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As many of you know Olympia Marketing is based in Estero Florida – which is inside of Lee County. We’re proud to be in this area and have been here for a considerable time. Some might call it a LONG time! We’ve seen the area grow from nothing more than cow pastures, to a budding metropolis.
This last year Olympia has been honored to work with the Engage Estero community organization and is working towards a number of major initiatives for Estero & Lee County. We’ll be debuting those projects when the time is right – and we’re very excited to be giving back to the community that gave birth to us – however, this blog post is a summation of some of the interesting findings we’ve learned about Estero & Lee County along the way as well as some of our more concerning thoughts and obvservations about the economy generally, and specifically to the area.
Thank you to Engage Estero for putting together this page and content around the history of Estero housing. Back in 1997
the Estero Fire District conducted a survey of all structures in Estero and found about 4,600 housing units of all types, many of them mobile homes. The building boom started in 1998, as the airport, Florida Gulf Coast University and Miromar Outlets began attracting residential development to the area. There were 550 housing units built in 1998; the following year, 1999, that number more than doubled to 1,150. By the end of the 20th century, the total number of housing units in Estero was about 6,300.
Today Estero has 38,000 active residents with another 20,000+ units under construction out in East Lee County. A total of explosion of 10x in the last 25 years, and another planned doubling in the next 5 years (if those units can be sold).
Lee County more broadly has seen similar (albeit less pronounced) growth in the same time period.
So let’s get to the meat of this blog post.
As a part of our recent project we were tasked with doing some research on the local businesses in the region and the likelihood a particular project would get funding (supported through non-tax deductible donations). We found a few interesting pieces of information and resources. FGCU has kept a cool running list of the top 100 employers in the region for sometime. If one sorts for only lee county this is what you find:
Notable Highlights
Lee Health – a non-profit employs almost 10x the employees as FGCU (this is going to be important when we come back to some things). It’s fascinating they’ve remained a non-profit and that lee county’s largest employer is a non-profit I had never realized this having lived and worked here for 30+ years. Also, the size and power healthcare systems like this have in local communities is unbelievable (especially since the COVID grift). As someone that’s studied health, wellness, fitness, nutrition, at both the mainstream and the more fringe level – these systems are complete criminals in how they operate. On the other hand, with our retirement focus as a region – this does make sense (at least economically).
Government – Roughly 20% of the top 25 employers are government and they make up the largest single sector of employers/employees for all of lee county – I suspect this is the case for ALL organizations with the exception of sole proprietors or VERY small businesses (IE individual consultants, people that run a business with just one or two employees besides themselves, etc.).
70,000 Totally Employed – The total of the top 25 employers is roughly 70,000. With an employed population of 300,000+ in lee county, this means roughly a quarter of a million people are employed by companies outside this list, in other areas – or small local businesses.
Little Outside Dollars – With a few exceptions (which I’ll document below) even in the top 25 companies, there are very few that bring in outside dollars to the community. Based on my own quick assumptions it looks like only 6 (or 24% of the companies or only 16% of the jobs) concentrate in anyway on bringing outside dollars into the region, to local companies. Instead, most of the industry here is to cannabalize our existing retiree base (IE primarily a low-income service economy that maintains light entertainment, services, restaurants, etc.).
Chicos – a locally operated public firm is a great example of (although its clearly a dying a company) the kinds of companies we need in the region who bring outside wealth into the region.
Hertz & Herc – Similar to the above. But, bringing Hertz was clearly a disaster for Lee County in terms of return on investment. The Hertz building is currently 90% unoccupied, hertz has (and will even more) struggle. Herc on the other hand seems like a great business and had no idea more people are employed there than in Hertz proper.
Gartner – Similar to Chicos in terms of outside production. We should be working to attract more large businesses like this to the region if we’re going to transform (which is the next section).
Southwest Florida has been a hodgepodge of cheap land and lack of vision or will from a developmental stand point. The region has grown steadily in part due to large macro-factors in the economy relating to housing (IE the huge housing boom of the mid 2000s). Covid, similarly spurned massive growth – in part because the region was EXCEPTIONALLY AGAINST LOCKDOWN MEASURES (as everyone should have been). I’d estimate we have one of the highest unvaccinated rates in the country as well – which is going to bode well for our future.
With that said, there’s never been a clear growth plan. Many have been talking for 20+ years at the county government level about the real issues with the regions and what shifting demographics will mean. Many at the local Chamber & EDC level have basically said… “it sure would be great if we had more… tech companies.” The “greatest generation” who really settled most of Florida – especially these retirement communities that litter Southwest Florida, have virtually all died out. And the Boomers have taken up the mantle of continuing to uphold Florida as the United States’ pre-eminent retirement destination.
However, less well known is that Florida actually doesn’t have many hospice or end of life care facilities when it comes to other states. In fact FLORIDA ISN’T EVEN IN THE TOP 10 in END OF LIFECARE/HOSPICE facilities. Here’s a great massive research piece on the top states for hospice, etc.
Top 10 Hospice/End of Life Care Facility States:
For 4 generations now South Florida in particular has been considered a retirement community. If Miami spun that into (through its international connections, the atlantic, large ports, and widespread fraud) a larger vision – South WEST Florida – has continued to quietly cling to this even as other areas around it grow (we often pretend this isn’t the case, but it’s still the only thing supporting this community). Here’s a list of the major problems I see with southwest Florida and why that may spell disaster in the next few years:
In my next post on this continuing research project I’ll go through the future and what are some things I see we can actively work towards, due, or attract as a region as we head into the second generation of the new millenium.