by Karen Brune Mathis
Managing Editor
A medical school, entrepreneur zones, Downtown redevelopment, links with University of Florida research efforts and business “acceleration” assistance are among a community group’s recommendations to better position the area economy.
A Jacksonville Community Council Inc. committee concluded its “Recession Recovery and Beyond” study Wednesday, sending eight months of research into the hands of JCCI staff to convert into a formal report.
JCCI Executive Director Skip Cramer said the report would be formally presented publicly at noon June 15 at the Hyatt Downtown.
While the group makes recommendations, it is up to an implementation group to see them through with the decisionmakers who can make it happen.
The implementation taskforce orientation meeting is 11:30 a.m. June 29 at JCCI offices.
“You’ve done a great job,” study chair Elaine Brown, president of the Northeast Florida Regional Council and a former City Council president, told the more than two dozen members at the final meeting.
After a review by JCCI leaders, the report will be issued and the implementation team will start.
It also was Cramer’s last full study. He plans to retire this fall after seven years at JCCI.
The group ended with more than a dozen recommendations that cover creating jobs in key regional growth industries, building and maintaining an educated and skilled work force, encouraging the growth of small businesses, improving the region’s marketing elements and securing regional leadership for sustained economic growth.
“Securing a medical school” is listed as a bullet item in one recommendation, without elaboration in the draft copy. Several speakers during the study suggested the city pursue a medical school.
“Entrepreneur zones” were also among the recommendations. Such zones would be identified and entrepreneurs would be offered assistance, such as reduced rent.
Another topic discussed during several meetings was how to link with the University of Florida, which is in Alachua County and not part of the seven-county area covered by the study or part of the Jacksonville Regional Chamber of Commerce.
While the university, a research institution, has links to Jacksonville, the JCCI committee debated whether to try to formally add it or Alachua County to Northeast Florida regional efforts, but settled for referring to it as “this region’s research university and an integral part of Northeast Florida.”
The group also suggested that area universities and colleges be encouraged in their research efforts.
“Recession Recovery and Beyond” took shape in the wake of the December 2007-June 2009 national recession. JCCI was charged with attempting to discover how the seven counties of Northeast Florida might retain existing jobs, rapidly create new jobs and position the region for long-term economic growth.
The study is sponsored by WorkSource and the chamber’s Cornerstone Regional Development Partnership.
The study began in October. Committee members visited the seven counties involved in the study.
Then they met weekly at the Northeast Florida Regional Council in Southside to hear from executives in economic development, education, health care, government, banking, manufacturing, the port and other industries and areas that deal with job creation.
In March, the group started reviewing 35 pages of findings from the presentations line by line.
It then wrestled three dozen pages of information into 11 conclusions about the area’s economic future
This week, it completed its work on the recommendations, which are being edited and organized.
JCCI study planner Mickee Brown told the group Wednesday that the goal was to “work with what we have” and not introduce new information.
“Keep it, delete it or fix it,” she said. “We will try not to be brusque, but we have a lot of work to do.”
Among the recommendations discussed Wednesday:
• The City of Jacksonville and its regional economic partners should exhaust all available funding options to repair the Mile Point navigational problem in the St. Johns River and deepen the river channel to accommodate larger ships that will travel through the Panama Canal in 2014.
• The Jacksonville Port Authority, Cornerstone, the Jacksonville Transportation Authority and the North Florida Transportation Planning Organization should move forward as soon as possible to complete the second phase of the strategic plan to improve port facilities and rail and road infrastructure.
• The Healthcare and Bioscience Council of Northeast Florida, housed at the University of North Florida, should expand its mission and serve as the regional trade group for the life and medical sciences in Northeast Florida, assuming responsibility for several tasks, including securing a medical school.
• Cornerstone should aggressively attract aviation, aerospace and defense contractors to leverage the region’s military assets.
• Cornerstone and the Regional Council should present the outcomes of its targeted industry submarket study to WorkSource and school districts. The study results from a $200,000 grant from the Economic Development Administration to identify the region’s growth industries and develop steps needed for sustainable job creation. The process to select a firm to conduct the study is under way and the study completion will take a year.
• School districts and area chambers of commerce should aggressively pursue business-school partnerships and expansion of career academies.
• The Jacksonville Economic Development Commission should create “entrepreneur zones” and identify how to recruit entrepreneurs and reduce rental rates to assist them.
• The UNF Small Business Development Center should take the lead in bringing together small business development, education and networking organizations to better assist start-up businesses, attract entrepreneurs and venture capital to the region and support the growth of second-stage firms, among other goals.
• Jacksonville’s mayor and City Council should support Downtown redevelopment and revitalization efforts that are being undertaken by the chamber, the Jacksonville Civic Council, Downtown Vision Inc., JTA and others “who are working to make Downtown a vibrant, livable, sustainable and easy-to-navigate central metropolitan community for all of Northeast Florida.”
• Economic development and political leaders should uniformly consider and refer to the University of Florida “as this region’s research university and an integral part of Northeast Florida.”
• A coalition of the region’s public sector leaders in all 27 municipalities, led by the Regional Council, should streamline and standardize regulatory and permitting processes that make it difficult or costly to start, operate or expand a business in Northeast Florida, while protecting consumers and the environment.
• Economic development organizations, governments and others should establish a business “accelerator” to attract entrepreneurs and venture capital to the region; create jobs in science, technology, engineering and math; and increase the region’s research capabilities.
• The Regional Council and public and private groups should promote sustainability by working with environmental groups to create a long-term regional plan for continuity.
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