2007 Set the Stage for Further Growth Business Looks to Springboard from '07
By Steve Liner | Tallahassee Democrat - Business Matters - December 30, 2007
This year may go down in area business history as the time we finally looked around and found ourselves.
In a lot of ways, Tallahassee and the surrounding area is hitting its stride, a fact that makes 2008 look brighter here than just about any other market in the U.S. To dwell on the positive a moment: we have new airline DayJet with a brand new business plan, market and prospects for 2008; we have the Internet startup eLayaway™ with year-over-year real sales volume growth of more than 5,100 percent; we are home to Florida's Entrepreneur of the Year, Rick Kearney, and American Awards and Recognitions Association Retailer of the Year, Sam Varn.
Investment in Tallahassee-based community banks is at an all-time high. Gadsden County is America's USDA Community of the Year. And, of course, we have attracted the international manufacturer Danfoss Turbocor to open its new plant here in Innovation Park.
Not all has been positive, of course, but Tallahassee is alone among Florida cities in moving forward in virtually all economic sectors.
Among business stories receiving the most attention in 2007 was DayJet, whose saga actually began at the Greater Tallahassee Chamber of Commerce annual conference at Amelia island in August 2005, with the appearance of Ed Iacabucci, the CEO who first envisioned the ground-breaking scheduling component that stands behind the revolutionary on-demand heart of the airline. Later, DayJet chose Tallahassee for its national ceremonial start. Last month, the airline announced it already was expanding by 28 new cities.
Turbocor was not far behind. Officially announced in 2006, Turbocor spawned its first spin off, precision parts maker Global CNC Solutions, a Tallahassee company, in January, more than six months before the ribbon was cut on Turbocor's plant. And in the fall Tallahassee hosted dignitaries from The Netherlands as well as Canada for the official plant opening.
Tallahassee's name as a center for entrepreneurship was enhanced when Leon County seeded the Vision 2020 venture capital fund and with recognition of Mainline Information System's Rick Kearney as Entrepreneur of the Year. Kearney later made news when he opened the upscale Staybridge Suites Hotel on Mainline's Summit East campus on U.S. 90 in Tallahassee.
Also on that campus (and mentored by Kearney) is Tallahassee-based Internet buying service eLayaway. The company posted real sales growth of 5,137 from December 2006 to this month, it was announced.
Much ink was spilled and Internet airtime spent covering a local delegation's trip to Chattanooga to take another look at that city's downtown redevelopment. While the trip may have helped spur the fund-raising program for Cascades Park and redevelopment of the Gaines Street corridor, it's most lasting effect may be helping turn the town's economic vision away from wishing for a river.
And in the meantime, Tallahassee's Downtown Improvement Authority hired former Michigan Energy Office director Al Pasini to continue efforts to bring new life (and business) to downtown.
Not all was positive, of course. A major effort to lure Piper Aircraft to a new plant site on property at Tallahassee Regional Airport failed to bring the company's new very light jet manufacturing division here.
"The truth is, we learned a lot," said Chamber President Sue Dick. "And this is no loss. We did well and were noticed nationally, something that will bring more prospects our way."
Among other visible failures in 2007 was Wakulla County's decision not to allow a new water bottling plant and the very visible decision by Dillard's department store to vacate Tallahassee Mall, leaving mall managers seeking a 200,000-square-foot anchor store in a sink-or-swim struggle.
And the secret hope of area aviation officials that the Panama City-Bay County International Airport wouldn't get off the ground was dashed at that facility's groundbreaking ceremony (only to be revived two weeks ago when the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers pulled the project's wetlands permit).
What defines a good year for business? One in which most profit and that leaves markets staged for further expansion in the coming period. By that definition, 2007 was very, very good for Tallahassee business.
