Lakeland Economic Development Council Inc

What it reported doing in 2024

Development activity as has been the trend over our 40-year history, existing industry expansions breed the most opportunity for job growth and capital investment, especially in more economically turbulent times. This year existing industry introduced over 500m in capital investment projects to be completed over the next 5 years including the publix downtown technology campus, pictured right. From manufacturing to office to distribution, our targeted industry clusters continue to create jobs and opportunity for our community. Lakeland's central location and access to major highways, seaports, and rail continue to make it a leading industrial hub. Because of this, we've enjoyed low vacancy rates around 6% in our existing buildings. To meet demand for space, developers continue to invest in speculative industrial buildings, attracting both new and established businesses. In 2024, three major speculative projects totaling 1.4 million sf either opened or began construction. Lakeland international airport's (lal) 70+ businesses now employ over 3,000. Lal is currently the 3rd largest cargo airport in Florida, largely due to amazon air. Passenger service returned to lal with the launch of avelo airlines flights this summer from lakeland to new haven, ct. Due to the immediate success of these flights, avelo added 7 new destinations this fall and will be adding a 9th in march 2025. Twenty-two high skill high wage investors traveled to pittsburgh, pa april 8-12th. City visits focus on high skill high wage jobs, higher education, health care, downtown development and redevelopment, and entrepreneurship. The goal is to bring best practices back to lakeland. Highlights of the pittsburgh trip include: 1) graduate medical education - lakeland regional recently welcomed their 2nd gme class, 69 new residents, to lakeland this summer. Upmc & allegheny health, two of the largest health care networks in the country, employ over 2,500 residents in their hospitals. Our discussions focused on recruiting and retaining these residents in our community once they have completed their residency programs. 2) robotics & autonomous vehicles (av) - lakeland has a large concentration of manufacturing and warehouse operations but to compete in the future, many of them will need to adapt to ai, robotics and automation. Polk county is also home to suntrax, where research, development and testing of emerging transportation technologies occurs. We learned best practices from experts at carnegie mellon university, ground zero for robotics and autonomous vehicle research. We also met with two of the largest autonomous vehicle companies in the world, who have pivoted their research and av implementation from cars to freight. This has many applications for our manufacturers and logistics companies. 3) development & redevelopment - pittsburgh's downtown has struggled to recover from the pandemic, primarily due to its outsized focus on office with very little residential in the core. By contrast, the nearby strip district thrives with a balanced mix of office, retail, restaurants, entertainment, and residential spaces. With its scale (size of area, building height, architecture, etc.) resembling downtown lakeland, the strip district developers and community leaders provided valuable insights and best practices to implement in lakeland.

Financial Efficiency

• Mission deployment rate: 61.2%; rating input score 61
• Program expense ratio: 67.6%; rating input score 68
• Fundraising efficiency: Limited

Transparency & Controls

• Consistency checks: 100%; rating input score 100; 63rd percentile among comparable filings
• Pay-setting controls: 0 of 6 controls in place; rating input score 0
  • Compensation committee: Missing
  • Independent consultant: Missing
  • Other Form 990s reviewed: Missing
  • Written employment contract: Missing
  • Compensation survey or study: Missing
  • Board or committee approval: Missing
• Foreign activity oversight: Limited
• Grant itemization coverage: Limited
• Major donor itemization: Limited
• Related-party transparency: Limited

Accountability

• Independent voting board: 100%; rating input score 100; 63rd percentile among comparable filings
• Governance controls: 6 of 9 controls in place; rating input score 67
  • Conflict-of-interest policy: Pass
  • Whistleblower policy: Pass
  • Document-retention policy: Pass
  • CEO compensation review process: Pass
  • Other executive compensation review process: Fail
  • Form 990 shared with the board: Pass
  • Board meeting minutes documented: Pass
  • Audit committee oversight: Missing
  • Independent financial-statement audit: Fail

Sustainability

• Operating margin: 12.6%; rating input score 66; 66th percentile among comparable filings
• Total-asset coverage ratio: 1.38; rating input score 53; 53rd percentile among comparable filings
• Liabilities to assets ratio: 0.14; rating input score 37; 37th percentile among comparable filings
• Officer compensation ratio: 58.8%; rating input score 1; 1st percentile among comparable filings

Growth

• Program expense growth: 2.2% per year; rating input score 100; 27th percentile among comparable filings
• Revenue growth: 3.9% per year; rating input score 100; 36th percentile among comparable filings
• Asset growth: 12% per year; rating input score 100; 65th percentile among comparable filings