Zoom town: Cape Coral seeing an increase in work from home residents – Wink News

CAPE CORAL

Since the start of the pandemic, more people are working from home and a recently released report from LinkedIn shows Cape Coral as one of the top places remote workers are moving to. It is becoming known as a Zoom town.

The economic development manager for Cape Coral, Ricardo Noguera, told WINK News that it all boils down to the low cost of living.

He said people are realizing they can be just as productive in a smaller city as they can in a bigger one, like Chicago.

Noguera said one of the things the pandemic has taught us is that many jobs can be done remotely.

As the economic development manager for Cape Coral, he said he’s seen the economic development Florida has experienced over the last two years and he says recent data supports that.

“We currently have, and I just got a report on home-based business, 4,700 home-based businesses in this city. I projected that you could probably double that number to find out remote workers,” said Noguera

He said he’s not sure if we’ll see a decrease in the number of remote workers moving to Cape Coral because with technology constantly updating, more people are seeing the benefits of working remotely.

Now that more people are moving to the area Noguera said city leaders are looking at ways to accommodate remote workers.

He said now that there is a lot more flexibility with working, people feel more comfortable not working in an office setting. And if you can work from home while looking out at the beach why wouldn’t you?

Noguera said with the pandemic, many are realizing how much flexibility technology offers the modern-day worker and they are taking advantage of it.

Now city leaders are doing what they can to attract and keep these remote workers.

“So, what we’re trying to do here in Cape Coral and Southwest Florida is create an environment to support coworking space, to support cafes where people can come and go because we’re still going to miss people,” said Noguera.

He said there will always be a need to be around people, but he doesn’t think we will ever go back to a time where everyone is working in an office setting.

Noguera said right now the office vacancy in Cape Coral is 2%. He said city leaders want to create an environment where office developers can create more offices and housing opportunities for residents.

The Sarasota-Northport area also made the list of the top Zoom towns.

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