FloridaWest has a new, 5-year strategy for bringing jobs to Pensacola. Here's the plan:
Pensacola's economic development community needs to break out of its "silos" and work together with community partners from local government, businesses and nonprofits, according to a new strategic plan paid for by FloridaWest.
FloridaWest unveiled its new five-year strategic plan Tuesday at the Studer Community Institute building in downtown Pensacola.
The new plan, developed in partnership with the Pensacola-Escambia Development Commission, Escambia County and the city of Pensacola, lays out three main goals for FloridaWest and broad strategies for how to accomplish them over the next five years.
VisionFirst Advisors, a Tallahassee-based economic development consulting firm, wrote the 41-page plan for FloridaWest. The firm's President & CEO Gray Swoope spoke to a small audience at the SCI building on Tuesday.
Swoope said Pensacola's local economy is "a bright spot" for the entire state of Florida, including the revitalization of downtown Pensacola and the recruitment of ST Engineering. Swoope added the biggest challenge Pensacola faces is bringing its economic development efforts together.
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"That's the biggest challenge is — whether it's PEDC or FloridaWest — jointly, how do we develop our products so that we can win competitive projects?" Swoope said.
VisionFirst Advisors talked to stakeholders in Escambia County's economic development community and included some of the most common comments it heard from people.
FloridaWest CEO Scott Luth said the plan highlights some of the continued struggles FloridaWest has had in marketing the county's industrial parks and the lack of infrastructure.
"We've heard time and time again, we have dirt, but I don't have sites ... and so, there's a big difference between the two," Luth said.
Swoope said the strategic plan is aimed at getting FloridaWest and others out of their individual siloes and working together.
"If we did this together, we're going to have innovation, business formation, and we're going to also have significant capital investment in new jobs with payroll that are going to drive disposable income," Swoope said.
The three main goals of the plan are to support new business recruitment, increase business retention and expansion, and support innovation and entrepreneurship in the community.
The plan also recommends focusing on three types of industries to target for recruitment, with the top one being information technology and cybersecurity, followed by aerospace and defense firms, and finally, manufacturing and chemical production companies.
Each recommendation lists various ways to develop existing assets and encourage talent recruitment in that field and other agencies or groups that FloridaWest can partner with to accomplish those goals.
The full strategic plan is available to read online at FloridaWest's website, FloridaWestEDA.com.
Luth said with the completion of the plan Tuesday, the real work begins.
"My job as CEO then is to get staff to wrap around (the plan) and figure out exactly how we're going to push this out," Luth said.
Jim Little can be reached at jwlittle@pnj.com and 850-208-9827.
This article originally appeared on Pensacola News Journal: FloridaWest strategic plan emphasizes IT, cyberspace and partnerships
