At Robert Harris’ popular San Marco holiday party in December, I ran into Mike Langton who I haven’t seen in years. Lunching at what used to be the old Beach Road Chicken Dinner restaurant, I caught up with Mike, a former Florida State Legislator (1985-92). I was delighted to hear that over the years Mike has enjoyed success in the field of grant writing. His firm, Langton Consulting, is the oldest and largest grant writing firm in Florida. Just in the past 10 years, his firm has generated over one half billion dollars in grants for clients, who are mainly city and county governments. Plus, he just obtained a $51 million grant for a critical semiconductor plant for Osceola County. He also has obtained government grants for major corporations. While grant writing comprises most his business time, he also invests in real estate developments around the state, focusing on mix-use property in downtown locations. Mike and I became friends in the Jacksonville Jaycees, which was a tremendous civic and leadership organization at the time. Many of the city’s successful government and business leaders have come from that group. Mike was serving in Mayor Tanzler’s administration at the time, writing grants. Mike can be contacted at LangtonConsulting.com. Mike is on the right in this “Lunch with Les” photo.
