Preparing for success in economic development - by Courtney Hendricson and Sadie Colcord

You may have seen the explosion of articles about cities competing to host Amazon’s new headquarters. Not every city or town can attract an Amazon, but all of us can learn from how these cities highlighted their value to attract new business.  The Connecticut Economic Resource Council (CERC) helps towns and cities take proactive economic development steps to grow their grand list, make informed decisions, find location opportunities and expand businesses in our communities.  Recently, our blog post by Sadie Colcord outlined how towns can set themselves up for success - “Preparing for Success in Economic Development:”

“I recently attended the governor’s Economic Development Forum where a nationally-renowned site selection consultant (John Lenio, executive VP, CBRE) discussed the top factors that company executives evaluate when choosing a locale for the relocation or expansion of their business:

• Workforce skills;

• Transportation infrastructure;

• Utility infrastructure;

• State and local tax scheme;

• Land/building process and supply;

• Quality of life;

• Workforce development;

• Ease of permitting and regulations;

• Incentives; and

• Higher education resources.

For a town, having readily-available data on all of these factors is extremely important for the success of the economic development process. A company may be looking at sites in many towns just like yours, so when the time comes the argument for your town needs to be made in a concise manner. The more organized your town appears to be, the more likely company executives will want to work with you. However, some of this data requires more effort to collect than a simple web search.

Obtaining information on the land/building supply can be a time-consuming process because it requires a formal inventory to be done. This means reaching out to land owners with parcels that may be suitable for development, whether or not those parcels are being actively marketed for sale, as many people would be willing to sell their properties for the right price. By engaging with these individuals, you can build a robust portfolio of available space within your town and include information on pricing, utilities, zoning, etc. that are key considerations for a prospective business. While the process may be daunting, talking with just one or two properties owners per week will put you on the right track to both completing the inventory and growing these relationships.

Quantifying the ease of permitting and regulations may seem like another challenge in fulfilling this list of information. However, your town can take steps to show a prospective business that the land use regulatory process is organized and that board and commission members are on the same page in terms of economic development. Creating a checklist that guides a business through the process is a simple action that can show company decisionmakers that you value their time and that there is cooperation and communication between land use boards and commissions. Offering fast-track permitting for target industries is another step that you can take to make a strong argument for coordination within your town.

Finally, not every town offers tax incentives, but they are certainly worth consideration. Oftentimes, the amount offered in incentives will be the tie-breaker between two otherwise similar properties in similar towns. While it is up to your community whether they will be offered, incentives can be an important way to keep up with surrounding municipalities that already have these programs in place. If your town is not pro-incentive, however, focusing on strengthening the argument for the other components of the list within your control becomes even more important.”

CERC’s mission is to drive economic development in Connecticut by providing research-based data, planning and implementation strategies to foster business formation, recruitment and growth. We welcome you to contact us.

Courtney Hendricson is the vice president of municipal services and Sadie Colcord, is a municipal services associate at the Connecticut Economic Resource Center (CERC). CERC collaborates with the Construction Institute and is an affiliate member of the institute.