Following two years of discussion by Christian County officials, a consultant’s report advises forming a localized economic development organization.
In June, Austin, Texas-based TIP Strategies Inc. released a final draft of its economic analysis of Ozark, Nixa and northern Christian County that identifies strengths, weaknesses, opportunities and threats for area economic developers. Now, local leaders have to decide how to use the information to help increase a tax base that more often than not brings home its bacon from Springfield.
A key recommendation is to formally establish a group solely dedicated to area economic development, said TIP Strategies CEO and President Tom Stellman, who is scheduled to present the report Aug. 12 in Ozark. The proposed group would function similar to the Springfield Regional Economic Partnership but concentrate on Christian County business.
“The (SREP) is looking for opportunities in the region, but having someone local looking at opportunities would be more natural,” Stellman said, noting only a localized group is likely to develop a countywide employment center for prospective businesses. “It’s a competitive environment. If you are the state of Missouri or you are the regional organization, you are going to take the businesses that are looking at the area to the places where they feel like they can be successful. If Nixa, Ozark and Christian County have that, they are more likely to be successful.”
The report notes that in 1990 the city of McKinney, Texas, designated a 4,200-acre area as a regional center ripe for employment – an area next to Highway 121 that feeds into Plano, Texas, and Dallas. Within a decade, McKinney had more than doubled its population to 54,369 from 21,283.
Nixa City Administrator Brian Bingle said the 96-page report, commissioned for $68,000, is chock-full of data that Nixa can use to guide economic development, but he said the group would be slow to adopt TIP’s recommendation for a formal organization.
Officials already have established the Christian County Economic Coalition as an informal body to uncover area economic development opportunities.
“What we were trying to accomplish was a better understanding of who northern Christian County is,” Bingle said. “What we’ll probably do, rather than establish a 501(c)3 organization, we will continue to work as we have through the Christian County Economic Coalition (to) individually and collectively address the implementation plans of a more formalized economic development program.”
Data driversAmong TIP’s findings is that population growth in Christian County is slowing. While the county boasted a 4.9 percent compounded annual growth rate between 1984 and 2007, its populations only increased 1.6 percent annually from 2008 to 2011, based on U.S. Census Bureau data.
Another key finding is that the area is flush with health care workers who travel into Springfield to work for large employers such as Mercy and CoxHealth. While roughly 6,900 residents work in Christian County, two-thirds as many – or 4,500 people – commute north to Greene County for their health care industry jobs. Across all sectors, an estimated 24,700 regularly commute outside of the county, according to TIP.
Officials see the opportunity, with the Ozarks Technical Community College Richwood Valley campus on Highway 14 and such companies as HealthMedX and HealthcareFirst already rooted in the area.
“We certainly have the labor force. That would be an opportunity for us to focus our attention on and take advantage of that labor force,” Bingle said of the pitch economic developers could make to potential employers seeking skilled workers.
Ozark City Administrator Steve Childers said county economic developers already have invited Mercy and CoxHealth representatives to serve on the coalition’s leadership committee.
“What I think we’d like to talk to them about is the potential of taking those back-office jobs that could be done from anywhere,” Childers said, pointing to two Mercy projects on Ozark’s doorstep at Evans Road and U.S. Highway 65. “If we can create the office jobs, that would increase our daytime population and, in turn, the daytime population increase will bring more retail and services. The medical field is an industry we need to focus on.”
Development prioritiesOther report recommendations include identifying and marketing to a list of top companies that could visit the area to explore business development opportunities; establishing a protocol for corporate recruiting; launching a business retention and expansion program; and participating in the Springfield Area Chamber of Commerce’s Community Leadership Visit Program that traveled to Nashville, Tenn., this year. Other top goals: develop an economic incentives policy and expand its local infrastructure.
Bingle said improving the Highway 14 east-west corridor is a priority for the coalition, as well as creating a fiber-optic infrastructure.
To ensure highway infrastructure in the northern half of the county is a regional priority, Childers, Bingle and Christian County Presiding Commissioner Lou Lapaglia serve on the executive board of the Ozarks Transportation Organization.
Childers said Highway CC and 14 have remained among the group’s top five regional transportation priorities the last several years.
“That’s a huge step that nobody really knows,” he said.
“If you want to be considered for state dollars or federal dollars, there is a very specific process you have to go through. We have strategically positioned northern Christian County to be in the running for those funds if and when those funds ever become available.”
