In this episode, Jason and Thom sit down to discuss local economic development and investment opportunities within Tallahassee with Cristina Paredes and Richard Fetchick from the Tallahassee-Leon County Office of Economic Vitality
Tune in to hear:
- What the Office of Economic Vitality does and how they can help local Real Estate investors.
- How local research at the Magnetic Lab is making an impact on industries and companies like Danfoss.
- How real estate investors and developers can take advantage of Opportunity Zones; as well as make a meaningful difference in our local community.
- And more.
Episode Timeline:
00:46: Cristina gives us some background around her story. She tells us how she came to Tallahassee to attend college and ended up staying to help push the local community forward.Richard echos Cristina’s story with his and explains how he started in Texas, bounced around to some larger cities, and made the intentional decision to come to Tallahassee.
03:44: Cristina explains how the cost of living in Tallahassee is around 3-4% cheaper than the national average.
04:04: Cristina explains the role the Tallahassee Office of Economic Vitality plays in developing the local community. The office focuses on business expansion, business attraction and women and business minorities. She explains the significance in the word “Vitality” within the name of the office and how it’s more than simply business development within Tallahassee.
05:40: Cristina highlights the development database on the OEV Tallahassee website that is available to local Real Estate investors and developers to utilize. This database is very useful to find activity in the local community.
06:39: Richard elaborates on the value of the data and information that their office provides and gives some examples of how local Real Estate investors can utilize the data.
08:55: Cristina explains how DesignWorks can be a great resource for investors and developers to identifying what can be done on a certain property. She highlights the most active places in Tallahassee in terms of development.
10:10: Cristina lays out her office’s 6 cornerstones; business formation, tech transfer & commercialization, business retention & expansion, business recruitment, the creative economy and talent pipeline.
12:56: We talk briefly about the importance of underground utilities in a zone that can be hit by storms.
14:10: Cristina discusses the 4 target industries and extrapolates on the fast growing manufacturing segment within Tallahassee. Likewise, we talk about applied science, the research being done at the Magnetic lab and how that research is being applied through companies like Danfoss.
16:00: Cristina elaborates on the Danfoss levitating magnet that is revolutionizing HVAC systems and we discuss how local research in magnetic is impacting industries like Real Estate.
18:22: We dig deeper in to Opportunity Zones and how real estate investors can utilize the opportunity to defer their capital gains earned on qualified investments. Richard furthers the discussion and argues that investors should keep in mind the intent behind the concept and encourages them to make investments that will have a positive impact in these zones as intended.
21:04: Cristina highlights the impact that public investment can have on the amount of capital invested by the private sector. She tells us that the Gaines Street initiative investment of 30 million dollars spurred a nearly 500 million private sector investment.
22:40: Cristina tells us about the Opportunity Zone perspective and how investors can use it to understand the opportunities and the County/City’s goals behind the initiative.
27:00: We end by talking about the various real estate developments in and around Tallahassee; including the large initiative to further develop the area in and around the airport.