Economic and Community Development

Enhance efforts to make the City of Cocoa a thriving and competitive economic driver along the Space Coast.

Cocoa is a unique and diverse community situated in the heart of the Space Coast. Serving as a gateway to Brevard’s beautiful beaches, Cocoa is minutes to Central Florida’s many amenities and attractions such as Port Canaveral’s cruise port, Kennedy Space Center, the Brevard Zoo, historical downtown districts, and Orlando area attractions. The City of Cocoa is emerging as a competitive and innovative regional hub with an array of available land, a central location close to major highways, and commitment to invest in development.

This past year, the City paved a pathway for faster permitting with development of online permitting. This new program makes it easier for residents and businesses to obtain permits. 

This past year major investments in the City of Cocoa came from large organization such as Amazon and the expansion of the Walmart Distribution Center to include Sam’s Club. The City’s new Upstart program helped two new business owners get started with and expand their business in the Cocoa community.  

The City is seeing economic growth through the investment in public infrastructure, incentives to foster continued development, and investment in targeted marketing and data collection efforts. The City also supports local job readiness training and continuing education programs to foster a prepared market of employees for the growing business community.

A surge in residential developments  and investment in local residential programs help to ensure a diverse variety of housing options for our growing community. With all of this investment and growth, Cocoa is building a stronger, more competitive community poised for economic success.

Broad-based initiatives to achieve the priority area of economic and community development include:

• Enable growth through enhanced and modernized infrastructure.
• Maintain and attract new industry, jobs and investment through targeted marketing efforts, data collection and maintenance.
• Support education, training and job readiness programs.
• Improve residential development and rehabilitation programs to ensure a diversity of housing options.