July 24, 2026 — Southwest Florida new business activity

Southwest Florida recorded 728 new business filings the week of July 3 to 9, the fifth week in a row the count fell.

Lee County did most of the forming, with 400 new businesses. Collier added 189. Together those two counties made up about 81% of the region, and both slipped from the week before. The smaller inland counties went the other way. DeSoto rose to 14, up 6. Hardee reached 8, up 4. Hendry rose to 15, up 4.

Most industries shrank this week, so the ones that grew stand out. Construction and trades rose to 90 new filings, up 7. It was the largest group after property holding. Transportation and logistics jumped to 51, up 14, a gain of almost 40%. New trucking and freight outfits keep forming. Property holding stayed the biggest single category at 125, about 17% of the week.

The declines were real. Administrative and support services fell 20 to 47. Healthcare fell 16 to 30. Hospitality and tourism fell 12 to 40. Professional services slipped 15 to 82. The 13 week average has eased from about 1,100 in the spring to just over 1,000 now.

Naples, Cape Coral, and Fort Myers stayed the three busiest cities, at 184, 132, and 127. Lehigh Acres rose to 77. Punta Gorda and Arcadia both picked up. The count is down, but the forming has not stopped, and it is spreading a little further inland.

A steady slowdown over the past 13 weeks with a dip this past week pulling the average down.

The bold line is the 13-week average. Read it for the longer trend. The thin line is each week's count, which swings week to week.

• 2025-26
• 2024-25
• 2023-24
• 2022-23
• 2021-22

New business formation usually runs highest around Jan and is quietest around Dec, holding near 4,000 a month across the years.

Each line is one year, ending at the current month on the right, so you can read the past year left to right. New Year's Day is left out because the state office is closed, so almost no businesses register that day.

Transportation & Logistics grew the most this week, 14 more (up 37.8%). Administrative & Support Services dropped the most, 20 fewer (down 29.9%).

Lee led the region this week with 400 new filings. 2 other counties also grew from the week before.

• Collier County commissioners took up a large expansion of the town of Ave Maria. It adds 2,042 acres and room for 6,738 more homes, for a total of 17,738. It also adds 996,000 square feet of non residential space. At the same June 9 meeting, the county awarded two big public works contracts. Youngquist Brothers won nearly $11 million for a Golden Gate City injection well. Douglas N. Higgins won $6.3 million for a Northeast water reclamation deep injection well. A town expansion this large is a construction pipeline that runs for years. It means work for site and road builders, underground utility crews, concrete and framing trades, and the freight haulers that move materials in. Homebuilders get a bigger market, and so do the retail, personal service, insurance, and legal firms new residents will need. The county's own injection well contracts show the public infrastructure work is already funded and going out to bid. Collier County Board of County Commissioners, 2026-06-09
• Benchmark General Contractors broke ground in July on Sunset Beach Resort, a three story, 41,285 square foot mixed use resort at 1028 Estero Boulevard on Fort Myers Beach. The $13 million project includes six hotel units and is expected to open in early 2028. A beachfront resort build means about a year and a half of work for the trades, from site and concrete to framing, roofing, electrical, plumbing, and interior finishing. When it opens, a hotel needs cleaning, laundry and linen, food supply, landscaping, and staffing, steady demand for the service firms that support tourism. Benchmark General Contractors, 2026-07-08
• Benchmark General Contractors broke ground in June on Midpoint Gateway Retail Center, a 7,500 square foot multi tenant retail building at 2675 Del Prado Boulevard South in Cape Coral, with room for five businesses and completion expected in about eight months. A multi tenant retail build is work for the general contractor, concrete and steel crews, roofers, electricians, plumbers, and the paving and landscaping trades. Once the five spaces fill, they draw new retailers and service businesses, the kind that file as brand new companies, plus signage, security, and cleaning vendors. Benchmark General Contractors, 2026-06-18
• The Fort Myers Board of Adjustments approved a conditional use to expand Templo Cristiano La Estrella, a church at 964 Ortiz Avenue, into a new two story building with room for about 400 seats on a 4.92 acre site. A new place of worship this size means work for general contractors and the concrete, framing, roofing, electrical, and plumbing trades, plus the paving, site, and landscaping crews the plan calls for. Design and engineering firms and permit help get hired first. City of Fort Myers Board of Adjustments, 2026-07-22
• In Charlotte County, Charlotte County Public Schools and Charlotte Technical College broke ground in June on the Southwest Florida Advanced Manufacturing Training Center at Enterprise Charlotte Airport Park, a school for advanced manufacturing, CNC machining, welding, and aerospace work. A training center is construction work now and skilled workers later. It means jobs for the site, concrete, steel, and mechanical trades that build it. Once open, it feeds local manufacturers and machine shops the welders and CNC operators they struggle to hire. Staffing firms, equipment dealers, and the manufacturers themselves stand to gain. Charlotte County Economic Development, 2026-07-01
• In Sebring, the Highlands County Planning and Zoning Commission took up a request from JI Realty LLC to rezone a 9.11 acre parcel at 3925 Muriel Avenue from an agricultural district to a multiple family district that allows a motel or hotel. Opening land to a motel or hotel points to new lodging construction, then steady demand once it opens. Builders and site crews come first. After that a hotel needs commercial cleaning, laundry and linen, food supply, landscaping, security, and staffing. It is an early signal for Highlands County contractors and suppliers. Highlands County Planning & Zoning Commission, 2026-06-09

The week was smaller, so the pool of brand new businesses to reach is smaller than a year ago. Two lanes are still open, and they line up with real projects on the local record. Construction filings held up, and the county books back that up. Collier's Ave Maria expansion and its funded injection well contracts, a church expansion in Fort Myers, and a hotel rezoning in Sebring all point to building work ahead. Freight and hauling firms keep forming to serve those sites and the region's growing inland towns. The best prospects right now are the trades, the haulers, and the insurance, accounting, and legal firms that serve new builders.

These counts come from state business filing records for Southwest Florida, covering new business formations across the region's eight counties. We wait about two weeks after each week ends for the state to finish recording every filing, so the numbers here are complete and final, not early estimates. We sort each new business into a plain industry group and tally them by county and city.