Catalyze 2020: Jackie McIntosh

This holiday season, we asked some of St. Pete’s best and brightest citizens to share one catalyzing idea for making St. Pete a better place to live. We asked not for lists of problems, but for meaty, actionable and impactful solutions, no matter how big or how small. 

Jackie McIntosh, market president, Pinellas County, and executive vice president of Cogent Bank

• As a resident and business leader in Pinellas County, I’d like to see the development of a Multi-Purpose Convention Center in our community that our neighboring counties have enjoyed for years.
• A community centric, family friendly destination hub would fill a void in Pinellas and St. Petersburg has the infrastructure to accommodate.
• Increasing our visibility to visitors through marketing of event space, trade shows, banquets, seminars and group meetings.
• Visitors would have access to activities centered on miles of waterfront, arts and culture in an atmosphere surrounded by shopping and dining options.
• Local businesses with cyclical sales cycles due to seasonality would have access to more consistent revenue streams.
• Opportunities to co-develop with the private sector and use of tourism tax funds could offer affordability alternatives to funding yet careful feasibility and cost/benefit analysis would need to be done to ensure economic impact.