The Council for Progress is a group of local business leaders and movers & shakers in Cape Coral.
The Council for Progress voted unanimously at their Friday monthly meeting to form a task force for a 90 day period to look into possible options and funding sources to help preserve the former golf course property.
I have pasted an article about the Council for Progress below.
It was heralded as an agreement 15 years in the making.
“This
is a very historic day,” announced Council for Progress Executive
Director Joe Mazurkiewicz. “We officially become the thing we set out to
be.”
The
“thing” Mazurkiewicz referenced was an organization involved in a true
partnership between some of the brightest business minds in the city and
Cape Coral’s Economic Development Office.
Early
this past Friday morning in a conference room at the Hampton Inn in
South Cape Coral, Council for Progress chairperson David Owen put his
name on a Memorandum of Understanding between the organization and the
city effectively beginning a partnership between the two groups for the
next two years.
The
goal of the agreement is to recruit new businesses to the city and
create a long-term positive economic impact for Cape Coral. They hope to
attain that goal by utilizing some of the brightest business minds in
the city, “I see a lot of opportunities that we have not been able to
use before,” said MerriBeth Farnham, owner of HDPR Group, the local
agency tasked with marketing the city’s Economic Development Office.
The
basic framework of the agreement will work much in the same way the
Horizon Council has worked with Lee County in promoting the area and
recruiting new businesses.
The
Council for Progress, for its part, will contribute a minimum of
$34,000 per year to the city. All of the money contributed will be used
for business recruitment and marketing. The organization will also play a
major role in meeting with companies targeted by the Economic
Development Office for possible relocation to Cape Coral, “It will be
extremely beneficial for us to have like businesses meeting with those
we are trying to recruit to our city,” explained Cape Coral Economic
Development Director Dana Brunett.
In
addition, Council for Progress members will also assist the city in
developing marketing strategies to promote Cape Coral as a destination
for companies worldwide.
In
return for the group’s efforts, the city will contribute $17,000 which
will be used along with the Council for Progress’ contribution to market
the city and recruit new businesses.
With
a current annual budget of less than $500,000, the additional funds
coming from the organization will certainly help the city in recruiting
new business. However, it is the resources the Council for Progress
members provide to the process that has Brunett excited, “We have
amazing talent right here in our own backyard. This agreement allows us
to better tap those resources for the benefit of not just those involved
but the entire city.”
Mazurkiewicz,
has been the Executive Director of the organization since 1998, and
says with the added exposure and influence the agreement brings he
expects to see an increase in membership, which is currently around 100,
“Our members now have a unique opportunity to have a direct impact on
the direction of our city’s economic growth. I can see a number of local
business people wanting to be part of that.”
According
to Brunett, having those who have successfully created and maintained
businesses in Cape Coral, is a tool in the toolbox that will go a long
way in finally moving the needle in the city’s quest to lighten the tax
burden of its residents.
“We
want to position ourselves to be leaders in the community working
together to bring new businesses to the city. If we are able to
accomplish that, it will be a benefit to the entire city. This agreement
is a major step toward that goal.”
