STORY HIGHLIGHTS
One of Orlando Economic Partnership's current questions is how the next two decades will unfold for Central Florida. The public-private economic development group is using its "
Orlando 2045, Igniting Orlando’s Potential " process to dive into some of the region's key priorities. This involves ranking some of those priorities, which include transforming Orlando into a top-10 innovation hub, creating walkable 15-minute cities across the region and becoming the No. 1 place to live in the nation. Tim Giuliani, president and CEO of the partnership, told
Orlando Business Journal there is value in having such a long-term vision with input from government, businesses and residents. "As we were trying to work on a five-year strategic plan, it raised the question of 'where are we going 10, 20 or 30 years from now?'" he said. "We convened many in the community around where are we headed 20 years out — to think big and ambitious." But the organization is not only looking toward the future. It is also looking to companies on what they need now, when coming to the region. Here, Giuliani spoke with
OBJ on the 2045 effort, as well as the factors that have stood out in drawing companies here.
What's the goal once you have gathered the insights from the community?
We're trying to figure out what is important to our elected officials, to our businesses. We have a community survey out to residents to understand what is important. What success looks like in the region is often defined by the alignment in the region. When you look at anything that has happened in Central Florida over time, it is always partnerships; it is always collaboration. So, what are those areas we can work together in the future — like the Sunshine Corridor — what are the things we can work on together?
How important is it to address needs like housing and transportation within economic development strategy?
There are two elements to that question. One is that, from a research standpoint, we have to have our finger on the pulse of our market. We have to understand our market; we have to understand where we are competitive and where we are not, and we have to be able to answer questions from companies that are considering our market. We have to have our finger on the pulse of what is going on — whether it is good, bad or medium — so we can put our best foot forward [and show] we are prepared to address concerns, and we can present to companies the tremendous value proposition our community has. It is also important to communicate in our plan that will support the Orlando 2045 vision that we have to be a place that we invest in, that is one where people want to live and visit. Companies are looking for talent, so if it's a place that people want to live, it will be one businesses want to locate.
What has the flow for leads been like for Orlando Economic Partnership so far this year?
We're off to a very strong start compared to normal on announcing projects. Our average project takes 12 months from initial outreach to any kind of announcement, should there be one, so it takes a while for us to see the impact. I can tell you the state has pulled back on its focus on generating leads, so more of that responsibility is on us at the local level. We're out nationally and internationally more than we were to make up for those leads that we relied on the state on before, but now we have to directly get. It was also an interesting year in 2024 because it was an election year, so you see a lot of uncertainty; you see companies sitting and waiting to make a decision. Since the election, there hasn't been a release of that uncertainty, so we are still in this pattern where we do not know where federal policies will wind up, whether on tariffs, immigration or other big issues.
What trends have you seen from companies who are looking to locate in Orlando?
Talent continues to be a top criteria. Do we have people they need to hire and, from an education standpoint, are we producing a pipeline of talent that leads into the future? One issue that has floated from a middle range of criteria to the top is the availability of sites and buildings. This is new and it speaks to the infrastructure we need and the site readiness we have to have in this market, because we don't have a lot of industrial sites over 25 acres in Central Florida. Those have dwindled. Now, we're taking a proactive approach to identify sites where we have support from the government, where they want to see growth, where we have existing infrastructure [and] where we can get alignment with utilities and railroads so we have competitive sites to land more projects in the future. That is a shift for us, because the power grid has been tapped in so many other parts of the Southeast and it has created new opportunities to land projects that were not looking at us before but now have to look at us. They are running out of options in the Southeast because we do have capacity on our power grid.
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