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DADE CITY — Pasco County's effort to stimulate job growth through incentives is paying off with the relocation of a Michigan manufacturing company to a 10,500-square-foot leased space in the ComPark 75 industrial park, and the relocation of a financial services firm from Tampa to Odessa.
J.T.D. Enterprises, which manufactures tubular fabrications and assemblies, will bring six employees to the industrial park, and company executives plan to hire up to six more workers by late December, according to a release.
“We have a large customer outside the Orlando area we wanted to be closer to, so we were looking to move to Florida,” says Deni Nihra, president of J.T.D. Enterprises, which has been based in Warren, Mich. “We chose to move to Pasco County because of the incentives and how well we were treated by the Pasco Economic Development Council.”
Pasco's Board of County Commissioners adopted a job-creation incentive ordinance several years ago to attract businesses. In 2012, however, only about 10% of companies receiving incentives relocated from out of state, officials report. The move by J.T.D. Enterprises is encouraging, says John Walsh, vice president of the economic development council, a public-private partnership that promotes Pasco's economic growth, in a statement. “We are starting to see more companies looking to relocate from outside of Florida.”
Businesses that pay at least 115% of the Pasco County average wage, sell at least 51% of their products or services outside the county, and bring a minimum of 10 new full-time jobs during the first year, may be eligible for incentives. A company that pays 115% of the average county wage could get $2,000 for each new job created, and $5,000 for each job that pays at least 200% of the average county wage.
Heidi Tuttle-Beisner of Commercial Asset Partners Realty brokered J.T.D.'s lease transaction, according to the release. She also represents LightPort, a provider of cloud-based client reporting for financial advisers, in a lease agreement that will move LightPort from Tampa's Westshore district to a 4,426-square-foot space in Odessa. LightPort plans to move its 26 employees to the new location on Gunn Highway by early March.
“The incentives from Pasco County definitely made relocating worthwhile,” says Jonathan Bentley, CEO of LightPort, in a statement.
Pasco's economic development council approves up to 10 businesses for the incentives a year. Expanding area companies may also qualify for incentives.
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