Dirt to Development: A Site Readiness Roadmap for Rural Florida

Posted on February 18, 2026

Communities across Rural Florida continue to compete for investment,jobs and growth opportunities — yet many promising sites face challenges related to readiness, infrastructure, funding and positioning.

A “Dirt to Development: Site Readiness Roadmap for Rural Florida” training session will be held on Tuesday, Feb. 24, from 10 a.m. until 2 p.m. at Big Bend Technical College in Perry.

Hosted by Duke Energy, this training is designed to help counties and communities understand how to take a site from raw land to development-ready, while reducing risk and increasing competitiveness.

Participants will hear from experienced speakers who will walk through the full site readiness process – from early site preparation and due diligence to identifying grant and funding opportunities that can help offset development costs.

The goal is to provide practical, actionable guidance that communities can begin using immediately.

This training is intended to be collaborative and is strongly encouraged for teams, including:

• economic development organizations,

• county and city commissioners,

• county and city managers and

• landowners and property stakeholders

“By bringing the right partners to the table, communities can better align priorities, accelerate site readiness and position themselves for future investment,” said Duke Energy’s Rural Economic Development Manager Mary Swoope. “We encourage you to mark your calendars, identify who from your community should attend and register today.

“We look forward to working together to strengthen site readiness across Rural Florida,” she added.

Lunch will be provided.

To register to attend, please visit: https://forms.office.com/r/pzLuCxarFL .

For more information please contact Swoope at mary.swoope@duke-energy.com or 601-278-4740.