The Business Source
Business Development Board of Martin County
Volume I Number 2

January, 2005

TESTIMONIALS

     Awareness Technology is a designer and manufacturer of laboratory instruments which we mostly sell into the international market. Our company grew up in Martin County. We are fortunate to have a business development board that is proactive and effective. Every time we run into a problem, the BDB provides us with answers or appropriate referrals.

   Their services came in especially handy a few years ago when we needed to expand our factory. It looked like we'd have to relocate until members of the BDB came to our rescue and helped us get through the process. They understand business and business people and appreciate the value of clean, high wage industry to the community. Their readiness to help has inspired me to help other businesses by serving as a board member of the Chamber of Commerce, the Economic Council, the Workforce Development Board, and BDB's committee to promote more exports from Martin County.

 

Mary Freeman, President
AWARENESS TECHNOLOGY, INC.

 


Inside This Issue:
  • BDB Awarded E-Award
  • Testimonials
  • Martin Trying To Make It Faster, Easier To Start Building Industrial Businesses
  • ChemWell Analyzer Wins State of Florida Recog-
    nition
  • Grant Money Available

Business Development Board of
Martin County
Awarded E-Award

    The Business Development Board of Martin County was recently awarded the U.S. Commercial Service’s Certificate of Appreciation for Achievement in Trade at a ceremony held on Tuesday, November 30, 2004. The award recognizes business development organizations and non-profits that have demonstrated their commitment to assisting companies succeed in international trade.

     For several years, the Business Development Board of Martin County has taken the initiative to extend its economic development activities to include exploration of international business interest among businesses in Martin County.

     Reaching out to the U.S. Commercial Service after an initial collaboration in September, 2001 to prepare a Presidential E Award ceremony for a Martin County exporter, the Business Development Board subsequently spearheaded an effort to conduct joint counseling with firms who have been found to have interest in exporting their products.

     The Business Development Board organized an export seminar with the US Commercial Service in recent years to introduce area companies to the many export assistance services offered by the Commercial Service and its partners, including Enterprise Florida and the World Trade Center in Palm Beach.

     The Business Development Board engaged as well in the Western Hemisphere Outlook Conference and led a number of Martin County firms to take advantage of this unique national conference held in neighboring Palm Beach County earlier this year.

     The BDB has actively recruited firms to participate in Team Florida trade missions such as the most recent one to Canada that included a Martin County firm, Palm City Designs, demonstrating the diversity of tactics to engage businesses in exporting.

     Maritime Wood Products is the latest success story resulting from the BDB’s ongoing and increasingly productive efforts to join the US Commercial Service in advancing the cause of exporting in Martin County. Maritime was introduced to the Commercial Service by the BDB, which resulted in the firm’s recent first sale to Australia.

     The BDB was applauded for its sustained and wide ranging efforts to stimulate exporting in Martin County, for arranging appointments between US Commercial Service trade specialists with Martin County firms on an ongoing basis, and for their ambitious collaboration that is producing real results.

 
 
BUSINESS ASSISTANCE GUIDE
Our Business Assistance Guide (BAG) is a free auto-run CD which contains information and links to each of our member agencies' websites and other service providers. Among the more than 130 pages, you will find help topics on finding employees, advice on work-related problems, domestic and international sales information and much more. Contact the Business Development Board office to get a copy today.

Martin trying to make it faster, easier to start building industrial businesses

Hoping to benefit from spinoffs from the proposed Scripps Research Institute in northern Palm Beach County, the Martin County Commission decided Thursday to try to make it faster and easier to undertake industrial development.

Creating "permit-ready" industrial areas where a business can start construction on a new facility within two months, instead of a year or more, was one of the top priorities set by the commissioners during a strategic planning session at Indian RiverSide Park in Jensen Beach.

The commissioners also made it a top priority to push for economic diversification so that the county can attract high-technology industries with lucrative jobs, instead of just service industries that don't pay as well.

Martin County should promote itself as part of the "Research Coast," an initiative by state Sen. Ken Pruitt to lure high-tech companies to the Treasure Coast in conjunction with facilities like the Harbor Branch Oceanographic Institution, Smithsonian Marine Station, University of Florida Agricultural Extension, Florida Atlantic University and Indian River Community College, Commissioner Doug Smith said.

Some commissioners also said they want to counter Martin County's reputation for being unfriendly to business and make Martin County more aggressive in competition with nearby counties for desirable companies.

"If there is platted commercial or industrial property in Indian River County, St. Lucie County and Palm Beach County and it's ready to go — there's water and sewer, there's fiber optics — and all they do is go and pull a building permit, they will never build that project in Martin County," said Commissioner Doug Smith.

It could take a company one to three years to rezone a property in Martin County for industrial use and obtain county approval for the site plans and platting, Smith said. And there is no guarantee that companies that undertake the expensive process will be successful.

"We need to be within a 45 to 60 day window of time, from the time somebody looks at a piece of industrial property to the time they can start construction, to be competitive," Smith said. "It can't be a three-year window."

Smith recommended that the county enter partnerships with owners of the industrial land in Indiantown and Witham Field and go through the approval process to prepare the properties for rapid development.

"Those are two areas in the community where you can do this kind of economic development where it doesn't effect the neighborhoods," Smith said.

Scripps reportedly looked at Martin County as a potential site for a new research facility but was turned off by the county's dicey approval process, Smith said. He conceded that Martin County probably could not have afforded to commit $137 million towards the project like Palm Beach County.

George Andreassi, Stuart News
January 14, 2005

        
 
ChemWell Analyzer Wins State of Florida Recognition

Awareness Technology, Inc. of Palm City, Florida has been selected to receive the 2005 Governor's New Product Award for their innovative

ChemWell 2910 automatic laboratory analyzer. This award, co-sponsored by the Florida Engineering Society, in cooperation with the Governor's Office, recognizes companies with the foresight to bring new products to the marketplace. The purpose of the Governor's New Product Award is to promote the full spectrum of benefits that come from the research and engineering of new products and improve quality of life. This is the 19 th year of the program and the first time the award will go to the clinical diagnostic industry. Awareness Technology, a 23 year old Florida designer and manufacturer of lab instruments, competed with its new product, ChemWell 2910, which combines two fully automatic instruments into one economical package: a continuous loading biochemistry analyzer and a user-programmable enzyme immunoassay (EIA) system. This bench-top instrument performs all test processes including dispensing and diluting reagents, incubating, washing, optical reading, calculating, and reporting results.

Mary Freeman, president of Awareness Technology, will accept the award on April 6 in the Florida capital where it will be presented by Mark Mongeau, PE, President of the Florida Engineering Society. State winners are eligible to compete for the national New Product award. Congratulations to Awareness Technology!

Awarness Technology, Inc.
www.awaretech.com



GRANT MONEY AVAILABLE

    The One Stop Career Center has Employed Worker Training dollars available for Martin County businesses that have been established for at least one year. The purpose of these dollars is for the upgrading of employee skills. The cost of the program training is shared as a 50% match between the employer and the program. Any Martin County business interested or if you have questions about eligibility, please contact Phyllis Morese, Business Services Consultant at 772-398-2800.

     If you would like to place a job order on-line, look up labor market information or find qualified employees, visit the One Stop's new website; log on to www.tcjobs.org and click OSMIS to register for services.

 

The Business Source is published quarterly by the Business Development Board of Martin County, Inc. For more information about material appearing in this newsletter, call 772/221-1380. Email us at bdbmc@bdbmc.org