Ginger Barber, executive director of the Baker County Chamber of Commerce and the county Development Commission, pulled a worn, yellowed and well-used set of plans from a shelf in her office and flipped open the Economic Development Strategy for Baker County to Section V.
This was surprising because a lot of so-called strategic plans have long gathered dust on the shelves of area government offices, not to mention that newer officials might not even know the plans exist.
Not Barber. She helped to write some of those plans when she was hired almost 20 years ago. "It is scary to think if we hadn't written that where we'd be today," she said.
Her job is to follow that plan and recruit industry to Baker County, and I mean industry. "My job is to turn agricultural land into industrial land," she said. While high-rise office buildings or high-tech call centers might be nice, Barber realizes that manufacturing plants and distribution centers are more realistic.
Her goal, which she has doggedly pursued for two decades, is to make sure that Baker County, Duval's rural western neighbor, is positioned competitively in the region to do what it does best.
"Ninety percent of the companies looking at Jacksonville would not locate here," Barber said from Macclenny, the 5,000-resident county seat of Baker, the smallest of the region's seven counties with a population of about 24,000, median household income of $40,000 and a labor force nearing 10,000. Those companies typically want access to major medical centers, colleges or businesses similar to theirs, or they want to move into an existing building.
Barber wants that other 10 percent, and she's getting some of it. "We have raw land, ready to go, with infrastructure in place," she said. Wal-Mart Stores Inc. opened a distribution center in 2002, already exceeding its projected 600 jobs. The 935-job, 100-acre food-distribution center dominates Enterprise East, one of the development commission's two industrial parks. Last month, Hanson Roof Tile committed to build a $24 million manufacturing plant on about 15 acres in Enterprise West, in nearby Sanderson. The plant should grow to 70 or 80 jobs.
Barber explains that Baker County attracts industry because it's along Interstate 10 near major interchanges, including I-95, I-75 and U.S. 90. Baker seeks companies, such as manufacturers, that will invest a lot of their own money into their plants, which makes it less likely that they would pick up and leave.
Dylan Walters, Hanson's executive vice president, said Baker County fits his bill because of transportation access to Florida customers and suppliers. Hanson found Baker through a link at the Jacksonville Regional Chamber of Commerce Web site. He considers the offered incentives, which include state assistance, partial county tax breaks for 10 years and free land, as "an added bonus."
Wal-Mart and other industry, like Sanderson Pipe Corp., end up paying their way and constituting a nifty percentage of the county's ad valorem taxes, Barber said. They also provide jobs. Wal-Mart already is the No. 2 employer in the county.
Like much of Florida, Baker is planning for strong residential growth, but Barber is laser-focused on lining up more industrial land to lure more tax-paying companies to the county. She'd like to find 100 to 200 acres, or "as much as we can afford."
Barber also said that more companies, like Hanson, are finding the county through the bakerchamberfl.com Web site. Not surprisingly, she had a strong hand in writing that, too.