From Charles Wood, Pensacola Chamber Senior VP for Economic Development:
* Trip to Century – I met with the Mayor of Century, Freddie McCall and toured Century’s business incubator on Tuesday. While the facility does not currently have a tenant, the community is working to fill the space. To help, we sent a copy of the lease agreement we use for the downtown incubator and will begin marketing the space. They have between 15,000 to 20,000 square feet of air conditioned space broken out into 2,000 to 3,000 square foot spaces, each completely open. The space was renovated through a federal economic development grant.
* Business Resource Forum – Our existing business efforts, headed up by Kara Melendez are taking shape and we are well on our way to meeting our goal of 100 existing business visits this year. However, in order to reach out to smaller companies that may be struggling in the current economy the Chamber held a Business Resource Forum to provide information to companies that may help them with financial issues. The Forum which hosted about 90 people was a partnership between the Chamber, Gulf Power and Workforce Escarosa and covered topics on workforce, public relations, finances and energy conservation.
* Friends of the CIE – We also held a successful meeting introducing several members and investors to a business support program for tenants of the Gulf Coast Center for Innovation and Entrepreneurship. The idea behind the program (called Friends of the CIE) is to find partners in professional businesses that will provide first rate business services (accounting, legal, marketing, etc.) at discounted costs to the CIE’s Tenants. Thus, providing top rated services to tenants at discounted costs while building relationships with our early stage companies which significant growth potential. Please let me know if your are interested in participating in this program but couldn’t make the meeting.