Business recruiter: City very ‘selective’

Economic board discusses tactics

The Lawrence-Douglas County Economic Development Board will look at whether the community needs to become more aggressive in offering incentives to lure companies to locate or expand in the city.

Mike Maddox, board chairman and an executive with Intrust Bank, directed the group to begin formulating thoughts on the issue after hearing a presentation from a state leader who said the community likely was the choosiest city in the state in terms of what companies it tries to attract.

“You are as selective as anybody, without a doubt,” Bill Thompson, business recruitment manager for the Kansas Department of Commerce, told the board in its Wednesday meeting. “There’s nothing wrong with that, but you have to realize that you’re going to have a greater time period between victories.”

Maddox said he hoped part of the board’s future discussions, which are likely to begin in January, would focus on how selective the community should be in trying to attract new companies.

Several board members said they thought the community likely was on the right track with how it determined which new businesses to pursue.

“I think our selectivity is OK, but it does mean that we have to make an aggressive effort with economic development,” said Charles Jones, a Douglas County commissioner and board member. “It means that we will have to be fierce in the projects we go after.”

Board members were told that Lawrence increasingly is competing against cities that have funds available to offer up-front cash payments, or forgivable loans, to companies looking to expand or relocate.

A recent survey of 35 Midwestern communities conducted by the Lawrence Chamber of Commerce found that 12 of them had funds established to provide forgivable loans to companies.

Lynn Parman, vice president of economic development for the chamber, said the loans generally ranged from $1,000 to $5,000 for every new job the company created. The loans usually were made with funds from specially approved sales taxes, property taxes or private funds.

Maddox said the board should discuss whether a Douglas County fund should be established.

“I don’t know what the answer is, but we’re doing a disservice to the community if we don’t at least have the discussion,” Maddox said.

Maddox also said the group should consider whether area governments should provide incentives to developers to build more speculative building space to house new companies. Parman said that the No. 1 reason prospective companies gave for not locating in Lawrence was a lack of a properly sized buildings.

Douglas County Development Inc., the nonprofit group that runs the East Hills Business Park, finished construction on an approximately 60,000-square-foot speculative building in 2003, but the building is still without a permanent tenant.

“When we built that building, we may not have built what the market was looking for,” Maddox said.

The economic development board is jointly appointed by the Lawrence City Commission and Douglas County Commission and provides recommendations to the two governments on economic development-related issues.