Linda Trotter, left, and Shirley Martin-Smith talk during the East Hills Business Park 20th anniversary celebration. Lawrence government and business leaders marked the occasion Monday at the Douglas County Development Inc. spec building, 3813 Greenway Drive.

Twenty years after the East Hills Business Park started with a vision for an employment center at the southeastern edge of town, Lawrence leaders are working to build momentum for more projects like it – new parks that could be home for new jobs, new taxes, new volunteers and other new benefits that would be expected to follow.

During a celebration Monday to mark the park’s first 20 years in business, about 50 industry and government leaders gathered inside the park’s “spec” building at 3813 Greenway Drive, a property built without a tenant in mind so that the community could market itself to potential employers.

While the building remains vacant – a deal for Deciphera to move in fell apart last year – leaders laud its mere existence as a major resource indicative of the can-do attitude leaders say will be necessary to succeed in future years.

“This is an example of responsible risk taking,” said Mike McGrew, president and chief executive officer of McGrew Real Estate and vice chairman of economic development efforts for the Lawrence Chamber of Commerce. “That responsible risk taking is something that we have to take forward now.”

McGrew, who also serves on the board of Douglas County Development Inc., the nonprofit organization that manages the business park, is among dozens of leaders working to help find new locations for future business parks, along with companies to move into them.

East Hills already has succeeded, said Beth Johnson, the chamber’s vice president for economic development. Its companies employ nearly 2,700 people, and owners of property in the park generated $2.1 million in tax revenues last year.

“Some people would consider that a small city, in and of itself,” she said.

Monday’s event, organized by the chamber, also served as a forum to unveil a new marketing campaign for an economic-development relationship that’s been in place for years, linking the city of Lawrence, Douglas County and the chamber.

The new name: the Jayhawk Alliance, indicating that the effort will allow the partners to speak with one voice, and reflect the commitment of working with other vital partners, such as Kansas University.

Mayor Sue Hack, who leads the chamber’s Leadership Lawrence program, told the crowd that she was looking forward to moving ahead with plans for more room for more jobs in the years ahead.

“We want to look toward the future,” she said. “And 20 years from now, I don’t want to be just celebrating the 40th birthday of the East Hills Business Park. I want to be celebrating the 20th birthday of a new business park.”