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First area to work on: Job growth and economic development

Staff photo by Bill Lackey The PrimeOhio Corporate Park.

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By Elaine Morris Roberts, Staff Writer Updated 8:50 AM Monday, May 17, 2010

SPRINGFIELD — One of the goals of the Greater Springfield Moving Forward initiative is to see what more can be done to bring jobs to the region and promoting economic development.

And while the survey underway will bring in ideas from the community, leaders involved with GSMF are also hoping to have the opportunity to educate the public on the current state of economic development in the area.

Most people are aware of the manufacturing history of the area and what the decline in that industry has done. But many may not be aware of industries that are presently growing in the area.

The community has some loosely defined areas of strength that include food distribution, insurance, support services, manufacturing, technology and aerospace/defense, according to Tom Franzen, economic administrator for the city of Springfield.

With companies like Assurant, Red Roof Inn and CodeBlue, there are call centers and administrative centers clustered here.

And while the manufacturing sector locally has shunk considerably, manufacturing is not going away, so a strategy ignoring that would be foolish, Franzen said.

Between 2000 and 2007 the area lost a higher percentage of its manufacturing jobs than any metropolitan area in the state, said David Zak, the Chamber’s vice president of economic development. “We lost about 46 percent of those jobs. One out of four jobs period were lost in Springfield over that time, and that’s significant.”

The majority were from Navistar and affiliated businesses.

Over the last three years, he said, there has been a significant uptick. Part of that is due to tracking, which shows more than 3,100 new jobs created and investment of $735 million in the community.

About $410 million can be attributed to the hospital and city school construction projects, with the remainder from various kinds of private investment.

Synergies need to happen, too, to ensure the best uses of available resources.

“You’re trying to maximize the benefits,” Zak said.

If, for example, he said, a parking garage were to be constructed downtown, it should be located where it would allow the most people to benefit.

Medical offices built downtown should be near the hospitals.

“We need to think about putting things together that have similar uses,” he said.

A industrial park, to be built at the former International Harvester site on Lagonda Avenue, will be within the urban core, which many companies are looking for.

“It’s important to be urban-focused in some regards, because when cities are strong, populations within and around the cities tend to be stronger,” Franzen said.

Job training and recruitment are also a key factor. “As we go about trying to target specific industries or how we respond to requests for information, you want to synergize with what you already have going on,” Zak said, referencing training programs at Clark State Community College that have allowed companies like CodeBlue to move to Springfield and train new employees.

Synergies need to be developed that extend beyond Ohio, creating a global focus.

“There’s a tendency in Ohio -- partly because it’s a humility things and partly a beleaguered thing – to aim small and what we need to do is not settle for that,” said Tom Kaplan, Wittenberg University’s first Ness Endowed Chair in Entrepreneurship and associate professor of management. “We can’t worry about the ‘what can be,’ but figure out what the next great thing will be. We can’t focus on what brought us success before because in the world of innovation, that doesn’t get you success the next time. We need to be paying attention to what the world needs now and what our community has to offer.”

Another aim of the initiative is to improve community morale.

“People will begin to feel involved and invested. I think this is critical as we begin to try and move the psyche of the community to a more positive place,” Zak said. “Every community has advantages and disadvantages, pros and cons. Every community has good things going on and things it would like to change, so part of the branding and marketing process is to present the good things and get people to think about the community in a way that’s based on the positives. What this initiative is about is to get people on the same page, to help them see our sweet spots.”

Getting back to business is what will make the difference, so leaders are looking for not only ideas about what types of jobs or industries might benefit the area, but possible strategies.

“We need to get a handle on what people need and what they’re willing to pay for. ...It’s important to have a broad visioning exercise, but as a part of that, you need to think about tactics, think about the near-term. Any kind of a plan that has a time horizon of five to 10 years may be useful directionally, but then we need to identify two or three projects that make sense. Then, we need to identify the people who are willing and able to accomplish those. We’ve got some pretty good tacticians in town and that’s important,” said Kaplan.

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