OBT Development Board

You don't need a four-year degree to run a CNC machine on the Orange Blossom Trail.

That's by design. The owner of this Orlando manufacturing shop isn't recruiting from engineering schools. He's recruiting from the neighborhood, and he's training operators in-house.

"We tend to be more of an entry level CNC operator position, so we look for people that are maybe not traditionally or technically trained, and we train in house."

This is the part of the CRA story that doesn't get enough airtime. The buildings get the photo ops. The careers that fill those buildings are the actual return. When a CRA-backed business plants on this corridor, the jobs created stay close to home, and the skills get taught to people who would have been overlooked everywhere else.

To the community: that career is hiring near you. To investors and stakeholders: workforce development without a workforce-development line item is a real ROI most spreadsheets miss. To anyone debating whether the OBT CRA delivers value beyond brick and mortar: the value walks in the front door every morning.

A Facebook ad. A grant application. A new office on the Orange Blossom Trail.

That's the short version of how Marquise McKenzie moved DirtMaster from a home-based hustle into a brick-and-mortar headquarters in the 32805, the same zip code that houses the most justice-impacted residents in Central Florida. The catalyst? OBT Next, the grant program is backed by the Orange Blossom Trail Development Board and the OBT CRA.

This is exactly what a Community Redevelopment Area is built to do.
CRAs aren't bureaucratic line items. They're the engine that takes corridors long written off as blight and rebuilds them block by block, business by business. When a CRA is implemented the right way, you get owners signing leases instead of giving up on them, second-chance employees back on payroll, and tax dollars staying in the neighborhood that generated them.

To the community living and working along OBT: this is your investment coming back to you.

To the investors and stakeholders watching this corridor: this is what activated capital looks like at street level.

To anyone still questioning whether CRAs belong here: Marquise has the answer. He's open for business.

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