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Today is 2010 National Census Day!
It is very important to our region and state that you fill in your 2010 U.S. Census forms and mail them back by today.
Census information affects the number of seats that Alabama occupies in the U.S. House of Representatives. People use census data to advocate for causes, research markets, locate pools of skilled workers and more. Census returns directly impact your total dollars received from federal and state resources.
It's easy to see what an accurate count of residents can do for the Coastal Gateway Region. An exact count is crucial for obtaining federal dollars for schools, highways, infrastructure and other projects in our communities that will lead to a better tomorrow!
According to the U.S. Census Bureau, information the census collects will help to determine how more than $400 billion dollars of federal funding each year is spent on infrastructure and services like:
Historically, our region has had some of the lowest return rates in Alabama. Please spread the word so our counties have the greatest, most accurate Census count in 2010.
For more information visit http://2010.census.gov/2010census/. |
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Evergreen Medical Center Named by Thompson Reuters as a Top 100 Hospital in the U.S.
The Thomson Reuters 100 Top Hospitals: National Benchmarks Study for 2009 released their results last week, identifying the 100 Top Hospitals based on performance in ten different areas. We are pleased to announce that the Evergreen Medical Center (EMC) in Evergreen, AL was designated as one of the Top 100 Hospitals on this list!
Thompson Reuters 100 is an annual, quantitative study that identifies the best hospitals, overall, as measured on the 100 Top Hospitals Balanced Scorecard. Hospitals are evaluated against similar hospitals, in terms of size and teaching status.
The Top 100 is divided into several categories: Major Teaching Hospital, Teaching Hospitals (200 or more acute-care beds), Large Community Hospitals (250 or more acute-care beds), Medium Community Hospitals (100-249 acute-care beds), and Small Community Hospitals (25-99 acute care beds).
Only 25 of the 50 states have hospitals listed in this study and EMC is the only small hospital in Alabama named to this list. Healthcare is a top five "quality of life" community recruitment requirement.
Bob Humphrey, EMC Administrator, said "EMC is very excited about being recognized as a Top 100 Hospital. It is the result of many years of carefully executed strategic plans and dedication to our core values. The community of Evergreen can always count on EMC to be a well managed major employer that will continue to invest in new services and technology to improve the patient experience. We are honored to have received this accomplishment and trust that you can share this recognition with us. We plan to celebrate this achievement during National Hospital Week beginning May 10th".
Daryl Harper, Director of the Evergreen/ Conecuh Economic Development Office, said "EMC has long been an exceptional small hospital and only recently have they received the recognition deserved. I guess it was one of our best kept secrets, but as we attract more retirees and industry to our community, excellent healthcare can now be affirmed. With the expansion plans of EMC over the next several years, additional services will be added to help ensure our local citizens are supported and will not have to travel out of the County for many of their healthcare requirements".
Jean Chenoweth, senior vice president for performance improvement and 100 Top Hospitals programs at Thomson Reuters, said "This year's study magnified the value that 100 Top Hospital award winners provide to their communities. Even during the economic downturn, the 100 Top Hospitals maintained a profit from operations while raising the bar for clinical quality and patient satisfaction".
The ten criteria used to determine winners were: mortality, medical complications, patient safety, average length of stay, expenses, profitability, patient satisfaction, adherence to clinical standards of care, post-discharge mortality, re-admission rates for acute myocardial infarction, heart failure and pneumonia.
To conduct the 100 Top Hospitals study, Thomson Reuters researchers evaluated 2,926 short-term, acute care, non-federal hospitals. They used public information including: Medicare cost reports, Medicare Provider Analysis and Review (MedPAR) data, core measures and patient satisfaction data from the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS) Hospital Compare data set.
According to Thompson Reuters, if all Medicare inpatients received the same level of care as those treated in the 100 Top Hospitals award winners:
- More than 98,000 additional patients would survive each year.
- More than 197,000 patient complications would be avoided annually.
- Expenses would decline by an aggregate $5.5 billion a year.
- The average patient stay would decrease by nearly half a day.
If the same standards were applied to all inpatients, the impact would be even greater.
This is a very exciting announcement for the City of Evergreen, Conecuh County and the Coastal Gateway region as a whole. Congratulations to the Evergreen Medical Center for this wonderful accomplishment. |
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Site Selection Series
Meet the Consultants
The Southern Economic Development Council, Inc. (SEDC) hosted the third annual Meet the Consultants event at the Palmer House Hilton in Chicago, IL on March 18, 2010. The conference provided important information and was a great networking opportunity for the Coastal Gateway region.
On the Wednesday prior to the conference, a group of local economic developers, state partners and Wiley Blankenship, President/ CEO of Coastal Gateway Regional Economic Development Authority (CGEDA), held a lunch with a few consultants and a dinner with six site consultants.
Site consultant attendees at the dinnerwere: Bob Hess of NKF Consulting, Kelly Gray of Jones Lang LaSalle, Joe Pilewski of Duff & Phelps, Brian Smith of Ernst & Young, Murray Wikol of ProVision LLC and George Ucko, Deputy Trade Commissioner of the French Embassy in the U.S.These meetings proved an excellent opportunity to discuss potential projects for our region and hear what relocation/ expansion trends consultants are seeing in the global economy prior to the actual conference.
The conference kicked off Thursday morning and featured panels of location consultants throughout the entire day.Consultants addressed trends and issues affecting many business sectors and their location decisions.
Bob Hess, Managing Principal of NFK Consulting, previously brought ThyssenKrupp Steel and Stainless USA to Alabama.Hess provided attendees with very insightful information regarding trends in the automotive market.
According to Hess, NFK is seeing movement in the automotive industry. Specifically, they are seeing a renewed interest in alternative energy because of the green movement. Examples include: fuel cell projects, electric motors, alternative vehicles, and battery (replacement)manufacturers for trucks, cars and public transportation.These automotive companies are looking to the Midwest and Southeast to relocate or expand. Hess predicts that by 2011 the alternative automotive sector will be very busy.
Hess also said that "small companies are looking for opportunities to purchase equipment from the Big Three".These smaller companies are purchasing Big Three parts for much smaller plants and vehicles. Brent Pollina, Vice President at Pollina Corporate Real Estate, Inc., concurred and said that he is seeing a lot of corporations from India and China putting facilities like this in the U.S.
Next, automotive industry CEO's have changed their decision making processes. Hess said "CEO's of automotive companies are thinking more strategically than in the past".According to Hess, CEO's are making decisions further in advance because of concern regarding the International Union, United Automobile, Aerospace and Agricultural Implement Workers of America's (UAW) efforts to be included more in management and policy.They are concerned about the Federal Government and the policy decisions they are making.
Last, Hess stressed the importance of ready and available skill sets within a region.Hess said that skills sets are becoming increasingly important for a region to be able to compete for a project.While companies are still looking to train they prefer a cluster area containing unemployed workers with a particular skill set.The Midwest currently has a large amount of unemployed workers that meet this description. Our communities need to continue to develop and determine skill sets within our region and market these assets.
Along these lines, Bill Strey, Vice President of UGL Equis Corp., stressed the importance of the availability of technical training programs in a region.
Strey also spoke about trends they are seeing in the distribution/ logistics industry.He said while many companies look for large distribution areas around major metro areas, that does not mean there are not opportunities in rural areas.
Next, Strey said that they are seeing a major shortage in the distribution industry.According to Strey, the trucking industry is currently short by 110,000 drivers. Also, 400,000 railcars are idle in the U.S.
Strey, among other consultants, stressed the fact that communities must be able to deliver a site that is ready to occupy. He faces many challenges with community covenants, restrictions and zoning. All paperwork needs to be currently updated/ validated before a project even begins.
All of the consultants at the conference seemed to agree that there are more opportunities for small and mid cap companies than large cap companies right now. Communities need to focus on that bracket of companies and not worry as much with OEM companies.
The consultants also echoed the fact that they prefer to work with a single point of contact within a region. Hess said that regionalism is new to Alabama, but not outside of our state. Hess also complimented Coastal Gateway for working outside of their region with Mobile and other surrounding cities. We must continue to promote our assets together and speak as one voice.
Three consultants from the conference will come to parts of the Coastal Gateway region for a familiarization tour this month. By the end of the year, consultants will have visited all counties in the Coastal Gateway region.
Other Site Selection Information
Many companies use site selection consultants because of the structure and efficiency they bring to the process. According to Trade and Industry Development Magazine, November/ December 2009, site consultant exposure is a huge asset to any region. It reduces the learning curve inherent in working with a new company and allows the site selection process to move forward efficiently. Because of this, we need to maintain strong relationships with consultants in order to familiarize them with our region and stay abreast of potential projects. "We are getting the answers to the test by doing this," Blankenship said after meeting with consultants at the SEDC Conference.
One example of a company that used a site consultant to narrow down their list of potential sites is Ryla Inc, a call center solutions provider, whose regional headquarters, corporate data center and regional customer contact center is now located in Saraland near Mobile, AL. According to Site Selection Magazine, January 2010, Ryla used a site consultant to narrow down their list of twenty cities and decided on Alabama. Mark Wilson, Ryla's President/ CEO, said the company is big on culture and wanted a community with good work ethic. Other factors included: good incentives offered by state and local government and the availability of a building.
Wilson said to the CGEDA, "Starting with a list of 20 cities, we ultimately selected Saraland, AL. to open our second office. Our company is big on culture--striving to create the best jobs that employees will ever have. In addition to the state and local government incentives, Saraland was the ideal location because of its service-oriented, hardworking community."
Ryla employs 700 people in Saraland and is expected to grow to 1,200 by 2011. Wilson also said to Site Selection Magazine that the company will most likely choose the Southeast for its third call center.
Our region needs to continue to work with consultants in order to obtain potential projects. |
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Gulf Transort Held Successful Open House
Photo Courtesy -Sherry Digmon, Atmore News
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Gulf Transport (GT) LLC, held an open house event at their new and impressive facility in Atmore Industrial Park on March 3rd, 2010. Among 60 attendees were Atmore Mayor Howard Shell; Marshall Rogers, Executive Director of the Escambia County IDA; and Wiley Blankenship, President/ CEO of CGEDA.
"We were pleased to see such a good crowd at Gulf Transport's grand opening yesterday afternoon. The building and grounds are an asset to the Atmore Industrial Park and we are so glad they picked Atmore for their new terminal. We welcome them to the City and are excited that they are here" stated Rogers.
James Palmer, President of Gulf Transport LLC, and Shawn Lassiter, GT Operations Manager, were also on hand. Palmer stated that the company is "looking forward to the future". He also commented that it is "great to see a good plan come together".
Blankenship said, "This is the day that all communities work toward. We are happy to see a company come to our region, provide great jobs and become active in our community". Blankenship also stated that the "efforts of the local community, the Escambia County Industrial Development Authority, Mayor Howard Shell, the City Council and Chamber of Commerce all share the success of diversifying our local industrial base."
Richard Maxwell of Maxwell Construction said, "Securing a quality company like Gulf Transport was the result of the combined efforts of Coastal Gateway Economic Development Authority, the Escambia County Industrial Development Authority and local Atmore officials. Companies like this could locate their base of operation most anywhere but we are glad they chose Atmore - not just because of the jobs they create and the revenue they bring but because of their genuine desire to be a part of our community. I know their local management and I have spent a lot of time with their out of state management and all have expressed how glad they are to be in Atmore".
Mayor Howard Shell spoke positively about what the company is doing for Atmore. "We were very pleased to see Gulf Transport open", Shell said. "They are bringing capable new business to Atmore with new employees. He said in the future the company is "looking at the possibility of more growth, more employees and more community involvement".
Gulf Transport, a sulfur transport company, is Atmore's newest industry and sits on seven acres in the Atmore Industrial Park. They opened their doors on October 15th, 2009. The company currently employs 14 people and Palmer previously commented that he hopes that number will increase as the business grows. At present they have six new trucks with the latest computer technology and safety as a first priority.
The company used several local businesses to build their facility. Gulf Transport contracted with Maxwell Construction and Mills Fence Company. |
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EDAA Legislative Information
The Economic Development Association of Alabama (EDAA) held their annual Legislative Luncheon on Tuesday, March 2nd at the Montgomery Renaissance Hotel & Spa in Montgomery, AL. The agenda included the Annual Legislator of the Year Award, an update on the State of the State and other legislation of concern to the economic development community. The Annual Legislator of the Year Award recipient was Speaker of the Alabama House of Representatives, Seth Hammett, who represents District 92 (Covington and Escambia). The State of the State update was presented by Neal Wade, Director of the Alabama Development Office (ADO), who named four key focus areas that he feels all economic developers need to focus on in the future.
Four Key Focus Areas Economic Developers
Need to Focus on in the Future:
1. We need to re-define the terms of economic development and change our focus to other means that yield economic opportunities, i.e. retail and tourism.
2. Communities need to put additional focus on existing industries and expansions.
3. Alabama needs to put more focus on exports and trades to the global market.Alabama exports grew to almost $16 billion in 2008, an increase of nearly 10 percent from the previous year according to the ADO.
4. Regional cooperation in cities, counties and our state is more important now than ever. We need to work more closely together to land projects.
Wade also said that with the current state of the economy nationally and in Alabama, we need to change the way we incentivize companies. The next governor and ADO Director will need to stay in line with these changes. |
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CGEDA Communications Update
Internet and social media are growing faster than any other type of media. Coastal Gateway Regional Economic Development Authority (CGEDA) is staying in line with this trend by utilizing online advertising in several cost effective ways. In order to drive people to our website, CGEDA implements online advertising through search engines such as Google and free social networking sites such as the Facebook and LinkedIn.
So far this year, we have had a phenomenal return on our investment with Google online advertising. With very little cost, we are able to reach many individuals online. From January 1, 2010 to today, Coastal Gateway ads on Google were viewed almost 1.5 million times.Also, over 3,000 people spent between 1-10 minutes on the CGEDA website and 1,927 of these visitors were new.
Page viewers include a makeup of people from the Unites States, Canada, Morocco, France, India, China, Japan, Germany, France and the United Kingdom among others. Over 6% of the visitors viewed the CGEDA available industrial sites, and almost 6% viewed our available industrial buildings. From March 1, 2009 to today almost 6 million impressions were generated through CGEDA Google ads!
Also, our new Facebook Page is currently up to 50 members, a jump up from zero members in one and a half months. 229 visits have been made the page over the last month. Please join the page and help support the Coastal Gateway region.
CGEDA recently joined LinkedIn, a social business networking site, as an additional form of social media to drive traffic to our website and promote our organization. LinkedIn has more than 60 million registered users.
These forms of social media will help to make people more aware of the Coastal Gateway region, what we have to offer and also potentially aid in new industries relocating in our region.
According to the Business Expansion Journal, January 2010, Ed Burghard, Executive Director of the Ohio Business Development Coalition, said that social media empowers citizens to be community ambassadors and capital investors to experience a location before making a decision. Also, for the capital investor, social media provides an uncontrolled view of what it is like to live and work in a community.
Furthermore, because of growing amounts of information available online, the internet has become a popular medium for the site selection process. According to Burghard, Development Counsellors International completed a market research study in 2008 and found that 71% of the time a short list of locations was determined by the C-Suite before an economic development professional was even contacted.
Collaboration between our local cities and counties is more important than ever in the changing economy. Our region needs to utilize social media in order to stay in touch and accomplish industry goals. |
Alabama Gets Federal Workforce Grant
Story Courtesy of the Mobile Press Register, March 30th, 2010
By Jeff Amy, Business Reporter
The U.S. Labor Department said Monday that it would give a $1.7 million grant to help retrain people in eight southwest Alabama counties.
Syndney Raine, the president of job training agency Mobile Works, said some of the money would likely be used for planning, while the rest of it could go to pay for tuition and other job training costs. He said Mobile Works would subcontract with the Southwest Alabama Workforce Development Council, which covers Mobile, Baldwin, Choctaw, Clarke, Conecuh, Escambia, Monroe and Washington counties.
State and local officials first applied last year for the money, which comes from the federal stimulus package. Larry Childers, spokesman for the Alabama Department of Economic and Community Affairs, said this was the first such grant received by the state. The application cited layoffs from wood products companies and others, Childers said.
Under the terms of the grant, the state will create a separate re-employment center that will assess workers and help them enroll in training. Among other aid, workers could get on-the-job training, apprenticeships, or small loans to start businesses, Childers said.
Raine said the agencies are trying to tackle the problem of dislocated workers. He said that's a tough nut to crack because those people shy away from long-term training in favor of seeking another job as rapidly as possible.
"They have families to take care of, mortgages to pay," Raine said.
The state will get $867,015 initially, with the rest of the money flowing "as the state demonstrates a continued need for assistance," a Labor Department statement said. The statement said the grant lasts for one year. |
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Alabama's Role in the Global Marketplace
International trade continues to be a key driver of Alabama's economic growth. Trade (export and import) growth increases jobs by advancing Alabama's manufacturers, services providers and farmers.
In 2009, Alabama exports totaled $12.4 billion with global demand generating over 230,000 jobs for Alabamians.
Alabama shipped to 187 countries in 2009. The top five destination markets were Canada, Germany, Mainland China, Mexico and Japan. Five Industries accounted for 66% of all of the state's shipments abroad in the past year: transportation equipment ($4 billion), chemicals ($1.4 billion), minerals and ores ($1 billion), forestry products ($1 billion) and agriculture ($989 million).
Imports also keep costs low, helping Alabama businesses compete and saving Alabama families dollars at the cash register. Foreign investment in Alabama creates good jobs across a range of sectors. During 2009, Alabama imported $17.1 billion in goods. Top imports were mineral fuel, apparel, industrial machinery, vehicles and aircraft.
Trade is a crucial factor in maintaining a strong economy and supporting competitive products built in Alabama. Alabamians need to continue to put additional focus on exports and trades to the global market in 2010.
Alabama State Port Authority
The Alabama State Port Authority (ASPA) has a great economic impact on our region and the state. Alabama's only deepwater seaport terminals are located at the Port of Mobile which is located 32 miles from the Gulf of Mexico. The Port of Mobile is the 9th largest U.S. port handling more than 69 million tons of cargo in 2008. The ASPA creates 66,617 direct and indirect jobs in Alabama and has a total economic impact of $7.92+ Billion.
Imports include: containers coal, aluminum, iron, steel, copper, lumber, woodpulp, plywood, fence posts, veneers, roll and cut paper, cement, and chemicals. Exports include: containers coal, lumber, plywood, woodpulp, OSB, laminate, flooring, roll and cut paper, iron, steel, frozen poultry, soybeans, and chemicals.
Data Source: International Trade Division at the ADO
For more information call 1.200.248.0033 or click here.
For more information on the ASPA: call 251.447.7200 or click here. |
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Coastal Gateway Receives Great Results from a Free Marketing E-blast
Above is a Snapshot of the CGEDA e-blast sent out in March.
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The World Economic Development Alliance (WEDA) sent out a free marketing blast email mid-March promoting the Coastal Gateway region to over 3,000 companies in 20 targeted industries including aerospace, auto manufacturers, shipping, and food processing, etc. across 5 states in the U.S. where we collectively felt the economy was weakening the worst, had the highest utility rates in the country, or the ones that lack any sort of aggressive incentives geared towards economic development. This e-blast was sent to a targeted audience of all CEO's and other Senior-level decision makers within each company.
The e-mail, constructed by Coastal Gateway Regional Economic Development Authority (CGEDA) staff and WEDA, included key information about the Coastal Gateway region and its available sites, buildings and incentives. A second e-mail went out after a week went by to those who did not view the e-mail on the first round.
CGEDA has enjoyed promising results from the blast e-mail so far. WEDA stated that the results were the second best out of 25 email blast campaigns that they have sent out in the one and a half years they have been doing this type of e-mail promotion for economic developers!
361 companies viewed the first e-mail and 41 clicked though multiple links embedded in the marketing piece which runs directly back to our site, thus creating added exposure. 126 companies viewed the second e-mail and 15 clicked through multiple links embedded in the e-blast. Some companies have viewed the e-mail numerous times. All the data is tracked so that we can start the next stage in the process, the follow up for pre-qualification.
Links that were clicked through due to the e-blast were the CGEDA website, local chamber sites, local economic development authority sites, and other county/ city sites. The week of the first blast, 76.98% of 139 website visitors were new to the CGEDA website. The week of the second blast, 86.35% of 104 website visitors were new to the CGEDA site.
One company, who used this e-mail service in the past, enjoyed a site visit from a company in New York due to their e-mail. Another had a CEO from a company in South Florida come in for a site visit because she liked their industrial park and ease of market access.
CGEDA is fine tuning a follow up plan for the companies that clicked through this email blast along with the new website visitors. |
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In the Next Gateway News...
Importance of Local Incentives, the RECON Convention, an update on the site consultant's visit to our region and more... |
The next CGEDA Board Meeting will be Wednesday, May 5th at BankTrust on Hines Street in Monroeville, AL at 2:00 pm. | |
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Site Selection Consultant Series
Find Out Trends Site Selection Consultants Are Seeing in Many Business Sectors |
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