According to the April 25, 2008 Orlando Sentinel an economic miracle took place in Altamonte Springs. Apparently International Asset Holding Corporation, headquartered in Altamonte, is number 512 on the list. Of course, upon seeing this new listing, the Sentinel inquired of both the economic chief of Orange County and the Seminole County Economic Development Director of Seminole. Miraculously it appears that neither agency had anything to do with the success of the new financial powerhouse. Perhaps the Sentinel should investigate how any business can thrive without the assistance of the government development agencies.
As any prudent central government planner will surely attest, with success comes the responsibility for sustaining the growth. Now that the great government engines of economic development are aware of the performance of International Asset Holding Corp., so much more can be done to ensure their continued success. Just as Darden Restaurants, Hughes Supply, and others before them, now International has reached such a high level of success that they surely need taxpayer funded subsidies. While the International president, Scott Branch, indicated he was surprised at the company’s ranking, he will now surely realize that his company has needs that only government economic development agencies can provide.
Although International is a financial services company with about 25 employees in Altamonte Springs currently operating out of office space in Cranes Roost, perhaps they need a new corporate headquarters a la Darden Restaurants. No? Perhaps International now has a much greater need for a secure location given its increased size and public stature. Maybe a new security complex of mixed use storage and office facilities with redundant power supplies and superior communications could be beneficial and could be built for them in conjunction with Air Tran holdings facilities at Orlando International Airport.
Of course Seminole County is just as important as Orland and Orange County and now has to protect its new found Fortune 500 corporate citizen. The clear choice here is for Larry Dale to develop a new secure office and storage facility at the Orlando Sanford International Airport (don’t those names get confusing, especially to our foreign guests?) and perhaps a sizable incentive offer to Air Tran Holdings would convince them to move their control facilities to Sanford from Orlando similar to the move of Icelandair from OIA to OSIA.
Surely there is now a great body of evidence of the economic boom to Seminole County brought by incentivizing Icelandair to move from Orange County to Seminole County. Since this move took place back in 2006, all of the employees of Icelandair have had time to move to Seminole County and increase their tax payments as a result those economic incentives to their employer. This same evidence should prompt Orlando and Orange County to be on the lookout for opportunities to regain those lost jobs and tax dollars and International could be just the ticket.
If International plays its cards right, perhaps they could even bring Palm Beach County into the bidding war like Scripps Research Institute did a few years ago. Even if International does not really need any new facilities, perhaps their client base could benefit from a new tie to either the new Burnham Institute for Medical Research in Orange County or Scripps in South Florida. At any rate, it is fortunate that the ever vigilant Beth Kassab brought this news to the attention of the government authorities responsible for our economic development.