MILT THOMAS

The Indian River County Economic Development Council met on August 20 to hear the second in a series of presentations on how to attract more relocating or expanding light industrial companies to our area. As EDC chairman, Beth Mitchell said, “We need to get on the radar of site selectors.”

 Site selectors are consultants to companies looking for expansion and relocation opportunities. Competition among states, counties and cities for these companies is intense and Indian River County’s biggest problem is one of identity. Helene Caseltine, Director of Economic Development at the Chamber of Commerce, feels we are competitive with counties our size in Florida. “Once we are face to face with a prospect, we have a lot to offer. The problem is making more companies and site selectors aware of us.”

A similar problem was faced several years ago when the economic development agencies of all the Treasure Coast counties formed a group to promote the region. According to Penny Chandler, president of the Indian River County Chamber of Commerce, which is our county’s designated economic development agency, “When we initially tried to create an identity as a region, our four county organization was known as the Treasure Coast Economic Development Coalition. We hired a consultant to help us gain more exposure, he told us no one knows the Treasure Coast and we needed a name to identify us.”

The name they ended up with is the Research Coast along with recommendations on how to increase the region’s visibility. Now, Indian River County needs a similar effort to create awareness in the site selection industry. Don Wright, vice mayor of Sebastian, put it this way: “How do we get on more site selector analysis lists?”

Two consulting firms have made presentations to the EDC and member Susan Adams, mayor of Fellsmere said after the latest presentation, “We’ve had many meetings to discuss this, now we need to move on it, create a request for proposal and a budget.”

The EDC then unanimously passed a motion recommending that to the County Commission.  If they agree, then County staff, the Chamber and EDC will work on the specifics to present to the Commission for a vote. Keith Kite, a Realtor member of the E DC added, “We will also need to get Vero Beach, Sebastian, Fellsmere and Indian River Shores on board so we can go forward with a single, unified plan for the county.”