Opinion
Warming up
TBO.com
Published: January 26, 2013
When a newborn baby fails to thrive, doctors traditionally have placed them in incubators while they struggle to gain strength. While it is not in its infancy, the Pasco County economy has been struggling to thrive of late and a bit of incubation seems to be in order.Published: January 26, 2013
Tuesday night, the Dade City Commission agreed to partner with the Pasco Economic Development Council to create the county's first business incubator. The Pasco EDC board approved the deal Wednesday. The incubator will help Pasco entrepreneurs start businesses and guide them through their early stages, and, its backers hope, create jobs along the way.
As part of the deal, Dade City will put up $50,000 to launch the business incubator. The program will be based at the Dade City Business Center, a 355-acre retail-office-warehouse-manufacturing complex on U.S. 301. A Pasco EDC team will manage the incubator. Saint Leo University's Donald R. Tapia School of Business has formed a partnership with the EDC on the incubator.
As Michael Cox, a Wells Fargo Advisors executive and Pasco EDC board member, notes, Pasco was one of the last places where the effects of the post-2007 recession were felt and one of the last places emerging from the resulting economic malaise. Everyone in Pasco County should hope the Dade City incubator succeeds. If it does, we can imagine other parts of the county that could use a bit of economic warming, too.