March 2017 | Business View Magazine

110 111 Palm Bay, Florida and the future looked bright for Palm Bay. Like so many other American cities, the housing crisis of 2008 dealt a blow to Palm Bay’s econo- my. “The two main drivers of the economy were the Kennedy Space Center’s shuttle program and construction,” says Andy Anderson, Palm Bay’s Director of Economic Development and External Affairs. “We were hit pretty hard during the Recession. The shuttle program went out of business at the same time as the housing bubble hit, so we had a double whammy and we were hurting. Up until the bubble hit, our economy was a successful residential develop- ment-based economy and the city had set aside very little in the way of commercial property. It is very difficult to sustain a city on residential taxes, alone.” That was particularly true in Palm Bay, which experienced one of the state’s high- est foreclosure rates. “About two years ago, there was a change in leadership, with a new City Council and a new City Manager,” says Anderson. “They brought me in along with other growth and development specialists to help repair the damage.”The team Anderson referred to is Bayfront Community Redevelopment Agency Administrator, James Marshal and Stuart Buchanan, Palm Bay’s Direc- tor of Growth Management. “We went to work right away, changing ordinances, getting some of our properties re-zoned and adjusted to make it easier to increase our commercial base. With those changes, we now have some very large projects in the works,”Anderson explains. “We have increased our percentage of com- mercial building permits,” says Buchanan, picking up where Anderson left off. “Last year, we issued $155 million in building permits – about 18 percent of those permits were commercial. This year, we’re on track to issue $185 million worth of building permits with about 30 percent com- mercial.We have a number of regional builders that are either building here or look- ing to purchase subdivisions to build here.” “The new builders are pri- marily focused on two areas of the city,”Anderson adds. “Our biggest area of interest