Bryant, comparing this design to facilities found in major metropolitan cities.

Mickey Moore, President and CAO of the Tallahassee Memorial HealthCare Foundation, said the center will put TMH in a new league.

“When you talk about transforming care, advancing health and improving lives, there will be nothing like it for miles and miles and miles,” Moore said, citing its capacity and the technology it will utilize.

The Center will feature 28 operating rooms, four

“It will be state of the art.”

TMH PRESIDENT AND CEO MARK O’BRYANT

outside its core service region.

Dr. Hank Hutchinson, orthopedic trauma surgeon, said the new center will have the best operating rooms in the region.

Construction of the center

by Birmingham-based Brasfield & Gorrie employs nearly 300 local and non-local construction workers, generating local wages and non-local spending in the local economy.

The Mustian Center will provide hundreds of new health-care jobs, which O’Bryant hopes to fill with graduates from local medical colleges including the Florida State University College of Medicine and Tallahassee Community College’s Ghazvini Center for Healthcare Education. TMH also will look to technical schools such as Lively Technical Center and the Southeastern School of Health Sciences to fill its employment needs. The center will need to hire doctors, around 500 nurses, CNAs, monitor techs and many other skilled employees.

By the time the Mustian Center opens in 2019, its impact will be felt across the region and especially in Florida’s tight-knit capital city. O’Bryant forecasts it will be “a transformative facility.”

PHOTOS COURTESY OF TALLAHASSEE MEMORIAL HEALTHCARE

The Mustian Center at Tallahassee Memorial is taking shape.

Framing, elevator installation and exterior work are well underway.

These renderings project how it will look when complete in 2019.

interventional suites and 72 intensive care beds — with plenty of room to grow.

The smallest operating room will be 625 square feet, which is nearly twice as large as the smallest operating room that is currently at TMH. All necessary support services, such as perioperative services, CT imaging and blood banking, will be available at the Mustian Center, too.

The facility will accommodate growth in the general population and the aging population and will expand the range of services available to a larger service area, O’Bryant said.

As a regional hospital, TMH provides health care to residents of 17 counties, but it is increasingly receiving patients from additional areas in the Panhandle, south Georgia and Alabama. Its expansions in orthopedic care, neurosurgery, cardiology and reconstructive care have quickened the pace of referrals inside and

2018 T A L L A H A S S E E B U S I N E S S J O U R N A L / 33

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CAPITAL REGIONAL MEDICAL CENTER

CRMC breaks ground on two satellite ERs in January.

Facilities like the one depicted here are planned for the north side of the city, near North Monroe Street and I-10, and on the south side, near SouthWood.

MEETING NEEDS F

Capital Regional Medical Center expands with satellite ERs

PHOTO COURTESY OF CAPITAL REGIONAL MEDICAL CENTER

by KIM HARRIS THACKER

or the past 40-plus years, Capital Regional Medical Center has built a reputation for providing high-quality, compassionate health care. While maintaining consistent standards, it has embraced change.

Capital Regional has long welcomed improved health-care technology, advances in best practices and bright stars in medicine to its clinics and emergency rooms, the number of which will grow in 2018 to address the needs of an expanding Tallahassee.

Mark Robinson, the medical center’s president and CEO, explained the plan: “There are four ERs in this

area. You have Capital Regional’s main ER at the hospital; our ER at the Gadsden Campus in Quincy, Florida, 20 miles away, and then there are two other ERs that aren’t affiliated with Capital Regional in Leon County. So why are we building two more ERs? First and foremost, we care about our community and the people that travel to visit our emergency rooms. We want them to get the medical attention they need, but also we believe that we’re the best at emergency care. A lot of people like to compare hospitals by size. Well, we’re not the largest, but we know what we’re the best at.”

“The new ER facilities represent our latest step to expand health care into the community … to provide critical healthcare services in convenient locations for our patients.”

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2018 T A L L A H A S S E E B U S I N E S S J O U R N A L / 35

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In 2016, Capital Regional saw 101,000 ER visits — roughly half of the total visits made to area ERs. “There’s a reason for those numbers,” Robinson said.

“It’s because we do a fantastic job. The quality of care our patients receive from our highly trained physicians and staff is phenomenal, and we’re fast. Anyone who goes online to look at the data can see that our two ERs already have the shortest wait-time of any ERs in the area. We’re at an average of eight minutes from the time a patient arrives until he or she is seen by a healthcare provider. The two new, freestanding emergency facilities that we’re building represent our latest step to expand health care into the community. … Our goal is to provide our patients with quality care in convenient locations, with little to no wait time.”

To facilitate this goal, each of the 12-bed, 10,800-square-foot ERs will be staffed by approximately 31 individuals, including board-certified emergency physicians, nurses, paramedics, technicians and imaging providers, and they will be equipped with a trauma room, lab, CT scanner, ultrasound unit, X-ray machine and more. These ERs are intended to offer the community a full range of urgent-care services, including pediatric care, 24/7.

“Understanding the needs of our community is what keeps people coming to us,” Robinson said. “We believe that these needs circle around a few things: access, convenience, quality and satisfaction. In building our new ERs, we are adding quality, convenient emergency services in an environment that focuses solely on the patient.”

Data indicates there is a need for additional emergency services in particular areas of Tallahassee. That’s why Capital Regional will build one of its new ERs on North Monroe Street, right off the I-10 exit. The other will be built in a rapidly developing area close to SouthWood; Robinson expects patients will also come to this ER from Wakulla County.

“In each of the new, freestanding ERs, we expect to see upwards of 13,000–15,000 visits per year,” he said.

Capital Regional expects to break ground on both ERs by Jan. 1, 2018, and he plans for the centers to be open around the beginning of the fourth quarter. The expertise and resources of HCA, Capital Regional’s parent company and one of the nation’s largest private, for-profit hospital systems, will help get them built in this timeframe. Robinson says they’ve got the process down to a science.

“Our two new ERs will be built upon the expertise that HCA has already acquired,” he explained. “We’re going to take that expertise and the quality of care that Capital Regional is already known for to our two new freestanding ERs so we can make sure they’re the best they can be. It all goes back to knowing what our community needs and providing for those needs.”

tallahasseedowntown.com

2018 T A L L A H A S S E E B U S I N E S S J O U R N A L / 37

ACCOMMODATIONS

ROOM AT THE INN

Investors identify Tallahassee as a hotel boomtown

by ERIN HOOVER

38 / 2018 TA L L A H A S S E E B U S I N E S S J O U R N A L

W

hen Bo Schmitz moved from Michigan to manage the Four Points by Sheraton, the cylindrical Tallahassee landmark on Tennessee Street, he was told by locals that in summertime, they “rolled up the sidewalks in Tallahassee.” A hotel couldn’t expect to do much business outside the legislative session and with universities on summer break.

That’s no longer true, Schmitz said, crediting the growth of university enrollment, which brings prospective students to visit FSU and FAMU and new students to attend school orientations. “It used to be that visiting the Capitol, or lobbying, or coming to college were the primary things that brought people to Tallahassee,”

RENDERINGS COURTESY OF IDI+ (HAMPTON INN & SUITES) AND KANA HOTEL GROUP (TRU BY HILTON)

Hampton Inn & Suites on Railroad Avenue is expected to open Jan. 15. Other hotel projects in the works include the tru by Hilton on Apalachee Parkway.

he said. “Those reasons still exist, but there are many other opportunities to come to Tallahassee from a natural business perspective. Companies want to form their headquarters here, incubators are creating new companies — there’s a lot of optimism for business.”

Visitors to Tallahassee will soon have more options to rest for the night, or longer.

The Office of Economic Vitality has reported that seven new hotel projects are either under construction or proposed for Tallahassee, prospectively adding nearly 1,000 new rooms within city limits.

Schmitz is now preparing to take the helm of one of them: a new hotel on

Railroad Avenue, Hampton Inn & Suites. The Hampton Inn & Suites is the farthest along of the new projects, with an anticipated opening of January 2018. Two other projects on Apalachee Parkway are under construction, include a new Hilton flag, Tru, and a Holiday Inn. The largest proposed project, Washington Square, will embed a 16-story conference hotel, three restaurants, condos and an underground parking area downtown, with a price tag of $90 million. The project’s ambitious site plan was approved in July 2016.

“Right now demand for rooms exceeds supply,” said Kerri Post, director of Leon County’s Division of Tourism Development, also known as Visit Tallahassee. “That’s why we’re seeing development.”

Research firms analyzing demand in Leon County have shown year-over-year increases in the number of people booking rooms and in room cost, resulting in higher revenue for hotels.

Last fall the Leon County tax collector reported a 10.4% increase in revenues from the Tourist Development Tax over the previous fiscal year, at nearly $5.8 million total. In fact, last fiscal (2017) year’s data caps an unprecedented eight-year run for Leon County in year over year increases in income from the Tourist Development Tax, which has held steady at 5 cents on the dollar since 2009.

A largely rebounded economy has meant that occupancy levels have hit record highs across the country.

In Tallahassee and Leon County, the most recent data has shown hotel occupancy up 8.7% year over year.

2018 T A L L A H A S S E E B U S I N E S S J O U R N A L / 39

ACCOMMODATIONS

40 / 2018 TA L L A H A S S E E B U S I N E S S J O U R N A L

its January 15 opening. As Schmitz has prepared to open the property, he began by hiring a salesperson and creating rate strategies, a reservation system, and opening all booking channels, including online booking sites such as Expedia. In addition to hiring staff, he concentrated on networking in the community to make everyone aware of the new Hampton Inn & Suites location. “That’s huge in this town — Tallahassee is definitely a small town with strong relationships. That’s where you can really win, ” Schmitz said.

“Hotels are a subset of the many development projects going on in Leon County,” Post said. “We all want to stimulate and secure more investment in our community, but the fact of the matter is that these hotels wouldn’t choose to locate here if the tourism economy wasn’t healthy.”

Whether the bellhop has already been hired to take the business traveler’s bag or the construction company is preparing to break ground, for now, the biggest names in the hotel business are here to stay.

IN THE WORKS A list of projects, from“nearly completed” to “in the pipeline” HAMPTON INN & SUITES, 824 Railroad Ave.

124 rooms

HOLIDAY INN APALACHEE PARKWAY, 2003 Apalachee Parkway

103 rooms

TRU BY HILTON, 2814 Apalachee Parkway

90 rooms

DRURY INN & SUITES, 1680 Raymond Diehl Road

180 rooms

WASHINGTON SQUARE, 219 S. Calhoun St.

260 rooms

CASCADES MIXED-USE DEVELOPMENT (INCLUDES A BOUTIQUE HOTEL), west of Cascades Park

128 rooms

WEST BREVARD ST., W. Brevard St. & Richmond St.

70 rooms

PHOTO BY SAIGE ROBERTS

Visit Tallahassee has estimated 2.4 million visitors and $901 million in economic impact to the county from tourism last year. That’s bound to be attractive to investors, Post reasoned, explaining that rather than recruiting hotels to invest here, hotels responded to performance in the market showing that investment here would pay off.

She also affirmed Schmitz’s experience at the Sheraton that Tallahassee is a year-round destination. Looking at quarterly data, Post explained that visitation levels are fairly even, rather than seasonal, although there are peak periods, such as football game weekends and graduations — times when bookings are at or over capacity.

However, it’s the demand and annual occupancy that potential investors evaluate when determining where to build.

“When you look at Cascades Park, South Monroe (SoMo) and Collegetown, developers are very interested to see that kind of energy and growth. As companies look to develop or expand, to build hotels, to open restaurants, they are looking for a healthy, thriving economy. The whole ecosystem is interconnected,” Post said.

Developers typically meet with the Office of Economic Vitality and often with the Chamber of Commerce to get a better understanding of an area marketplace, Post said. Then they work on permitting and focus on building the physical property.

“Once they know the project is feasible, and they’re ready to be part of the community, then they meet with us. How can our Meetings and Conventions Director help book their meeting space, for instance?” she continued.

Unique locations and hotel brands serve different types of travelers. A boutique hotel near Cascades Park will attract a different kind of customer than the Drury Inn & Suites near I-10. The Hampton Inn & Suites, whose Gaines Street District location is convenient to downtown and the universities, is designed for the business traveler seeking clean and comfortable rooms with a strong loyalty program, Schmitz said.

The Hampton Inn & Suites will begin booking December 1 in preparation for

Hampton Inn & Suites will add 124 rooms to the Gaines Street District.

850 850 850 422 422 422 0071 0071 0071

MEETINGS MEETINGS MEETINGS DONE DONE DONE RIGHT RIGHT RIGHT

Tallahassee’s Tallahassee’s Tallahassee’s Only Only Only L.E.E.D L.E.E.D L.E.E.D Certified Certified Certified Hotel Hotel Hotel We Wehave We have have everything everything everything you youneed you need need totoensure ensure to ensure a asuccessful successful a successful and andproductive and productive productive meeting meeting meeting with withexcellent with excellent excellent service service service inina acomfortable incomfortable a comfortable atmosphere. atmosphere. atmosphere.

With With With over overover 7,000 7,000 7,000 square square square feet feetof feet ofupdated updated of updated space, space, space, we weare we are are the theperfect the perfect perfect fitfitwhether whether fit whether your youryour meeting, meeting, meeting, banquet, banquet, banquet, ororconvention convention or convention isisbig big isorbig orsmall. small. or small.

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PEOPLE LIVING WITH DISABILITIES

Dan Moore, at right, executive director of Ability 1st, both employs and serves people with disabilities.

Program Assistant Richard Atherton connects clients with medical equipment and assistive technology that supports their home and workplace activities.

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PUTTING SPECIAL ABILITIES TO WORK

B

y nearly every measure, Dan Moore has found the key to hiring employees that exceed expectations. Compared to the norm, his staff surpasses longevity records, has an incredible work ethic, and is more fully invested in their jobs.

The secret to his success? Fifty percent or more of his staff are persons living with disabilities.

“I get better employees and fewer HR problems with employees with disabilities,” he says proudly.

42 / 2018 TA L L A H A S S E E B U S I N E S S J O U R N A L

He’s onto something big. According to longstanding research, the benefits of hiring persons with disabilities are really the intangibles: superior work ethic, loyalty and all-around great employees.

For many business owners and managers, though, the prospect of hiring someone who needs accommodations is intimidating — and not just for the real costs of building codes and access ramps.

According to Dr. J.R. Harding, an instructional specialist at Florida State University’s College of Business, employers

by TISHA CREWS KELLER typically harbor pre-conceived biases toward those with disabilities. Mainly, these are centered around health insurance rates, infrastructure improvement costs and cultural issues. Typically, employers believe they will experience higher employee-related costs, more absenteeism and higher insurance premiums if they employ individuals with disabilities. But in reality, these concerns aren’t borne out.

Harding points out that research indicates employees with disabilities generally work harder, stay in jobs longer, have no

PHOTOS BY JOHNSTON ROBERTS

Employees with disabilities prove assumptions wrong

performance differences and help cultivate a better workplace culture overall.

“When you’re finally getting a chance and you’ve experienced discrimination all your life,” Moore explains, “you can be so grateful.”

Moore says it’s this gratitude that makes his staff such wonderful employees. As the executive director for Ability 1st in Tallahassee, 50 percent of his staff has some sort of disability, whether physical, emotional or intellectual. For him, it’s all about giving someone a chance to excel at what they can do, and matching the right person to the right job.

For most people with disabilities, just getting an interview is the biggest hurdle they face. And there is a huge difference in the types of jobs for which they are considered good candidates.

“There’s two kinds of ‘hiring those with disabilities,’ ” Moore points out. “The first is hiring for entry-level positions,” which several local companies do pretty well.

“But in terms of choosing a professional with a disability, there’s a lot of discrimination there,” he says.

Florida State University and the State of Florida tend to be the biggest local employers of professionals with disabilities in the Tallahassee area. However, only about 25 percent of differently-abled people who are collegeeducated are working in their field, and even those highfunctioning people with disabilities still experience everyday discrimination.

Harding confirms this. In his Ramps and wheelchairs can view, there is a big gap between empower people abilities and job placements in with certain the professional world. These disabilities to put their talents include attitudinal problems, to work. Richard programmatic inconsistencies Atherton helps and the lack of opportunities bridge gaps between disability for people with disabilities to and potential. show their abilities to employers.

Unfortunately, reports indicate that only about 30 percent of people with disabilities are in the workforce, compared with around 70 percent of the able-bodied.

In addition, different disabilities — such as emotional or physical — tend to get different opportunities from the business sector.

For instance, there can be a strong stigma against hiring someone with PTSD or some other emotional disability, whereas a person on the autism spectrum may be stereotyped as having a certain set of expected abilities like math or cognitive skills. But it’s never a good idea to generalize characteristics to people, and this is especially important when considering someone from an HR standpoint.

If you are a differently-abled person, “you shouldn’t have to be the best employee in the building to keep your job,” Moore says.

From an employer’s perspective, small accommodations can make the difference for successfully employing those with disabilities.

For instance, an employee using a mood stabilizer to stem the effects of traumatic brain injury may experience morning sluggishness. Flexible work schedules can solve that problem.

Professionals on the autism spectrum may have a hard time reading social cues, but education and training on etiquette, social and office rules, etc. can help them blend seamlessly with customers and co-workers alike.

For workers with emotional disabilities, low-traffic and quiet work areas that provide little external stimulation can be the key to a successful employee.

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PEOPLE LIVING WITH DISABILITIES

In much the same way, people with chronic pain, orthopedic issues or those using a power chair can be enabled by using standing desks, inexpensively raising a conventional desk a few inches higher off the floor and other simple modification investments.

To Moore, these common-sense changes to the work environment are how employers committed to equality — and to getting the absolute best employees on the payroll — are a low-cost solution with big social and productivity benefits.

Speaking to the concern that employees with disabilities will increase insurance costs, Moore points out that this simply isn’t true.

“Someone with a chronic illness is gonna hit your insurance much harder than someone who has healed, is not in the acute phase of their disease, and has learned to live successfully with that disability,” he explains.

Dr. J.R. Harding, who teaches “Lifestyle choices that lead to management in chronic disease are much more the FSU College risky (for employers) than visible of Business, says workplace or invisible disabilities” in terms investments of employer concerns. that empower Harding contributes to this employees with disabilities pay off. culture shift by sharing his own story and through his teaching at FSU. He was injured in high school and has been wheelchair-bound since he was a teenager. Today, he teaches a management class at the FSU College of Business that focuses on ability inclusion. He also guest-lectures at several other academic programs in the university.

Often, community development block grants and small business incentives offer ways to pay for accessibility improvements, and there are certain tax credits available for hiring these employees.

From the Dark Ages to the Renaissance Harding knows from experience that, as a whole, society has evolved pretty well from the days when people with disabilities were hidden and isolated from the world at large. But, there’s a long way to go. In terms of higher education, faculty members’ actions, awareness and initiative to make equal-access accommodations for students with disabilities is much higher than it used to be.

And, even from the K-12 perspective, students with disabilities are used to being mainstreamed (integrated with regular classes and not segregated into “special ed”

It’s common to hear business owners gripe about the mandated ADA-compliance requirements for new building permits (the $50,000 elevator that must be installed), or the seemingly over-priced retrofits required for any building improvements.

It’s an unfortunate fact that many businesses use the “undue burden” clause to circumvent these legally mandated ADA access requirements. But “barrier removal” only begins with adding a handicapped parking space to the lot.

There are, of course, more expensive and in-depth provisions in the law. But in reality, we all benefit when elevators are made larger and sidewalks are made smoother. And for people living with disabilities, these accommodations counteract the everyday discrimination that extends far beyond job opportunities and into daily life.

From a business perspective, there are financial incentives to employing people with disabilities.

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PHOTO BY STEVE BORNHOFT

ADA Paves the Way

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PEOPLE LIVING WITH DISABILITIES

groups) much more today than even 20 years ago. It’s not uncommon for children with ADHD, a learning disability or autism to be learning alongside their average-abled peers.

But a major shift happens after graduation, when students have to learn to advocate for themselves.

Jovany Felix, director for the Center for Disability Access and Resources (CeDAR) at Florida A&M University, explains that from kindergarten through graduation, lots of things are done for students with disabilities. But, in higher education, these same students must learn to be responsible for their own empowerment and advocating for themselves and the services they need.

“We want to minimize the students feeling uncomfortable advocating for themselves and in the learning environment,” he says.

Students at FAMU have access to countless accommodations and tools, everything from mobility vans to alternative testing locations/procedures to dictation software and text reading devices.

But for a small state university situated in historically valuable buildings, “physical access is still a huge problem,” Felix admits.

Retrofitting is very expensive and is a major area of concern.

Using a new program through the Toni Jo Mason Foundation, FAMU will soon be offering scholarships for students with physical disabilities, to the tune of $24,000 over the next four years. And this is just the tip of the iceberg for what CeDAR offers.

The majority of the 400-700 students that CeDAR may be serving at any one time are dealing with the invisible disabilities such as autism spectrum disorder, bipolar disorder or learning disabilities (comprehension, speech, hearing, ability to write, etc.).

To help these students access their education, Felix and his team tell instructors how to accommodate students’ needs.

They teach instructors how to make curricula accessible and flexible, especially in terms of how it’s delivered. CeDAR helps transform presentations and handouts into

reader-friendly formats and assists students and professors with information exchange.

At a historically black university like FAMU, chronic diseases such as Sickle Cell Disease (a group of inherited red blood cell disorders that strikes 1 in 365 black children) can be a major source of disability in the student population.

Accommodating any chronic disease is just as important as doing so for the “visible disabilities” that are readily apparent.

Perhaps one of the most valuable tools that Felix’s program offers is the FAMU Alternative Admissions Program. Perhaps the only such program in the state and funded by the Johnson Scholarship Foundation, it begins in the summer semester and allows students to take up to three classes to get acclimated to college life with disabilities — and to begin the hard process of self-advocacy that so many persons with disabilities would rather not have to learn.

Harding explains this phenomenon well: At college, he didn’t want to register for services. He had to reconcile his own issues

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related to his disabilities, but he says he learned so much (especially from his peers) once he did. Navigating the challenges, learning about scholarships and advocating for his own accommodations was part of his — and every disabled student’—higher education experience.

“I learned in college that I happen to be in a chair, but I want to do other things,” he says. “That was transformational for me and lots of other people.”

Similar programs exist at Tallahassee Community College, where around 1600 students in the fall semester alone requested accommodations through the TCC Accessibility and Resource Center.

Using perhaps a more one-on-one approach than the larger institutions, office manager Shawnique Turner not only secures services for the students that come to her with documentation, she also advocates for those that clearly need help in getting their needs identified.

Turner says that when a student asks for help

from her center but doesn’t have the required diagnosis or evaluations, she helps them get across those barriers. If they show signs of a problem, she refers them to several low- or no-cost local agencies for psychological testing to document the need for accommodations.

A Brighter Future Ahead Felix and his CeDAR team are fully integrated into the FAMU career center, with the aim of getting fair employment opportunities for the students they help.

Through a program called CeDAR Ambassadors, Felix increases the visibility of these well-qualified, college-educated adults with employers. The CeDAR student ambassador teams perform outreach and engage employers through publicity events.

In addition, they work to encourage more student participation by talking to the student population at large about the services they provide.

“We want to become a bigger part of the recruiting system at FAMU,” he explains.

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“We want FAMU to become the place where students with disabilities come to get the accommodations that they need, the education they want and the jobs they are qualified to land.”

Under the ADA, the expectation is that everyone — regardless of ability — has a right to employment and to fully experience life because everyone has something to contribute. Harding speaks for all advocates of employees and persons with disabilities when he says, “Once your life has been touched by someone with a disability, it changes your perspective forever.”

There are more than 5,000 people with disabilities in Tallahassee who are currently enrolled in college. They will soon be seeking meaningful, professional employment. Business leaders in this area and beyond should understand that making usually small investments in these people can mean huge dividends in terms of highly educated, professional, dedicated and grateful long-term employees.

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FSU RESEARCH

ECONOMIC STIMULUS Researchers and their salaries benefit community

by TISHA CREWS KELLER

PHOTO COURTESY OF FSU PHOTOGRAPHY SERVICES

A

ccording to the Brookings Institution, two-thirds of the most influential technologies of the past 50 years have been developed at national laboratories and universities. Consider the smartphone, autonomous vehicle technology and other innovations that are transforming our way of life. They all owe key technological components to research and development activities that are federally funded and reside in local communities.

By fostering this research and advancements, the federal government plays a key role in economic development. As Brookings expert Scott Andres puts it, these investments “come to ground” in communities across the country, and these regions share in the economic benefits of research.

This is certainly true for Tallahassee and Florida State University. To date, FSU researchers have been awarded 506 patents — that directly or indirectly contribute to manufacturing, business processes, creative license and other positive effects on the economic health of the local area.

Bringing in the Funding In total, 6,374 local people were employed by FSU in 2014-15 (the latest available figures), and that doesn’t include faculty and parttime OPS positions. In addition to the sheer number of households supported by FSU’s payroll, research and development funds are a growing and important economic driver for the Tallahassee economy.

Dr. Gary Ostrander, vice president for

A graduate student works at the High-Performance Materials Institute, which is part of the FSU Office of Research and is located in Innovation Park.

research for FSU, estimates FSU pulled in $200 million in funding from federal, state and other sources in 2017. In 2016, these grant awards impacted the local economy in many ways, but most heavily through the major salaries that are paid to faculty and research staff.

Ostrander explains that typically, a lead researcher will earn about $75,000 in salary. A graduate student that works halftime will earn anywhere from $20,00030,000 per year. A medical researcher with an MD in the College of Medicine earns $100,000 or more, and at the National High Magnetic Field Laboratory, those salaries easily exceed six figures.

In terms of economic development, this impact is huge. These salaries feed into the local economy in the form of taxes (local, sales

2018 T A L L A H A S S E E B U S I N E S S J O U R N A L / 49

Graduate research assistant Ted Worden works in the anechoic jet facility at the Florida Center for Advanced Aero-Propulsion, located in Innovation Park.

FSU RESEARCH ECONOMIC IMPACT SNAPSHOT FOR 2014-15* Total research and development budget expenditures by FSU exceeded $256 million Total amount of sponsored research was more than $200

million

FSU generated $6 billion of direct revenue or expense, with $9.94 billion worth of industry output and 94,160 jobs Revenue generated

by FSU created an additional $3.82 billion of labor income, $1.78 billion of property income, and $501.8 million in business taxes *Most recent available data

and property), retail activity, philanthropy, and even entrepreneurial pursuits by these professionals and their families. The latest figures indicate a $3.50$4.50 per dollar multiplier into the local economy.

Besides salaries and economic multipliers, FSU rewards faculty innovation through patent royalties and income, and profit-sharing from copyrights.

In its current structure, for the first $10,000 in royalties/income, FSU allows 85 percent of that to go to the inventor(s) and the remaining 15 percent feeds back into the FSU research foundation. For proceeds over $10,000, it is split by 40 percent to the inventor(s), 30 percent to the inventors’ department and 30 percent to the research foundation.

In a similar way, authors retain 50 percent of copyright proceeds and royalties, and the other half is split between the research foundation and the author’s academic unit.

Through this incentive approach, FSU faculty are sharing in the fruits of their innovation, but they also enjoy additional funding for the programs in which they work, hopefully furthering their capacity for more and more research and groundbreaking creativity.

The Research Life Cycle The September 2017 Monthly Award Report from FSU’s Office of Research showed a total of $6,351,099 in total research grants revenue. Of those, the main funding sources were: National Institutes of Health ($3,190,599), State of Florida ($1,520,088), Department of Defense ($1,133,316), National Science Foundation ($271,176), and the U.S. Department of Education ($119,229).

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These numbers are the result of countless hours spent by dozens of researchers, faculty and staff that are writing proposals, finding funding, managing award dollars and sharing results of their efforts. This machine is a major part of what FSU’s Office of Research does, and it pays big dividends to the university and to the local economy.

FSU offers help to researchers in the form of idea generation, collaborator matching, proposal writing, boilerplate material, training and workshops, and more.

In October 2017, FSU announced it brought in $35.8 million in funding from the National Institutes of Health (NIH) in fiscal year 2017 (ending on Sept. 30), more than double the amount the university received five years prior. This grant award positioned FSU as one of the leaders in the state for health and biomedical research, ranking it fifth in the state for NIH funding — ahead of the Mayo Clinic and Moffitt Cancer Center.

According to FSU, the Florida Legislature’s designation of FSU as one of the state’s two preeminent universities and the funding tied to that designation allowed the university to hire additional faculty in the areas of health science and more. This trickle-down effect means more researchers proposing more funding and an increase in awards from federal sources.

The research labs, centers and institutes that report to the FSU Office of Research include: the Aeropopulsion Mechatronics & Energy Center, the Center for Advanced Power Systems, the National Magnetic High Field Laboratory, FSU Coastal and Marine Laboratory, Florida Center for Advanced Aero-Propulsion, Florida Climate Institute, Future Fuels Institute, High-Performance Materials Institute, and the Center for Genomics and Personalized Medicine.

Ostrander points out that while larger projects come with major funding, smaller projects still employ students and staff. And many technologies don’t end up having the same impact as did Taxol (the famed breast cancer drug developed at FSU), which included residuals of $352 million that FSU used to build buildings, invest in endowment and is still using to further projects on campus.

Many of the technologies these grants produce, he points out, don’t lead to company startups, but they are often acquired and provide royalties, income and money for salaries, buildings and more even after the grants conclude.

PHOTO COURTESY OF FSU PHOTOGRAPHY SERVICES

FSU RESEARCH

TOP TEN FUNDED FSU RESEARCH PROJECTS The top 10 currently funded research projects alone at FSU bring in just under $258 million to the local economy. Beginning with the highest award, the projects are multi-year economic generators that promise not only millions in salaries, but potentially enduring revenue sources through patents, copyrights and licensing agreements.

1. National High Magnetic Field Laboratory – National Science Foundation (grant year ending 2017): $168,386,367 The only facility of its kind in the United States, the National High Magnetic Field Laboratory (Mag Lab) led by Greg Boebinger is the largest and highest-powered magnet laboratory in the world. Annually, thousands of scientists from around the world travel to use its unique magnets with the support of highly experienced staff scientists and technicians.

Because it is funded by the National Science Foundation and the state of Florida, these researchers use the facilities for free, probing fundamental questions about materials, energy and life. Their findings result in more than 400 scientific publications a year in peer-reviewed journals such as Nature, Science and Physical Review Letters.

2. Reading for Understanding Research Initiative – U.S. Department of Education (grant year ending 2018): $20,000,000 According to the researchers led by Christopher Lonigan, the goals of this project are to “investigate the underlying cognitive and linguistic components that contribute to or that present the acquisition of well-developed comprehension skills.” They also aim to create and evaluate coherent, integrated and multi-component instructional techniques that are intended to build skills for students’ oral and text comprehension and reading for understanding. This is a longitudinal study and will explore the accumulated effects of instruction over multiple years of schooling. It involves pre-kindergarten through fourth grade students from schools in Leon, Bay, Liberty and other counties in north Florida.

3. Military Suicide Research Consortium: Toward a Gold Standard for Suicide Risk Assessment for Military Personnel – U.S. Army (grant year ending 2021): $14,189,843

FSU’s Dr. Thomas Joiner, along with coinvestigator Peter Gutierrez at the U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs, wants to understand how great is the risk that an emotionally troubled patient will engage in some form of suicidal behavior in the near future. To this end, they believe it would be extremely valuable if clinicians had an accurate and easy way to assess the risk of imminent suicidal behavior in patients. These two are testing four common suicidal risk assessments to determine the best tool or combination of tools — the gold standard — that offers the most accurate prediction of suicidal behavior in the short-term future. Over the course of three years, they will assess these measures during their use in a total of 900 military personnel.

4. The Florida Center for Advanced Aero-Propulsion – Florida Legislature (grant year ending 2018): $11,028,922

Dr. Farrukh Alvi is a professor of mechanical engineering at the FAMU-FSU College of Engineering and he directs the FCAAP, which was designed to “meet the needs of a rapidlyevolving and highly competitive aerospace industry.” The Center aims to train and sustain a vital, highly-skilled workforce; to develop new technologies and products for the aerospace industry; and to efficiently transfer this timely research into the aeronautics/aviation industry.

The FCAAP is a technical incubator and partners with aerospace industry, government and other stakeholders.

5. Mobilizing Community Systems to Engage Families – National Institutes of Mental Health (grant year ending 2018): $10,328,408.00 Principal investigator Dr.

Amy Wetherby will focus on children at 18 months of age, which is the earliest age that autism spectrum disorder can reliably be detected. She will compare the effectiveness of screening and referral by three different community systems, including primary care, WIC services, and the National Black Church Initiative. Using the recent FSU Research spin-off company she pioneered, Autism Navigator, Wetherby will determine which of these modes most successfully captures autism markers at the earliest possible age. The Autism Navigator is an innovative, web-based diagnostic tool that offers training, diagnostic tools, mini-documentaries on autism, specialtydesigned video players, an exclusive video bank that illustrates effective evidence-based practice and practical advice for parents and professionals alike. Under the auspices of autism research, Wetherby has more than $16 million in grant funding through 2017 and 2018.

6. HZB Educational Research Agreement – FSU Magnet and Research Development Inc. (grant ending 2019): $9,057,318 In 2014, the National High Magnetic Field Laboratory completed building the world’s strongest magnet for neutron scattering. They shipped the magnet to their partner, the Berlin Neutron Scattering Center. At 25 tesla, it is used to study the structure and dynamics of materials, primarily high-temperature superconductors.

Principal investigator Mark Bird explains that neutrons are remarkable probes of phenomena within solids. The combination of neutrons and a very strong magnetic field will allow scientists to study the normal state of high-temperature solids and explore the hydrogen structure in both biological and hydrogen-storage materials. The project is funding primarily through the German government.

7. Florida Catastrophic Storm Risk Management – Florida Department of Financial Services (grant ending 2020): $7,945,054 Led by Lorilee Medders, the Florida

Catastrophic Storm Risk Management Center provides researchers, policymakers, governments and other stakeholders with comprehensive information on catastrophic risk financing.

The center organizes content for academics, researchers and others around the world. The organization was created and funded by the Florida Legislature in 2007 and it supports the state’s ability to prepare for, respond to and recover from catastrophic events. Activities include trainings, conferences, risk management research, information and helping the government and businesses prepare for the worst.

8. WFSU Operations – FSU Foundation (grant ending 2018): $6,275,000

This is the operating budget for WFSU, Tallahassee’s National Public Radio outlet.

Because its funding comes through the FSU Foundation, it is included in the research and grants calculations for the university.

9. Regional Educational Laboratory Southeast – U.S. Department of Education (grant ending 2022): $5,420,454 Led by Dr. Barbara Foorman, the REL Southeast is a network of 10 laboratories that serves their regions by providing access to high-quality research through development projects, studies and related technical assistance activities for local educators and educational systems. The network of Regional Education Laboratories is a nationwide project funded through the U.S. Department of Education since the 1960s.

10. Electric Ship Research and Development Consortium – Office of Naval Research (grant ending 2021): $5,357,215 The Electric Ship Research and

Development Consortium combines the programs and resources nationwide that are working on leading electric power research to develop near to mid-term electric ship concepts.

At FSU, Dr. Roger McGinnis leads this effort. The consortium addresses a national shortage of its electric power engineers by providing state-ofthe-art facilities and educational opportunities for students in those locations. FSU is one of many universities, including Michigan State, MIT, Purdue University, University of South Carolina, and more. The organization focuses on funding projects that model and simulate new equipment and systems, prototype testing and development for the Navy, technology and software development, and workshops on modeling, simulation, reconfiguration and power train technology for electric ships.

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OFFICE OF ECONOMIC VITALITY

OEV IGNITES ECONOMIC VITALITY WITH LAYERED, HOLISTIC EFFORT City-county agency aims to commercialize research, expand business capacity and bag a trophy

by ROSANNE DUNKELBERGER

PHOTO BY SAIGE ROBERTS

I

n Tallahassee-Leon County, economic development by any other name … is a whole ’nother ballgame.

Previously housed in the Greater Tallahassee Chamber of Commerce and funded by city and county government as well as private dollars, past economic development efforts were described as “disjointed … with little indication of success” in a strategic plan from VisionFirst Advisors.

In February 2016, the Office of Economic Vitality (OEV) was formed as part of a newly created city/ county department for Planning, Land Management and Community Enhancement — acronym PLACE. Guided by the strategic plan, a newly assembled staff has spent the almost two years since following the strategic goals outlined in it.

The plan advised a “crawl, walk, run” approach to ramping up its operations. “The challenge,” the plan says, “will be moving quickly to implement immediate strategies and tactics while at the same time developing a system and process that supports a holistic approach to economic development — something that has never been done in the community.”

Community representatives have been recruited for three committees — a Leadership Council, a Competitiveness Council and a Citizen’s Advisory Council relating to Minority, Women & Small Business Enterprise (MWSBE) — and much of the staff’s early days have been filled with meetings, meetings, meetings and strategizing, strategizing, strategizing to implement six elements of the new OEV vision.

Those cornerstones include the traditional attraction of businesses from outside the area but with an expansion to include business formation; business retention and expansion; technology transfer and commercialization (in other words, getting the research being done at Florida State University and Florida A&M University into the commercial marketplace); tapping into the creative economy; and developing a talent pipeline.

Brian K. Wyatt Jr., president and CEO of B-EZ Graphix, a veteran-owned, multimedia marketing agency, shares business know-how in a Minority, Women & Small Business Enterprise class offered through OEV’s Industry Academy.

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OFFICE OF ECONOMIC VITALITY

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revenue is earmarked for economic development.

Shaving off allocations for Tallahassee International Airport and Donald L. Tucker Convention Center, the OEV’s share is expected to total $54 million.

While the economic development process’ focus and budget is expanding, economic developers are still hoping to lure one of those rara avis projects — a huge distribution center, company headquarters, tech company expansion or manufacturing plant — to this community in the future. OEV Director Al Latimer estimates perhaps 20 such opportunities arise every year nationwide. With forethought, planning and discerning the best fit for Tallahassee-Leon County, he’s confident the area will get the nod.

“You can count on us to put our name in the hat when we feel we strongly have the foundation to support an opportunity,” Latimer said.

“That project is out there, and I think the way … we are approaching economic vitality now, it’s going to identify more of those opportunities,” he continued. “Part of our strategic plan calls for the creation of a marketing and communications plan … and it will allow us for the first time in Tallahassee-Leon County’s history to aggressively promote the region. We look forward to 2018 and beyond to tell our story.”

Carlos Wilder, CEO of CTW Broadcasting, benefited from OEV development initiatives in building his business, which produces digital audio-visual content.

WANT TO KNOW MORE? The TallahasseeLeon County Office of Economic Vitality has a robust website chock full of information at oevforbusiness. org. You can also find information on Facebook and Twitter: @OEVforBusiness and #FLCapital4Biz. In addition to general information about the OEV and its services, you’ll find a copy of the 126-page strategic plan and a wealth of data about TallahasseeLeon County and its workforce.

PHOTO BY RAY BENTON CREATIVE COURTESY OF CARLOS WILDER

It’s not just a wish list. Each of these areas includes specific, measurable goals and timelines for implementation.

There are hard-number successes — 193 new jobs since April 2016, 18 active projects, two companies recruited, two company expansions and three leads generated through an existing business outreach program called CapitalLOOP. “This first year is kind of a networkbuilding year for this program,” explained Cristina Paredes, deputy director of the OEV. “Our goal is to sit down with you, the business owner, tell you who we are and — more importantly — learn from you what your experience is doing business in Florida’s capital community.”

In the first six months of these efforts, the staff has already reached the plan goal of 50 such meetings.

The office’s MWSBE program has also posted gains, with companies becoming certified to bid on city and county projects up by 25 percent.

Tallahassee and Leon County have always sought to encourage minorities and women to make bids and, like most other governmental entities, it was historically affiliated with their purchasing departments.

“Now, in addition to becoming eligible to bid on governmental projects, the OEV is putting programs into place to help these businesses grow and compete in the private sector, too,” said Darryl Jones, deputy director of the Minority Women & Small Business Enterprise Program.

“We see part of our responsibility is to help them build capacity,” Jones said. “Through industry academies, additional source information, education, and networking opportunities, we’re putting them into the CapitalLOOP … making our minority- and women-owned businesses aware of the fantastic resources available to them.”

Now operating with funds provided by the city and the county, starting in 2020 the OEV will have a steady source of support, thanks to a continuation of a local penny-per-dollar sales tax approved by voters in 2014. Estimated to generate about $756 million over its 20-year lifespan, 12 percent of that

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NAMED ONE OF USA TODAY’S 10BEST READER’S CHOICE: BEST SOUTHERN EVENT THE SOUTH’S MOST ICONIC MUSIC VENUES & FESTIVALS

BY SOUTHERN LIVING MAGAZINE 56 / 2018 TA L L A H A S S E E B U S I N E S S J O U R N A L

LEARNING FROM NASHVILLE

PHOTOS BY ALEX WORKMAN / AERIAL TALLAHASSEE (DICK AND DANIELS) AND F11PHOTO / ISTOCK / GETTY IMAGES PLUS (NASHVILLE)

“Nashville is a great example of a city that has found its calling card and gotten every major stakeholder on board with a mission of selling the city to the world.

We don’t go to a city like that to learn how to replicate their initiatives, but we go there to learn how to replicate their community tenacity.”

LEARNING FROM NASHVILLE

SUE DICK, CHAMBER PRESIDENT AND CEO

Capital City VIPs take lessons on tenacity and growing pains

by ROB RUSHIN

I

n May 2017, a group of around 80 Tallahassee business and community leaders traveled to Nashville on a fact-finding tour organized by the local Chamber of Commerce. Much like prior trips to Boulder, Austin, Chattanooga, and Madison, the goal was to understand how a city navigated the transition from under-developed to thriving.

According to Chamber President and CEO Sue Dick, “Nashville is a great example of a city that has found its calling card and gotten every major stakeholder on board with a mission of selling the city to the world. We don’t go to a city like that to learn how to replicate their initiatives, but we go there to learn how to replicate their community tenacity.”

Among the people who spoke to 850 Business Magazine about the trip, one theme came up often. “(In Nashville) everybody is on the same page.

Same message. Same passion, across the board,” according to Chamber vice president Jay Revell.

Dustin Daniels, chief of staff in Mayor Andrew Gillum’s office, put it this way.

“They have a strong culture of community support and buy-in. Everybody champions the victory of the day, regardless of who gets the credit,” he said.

Domi Station’s Lucas Lindsey had a different focus.

“We loved the idea of seeing Nashville because its startup ecosystem is on fire. The city has a variety of best-in-class entrepreneur and innovation support organizations that our city can learn from,” said

“They have a strong culture of community support and buy-in.

Everybody champions the victory of the day, regardless of who gets the credit.”

DUSTIN DANIELS, CHIEF OF STAFF IN MAYOR ANDREW GILLUM’S OFFICE

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Lindsey, Domi’s executive director. “You can draw direct analogies from many of their best assets — including Vanderbilt’s Foundry, Nashville Entrepreneur Center and Nashville Software School — to programs active in our own community.”

During a stop at the Nashville Software School — a thriving nonprofit that has graduated 500-plus coders into the Nashville-area tech ecosystem — the Tallahassee contingent unveiled the new I/O Code Academy, a joint venture of Florida A&M University, Domi Station and Mayor Gillum’s office, that takes aim at the shortage of skilled technology workers in the Tallahassee area. Local entrepreneur and I/O Academy Director Ryan Kopinsky designed the program to ensure that its graduates are “career ready.”

He added, “We’ve been really good at enabling entrepreneurship in Tallahassee. But we lack the foundation of skilled tech workers who can bring the great ideas to life.”

Kopinsky remarked that the sense of possibility and optimism was palpable: “You could feel that people were actually building something for themselves and their community in Nashville.”

Participants came away with enthusiasm for the possibilities they witnessed in action in Nashville.

But they also carried home a few cautionary lessons.

Several mentioned the “nightmare traffic” and the strain on infrastructure.

“While it was exciting to see Nashville’s growth, their city was behind the ball and already had major challenges with traffic, gentrification and cost-ofliving. These challenges will be Nashville’s barrier for growth eventually,” noted KCCI Executive Director Betsy Couch. “It made me realize how important Tallahassee’s future infrastructure investments are, especially the ones that have and will be funded by Blueprint, but reminded me that we also need to balance that with maintaining Tallahassee’s quality of life.”

Couch specifically noted that musicians – the very people at the core of the Music City brand – are increasingly unable to find affordable housing in the city. This is not unique to Nashville. Success-story cities such as New Orleans, Boulder and Austin share similar concerns: The people who make the city thrive often fall victim to the rising cost that comes with success.

A different element of the Nashville formula caught the eye of Audra Pittman, the executive director of Tallahassee’s Council on Culture & Arts.

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“It made me realize how important Tallahassee’s future infrastructure investments are, especially the ones that have and will be funded by Blueprint, but reminded me that we also need to balance that with maintaining Tallahassee’s quality of life.”

BETSY COUCH, KCCI EXECUTIVE DIRECTOR

“Going to Nashville wasn’t about becoming Nashville. It was about exposing local leaders to programs so inspired, supported and effective that they challenge us to think bigger and act faster back at home.”

LUCAS LINDSEY, DOMI STATION’S EXECUTIVE DIRECTOR

“I was especially taken by Nashville’s commitment to pursuing cultural equity. It’s a concerted effort to broaden participation, expand diversity, and build new audiences,” she said.

Nashville has a much more established arts and culture economy than Tallahassee. But even with that difference, both towns share the same kinds of problems — a shortage of viable rehearsal spaces and venues, the challenge of reaching underserved audiences, and the very real problem of diminishing affordable housing.

Pittman asks, “How do we connect people in a way that’s more meaningful? How do we make sure nobody gets left out?”

Taking a cue from Nashville on the cultural equity question, Pittman said COCA has implemented a joint effort with Florida State University arts administration scholar Dr. Antonio Cuyler to examine how to “bridge divides within the community using arts and culture”.

A core value of the I/O Code Academy addresses a similar problem of gender and ethnic equity in techsector employment. The first I/O class roster — graduated in December 2017 — registers at approximately 50 percent female and slightly higher for people of color. Participant ages range from 18 to 60-something. Kopinsky confirms that this diversity will be reflected in the upcoming academy courses slated to begin in February and May of 2018.

The COCA and I/O Code equity efforts are concrete examples of learning from the experience of a larger community as it grows and suffers from some of the problems that can emerge from that growth.

Examining the successes and pitfalls seen in places such as Nashville gives Tallahassee an opportunity to learn from their hard-earned experience.

Both before and after the trip, a scattered chorus of criticism greeted news of the travel. Aside from the customary complaints about cost, the main objection seemed to center on the choice of Nashville itself.

What could Tallahassee possibly learn from a city with a world-renowned cultural legacy, a thriving tech and health-care sector, and a population roughly 10 times greater than our own?

Domi’s Lucas Lindsey offered a succinct response: “Going to Nashville wasn’t about becoming Nashville.

It was about exposing local leaders to programs so inspired, supported and effective that they challenge us to think bigger and act faster back at home.”

PHOTOS BY ALEX WORKMAN / AERIAL TALLAHASSEE (LINDSY) AND ALICIA OSBORNE (COUCH)

LEARNING FROM NASHVILLE

THE EDISON

SPONSORED REPORT

IS A PLACE

For all Occasions

A

lmost a century ago, the old electric building located in what is now known as Cascades Park was the source of energy for our beautiful community. Today, after its transformation into The Edison Restaurant, the building serves as a bright and energetic source for our Tallahassee neighbors and visitors to gather, eat and make memories.

The Edison is brought to you by a passionate group of local investors who are committed to our great city and its future. Every day our dedicated and hardworking staff made up of this city’s finest residents, students, sons, daughters, husbands and wives strive to bring you an awesome experience unlike anything else in Tallahassee The Edison is packed with history, surprises and all manner of unique places to meet, celebrate and have fun.

Our open dining room with industrial designs and sweeping high ceilings is

one-of-a-kind. The restaurant and its park side patios offer regional cuisine sourced from vendors all over our great state as we strive to celebrate the best of Florida.

Our private spaces include an intimate wine room featuring a wall of wine bottles; and the Chef’s table, an intimate nook in The Edison’s kitchen, offering an area for your special celebrations or a chance to look behind the curtain and interact with the restaurant’s staff while watching your dinner being prepared.

For larger events, walk upstairs to Innovation Hall, a banquet room like none other in Tallahassee. The room features enormous arched windows with breathtaking views of Cascades Park. The high ceilings, exposed brick and strings of lights make this the perfect room for a wedding, rehearsal dinner or corporate event. During the holiday season, The Edison’s décor, including a large Christmas tree, makes Innovation Hall the perfect venue.

“TODAY ... THE BUILDING SERVES AS A BRIGHT AND ENERGETIC SOURCE FOR OUR TALLAHASSEE NEIGHBORS AND VISITORS TO GATHER, EAT AND MAKE MEMORIES.” – Mike Xifaras, Investor and Managing Partner of The Edison

MIKE XIFARAS AND FAMILY

Outside, The Edison’s covered deck has great views and an incredible circular bar, but our favorite is the beer garden. The beer garden is an intimate space featuring a spiral stairway that was once located inside the building. Today it serves as a piece of art to remind us of prior elements of this beautiful building. Finally, the beer garden opens onto a large patio and grassy area that has hosted barbecues and weddings alike. It is a favorite location to sip a cup of coffee or to enjoy a grand celebration!

With an indoor-outdoor atmosphere that welcomes all residents and visitors, dedicated service and a menu with great food and drinks, The Edison is the perfect choice for your next dinner, event or business meeting.

We would be privileged if you, your family and friends would allow us the opportunity to seat you at The Edison Restaurant. I invite you to take in Cascades’ vibrant scene with a fresh cup of coffee, a relaxing glass of wine or a delicious breakfast, lunch or dinner.

– The Edison Restaurant

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850.477.7044 + TeamBeck.com 60 / 2018 TA L L A H A S S E E B U S I N E S S J O U R N A L

TOURISM

RACING TO THE TOP Cross-country venue earns national reputation PHOTOS COURTESY OF VISIT TALLAHASSEE AND LEON COUNTY COMMUNITY AND MEDIA RELATIONS

by LAURA CASSELS

A

star performer in Leon County’s tourism-development program is its cross-country venue, which is becoming known as one of the nation’s best.

The 140-acre, digitally equipped Apalachee Regional Park will soon enhance its reputation by hosting and broadcasting four of the biggest, most prestigious events in the sport. Thousands of amateur and elite athletes running here will include celebrity professional runners and Olympians.

Apalachee Regional Park was chosen to host the 2018 and 2019 USA Track & Field Cross Country Championships, the 2021

Division 1 National Collegiate Athletic Association (NCAA) Cross Country Championships, and the USA Track & Field Junior Olympic Cross Country Championships that were held on Dec. 9.

Landing these events — which was accomplished by the sports marketing team at Visit Tallahassee, a division of Leon County — is unprecedented in Florida and does more than even promoting visitation worth $20 million so far in tourism tax revenue and visitor spending.

It makes Tallahassee-Leon County a celebrity in the national cross-country running world.

“The races we can host there are massive,”

Competitors race past a throng of spectators in a Florida High School Athletic Association state championship at Apalachee Regional Park, off Apalachee Parkway just east of Williams Road. FHSAA has staged its premier event here six years in a row.

said Brian Hickey, who directed the sportsmarketing team for 12 years and was instrumental in developing Apalachee Regional Park, created in 2009. “There are really very few now in our class.”

Leon County investment The site of the cross-country course was once designated for future landfill usage but Leon County repurposed it in 2009 for trails and passive recreation. Four years later, the county invested $250,000 in strategic improvements — substantially widening the course and installing fiberoptic digital capabilities.

“For that investment, the course has yielded $20 million,” Hickey said. “The ROI the county has achieved is phenomenal.”

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TOURISM

Partnership with FSU Bob Braman, Florida State head coach for track, field and cross-country running, and Brian Corbin, then on the Gulf Winds

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board of directors, were the first to scope out the site of the future running course and hacked through its brush and undergrowth with machetes to establish its first trail. They envisioned a dedicated course that would get their runners off of golf courses, road shoulders and public parks not as well suited for training, much less to accommodating large events involving thousands of athletes, spectators and their cars.

Braman said Apalachee Regional Park lends itself to superior coaching and training and is a valuable tool in recruiting new athletes to Florida State.

“This is the best collegiate course in America, and that helps out with recruiting,” he said. “When they come here, it lets us show off our city and the trails we have here.

This is the home of the Florida State Seminoles. It’s a point of pride.”

The 2018, the 2019 and particularly the 2021 championships will cement Apalachee Regional Park’s reputation as a national leader in cross-country racing, he predicts.

“We’ll have 5,000 national championship spectators,” he said. Many thousands more will watch the events on livestream feeds, and at least two championships are expected to be televised by ESPN. Installation of fiberoptic tracking technology along the course — a brainchild often attributed to Heidecker, a competitive runner herself — makes livestreaming a simple plug-and-play operation that most courses lack.

“No one else has it that I know of,” Braman said. “I’ve never seen it and I’ve been all over the country in 35 years as a coach.”

The more the running world knows about the course here, the more runners and coaches will want to train and compete here, he said.

All founders and developers of the course at Apalachee Regional Park credit Leon County’s Parks and Recreation Department for physically transforming undeveloped acreage into a premiere running facility. In particular, Dean Richards, Richard Fagan and Department Director Leigh Davis ensured that personnel and equipment were supplied to clear the land, create contours, divert groundwater, remove roots and obstacles, spray for mosquitoes, suppress dust with water-sprinkling trucks, and comb the

A pack fresh off the starting line hits the downhill slope during an FHSAA state championship. Runners and coaches give the course high marks.

course just before each event to remove all imperfections that could impede footing.

City of runners Corbin said Gulf Winds Track is proud of its role in the program.

“We’re all about running, in as many ways as possible, at all levels. Cross country is one of those branches,” Corbin said.

“Coach Braman and I were originally out there with machetes, cutting through thickets and putting streamers up. … Over the years, the project has grown more than any of us could have imagined.”

Corbin applauds the partnerships and public investments that made Apalachee Regional Park possible.

“When I heard about the national championships coming, I teared up. It’s such a big deal and it started from nothing and steamrolled along,” he said.

One FSU alum in that league of elites is 2016 steeplechase Olympian and Bowerman Track Club professional runner Colleen Quigley, who won the women’s 6K in the 2016 USATF National Club Cross Country Championships at Apalachee Regional Park.

As she raced toward the finish line, far in the lead, she did a signature FSU tomahawk chop for cheering spectators and remote viewers.

“She left no doubt where she was from,” Coach Braman said proudly.

PHOTOS COURTESY OF VISIT TALLAHASSEE AND LEON COUNTY COMMUNITY AND MEDIA RELATIONS

In 2016 alone, 20,000 visitors spent $8.4 million here. An estimated 65,000 visitors are projected to attend the four upcoming national championships, spending $24 million.

In November 2017, Hickey passed the reins of the county’s sports-marketing program to Amanda Heidecker, his assistant director for the past five years. As the new director, she will oversee the upcoming national championships, which will be live-streamed and/ or nationally televised. And she will oversee further improvements at the park intended to secure its reputation as the best in its class.

“We will be investing over a million dollars in the course between now and the 2021 championship,” Heidecker said. The new amenities will include an operations building (replacing a trailer), a new stage for awards ceremonies with backdrops making the park’s name prominent in team photos and videos, concessions facilities, drug-testing facilities and more.

The improvements will make Apalachee Regional Park even more of a magnet for events. It already has rare amenities including a Jumbotron that broadcasts races and runner stats in real time, and a private trail inside the circular course that lets coaches run alongside and call out instructions to their athletes.

Spectators are kept at a safe distance from the runners and coaches but are encouraged to cheer on the sidelines. Teams and their entourages set up tents with streamers and banners on the park’s rolling hills, lending these events the feel of an Olympic festival.

Running enthusiasts at Florida State University and Gulf Winds Track Club were the progenitors of Apalachee Regional Park. They made financial investments, and the credentials of their running programs empowered them as advocates.

“They were the founders of this program.

They saw the potential,” Hickey said.

“The local running groups drove this, and obviously Florida State plays a role that continues to make a huge, national impact,” Heidecker said.

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Visit CCYS.org to find out how you can help homeless, runaway and at-risk youth.

2018 T A L L A H A S S E E B U S I N E S S J O U R N A L / 63

Let us help you work ON your business!

SMALL BUSINESS EXECUTIVE PROGRAM (SBEP) Participants in this program receive assistance in developing long-term strategies, creating practical action plans and connecting with fellow business owners and members of the Jim Moran Institute’s network. The goal is to provide guidance and support, helping entrepreneurs work “ON” their businesses.

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CONTACT Mike Campbell Director, North Florida Operations P: 850.644.3372 C: 850.545.7354 mscampbell@JimMoranInstitute.fsu.edu jmi.fsu.edu/programs 64 / 2018 TA L L A H A S S E E B U S I N E S S J O U R N A L