Columbus and Lowndes County learned some hard truths Wednesday during a visit from an economic development firm which specializes in site selection.
Tonya Crist and Rob Cornwell with Insite Consulting were brought in by the Tennessee Valley Authority to assess participating communities in a mock site selection visit.
The duo from Insite, which has worked across the country with Fortune 100 companies, pulled no punches in describing the reality of site selection Wednesday at the Link offices. The meeting was attended by the entire Lowndes County Board of Supervisors; Mayor Robert Smith and several members of the Columbus City Council; and numerous additional players with a hand in courting industry.
Insite is contracted by industries to identify optimal sites for new development. Crist, a no-nonsense economic development veteran from South Carolina, where Insite is based, described the emotionless process of narrowing potential sites.
It begins with a Request For Information, a list of questions seeking every potentially important detail of a site or building, e-mailed to the local chamber of commerce. The RFI is then e-mailed back to Insite. But Crist doesn”t see them until her computer has weeded out all the non-contenders.
“From the time (the RFI) comes to my computer, it”s seeking and destroying. It is risk adverse. Anything left blank? Eliminate. If they don”t know the answer, I don”t know the answer and the client is not going to know the answer. If anything is marked N/A, negotiable, see attached? Killed it,” Crist explained. “The model is not looking for people who can compete. It”s looking for people who can”t.”
Blanks on a form aren”t the only thing that can cost a community a multimillion dollar project and the accompanying jobs. If the RFI is late at all it goes immediately to the “eliminated” folder on Crist”s computer.
All RFI”s which are complete and on time are given a computer-based grade based on criteria provided by the industry in question. Then the relative scores of the remaining RFI”s go head-to-head. If an industry prefers 28-foot-high ceilings and your building has 20-foot ceilings, it”s likely out.
The same can be said for interior space, floor thickness, the number of interior walls and untold additional circumstances. Because industrial buildings are constructed to different specifications now than 20 or 30 years ago, Link CEO Joe Max Higgins stated his belief old Columbus industrial locations like Baldor and Johnson Electric are unlikely to ever draw a comparable number of jobs, assuming they”re used at all.
Crist was even more blunt about hopes for obsolete buildings.
“Drop them. Get federal grants and demolish them,” she said. “If it”s in a dynamic community and it”s an eyesore, lose the hopes and dreams it will become something. The people on the outside have no emotional connection to it.”
In the case of fields which don”t meet current environmental standards, “make it a cemetery.”
If a building or a site makes it through the initial cuts and a site visit is scheduled, Crist says several steps must be taken to provide what the industry leaders need before even considering what they want.
Because utility costs can make or break a deal, representatives must be present for the meeting.
“Those players need to be involved from the get go and don”t let them leave until the bitter end. Their ability to touch a project and impact it is higher than any other variable,” said Crist. “Everytime you”re going to be interfacing with a client, have your water, sewer, electric and natural gas people at the lunch, at the dinner, at the table.”
Beyond the nuts and bolts of utilities, industries are also looking for peer evaluations.
“Then have three existing industry people (present). When you”re trying to win a deal those people close better than anybody,” said Crist. “People want to have politicians come in and talk about the quality of life. And you know what it does? Whoosh (goes over their heads). But when you”ve got a CEO from an existing industry saying my company thrives for these reasons, that”s what hits home for those decision makers.
“The days of wine and dine and playing golf, all that stuff”s gone.”
With regard to workforce, Crist said relationships with research universities and community college training programs are a plus. But promoting the existing workforce in a particular industry trumps the availability of trainable labor.
On the bright side, Crist heaped praise upon the Link for being up to speed in all categories. As far as the availability of thorough and comprehensive information, timeliness and foresight, she said she would be Lowndes County”s “biggest cheerleader.”
However, Higgins recognized a few shortcomings over the course of Insite”s assessment. He admitted he thought secretaries still sorted RFIs by hand and didn”t realize how fickle the elimination process can be.
One shortcoming he believes may have cost Lowndes County a look in the past is the lack of a floor at the speculative building built in 2008 at the Lowndes Global Industrial Aerospace Park.
The lack of an answer on the “floor thickness in inches” question on Insite”s RFI hurt the building”s overall grade.
Crist suggested a six-inch reinforced floor — the industry standard — be poured, and windows added to make the building more attractive. The fact that a floor can be installed in less than a month, she said, may cost the county an industrial client looking to make a quick move.
Jason Browne was previously a reporter for The Dispatch.
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