Lake County awards new Tavares-based company with business assistance incentive

TAVARES — The Lake County Board of County Commissioners approved at its meeting Tuesday a $25,000 incentive from its Business Assistance Program to help with the relocation of Progressive Aerodyne, Inc. to Tavares.

The seaplane manufacturing company is proposing to add 12 new jobs in Lake County, 10 of which exceed or meet the Business Assistance Program’s wage requirements of 115 percent of the average annual wage of Lake County. It is estimated the company relocating to Lake County will have an overall economic impact of $11.8 million annually.

“The City of Tavares has been working with this company for well over a year to entice them to move to Lake County,” said Dottie Keedy, Director of the Lake County Department of Economic Growth & Redevelopment. “The request will be to offset the cost of moving their facility from Orange County to Lake County. The total cost of moving is over $79,000, and the reimbursement program we have in place will pay up to $25,000.”

The purpose of Lake County’s Business Assistance Program is to encourage the location or expansion of targeted industry businesses. The incentive for qualifying companies helps to offset development costs, such as building permit fees, impact fees or infrastructure costs. Staff recommended including moving expenses as an allowable business development cost. This would enable Lake County to offer incentives to this company and provide for the creation of high-wage, high-value jobs.

“We’ve put $4.5 million into this program to construct the infrastructure for seaplanes,” said Tavares City Administrator John Drury. “Without the citizens of Tavares and the City Council putting that $4.5 million into our new seaplane base, virtual runway and refueling facility, this company never would have come to Lake County.”

For more information about the Lake County Department of Economic Growth & Redevelopment, call (352) 343-9866 or log on to http://egr.lakecountyfl.gov.