Kelvin Heck’s new title will be chairman of the Lawrence Chamber of Commerce’s board of directors. But during his one-year term, he may feel more like a choir director.

“One of the major things I would like to get done this year, probably the best thing we as a chamber could get done, is get as many people, especially the community leadership, singing from the same page when it comes to economic development,” Heck said.

Heck, a Lawrence broker for the commercial real estate firm of Grubb & Ellis/The Winbury Group, officially will assume his new position at the chamber’s annual meeting Friday evening. He replaces Journal-World editorial page editor Ann Gardner, who served a one-year term as chairwoman.

Heck already has started singing his own tune about the need for an increased emphasis on economic development activity in the community.

“Job one for the year is to re-establish economic development as our top priority,” Heck said. “That is the traditional role of a chamber of commerce, and for whatever reason, we maybe haven’t been as strong in that area as we would like.”

Searching for a director

Heck will be able to dive right into a major economic development decision. The chamber is looking for a new economic development director because Debi Moore resigned from the position in February for health reasons.

Replacing Moore’s 25 years of experience with the chamber will be difficult, Heck said, but it is critical to Lawrence’s future.

“Hiring a new director of economic development is the most important decision facing us right now,” Heck said. “Finding the right person for that position is critical to the economic development of Lawrence and therefore the economic health of Lawrence.”

The chamber is conducting a nationwide search for a new director, and Heck said the board has set a tentative goal of having a new leader in place by Aug. 1.

Finding the right person for the position, Heck said, will be an important step in helping slow the growing number of Lawrence residents who commute elsewhere to work. A survey conducted for the chamber last year estimated 22 percent of all Lawrence workers commute elsewhere, and Heck said that is concerning.

“We are moving more and more to a bedroom community every day,” Heck said. “Homebuilders and retailers are doing great in this town, and that is good, but we have to have some more industrial growth to balance that out.

“We’ll need a real leader to come in here to this position and help attract new jobs.”

Leadership gaps

But Heck won’t be looking just at the chamber of commerce to provide that leadership. He’s open about his desire for key public officials to become more involved in economic development activities.

“We need to have the superintendent of schools, the city manager, the county administrator, the chamber staff all saying the same thing when an industrial prospect looks at Lawrence,” Heck said. “We need to create a welcoming environment.”

Heck stopped short of saying government administrators or other community leaders hadn’t been welcoming of projects in the past, but he did say the community had not been prepared when it unsuccessfully tried to attract a distribution facility for American Eagle Outfitters to town about two years ago. The project created controversy in the community about the wages the company would pay, the size of tax abatements the company would receive, and the use of 87 acres of low-lying farm ground for an industrial site.

“I don’t want to get specific now,” Heck said of his concerns. “Now’s not the time. But I do want people to understand how important I think community leadership is and the significant need we have for leadership right now.

“I’ve been in this town for 51 years and I don’t know that I see leadership in all of the key positions in town as we have had in the past. Let’s just say that I think there are some leadership voids that we have allowed to happen over the years, and we’re suffering from that.”

Heck said he hopes to continue working on ways to avoid future controversies. ECO2, a chamber effort to identify and fund the purchase of land for industrial development and open space, is one way to do that.

Heck chairs the ECO2 group and said he hopes it will make its recommendations to county and city officials soon, but he said the group won’t produce an end-all answer to the questions surrounding Lawrence’s economic development activities.

“I think we’re going to have to continue to bring together a lot of different people to keep talking about economic development,” Heck said. “We need to have diverse opinions expressed, but we need them expressed in a way that will help us get to a common goal. A common goal, which I think should be about growing the community in a balanced way.”

Array of jobs

That means the community should have a discussion about what types of jobs and industries the community wants to recruit. Heck said there seems to be widespread agreement the community should be aggressive in attracting high-tech jobs.

He said he agrees that the growth of businesses who use the research and other assets of Kansas University “will be the driving force” in Lawrence’s new growth.

But he said he hopes the community doesn’t turn its back on other industrial opportunities.

“It’s great to have high-paying, high-tech jobs,” Heck said. “We want those and we’ll be aggressive in getting those, but we can’t forget about the important idea of having an array of jobs.”

Distribution jobs are a good example, Heck said. He said Lawrence’s location along I-70 and close proximity to I-35 make the city a logical location for distribution companies.

“Our location says distribution in a lot of ways,” Heck said. “It makes sense for us to be a player in that arena.”

But distribution jobs were the type American Eagle wanted to bring to the community. A vocal group of opponents strongly criticized economic development officials for spending resources to attract those type of jobs, because many of them would pay less than $10 an hour.

Heck said he’ll try to convince as many people as possible that those types of jobs have an important role to play in Lawrence.

“When you say a distribution center isn’t a wanted business because it doesn’t pay enough, I really have to question that,” Heck said. “I look at the Kmart Distribution Center in town. There are 400 people with jobs out there, and I don’t think we want them to go away.

“I would welcome them and others to town again.”