A dozen events in 2011 tied to job creation and growth in the Springfield area have helped shine a light on economic development efforts by the Springfield Business Development Corp.
During the SBDC’s annual meeting Feb. 16 at Highland Springs Country Club, the group of 150 celebrated its 2011 wins – book-ended by the January announcement of Digital Monitoring Products’ $1.4 million capital investment and the December news that Diamond International would create 33 jobs amid a $5.9 million capital investment.
The SBDC, a 501(c)3 subsidiary of the Springfield Area Chamber of Commerce, works in a 10-county region to spur job creation and capital investment, and to recruit and retain businesses. Its efforts are funded by more than 100 member-investor businesses at five contribution levels starting at $2,500 per year and up to $15,000 a year.
Highlights of the 2011 annual report presented to investors and regional municipal partners include:
- SBDC staff managed more than 30 projects and coordinated 12 job announcements.
- SBDC assisted in adding 1,167 jobs to the Springfield area representing more than $40 million in new payroll and a total capital investment of $73.6 million.
- The Fourth Economy Community Index in December ranked Greene County fifth among midsize counties in the nation for economic strength.
- Researchers at 24/7 Wall St. listed Springfield third among five cities with the highest job growth November 2010–October 2011.
Also during the meeting, outgoing President Tom Babik, executive director of Ferrell-Duncan Clinic, ceremoniously passed the presidential reins to Guaranty Bank CEO Shaun Burke.
Burke outlined the organization’s 2012 goals, which include talent retention, targeted marketing and expansion of its Existing Business Support Program. He said the organization is focused on using its resources to attract and retain talented workers by connecting interested businesses with training incentives. Through marketing, SBDC plans to create a presence at trade shows of targeted industries and to work cooperatively with regional companies, according to
SBDCInvestors.com.
Burke said the SBDC’s second five-year capital campaign, Partnership for Prosperity II, would not continue into a third round. The board has chosen to focus on annual funding initiatives, he said.
Kansas City Area Development Council President and CEO Bob Marcusse was the keynote speaker at the event, and he focused his energy on outlining reasons why it’s important for organizations and individuals to support job growth.
To drive home the point, he told a story he said came from the CEO of Black & Decker. The CEO became determined to make the best drill and stand out from competitors. One day, he visited a hardware store to watch how customers selected their drills. At a certain point, he asked a man what he would want in a drill. As the story goes, the man said, “I don’t want a drill. I want a hole. I need a drill to get what I want.”
“We don’t want the SBDC. We need this organization to get what we want,” Marcusse told the crowd of SBDC member investors and regional municipal partners.
Among them was attorney Gary Powell of Husch Blackwell LLP’s Springfield office, a $15,000 Diamond-level investor in 2011.
“We believe the SBDC does an excellent job of bringing capital and jobs into our region,” Powell said. “I think the competition among communities to attract economic development is tremendous. I think communities, therefore, need organizations like the SBDC to attract that development and to expand existing industry development.”
Ryan Mooney, senior vice president of economic development for the Springfield chamber, said after the meeting that the SBDC’s level of involvement with companies looking to expand or bring jobs to the area varies depending on the situation.
“It will vary all the way from helping them access training resources that might be available to helping them negotiate incentives or doing site searches and looking for a suitable site for development,” Mooney said. “With the John Deere site, for example, there was a lot of pulling together state and local funding. There were infrastructure challenges with getting the roads improved, getting the railroad tracks improved.”
In March, John Deere Reman-Springfield finalized plans to build a 275,000-square-foot facility in Strafford within an Enhanced Enterprise Zone, triggering tax credit and tax abatement incentives. The company committed to creating 55 jobs and investing $14 million in capital during the next five years.
The first five-year Partnership for Prosperity initiative, launched in 2003, resulted in nearly 24,000 regional jobs and $214.8 million in direct capital investments, according to Springfield Business Journal archives. Partnership for Prosperity II has a goal of $225 million by the campaign’s end Dec. 31.
Mooney said the organization is currently working on developing a new funding structure for 2013 and beyond. He said chamber leadership decided last year it wants to be more flexible and focus on funding initiatives on an annual basis.
“The board decided in 2011 that we would not do another five-year capital campaign, and that we would do more of a member-investor approach where we ask companies to commit on an annual basis,” Mooney said. “We will work on more annual action plans and make sure we deliver a return on investment.”[[In-content Ad]]
