Pay attention to Polk County. With more than 7 million people now living within a 100-mile radius of what geographically is the center of Florida, Polk is rapidly becoming a haven for corporations who want a ready workforce within easy reach. With 2,048 square miles, Polk County is larger than Rhode Island and a population of 494,000 gives it a higher head count than Wyoming. But what wasn't known until the most recent census is that more than half of Polk's population lives in east Polk, thanks in large part to the surge of residential units that have been developed there to accommodate growth in nearby Orange County. While families have been settling in the east, businesses have been flocking to Lakeland and the western reaches of the county, making 2001 one of the best years for corporate relocations and expansions in the past 15 years. Last year, 25 companies added nearly 1,700 jobs in Lakeland alone.

Rick Yeomans, a manager at Chicago-based U.S. Freightways Distribution, selected Lakeland for the firm's new 65,000-square-foot distribution center.

This surge explains why Polk is attracting major developers out of Tampa, Orlando, Chicago, and Houston. Last year these companies, many of them real estate investment trusts (REITs), developed more than one million square feet of bulk distribution space in Polk (see story on page 38). "Four REITs own space in Lakeland," says Steve Scruggs, executive director of the Lakeland Economic Development Council.

First Industrial Real Estate has developed a $62-million, 220,000-square-foot building in FirstPark at Bridgewater. ProLogis owns a 247,000-square-foot building at County Line Road. Trammell Crow Co. and Duke-Weeks Realty Corp. are developing buildings of similar size in Lakeland Interstate Business Park. Duke-Weeks also recently announced plans to develop the Park 27 Distribution Center in east Polk.

Even though commercial development has been moving at a clip, residential development appears to have kept pace. Last year the county's building departments issued 3,501 permits for single-family homes, up from the year 2000's record of 3,183 permits. The majority of those permits were issued for homes in northeast Polk.

"In the past our hot spots were Winter Haven and Haines City," says Ron Morrow, executive director of the East Polk Committee of 100. "Now they're everywhere ­ in Auburndale, Lake Alfred, Dundee and Lake Wales."

Another possibility for residential development is Cypress Gardens, Polk County's major theme park near Winter Haven (see story on page 34). "We have 100 acres that are currently underutilized," says Bill Reynolds, CEO at Cypress Gardens. "Forty acres south of the park is lakefront property."

With all these new residential communities, the population in Polk continues to grow. "The eastern half of the county now has over 50 percent of the population," says Morrow.

That's a switch from the previous census in 1990. "Our demographics are changing," Morrow says. "Population shifts are occurring that we didn't anticipate."

Another interesting fact is that the age of the population is younger. "That growth is not over 65 years of age," says Morrow. "That's why our schools in the northeast are being impacted."

It also means a workforce is accumulating in Polk. "Our workforce has jumped," Morrow says. "It lagged at 190,000 to 200,000 in the Œ90s. Now it's at 213,000. We've never had a problem filling the jobs that businesses bring when they locate here."

Many of the jobs in Polk have traditionally been in the phosphate mining and citrus industries. These products alone account for 80 percent of the goods that move through the Port of Tampa, Florida's largest seaport. With Polk's extensive highway and rail transportation systems, exports from the county ­ valued at $3 billion in annual sales ­ have diversified in recent years with products ranging from plastic fish bait to computer software.

Many of those companies creating international trade will find that West Polk has more options for commercial and residential space with the pending development of two large mixed-use projects ­ the 18,000-acre Clear Springs development that will add as many as 6,000 homes and the 3,400-acre Old Florida plantation.

Lakeland enjoyed a banner year in terms of corporate expansions and relocations (see story on page 31). Twenty-five companies made a capital investment of $73.55 million adding 1,695 new jobs to Lakeland's economy last year. "This is one of the top two years in 15 years in Lakeland," Scruggs says. "And that activity occurred in the first three quarters."

Most of this corporate expansion is in the distribution and services industries. "If you look at what Polk has enjoyed in its successes, we have done very well in warehousing and distribution," says J. Theron Stangry, senior vice president and Lakeland area executive at Citrus & Chemical Bank and president of the Central Florida Development Council. "We have provided good jobs. We'd like to provide great jobs. The future for that is in high tech. With the Florida High Tech Corridor in the core of Polk County, we are fair game to attract technology companies."

Several developers in Polk are also aware of this potential and are planning to create high-tech business parks with proximity to Interstate 4. To complement the initiative to attract high-tech jobs, the University of South Florida's Lakeland campus is developing an information technology department to grant bachelor's degrees.

An alternative location for IT firms is the new 38,000-square-foot Heritage Plaza office building in downtown Lakeland. While two thirds of the three-story building has already been occupied, Atlanta-based developer Howe Whitman is prepared to develop another identical building adjacent to the existing project. "We're very happy with the way the first building is filling up," says Seth McKeel, the real estate manager at Heritage Equities Inc. "A lot of quality Lakeland firms have decided they want to be downtown."

Another industry with a significant presence in Polk is the generation of electric power (see story on page 40). Calpine Corp., based in San Jose, Calif., has started construction on its new 529-megawatt, $250-million plant in Auburndale. Additional plants are approved for construction in Fort Meade and Mulberry. "Two other merchant companies have announced plans to construct plants here if they win local approval," says Jim DeGennaro, director of business development at the Central Florida Development Council.With all this activity, "those wide-open green spaces are now being filled up," Morrow says.

Some fear that Polk is losing its distinction. Polk developer Kermit Weeks recently posted a sign on his property marking it as "The Future Site of Downtown Orlampa."

"The eastern half of Polk looks at Orlando as a sister city and the western half identifies with Tampa," Stangry says. "We could become Orlampa by doing nothing. But the leaders of this county won't sit back and do nothing. They'll move forward and claim their identity." Stangry adds that there is an initiative under way to develop a long-term vision for Polk.

"Polk County is becoming more like our neighbors," says DeGennaro. "We're Œurbal.' We're transitioning from rural to urban. The growth in our county used to come from Tampa. Today Orlando has gone ballistic and is pushing growth to the east side of our county."

But DeGennaro isn't so concerned about the Orlampa moniker as he is about losing two corporate headquarters last year to acquisitions. U.S. Food Service purchased Mutual Wholesale and Advanced Auto Parts now owns Discount Auto Parts, headquartered in Lakeland. "We lost two big corporate entities," DeGennaro says. "We still have an honor roll of Florida corporations headquartered here but we hate to lose even one."

First on that honor roll is the corporate headquarters for Publix Super Markets Inc., the top private employer not only in Polk County but one of the largest in the state (see story on page 36). The grocer is currently developing a 320,000-square-foot Class A office building in West Lakeland as its new headquarters. Its 2,300 local employees should be occupying the building later in the year.

Another large employer, the county government, is purchasing 200 acres at the Polk Parkway to develop office space for several of its agencies currently scattered throughout the county. "They plan to build a campus-type structure so that their offices are more centrally located to all of the municipalities of Polk," says Stangry.

A trend of the past year or two continues in Polk with the loss of manufacturing jobs. Among those companies that ceased operations last year are the Owens-Brockway glass bottle plant, the Xerxes Corp. fiberglass plant and AmeraParts Intl. LLC in Lakeland. "We lost 1,100 much-valued manufacturing jobs last year," DeGennaro says. "Where once our bread and butter was manufacturing to support the giant phosphate, citrus and food industries in Polk, we're seeing more information technology and financial jobs open up."

Whether it is revitalization of its towns or new commercial and real estate development, "we continue to grow by leaps and bounds," says Stangry.