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Don't expect the creation of a regional economic development effort in the Fort Myers-Naples area to spring up quickly.
“Today, it doesn't exist,” says James Moore, the director of the Lee County Economic Development Office.
Moore says the Southwest Florida area that encompasses Fort Myers and Naples is the only coastal region of the state that has no regional, multi-county economic development organization. “We're behind and we need to catch up,” he told a recent gathering of the Real Estate Investment Society in Fort Myers.
The lack of a coordinated economic development effort hampers industry recruitment. “Companies don't care about political boundaries,” Moore says. “They'd rather talk to one person instead of five different people.”
What's more, state government invites regional organizations to travel on trade missions and then extends invitations to local economic development group if there's room left, putting the Fort Myers-Naples area at a disadvantage.
One obstacle to local regionalism efforts, Moore says, is that the economic development agency in Collier County was disbanded last year after funding dried up. “They're trying to resurrect that in different form,” Moore says, noting that there are pro-regional forces at work in Collier.
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