Business leaders get crash course on Collier County's future

At what was dubbed as one of the largest and most important business events in Collier County in "many moons," a handful of speakers had five minutes to give their spiel at Collier 2020 — or face the gong.

In this case the gong actually came from the kitchen; it was an aluminum mixing bowl, struck with a spoon. And yes, it had to be used a few times, bringing laughs from a packed house at Hodges University in North Naples. 

The conference, the first of its kind organized by the Naples Chapter of SCORE, centered around the future of small business in Collier County. Small businesses are what SCORE is all about.

SCORE, driven primarily by retired executives, offers small businesses free counseling and programs to help them succeed.

In 50 minutes, 10 county, business and economic development leaders shared their vision, then they sat down as a panel to answer questions about everything from how to encourage developers, to building more workforce housing, to how to market a new restaurant, to how to find a good-paying job in Naples for a grown daughter who wants to relocate from Chicago.

Before the speakers took the stage, facilitator TaSheekiah Perry, founder of Crowning Daughters For Success, encouraged the crowd to take selfies with their phones to mark the day "we become our best business selves." 

Aysegul Timur, a senior vice president of academic affairs at Hodges, gave a numbers-heavy presentation that included the latest information and estimates on the county's population. She noted it was the fastest presentation she'd ever made in her career (she got the gong).

Timur told the crowd the county had a year-round population of a little over 360,000 as of 2016, a 13 percent increase over 2010. That's expected to grow to 400,000 by 2020, to 600,000 by 2040 and to 700,000 by 2050, Timur said, raising eyebrows in the audience.

Also, she said, the 85 and over population, now representing about 4 percent of the county's overall population, is expected to grow to 20 percent of the total by 2050.

Looking ahead, small businesses will continue to drive the local economy, and many of the new jobs will be created in service industries, which will mean that more of them will be lower paying, Timur said.

"We have a strong economy," she said. "We are growing." 

Kristi Bartlett, vice president of economic development for the Greater Naples Chamber of Commerce, said 6 million more people will call Florida home by 2030, so there's a definite need to plan for the future, which includes making sure there are more high-skilled jobs available for a larger population.

The county alone, she said, will need to fill about 14,430 more jobs by 2020 and about 43,000 by 2030.

The top five fastest growing occupations through 2024 are expected to be: retail salespersons; food servers, landscaping and groundskeeping workers, cashiers, and combined food preparation and serving workers including fast food, according to state data.

Eighty percent of the job growth comes from existing businesses, and most of the existing firms are in low-wage industries, Bartlett said, making it that much more important to diversify the local economy and attract primary employers, such as manufacturers or corporate headquarters.

The shortage of talent and workforce housing are among the biggest challenges facing local employers, and those problems may only be exacerbated over the next five to 10 years by local issues and trends, Bartlett said.

Kathy Curatolo, executive vice president of the Collier Building Industry Association agreed, saying there continues to be a major shortfall in skilled construction workers. 

"While there are numerous training options available from high school construction academies at the Collier County public schools to training programs at LWIT and iTECH in the skilled trades, apprenticeship programs and potential plans for a construction management program at FGCU — much more is needed in terms of support and training," she said. 

More action is needed on workforce housing by county commissioners, Curatolo said. A plan is expected to go to commissioners for approval in September.

The industry supports a plan that includes higher density in designated areas and giving bonuses to builders for density and mixed-used centers. Curatolo encouraged the crowd to get behind the effort, emphasizing the important role construction plays in the local economy.

In her impassioned presentation, Curatolo rattled off how construction boosts the local economy. The annual recurring effect of building 100 single-family homes at an average price of $378,000 generates more than $4 million in local income and creates 70 local jobs, she said.

"Construction and its ancillary benefits are at the core of economic sustainability in Collier County," Curatolo said.