City Council Briefed on Targeted Industries Study

Content creators are told to “know your audience” before getting to work on a project. Palm Coast officials are taking that advice to heart when it comes to economic development with a targeted industries study to identify the feasibility of the city’s efforts to attract new business development.

At a recent City Council workshop, officials got their first look at what consultant ABLE Operations, an economic and workforce development research firm, has found.

“This is in support of your stated action plan priority building a strong, resilient economy,” Acting City Manager Lauren Johnston told council members.

Matt Schwalb, managing partner at ABLE Operations, said his firm is “very familiar with the economy” in Palm Coast and looked at seven targeted industries including aerospace, advanced manufacturing, information technology and hi-tech, logistics and warehousing, hospitality, corporate headquarters, and healthcare training and research services.

“We really dove as deep as we could,” Schwalb said. “You’re nestled right in between very dynamic regions of the Florida economy.”

Schwalb said while the city’s economy has grown over the past several years, most of the industry growth has been in the retail sector.

“Your workforce currently aligns with your leading industries,” he said.

The issue of workforce development was on the minds of many council members, including Theresa Pontieri.

“We can’t grow our economic development if we don’t have the workforce, and we can’t bring in the workforce if we don’t have the housing,” she said.

One of the issues in the city’s workforce development efforts is the demographic trend toward an older population, according to the preliminary report from ABLE Operations.

“We have a jobs problem here,” Pontieri said. “We’re talking about having a smaller workforce due to our aging population but at the same time our unemployment rate is continuing to grow.”

Schwalb said an issue the city needs to address is creating a blueprint for growing the economy.

“The first thing for the city to do is embark on an economic development strategic plan,” he said. “This is actually looking at bringing the community together through community engagement and identifying what your vision is. It allows you to almost negotiate with your community (about) where you want to be in 20 years.”

Schwalb said of the seven targeted industry groups, five of them present “real strong opportunities” for Palm Coast. The five sectors identified by the consultants are aerospace, advanced manufacturing, information technology and hi-tech, logistics and warehousing, and hospitality.

“Corporate headquarters we think are a little less likely,” he said.

Beyond development of a community-driven economic development strategy, the study recommendations include establishment of a “robust” economic development ecosystem focused on business retention an d expansion, business attraction and effective marketing, along with maintaining the city’s quality of life, enhancing regional placemaking, the use of economic development software and data packages, actively developing and marketing the city’s westward expansion plans and the establishment of a “trades pipeline” to support workforce development for targeted industries.

“Economic development is not a surefire bet,” Schwalb said. “It’s a grind.”

A final report will be issued to the City Council at a future meeting.