City of Fort Myers Economic Analysis

FIU Community Economic Development Study

CEDS Competitive Analysis

Southwest Florida Economic Impacts August 2021

Economic growth involves many stakeholders.  Thanks to the talented realtors, market research teams, and developers working with the business community, we are able to find the perfect location for growing businesses.  The city provides an infrastructure to support growth and businesses are able to see the vision for the area.  A good example is the Hanson Rd Extension giving better access to Interstate 75.

There are key priorities to foster collaboration. Working together creates speed and flexibility in our decision-making.  We need to know what we could do and what we should do.  Shining a light on the pathways to economic development gets us all on board to go in that direction. Public engagement in the process is crucial.  Information on Hanson Street Improvements

Some of the key priorities area businesses consider:

• Cash flow/ cash management
• supply chain disruptions/innovation
• workforce health and safety
• eCommerce offerings
• delivery fulfillment
• product development
• remote working capabilities
• stakeholder relationships
• maintaining operations

Some of the immediate needs outweigh long term considerations. There are resources available to help you with your immediate needs at the SBDC.   

Making a long term difference in our community needs a vision bigger then ourselves. We need targeted activities to improve the economic wellbeing and quality of life of Fort Myers. By building wealth, diversifying the economy, creating and retaining jobs, we can build the local tax base. 

Making sure your workforce has nice places to live, work, and shop as well as places to enjoy the outdoors, the quality of life is improved as well.  Making sure your business is able to manage key priorities and enhance prosperity and growth is the right path to take for economic development.

Comprehensive Southwest Florida commercial and residential reports are updated at LSI Companies Market Research.  Recent commercial activity in the 4th Quarter of 2020 is attached below as a PDF.