Steve Scruggs of Lakeland Economic Development Council on the Swan City s evolution bizjournals.com - get the latest breaking news, showbiz & celebrity photos, sport news & rumours, viral videos and top stories from bizjournals.com Daily Mail and Mail on Sunday newspapers.
Business boom at Lakeland Linder airport continues
Ken Suarez reports
LAKELAND, Fla. - The numbers are in, and they are big. According to a recent study, Lakeland Linder International Airport has an economic impact of $1.5 billion on the area.
It is a little less surprising when you consider its exponential growth.
Ten or so years ago, 800 people worked at the airport. That number has soared to 3,400, in no small part due to the companies that continue to set up shop there.
Recently, Amazon Air and the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA), with its famed Hurricane Hunter planes, moved in.
Coca-Cola moving from Lakeland to Winter Haven and adding 172 jobs
WINTER HAVEN Coca-Cola Beverages Florida is expanding its local presence and jumping from Lakeland to Winter Haven, adding 170 Polk County jobs.
Coca-Cola has a distribution center in Lakeland at 1770 Interstate Drive, off Kathleen Road just south of I-4. That center employs 182 people, said Bruce Lyon, president of the Winter Haven Economic Development Council. And according to the Coca-Cola website, the center distributes 5.3 million cases of Coca-Cola annually.
But that space doesn t suit the company anymore. Our current location doesn t allow us the space that we need for our operations there, so we are looking for a larger location, Katrinda McQueen, director of communications for Coca-Cola Beverages Florida LLC, said. We have been in Polk County for quite some time, so we were simply looking for opportunities in Polk County to expand our footprint.