by Jeremy Morrison, Inweekly
Economic development, the business of increasing a local or regional community’s fortunes by energizing, attracting and retaining businesses to an area, generally occurs at the county level, or is perhaps handled by a designated entity, such as Florida West, but Pensacola Mayor D.C. Reeves appears determined that the city will carve out its own space in the game.
“Is there opportunity for the city to play a bigger role in how we do economic development in our community? Absolutely,” Reeves said Tuesday during his weekly press conference.
Describing the effort as “taking a little more control of our own destiny,” Mayor Reeves announced the hiring of an economic development director — Erica Grancagnolo, who must by approved by the Pensacola City Council — and said that while the city remains supportive and involved in regional efforts, Pensacola should also focus on attracting businesses into the city.
“Our 39 square miles have unique needs. I mean, something that’s important off of 10 Mile Road might not be the same priority, or at the same level, if you’re operating the city,” Mayor Reeves said. “I firmly believe that there are certain efforts that are more unique to where we want to grow, and we want to prosper that may not be the same priority level elsewhere.”
The mayor laid out a two-pronged approach to the city’s economic development efforts. On one front, the city will work to attract new businesses or grow existing ones. On another, the mayor intends to make Pensacola as welcoming and attractive as possible.
When looking to attract businesses, the city will focus on those that might be a good fit for the city. Whereas more industrial or space-intensive enterprises may find it easier to conduct business out in the county, other businesses are ideally suited for urban spaces.
“Getting certain businesses that maybe don’t need 70, 80 acres, but maybe can move into class A office space here and be able to have some job creation,” Reeves said.
When it comes to making it easy for businesses to operate in Pensacola, Mayor Reeves said that the city should act as a “conduit” to that business’s ultimate success.
“What I hope is, when you knock on Pensacola’s door, what you hear is, ‘Hey, thank you, for considering Pensacola, Florida. Let us help you get this across the finish line,’” Reeves said. “Let us be that red phone to you, to see a project you, to see a relocation through.”
Additionally, the mayor said that it is important to create a city where people want to live. This is especially important, he said, due to the rise in remote workers, who are not bound to a particular location.
“I say I’m a place-making, economic-development person. That is the new battlefront. I mean, people can live wherever they want now,” Reeves said . “Other cities in the community, other mayors I’m speaking with right now, they are in that game and they understand, just how many white collar jobs are remote, that people can live wherever they want.”
“It is sense of place,” the mayor continued. “It is bikeability, walkability, because when you’re in the talent attraction business, what are you selling? Why move to Pensacola instead of Charleston? Why move to Pensacola instead on Dallas? Instead of Savanah? That’s where we do have to set ourselves apart.”