Chamber members urged to ‘be nice,’ interact with corporate community
Lee County Economic Development Office Director John Talmage addressed the post-Hurricane Ian, post-pandemic state of the economy in the county, and specifically on Sanibel and Captiva, at the SanCap Chamber’s business meeting on July 19 at the Marriott Sanibel Harbour Resort in Fort Myers.
Honing in on the islands, the former Sanibel resident praised the Sanibel Plan as a model the county is now turning to and advised chamber members to take advantage of the philanthropic aspirations of new corporations in the county. Talmage told them to “be nice” to restoration workers.
“That’s our lifeline right now,” he said. “Be nice to them because it’s hard work they’re doing. It’s hot out there; they”re not working in air-conditioning.”
Talmage gave a rundown on diverse new brands that have set up business or are looking to move to Lee County during and since the pandemic — from bathing suit and women’s cosmetics manufacturers to a high-performance race track and IKEA.
“If I have one message to say is that the corporate community, they haven’t forgotten (you),” he said. “They want to find ways, they want to help … to find ways to effectively help with their giving. I think if we can do that together, it will be one piece of the recovery. So, please think of ways that the corporate community can assist, can join, can enable. They ask every day. We have to have answers for them.”
Talmage envisions “celebration days” to bring corporate groups out for cocktails and an island tour.
“Not to look at what was destroyed, but to look at what’s come back,” he said. “Because we cannot let the rest of the county forget what happened.”
Talmage touched on challenges facing the county as it grows by 90 people every day — traffic, infrastructure, work force needs, transportation, water. He gave an overview of solutions in the county’s purview, such as running water taxis, extending roads, seeing a new interstate interchange, widening bridges and moving job opportunities to the north.
“We would never expect the same solutions for downtown Fort Myers to be a solution for South Seas. What we’ve got to do better as a county government is not being caught off-guard by things that emerge that we should have known would emerge,” Talmage said. “We are as much a proud advocate of the Sanibel Plan as anyone. We’re going to go back to a community planning stage that we didn’t think we’d go to for a while … most communities have not had that benefit.”
“I have nothing but respect for John and his allegiance to Sanibel and vast experience in the community development field — from the New York City Council to island non-profits,” chamber President and Chief Executive Officer John Lai said. “We thank him for an honest and exceedingly relevant look into our economic future.”
At the meeting, Lai also presented a short state-of-the-chamber report, informing membership about the chamber’s three-pronged mission, including destination marketing, which has come once again to the forefront as the islands recover. He announced the postponement of the 2023 Luminary and chamber’s role in leading the city of Sanibel’s 50th anniversary from Nov. 5, 2024, through Luminary 2025.
FP Property Restoration and the Charitable Foundation of the Islands sponsored the luncheon.