EDA Special Meeting Packet 11-09-2020

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SUMMARY OF RESEARCH AND RECOMMENDED STRATEGIES EDA STRATEGIC PLAN 25 2. BUSINESS ATTRACTION Elk River is active in marketing itself for business development. Its website and marketing materials are attractive. The website provides a good menu of resources that may be of interest to a new business or site selector. City staff regularly field calls from businesses and site selectors who are exploring development or starting a business in the City. Staff attends trade shows that build relevant connections and relationships. Elk River offers a rich cluster of strategic advantages that can be touted. These include its central location at a transportation crossroads, its reliable utility infrastructure, its tradition of manufacturing, its high design standards for new development, and the workforce development linkages that it promotes with local businesses. The high quality design standards that pertain to new industrial development in the Northstar Business Park are understood to make development too expensive for certain kinds of businesses. But it is attractive to businesses who want to develop a facility where their quality of development will be matched—because that protects their image and it protects the value of their investment. Businesses that require a lower standard of development can be accommodated in alternative Elk River locations. Acknowledging the overall quality of Elk River’s marketing materials, an area of improvement would be to make sure that the core strengths of an Elk River business location come through consistently and clearly in every publication. Those strengths— most importantly its transportation connectedness, the quality of the local utility infrastructure, and its concentration of high quality manufacturers—are defining assets of an Elk River location, and should be repeatedly called out in the City’s marketing materials. A City’s reputation for being business friendly really matters to prospective new business development. From our conversations we gathered that Elk River is recovering from some negative perceptions in the past. That recovery process takes time, and needs to continue. Note that cities can have high development standards and still be business friendly if requirements are transparent, processes are streamlined, and staff is service-oriented in helping businesses negotiate the processes. Strategies/Actions 2a. Continuing the present array of marketing and networking activities to attract new business investment and development. 2b. Continue conveying a customer service orientation to the City’s business community, and making continuous quality improvements to City development processes 2c. Sharpen the message about Elk River strengths, and make that prominent and repetitive in marketing and communications materials.