[0:00] And then finally, Senate and Chris Bes is in his place. He came by.

[0:04] » I'm going to call the meeting. Uh, August 11th

[0:08] EDA meeting to order. >> Looks like we have a quorum. Eric, could

[0:14] you call the role, please? >> Yes, sir. Bob Smith,

[0:17] » yep. Here. >> Robert,

[0:21] » here. Gorge here. Lawson Roberts here. >> Bond here. Tatum.

[0:28] St. Mary's >> here.

[0:31] Stand by for invitation and pledge.

[0:38] Lord, we thank you for this day. We thank you for the opportunity to come

[0:42] meet and betterment of the county. Ask blessings

[0:46] on everyone here. Lord, we just uh give you praise and honor. Amen.

[0:53] » Amen. And we do the pledge of allegiance to the flag of the United

[0:59] States of America and to the republic for which it stands. One nation under

[1:04] God, indivisible, liberty and justice for all. For all

[1:15] you make uh first of all, I want to welcome Dexter

[1:20] to our meeting. Eric, did you you met David?

[1:25] » Yes. >> Yep.

[1:29] So, uh approve or amend the agenda. I have one item to to uh put in the agenda

[1:36] be uh after new business. It'll be the EDA 101 that Dave is here to present.

[1:43] Want to make sure we get it on the tape so if anybody has to leave early, they

[1:47] can uh watch it at their leisure. And without objection, we'll put that in

[1:53] there. Consent agenda.

[1:58] The minutes. Anybody uh have any uh corrections to the minutes?

[2:06] » Passed out the uh under the finance report. are passed out the

[2:14] the LGIP statement for the uh Union County

[2:20] EDA. We have $784,1556,

[2:27] but uh that's back in July 31st. We haven't closed the the

[2:34] year yet. That's my understanding. So, I think there's some bills that haven't

[2:39] been that have been paid but haven't didn't show up on here. So, uh, I talked

[2:44] to Stephanie about that the other day. She's working actually on that,

[2:49] but the stuff we get from the county, uh, really doesn't have any meaning for

[2:54] us. We, uh, we operate out of this account.

[2:58] And I bring that because later on we're going to be approving the, uh,

[3:05] application for

[3:09] the grant from the back of commission. and we have to put up some money for

[3:14] that. So, uh, any questions about the the financial amendments?

[3:22] » Not. I'll entertain a motion to approve

[3:27] both. >> I approve. Accepted. Minute.

[3:30] » Motion. Thank you. Second. Second. >> Second. Go ahead. Second. You weren't

[3:38] here last. All >> in favor? I I

[3:42] » oppose like sign. Thank you. Have any public comments?

[3:47] Dexter, you got anything? Any wisdom you want to give us?

[3:50] » No. >> When it comes to wisdom, no.

[3:56] » All right. Mia County Regional Commerce Park update.

[4:01] Uh, I was going to have Neil do that, but since we can't hear him, I'll I'll

[4:07] take that. >> Can you hear? move forward with uh

[4:12] the road entrance road design. I still have problems with understanding

[4:19] why that's going to take eight months to do. You ride right up uh 360 and the new

[4:25] uh entrance they just put off on the north side. That's exactly what they're

[4:29] going to put on an hour. So, looks like to me you just flip it. Yeah.

[4:35] » He wants to do that then it has to be approved.

[4:38] Be that. What is it? It's going to be a good year, I think, before we see any

[4:43] any. You probably rode by there, noticed that

[4:47] uh they're paving 360 and they're parking their vehicles over their

[4:53] property. >> They were nice enough to open the gate,

[4:57] go through the gate instead of going over. So,

[5:00] » I don't have have any idea how much longer that's going to be. Like I told

[5:04] the board of supervisors, when you see the the equipment out there, don't get

[5:07] all excited. We're not we're not ready to go in there and put the interior

[5:10] roads in yet. You know, the the back of commission grant for the

[5:18] well update that's going to be uh we plan to do three wells and three

[5:23] different locations in the property. It's uh we're going to apply for the

[5:29] grant for uh tobacco commission. It's they're going to supply $192,000 and

[5:36] we're going to supply $192,000. That's why I wanted you to see the LGIP

[5:42] statement. We have the money. It's not a problem. And uh

[5:54] we have a draft resolution in here for the board of supervisors. We're not sure

[5:58] whether we'll need it for the uh for the back of company grant back

[6:05] the back of commission grant. Uh but uh

[6:11] it's always good to have resolution from the board of supervisors

[6:16] when you apply for a grant. So we have that ready for their August uh September

[6:22] meeting, August meeting. And uh so if we need it,

[6:27] we have it.

[6:32] That's all I have for the

[6:38] Commerce Park. And we talked about the tobacco commission grant

[6:44] and the draft resolution. GBC building update. That's still moving

[6:50] along very slowly. I'm sure Sam would tell you very slowly.

[6:55] uh still on our plate. Hopefully in the next month or so we'll

[7:00] have something for you.

[7:04] » Uh Gap Alliance, we had a meeting on the 28th of July.

[7:11] » We've uh come a long way. David's here to uh he's part of the rural resilience

[7:18] advisors. He and Liz put that together and here the

[7:24] umbrella we've gone through to uh have our redo our regional economic

[7:29] development organization we've decided on a name which is gap

[7:34] allowance alliance if you look at the map for uh

[7:39] state of Virginia Powan and Amelia we're in white

[7:44] everybody else was affiliated so now we're affiliated they this already told

[7:49] us they're good to redraw that map and put us in there. So that'd be

[7:58] » we decided to get the the design firm to work on a logo for us. They proposed to

[8:06] come up with six different logos for $150

[8:11] and uh we can choose the one. I'm sure we're getting

[8:16] pretty close to that now. So uh all these figures I'm giving you

[8:21] are uh are max figure I mean the total divided by three. So cost is $50 for

[8:28] that uh website design that uh price came down from our meeting. So now $650

[8:37] with free hosting for the first year and $99 a year after that if we wanted to

[8:42] keep hosting. So that uh

[8:48] that's $650 for the medium.

[8:55] Establish a URL www.gapallianceverirginia.com.

[9:00] We thank David for that. Not been populated yet, I don't think

[9:05] last time I was there, but it's there. Uh we're going to have an in-person

[9:11] meeting on September the 2nd with the Virginia BEDP in Richmond. Uh each one

[9:18] of the counties is going to have a little time to talk about what's going

[9:22] on in their county. We Neil was nice enough to put together three slides for

[9:26] us. And uh I looked at those last night. It looks pretty good.

[9:31] And the only thing it's going to cost us down there is lunch. And uh I don't know

[9:36] how much that's $25 to $35 a piece. And there' be two of us for a million. So

[9:41] $70 maybe. Can't imag $70.

[9:47] Um I got a thing down here on finances and

[9:53] $50 for the logo, 650 for the web, a total of $700.

[9:59] when we uh agreed to join the U

[10:06] redo, I took that as tested approval that we knew there was going to be some

[10:11] startup cost and that's why I went ahead and and told her we we pay our fair

[10:16] share for that and I don't know if you want to put a limit on what I can do on

[10:22] my own or you just want to trust me that I'm not going to spend all your money

[10:27] but uh you don't have to decide that today. I can't imagine anything coming

[10:32] up that would be too expensive.

[10:36] Fact the startup is is the only cost we've talked about.

[10:43] Really excited about what we've done so far. If we all

[10:49] remember when we were talking about the heritage thing out of

[10:54] Farmville, it was I don't think they've still done a whole

[10:58] lot of stuff, but a whole lot cheaper. At least 30, but I

[11:04] don't think we've ever gotten this done. We've got six people on the

[11:09] board of directors and I don't think they have 21.

[11:14] But that's a report. Anybody have any questions about that?

[11:20] you do anytime, just uh give me a call, send me a text.

[11:27] Any new business?

[11:32] All right, we'll move on to EDA 101 with Mr. Denny. Where would you like to

[11:38] stand? Are you going to put something up on the board?

[11:42] » I think I've got a slideshow. >> Okay.

[11:44] » I've been sitting in a car too long, so I'm going to stand up. location.

[11:47] » Well, I'm going to move down there so I can see that.

[12:00] » Okay, put that there. >> Um, well, first of all, thank you for

[12:04] letting me do this. This is uh kind of fun as if I don't often get to uh to

[12:10] educate anybody or work with anybody on new stuff. So, uh this is kind of fun.

[12:15] Uh, and I appreciate that and thanks for showing up uh, today. Uh,

[12:21] just a little bit of my background, just so you know, I didn't fall off the truck

[12:25] out of town. >> Um, I am a native of Danville, Virginia.

[12:31] Born and raised in Danville. And um, my dad was a banker, local banker. My mom

[12:36] was a housekeeper until we went to college and she figured she better go to

[12:40] work, keep us in Washington and Lee. So she did and she worked uh for Damble

[12:46] Concrete Products which was Danny Marshall's uh operations mom and dad we

[12:50] actually grew up together and so she worked with them in bookkeeping for a

[12:53] number of years and I went off to college and got a degree in geology of

[12:58] all things and then got a master's degree from Tennessee University of

[13:02] Tennessee and ended up in business. I was actually working for a gold company,

[13:07] an exploration company because a lot of people don't know that all the gold

[13:10] before the strikes out in cattle, California in the 1800s came from this

[13:15] belt from Delana, Georgia all the way up to Co Pepper, Virginia. It's called the

[13:18] Carolina slate belt. So, we were going in looking at a lot of the old gold

[13:22] claims. And my job was to go out in the field and do testing and take samples

[13:27] and stuff and try to avoid snakes because there was a bunch of them where

[13:30] I was working. you get out of the get out of the truck with your snake

[13:33] leggings and you could hear pop pop. So, and I hate snakes, but you know, I had

[13:38] to live with them. So, I did that for a while. Ended up in business and worked

[13:41] for engineering and architectural firms for about 20 years, 22 years in

[13:46] different marketing roles, but also as a senior project manager. I worked on

[13:50] infrastructure projects and site development projects and that kind of

[13:53] thing. But I always had this love and fascination about economic development.

[13:58] So I started we were living in Blackburg, Virginia. We lived there for

[14:02] 22 years. And I just got tired of of of being the

[14:06] overhead in a in a firm that every time the economy turned down a little bit,

[14:10] they'd say, "Well, you're overhead. Won't you get out of here?" So I decided

[14:14] I wanted to a work in economic development and two work for myself. So

[14:18] that way I could look in the mirror and yell at the boss all day and not get

[14:21] fired. But maybe not. So uh that's what I did 24 years ago. started my own

[14:26] economic development and small business practice, just consulting work, and had

[14:31] the opportunity um for 12 years to work with a a regional actually a southeast

[14:36] regional economic development organization called Sanford Holdouser

[14:40] Economic Development. And we did the whole gamut of of pretty large projects

[14:45] uh in economic development, including site location work for companies,

[14:49] especially foreign companies that were looking for a domestic uh location. Um

[14:55] but again I got restless with that and I'd known Liz Povar and many of you know

[14:59] Liz. I'd known Liz Povar for probably 30 some years and we had started working

[15:05] together because she started her own she left VDP and we started working together

[15:09] doing some c consulting work and we both had this feeling and this this desire

[15:13] and that was we want to work with rural localities and economic development

[15:18] because as you know rural areas and urban areas have the same desire when it

[15:23] comes to economic development. You want to create jobs and opportunity

[15:27] investment. The difference is capacity. And so what we try to do is to work uh

[15:34] with our rural areas in particular, but adjust our uh our fees and adjust our um

[15:40] fill in with uh with with your your staffing and that type of thing to add

[15:45] capacity and add uh you know some ump to your program. So that's what we do.

[15:50] We've been doing it now for two years. and uh we had this idea about a regional

[15:55] economic development uh organization and uh great that we've got three great

[16:00] members including Amelia County EDA and thank you for doing that. Uh and just as

[16:05] an aside, Bob, after this meeting, I'm going to Richmond because Liz and I are

[16:09] meeting with three vice presidents at BDP to talk about the GAP Alliance.

[16:13] » Good. >> We did three last four last week. We're

[16:16] doing three in person this week. So, I went up there for that meeting. So,

[16:20] anyway, thank thank you again. That's a a long preamble. I don't mean to be uh

[16:24] too too too much with that, but um what you do is extremely important. First of

[16:30] all, it it's a sacrifice. You take time from your from your work, from your

[16:34] life, from your family, and but it is a it is a noble thing that you're doing.

[16:40] Um, in Virginia, we have these economic development authorities, which are by

[16:44] statute established, and you've got a ton of different types of um of

[16:49] abilities that you have both borrowing money, issuing bonds, uh, leasing land,

[16:56] uh, leasing buildings to to tenants, all kinds of things that you can do. And the

[17:02] way I look at it, it's kind of a simple analogy for me because sometimes I have

[17:05] trouble get my head around things. If you think about it, the board of

[17:08] supervisors is almost like an architect. They're coming up with a concept and a

[17:13] design and they're putting some some specifications on this building they're

[17:17] trying to build, but they it doesn't happen until they get a builder or a

[17:20] developer and you're the building developer. You're where you're where the

[17:23] rubber meets the road and trying to develop things. So, it's a it's a good

[17:28] partnership. It needs to be a good partnership, but each has a role to play

[17:32] and your role is extremely important. It's more like a public private

[17:36] partnership for lack of a better word. So getting into this um oh got let me

[17:42] make sure I can make this work. That's always the challenge whenever you do

[17:46] these things. They're all different.

[17:52] Oh, I probably hit it backwards. Okay.

[18:00] » Trying to do something. Yeah, I'm trying to make it make it move, but it's not

[18:04] moving.

[18:10] » USB out here.

[18:16] Try again.

[18:26] I can move over. That's good.

[18:39] is trying to get through. >> Ah, there we go.

[18:44] » Yep. >> Are we going now?

[18:49] » Oh, yeah. Beautiful. It's a beautiful thing.

[18:52] So anyway, what we'll uh what I'd like to talk about today with you is uh you

[18:57] know the who, what, when and how of uh economic development and kind of the

[19:02] context of it. Want to look at some of the trends that are today and for the

[19:06] future because economic development is a process and economic development is

[19:10] constantly changing. Uh but what are the fundamentals? If you don't know the

[19:14] fundamentals, you can't go take the step up and and kind of go with the flow when

[19:19] things change. And thi finally partnerships roles and responsibilities

[19:24] are the next thing uh that we'll we'll talk about. Um

[19:30] if it's if you're agreeable um we got well quite a few slides. We've got a

[19:36] limited amount of time. So if you don't mind let me cover the slides and if you

[19:41] got a question just jot jot it down and at the end let's let's have a talk about

[19:45] and answer questions about those things. Uh but if you feel compelled to jump in,

[19:49] just jump in. Okay. But why economic development?

[19:54] Well, really there's three major players in economic development. First, they're

[19:59] companies. And companies are all about profit, sustainability. Where can I make

[20:04] money and how can I keep that com that flow coming? But for the citizens, it's

[20:09] all about quality of life and wealth creation. So, it's about having a good

[20:12] job. It's also about having the revenue in your local government who can do

[20:16] amenities uh to really make it a great place to live. And then of course for

[20:21] the government, it's all about services for CIS citizens creating better and

[20:25] stronger communities. So as you know, if you know company

[20:30] moves in or a person moves in, it adds to your your burden on your services. So

[20:35] you're going to have to increase your uh you know your water sewer service got to

[20:39] provide these different things. So, it's all about trying to get those services

[20:42] for the citizens, whether they're new or established, and create a better strong

[20:47] community.

[20:54] This is kind of the who, what, when, and where. Um, it's really important to know

[20:59] that economic development is not a oneall thing. It's not an announcement,

[21:04] even though, you know, it's great to have an announcement. It's not uh you

[21:08] know putting just water in somewhere. It is a process and it's uh it takes a lot

[21:14] of background work, a lot of hard work especially when it comes to developing

[21:18] sites and buildings as you're already already know about this. It's preaching

[21:22] to the choir. It just takes a while to do this. And I came from Danville and

[21:26] and and I've seen it firsthand. It's taken Barry Hill now is a successful

[21:32] » piece of property site but it has taken them 10 at least 15 20 years to get that

[21:38] to the point where they attract these types of big projects. So it does take a

[21:41] while to do that. So who leads this? Well really it's as I said it's a

[21:46] process but it's also a team thing. It's designated individuals. So it might be

[21:50] an economic developer local economic developer. It might be the EDA but

[21:54] there'll be a designated uh individual or organizations for that and again it's

[21:59] a process uh and influences the growth and structuring of economies

[22:05] and it's not something again that happens once. It is a marathon. It is

[22:10] not a sprint. It's a marathon. You you put your plans together. You work

[22:13] together. You work with your partners and you slowly surely you win the race.

[22:18] Um and it's done actually internationally. It's done on a country

[22:24] level, state level, regional level, and then local level. And each one of those

[22:30] levels uh are kind of to going towards the same goal, but in different ways

[22:34] with different responsibilities. And it's done through understanding of

[22:38] businesses um act proactively creating healthy climates for business

[22:43] development. Having a vision and goals, that's extremely important. You can't

[22:48] know where you're going to go until you have a vision where you want to go. Um,

[22:54] and you've got to partner it. You can't just do it all on your own. It all there

[22:58] are partners in anything you do in economic development. And then the best

[23:01] thing to do is to measure results and adapt your strategy. So if you've got

[23:05] that vision and strategy, monitor that, see how you're progressing on that. And

[23:11] that can be something as simple as a spreadsheet or it can be something as

[23:14] complex as a fiscal impact analysis. So those are all things very very important

[23:20] to to understand. The economic development process has got many layer

[23:24] layers of government including counties, cities and towns. Um so again hope you

[23:30] can see it's not a it's not a simplistic thing but it's it's something that uh I

[23:35] like to tell people this too. They're very I don't think there's only there

[23:39] might be only one degree in the whole country that you can get in economic

[23:43] development. Most people in economic development like me, they come from a

[23:48] very background either in business, planning, lots of different things, but

[23:54] they get into economic development. So to be honest with you, in some ways it's

[23:57] pretty simplistic. The fundamentals are kind of the same,

[24:02] but the the landscape changes and we'll talk about that some too.

[24:09] Here's some of the changes and I'm not going to go through each one of these

[24:12] but essentially on the left hand side these are the traditional economic

[24:17] development uh components. Um so and and they're still they're

[24:24] still fundamentals. They're still fundamental to what we do but things

[24:28] have changed over the years and they continue to change. You know, it used to

[24:32] be you just say, "Hey, we're open for business and we've got a bunch of

[24:36] incentives and you know, it's all about jobs, jobs, jobs and that's it." But now

[24:42] that has kind of morphed over. Yes, it's all those things. But it also, yeah, we

[24:47] want don't want just jobs and then they go away in five years. You know, how

[24:50] many how many times have you looked around the Commonwealth and seen a big

[24:54] company? I mean, Dan Dan River Mills, who thought Dan River Mills would ever

[24:58] go away? and it devastated my hometown. And so you don't want to put all your

[25:04] eggs in one basket, but it used to be, hey, just bring us jobs. We'll take it,

[25:07] you know, and then not look for the future. Now it's all about sustained

[25:10] growth. Give us the jobs, but tell us that you're you're sustainable and this

[25:13] and you can grow this thing. And it's very data driven. Everything these days

[25:17] are it's data driven. Um, you know, in the back in the old days, you could win

[25:23] things almost on a handshake or somebody a company rep says, "Oh, I like these

[25:27] people. They're really nice. I think we'll just we'll go there. Well, that

[25:30] doesn't happen anymore. It's very very datadriven.

[25:33] Um, and it's about competitiveness and productivity on the project deal side.

[25:39] You can read that. It's was really very very t tactical transactional. You want

[25:45] to come here? Yes, we do. Okay. We got a building over here. We'll sell it to you

[25:50] for this or hey, maybe we'll give it to you. That type of thing. Very

[25:54] prescription, very bricks and mortar oriented. And as I said, oneoffs and

[25:58] that's all changed. You yes, some of those factors are still there, but

[26:03] they've morphed into again focus more on sustained economic growth for the long

[26:09] term. And looking at human capital, you know, do you have do you have the right

[26:14] human capital? Do you have the right workforce? Do you have the not just the

[26:17] numbers, but you have the quality of the workforce?

[26:21] And then finally, swing for the ble bleachers.

[26:25] It used to be that everybody wanted that big deal. You got to have that big deal.

[26:30] Uh and or what's the next big thing? You know, is it chip manufacturer? I know we

[26:35] all went down the road in in uh Virginia about chip manufacturing.

[26:39] Um and it never really panned out the way they thought it was going to be.

[26:44] » And now it's all about, you know, entrepreneurial ecosystems. Yes, it's

[26:48] all about trying to find a good big solid project, but it's also about

[26:51] developing your own through economic through entrepreneurial development um

[26:57] resiliency uh benchmark to focus resources and regional and global

[27:01] growth. It's not just about my patch. It's also about what's good for the

[27:06] region is good for us. We can all benefit from that. So those are the

[27:10] things that that really have transitioned to make it a more dynamic

[27:15] and and sometimes a more complicated process in economic development.

[27:22] This is one that I I an issue that I especially uh like I guess because I did

[27:28] come from from business and I learned from some people who taught me

[27:33] that you got to have a business mindset for a lot of things in your life to

[27:37] really be successful. So you know what is a business mindset? Well, what are

[27:41] the costs of public services per household in your community? So that's

[27:45] part of an equation, a business equation. What are the taxes that are

[27:48] going to be paid in your community per household? Whether that's bringing in a

[27:52] company that will add to that tax base or and also adding, you know,

[27:58] calculating up what your households will pay. And then what's the gap? And the

[28:03] gap between the cost of public services and and the taxes collected is the

[28:07] primary reason we do economic development is to keep that keep that

[28:11] balance or to keep that uh in the pro side and the upscale side. Um

[28:19] so business taxpayers do fill that gap very well. Um and then you want to

[28:24] figure out you know what types of businesses can you attract to help fill

[28:28] that gap. you know, if you're only looking at a low wage uh low uh

[28:34] investment type of project, you need a lot of those to fill that

[28:38] gap. But maybe if you don't want the 500

[28:43] employee, $100 million project because you don't think you can support it,

[28:48] maybe the 50 million or 25 million with 50 employees or 100 employees is the way

[28:54] to go because still the formula, the business formula still works.

[29:00] the business case still worked. You want to fill that gap with some companies

[29:06] and a place like Amelia or other rural areas need can probably help fill that

[29:11] gap through some entrepreneurial work. Grow in place I call it. Uh there's some

[29:15] great examples of companies that started out as you know three or four people and

[29:21] uh had an idea got some good support from local folks and grew their business

[29:26] and they stayed and now they employ 50 100 150 people have been very

[29:31] successful. So, you know, in rural areas in particular, you got a lot of folks

[29:37] with a lot of great ideas, and it's just a matter of creating that ecosystem to

[29:41] help them develop themselves and grow themselves in place.

[29:50] And speaking of rural aspects of rural economic development, um

[29:56] you know it's the factors are lower population

[30:01] densities obviously longer distances between economic assets, stronger

[30:06] reliance on natural resources, agriculture, manufacturing, tourism,

[30:11] smaller budgets. We all know about those. The issue of brain drain and

[30:16] that's not just rural areas. It's also some of the areas like again that I came

[30:20] from uh kids couldn't wait to get out of high school and go somewhere sexy, you

[30:24] know, for lack of a better word. Um and then you sometimes you have that issue

[30:29] of the come here's versus the from here's. You know, the people who've been

[30:33] here, they don't want things to change necessarily, but you got a bunch of

[30:37] people moving in. They don't think they can just shake it up. And there's that

[30:40] tension sometime between those that that needs to be f uh fostered a solution to

[30:46] try to make everybody feel like they're they're from here eventually. Um and you

[30:52] got fewer institutional resources. So you don't have a four-year college

[30:55] anywhere. Uh what's the closest community college? Is it uh Southside

[31:01] over in Blackstone? I know they got a facility over Blackstone, but

[31:05] » Right Point. >> Yeah. So, yeah, that's close, but still

[31:09] it's not a large force four-year college or or or training

[31:14] facility. Um, and then of course you've got phil philanthropic organizations,

[31:21] you know, foundations like the Cameron Foundation over in Petersburg or

[31:25] » John Randolph. >> Yeah, exactly. You know, there's those

[31:28] foundations which can help you drive from a financial standpoint, those are

[31:32] often missing, too. Um, so rural areas have to devel have to rely on these

[31:39] relationships. It's really more relationbased and that's why this

[31:43] regional organization that you decided to join, I think is one of the reasons

[31:47] that Liz and I thought, hey, this might be a good idea. U because right now

[31:53] you're you're kind of the flagship or you're you're running it on your own and

[31:57] now you've got two more partners in this and you're complimentary. you have

[32:01] complimentary abilities and a regional organization has more uh influences when

[32:07] it comes to the state than you do individually. Um so all of these things

[32:13] are challenges in many ways. Uh but it's reality and in business or in any in

[32:21] economic development you have to deal with reality. How do you overcome or

[32:25] work around or how do you turn some of the realities into assets for yourself

[32:30] when you tell your stories? So challenges but plenty of opportunities

[32:35] too.

[32:39] You know I talked about the business's core needs and us all need need to think

[32:43] like a business. Uh very simple stuff. Uh they want a suitable location with

[32:49] reliable infrastructure. That's where that's where groups like yourself and

[32:54] your efforts really are so extremely important because you're trying to

[32:57] provide that. That's why they call it product. You know, in economic

[33:01] development, we say sites and buildings are product because at the end of the

[33:04] day, we're kind of selling those things to a company. You got to have that

[33:08] adequate supply of qualified workers. So, it's not just quantity, it's got to

[33:13] be qualified. And that's where your training programs, what's where your K

[33:16] through2 programs come into into play, the CTE programs, uh gok if you're in

[33:22] goatee, uh it's another great way to uh and rise is another one of doing

[33:27] workforce training. And you got to have a businessfriendly environment. Uh

[33:34] I won't name the county, but we recently we were trying to uh to do some

[33:40] consulting work in uh in a in a county in Virginia

[33:44] and the contract was I mean minuscule was like10 or $15,000 wasn't much but

[33:51] but they had a rule that we had to get a business license to do and I got think

[33:56] about say well what about if you're a contractor and you're coming in to you

[33:59] know do something or road do they have to a business license, too. They said,

[34:03] "Well, you don't have to pay us anything in taxes or anything, but you got to

[34:07] have a license." So, we had to pay a fee to get a license. It was great. You

[34:11] don't want to be that way. You want to make it as easy as possible, not give

[34:14] away the the farm, but you want to be as easy as possible to get companies to

[34:17] come in and see that you're businessfriendly

[34:21] » and reasonable cost of doing business. you know that are your are your water

[34:26] rates, you know, uh reliable or they the reasonable uh are are is a company

[34:33] paying its fair share and not being targeted to pay more than its fair

[34:36] share. So those types of things and then reliable and knowledgeable partners and

[34:41] that's where this uh we'll talk about business retention and expansion is a

[34:46] service that we offer in economic development and that's where this

[34:51] reliable knowledgeable partners really comes to four because if you're out

[34:54] visiting with companies and companies feel that you are truly a partner and

[34:58] looking out for them it's going to be a successful uh

[35:02] marriage. So doing those types of things

[35:08] So again, think like the client, the client being businesses.

[35:15] There's 16 key trends that are shaping the future. We talked about kind of

[35:20] where economic development was and you know what are the things that are uh the

[35:25] future of business of economic development. Um and there's a list. The

[35:29] red ones are the ones that that are really the the newest. they've happened

[35:32] in probably the last three years, two to three years and and into the future. You

[35:37] know, again, I talked about I think CO really was a stimulant for a lot of this

[35:42] entrepreneurial awakening. You had a lot of people who couldn't go into their

[35:46] jobs or came out of CO and said, I'm just disgusted with what I'm doing, but

[35:51] I got an idea. I really want like I want to work for myself. I want to work I

[35:55] want to be my boss and and put the pressure on myself. And there's a lot of

[35:59] that going on. a lot of entrepreneurial awakening, a lot of companies, a lot of

[36:02] individuals uh that are that are developing. And the other thing is

[36:07] workforce housing. And I think the important thing about workforce housing,

[36:10] I mean, it used to be if you had a prospect come in, you never talked about

[36:14] housing. They might ask, well, you know, where can we're going to move Bill down

[36:18] from Miss Minnesota, can you get me in touch with a realtor for a house? You

[36:23] know, they never thought about this. But if you don't have good housing and a

[36:27] variety of houses, you're going to be challenged with the workforce because at

[36:31] the end of the day, if you bring a company in and you don't have enough

[36:36] local workforce, the workforce is going to come somewhere. Well, one of the

[36:40] goals ought to be, well, let's get them to come down here and buy a house and

[36:43] live here while they work in this new factory instead of commuting down an

[36:47] hour or whatever it might be. And workforce housing should not be

[36:51] construed as a uh as subsidized housing. It it's it's about having houses that

[36:58] are not the upper end of the market or the other end of the market but in the

[37:03] the market the area of the market that workers who are working in a factor

[37:07] whether in management whether line workers whatever they may they've got

[37:11] opt they've got enough quantity of affordable houses that they can live in.

[37:17] child care is is something that's that's relatively new in the in the mix when it

[37:22] comes to talking to prospects. And I think back to uh time when we were

[37:26] living in Blackburg, I was uh working doing some work or actually had an

[37:30] office at the corporate research center there in Blackburg and they had a great

[37:34] idea. They said, you know, we've got all these really smart people and we've got

[37:38] these spouses who've moved down with their husbands. They're, you know, at

[37:41] tech and they have nothing to do. You know, they they want something to do.

[37:45] maybe they they get a secretarial job, whatever it might be, but they can't

[37:49] really do those things without child care. So, Virginia Tech Corporate

[37:54] Foundation, which runs the CRC, teamed up with a child care provider and they

[38:00] built the CRC built the facility and the childcare operation

[38:05] operated it. And so, that was something that they offered businesses that wanted

[38:10] to move into the CRC. And it was great. And this was, you know, 10 years ago. So

[38:15] with child care is a big deal because it it frees up workforce. If if if if

[38:20] parents know they've got good child care in the area site develop ready

[38:24] development, you know, it used to be got a green field piece of property. A

[38:29] company would come, they say, "Oh, that's a great piece of property. Okay,

[38:32] buy that property or you give it to me and I'll I'll set my place up here."

[38:36] That doesn't work anymore. They're looking for site ready things. In

[38:40] Virginia, we have this Virginia business ready site program and it has a tiered

[38:44] system by readiness. So one is just a piece of land, a green piece of land

[38:49] normally that's controlled by who? A public entity usually with number five.

[38:55] It's got all the infrastructure in it. It's got I mean you can have a company

[38:59] up and running in 12 to 14 months essentially a construction you know

[39:05] construction cycle. So it is ready to go. So there's a lot of emphasis on

[39:10] trying to move these up and that that that chain that re that that uh tier

[39:15] one, two, three, four, and five is a great strategy or a road map for you to

[39:22] make each progress until you get to number five. Um health care, you know,

[39:27] again, it's kind of like the uh child care side of things. You've got to have

[39:31] good health care. Um and u you know, that could that can be many things. That

[39:37] can be local clinics. That can be ready access to a major hospital. It can be a

[39:43] lot of things. But Liz and I just started a project over in the coal

[39:47] fields of of West Virginia. And I never thought in a country that's,

[39:52] you know, as rich as we are that you'd have counties that don't even have a

[39:56] doctor's office. They don't have a dentist's office. They don't have eye

[40:01] specialists. They don't have anybody. So if they want if they get sick and have

[40:05] anything or even routine stuff, they have to get in a car and drive an hour

[40:08] and a half to Bluefield. So you having some type of access

[40:14] is a minimum. Having good health care is really essential. And then federal and

[40:19] state policies. So you know, I'm not going to get into federal and state

[40:23] policies too much. You know, like now they're all around energy. They're

[40:27] around tariffs. It's it's all the stuff that affects how we are able to develop

[40:33] things and how we're able to attract businesses. So that's the importance of

[40:37] it and that used to not really come in at all. And then I've mentioned energy

[40:41] and there's just this whole issue about energy about supply but also about

[40:45] turnaround times and getting substations in all that stuff. So energy and then

[40:50] you know your mix of energy and is it reliable or not. So these are all things

[40:54] that are are new that have to be considered. Um, and things that aren't

[41:00] going to go away, they're going to continue. The the list here may change

[41:03] over the next five years where other things are emphasized and some things

[41:07] are less emphasized. But still, the bottom line is that

[41:12] that it's ever changing and just to be aware of what the changes

[41:18] are will help a lot, I think, uh, as you move forward.

[41:24] Um, without a lot of commentary, there's still f four fundamentals of economic

[41:29] development. And, uh, at the top of this is the sexy one.

[41:37] You know, everybody wants that big announcement to have the governor come

[41:41] down and do all that stuff. So, it's business attraction. That's where you're

[41:44] trying to bring new companies into the area.

[41:48] Second was grow your own. That's more the entrepreneurial side of things.

[41:53] Um, and we talked a little bit about that

[41:57] business expansion. And this one is is extremely important. It goes back to

[42:02] what I talked about earlier, being a good partner and understanding your

[42:05] local companies that exist and having a good relationship with them and being

[42:09] supportive. There was a stat statistic in economic

[42:13] developers have used for decades that used to be that the the number was 80%

[42:20] 75% of your new new business your your jobs and investment

[42:26] comes from u 20% of the businesses

[42:33] and now it's 80 you know it's 8020 now we're 7525 so the majority of new

[42:39] business new jobs and investment come from existing business, but it's not as

[42:43] sexy. The good news is it's a low it's a lower cost. It's it's lower cost because

[42:49] essentially at the end of the day, it's about time. It's having someone go out

[42:53] and sit down with companies and do things for companies and have events for

[42:58] companies and all those things to build that relationship and to help them if

[43:02] they're having issues, try to help them with those issues or to learn that, you

[43:07] know, maybe they've got a supplier who is not in your in this area. Well, why

[43:12] don't we talk about trying to attract your supplier here to supply you, get a

[43:16] little closer, you both win with that. So that's extremely important part of

[43:20] this and that's why it's bigger part of the pyramid. And then the last part is

[43:25] placemaking and tal for talent. And more and more um whether it's

[43:32] entrepreneurial or whether it's a higher tech business whatever it might be the

[43:37] new workers the generational workers having a great place lots of different

[43:42] amenities and activities and fun whether it be outdoor stuff whether that be uh

[43:48] you know events that they go to. That's it's

[43:53] important to have a place that your workers who want might want to come in

[43:58] and work say, "Hey, this is a great place to live. So, I won't commute 60

[44:02] miles or an hour or whatever to this. I I'll go ahead and move there." And oh,

[44:06] by the way, they they have affordable housing, so I can buy a house now. So,

[44:10] it's all interrelated. Uh and just in kind of put this in

[44:15] perspective about cost and efforts. a business attraction has the most time

[44:20] involved, the most cost involved, but you usually get the biggest bang for

[44:25] your buck. You know, you you'll get more attention and that helps attract other

[44:30] companies in. Also, grow your own. It takes a lot of of handholding and stuff

[44:35] and sometimes uh unfortunately if if those companies can make it two years,

[44:40] they're usually going to be okay and then they can grow from there. It's that

[44:43] first two years which are are difficult and they need a lot of support. So you

[44:47] may have support organizations like the small business development center uh

[44:52] rise uh might be another one but and then expansion the business expansion

[44:56] we've talked about that that's mainly a time issue but less cost but you get a

[45:01] really big bang for your buck if you can keep your companies happy and keep them

[45:04] growing and then placemaking for talent that really is a shared thing with your

[45:08] chamber of commerce with your parks and reccks uh with all kinds of different

[45:13] partners on that u and it just takes um and it takes a little bit of money to

[45:18] get that moving forward.

[45:24] You know, I talked about um a little bit about placemaking and talent attraction.

[45:30] Uh it fuels the econ's health. Uh it's live here and work here, work there. It

[45:36] it allows you to live here and work here. You can if you can attract and

[45:41] make your place making your talent attractive. Um,

[45:45] and then I got some there's some uh links on here and I'm just going to talk

[45:50] about get to Rono, the one at the bottom,

[45:54] because I think Rono is an extremely good example of how this can work. You

[46:00] know, Ron, Virginia was a railroad town. That's why it was founded all actually

[46:05] was big at one point, but then the railroad came in. So the railroad built

[46:09] it and but then the railroad started

[46:13] pulling out and things didn't look that great. Their manufacturing base was

[46:17] okay, but it wasn't that great. They made a decision that they wanted to

[46:23] really emphasize their outdoor amenities as a place.

[46:27] And um so they've got the river there, they've got the mountains and they they

[46:32] started consciously that was their vision. that consciously said, "Okay,

[46:36] we're going to start pushing ourselves as a great place to come and live to

[46:41] attract the talent and also at the same time we're working to bring new

[46:44] businesses in." So, this is a website that they've created and

[46:52] essentially it, if you get a chance, write this down, write that down and try

[46:57] to go look at it because it it's a pretty amazing thing. They talk about I

[47:01] mean it's they've got lots of different things on there, but they've got a site

[47:04] and explains why somebody should want to live there. They've got tools for

[47:09] housing to find housing. They've got job announcements from the area, you know,

[47:15] who's hiring, what kind of jobs are on there. They show all the recreational

[47:20] activities and amenities around the place, around the the the county and the

[47:25] town. They show all the cultural and community events, etc., etc., et, etc.

[47:30] They really lay out why Rono is such a great place for you to come in and work.

[47:38] And it is it has really turned that place around. You go there now and it it

[47:41] it has a whole different feel to it uh than when I used to visit my

[47:46] grandfather. He was a machinist at uh Schaer's Crossing for 45 years on the

[47:51] North and Western and it has changed so much since those days. So it's just an

[47:57] idea of that you can take for the future is to really try to develop that place

[48:03] uh because it is important as you're trying to attract the quality and the

[48:08] quantity of workforce as well as growing your own. Another thing on the

[48:12] placemaking side and I'll just give you a little bit of side. These are some are

[48:16] some localities rural localities have really taken this to heart and been

[48:20] successful with it. And I'm familiar with the Crooked Road because I lived in

[48:24] Southwest Virginia for 22 years and uh work worked with some folks on Crooked

[48:30] Road stuff along with some uh tourism related to the wilderness road.

[48:37] But what I don't how many people have ever heard of the Cricut Road or been on

[48:41] the Cricut Road? Anybody? Okay. We had all of these little towns and rural

[48:47] areas starting in Rocky Mount, Virginia, and going up to Dickinson County to

[48:53] Chipwood, not Clintwood. Um, Clintwood is the home of um, oh

[49:01] gosh, and it just lo just lost one of the big blueg grass stars. He been

[49:05] around forever, but he's dead now. I'll remember it at the end and I'll I'll

[49:09] tell you Ralph Stanley. Thank you. Thank you. it just went away. But Reverend

[49:15] Reverend Stanley was uh was from that area. But along the way, you had Floyd,

[49:20] you know, Floyd is known for its music and it's got venues there for uh like

[49:25] Floyd Country Store every Friday night. Go down downtown Floyd and it's it's

[49:29] amazing. Rocky Mount, you got the Harvester, you know, the Harvester. I

[49:33] was Rocky Mount was one of my clients when I was working for an engineering

[49:37] firm and I was there when they developed the harvester. It's a phenomenal place

[49:41] to go to hear music. And there's all kinds of bluegrass and country music and

[49:45] everything going along around town. So, somebody had the idea, why don't we link

[49:49] up all of these different little towns along this route and it goes up Route 8

[49:54] and then I think it goes up 58. But anyway, it goes from Rocky Mount to

[49:58] Clintwood and they have uh all the music venues, they have events going on, they

[50:05] have museums, they have just a lot of different arts and crafts and they built

[50:10] everything, branded it around this Cricut Road concept and what it's done

[50:14] for the lo localities that the that the Crooked Road passes through is

[50:18] phenomenal. No, it's not, you know, millions of dollars of investment or

[50:23] anything like that, but it gets tourists coming through the area spending their

[50:26] money. Who knows? You might have somebody who

[50:30] is a a bluegrass fan who owns a company in the Northeast and is tired of the

[50:35] Northeast and they like what they see. That happened in Radford, Virginia, many

[50:39] years ago. Um, you had somebody coming down the interstate and he liked Radford

[50:44] when he stopped to have lunch, so he put his factory there. it. So these things

[50:48] do work and you're familiar with Virginia Civil War trails because I

[50:51] think the trails come through here. So I can't really speak about how successful

[50:55] that's been from an economic standpoint. Fields of Gold is another one though.

[50:58] It's it's in the Shannro Valley thing and what they decided to do was they had

[51:03] all these small farms and big farms and farm stands and ice cream dairies and

[51:09] all this stuff. So they put together this this uh

[51:14] this organization called Fields of Gold and it essentially is agurism

[51:19] and it's been and they've got websites they got materials they things going on

[51:24] they've got members who join who are farmers and and dairymen and that type

[51:29] of thing. And it's been extremely successful in attracting

[51:33] tourists to the area who do nothing but come just to go around to these

[51:36] different places and get homemade ice cream and, you know,

[51:40] buy stuff. And so it's it's that type of thing that really anybody can do as long

[51:46] as you got an idea, but it takes some time to organize. But at the end of the

[51:50] day, it's all about trying to attract. Number one is to help develop rural

[51:56] entrepreneurs who can be on these trails. uh and supply different things,

[52:01] but it's also about trying to get tourism into your area to build your

[52:06] local economies. Um talked about business retention and

[52:11] expansion. This is the high percentage of new jobs

[52:15] and capital investments come from existing business. Um this is really the

[52:21] responsibility of the local government. Uh the Commonwealth Virginia does

[52:26] actually have a a essentially a VR program and they have regional folks who

[52:32] come down working with localities to go visit companies. So it is a partnership

[52:36] between the state Virginia Economic Development Partnership and the local

[52:40] but really the the owners is really on the local folks because you know your

[52:45] businesses better than anybody else. And um

[52:51] and as you can see it's there's some things the retention of capital base

[52:55] secures your tax revenue. The outreach is costefficient

[53:00] essentially. You just go put on a schedule. You go out and sit down with

[53:03] somebody or you take them to lunch and have a discussion about their business.

[53:05] You do that on a quarterly basis or every six months whatever the frequency

[53:10] is. And it's really the opportunity to identify problems before they come

[53:14] unsolvable. The last thing you want is just to wake up one day and your local

[53:19] local factory, your local business has said, "Well, we're shutting down

[53:21] tomorrow." When they may have had a problem for a while and if you knew

[53:25] about the problem, you might be able to reach out to some other partners and and

[53:29] get some help for them. Um, gives you the opportunity to validate

[53:34] the fact that you, hey, I believe our business climate is great. We're doing

[53:38] great here. We're not really supportive. Well, they may tell you, well, yeah, in

[53:42] most areas you are, but maybe you need to work on this particular area in

[53:45] particular. So, that's very important. Uh,

[53:50] and they create business champions. I think this is a is one of the premier

[53:55] reasons that you should be out working with your businesses because businesses

[53:59] can not only support things that happen in your community if they're happy with

[54:05] the community and become your champions, but also when a company comes and looks,

[54:10] they're going to pay attention to what the local business owners have to say.

[54:15] And if you got a good business champion for your locality, that is golden on a

[54:20] uh on a prospect visit. And um you can create a professional

[54:26] service team that is creative and customer focused. Uh and that could be,

[54:30] you know, architects, engineers, whatever your needs may be. If they're

[54:35] in the area, you can, you know, you need somebody to come out and and do survey

[54:39] or to do design and they're you've got a good relationship with them. That's one

[54:43] reason to go out and talk to those types of folks. Also,

[54:49] and this is just an example. If you get a chance sometime, take a look at

[54:53] Frederick Frederick County. That's up in the upper Shannidora Valley. I guess

[54:57] that would be down the valley because it's north, but they call it down the

[55:02] valley. But they made a decision that they were not going to focus on business

[55:06] attraction because they had a really good

[55:10] factoring base already. They were going to just focus on call teams to visit

[55:14] local businesses and communicate training resources, expansion assistant

[55:19] opportunities, problem solving, all those types of things. And it's really

[55:23] been amazingly successful for them. Um, they've got a track record of

[55:29] facilitating financial and workforce training assistance and expanding their

[55:33] companies. And those are all the figures that they use, you know, the capex uh

[55:37] for expansion of businesses and that type of thing.

[55:41] Um so it's been very successful. It's u you know again you have to kind of put

[55:47] that this is just an example but it is a I say a supercharged example it because

[55:53] they do have such a broad manufacturing base. If you don't have that much

[55:57] manufacturing base, you're not going to achieve those types. But you are going

[56:00] to keep your companies and you keep expanding your companies in place, which

[56:04] is really a goal. And it's something that can be done with not a lot of

[56:09] money, but with some effort. Of course, we talked a little bit about

[56:14] the econ the entrepreneurial side of things. Um, and again, that's long-term,

[56:19] but it can create businesses. Um, it's got to be systematic, have a systematic

[56:24] approach to this. that uses not just your resources. Most

[56:29] of the resources to help support these early uh early businesses and

[56:34] entrepreneurs come from the region or from the state. They might come from a

[56:38] university. They may come college, small business development center, uh like I

[56:43] say, rise, those types of of uh business support organizations or SCORE, who is a

[56:50] organization of retired executives and that can always be a good resource to to

[56:56] help with that. Um and you're part of the rise region uh rise region in

[57:01] southern Virginia, I believe. So do have that program available. It's a really

[57:06] good ecosystem that's coordinated through Southern Virginia Innovation

[57:10] Center and it's it's supported by Mid-Atlantic Broadband staff. So, they

[57:14] have some staffing to help out too. And they use fund they've got funding from

[57:18] Go Virginia and some other federal partners that keeps them clicking along.

[57:24] I think the important thing is to to get those resources to the entrepreneur and

[57:29] don't ask the entrepreneur to drive 45 minutes or an hour to go because you

[57:32] they're trying to build their business. That's that's the goal is to get them to

[57:35] build and sustain their business. So if you can get those support to them,

[57:40] that's that's golden. Uh do everything you can. It's kind of like with the

[57:46] bigger business, do everything you can to help them grow, help them sustain.

[57:50] The challenges are, you know, they are going to be influenced by the quality of

[57:53] place. Uh you know, it's it's that's kind of it kind of makes me laugh. You

[57:58] know, we went through this phase where every town wanted to have a coffee shop

[58:01] because that's what all these millennials they want a coffee shop. So

[58:06] there's that then in a micro brewery. >> You got those two, you got it made. Uh

[58:12] entrepreneurials are typically require really expensive

[58:16] support networks and that's where those agencies and organizations I just

[58:20] mentioned come in into play. Um, again, if you can get them past the first two

[58:25] years, they be they're going to be golden. They they've got a good idea.

[58:30] They've got a good business model. Things are working and they can grow

[58:32] from there. But it's that first two years, which is really tough. And you

[58:37] just have to have significant significant staff uh is necessary and

[58:41] sometime with limited rewards. It takes some patience, too. But I do go back and

[58:46] and here's some examples of some of the entrepreneurial stuff.

[58:51] One of my gigs in projects was I was hired to be the executive director under

[58:57] contract with the Greater Williamsburg Partnership and that was uh James City

[59:03] County, York County and City of Williamsburg and they had a facility and

[59:08] a program called Launchpad and Launchpad uh gave is and it's still

[59:14] in existence but they've expanded some they're now down they've got an

[59:17] operation down in Hampton Road somewhere.

[59:19] But they give work fa workspace u guidance mentoring those types of

[59:25] things. Um they have partners that they uh hook companies up who are in

[59:30] launchpad that could be SCORE. Hampton Roads has a group and William and Mary

[59:35] because they're located in next to William and Mary. They have guest

[59:38] speakers, memberships, seed funds. But what what really was encouraging for

[59:43] me when I worked there for I was with them for about two and a half three

[59:47] years. There were two guys who came into

[59:50] Launchpad and paid their their money to have a little office space there. They

[59:54] were called SBT Robotics and they started out with two people and

[59:59] they they now are worldwide and this has been only in eight years but they

[1:00:05] started out there. They got support. They got what they needed. They got seed

[1:00:09] money. They got connections. They got all of those things. And what they do is

[1:00:13] they do robotic integration. So if you got a factory that's got 10 different

[1:00:17] brands of robots in it and they all have to talk a different language, they've

[1:00:21] created a way that all these robots can work as a unit. They they understand

[1:00:25] each other through through these SD robotic systems. And it's phenomenal.

[1:00:30] They just announced that they have a worldwide uh contract with DHL, which is

[1:00:36] the big international freight carrier because they use, you know, robots

[1:00:39] everywhere. And this shows you what can happen if you give people and

[1:00:45] entrepreneurs with a good idea, the right kind of support,

[1:00:50] this is what can happen. And so they employ, you know, hundreds of people

[1:00:53] now. And they're global. when they started out as a twoperson firm eight

[1:00:57] years ago in Launchpad. So, it's a great success story, I think, and a good

[1:01:02] model.

[1:01:06] Business attraction, this again is the one that gets the most

[1:01:10] attention. The press and the governor and everybody else gets so excited about

[1:01:14] it. Um, it does increase the size of the local economy. That's a benefit. It

[1:01:19] diversifies the tax base and employment base. And there's another county uh

[1:01:24] actually within in the new region u and I'm not going to mention names because I

[1:01:28] probably shouldn't but it's Paul public. They their tax uh tax uh uh mix was

[1:01:36] really offkilter. Uh they were 75% residential

[1:01:42] and about 25% commercial. Well 20% commercial 5% industrial.

[1:01:47] And they knew they couldn't keep doing that. And so this is where the board of

[1:01:52] supervisors worked with the EDA and board of supervisors said, "We want the

[1:01:57] mix to change." And no, we can't do it overnight, but we want to change it so

[1:02:01] that we've got a higher amount of industrial and and commercial than we

[1:02:06] have now, less in our tax revenue coming from residential. So they put everything

[1:02:11] in motion around that concept for the next three to five years. This is our

[1:02:15] goal. They've got percentages, but I don't even remember what the percentages

[1:02:19] were. But that's what the diversification of the of the base does.

[1:02:24] It it helps uh helps increase uh your tax revenues in certain areas and still

[1:02:31] uh being so you're able to provide the services that need it. And it's the most

[1:02:35] visible result of economic development. Like I said, it's when the governor gets

[1:02:38] on the, you know, on comes down and everybody gets very excited and all the

[1:02:44] local officials get excited and EDA gets excited and everybody gets excited.

[1:02:50] The challenge is though it is the most competitive. I think there's something

[1:02:53] like trying to remember 11,000 economic development organization organizations

[1:02:58] in the US alone. And when we're talking about attraction,

[1:03:03] we're not talking about just the US. your competition is global. And you look

[1:03:08] at all of the countries around the world that have strong economic development uh

[1:03:13] programs, they're trying to get that company to move here to England or

[1:03:18] wherever instead of coming to Amelia County. So it's extremely competitive

[1:03:23] and it's it you really have to think about how do you position yourself

[1:03:28] not only with uh what you talk about in your assets but what are your goals

[1:03:33] because you know back in the old day well when Amazon announced that they

[1:03:38] were going to have this competition. I was in Richmond with the uh at a we were

[1:03:45] in up in DC and I was on a mission with Virginia Economic Development

[1:03:49] Partnership and the the manager I was with got

[1:03:54] called back to Richmond because I Amazon had just announced that

[1:03:59] they wanted to have an that HQ2 competition

[1:04:03] » and all of a sudden every locality in Virginia

[1:04:08] » was sending fruit baskets was you doing this and I I told the president or the

[1:04:13] CEO of BDP said you really need to put the lid on this and expectations not

[1:04:18] every local very few of these localities are going to get anywhere and they're

[1:04:22] get so worked up and their boards are getting worked up and they're telling

[1:04:25] the economic developers you you got to go get this and it's not going to

[1:04:29] happen. So it's it's it's about being intentional about who you go after and

[1:04:36] making sure that it fits your community. Uh it is generally an expensive

[1:04:41] strategy. Uh you know you you're already witnessing that with trying to develop

[1:04:45] your product, your site, your your your your your

[1:04:50] park. Um and you got to have a lot of elements in place to reduce the risk for

[1:04:56] the business client. Um, and there's just a bunch of different criteria that

[1:05:01] are are some of those things that need to be in place in order to get to be a

[1:05:06] tier five ready for business type of company. So, it takes a lot of work. It

[1:05:11] doesn't mean you can't have success somewhere along that path. But if you

[1:05:16] want to be top in class and you want to get the most attention, got a lot of

[1:05:21] things to put in place or to uh explain as an asset that you have or one that

[1:05:27] needs to be developed further. Really partnerships are key and I think

[1:05:33] about anything that you do. It's hard to be the lone wolf and go your own.

[1:05:38] uh and economic development is extremely important because business is the center

[1:05:42] cog that makes the world go around in our in economic development but you've

[1:05:47] got a state you've got regional you got locality you got nonprofits and you got

[1:05:51] the fed all of those have a role to play and all those influence

[1:05:55] uh how things work no single entity can do it by itself and always remember the

[1:06:01] business is the center of everything I want to we're getting close to

[1:06:07] wrapping here. Um, but I think it is important to understand the Virginia way

[1:06:11] because we are unique in how we do economic development in Virginia. Um,

[1:06:17] we're very much based on a state to region to locality model. So,

[1:06:23] Commonwealth Virginia uh they u

[1:06:30] they they go out and market for the world. They they market and say,

[1:06:33] "Listen, Virginia is the top place to be. this is where you want to create

[1:06:38] your your opportunities, your sustainabilities, and they they talk

[1:06:41] about all of our assets and they talk about talk about the the business

[1:06:44] climate and all those types of things. But what happens if they get a prospect

[1:06:50] in they get a company says, you know, well, we're interested interested in

[1:06:54] Virginia and we need, you know, certain size site and we eventually want this

[1:06:59] size building and we need this kind of workforce and we need they have a whole

[1:07:02] criter list of criteria. They reach out through the regional

[1:07:06] groups and there I think now with the addition of the gap alliance I think

[1:07:10] there are 19 economic development regions in Virginia and these are all

[1:07:16] organizations that come together for a variety of different reasons.

[1:07:20] Sometimes it's because they have a common culture sometimes it's because of

[1:07:24] geography. Sometimes because of both. So there's lots of different reg reasons

[1:07:28] for doing that. But the but this the Commonwealth once they get that lead and

[1:07:33] they may vetted it a little bit and say, "Well, we think that the GAP Alliance is

[1:07:37] a good regional bridge, they'll come to the GAP Alliance and say, "We've got

[1:07:41] this prospect that this is what they're interested in." And then it's our job to

[1:07:46] funnel that down to our local members and work with our local members in a

[1:07:49] support uh staff in a support situation. And if the local member has got

[1:07:56] everything that's needed, we work with them to get that back up to

[1:08:00] the state and then presents that to the prospect. And eventually the goal is to

[1:08:03] try to get them interested enough to come the company interested enough to

[1:08:07] come and visit. And that's when the hard work starts.

[1:08:11] The rest of the work with the the preliminary work on the regional basis

[1:08:15] and on the local basis to make sure you got all your data in line that you got a

[1:08:19] good team together. you kind of got a philosophy or a strategy of how you

[1:08:22] would handle a prospect visit. Who needs to be at those visits? What do you want

[1:08:27] to show them while you're here? How do you highlight and hit all the things

[1:08:31] that are really important to them like workforce, like housed, like sites and

[1:08:35] buildings, all those things. So, it is really a team sport. if you

[1:08:41] and I, you know, I live in North Carolina and North Carolina is not like

[1:08:45] this and no other states are like this because North Carolina did used to have

[1:08:50] regional groups and they were actually funded by the state, but they did away

[1:08:54] with those. Shoot, I came on board with Sanford. This was my first project with

[1:08:59] Sanford Holtzhouser was uh advantage west which was a bunch of counties in

[1:09:05] and the city of Asheville out the western part and they brought me on to

[1:09:11] help them understand how they could fund raise because they were going to lose

[1:09:14] all their state funding. So the state does not fund regional groups anymore.

[1:09:18] They're coming back kind of like Virginia is because we're all

[1:09:20] self-funded. The regional groups are all self-funded. They're not funded by the

[1:09:24] state. But u you know they just have a

[1:09:28] different model. Georgia has a different model. They all do. But we've worked

[1:09:32] this way and it's worked very well for us. But it's all about having strategic

[1:09:36] vision and action plan attraction new business existing business retention

[1:09:40] expansion marketing and promotion the product development business formation

[1:09:46] tourism workforce all the other things that we've talked about within that

[1:09:50] Virginia way. We cover all those bases in lots of different ways.

[1:10:00] And this slide is generally the primary roles and responsibilities for each of

[1:10:05] those uh those uh levels that I just mentioned in the Virginia waste system.

[1:10:11] Um and it really a lot of it depends on

[1:10:15] really solid communication settlement as you'll see

[1:10:19] you're let's start on the right hand side with the state. The state as I said

[1:10:22] there's marketing responsible for business climate the state business

[1:10:27] climate strategies to focus like workforce broadband transportation big

[1:10:31] one research supply chains making sure that we got a

[1:10:36] good supply chain for a lot of different types of businesses and then helping to

[1:10:41] create funding sources like the go Virginia program or the tobacco

[1:10:44] commission those types of things and then on the regional as we talked about

[1:10:49] it's about trying to put together work force story. So it's not about an

[1:10:53] individual locality member telling a workforce story is trying to find the

[1:10:58] consolidation of the three members in our new gap alliance. How does that work

[1:11:03] story look? Because you know to be honest with you most companies don't

[1:11:06] start out looking at a locality. They start out looking at a state and then

[1:11:10] they look at a region and region is where you can begin to make a good

[1:11:13] regional pitch that gets their attention. Uh we the region focuses on

[1:11:19] higher education infrastructure etc etc etc and on the local level it's all

[1:11:24] about real estate your infrastructure especially the broadband early education

[1:11:29] K through 12 the local tax policy quality of life is a big one we talked a

[1:11:34] lot about that the existing businesses you know you got a good business uh

[1:11:39] ecosystem where where in your locality and do you have good relationships with

[1:11:44] them and then stakeholders and champions ions. That could be your your local

[1:11:48] bank. That could be uh business champions who who tout doing business

[1:11:53] here. That could be the church uh religious structure. It could be a lot

[1:11:59] of different folks or stakeholders and champions for your locality.

[1:12:08] And you can only have success in economic development if you have a

[1:12:11] shared vision at the local level. Um, and you you can read these, you know, it

[1:12:19] really is about sharing, flexible long-term strategies,

[1:12:26] being committed to confidentiality. That's a big deal with companies uh and

[1:12:30] actually with the state too. Company are you you get an opportunity.

[1:12:36] It's it's always good to keep that to yourselves until something really

[1:12:40] happens because you don't want to have the egg on your face

[1:12:43] uh if if things don't work out or the company finds out that something that

[1:12:47] should be confidential is widely known. They will turn around and run the other

[1:12:51] way. Got to have good communication strategies in place between your

[1:12:55] partnership and partners. Uh stakeholders have to be engaged and you

[1:13:01] have to commit resources which are staff and funding uh to make that happen.

[1:13:06] I think that really the shared leadership and shared vision or

[1:13:10] leadership and vision in a fundamental way comes down to two

[1:13:15] entities. That's your elected officials and your EDNA.

[1:13:20] You need to be on the same page. You need to have regular communication.

[1:13:25] Share ideas. may not always agree 100% on everything, but have that dialogue

[1:13:29] and be able to communicate with each other and come to a shared vision and

[1:13:34] move forward together. Everywhere you look, they have that good line of

[1:13:38] communication, that good partnership, that shared vision that's successful.

[1:13:42] And believe me, I we see plenty of places that where that does not happen

[1:13:46] and they are suffering. So sometimes we have to park we have to

[1:13:52] park ourselves at the curb, our egos at the curb and bite a little humble pie,

[1:13:56] but it's it it it helps it helps a lot to have that single vision and that

[1:14:01] single effort together to move forward. Um things like having meetings on a

[1:14:07] regular basis with your counterparts or joint planning. I don't know if you guys

[1:14:11] do workshops, especially when the budget's coming up and stuff. if you

[1:14:15] have workshops or planning sessions or anything like that, but that's also a

[1:14:19] really good way to try to come to the single vision and share the load.

[1:14:26] I'm not going to read this. I mean, it's it's stating it's stating the obvious. I

[1:14:31] think that it's important that the board of supervisors has a role and as I said,

[1:14:35] it's analogous to me to an architect. They're designing, they're putting

[1:14:39] specifications. EDA has uh the hammer and the nails and

[1:14:45] the power equipment to build it. And you can't have a great building if you

[1:14:51] don't have both of those. And they've got to have a shared vision of what that

[1:14:55] building's going to look like. Um you know, again, you've got a lot of

[1:15:00] powers with the statutes that you have for setting this up.

[1:15:05] It's again ensure alignment with the county and communicate communicate

[1:15:10] communicate and serve as the integrator of stakeholder views and that's not only

[1:15:15] just government but it's also your business community you're the ones who

[1:15:18] can kind of bring all the conversations together into into a vision and

[1:15:22] collaboration partnerships and I believe

[1:15:28] that is it so I know that was a lot to cover

[1:15:33] I think if I To sum it up, it's this. It there's some fundamental things that

[1:15:39] will be here forever. There's some new things that are influencing how we do

[1:15:44] economic development. It's all about having partners and and

[1:15:49] having good relationship, having common visions. And it's also about just

[1:15:53] rolling your sleeves up. And it's it's also about asking for help. If if you

[1:15:56] think you can't solve a problem on your own, reach out. You know, reach out.

[1:16:01] There's plenty of partners around the Commonwealth. there's partners in in uh

[1:16:06] in your region who are willing to help because we're all in the same same boat.

[1:16:11] You know, we all want success. We all want to want to help our citizens. We al

[1:16:15] all want to have a long sustainable uh place for our kids to grow up and our

[1:16:20] grandkids to grow up. So, I'll take any questions if you have any right now. And

[1:16:25] I think I did okay on time. I don't know.

[1:16:29] » That was a lot of information. the uh I'm aware of we're at a tier three now.

[1:16:37] We get these uh wells in, maybe we can move up to a tier four.

[1:16:43] We're going in the right direction. It's it's frustrating when it takes so

[1:16:48] long. >> Yes.

[1:16:52] I was blown away when I found out how many people the the Commonwealth of

[1:16:59] Virginia has that uh dedicated to international business. How many people

[1:17:07] they have dedicated to to visiting and trying to draw international business is

[1:17:13] really key.

[1:17:16] Yeah, they have they have offices with both

[1:17:23] represent agenda. >> I think they count those general

[1:17:30] » but it actually goes two ways. They're they're there to help sell these brands

[1:17:37] and also I've done this in Europe. I'll go over

[1:17:44] people point that hold my hand all those types of things help on the outside for

[1:17:50] us to market ourselves. >> Well, I think the gap alliance is going

[1:17:57] to help us. Uh, we've got uh Anthony Carver is a real estate developer

[1:18:06] and uh when he went down to the meeting in Virginia State, he sat at your table

[1:18:12] and he got to meet Nora and and Roxan and

[1:18:17] he's already politic with him and says, you know, if you get a a an inquiry that

[1:18:23] you can't handle, let me know about it. Maybe maybe Amelia can do it, you know.

[1:18:27] So, uh, Ameilia is of the three, we're we don't have anything going on like

[1:18:33] they do. They've got a lot of stuff going on. So, but there all three of the

[1:18:40] both the directors are uh aware of that and aware of our Commerce Park over

[1:18:44] here. They've already we've already had some inquiries.

[1:18:48] Well, that was one thing Liz and I we before we approached the subject about

[1:18:52] the regional thing, we looked at a lot of detail about what are the common

[1:18:56] things, what are the uncommon things, but also what are some some synergies

[1:19:02] and I think from a product standpoint, site standpoint, the three are great

[1:19:07] because Gland is probably more advanced when it comes to sites.

[1:19:13] Palotan is trying to get there and you guys have got a nice piece of property

[1:19:17] but you can attract different >> different sectors and different types of

[1:19:22] companies that maybe don't want to be in a power tanner because there's no sites

[1:19:27] for >> that size.

[1:19:28] » Yes. >> But maybe hey here you go. Plus we look

[1:19:31] at it I thought about this the other day. I was talking to Liz about it. You

[1:19:35] think about this for a minute. You're kind of a gateway to the Richmond

[1:19:39] Petersburg metro area, but you're also gateway the middle part of Parksville,

[1:19:45] Lynchburg, those types of places. So, you've got opportunity to attract

[1:19:49] » both ways more both ways. Yeah. Well, I keep having it in the back of my mind

[1:19:53] that when they uh do the 288 extension and business parks going to come out

[1:19:59] there and they're going to have um no telling what, but uh maybe we would fit

[1:20:06] in for some uh ancillary business, you know, but we support them and it's what

[1:20:12] 10 minutes away. Yeah, it's a ways away, but

[1:20:19] got to have a vision, I guess. Have you seen any uh these developments that that

[1:20:23] kind of located or center around agriculture? I look at what Ameilia

[1:20:27] brings. You know, we're an agricultural community. That's our basis. A lot of

[1:20:31] emphasis now, you know, on food, less processed,

[1:20:36] um improving the quality of really food being less processed. And what we offer

[1:20:40] is access here of food is from right here. So, for example, meat processor,

[1:20:46] you know, there's demand for locally processed meat. Um, and I didn't know if

[1:20:51] you had any examples of Nelson with the 151's kind of in that way. They could

[1:20:55] use local wheat, but that you're actually seeing a decrease in drinking

[1:20:59] and the the Z's and and millennials. So, that to me, that's kind of something

[1:21:04] like the beer train was good 15 years ago, but it's y'all food thing is hot

[1:21:08] now. I got a 27 year old, >> she doesn't she makes her own food, no

[1:21:12] process, and she lives in on Monument Avenue. Friends are the same way.

[1:21:16] » Yeah. So I I kind of see like that's the attractiveness of millia like you said

[1:21:21] we're the more agricultural of the three. So we literally could be the

[1:21:25] place that starts to generate that. You see a lot of interest in power farm to

[1:21:28] tableland also higher income areas whether if you had any examples of where

[1:21:33] that could be leveraged. >> Yeah. Well a couple things

[1:21:38] and this is interesting. My last executive director position with

[1:21:43] the regional group was Virginia's growth alliance and in the last year before

[1:21:47] that closed down I left I think we had three or four processing plants. Now

[1:21:53] these weren't big operations but they were big processing small processing

[1:21:57] plants and a lot of those come down. Um but as far

[1:22:03] as food hubs is another thing. It's food hubs and I don't know if you're familiar

[1:22:07] with a food hub or not, but it's they've been around for a while, but they're

[1:22:10] kind of go on steroids now where they'll have a facility and it's it can

[1:22:17] serve like four or five different purposes. Number one, you can have

[1:22:21] somebody who does nothing but packaging for you know for crops. So they package

[1:22:26] it up, process that type of thing. It's a pleasure to farmers to bring it's

[1:22:30] almost like a co-op bring our stuff there. consolidate it will you know go

[1:22:34] off and sell it somewhere. It can also be for small food production. It can be

[1:22:40] for labeling and marketing. You have a market and a lot of that is going on

[1:22:45] right now city and you know you're right. A lot of it can be just organic

[1:22:50] or minimally processed foods that type of the other thing that

[1:22:56] I almost hate to mention it because it's a great idea. There's a lot of interest

[1:23:02] in it. There have been some big companies set up but I think you can

[1:23:05] also do it on a smaller scale. That's indoor growing.

[1:23:09] that's control environmental agriculture. People think, you know,

[1:23:12] it's got to be this huge building, really tall, but you they're modular

[1:23:17] units. They're people who are doing Cay within containers, shipping containers.

[1:23:23] They they just instrument, put lights in them, and do things they grow crops in.

[1:23:27] So, there's a lot of stuff like that. And there are programs for that like the

[1:23:30] high tunnel operations through the extension service which is something if

[1:23:36] we can line those entities up EDA agriculture the programs that exist and

[1:23:41] then because people looked at the thing with Taylor Farms

[1:23:44] » I mean my wife stopped buying vegetables our our grocery bill went down but we

[1:23:49] didn't buy any kind of stuff like you know berries all sorts of things because

[1:23:52] people were scared to buy anything. >> Yeah. You know, nobody wants to sell

[1:23:56] explosive problems. So, but it does show people all of a

[1:24:01] sudden I watched the Pan farmers market which was they had moved it and the

[1:24:06] tenants was dropping off and then about a month ago exploded people going there

[1:24:10] and the farmers markets we've tried in this area. I don't think they're nearly

[1:24:13] a answer, but the process and being able to get into being able to encourage that

[1:24:18] and leverage what we do well already instead of like you mentioned

[1:24:22] necessarily depending on >> a method where we're trying to put

[1:24:26] different businesses in the site. What if we took advantage of what we had

[1:24:29] locally and kind of funneled through that because I don't think the

[1:24:32] importance on food is going to go down. >> If anything in the US is going to go up

[1:24:36] because we're starting to outsource more of our agriculture now we're getting

[1:24:38] contamination water stuff is coming back. a screw worm. I mean, there's all

[1:24:43] sorts of people worrying about where their food's coming from. So, if you

[1:24:46] kind of get ahead of that and then that's what we do well already.

[1:24:51] » Do do you have a cooperative where you you bulk your product and

[1:24:57] » I'm completely ignorant on that. That's what I was asking. I I still just do we

[1:25:00] just mostly production something you know I say guys that grow beef here

[1:25:04] mostly sell some sell direct but still the bulk sell it through the auction

[1:25:08] system. So, but if you had a system you sell here and you have, you know, Amelia

[1:25:12] brand beef and I think people would snatch snatch that up, you know, it it

[1:25:17] be something they know where it came from and when they see the stuff on the

[1:25:20] news, they're not worried about it because their beef came from, you know,

[1:25:23] 153. >> Okay. Rather than coming from some other

[1:25:27] place and worried about what's in it and who did what.

[1:25:30] » Well, there reason I mentioned co I think it's great a great concept. You're

[1:25:35] great practice. I was uh in my youth in high school. I was trying to make some

[1:25:42] money for college and president I was working as a dishwasher and

[1:25:49] president inherited he was from Wisconsin. He inherited three cherry

[1:25:54] farms in door town just here's Wisconsin here door county is up here lake

[1:26:00] Michigan bay it's all up there. So he hired a bunch of local kids to go out

[1:26:05] pick cherries and I remember going out there summer it was great. First of all

[1:26:11] it was Swedish area tradition Swedish area. So they bring all these very young

[1:26:15] teenage waitresses over every year and work in the pancake house. But the

[1:26:21] bottom line was this. I just remember they didn't sell his he didn't sell his

[1:26:25] cherries direct. He he they had a co-op drive the truck down tank on the back

[1:26:31] dump the load in there. All these farmers you remember consolidating and

[1:26:35] they were responsible marketing could sell it to do it. They split it and it

[1:26:38] was just it was just a good model and I know there are other places that have

[1:26:43] co-ops that specific jobs and co-ops that

[1:26:50] but having a facility like I mentioned where you bring all these spare ones

[1:26:54] together process do some other things they can't

[1:26:57] just do on their own might be a good model for you that I'll try to send you

[1:27:03] some up in the valley. Yeah.

[1:27:09] » And see that that thing up in the valley I showed was more about I don't think

[1:27:14] they have a

[1:27:18] fields of gold. That's not a co-op type thing. They're mainly marketing in terms

[1:27:22] of for both the locals the local crops individually local farm stands that

[1:27:29] type.

[1:27:35] Dave, we want to thank you for coming in. I think

[1:27:37] » I hope this provided a lot of information here and I think it's good

[1:27:42] that we captured on the on the video so we we want to find out go back and

[1:27:47] refresh our memory. We can do that. >> Well, if you got my card got any

[1:27:51] questions at all, reach out to me. Happy to answer reach out to Liz. She's the

[1:27:56] much better looking part of our partnership. So, reach out to her and

[1:28:01] all have it done. And again, thank you for being a member of of GA.

[1:28:08] Best days are ahead. >> Yeah.

[1:28:11] » What time do you have to be in Richmond? >> Our meeting thought

[1:28:18] » and we go to lunch. >> All right. How about uh entertain a

[1:28:22] motion to adjourn? So move. Second. >> Thank you.

Amelia County Economic Development Authority Meeting 8/11/2026

Transcript