Kissimmee, Florida

hospitals grow, but smaller practices have also grown and flourished.” In fact, since the inception of the Kissimmee Medical Arts District, dozens of new medical companies have opened their doors, and this 1 square mile medical district has over 4,000 medical jobs. The district is the third-largest medical cluster in Central Florida. The aerospace sector is centered around the Kissimmee Gateway Airport. “Kissimmee has its own general aviation airport,” says Kirkegard. “It’s the closest airport to the theme parks and the Orange County Convention Center, so when corporations and individuals fly in on their aircraft to go to these locations, this is the airport they use. It caters to a unique clientele..” The City’s strategy at the airport was focused on growing the aviation industry’s workforce. “For companies to want to invest and locate in the community, it needs to have a workforce,” Kirkegard avers. “So, one of the first things we did was work to attract academic aviation schools. We had a couple of different flight schools, so we worked to