What if Drury, Evangel and Missouri State universities partnered in economic development?
Sure, it’s outside of their direct scope of academics. And you could argue they already serve an economic development role by preparing students for the workforce and have dabbled in it by sector. Health care is a good example.
But I ask the question after visiting Charlotte, N.C., and learning about the Research Triangle Park.
A keynote speaker during the June 25-27 Alliance of Area Business Publications conference went on about the success of the park in north-central North Carolina. Of course, it was the executive director, Bob Geolas. That’s his job. He talked about Research Triangle Park’s $1 billion in annual investments, 40,000-employee base and 200 tenants, including IBM and Cisco.
The key, he said, was equal investments by academia, government and private business.
It didn’t hurt that Research Triangle Park founders had some 7,000 acres to work with smack dab in the middle of Raleigh, Durham and Chapel Hill. The universities in those cities – North Carolina State, Duke and North Carolina – got on board. After that, the recipe, as Geolas tells it: Privately owned land was donated, the government agreed to consistently support education and the universities committed to building the workforce.
Half a century later, the organizers are entering another development phase with 300,000 square feet of retail and restaurants planned, 2,000 residential units, two hotels and plenty of parks and public art.
Such a partnership locally might not have immediate success. For the first two years, RTP looked like a failure.
In the 1950s, the story goes, a few leaders in North Carolina sought to turn around the state’s poor rankings in wages and jobs. They had some ideas, but nothing to show for it.
The organizers hit the road. They drove the state spreading the economic development vision and asking for donations, Geolas says. Thirty days later, they raised the equivalent of $15 million today to pay down the notes on the land.
Geolas calls this the spirit of generosity in North Carolina. But it’s not exclusive to the Tar Heel State.
Part of the early mission was to fight brain drain. Sound familiar?
The blueprint for Research Triangle Park went something like this:
1. Collaborate. That’s what it takes to reimagine and reinvent.
2. Be genuine. “We didn’t want to be Boston, Austin or Silicon Valley,” Geolas says. That leaves the questions lingering: Who is Springfield? Who is southwest Missouri?
3. Inspire. The underlying thought here is don’t be scared.
4. Be accessible and affordable. “We’ve got to reduce the barriers,” Geolas says, then backs it up: RTP created The Frontier by taking a 125,000-square-foot empty building and opening it up to anybody with business aspirations. Geolas calls them the dreamers, believers and creators in the community. Today, some 15,000 people have been through The Frontier, daily enjoying its free-access conference rooms, Wi-Fi and, of course, coffee. There are lease options on the second floor.
“We’re kind of like Switzerland,” he says. “Everyone can play at RTP.”
The park has had its losses. It recently lost a chance at Volvo, and Mercedes-Benz before that. RTP isn’t a big fan of up-front incentives, and the automakers moved on.
One thing RTP has learned more recently is corporate economic development arms are not looking to invest $100 million or more in expansive new centers. They’re seeking strategic places for targeted labs focused on research and development, say, of a single product.
RTP’s first tenant in 1960 was Chemstrand, the inventor of AstroTurf. The question for Springfield: What is the next AstroTurf?
Geolas charges that economic development is about dreaming for new ways to live, create and play.
“Think in your own communities, where are the economic development executives making it easier beyond trade and entrepreneurial efforts?” he challenges.
Or maybe the question is beyond Springfield’s three largest universities. Maybe it’s pulling in Southwest Baptist, College of the Ozarks or even Missouri Southern State in Joplin.
To be sure, though, academia was the key to unlocking economic development in North Carolina. It doesn’t have to be that way here, but who knows? Why not?
Springfield Business Journal Editor Eric Olson can be reached at eolson@sbj.net.
