From the President
This month, I would be remiss if I didnt start this column by celebrating the great news about two important East Side development projects. In October, the Port Board of Comissioners approved land sales and financing for Health East Medical Transportation and Baldinger Bakery. While further detail is provided in a separate article in this edition of the RePort, those two projects will result in at least nearly 200 jobs, and new capital investment of $34.5 million along Phalen Boulevard. Equally important, both projects involve modernization activities that will help these valuable employers meet the demands of the marketplace. We are truly excited about these deals and are working toward others, as well.
But the other topic that I would like to explore this month is the growing momentum around the region for a more coordinated and cooperative marketing effort. The Port’s primary economic development partners including the St. Paul Chamber, Capital City Partnership, the Riverfront Corporation and, of course, the Mayor’s Office and Saint Paul’s Planning and Economic Development Department are discussing ways to improve how we portray the citys assets to business prospects within the City, Region, nationally and internationally. Those discussions are being complemented and buttressed by a second discussion among regional business and government leaders about creating a more sophisticated approach to marketing the entire Twin Cities Metropolitan Area.
There is enough excitement around the notion of regional marketing that it was the catalyst for an Inter City Leadership Visit, organized by the St. Paul Area and Minneapolis Chambers of Commerce, to Charlotte, NC. The Ports Lorrie Louder and I participated in the meetings, and we were one of many sponsors of the event.
Our takeaway from the event and previous discussions here is Saint Paul is pretty straightforward. The primary job of site selection firms is to quickly weed out prospective locations for their clients and concentrate their attention on a few good prospects. Those areas with a solid brand, organized marketing and site information, and a one-stop point of entry stand a greater chance of winning business development than those who lack these basic elements. Simply put, the Twin Cities is considered a solid brand we still have a good image in the marketplace for many of the reasons that weve been reciting to each other for years. But the Twin Cities lacks an organized, focused marketing effort and it also lacks an easy point of entry for anyone who is looking for development opportunities in the region. That means the Twin Cities in general, and Saint Paul in particular, is often weeded out before we have a chance to put on our best face.
The Itasca Project, a civic engagement organization whose makeup includes leaders from the states largest corporations, is interested in a regional marketing effort as a component (and perhaps the centerpiece) of their jobs and economic development initiative.
So why would Saint Paul, the Port, and all of our local economic development partners want to be part of this effort? Arent the other communities in the region our competition? The answer lies in another takeaway from the Inter City Leadership Visit and other research. Both the people who have organized successful regional efforts, and the site selection consultants who help companies make location decisions suggest that the model for successful economic development relies on three basic tenets Brand Regionally, Market Regionally, Compete Locally. When a regional branding and marketing system nets a business prospect for the region, it is up to each individual community to match its positive attributes to the expressed needs of the prospect.
One national site selection consultant referred to this process as, coopetition. One of our Charlotte hosts described the arrangement as follows: Work to get the prospect interested in the region, and then compete like cats and dogs.
However its characterized, there is some energy around attempting to organize our region and we will participate in the effort. To be ready for the day, if it comes, that a regional economic development marketing infrastructure is created and launched, the Saint Paul economic development partners need to continue to improve our own branding and marketing. And ultimately, thats a worthwhile exercise regardless of whether a regional approach is ever created.
