Business View Civil Municipal - July 2023

88 CIVIL AND MUNICIPAL VOLUME 4, ISSUE 7 city’s future anticipated growth. “Right now, we see the commercial growth opportunities mainly in the northern part of Cape Coral,” Yearsley states. “The city owns over 300 acres there that we are looking to develop and create a job center there.” “On the northeast side, we have an additional 180 acres, which is Academic Village where we are also working to create a job center and workforce housing, and we see those areas as our primary opportunity to bring in larger companies,” Yearsley predicts. Yearsley highlights that the primary sectors of focus for Cape Coral have been, up until now, construction, healthcare, and retail; however, the city is looking to diversify. “The city has been very aggressive and putting together incentive programs to look at some areas that we believe will be high growth areas like technology, professional series, and manufacturing.” Yearsley notes that Increasing the room for manufacturing companies to move into the area remains a top focus, as well as a push towards additional mixed-use construction through structured city programs. Companies that have decided to call Cape Coral home and are in the process of expanding their operations include ABC Supply and Roofing and Ecological Labs, Insight Solutions, and Lee Health. To promote this commercial push, the city has turned to valuable partners ranging from the Horizon Foundation to the Small Business Development Center and the local Chamber of Commerce. “These are all great partners, and we