David Rodriguez may be the new economic development director for the City of Kissimmee, but he is not new to the region. He has previously held the top economic development spots for both the City of St. Cloud and, most recently, Osceola County government.
“Of course, I want to diversify the economy for the city, focus on attracting businesses, and support our current businesses,” said Rodriguez.
As the director, Rodriguez leads the city’s Economic Development Department, and his team also administers the city’s two Community Redevelopment Agency (CRA) areas, including the Downtown Kissimmee CRA and the Vine Street CRA.
Rodriguez said he feels one of the keys to attracting the right kind of business activity is workforce development, in order to ensure businesses have a ready source of trained potential employees so a business can become operational as quickly as possible.
“I want to attract additional educational institutions, and other sources of career training into the city,” said Rodriguez.
One of his other goals is to see more public/private projects, also known as “P3s,” in order to have more intensive investment and development and to create an active “catalog” of properties and opportunities available for future business development. The city’s acquisition of the former Kmart plaza in the Vine Street CRA and recent advertisement for a developer is an example of a P3.
Another opportunity Rodriguez said he sees is to encourage the trend of redevelopment of underutilized properties in the city, called urban infill, that create mixed-use projects and increase economic density wherever possible. An example of this is the rededication of the property that was used for the historic and iconic Makinson Hardware store, located on Main Street in downtown Kissimmee. It transitioned into the 1881 restaurant when the Makinson family decided to close their hardware store’s doors.
Rodriguez also recognizes the city-owned Kissimmee Airport as a current and future hub for economic development activity, both aviation-related as well as available adjacent industrial sites.
“Few communities have an airport attached, so that is a transportation asset as well as an opportunity for high-impact development,” said Rodriguez.
He also stressed that he wants to hear ideas from businesses and the community and to really have economic development serving the community.
For more information on the city’s Economic Development Department, visit https://bit. ly/3Ve2vBl.
