ShawneeDispatch.com

Andrew Nave

At its core, the Shawnee Economic Development Council is charged with “selling” the community, executive director Andrew Nave told city leaders last week.

Now, for the first time, the EDC has created specific financial targets to monitor whether it’s effectively doing so.

Nave presented the EDC’s targets and 2012 budget request to City Council members at the June 21 Public Works and Safety Committee meeting.

City manager Carol Gonzales said that last fall when the city renegotiated its contract with the Shawnee Chamber of Commerce, it required the economic development targets and a business plan. Prior to then, the contract hadn’t been updated since 1993, she said.

The EDC is requesting a budget of $340,000 in 2012, a 5 percent increase from the 2011 budget of about $322,000.

Nave said reaching the new targets, wouldn’t necessarily be easy, especially in a sluggish economy.

“This is what we’re aiming for,” he said.

From 2011 to 2013, the EDC hopes to:

• Increase Shawnee’s property tax base to 35 percent valuation from commercial sources at full city build-out.

• Directly support creation of 1,000 new jobs and $35 million of new payroll in Shawnee.

• Obtain a public return on investment of 70:1, based on direct annual payroll and capital investment.

• Grow private sector membership in the EDC by 33 percent, which Nave said would increase members from about 40 to more than 50.

Nave said one of Shawnee’s biggest economic development challenges is a lack of large-scale facilities.

More than half the EDC’s inquiries are from companies requiring more than 26,000 feet, he said. But Shawnee has only two industrial spaces that fit that description.

“It’s not as if we swung and missed,” Nave said. “It’s that we didn’t even get a chance at the plate.”

Another major challenge, he said, is neighboring communities with agressive incentive programs that Shawnee doesn’t have.

“It’s an intense competition for economic development projects, even in our own backyard,” Nave said.

The EDC’s objectives for 2011 to 2013 include attracting basic enterprises that would create diverse employment opportunities. Nave cited Van-Rob as an example of how targeting specific markets can be successful. He said the auto parts manufacturer, which recently announced it would open a facility in Shawnee, is probably one of numerous such companies looking for space close to the automotive plants in Kansas City, Kan.

Other goals include retaining and expanding existing employers, encouraging residential and commercial development and expanding marketing.

The new EDC targets are especially apropos in light of the fact that Shawnee is considering pumping millions of dollars — new revenue from the recently increased landfill impact fee — into economic development efforts beginning in 2012.

If the City Council approves the proposed economic development fund in the 2012 budget, city staff must create a policy statement detailing how the money would be spent, such as on incentives for certain kinds of development or to build roads and utilities at potential development sites. Gonzales said that process would probably happen in September or October.

While the money wouldn’t go into Chamber of Commerce coffers, the Chamber and its EDC would be tasked with helping to advertise and pitch city incentives to potential developers, Gonzales said.

Comments