St. Johns County, Florida

local and regional charities since the inception of the tournament.” Unfortunately, the PGA Tour canceled the 47th Players Championship in March 2020 after the first day of the tournament due to the COVID-19 pandemic. Nonetheless, the $15 million purse was still awarded, to be split equally among the golfers who competed. The county is also in the midst of facilitating the development of an innovation center. “We’ve attracted a co-working space to be developed in our Nocatee neighborhood, in the northeast corner of the county,” says Andrews. “We’ve provided an incentive to the developer of the project to bring it here. It’s tentatively called the Hub at Nocatee – a $6.5 million project consisting of a 22,500-square-foot office complex that will house the new location of the developer’s tech company. The developer wanted to be able to provide a co-working space and community activity center that doubles as an incubator hub to assist entrepreneurs and small businesses, because currently there is no place where tech entrepreneurs can exchange ideas and network. This will be the first of its kind in the Northeast Florida region.” Turning Crisis into Opportunity As COVID-19 turned life as we know it upside down, St. Johns County was agile in their decision making to assist their existing community and businesses at lightning speed, and also pivot future growth into new and exciting areas. Like other Florida hot spots, St. Johns County’s reliance on tourism and the subsequent impact on hospitality-related businesses was nothing less than earth shattering. “Our first focus was on the short term,” says Andrews. “In April, we worked with our industrial development authority to assist local businesses with an emergency grant program. This is before funding was available. This was the first phase, when PPP was still difficult for smaller businesses.” But they were not done there. Knowing that a Band-Aid is only a solution to a problem that already existed, the team at