IMMOKALEE, Fla. - The future of Florida. Officials in Immokalee are working hard to attract new businesses and make some needed changes.

At the Community Redevelopment Agency, Executive Director Penny Phillippi sees a whole lot of potential. "We have plenty of land, we have a lot of incentives for new businesses that might want to come," she said.

New businesses are coming thanks to the Business Development Center.

"This program started 10 months ago and so far we have 10 new businesses already up and running," said Marie Capita.

Among those is Letticia Ramos who is opening a new dance studio.

"Immokalee stands for 'my home' and I've been born and raised in Immokalee, it's literally my home, and I couldn't see myself  being somewhere else," she said.

An estimated 1.7 million people came to Immokalee last year to come to the casino. And CRA officials are keeping that number in mind when looking at their downtown design.

"At 1st and Main we just acquired the funds for a plaza as an entryway, and on 9th Street we have another plaza ready to be built," said Phillippi.

You'll soon see a cleaner city, as well. Project Manager Brad Muckel says the Immokalee Storm Water Master Plan will clean up contaminants in these storm ditches and alleviate flooding.
 
"We're going to bury reinforced concrete pipe in the ditches, bury them, and in some place put sidewalk over top," he said.

We're told another positive for Immokalee is it's large, ready, workforce. The average age in the city is 24 years old.