by By Tom Breckenridge, Plain Dealer Reporter
Experts in matching companies with new locations enjoyed dinner at one of Northeast Ohio's prime sites Thursday evening -- near the 50-yard line in Cleveland Browns Stadium.
It's one of many perks showered this weekend on four of the country's leading real estate prospectors, hosted by Team NEO and the region's top companies.
The four are site consultants, hired by businesses to find spots for growth and relocations. Team NEO is among thousands of business-attraction groups that hope to persuade these influential real estate pros that this slice of the country has a lot to offer.
Team NEO sponsors several of the whirlwind, red-carpet tours yearly. In keeping with a "jock'' theme, site consultants from New York, Chicago and Dallas will be squired today to dinner for inductees to the Pro Football Hall of Fame in Canton. On Saturday, they'll check out the World Golf Championships-Bridgestone Invitational at Firestone Country Club in Akron.
John Kuntz/The Plain DealerDennis Donovan, principal for WDG Consulting in New Jersey, runs onto the field at Cleveland Browns Stadium Thursday evening as Robert Ady, left, of Ady International Co. in Illinois and Jay Foran, right, Team NEO's senior vice president-business attraction, form a tunnel. Browns President Michael Keenan, second from left, watches.
In between, they'll hustle through numerous visits, including to the Goodyear Tire & Rubber Co. headquarters in Akron and to Stark State College's fuel cell center in North Canton. Cleveland Browns President Michael Keenan pitched the region's assets during Thursday's four-course dinner.
Team NEO has sponsored the red-carpet tours for two years. Other regions have been at it much longer. It's hard to measure the tours' impact. Team NEO says it has generated some three dozen solid leads for new business through the site consultants it targets. Just a handful of those will pan out, the nature of the business-attraction game.
Team NEO and its business partners in the region kick in tens of thousands of dollars for the tours. They're crucial in the competition for new business, and aim to let site consultants know that the region is eager to help, said Team NEO spokeswoman Carin Rockind.
"We want them to know if they recommend this community, their clients will be taken care of, whether its real estate needs or building business relationships,'' Rockind said.
Saturday, August 15, 2009
Friday, August 14, 2009
Lake St. Clair Initiative plans lake marketing efforts
By Chad Halcom
A nonprofit organization in Macomb County expects to launch a Web site within weeks to help foster tourism businesses and economic development for Lake St. Clair, one of its organizers and directors said.
Harrison Township-based Lake St. Clair Initiative Inc., a 501(c)(6) business organization also known as The Lake St. Clair Tourism Initiative, hopes to have the Web site active by mid-to-late August, said Stephen Remias, a founder and board member of the initiative and president of MacRay Harbor Inc.
Remias and Eric Foster, owner of rival marina company Belle Maer Harbor in Harrison Township, are both directors on the initiative board.
Other directors in the initiative include representatives of the Macomb County Department of Planning and Economic Development and the Michigan Boating Industries Association.
The Lake St. Clair Initiative, incorporated last October, hopes to use the Web site along with promotional events and other programs to foster business development on or near the lake. No URL address is selected as yet for the new site, Remias said.
“But even if you Google local boat companies, or places to rent a Jet Ski- style watercraft, you can’t always find them,” Remias said. “Some of that is just a limited number of those services, and we want to help with that too, but there’s also a visibility issue.”
Remias said the initiative will try to foster both tourist attraction and related businesses on the lake such as personal watercraft and parasailing operations, and recreational boating. Later, some general business development will follow in communities along the lake.
A nonprofit organization in Macomb County expects to launch a Web site within weeks to help foster tourism businesses and economic development for Lake St. Clair, one of its organizers and directors said.
Harrison Township-based Lake St. Clair Initiative Inc., a 501(c)(6) business organization also known as The Lake St. Clair Tourism Initiative, hopes to have the Web site active by mid-to-late August, said Stephen Remias, a founder and board member of the initiative and president of MacRay Harbor Inc.
Remias and Eric Foster, owner of rival marina company Belle Maer Harbor in Harrison Township, are both directors on the initiative board.
Other directors in the initiative include representatives of the Macomb County Department of Planning and Economic Development and the Michigan Boating Industries Association.
The Lake St. Clair Initiative, incorporated last October, hopes to use the Web site along with promotional events and other programs to foster business development on or near the lake. No URL address is selected as yet for the new site, Remias said.
“But even if you Google local boat companies, or places to rent a Jet Ski- style watercraft, you can’t always find them,” Remias said. “Some of that is just a limited number of those services, and we want to help with that too, but there’s also a visibility issue.”
Remias said the initiative will try to foster both tourist attraction and related businesses on the lake such as personal watercraft and parasailing operations, and recreational boating. Later, some general business development will follow in communities along the lake.
Cooperation Lands Call Center, 500 Jobs
Aug. 13, 2009 7:02 a.m.
By George Nelson
YOUNGSTOWN, Ohio -- Rapid growth is driving VXI Global Solutions Inc. to open a new inbound call center downtown this fall that’s expected to employ 500 workers within its first year, possibly twice that number, depending on the needs of the company.
Mayor Jay Williams and U.S. Rep. Tim Ryan were joined Wednesday by political and development leaders to announce that VXI Global Solutions of Los Angeles would establish a new global fulfillment center at 20 Federal Place where InfoCision Management Corp. operated a call center until earlier this year.
VXI plans to spend $4 million to modify the space for its needs, officials said.
In the midst of the worst recession since the Great Depression, Williams observed, the city “is constantly proving itself as knowing how to get things done.”
During the press event at City Hall, the mayor said VXI plans to open its call center Oct. 1, starting with 150 employees, including some 100 inbound sales agents for “a major satellite television provider,“ information technology and human resources staff, and local management. The company then plans to hire 50 additional employees each month, for a total of 500 in the space, he continued. VXI has the option of leasing an additional floor, possibly bringing total employment to 800 jobs. More here.
By George Nelson
YOUNGSTOWN, Ohio -- Rapid growth is driving VXI Global Solutions Inc. to open a new inbound call center downtown this fall that’s expected to employ 500 workers within its first year, possibly twice that number, depending on the needs of the company.
Mayor Jay Williams and U.S. Rep. Tim Ryan were joined Wednesday by political and development leaders to announce that VXI Global Solutions of Los Angeles would establish a new global fulfillment center at 20 Federal Place where InfoCision Management Corp. operated a call center until earlier this year.
VXI plans to spend $4 million to modify the space for its needs, officials said.
In the midst of the worst recession since the Great Depression, Williams observed, the city “is constantly proving itself as knowing how to get things done.”
During the press event at City Hall, the mayor said VXI plans to open its call center Oct. 1, starting with 150 employees, including some 100 inbound sales agents for “a major satellite television provider,“ information technology and human resources staff, and local management. The company then plans to hire 50 additional employees each month, for a total of 500 in the space, he continued. VXI has the option of leasing an additional floor, possibly bringing total employment to 800 jobs. More here.
PM launches economic agency to help southern Ont.
Prime Minister Stephen Harper announced on Thursday the launch of a new agency to boost economic development in southern Ontario.
Harper said the Federal Economic Development Agency for southern Ontario, which will be headquartered in the city of Kitchener, will support economic development, innovation and diversification. The creation of the agency had been previously announced in the federal budget.
"This new agency will help southern Ontario's communities, workers and businesses position themselves to take advantage of exciting new economic opportunities when the recovery eventually and inevitably takes hold," Harper said.
Harper said Minister of State Gary Goodyear will be responsible for the agency and will embark on a tour of the region in the coming weeks.
The agency will have a $1-billion budget over five years.
The agency joins other federal economic development programs that help out regions, including the Atlantic Canada Opportunities Agency, the Canada Economic Development Agency for the region of Quebec, Western Economic Diversification Canada and the Federal Economic Development Initiative of Northern Ontario.
Harper said Kitchener was chosen because the government wanted a central Ontario location, but not one in the Greater Toronto Area.
Harper said the Federal Economic Development Agency for southern Ontario, which will be headquartered in the city of Kitchener, will support economic development, innovation and diversification. The creation of the agency had been previously announced in the federal budget.
"This new agency will help southern Ontario's communities, workers and businesses position themselves to take advantage of exciting new economic opportunities when the recovery eventually and inevitably takes hold," Harper said.
Harper said Minister of State Gary Goodyear will be responsible for the agency and will embark on a tour of the region in the coming weeks.
The agency will have a $1-billion budget over five years.
The agency joins other federal economic development programs that help out regions, including the Atlantic Canada Opportunities Agency, the Canada Economic Development Agency for the region of Quebec, Western Economic Diversification Canada and the Federal Economic Development Initiative of Northern Ontario.
Harper said Kitchener was chosen because the government wanted a central Ontario location, but not one in the Greater Toronto Area.
Wednesday, July 29, 2009
Speaker: Midwest must reinvent to survive
WOOSTER -- If the Midwest states are to survive in this age of globalization, they must reinvent the region and seek ways to collaborate and merge, a senior fellow with a foreign affairs organization said.
The Midwest's economy revolves around two "big things," intensive agriculture and heavy industry, said Richard Longworth, author of "Caught in the Middle: America's Heartland in the Age of Globalization" and a fellow with the Chicago Council on Global Affairs. However, globalization has tossed both of these up in the air.
Longworth was the keynote speaker of the three-day NorthCentral Region Mini Land Grant Conference at Ohio State University's Ohio Agricultural Research and Development Center's Shisler Center. It wraps up today.
While the region manufactures as much as it ever has, it is doing so with fewer people, Longworth said, using a steel plant that produces the same output today with one-tenth the number of employees.
A century ago, the Midwest acted as the Silicon Valley of today, where the ideas of backyard tinkerers and basement entrepreneurs like the Timkens, Ketterings and Goodriches in Northeast Ohio, Longworth said. The ideas were so good, the corporations were so powerful, this region lived off of them ever since.
Those corporations provided good-paying jobs, consequently no other good ideas were needed, which led to the loss of the knack to innovate and invent, traits that enabled this area to dominate the national and world economy.
Longworth concludes the Midwest must reinvent itself or die. Part of the solution is for land grant schools, cities and other organizations to look beyond state lines and political boundaries to cooperate with one another rather than compete. He spoke of the need to develop global cities in the region because the true competition was not coming from nearby states, but from across the globe.
In Northeast Ohio, the Fund for Our Economic Future has been promoting regionalism. Longworth's recommendations takes the mission of the Fund and expands it. Rod Crider, president of Wayne Economic Development Council, said regional groups like the Fund need to connect with others to think and act differently to help the Midwest come back.
Collaboration will need to work on all levels, whether it's Wooster, Wayne County, Northeast Ohio or the Great Lakes region, Crider added.
Bobby Moser, dean of OSU's College of Food, Agricultural and Environmental Sciences, asked Longworth what his priorities would be.
The priorities should include education at all levels, and there should be an awareness about how education fits with economic development, Longworth said. He added there needs to be a high-speed rail system to connect the Midwest's cities so travel time would be about two to three hours.
Tuesday's morning session included discussions about the bioeconomy. Adam Liska of the University of Nebraska-Lincoln spoke about the "Life Cycle Energy Efficiency and Greenhouse Gas Emissions of Corn Ethanol," Randy Fortenbery of the University of Wisconsin-Madison talked about issues faced by bio-refinerie, Stephen Myers of Ohio State University talked about bioproducts being created through the Ohio BioProducts Innovation Center, and Theresa Selfa, a sociologist at Kansas State University, addressed how ethanol plants were impacting rural communities.
The Midwest's economy revolves around two "big things," intensive agriculture and heavy industry, said Richard Longworth, author of "Caught in the Middle: America's Heartland in the Age of Globalization" and a fellow with the Chicago Council on Global Affairs. However, globalization has tossed both of these up in the air.
Longworth was the keynote speaker of the three-day NorthCentral Region Mini Land Grant Conference at Ohio State University's Ohio Agricultural Research and Development Center's Shisler Center. It wraps up today.
While the region manufactures as much as it ever has, it is doing so with fewer people, Longworth said, using a steel plant that produces the same output today with one-tenth the number of employees.
A century ago, the Midwest acted as the Silicon Valley of today, where the ideas of backyard tinkerers and basement entrepreneurs like the Timkens, Ketterings and Goodriches in Northeast Ohio, Longworth said. The ideas were so good, the corporations were so powerful, this region lived off of them ever since.
Those corporations provided good-paying jobs, consequently no other good ideas were needed, which led to the loss of the knack to innovate and invent, traits that enabled this area to dominate the national and world economy.
Longworth concludes the Midwest must reinvent itself or die. Part of the solution is for land grant schools, cities and other organizations to look beyond state lines and political boundaries to cooperate with one another rather than compete. He spoke of the need to develop global cities in the region because the true competition was not coming from nearby states, but from across the globe.
In Northeast Ohio, the Fund for Our Economic Future has been promoting regionalism. Longworth's recommendations takes the mission of the Fund and expands it. Rod Crider, president of Wayne Economic Development Council, said regional groups like the Fund need to connect with others to think and act differently to help the Midwest come back.
Collaboration will need to work on all levels, whether it's Wooster, Wayne County, Northeast Ohio or the Great Lakes region, Crider added.
Bobby Moser, dean of OSU's College of Food, Agricultural and Environmental Sciences, asked Longworth what his priorities would be.
The priorities should include education at all levels, and there should be an awareness about how education fits with economic development, Longworth said. He added there needs to be a high-speed rail system to connect the Midwest's cities so travel time would be about two to three hours.
Tuesday's morning session included discussions about the bioeconomy. Adam Liska of the University of Nebraska-Lincoln spoke about the "Life Cycle Energy Efficiency and Greenhouse Gas Emissions of Corn Ethanol," Randy Fortenbery of the University of Wisconsin-Madison talked about issues faced by bio-refinerie, Stephen Myers of Ohio State University talked about bioproducts being created through the Ohio BioProducts Innovation Center, and Theresa Selfa, a sociologist at Kansas State University, addressed how ethanol plants were impacting rural communities.
Is right-sizing the right fix?
On Detroit's near east side, just a stone's throw away from the hulking and abandoned Packard Plant, sits a neighborhood with overgrown fields, dumped trash, toppled trees and collapsed structures.
Three women perch on a porch having Bible study, while another woman chats on the phone from her porch farther down the street. Their homes are two of the few inhabited ones in a five-block radius, and both offer a wretched view. Their neighborhood represents a growing number
of Detroit enclaves that are ripe to be stripped, scrubbed and made over.
Urban planners insist -- and Detroit's political leaders are beginning to acknowledge -- that the city cannot continue to function as if nearly 2 million people still live there. That tax base is long gone, taking with it the money required to maintain city services and a crumbling infrastructure.
"Detroit once had 1.8 million people, and it's not likely that that number is going to come back in the next two to three decades -- if ever," said Dan Kildee, Genesee County treasurer and a national advocate for downsizing initiatives.
Experts say a downsized Detroit is doable, if these steps are taken:
That was when the city still had about 1 million people.
Now, three mayors later, in a city with at least 100,000 fewer inhabitants and a budget deficit of $200 million to $300 million, Detroit Mayor Dave Bing is scrambling to find creative ways to save money on city services. It's a daunting task.
Bing said he first plans to strengthen some of Detroit's neighborhoods by using part of the $47 million the city received from the Neighborhood Stabilization Program -- funded by HUD -- to demolish vacant structures, especially near schools.
But right-sizing will take time. More here.
Three women perch on a porch having Bible study, while another woman chats on the phone from her porch farther down the street. Their homes are two of the few inhabited ones in a five-block radius, and both offer a wretched view. Their neighborhood represents a growing number
of Detroit enclaves that are ripe to be stripped, scrubbed and made over.
Urban planners insist -- and Detroit's political leaders are beginning to acknowledge -- that the city cannot continue to function as if nearly 2 million people still live there. That tax base is long gone, taking with it the money required to maintain city services and a crumbling infrastructure.
"Detroit once had 1.8 million people, and it's not likely that that number is going to come back in the next two to three decades -- if ever," said Dan Kildee, Genesee County treasurer and a national advocate for downsizing initiatives.
Experts say a downsized Detroit is doable, if these steps are taken:
- Create a new city master plan, a blueprint for future development and the regreening of the landscape.
- Identify which parts of the city are most suitable for habitation and development.
- Develop an execution plan that acknowledges any right-sizing will take 25 to 50 years and should be done in 5-year increments to accommodate budget constraints.
- Take a full inventory of all city-owned parcels and develop a plan to clear, clean and assemble them into usable shape.
- Establish state and federal alliances with the Department of Housing and Urban Development, the Environmental Protection Agency and the Federal Reserve Board to pursue block grants that could be used to relocate residents.
- Build a partnership with private investors willing to support Detroit's future.
That was when the city still had about 1 million people.
Now, three mayors later, in a city with at least 100,000 fewer inhabitants and a budget deficit of $200 million to $300 million, Detroit Mayor Dave Bing is scrambling to find creative ways to save money on city services. It's a daunting task.
Bing said he first plans to strengthen some of Detroit's neighborhoods by using part of the $47 million the city received from the Neighborhood Stabilization Program -- funded by HUD -- to demolish vacant structures, especially near schools.
But right-sizing will take time. More here.
Thursday, July 23, 2009
Michigan CEOs believe state’s economy will worsen, survey shows
By Amy Lane
Michigan CEOs are pessimistic about Michigan’s economy in the coming months but believe the national economy will hit bottom and begin to improve, according to a survey released Wednesday by Detroit Renaissance Inc. and the Michigan Business Leadership Council.
The survey of 60 Michigan chief executives found approximately 90 percent forecasting the same or lower employment and Michigan capital investment over the next six months.
Sixty-eight percent said they expect the Michigan economy will worsen over the next six months, while 80 percent believe the U.S. economy will be the same or improve.
Looking ahead 18 months, 80 percent of those surveyed believe Michigan’s economy will stay the same or worsen, with 49 percent saying the economy will be the same and 31 percent expecting further decline.
However, 78 percent of CEOs believe the U.S. economy will be in recovery.
In a news release, Doug Rothwell, president of Detroit Renaissance and the leadership council, said the survey results should be informative to state policymakers.
The leadership council is a statewide group of corporate executives that meets throughout the year to discuss ways to improve the economy and make Michigan a more competitive place to do business.
“The results show two things: First, Michigan cannot expect to grow out of its fiscal crisis anytime soon so it must make structural budget reforms, and second, major changes are needed to stimulate economic growth in this state,” Rothwell said.
Michigan CEOs are pessimistic about Michigan’s economy in the coming months but believe the national economy will hit bottom and begin to improve, according to a survey released Wednesday by Detroit Renaissance Inc. and the Michigan Business Leadership Council.
The survey of 60 Michigan chief executives found approximately 90 percent forecasting the same or lower employment and Michigan capital investment over the next six months.
Sixty-eight percent said they expect the Michigan economy will worsen over the next six months, while 80 percent believe the U.S. economy will be the same or improve.
Looking ahead 18 months, 80 percent of those surveyed believe Michigan’s economy will stay the same or worsen, with 49 percent saying the economy will be the same and 31 percent expecting further decline.
However, 78 percent of CEOs believe the U.S. economy will be in recovery.
In a news release, Doug Rothwell, president of Detroit Renaissance and the leadership council, said the survey results should be informative to state policymakers.
The leadership council is a statewide group of corporate executives that meets throughout the year to discuss ways to improve the economy and make Michigan a more competitive place to do business.
“The results show two things: First, Michigan cannot expect to grow out of its fiscal crisis anytime soon so it must make structural budget reforms, and second, major changes are needed to stimulate economic growth in this state,” Rothwell said.
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