Manatee Commission has approved almost $10 million in incentives to date

MANATEE -- Manatee County has a strong economic development program and the county has a lot of land for future development, the county's economic development manager told commissioners Tuesday.

"We have a lot of land available for development and that is going to be a strong asset for us going forward," Karen Stewart said during Tuesday's work session on the county's economic development program.

As of Aug. 25, the last time an incentive came before the commission, the commission has approved $9.9 million in incentives since the start of the program, which equates to 4,224 potential jobs created and retained. With the largest amount of jobs either created or projected to be created in manufacturing, headquarters and infotech, the average annual company wage of projects approved for incentives is $49,620, which is 37 percent more than the county's average wage.

Stewart mentioned the new biotech business campus called CORE at Lakewood Ranch as an "exciting opportunity in life sciences."

"We will be providing rapid response for that so we are excited about it," she said. The county is also providing rapid response to all projects in the Southwest Tax Increment Financing District.

Sports performance is also a growing sector in Manatee County, Stewart said. Of the 1,742 jobs created through 2014, 10 percent were in sports performance.

"You will see that growing over the years," she said.

The potential wages expected to be created in Manatee County in the next five to 10 years in both direct and indirect jobs is $2 billion, with a $332 million return on investment.

"It's a pretty good return on investment in economic development," Stewart said.

Commission Chairwoman Betsy Benac thanked Stewart for the presentation.

"It is a significant investment the county makes in these programs," she said.

Commissioner Vanessa Baugh commended the work Stewart and her team do.

"Economic development is just so very important to this county," Baugh said.

Claire Aronson, Manatee County reporter, can be reached at 941-745-7024. Follow her on Twitter@Claire_Aronson.

This story was originally published November 10, 2015 at 6:15 PM with the headline "Manatee Commission has approved almost $10 million in incentives to date ."