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A company providing CDL driver training programs across Florida has plans to expand beyond the Sunshine State.
FleetForce Truck Driver Training is now the largest chain of truck driving schools in Florida, according to President Tra Williams. It has 10 locations at state college campuses statewide, with No. 11 coming soon to Gainesville.
By spring 2025, Williams says the operation will be growing into Texas.
The “tipping point” for FleetForce came as the result of conversations with the Economic Development Corp. of Sarasota County in spring 2021 about its need for a “giant empty parking lot,” Williams says.
FleetForce provides a four-week training program to help people get their CDL licenses and at the time, Williams says, there were no CDL trainers in Sarasota and Manatee counties. It seemed like an easy ask to get a big parking lot, but Williams says he could not find a location. Erin Silk, the CEO of the EDC, made a connection for him with the State College of Florida to use theirs.
“At the time, it was more about space than it was about the business model,” Williams says. “But what it has turned into … [is] a CDL consortium that the governor invested $10 million [in] to copy, cut and paste that model across the remainder of the state.”
Next, it will be working with the state college system in Texas and accessing workforce training grants there just as it has in Florida. “What we’re really doing is replicating what we have" in the Sarasota area, Williams says. "In spring of next year, we should be somewhere in Houston."
FleetForce is needed to help address the growing truck driver shortage plaguing the nation, according to Williams, who says it impacts everyone, since those with commercial licenses do everything from hauling groceries to transporting children on school buses. "There is no part of your life that this doesn't touch," Williams says, noting the current pent-up demand for truck drivers estimated by the American Trucking Associations is 80,000 drivers.
Williams announced his company’s plan to grow into Texas during a “Meet the Projects” event sponsored by the Sarasota EDC April 25.
The founders of logistics firm D-Trans, the Sarasota Paradise soccer team and Big Top Brewing Co. also shared how their projects are expanding at the EDC event. Highlights from this speakers included:
D-Trans, a logistics business based in Venice, is expanding its shipping, warehousing, fleet maintenance and headquarters by 27,000 square feet. with plans to add 50 new jobs.
Cofounder Vladimir Durshpek recalls meeting with the EDC in a “small room that was like a closet” at the D-Trans office to discuss plans for the business years ago. It now has clients like Yamaha and Caribbean Cruise Lines for its transportation and logistics services, Durshpek says. “Everybody has problems to solve,” Durshpek says.
His own company encountered a stumbling block during its expansion when it was set back by Hurricane Ian. Ultimately, the new warehouse construction moved forward and the building has now been painted, Durshpek says. It will be a bonded warehouse, where goods go before they are paid for, and he says he plans to grow the company by 100%.
Marcus Walfridson, the president of-Audigr Group, which owns pre-professional soccer league Sarasota Paradise, says as a tourist from Sweden, he saw the need for a soccer team.
“For me, it was the American dream,” Walfridson says of moving to Sarasota and making his idea a reality.
The Sarasota Paradise’s first home game in 2023 hosted 600 fans, and the season concluded with a turnout of more than 1,000 at the Sarasota High School soccer field. In December 2023, the United Soccer League named Sarasota Paradise the New Organization of the Year.
In Sweden, Walfridson says, the soccer team is “the thing that represents the community,” and he wants the same to be true in his new home. “How can we become the centerpiece of the community?” is a question he hopes to work toward answering, in part through dedicating every home game to a local nonprofit starting with the team’s second season, which starts May 19.
Big Top Brewing Co. knows all about being a centerpiece. CEO and cofounder Mike Bisaha is opening an 18,000-square-foot building at Fruitville Commons that will hold 700 people for live music and craft beer.
His company hired 147 people with the addition of its newest location, which will be the third for Big Top. Bisaha described his business as a “garage startup” that he and his friend conjured up over a beer in the garage. They wanted to bring craft beer to Sarasota in 2013 and were able to make that a reality with hard work and a lot of help, he says, and there is nowhere else he would rather be.
“This is my hometown,” Bisaha says. “I’ve never found a reason to leave. There’s just so many different sides of this town which I think are fantastic, whether you want to be in the country or on the beach or in the city, whatever it is. The demographic is great. You’ve got so many people [and] culture here. … Our businesses here are completely different, and it just shows you no matter what the business is, it can thrive in this town.”
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