News from Grow Piqua Now

Spring 2011

Emerging from the Recession, Piqua Sees New Opportunities

Greetings!

As we emerge from the greatest recession in more than 50 years, Piqua and its businesses are cautiously optimistic about the economy and the growth potential of their local operations. This optimism translated into several projects moving forward in the community, which brought new investments in equipment facilities and personnel. This trend appears to be gaining momentum in the first quarter of 2011.

We are planning to highlight some of these projects on April 12th at our second annual State of Economic Development Report. This event is a great way for the community to celebrate the economic development success stories from the previous year and helps share our story with many of our regional developers and businesses that Piqua is great place to invest and do business.

Finally, Grow Piqua Now will be actively promoting the community and business development opportunities at a number of consultant forums and trade shows over the next several months. Among other shows, we will be taking our message to Germany and the Hanover Messe industrial trade show in April in partnership with the Dayton Development Coalition and the Troy Development Council. We will also be attending the International Council of Shopping Centers in May to target retailers we identified in our Retail Recruitment Strategy for opportunities in Piqua. I encourage you to follow these efforts through the Grow Piqua Now Facebook and LinkedIn pages.

Bill Murphy
Executive Director

Joni Fedders with Aileron to Headline 2011 State of Economic Development

Joni Fedders, President of Aileron, will be the keynote speaker at the 2011 State of Economic Development Report, which will be held on Tuesday, April Joni Fedders, President of Aileron 12, 2011 in the Grand Ballroom at the Fort Piqua Plaza. The event is from 8-9:30AM with registration beginning at 7:30AM.

The event is part of the Piqua Area Chamber's legislative events and promises to bring together the area's business and civic leaders to share the community's key economic development success from 2010.

Please RSVP to Debbie Stein with the City of Piqua at dstein@piquaoh.org.

Piqua Area Chamber of Commerce Produces New Quality of Life Guide

The Piqua Area Chamber of Commerce recently launched its new Quality of Life Guide for the community in partnership with Grow Piqua Now (GPN).

The new guide provides an in-depth look at what makes Piqua special. The publication also serves as an important Piqua Ohio Quality of Life Guide

economic development tool for GPN. According to Bill Murphy, Executive Director for GPN, the partnership is another example of the cooperation that exists among the community's economic development partners. "When the Chamber approached Grow Piqua Now about revamping its Membership Guide, we knew the opportunity was right to make it more of a community guide and one that complimented our other GPN marketing pieces." Adding, "We are absolutely delighted with the new Quality of Life Guide and know it will be an important part of the Piqua story."

To view the 2011-2012 Piqua Quality of Life Guide, please click here.

Piqua Launches Effort to Revitalize its Retail Offerings

Grow Piqua Now, in partnership with the City of Piqua, recently undertoook an initiative to assess and revitalize the community's retail offerings. This Retail Recruitment Strategy is designed to examine the current retail offerings and provide a list of prospective retailers to target based on the community's demographics, current consumer expenditures, and ability to draw shoppers from surrounding communities.

The report will be used by Grow Piqua Now at the International Council of Shopping Center's 2011 ReCon Convention in May. GPN is also working with local shopping centers and property owners on developing shared marketing material for future retail recruitment efforts.

Be sure to follow this initiative on the GPN website for additional updates.

Volume: 2 / Issue: 2

In This Issue

Joni Fedders to Headline 2011 State of Economic Development

Piqua Area Chamber Launches New Quality of Life Guide

Piqua Launches Retail Recruitment Effort

2011 Japan Earthquake and Tsunami

Grow Piqua Now and the City of Piqua would like to express its deepest sympathies to the people who were and continue to be impacted by the Japanese Earthquake and Tsunami.

With several local Japanese companies located in our community and many more that do business in Japan, we have long-standing and deep personal relationships with people and businesses across that country. Our thoughts and prayers go out to those who lost loved ones and those who continue to be affected by this disaster.

We encourage you to show your support for the victims of this tragedy by making a donation to the American Red Cross or the charity of your choice.

American Red Cross