Lake County Office of Economic Development & Tourism connecting with local businesses

TAVARES – As part of a new initiative aimed at enhancing relations with local businesses, the Lake County Office of Economic Development & Tourism is encouraging local businesses to schedule site visits in an effort to facilitate effective solutions to the challenges they face when doing business.

These site visits, conducted by the office’s regional economic development coordinators, will enable the county to learn as much as possible about local businesses, while informing them about various programs and incentives that could be beneficial to them. Since October 2011, the office has conducted over 200 site visits throughout the county.

To schedule a site visit, businesses can contact the regional economic development coordinator in the business’ region, or call the Economic Development & Tourism office at 352-742-3918. The economic development coordinators by region are:

• Robert Chandler (Region 1) – Robert covers the northeast region, which includes Astatula, Astor, Howey-in-the-Hills, Eustis, Mount Dora, Paisley, Tavares and Umatilla. He can be reached at 352-742-3923 or email [email protected].

• Adam Sumner, CEcD (Region 2) - Sumner targets the northwest region of the County to include Fruitland Park, Lady Lake and Leesburg. He can be reached at 352-742-3904 or email [email protected].

• Cecilia Smith (Region 3) - Smith handles the south region of the County which encompasses Clermont, Groveland, Mascotte, Minneola and Montverde. She can be reached at 352-742-3920 or email [email protected].

All businesses are eligible to participate. Site visits are typically informal and take 30 to 90 minutes to complete, depending on the needs of the business. In some cases, the site visit is merely an introduction to the county’s Economic Development staff, while other site visits will include a tour of the facility and a demonstration of its products or services.

For more information about the program, or to schedule a site visit, call the Lake County Office of Economic Development & Tourism at 352-742-3918.