County Jumpstarts Partnership with Economic Development Corporation
Manatee County commissioners have approved a new contract with the Bradenton Area Economic Development Corp., reestablishing a partnership the board rejected last fall.
The board, meeting April 7 at the administration building in Bradenton, unanimously voted to execute the new services agreement with the EDC.
In September 2025, a divided board voted not to renew an annual contract with the EDC.
Then, in January, commissioners moved to start negotiations on a new contract.
That agreement went into effect April 7, with the county’s annual cost at $292,450, about 13% less than under the previous agreement.
In return, the not-for-profit EDC will:
• Generate and vet business leads;
• Conduct site visits;
• Negotiate incentive packages;
• Perform business retention and expansion visits with local employers;
• Market the county to national and international companies.
“The agreement we have today is a really good one,” county government relations director Stephanie Garrison told commissioners.
The 30-page document states that the EDC is responsible for “actively promoting the business brand for the County” while working to create “high-skill, high-wage jobs” and helping “diversify the economy and tax base of the County.”
The EDC’s performance will be measured against specific targets, including generating at least 10 qualified leads per quarter, conducting 15 business retention visits per quarter and creating 150 verified new jobs annually.
“I think we have a very clear path on where we’re going,” Commissioner Jason Bearden, R-District 6, said at the meeting.
The board’s unanimous vote followed presentations from county economic development manager Aimee Johnson, EDC interim CEO Amanda Parrish and EDC board chair Chris Cianfaglione.
Cianfaglione said the EDC’s focus on long-term economic resilience is about ensuring people can live, work and stay in Manatee.
Parrish, who said the EDC has 27 projects in the pipeline, described a listening tour of more than 150 meetings to learn how to best serve the community.
During public comment, Bradenton Mayor Gene Brown and Manatee Chamber of Commerce president and CEO Jacki Dezelski endorsed the EDC’s work.
“I think collaboration is going to be so important as we go forward,” Brown said.
The day after the vote, county commissioners held a workshop on economic development at the Bradenton Area Convention Center in Palmetto, hearing from university researchers, housing experts and workforce partners on how to modernize the county’s approach to growth and quality of life.
There was a conversation about moving beyond traditional economic incentives, like tax abatement and infrastructure investments, toward focusing on industry clusters, entrepreneurship and quality of life improvements.
There also were conversations about expanding housing affordability, using form-based zoning codes to organize development by character rather than rigid land-use categories and creating scholarship and apprenticeship programs.