Www.rdgusa.net



2003-2007

Building Partnerships for Economic Success

Private Sector Funding Opportunities

[pic]

[pic]

Building Partnerships for Economic Success

Topeka and Shawnee County is experiencing unprecedented economic development success. Continued and carefully planned economic growth and development is essential to our quality of life and the success of our local businesses.

Our focus must continue to be on strengthening the areas of business retention and expansion, minority/small/women business development, marketing/public relations, workforce development and recruitment, enhancing the presence of federal employment, and development of our economic development infrastructure at the new commerce park in south Topeka and at Forbes Field.

With the much anticipated influx of approximately $20 million dollars from the ¼-cent sales tax over the next four years we will have resources available to us to accomplish many of our goals.

Already we’ve experienced the announcement by Target of their decision to locate a new distribution center in Shawnee County, and Goodyear’s success achieving the go-ahead for retooling and an expansion with a new product is good news.

We’ve just begun to lay the foundations for more such good news. However, we have already committed over $5 million of the $20 million dollars to projects that will benefit us for years to come: land for Target, assembling the land for the new commerce park in south Topeka, incentives for Goodyear, and our initial marketing/public relations plan.

We must continue to build our public/private funding partnership to meet the needs of the future. Your participation is critical to our success.

Our Successes Are Building

|GO Topeka 2002 Benchmarks |

|Goal |Results |

|250 new jobs |A total of 780 new jobs identified. |

| |Target: 650+ |

| |GMD-Fleming’s: 50 |

| |Heinz: 10 |

| |Annuity Masters: 7 |

| |Delta Design: 15 |

| |Hill’s Pet Nutrition: 48 |

| |Retained jobs: |

| |Goodyear: 1,600 |

| |VA Shared Services: 260 |

|$12 Million in new investment |$205.75 Million committed by new and existing employers |

|Average wage levels of new jobs will be greater |New jobs will be $14.51 average per hour. |

|than $12.12 per hour | |

|$12.12 represents 80% of $15.15 (average Shawnee | |

|County wage) | |

|150 business retention/expansion calls including |As of August 2003 we have called on 16 of the top 50 employers and ___ additional employers. |

|at least 40 of the top 50 employers | |

|Prepare plan for site development |Completed steps include: |

| |Real estate search |

| |Consultant review of sites |

| |Site optioned |

| |Eminent domain |

| |Site acquired |

| |Additional property optioned |

| |RFP for master-plan |

| |* Grant request submitted to federal delegation |

|Seek private donations to further economic |Completed steps include: |

|development |Received $108,845 from private pledge funds |

| |Raised $62,500 for GO Connection for Microloan program |

| |Received $69,000 in contributions for office remodeling and equipment purchases |

| |Interview fundraising consultant |

| |Contracted with fundraising firm to start in October |

| | |

|GO Topeka 2002 Benchmarks (continued) |

|Goal |Results |

|10% of funds to support economic development for |Funds identified for small/minority/women businesses: |

|racial minorities |Shawnee County Development Corporation—loan loss reserve: $37,500 |

| |GO Topeka—administration and program expenses: $30,000 |

| |Shawnee County Development Corporation—administrative program expenses: $25,000 |

| |City of Topeka—administrative and program expenses: $15,000 |

| |SBA—loan fund: $250,000 |

| |TOTAL: $357,500 |

| |Funds leveraged or expended equal 25% of 2002 funding for assisting racial minorities and |

| |females. |

| |17.2% of Goodyear employees are racial minorities, 23.5% are minorities or female. 17.2 % of |

| |$500,000 commitment is $86,000, 23.5% is $117,500. |

| |$357,500 committed to microloan program (includes administration expenses) |

Our Focus: 2003-2007

We welcome your input and suggestions in the following focus areas as we begin planning and funding our aggressive economic development program.

Business Retention/Expansion

• Continue to grow jobs and resulting economic impact by leveraging key opportunities that allow us to grow companies already in our market.

• Support the ongoing needs of the manufacturing industry by implementing an aggressive visitation program to assess their growth potential and assist with their challenges.

• Coordinate and strengthen relationships with Washburn’s Small Business Development Center, the Kaw Area Technical School, and the Kansas Department of Commerce and Industry to improve client access to services.

Enhance Federal Presence

• Address issues relating to the retention and/or development of a new mission for the 190th Air Refueling Wing.

• Encourage expansion and development of federal service centers, maximizing the benefits of central location and skilled workforce.

• Encourage additional federal funding for infrastructure and other special projects.

Forbes Field Development

• Take advantage of underutilized assets available at Forbes Field. Land, buildings, runways, and infrastructure already exist to take Forbes Field to the next level of growth and productivity.

Infrastructure

• Infrastructure development for the new 600-acre commerce park in south Topeka will be critical as we work to bring additional jobs and companies to our region. Costs could exceed $10 million for this project alone.

Marketing/Public Relations

• Implement specific marketing plans for the targeted industries identified in the Wadley-Donovan Target Industries Study completed in early 2002.

• Generate positive media stories about the Topeka area in the national and trace media.

• Produce high quality Internet-based and printed publications that specifically address the questions and concerns of prospective business and industry.

Our Focus: 2003-2007 (continued)

Workforce Development and Recruitment

• Create a more highly educated and productive workforce through education and training while shaping an environment that will support the expansion of existing business.

• Conduct research on current and anticipate workforce needs and trends then develop solutions for the issues raised through these studies.

• Promote job opportunities in the Topeka area to a local, regional, and national audience through various methods of advertising and promotion.

Investor Relations

• Key ingredients of the investor relations program will include:

o A member/investor annual meeting.

o A member/investor annual report

o Periodic and timely e-mail communications

o At least one personal contact per year asking for your input and comments about our work.

GO Topeka’s Strategic Plan

ECONOMIC DEVELOPMENT

Mission: Create new jobs by assisting existing businesses with local expansions and recruiting new business and industry.

A. Create a strategic system for the retention and expansion of family sustaining jobs.

* Hire a full-time business retention and expansion person. Develop an in-depth plan that will assist in the identification of companies at risk and companies that have the potential to grow.

* Improve the training opportunities for growth companies.

* Improve the communication with existing industry on available incentives, training funds and any other information needed for their success.

* Identify recurring problems as perceived by multiple employers.

• Create increased awareness of local and state incentives.

• Recognize local area businesses for their contributions to the local economy.

B. Increase employment base with emphasis on jobs which can sustain a household.

• Conduct a targeted industry student with emphasis on higher than average wage jobs identifying those companies best suited for our region’s resources.

• Develop a long-range marketing plan focusing on those targeted businesses (identified from targeted study) with high than average wages in order to aggressively promote the Topeka/Shawnee County area as a premiere location for business and industry.

• Develop policies and procedures inclusive of performance measures for utilization of incentive funds for new and expanding businesses.

• Identify workforce availability.

• Capitalize on area’s state of the art, world class information highway system.

• Increase new prospect leads.

• Increase internal capabilities to promote and sell the community and leverage opportunities in order to increase our overall effectiveness at creating higher paying jobs.

• Increase the availability of industrial and commercial sites to market to new and expanding businesses.

• Positively influence the Topeka/Shawnee County Comprehensive Plan.

C. Broaden and diversity economic base.

• Support, promote, sponsor, coordinate and develop programs to improve the talent pool, available financing, business environment, and entrepreneurship spirit in order to develop new employers and grow small businesses in Topeka and Shawnee County.

• Promote business development with a focus on minority and women owned business.

GO Topeka’s Strategic Plan (continued)

D. Develop enablers to economic growth.

* Build alliance between business individuals, higher education and government dedicated to building competitive advantage for regional businesses and sparking innovation.

* Maintain high level of public/private support for economic development. Build consensus support and organizational strength.

E. Create an environment for organizational excellence and opportunities for leadership development and cooperation.

* Establish GO Topeka as the leading economic development organization in the Topeka/Shawnee County area. Offices will be the first stop and “GO TO” organization for new and expanding businesses.

* Engage emerging leadership in the economic development process.

* Leverage intellectual capital of area and nearby educational institutions.

F. Improve area’s export expertise and ability to attract foreign investment.

* Identify, develop and promote international trade and investment.

G. Secure federal resources to further economic development goals.

* Enhance federal support for local economic development & priority community projects.

WORFKORCE DEVELOPMENT

Mission: To maintain and support existing industries with a trained skilled workforce, attract new industries with capability for expanding our skilled workforce and provide training designed to meet the needs of companies in existing and targeted industries.

A. Identify skills needed by existing and targeted industries in Topeka/Shawnee County area annually.

• Develop a survey that identifies skills needed for growth and retention and how many positions are unfilled.

B. Create a system that provides the needed skilled workforce to meet the needs of our target industries and existing industry.

• Determine what needed skills are being produced by our K-12 education system and post secondary Tech Schools currently.

• Implement a marketing plan to attract more people to technical training programs and existing skilled jobs.

• Develop a marketing plan to Northeast Kansas that encourages use of the Topeka One Stop Workforce Center.

• Find more grant money for training skilled workers and buy training equipment for high skilled jobs. Create necessary facilities for training needed skills.

-----------------------

[pic]

Board of Directors

Kris Robbins, Chair

Security Benefit Group

Mark Wittenburg, Vice Chair

Battis Development

Carl Koupal, Treasurer

Community National Bank

John Moenius, Secretary

Martin Tractor Co.

Dean Ferrell, Past Chair

Ferrell Construction

Sister Loretto Marie Colwell

St. Francis Health Center

Lucky DeFries

Coffman, DeFries & Nothern

Dr. Jerry Farley

Washburn University

Dr. Robert McFrazier

Topeka Public Schools

Maynard Oliverius

Stormont-Vail HealthCare

Ben Blair

Coldwell Banker Griffith & Blair

Mike Engler

Bartlett & West Engineers

Vince Frye

FryeAllen, Inc.

Linda RamirezGonzalez

KS Dept. of Human Resources

Rick Jackson

Capitol Federal

Gregg Lynch

J.E. Dunn Construction

James McClinton

Juvenile Justice Authority

Ed Ramirez

Embroidery Plus

Ken Schmanke

KS Commercial Real Estate

Charles Duran

AFL-CIL/United Way

Duane Fager

Commerce Bank & Trust

Neil Fisher

Kansas Building Systems

Col. Rufus Forrest

Kansas National Guard

Alonzo Harrison

HDB Construction

Kathy Johnson

Burlington Northern Santa Fe

Ex-Officio Members

Mayor Butch Felker

City of Topeka

Councilman John Alcala

City of Topeka

Councilwoman Vanessa Hill

City of Topeka

Commissioner Vic Miller

Shawnee County

Devin Sutherland

Downtown Topeka, Inc.

David Stremming

MTAA

[pic]

[pic]

[pic]

[pic]

................
................

In order to avoid copyright disputes, this page is only a partial summary.

Google Online Preview   Download