FooteNotes

Hi All! We just completed a successful webinar series (held on 5/19/09 and 5/21/09) hosted by Economic Development Online as a part of their Executive Webinar Series. The topic was “Site Selection Trends of Today’s Thriving Industries.” You can download slides from the entire Power Point presentation below!

Site Selection Trends of Today’s Thriving Industries

The webinar covered a number of timely topics for economic developers, including:

•    Understanding location/expansion trends — using information from our powerful location/expansion database, we discussed the downward trends of location activity nationally and regionally in recent years, particularly manufacturing projects. The good news here is that even during the recession there are still hundreds of locations that will take place in the near future!

•     The HOT growth sectors of today — including renewable energy; data centers; creative media; software development; healthcare/medical devices; biotech/life sciences, and warehouse distribution (DC).

•    The expected explosion of growth in the renewable energy market — world-wide investment is expected to top $325 billion by 2018. This includes $74 billion in US solar investment ($1 million investment will create 2 new solar jobs; you can do the math…thousands of new jobs!), and $83 billion in wind power investment.

•    The need to focus on transferring traditional manufacturing jobs into new clean energy jobs — this will take careful planning with your economic development and work force leaders working together!

•    Understanding growth sectors regionally — we explored location/expansion trends in two US regions to show that there is still good activity that will continue, including solar and wind power projects.

•    Site selection criteria for both solar and wind power projects — access to market, skilled labor, reliable/cost efficient power, “green-minded communities” and, yes, incentives will all be important in order to compete!

•    Doing the proper due diligence is important — successful economic developers will need to collect all the right information in order to show renewable companies that they are ready and excited about new green investment!

Let us know if we can help you to capture your fair share! Have a great day! Deane

Hello everyone! With help from our friends at Economic Development Online, we will be showcasing our first webinar. Our president, Deane Foote, will be leading a 30-minute presentation that focuses on the latest location trends for select industries that are thriving despite the recession. In addition to these recent trends, he will discuss the site selection criteria of growth and emerging industries such as renewable energy manufacturing (i.e. solar and wind power). Deane will also take questions at the end of the presentation. It’s going to be a must-see for anyone in the economic development field!

To register, please follow the “Go to Meeting” links on the image above.

For questions, please e-mail Emily: emily@footeconsulting.com

We hope to see you there!

Regards, The FCG Team

Continue reading Don’t miss our first webinar!

Happy Monday! Last week in Dayton proved enlightening and challenging. Focus groups and interviews associated with the City of Moraine Economic Development Strategy showed outstanding innovation in the areas of workforce development, regional attraction/retention, and utility delivery (especially for heavy water users). However we saw real challenges, particularly the lack of large competitive industrial sites; a glut of industrial buildings (including the almost 4 million square feet of GM space), and the future of electric power delivery with Ohio’s renewable energy mandates and potential cap and trade legislation. One overriding positive theme was cooperation and a dedicated focus on helping the laid-off auto workers (and others) find new jobs!

This week in Dallas at the CoreNet Global Summit, I am observing much lower attendance due to travel budgets, but a fighting spirit among attendees that says: “We can make it through this recession and start building again soon.” I learned at one session today that a major Japanese auto maker  is rapidly adjusting its domestic facility strategy due to the drastic market changes. For instance, they are mouthballing a plant expansion, postponing some plant maintenence work in favor of cost savings, yet responding to a booming parts/repair surge which is requiring new regional distribution capacity. New challenges bring new opportunity. Hey, there is plenty of space in the Dayton area! More soon…Deane

Hello All! I’m on a three-week travel schedule that is taking me to three different locations deep in the Heartland. Last week I was in Parsons, Kansas, a small town in southeastern Kansas. I was pleasantly surprised to find a nice town with an attractive, renovated downtown and some well-planned industrial sites/spec building. I was impressed with the pride of community there; it said to me: “we humbly present you with the best that a small town can offer!”

This week I’m back in the Dayton, Ohio area where we are beginning fieldwork on the City of Moraine Comprehensive Economic Development Plan, in partnership with Angelou Economics. The challenge here is to help replace the 3,000 jobs lost from the closure of the 4-million-square-foot GM plant. We will be conducting focus groups and interviews in order learn more about this traditional industrial community. This is my third trip and I am impressed with the pride here as well; a pride that says, “we will not give up and we will rebuild our community stronger than ever!” I will give you more reports this week as we proceed with our fieldwork.

Next week will be Dallas, the pride of Texas! Stay tuned and have a great week! Deane

Good Morning! Despite all the gloom and doom, data does show that economic development lives. While working on an auto-related project in the Midwest, I was reviewing location/expansion data for a three-state area including Indiana, Kentucky, and Ohio. I was amazed at the amount of activity over the second half of 2008 (see below). There were almost 150 IT-type office deals, over 115 warehouse/distribution, and almost 60 transportation equipment projects reported.

Although these numbers are down from past years, there are still deals to be captured! Larger available incentives from the stimulus package may even boost these numbers in coming quarters. Keep doing your thing to get your fair share! Deane