By Tom James

Marjorie McGee

Director of Student Life, College of Central Florida

Back in 2018, Marjorie McGee pealed back the coconut (if you will) on her fun times as part of the Jimmy Buffett-inspired Parrot Head lifestyle. True statement: No one group typifies the tropical headspace quite like Parrot Heads do! But we also learned about all the ways these colorful customers give back locally.

“We are community servants and protectors of the environment who like to party with a purpose,” Marjorie told us at the time, while highlighting a number of community cleanup projects and blood drives the Parrot Heads would spearhead. And that ethos still holds true today, as Marjorie shared.

“When we say ‘party with a purpose’, we mean it,” she says. “We have become very involved with the Walk to End Alzheimers in the past few years, raising funds as well as participating in typical Parrot Head fashion in the walk itself. Lots of crazy hats!” Continue reading →

The Ocala Metro Chamber and Economic Partnership (CEP) was honored this week as a finalist for the 2025 Chamber of the Year by the Association of Chamber of Commerce Executives (ACCE). The Chamber of the Year award, presented by GrowthZone, is the most prestigious recognition in the chamber industry, celebrating outstanding leadership, impactful programs, and community advancement efforts.

Winners were announced on Wednesday, July 23, during the Awards Show at ACCE’s Annual Convention in Philadelphia, and while the Ocala Metro CEP was not selected as this year’s overall winner, being named a finalist places the organization among the top chambers in the country.

“We are incredibly proud to be recognized as a finalist for this national honor,” said Tamara Fleischhaker, Interim CEO of the Ocala Metro Chamber & Economic Partnership. “This distinction is a testament to the strength of our business community, the dedication of our team, and the bold, collaborative work happening across the Ocala Metro to create a more prosperous future.”  Continue reading →

‘A Pivotal Time For Our Organization’

By Tamara Fleischhaker

It is both an honor and a privilege to serve as Interim CEO of the Ocala Metro Chamber & Economic Partnership. As I step into this role at a pivotal time for our organization and the region we serve, I am reminded of the enduring values that have guided the CEP’s work for over a decade: bold vision, collaborative spirit, and an unwavering commitment to being the catalyst for a prosperous community.

Right now, it’s not about starting over—it’s about staying focused on what’s working. Our mission, our momentum, and the strong partnerships we’ve built have all played a key role in moving us forward. Staying on track means sticking with the priorities that have helped make the Ocala Metro one of the most vibrant communities in Florida and beyond. It also means continuing to invest in the relationships that truly make a difference—whether with small businesses, major employers, local governments, schools, or community groups. These connections aren’t just part of our progress—they’re at the heart of it. Continue reading →

To Kathy Bryant; Chair – Marion County Commissioners

SUBJECT: Marion County Republican Executive Committee support of revised Transportation Impact Fees

On behalf of the Marion County Republican Executive Committee (MCREC), representing more than 130,000 registered Republican voters we support the revision of cost-equivalent transportation impact fees. As an organization we support free enterprise and on-going private equity investment in our County, however a key pillar of this support is “fair share cost liability” with respect to developers and most importantly to Marion County taxpayers.

To state obvious transportation impact fees have not risen for more than a decade, 2015 last revision, subsequent to  the economic downturn beginning in 2009 and prior to the Covid impacts of +2019. As a prudent step in 2015 to entice resi-dential and non-residential development, the transportation impact fees set in 2015 were discounted significantly below the actual  cost impacts to County residents;  only 20% for residential and 11% for commercial developments of the ac-tual impact fee. Again, both below the needed impact fee cost projections. To date, given the ten-year increase in cost for roads, services, property taxes, etc., the current transportation impact fees applied represent an even greater dis-counted fee than in 2015. Continue reading →

The CEP Network recently sat down with some of the key members of the search committee for the new CEO—Doug Cone, Ken Ausley, Dwayne Carlton, and Charisse Rivers—along with longtime staffer and newly announced Interim CEO, Tamara Fleischhaker. They discussed what the process will look like, how long it will take, and what they’re looking for in this new person. One thing’s certain: the Ocala CEP is not letting off the gas!

Some of the burning questions included: How was the search different the last time? What kind of person are you looking for this time? What do you think Ocala needs more of in the next 10 years? And more!

PULL QUOTES:

“We’re looking for somebody to come into a very successful organization and keep it going.”

—Dwayne Carlton: Owner, Ellison Property Management

“We’ll make sure that this is a very deliberate process. He or she won’t be a Kevin Sheilley clone.”

—Doug Cone: Founder & CEO, Cone Distributing Continue reading →

Ocala, FL — The stage is set for the 11th Annual Youth Business Plan Competition, an event that celebrates the innovative spirit of Marion County’s high school students. Aspiring young entrepreneurs will gather on Thursday, April 3, 2025, at 5:00 PM at the Power Plant Business Incubator (405 SE Osceola Avenue, Ocala, FL 34471) to present their big ideas and turn them into reality.

Hosted by the Ocala Metro Chamber & Economic Partnership (CEP), this event has become a cornerstone for youth development and entrepreneurship in the region. Each year, high school students compete to pitch their business plans to a panel of local business leaders and mentors, vying for support, guidance, and potential investment to bring their concepts to life. Continue reading →

By Kevin T. Sheilley

   This past September marked 30 years of my work with chambers and economic development organizations and in January I celebrated my 27th year of leading these types of organizations. I consider myself incredibly fortunate and blessed to not only love what I do but to have “found my calling” so early. I do consider it a calling. I truly believe part of my purpose, part of the reason God put me on this earth, is to impact communities.

Growing up, I was constantly planning out “my city.” Literally, I had a three-inch binder that was overflowing with not only my sketched plans but list upon list of how my city ranked. Is it any surprise that I am today so enamored with following various rankings, lists, and data?!? I spent hours working, thinking, and researching about communities and growth. If you don’t believe me, just ask my twin sister. However, I had no idea any of that work could one day relate to a career.

After college, I went to work for a statewide gubernatorial campaign in Tennessee. While I enjoyed the work, it certainly did not pay well. Note—don’t believe everything you see on TV and movies upon campaign life. However, there was a plan. My candidate would win, and I would have a position in the new administration. While my candidate did win the primary, we all knew he was not going to win the general election. When my phone rang and a former college professor inquired if I would be interested in the communications job at the local chamber, I jumped at the chance. I had no idea what a chamber did, but it paid money!

However, I quickly discovered the Jackson (TN) Area Chamber of Commerce did the work of which I had always dreamed. They led the community’s economic development efforts and worked with the local school system and focused on transportation issues. This was my stuff! This is what I wanted to do for a career—I just never knew what it was called.

Fast forward now 30 years, and I have been doing work which I love. God willing, I will get to do this for another 18 years. (I would like to say 20 but my wife will kill me if I say that.) I have worked with incredible communities in Tennessee, Kentucky, and Florida. By the time you read this, I will have added my fourth state with South Carolina. However, there will always be only one Ocala.

For the last 12 years, Ocala has not only been where we work, but it has been where my family calls home. In fact, I think for two of my three children, Ocala will always be what they think of when discussing home. It is not hyperbole or trite for me to say we love Ocala.

I would offer two bits of advice. First, always remember that partnership is what has driven the incredible recovery, and now growth, this community has experienced over the last 12 years. Partnerships between the business community, local governments, and education providers. I would argue that no community in this state works as well together as this one. That is not to say that we always agree, but we find ways to partner to address the important issues.

Secondly, do not let anyone tell you Ocala is any less. This community takes a backseat to no one. Part of the Ocala charm and success has been to find uniquely Ocala ways to address our needs and challenges. We love coming up with our own approach, hearing the naysayers, and then smirking when our success becomes the one they all want to copy. Ocala can and Ocala will.

This is a place where things happen. At the CEP, the mission is to be the catalyst for a prosperous community, and this is becoming a more prosperous community by the day. As someone I greatly admire and respect is known to say, “Ocala = Opportunity.”

If you have lived in Ocala for more than a decade, then you probably know our community’s story of bouncing back from the Great Recession in 2007-08. If you are newer to the area since then (and more than 100,000 people have moved here over the last decade), it is important history to know.

In the early 2000’s, our community was truly a boomtown. Everyone was a builder, developer, or realtor and we were building and flipping houses like nobody’s business. Unfortunately, it was nobody’s business. No one was actually living in many of the houses, and we had stopped building a real economy to support the growth. When the Great Recession happened, arguably no community in our country was more negatively impacted than Ocala. Overnight, the County and School System lost 40% of their revenue, wages stagnated, and we began a period of seven years of double-digit unemployment. SEVEN YEARS! Continue reading →

Ocala, FL – December 9, 2024 – The Ocala Metro Chamber and Economic Partnership Foundation is excited to announce that it has been awarded a $5,000 grant from the Papa John’s Foundation’s Building Community Fund. This funding will directly support the CEP’s Leadership Ocala Marion Youth (LOMY) program, helping to keep participation costs affordable while also providing scholarships to ensure access for all students.

LOMY is a county-wide program that brings together a diverse group of students from both public and private high schools in Marion County. Through a series of hands-on activities, leadership workshops, and community service projects, the program helps students build critical skills that will serve them throughout their lives. It also encourages participants to develop a shared commitment to the growth and advancement of their community. Continue reading →

When we talk about the local economy and what drives it, there are a few industries which immediately come to mind. We are the Horse Capital of the World® and know that equine plays a big part of the local economy. Others may think about how our community has become a major logistics center for the state and all of the new big box distribution centers which have been built near the interstate. Some may go to Ocala’s long-time role as a major manufacturing center, home to companies like Lockheed Martin, REV Fire – EONE, Pella, Cardinal Glass, etc. However, the sector that employs the most people and some of the highest wages is healthcare.

Regional Healthcare Center 

It might be easy for one to overlook the size and scale of the local healthcare industry. While one may look at Gainesville and see the significance of the industry there because of the near omnipresence of the University and UF Health, our market is different. Here we have three different yet significant healthcare providers who all have made and are making substantial investments. When combined these three providers are the backbone of arguably our largest economic driver. Continue reading →