New Benderson Business Park projected to bring 1,500 jobs to North Port
The tour of the first two buildings of a planned six-building campus – including a 73,000-square-foot space once used as a fulfillment center by Tervis Tumbler – came after the board of the Economic Development Corporation of Sarasota County held a morning meeting at the North Port branch campus of Sarasota Technical College.
The school at 4445 Career Lane is on the southwest side of the Toledo Blade Boulevard exit off of Interstate 75, while the business park, which is anticipated to have 678,000 square feet of Class A Dock High industrial space, is on the southeast side.
Mark Curran, leasing director for industrial, office and warehouse space in the Southeast for Benderson Development, said that interstate proximity was one of the factors Benderson sees as key for this type of industrial location.
Concrete tilt-wall construction and 'dock-high' access for tractor trailer trucks – including 200-foot-long super load trucks – to load and unload, 30-foot high ceilings and ESFR sprinkler systems that quickly quell fires were among the other features big national companies look for in business/warehouse space, he added.
'Big companies came into town, there was no place to go," Curran said.
Benderson had owned land in North Port for more than two decades.
In 2018, Curran talked with Randy Benderson, CEO of Benderson Development, about the opportunity to develop a business park at the interchange.
The North Port/Charlotte County area "did not have anything like this,' Curran added.
Benderson is leasing space in two buildings, with the other four slated to be available on April 1.
In addition to the land cost, Curran estimated that Benderson has invested $60 million in the industrial park.
Among the new tenants mentioned by Curran are Lansing Building Products, World Electric Supply and Wharton-Smith, an engineering firm.
They join a longtime existing tenant, Guardian Pharmacy of Southwest Florida.
As North Port continues to transition from the bedroom community first envisioned by General Development Corp. when it created the city in the late 1950s to its current 104-square-mile city limits and more than 94,000 people, the Benderson facility will bring jobs – 1,500 new jobs to start.
Josh Ewen, vice president for economic development for the Sarasota County EDC, said those jobs are key to developing a diverse economy in North Port.
'The more we all focus on creating a diverse industry here, we'll end up creating jobs and lowering the commute for residents of North Port that really want to live, work and thrive here,' Ewen said.
Michael Meerman, North Port Economic Development Manager noted that's 500 new jobs with the space already filled and 1,500 job additions.
'Anytime you have job additions, that's noteworthy.'
'These are not low paying jobs, these are good paying jobs,' noted Lori Barnes, assistant development services director for the city of North Port. 'Ninety percent of the workforce commutes out of the city of North Port – 1,500 jobs is huge.'
North Port Development Services Director noted that neither Guardian Pharmacy nor Wharton-Smith would have called North Port home without the type of space offered in the Benderson warehouse.
'Wharton Smith, that's engineers, CAD drawers, project managers – highly skilled people who are now working in North Port and they're going to spend money in North Port,' she added.
While the rapid population growth to 100,000 people makes North Port more attractive to retailers, the fact that 90% working residents commute also means that residents are more likely to shop and socialize outside of the city limits – referred to as 'retail leakage.'
Ray noted that because of sales tax receipts and other data tracked by the EDC as well as the state of Florida, the city's retail leakage is estimated to be more than $700 million a year.
The definition of 'retail' includes stores, restaurants, craft breweries and entertainment venues such as indoor golf or Top Golf.
'That's a huge number, when you say that to retail developers, their eyes light up because they see opportunity,' Ray said, 'That's one of the things that we're promoting to developers.
'We have a market here that's built in that's having to drive distances to get their needs met and they can find a new market here.'
She noted that when retail business developers learn about that $700 million figures at trade shows, 'They look at us and say, 'How did we not know you were here?''
Recently, North Port was ranked seventh in MoneyGeek's analysis of the most affordable and safest small cities in the U.S., named one of the best places to start a business, and recognized as Florida's No. 2 most livable city.
But until last August – when the City Commission passed a long-overdue rewrite of the city's unified land development code – some of those businesses may have not been able to find anywhere in the 104-square-mile city to easily locate.
Case in point, Charlie Foxtrot Brewing had been eyeing North Port to open but ultimately opted for Port Charlotte because the zoning did not exist.
'We definitely have it now,' Ray said, referring to zoning for a business like a brew pub. 'This isn't old North Port.'
Ray noted that the new land development codes received heavy criticism during public meeting and public meetings but ultimately cities must change.
'There is no status quo,' Ray said. 'Status quo is an illusion, as a city you're either going to grow and progress or you're going to decay.
'You constantly have to be changing,' she added 'That reinvestment is critical.'
This article originally appeared on Sarasota Herald-Tribune: Economic development officials see jobs from North Port Business Park
Try Our AI Features
Explore what Daily8 AI can do for you:
Comments
No comments yet...
Related Articles
CBS News
6 days ago
- CBS News
A college degree is increasingly benefiting women at work, with noncollege women left behind
Women have made significant gains in the workplace over the past two decades, but one segment of female workers has been left behind: those without a college degree. New research shows a growing divide in progress in the workforce between women who have earned at least a bachelor's degree and those without any higher education. The share of college-educated women in the workforce increased by nine percentage points between 2004 and 2024, research from Third Way, a think tank advocating for moderate policy, shows. Meanwhile, women without a college degree barely notched gains: The share of noncollege women in the workforce increased by less than a percentage point over the same period, according to the report. "This divergence in the labor force experience of women with and without college degrees speaks to changes in recent years in the workplace, and around the culture of work," Curran McSwigan, Third Way's deputy director of economics and author of the report told CBS MoneyWatch. "And those changes are weighted toward women with degrees." For example, flexible work arrangements are now more common across corporations, allowing some workers to do their jobs from home, at least part of the time, and better balance work with caregiving duties. "Remote work has inherently baked in a lot more flexibility, so working mothers may be able to pop out to take their kids to doctors appointments, instead of taking time off," McSwigan said. White-collar firms have also improved benefits related to caregiving, with some even offering workers child care subsidies, allowing mothers to stay in the labor force, according to McSwigan. But women without a college degree are more likely to work in service-sector jobs that aren't as well paid and don't offer the same child care benefits. "White collar workplaces are more likely to provide workers with access to paid leave policies, even child care subsidies, and those are not traditionally the same types of benefits you see in more service-sector work that noncollege women are in," McSwigan said. Women in the service-sector may also work variable shifts, and require child care at hours during which day care centers don't typically operate. "A lot of day care centers are only open 9 to 5, so they are coming up to other barriers as well, that are inherent to the types of jobs they are working," McSwigan said. Working mothers with college degrees notched even greater gains in the work place over the past two decades, with their participation rising by 11 percentage points, from 57% to 68%, according to the report. By contrast, the percentage of noncollege-educated mothers working full-time increased just 0.1% in the last 20 years. "We have heard from policymakers that there has been strong labor force bounce back for women and that we are overcoming the 'she-cession' and making progress when it comes to women in workplace," McSwigan said. "But what the data and analysis is showing is these gains can be attributed to college women, and noncollege women are still on workforce sidelines, and it's hard to say we are making progress for working women if only those with college degrees are benefitting." For this reason, McSwigan emphasizes the need for broad-based policy efforts that support "the different needs that families are facing" to ensure that all working women receive the same benefits that college-degree holders have. "It's not one-size-fits-all approach," McSwigan said.
Yahoo
23-07-2025
- Yahoo
Former Bacardi-owned land to become 1,000-acre housing, retail project in Jacksonville
Benderson Development filed updated plans June 25 for its mixed-use development in North Jacksonville, moving one step closer to transforming over 1,000 acres of timberland into a residential, industrial and commercial project. The new site plan, submitted to JEA, outlined a mixed-use development at the intersection of Interstate 95 and Pecan Park Road, where the company has been assembling and planning land for years. The plan includes 1,650 single-family homes, 275 apartment units, 1.6 million square feet of industrial space and 87,725 square feet of retail, anchored by a 53,402-square-foot grocery store. Also included in the proposal are a 12,000-square-foot medical office and an 80,000-square-foot showroom, which could become a large-format retail user or specialty display space. The site design also designates five other parcels set to be used as restaurants, banks, convenience stores or other retail spaces. The property is part of the Bacardi mixed-use planned development, which has been in the works for several years. Benderson, a privately held real estate company headquartered in Bradenton, is one of the largest development companies in the U.S. with "over 1,000 properties totaling over 55 million square feet of space nationwide," according to its website. Other development news 'It saved my life': ESPN's Steffi Sorensen plans local gym to heal more than muscles The Jacksonville City Council unanimously approved land use and zoning changes for the site earlier this year, as first reported by the Jacksonville Daily Record. The rezoning allows for a mix of conservation, light industrial, commercial and "medium- and low-density residential uses" across the more than 1,000-acre property. Future phases of development will require traffic impact studies and individual reviews by the city. This article originally appeared on Florida Times-Union: North Jacksonville plan includes 1,650 homes, grocery store near I-95 Solve the daily Crossword
Newsweek
04-07-2025
- Newsweek
Child Tax Credit Warning: Millions of Children Could Be Ineligible
Based on facts, either observed and verified firsthand by the reporter, or reported and verified from knowledgeable sources. Almost one in three children could be left out of the boosted Child Tax Credit (CTC) approved by Congress this week, researchers said. Why It Matters The CTC is a federal tax benefit aimed at helping families offset the cost of raising children. As of 2024, the credit provides up to $2,000 per qualifying child under the age of 17, with up to $1,600 of that amount refundable. This means eligible families can receive a portion of the credit as a refund even if they owe no federal income tax. Changes to the CTC are embedded in the Republican One Big Beautiful Bill Act. The sprawling megabill, the bedrock of President Donald Trump's fiscal agenda, passed its final vote in the House on Thursday. Beginning in the 2025 tax year, the CTC will rise from its current $2,000 to $2,200 until the legislation expires in 2028—providing a welcome, albeit temporary, boost for many American families once the president signs it into law. But low-income parents and their children are unlikely to benefit, researchers at Columbia University told Newsweek. A stock photo of children walking toward a school entrance. A stock photo of children walking toward a school entrance. GETTY What To Know Megan A. Curran, the policy director at the Center on Poverty and Social Policy at Columbia University, told Newsweek that 28.3 percent, or 19.3 million children, would not see this increase and would "be left out" of the full $2,200 because "they are in families that do not earn enough to qualify for the new, higher minimum income threshold requirements." Under the new policy, a two-adult, two-child family would need to earn $41,500 to get the full $2,200 credit, Curran said. Under the current policy, a family of that size needs annual earnings of $36,000 to receive the full $2,000. "It will also ultimately be much worse for these children because not only do they see no gains from the CTC in this bill, but they are the same children who are now at high risk of losing their health care and food assistance," such as Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program benefits and school meals, Curran said. While the expanded CTC approved in the bill is higher, Curran said that even families who receive the full temporary increase are "unlikely to feel it in reality because the CTC has lost value since it was established as $2,000 back at the end of 2017." "In order to keep up with inflation, the CTC would need to be about $2,500 today in order to maintain its real value from 2017/2018," she said. "Because it is only raised now to $2,200, this means that what is being passed is actually less generous than what was originally passed in the Tax Cuts and Jobs Act as it is smaller in real terms than the original $2,000 credit was then." What Happens Next The CTC boost is temporary and expires in 2028 unless lawmakers extend it. At that point, it would drop back down to $2,000 and be indexed to inflation for subsequent years.
