By Adam Tamburin
via the Leaf Chronicle

The Industrial Development Board is working to send quality applicants to a job fair that could bring more than 500 jobs to Clarksville.

The IDB met Wednesday morning and spent some of the meeting singing the praises of Agero, a roadside assistance company that is planning to build a call center and hire more than 500 people in either Clarksville or Florence, S.C.

Agero is holding job fairs in both cities to assess the quality of the workforce before deciding on a site later this month.

The fair in Clarksville will take place Jan. 17 and 18 from 8 a.m. to 6 p.m. at the Hilton Garden Inn. Florence’s fair attracted about 3,000 hopefuls.

Rod Kirk, IDB’s assistant vice president of economic development, said the organization is looking beyond sheer numbers.

“We’re taking a little different approach,” Kirk said. “I think South Carolina was more of a quantity approach.”

Kirk said some attendees will be prescreened through the Clarksville-Montgomery County Career Center to ensure a high quality of the applicants, while others would be walk-in attendees.

“We really feel like we’re going to touch a lot of folks,” Kirk said of the group’s attempts to publicize the event. “Hopefully we’ll get a great turnout.”

Kirk said 19 Agero officials, including 15 recruiters, would come to the fairs next week. Agero is slated to decide on a site by Jan. 24, Kirk said.

In other businesses, the board approved IDB Executive Director Mike Evans’ request to extend an agreement with Panattoni Development Company that gives it an option to develop on land in the Clarksville Business Park.

The market turned south soon after the option agreement was made, Evans said, making a new development harder to justify.

Now, he said, the company is doing an analysis that could lead to a final decision. “I’m of the opinion that, give us another 30 days to look at it and we’ll come back with a plan for this board,” Evans said.

The board also approved Evans’ request to enlist TIP Strategies to do an updated labor and workforce assessment that would provide a profile of the area’s workforce. That profile could be used to attract new businesses and developments, Evans said.

Evans said the $50,000 for the assessment would come from Aspire Clarksville, a foundation made up of private investments within the Economic Development Council.

Officials reserve $100,123 to fund a consultant’s plan for revitalizing sluggish economy

via the Clearwater Beacon by LESTER R. DAILEY

CLEARWATER – In October of last year, Clearwater officials hired the Texas-based consulting firm TIP Strategies Inc. to prepare what they called “a blueprint for positioning Clearwater for sustainable economic growth and prosperity in the future.”

At the Aug. 1 Clearwater City Council meeting, TIP executives Jon Roberts and Alex Cooke spent two and a half hours explaining the details of their plan to the council. And at the Nov. 15 council meeting, the council set aside $100,123 to fund the implementation of that plan.

But the council members let Geri Campos Lopez, the city’s director of economic development and housing, know that for that kind of money they expect good results.

“I expect a lot and we’re going to be watching this very closely,” said Councilman Bill Jonson.

A full-time economic development specialist will be hired, at a cost of $52,746, to conduct research and to generate and analyze data, support business retention and expansion efforts, and implement other aspects of the TIP plan. Lopez said that applicants with business experience are currently being interviewed for the job.

The salary of the assistant director of economic development and housing, which had been entirely paid from a federal grant to the housing division, will now be paid half from housing and half from economic development, at an estimated cost of $47,359.

The downtown manager, who is paid by the Community Redevelopment Agency to promote retail businesses, will now spend half of his or her time implementing a technology district downtown, an arrangement that must be approved by the CRA Board of Directors.

Lopez said that other aspects of the plan can be accomplished with the current staff and funding.

The TIP plan envisions an employment center overlay district, a technology district in the Cleveland Street corridor and a medical overlay district near Morton Plant Hospital.

TIP believes that the goals of its plan can be accomplished through business-friendly initiatives, a formal incentives policy, and a business retention and expansion program, as well as by leveraging tourism marketing for economic development.

The council members liked the idea of using tourism marketing to create other business opportunities.

“We can’t continue to live off the beach,” said Councilman Paul Gibson, who sells beach real estate for a living. “It’s time we develop all of Clearwater.”

“We need to think about diversifying the economy, and this is a good step,” Vice Mayor George Cretekos agreed. “Go for it.”

A first-quarter budget amendment will make $100,123 of general fund money available to fund the first year of the TIP plan. Lopez said that officials will have to decide what to eliminate from next year’s budget to fund the plan for another year, but that didn’t bother Mayor Frank Hibbard.

“I support (the TIP plan) because I think we can get a return on investment that far outweighs the cost,” Hibbard said as he joined his colleagues in casting his vote to approve the plan.

via The Prosperity Blog

On October 5, more than 75 community leaders gathered for an Opportunities Workshop at the Dome Room at the Arctic Club in Seattle. This workshop is an important element in the update to the Regional Economic Strategy, which relies on a comprehensive economic data analysis and a consensus-based strategic planning process.

“The Prosperity Partnership’s strength comes from our partners,” said Bob Drewel, Executive Director of the Puget Sound Regional Council, “and they came together to share their best ideas on how we can shape the economic future of our region. We appreciate our partners continued efforts to advance regional economic development planning.”

Workshop participants enjoyed hearing about the research and data gathering being completed to help inform the update to the Regional Economic Strategy. TIP Strategies began with an occupational analysis to identify talent clusters to compare to the existing industry landscape. This analysis will help identify programmatic strategies the region can use to better support job growth and local industries. Occupations were measured by eight criteria, including job quality, critical mass, momentum, stability and outlook. Aerospace, Logistics and Infrastructure, Information Technology, Life Sciences, Business Support and Social Development emerged as the most promising from this analysis.

Breakout roundtable discussions formed around economic opportunities that exist in the region and how to take advantage of them. Discussion topics included opportunities related to main economic drivers such as talent, innovation, industry, infrastructure and other regional assets. These discussions will help guide the development of the Regional Economic Strategy.

Working groups were formed on these topics: higher education and workforce, aerospace, business climate, physical infrastructure, and entrepreneurship and innovation. They will meet over the next few months to help further define strategies.

Stay tuned for more information on the Regional Economic Strategy update, which is scheduled to roll out in 2012.

Author of economic development plan says assets must be leveraged

The Columbian by Aaron Corvin

Clark County possesses key assets in education, health care and international trade that, if leveraged successfully, will position it for growth, the author of the county’s new draft economic development plan said Thursday.

“You have opportunities for growth even as the nation’s economy stumbles along,” said Jon Roberts, principal of Austin, Texas-based TIP Strategies, who oversaw development of the 127-page plan.

Using a Power Point presentation, Roberts rolled out the plan to a lunchtime gathering of more than 300 people at the Heathman Lodge in Vancouver. The event, held by the Columbia River Economic Development Council — the county’s chief jobs promoter — also featured a panel discussion of the plan.

WSUV, health care

Roberts said relationships between Washington State University Vancouver and the county’s business community must be strengthened. And regional leaders should accelerate efforts to develop a business-oriented research park.

Roberts said WSUV needs to expand class offerings and to boost its role in creating economic growth. He cited data showing that the jobless burden in the U.S. is shared unevenly. People who lack a high school diploma are experiencing a jobless rate of 13.7 percent, while 7.4 percent of those with college degrees are unemployed.

“Any region that isn’t committed to higher education and higher-education training is likely to suffer significantly high unemployment,” Roberts said.

During the panel discussion, Lynn Valenter, interim chancellor for WSUV, said about 75 percent of the university’s students stay within the Portland-Vancouver region after they graduate, contributing to the economic vitality of the region.

But tuition hikes are not enough to make up for cuts to state higher education funding, Valenter said, and that limits the university’s ability to meet local needs.

The university, and other regional leaders, will have to get creative, she said.

Roberts said the county needs to become a hub of “health information management,” a niche in which tech-minded people develop portable electronic medical records, produce security systems to protect them from cyber thieves and otherwise advance the role of information technology in health care.

Roberts said such an effort is more important now than ever considering that PeaceHealth, a $2 billion health care company, is the new parent company of Southwest Washington Medical Center (now called PeaceHealth Southwest Medical Center).

Panelist Dr. Mark Wheeler, who oversees information technology for PeaceHealth, said health care information technology is going to grow faster than the overall health care industry.

And Clark County is going to get a chunk of that growth as PeaceHealth, which already is bringing some 600 jobs as it centralizes its operations in Vancouver, expands its information technology division.

Trade, energy

At one point during his presentation, Roberts turned the audience’s attention to international trade, noting that more countries are purchasing U.S. goods and services. “The Chinese like Buicks,” he said. “Honestly, they do.”

That presents an opportunity for Clark County’s ports, he said.

Panelist Rob Bernardi, president and chief operating officer for Kokusai Semiconductor Equipment Corp., brought energy concerns to the forefront.

Bernardi, chairman of the Clark County High Tech Community Council, said the region’s “cheap and predictable power” has attracted major high-tech and industrial employers to the county.

To protect that asset, he said, the high-tech council will work with others during the next state legislative session to try to make changes to Initiative 937 — the state’s voter-approved renewable-energy law — to make it more friendly to business.

Accountability

Ron Arp, a Clark County public affairs consultant who attended Thursday’s event, during a question-and-answer session said his concern is that the county’s new draft economic development plan will end up collecting dust on a shelf.

What will the county do to make sure the plan is put into action? Arp asked.

Eric Fuller, a commercial real estate broker with Eric Fuller & Associates Inc. in Vancouver and board chairman for the Columbia River Economic Development Council, said it’s the CREDC’s responsibility to bring together the county’s local governments, ports, companies and educational institutions to make the plan a reality.

The CREDC is accountable, Fuller added, so if you don’t see results as quickly as you’d like, “call us.” training is likely to suffer significantly high unemployment,” Roberts said.

CB Richard Ellis specializes in commercial market

The Columbian By Cami Joner

Global real estate firm CB Richard Ellis has positioned itself to await what could be a lengthy, but lucrative comeback for Clark County’s industrial, office and retail market.

The commercial real estate company recently opened a Vancouver office in the West Coast Bank Building, 500 E. Broadway. Staffed with three specialists, the satellite office is a first for CB Richard Ellis, which previously served Southwest Washington from its Portland office at 1300 S.W. Fifth Ave. The Los Angeles-based company has operated in Portland since 1973.

It could take several months for Clark County’s real estate market to regain its health, said Mike Wells, managing director of the commercial real estate company’s regional office in Portland. He believes it is only a matter of time, based on the community’s public and private efforts to lure employers to the region.

Wells said his company is aware of the countywide focus on economic development, including draft recommendations offered by the Columbia River Economic Development Council. The 125-member organization is in the process of reviewing a countywide comprehensive strategic plan it commissioned from Texas-based TIP Strategies Inc.

Wells said many of Clark County’s employers of future workers are already located here as companies that plan to expand or transfer to larger quarters.

“The landlords here know that many of their prospective tenants are in Clark County,” said Wells, who joined CB Richard Ellis in June.

He said the company stands to benefit by having its sales force physically stationed in Southwest Washington.

Sales often depend on personal interactions in the commercial real estate business, where associates match companies to land and to buildings for lease or for sale, Wells said.

“We felt that having a commitment and presence in the local market would increase our business,” he said.

Employees of the Vancouver office of CB Richard Ellis include Kimberly Fuherer, a commercial spaces senior real estate manager who will head the property management side of the local office; Jason Green, an office specialist and a senior associate broker; and Alex Martinac, a retail specialist and associate broker.

The company’s 100-employee Portland office is one of the largest commercial real estate brokerages in the city.

Saying that Austin’s pool of technical workers is becoming tapped out, 30 Austin high-tech CEOs are heading to California this month in search of talent.

The recruiting trip, sponsored by the Austin Technology Council, will include a reception in San Francisco on Sept. 13 and another in Sunnyvale on Sept. 14.

The gatherings will let Austin tech leaders talk with engineers and marketers one-on-one with the goal of luring them to Austin, said Julie Huls, president of the Austin Technology Council.

“We want to let the Bay Area know about everything that’s happening here,” Huls said. “There’s no question Austin has a lot of tech talent, but there is a gap right now, and it’s going to take a combination of sources to fill it.”

Participating companies include HomeAway, Bazaarvoice, Whaleshark, Calxeda, BancVue, Gowalla and Gazzang.

The idea for the trip came from a CEO summit sponsored by the technology council in May. At the conference, business leaders worried that an increasingly tight job market for tech workers with crucial skills could slow the industry’s growth here. Skilled engineers and experienced product marketers are hardest to find, they said.

Spredfast CEO Rod Favaron, who is taking part in the trip, said Austin “has fallen into a trap of fighting over existing talent, especially in engineering, programming and software development roles. The zero-sum-game hurts the overall tech community, so we’ve decided to come together to seek out new additions to Austin to help us all grow.”

The group is targeting engineers with experience in Java, Ruby on Rails and Python programming, and is contacting California user groups in those areas to spread the word about the events, Huls said.

According to the technology council, several dozen Austin companies are recruiting technical talent, including software engineers, data engineers and information architects.

In addition to startups, other companies hiring skilled tech workers in Austin include eBay Inc., Rackspace Hosting, Polycom Inc. and Electronic Arts Inc.

Also, a number of small California companies have relocated to Austin in search of talent and lower business costs. They include Main Street Hub, a social media marketing firm that moved here in May from San Francisco, and 58Phases, an online affiliate marketing company that moved from Venice, Calif., last month.

In recent years, the Greater Austin Chamber of Commerce has focused on recruiting California companies to move operations to Austin.

Last year, 28 companies, including nine from California, moved their headquarters or opened new operations here, including Facebook and LegalZoom.

via Austin American Statesman
lhawkins@statesman.com; 912-5955