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Biotech institute considers Tallahassee for new facility


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There is also not much to talk about. We do not know what kind of package this company is looking for and what we are offering. We have already talking about what a tech company coming to tallahasse will bring in the turbocorp thread. No need to rehash it here.

Completely different kinds of companies. One is a true research company, Torrey Pines, with NIH grants, etc.....the other has some advanced airconditioning, but it is not true reearch. True research is where the real economic action is.

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Good find BCH. Wow Boca out, us still in....great news. Did you notice in that article how after Boca was out, they sorta "dissed" the company?? Sure Boca offer them millions in incentives and then say after losing "they weren't that great after all." :huh:

PSL's advantage over us is their location to bigger airports and more importantly Scripps that will be in Jupiter and whatever cluster firms that deal brings w/it. They also got an original letter of intent from TP, but I'm unclear whether or not we were really in the running at that time since a past Boca News article said we/Tally made an 11th hour proposal.

When did we get into the race?

Our benefit is FSU, a much more educated community and the ability for them to start working at FSU labs almost immediately.

Here's an interesting few lines from that long article:

After the Aug. 22last Tuesday's commission meeting, Houghten drove to Port St. Lucie where he quickly signed a non-binding letter of intent to bring Torrey Pines there. On Thursday, he traveled to Tallahassee where he toured the capital and Florida State University and received a second letter of intent.

"Both proposals are substantially better than Palm Beach County's. The people were very proactive, very clear," he said. "It's a head-scratcher. We got farther in two weeks than we could in two months (in Palm Beach County)."

Port St. Lucie and Tallahassee have competitive offers, Houghten said. But neither proposal has been outlined publicly.

I checked the Democrat just now to see if they were running one of their spoilers about this, but nothing..nadda. They better run a story about it tomorrow that Boca is out, we are still in and a major decision will be made on Friday.

Cross your fingers everyone.!

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Great find BHCav! I'm going to forward this to the Tallahassee Democrat. Hopefully they'll get it in time to include it in tomorrow's paper.

I just called the Tallahassee Democrat and spoke to Ken Nichols about the release. He tells me the story was run on the wire and will be printed in tomorrow's Tallahassee Democrat. He was rude.

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I get that good feeling that Bill Law isn't going to let up on this one. There is a degree of comfort I have in that man, and I'm not sure why. Wether we get the institute or not, Tallahassee has definately stepped up. The fact that an offer from us can beat out an offer from PBC sends a strong message that we may have turned the corner with regard to our business friendly climate. :thumbsup:

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This definitely is NOT all that counts, but for fun here's some info. from the U.S. Census data from 2000:

St. Lucie County

High school graduates, percent of persons age 25+, 2000 77.7% State Average79.9%

Bachelor's degree or higher, pct of persons age 25+, 2000 15.1% State Average22.3%

Leon County

High school graduates, percent of persons age 25+, 2000 89.1% State Average 79.9%

Bachelor's degree or higher, pct of persons age 25+, 2000 41.7% State Average 22.3%

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Tallahassee vs Port St Lucie

MapofFL.jpg

City=====County=====Median Age

Port St Lucie 131692-----241305---------40.9

Tallahassee 141198-----245756---------31.8

Source: Census.gov 2005

The numbers are off for both cities, but they come from the same source so they're fair. As you can see, simply based on US Census information, Tallahassee has a stronger city and county population and a younger workforce to support this institute. Not that this is a deciding factor, I don't really know, but I'm sure there are far more 30 year old fresh minds willing to work for much less than 40 somethings in Port St. Lucie. I would have loved to get a cost of living index for each city, but I've forgotten where to locate that information. If I had to bet, I would guess its also more expensive to live in Port St. Lucie than it is in Tallahassee.

Current Lowest Gas Prices:

Tallahassee: $2.54

Port St Lucie: $2.84

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Here's a link to info. on what the deal is in PSL for T.P. Keep in mind this article was written before the Tally proposal (whatever that is) and before Boca's 2nd offer. It's got a shot of the site they are offering plus a pic of their prez. The City of PSL gave TP's prez's wife and daughter flowers. Maybe we can get Commissioner Jane Sauls to round up the gals out in Ft. Braden and make them a quilt? Or maybe Bob R. could offer them his prized earring? :P

Also our old buddy Frank Brogan is part of PSL's deal.

PSL Offer

Here's more about the community in which the PSL site is located. It looks a little different than Orange Ave.

Traditions

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I am sorry but the attitude coming from Boca is typical. They may be considered the richest city in the State by some, but even if I was the richest person in the world, I would not live there again. Beautiful City but NOT beautiful people. I dont blame Biotech for not wanting to move there.

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Here's a link to info. on what the deal is in PSL for T.P. Keep in mind this article was written before the Tally proposal (whatever that is) and before Boca's 2nd offer. It's got a shot of the site they are offering plus a pic of their prez. The City of PSL gave TP's prez's wife and daughter flowers. Maybe we can get Commissioner Jane Sauls to round up the gals out in Ft. Braden and make them a quilt? Or maybe Bob R. could offer them his prized earring? :P

Also our old buddy Frank Brogan is part of PSL's deal.

PSL Offer

Here's more about the community in which the PSL site is located. It looks a little different than Orange Ave.

Traditions

Traditions may be a little more tempting due to location, etc, than Tallahassee.

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Great find BHCav! I'm going to forward this to the Tallahassee Democrat. Hopefully they'll get it in time to include it in tomorrow's paper.

I just called the Tallahassee Democrat and spoke to Ken Nichols about the release. He tells me the story was run on the wire and will be printed in tomorrow's Tallahassee Democrat. He was rude.

Did I miss the full story in the Democrat today as promised by the rude guy? Or was it just in "briefs" which I could not find either. If you've seen it let me know please.

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I'm not so sure. Tallahassee has its locational advantages also. Sure we're not as close to South Florida and Disney, our location makes us a shorter trip to other states by car. If we could lure this institute, it may also help us to bring in some direct flights to the far west coast.

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Traditions may be a little more tempting due to location, etc, than Tallahassee.

I was thinking this too. Local officials should have seen PSL's proposed site, it's been disclosed for a few weeks now, and maybe worked w/St. Joe for a sweet parcel of land in or adjacent to Southwood to better compete w/the PSL location.

Also geography may be our enemy b/c the PSL site is very close to the new Scripps site and closer than us to the Burnham site in Orlando.

But I'm still hoping........

I'd like to suggest turning the polluting City's Southeast Farms on Tram road in a research park especially if St. Joe could kick in some extra land. Great location for something like that.

On a side note: St. Lucie County is very odd to me b/c after living for years where it's I-95 first (east) and then the Turnpike next (more west) it's completely backwards there. That always confuses me when I'm there. :)

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Did I miss the full story in the Democrat today as promised by the rude guy? Or was it just in "briefs" which I could not find either. If you've seen it let me know please.

IMO, the print edition of today's "Democrat" did an awful job with this story. All they did is run the same AP wire version that we've all seen & then they buried it in the middle of page 3B. No local spin on this story at all. I would have thought something of this magnitude would have at least made page 1 of the Local or Business sections if not the Front page itself! It's almost as if it was an afterthought. Very poor coverage by the "Democrap" for something that could mean so much for our market. :angry:

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IMO, the print edition of today's "Democrat" did an awful job with this story. All they did is run the same AP wire version that we've all seen & then they buried it in the middle of page 3B. No local spin on this story at all. I would have thought something of this magnitude would have at least made page 1 of the Local or Business sections if not the Front page itself! It's almost as if it was an afterthought. Very poor coverage by the "Democrap" for something that could mean so much for our market. :angry:

I agree. When I called the news room last night it was as if the editor didn't want me telling him what to put in his news paper. I'm not at all surprised at where this story landed.

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Amen Glenn tell it like it is!! Shame on the Democrat, but thanks for letting me know what was and was NOT in the hard copy. I still can't find nothing on it on the website.

The Palm Beach Post ran the story even w/all Ernesto stuff going on (or not on) down there. I guess the on again off again story of the Wally-mart on North Monroe was about all they could handle at the Democrat today.

I just sent the editor/publisher of the Democrat a respectful, but yet slightly "nasty-gram" about their lack of a story on TP today.

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The area missed the boat on a research park long ago....a last minute pitch at a hypothetical park won't cut it for TP. I hear the local govt $$$ offer won't be enough to bring in TP. Let's hope that is wrong.

Did your "rumour mill" tell you what that offer was?

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I was thinking this too. Local officials should have seen PSL's proposed site, it's been disclosed for a few weeks now, and maybe worked w/St. Joe for a sweet parcel of land in or adjacent to Southwood to better compete w/the PSL location.

Exactly. St Lucie is a beautiful area. Its a very tempting place to want to move. Tropical, close to many places, spring training, etc. Plus....it has PALM TREES. :thumbsup:

Good to hear from you again Glenn

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Exactly. St Lucie is a beautiful area. Its a very tempting place to want to move. Tropical, close to many places, spring training, etc. Plus....it has PALM TREES. :thumbsup:

The sweet seduction of the Palm Tree. :D If that's all it took for me, I'd never have left Boca or Lauderdale.

For me the toughest part of this should we lose it, is losing it to PSL. Orlando or Boca I could have handled better, but PSL..ugh...as a South Floridian, I was never a fan of the place. There was too much sprawl, just a series of one gated community after another w/out the real essence of a city, Ft. Pierce next door(ever been there?), the Mt. Broward type trash dump next to the interstate, the bad smell of the orange juice processing plants, the under-educated work force etc. I'm not bashing the place, I do like Hutchinson Island and the new PSL West development, but I do prefer Tally over PSL... palm trees and all.

If a place like PSL and St. Lucie County can get their act together and win something like TP, then Tally needs to kick it in gear and do that also.

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The city is talking about the TP opportunity at the same time that I'm writing this post. TP loves our quality of life and Tallahassee's universities. Dr. Law is really pushing for this project and has been contacting TP on a daily basis.

Dr. Law has indicated that our earlier proposal to TP was close but still unacceptable, TP wants us to make some adjustments and try again. TP has a spending budget of up to $250 million dollars, and the ability to spin-off 10 new starter companies.

Mayor Marks says this in an opportunity to capitalize on the intellect that's in our community. He seems to be the most excited about bringing this opportunity to Tallahassee.

More updates on Friday.

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^Exciting news Seminole and the most valid information I've heard so far.

Sounds like TP is trying to hand this to us, if we'd just listen and follow through. Thank goodness for Dr. Law!!!!!

Mayor Marks just got my vote (I was planning to anyway) b/c of what you said. What do you mean he seems the most excited? What's wrong w/these people?? They ALL should be jumping up and down, working 24/7 on this project and do whatever it take to make it happen. Hell, Debbie should vow to quit smoking if they come to town. :)

Seminole's news above got me to fire off a short and simple letter to show support for bring TP to town to all the City Commissioners.

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