Hardy Hunter

Executive Summary
Entity. Hardee County Trend. County is using funds, mostly from mining company Mosaic, to aid economic development. Key. Officials take bigger risks than other governments to boost employment levels.

Bill Lambert has been a county commissioner, school board member citrus-nursery entrepreneur and golf course owner — all in his native Hardee County.

Now Lambert, the unofficial Hardee cheerleader-in-chief, runs the county's Economic Development Council. And in this role he has access to a unique pot of money few, if any other counties in Florida have: roughly $42 million in funds phosphate mining giant Mosaic designated specifically for economic development.

The money, divvied up in chunks of $5 million or less starting in 2011, stems from a 2008 agreement Mosaic signed with the Hardee County Industrial Development Authority. Another stream of economic development funds, about $2 million a year, comes from a state severance tax paid by entities that work with solid minerals and phosphate rock.

The back-story behind the $42 million is Mosaic, which owns about 40% of the land in Hardee, recognizes the land is nearly useless after it's mined. That includes future agriculture use.

With farming out, and with the citrus industry in crisis, Hardee County, 60 miles east of downtown Sarasota and 35 miles south of Lakeland, is in an economic development bind.
Already, the county, with a population of around 27,500, is the second poorest in per capita income in Florida, according to 2014 U.S. Census data, at $15,783. Only Union County, north of Gainesville, is poorer. The median household income in Hardee County in 2014 was $36,094, and 29.9% of the county lives in poverty, according to census data.

Lambert leads the hunt for businesses to open, relocate or add a place, in virtually any industry, in Hardee County. Incentives could be tax-free space and buildings, cash for jobs or subsidized rent, among other programs.

“The No. 1 thing I'm looking for is the payroll multiplier effect: Which company will have the greatest amount of paychecks over the longest number of years?” says Lambert. “I need people who want to make money and make a profit.”

But Hardee County isn't running a free money parade, Lambert says. Any funds the EDC and the IDA dole out include stipulations and several layers of oversight. Also, Lambert says while he talks regularly to executives with firms in coastal counties, particularly Manatee, Pinellas and Sarasota, he's not looking to steal companies from one county just to pump up Hardee.

Through late last year Hardee County had received about $22 million from Mosaic going back to 2011, according to Hardee County documents. About 75% of Hardee County's economic development funds are spent on hard costs, such as buildings and infrastructure to lure businesses. Incentives and other programs take up the rest.

Lambert and other area economic development officials concede Hardee County is more likely than its coastal neighbors to take a risk on companies. That's partially to make sure they think big enough to not miss opportunities, and also because inland economic development in Florida is tough in comparison to what others can offer in amenities and workforce.

“We've done some things that might not be considered conventional in order to make sure we can survive,” says IDA Chairwoman Vanessa Hernandez. “We are trying to make this a community where our ambitious young people don't have to leave.”

The county has recruited 13 companies to either open or expand in Hardee County since 2011, which has resulted in at least 400 jobs. The employment boost, says Lambert, “is a huge number for a small county.”

Lambert, who often shakes hands and chats with well-wishers when he's out and about Wauchula, the county seat, has put off retirement to carry on with the save Hardee County mission. “I'm going dusk to dawn,” says Lambert, 61. “I do what I do because this is my home. Everything is to make this a better place.”

Making Hardee home
Here are two companies that recently launched or expanded in Hardee County.

Peace River Paddle Sports, Kuleana Boats

Trey Flemer is a classic necessity entrepreneur.

The need, Flemer believes, is to have paddleboards and windsurfers with bigger and more watertight storage compartments. “I always thought it would be great to store camping gear in the windsurfer,” says Flemer. “That was in the back of my mind for years.”

Flemer couldn't find one, so he made his own.

Now Flemer's mission is to find others with the same need. He intends to do that through his Hardee County business, Kuleana — Hawaiian for the phrase that with privilege comes great responsibility. Kuleana manufactures what Flemer calls the Expedition. It can be used as a stand-up paddleboard, windsurfer or kayak, with enough dry storage space for a multiday expedition. The Expedition costs $3,495 at a product lunch price, and could retail for up to $4,500. Flemer's other company, Peace River Paddle Sports, offers tour guides and rentals of more standard kayaks and paddleboards in Hardee County.

Flemer has received ample support from Hardee County for both business entities, from money and space to logistics and marketing. The companies, in total, have been given about $488,000 in the last three years, according to Hardee County Economic Development Director Bill Lambert. At least $300,000 has gone toward startup, marketing and other costs for Kuleana, with the rest going to Peace River Paddle Sports.

Flemer leases a 3,200-square-foot section of the Hardee County incubator/accelerator, called Innovation Place, in a former Scotty's Hardware store. Companies in the incubator, says Lambert, receive subsidized rent before becoming profitable, at around $2 a square foot without air conditioning and $6 a square foot with air conditioning. The rent increases when companies become self-sustaining.

In return, Flemer has committed to hiring at least eight people by January 2017. He has three now, and he seeks to hire at least two more, in production.

Lambert acknowledges the venture is one of the more risky ones Hardee County has supported in the last five years. For one, customer education and marketing is a steep hurdle in a new niche product. But Lambert also says it takes a lot of chances to land one big success.

And in Flemer's view, if the county, and especially Lambert, weren't there, he has no chance. “I'm not a businessman,” says Flemer. “I'm just a guy who loves being on the water and building boats.”

CareSync

Tampa tech entrepreneur Travis Bond thought there would literally be a red carpet when he sought to open a startup medical software company in Hardee County five years ago.

He and his company, then LifeSync Technologies, would be one of the first to come town, wooed by an eager community and more than $3 million in incentives.

Instead, Bond says, he was greeted by a level of “hate and toxicity” he has rarely seen in his business career, which spans nine startups. Turns out some Hardee County residents weren't ready to make the shift from farming to a more diverse workforce. Others publicly doubted the company would ever come through with jobs, or the technology.

Obstacles soon grew thicker. There were allegations Hardee County officials misappropriated some of the incentives under state laws, and elected state officials connected to the company were accused of conflicts of interest. All county and company officials were cleared of wrongdoing.

Bond persevered. Now named CareSync and with a headquarters in Wesley Chapel, the company developed an app-based virtual nurse program for physicians. It focuses on chronic disease management, and coordinates care among patients, family and caregivers. “We saw an opportunity to help physicians innovate, but also scale,” Bond says.

The opportunity was also there to hire Hardee County residents, in software development and IT, in addition to medical technicians and nurses. The company now has 136 employees in the county, and about 80% of them live in Hardee County, Bond says. “We love Hardee County,” says Bond. “We will grow as big as we possibly can here.”

CareSync received $2 million from the county, records show. It leases space in the county's TechRiver incubator, a 17,000-square-foot facility just outside downtown Wauchula. The Hardee County Industrial Development Authority bought the complex, a former Peace River Electric Cooperative building, for about $1 million, and spent at least $300,000 on renovations.

CareSnyc has about 250 employees, with about 100 in Wesley Chapel. It has received capital from several outside investors, in Boston and New York, but Bond is effusive in his praise of Hardee County. “This was a ghost building before we got here, and now it's full,” says Bond. “This is the way economic development should always be.”

At a glance

Hardee County, demographics

County seat: Wauchula

Population: 27,502

Median household income: $36,094

Per capita income, 2010-2014: $15,783

Total employer establishments: 375

Total employment change: 4.9%

Homeownership rate, 2010-2014: 71.7%

Households: 7,534

Median value of owner-occupied housing units, 2010-2014: $84,200

Language other than English spoken at home, 2010-2014: 40.5% (nearly double national average)

Mean travel time to work: 25 minutes

Source: U.S. Census