Duke Energy’s Site Readiness Program selects 3 Florida sites

Three Florida properties have been selected to participate in Duke Energy’s Site Readiness Program, which has led to £127.6 million in investment and 165 jobs during the last seven years.

The new sites are Tropicana Field Site in Pinellas County; 472 Properties in Volusia County; and Frostproof Business Park Site in Polk County. The Site Readiness Program will prepare these new sites for targeted commercial and industrial development to attract future capital investment, a statement says. 

Since 2013, Duke Energy has selected 34 high-quality industrial sites in Florida to participate in the program, it adds, explaining that it works with site owners, local economic development professionals, and county and city officials to identify each participating property's current status and develop a strategy for providing water, sewer, natural gas and electricity needed for development.

"I like to think of our Site Readiness Program as planting the seeds of success," says Catherine Stempien, president of Duke Energy Florida. "The Site Readiness Program plants the seeds for communities to cultivate by implementing the consultants' recommendations and investing in the readiness of their sites. After seven years of planting seeds across Florida, we are harvesting fruit. These new sites after going through the Duke Energy program will be the seeds that our communities can cultivate so that tomorrow we can harvest again."

The company adds that it worked with major site selection firms to evaluate each property. The consultants include Global Location Strategies of Greenville, S.C., Site Selection Group of Dallas, Texas, and Ardurra of Tampa, Fla., for engineering services. 

Once evaluations are complete, materials highlighting the property's attributes are used by Duke Energy's business recruitment team to help strategically market the sites nationwide for companies looking to expand or relocate their operations, it says.

Site Summaries

• Tropicana Field Site (Pinellas County):

Spanning 86 acres of publicly owned land in the middle of downtown St. Petersburg and adjacent to I-275, the Tropicana Field site represents a development opportunity with existing infrastructure available for a large-scale master development.

"The Tropicana Field Redevelopment project is a once-in-a-generation opportunity to shape the future of St. Petersburg," said Alan DeLisle, city development administrator for St. Petersburg. 

"Recognised as one of America's fastest-growing cities and named one of the top places to start and grow a business, St. Pete's economic indicators strengthen each year. The Duke Energy Site Readiness Program helped the city identify the site's physical, workforce and economic strengths, so we could properly convey them to the development community as part of our RFP process. The Tropicana Field site presents endless possibilities to take this city on the rise to the next level."

• 472 Properties (Volusia County):

A group of properties totalling more than 640 acres at the interchange of Interstate 4 and State Road 472. The site is a prime location for the rapidly growing logistics and distribution industry and offers a large and well-suited workforce.

"Team Volusia was excited about the opportunity to once again work with Duke Energy on its Site Readiness Program," said Keith Norden, president & CEO, Team Volusia Economic Development Corp. "The 472 interchange properties represent a tremendous opportunity for growth in the West Volusia area and with the feedback from SSG, Team Volusia is poised to position the area for development opportunities in food manufacturing, light assembly, professional services, distribution and warehousing.”

• Frostproof Business Park Site (Polk County):

The Frostproof Business Park is 225 acres with two separate large contiguous, buildable sites of 115 and 90 acres. This site is located adjacent to State Road 17 and 3 miles east of U.S. Highway 27 near Nucor Corporation's recently announced micro-mill steel rebar facility. A labour force of more than 277,000 is within 45 minutes of the site.

"The Central Florida Development Council has had the pleasure of partnering with Duke Energy's economic development team on several Polk County sites identified as prime candidates for their Site Readiness Program," said Jennifer Taylor, vice president business development of the Central Florida Development Council.

"The Frostproof site is made up of 200 acres of rail-served land nestled between two major distribution centres – Lowe's and Ferguson’s."