Spartanburg city leaders launch OneSpartanburg initiative

Matthew Clark

GSA Business Report

After nearly a year of work, including community surveys, meetings and data analysis, Spartanburg is ready to move forward with a plan that city leaders hope will put it on track for future prosperity.

Allen Smith, president of the Spartanburg Area Chamber of Commerce, along with other city officials, unveiled the OneSpartanburg plan to focus on the quality of life in the Upstate city. The plan includes creating an organization dedicated to improving downtown and another aimed at implementing the OneSpartanburg plan. Both organizations will be housed under the Chamber of Commerce.

The plan includes a five-year implementation process and comes with an estimated price tag of $5.15 million over the five years. The budget — which is being raised with private funding — includes creating up to seven new positions, including an executive vice president of the Downtown Partnership and an executive vice president of OneSpartanburg.

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Editorial: Progress in 2017 toward year-round economy

Editorial Board

Napels Daily News


Efforts to diversify Collier County’s economy might be described using the idiom “fits and starts.” Now, however, we see a new year arriving with a fitting new start.

The “fits” trace to 1976 with the formation of the Collier County Economic Development Council (EDC) because of concern the local economy was based too much on tourism and real estate/construction.

Within just the past decade, Project Innovation launched in 2008 with the intention of diversifying the economy. That initiative died, as did the EDC in September 2011. A 2012 KMK Consulting report then concluded, you guessed it, that Collier needed to diversify its economy. So Collier government created an economic development arm, but it languished for two years under ineffective leadership.

Late 2013 brought a big splash with the public-private Partnership for Collier’s Future Economy. A Market Street Services study for the Greater Naples Chamber of Commerce showed Collier lost more than 13 percent of its jobs -- nearly 20,000 -- during the Great Recession. Tourism and real estate/construction saw major job losses.

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Chamber gets $15K from city for study

Bryan Richardson 

The Mercury


The Manhattan Area Chamber of Commerce is working on a community vision and economic development analysis.

To help with that plan, the Manhattan City Commission approved a $15,000 request Tuesday for funding toward the study, which is being done with Market Street Services.

The Atlanta-based firm does economic, community and workforce development consulting.

The nine-month study will mostly be funded through the Advantage Manhattan “Power our Potential” initiative, a chamber fundraising program. The study is estimated to cost $171,000.

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North Central West Virginia Economic Outlook event expanded, scheduled for Oct. 18

Press Release

WVUtoday

A regional economic forecast from researchers at West Virginia Universityand a look at the U.S. economy by a senior economist at the Federal Reserve Bank of Richmond will anchor the North Central West Virginia Economic Outlook Conference Oct. 18 in Morgantown.

This year’s event will also include a presentation by a nationally renowned economic development strategy organization, sessions on local government and education, and a panel discussion on economic and community development. The conference will begin at 8:30 a.m. at the Waterfront Place Hotel.

[. . .]

Alex Pearlstein, vice president of Market Street Services in Atlanta, will serve as the keynote speaker. Market Street is a provider of community, workforce and economic development strategic planning services recognized for its work throughout the U.S.

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It's time to leverage our past for a bright future

Rob Bradham, President and CEO, Great Dalton Chamber of Commerce
Dalton Daily Citizen


I am rapidly approaching the end of my first year as president and CEO of the chamber as well as my first year in Dalton. I spent a great deal of time over the last year learning everything I can about this community. I read books, I read news articles, I drove around, I toured businesses and I listened to literally hundreds of opinions about Dalton and Whitfield County.

[. . .] Today, I'm very pleased the Greater Dalton Chamber of Commerce is taking the lead in building a plan for the next chapter in our community. The chamber's Executive Board has contracted with Market Street Services, an Atlanta-based community and economic development firm, to assist the community in just such a planning process.

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New report highlights data, challenges in Topeka, Shawnee County

Morgan Chilson
Topeka Capital-Journal


A 64-page community assessment of Topeka and Shawnee County released Thursday is bursting with data, comparisons to other cities and, most importantly, six primary issues that tell the capital city’s story.

Those six, identified in the Market Street Services Inc. report, are:

■ A critical need to improve community pride.

■ Threats to a strong workforce go beyond population growth.

■ Quality of place enhancements are needed to change outlooks.

■ Homegrown talent: a need to connect the local and regional talent pipeline.

■ Enhancing economic opportunities through existing strengths.

■ Prosperity and well-being lag behind.

“It’s not all rosy, is it?” said Matt Pivarnik, CEO and president of the Greater Topeka Chamber of Commerce and GO Topeka. “We have our work cut out for us. I think that this actually confirms a lot of what our gut was already telling us. It puts some data behind it.”

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Dalton business groups come together to develop plan to grow local economy

Mike Pare

Times Free Press

When Rob Bradham came to Dalton, Ga., late last year, he kept hearing about the city's heydays in the '70s, '80s and '90s when the carpet business was blazing.

"The [Great Recession] took a heavy toll," said Bradham, the Greater Dalton Chamber of Commerce's chief executive, adding that leaders in the area believe they need to start thinking about what's next.

The business group has launched a community and economic development strategic planning effort for Whitfield County. The initiative will look at crafting a long-term vision for industrial recruiting, downtown revitalization, and economic and workforce development, the Chamber CEO said.

The end product will have specific recommended projects, including a price tag, and goals to achieve, said Bradham, who came to Dalton after serving as the Chattanooga Area Chamber of Commerce's vice president of public strategies.

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