Henry Luke-
Newsletter #30-COMMUNITY VISIONING RESULTS
May 2002
MOBILE, AL-
The University of South Alabama is opening a research and technology park
near the university. On April 26, 2002, the University of South Alabama
approved the first park tenant, an $8 million facility for technology
company- Accelerated Technologies.
§
ENVISION MOBILE-BALDWIN will
celebrate their 5th anniversary with an Annual Report Meeting and
Breakfast on May 3-, 2002.
§
Congratulations to John Davis
who has served as Chair of ENVISION MOBILE-BALDWIN from the beginning.
Co-chairs have included Mobile Mayor-Mike Dow, Mobile County
Commissioner-Sam Jones, Baldwin County Commissioner-Frank Burt, Daphne
Mayor-Harry Brown and Wendy Allen. Gigi Armbrecht will be installed as the
new chair at the annual meeting.
§
The May 2002 Envision
newsletter is available at
http://www.mobilechamber.com/development/
§
The Mobile Chamber of Commerce
recently led the intercity visit to Seattle, Washington.
LAKELAND, FL-
Metro Lakeland Vision will have their Third Annual Town Hall Implementation
Meeting on June 6, 2002 at the Polk Museum of Art. There will be reports
from the Strategic Alliances, announcement of the Spirit of Vision award for
the past year and an open mike for input.
http://www.lakelandvision.com/
GWINNETT, GA-The
first classroom building at Gwinnett University Center (GUC) opened in the
spring of 2002. The 120,0000 square foot building and the 177-acre campus
was donated by a public-private partnership. Gwinnett County Government
donated land and infrastructure improvements in excess of $11 million. The
State of Georgia has invested over $22 million in the signature building
that will open in the fall of 2002. GUC ‘s core mission is to be an
innovative center for high-tech learning. GUC began on January 2002 with an
enrollment of 5,000 students and has a master plan to serve over 15,000
students.
Gwinnett
Vision 2010 will have their Fifth Annual Vision 2010 Implementation Meeting
on June 25, 202.
http://www.gwinnettchamber.org/economic/vision.asp
CONYERS-ROCKDALE,
GA-The Conyers-Rockdale Chamber
of Commerce received an “Award of Excellence in Strategic Programs” from the
American Chamber of Commerce Executives. The award was for the CRFuture
Strategic Plan.
http://www.crfuture.com/crfuture.htm
HARRISBURG, PA-The
Harrisburg Regional Chamber’s Fourth Annual Intercity visit was on May
22-24, 2002 to Hartford, Connecticut. The chair of the trip said, “The
purpose of the Intercity Visit is to align and support the ENVISION
Strategic Plan and to integrate findings immediately following the trip”.
Keith Clark
is the ENVISION Chair for 2002. He follows 2001 Chair, James Grandon and
initial Chair, David Shankweiler.
http://www.harrisburgregionalchamber.org/display.aspx?pathId=envision
SPOKANE, WA-“Biotech
and Biomed keep Spokane Healthy” according to April 2002 Business
Facility. New development and restoration in downtown exceeds $500
million. New industry R & D and manufacturing facilities, expansion plans
at four hospitals and 300 clinical trials currently underway are attracting
biotech and biomedical firms. The Pacific Northwest Technology Park, a new
224-acre commercial campus is designed to meet the special needs of biotech
and biomedical industries. The developers are using Washington’s new tax
increment financing law.
http://www.spokane.org/chamber/newcentury.html
RALEIGH, NC-Biotech
giant, BIOGEN dedicated two new facilities in the Research Triangle Park on
May 8, 2002. A $173 million large scale 250,000 square foot manufacturing
plan and a separate 150,000 square foot laboratory and office building were
dedicated.
JACKSONVILLE, FL-Doctors
at Mayo Clinic in Jacksonville performed a successful heart-lung-liver
transplant on a 43-year old mother in March 2002. This is only the fourth
heart-lung-liver transplant in U.S. history.
The
Jacksonville Chamber of Commerce 22nd Annual Leadership trip will be to San
Francisco and Oakland on October 2-4, 2002.
TUSCALOOSA, AL-The
Mercedes $600 million expansion is on schedule to be completed in late
2003. The current plant employs 1,900 workers and builds 300 new SUV’s each
day. The plant expansion will boost the automakers output to more than
160,000 vehicles per year and double employment to 4,000. Honda, Toyota,
and Hyundai have followed Mercedes with massive auto plant investments in
Alabama.
GREENVILLE-SPARTANBURG, SC-In
1992, BMW announced it would construct an advanced automotive assembly plant
in the Greenville-Spartanburg MSA. In May 2002, the Moore School of
Business at the University of South Carolina released, “The Economic Impact
of BMW on South Carolina.” There has been a total investment of $1.9 billion
and the facility employs more than 4,300 workers with direct personal income
paid to employees of $345 million in 2001. The report has an analysis of
incentive cost per job for eight recent southeastern US auto plant
investments
http://researchmoore.sc.edu/BMW/bmwmay.pdf
ROANOKE-BLACKSBURG,
VA-The New Century Region
continues its technology growth with two recent announcements. On December
4, 2001, Novozmes Biologicals, Inc. announced the selection of the Roanoke
County Center for Research and technology for the relocation and expansion
of its local research and manufacturing operation. On February 27, 2002,
Virginia Tech announced the biggest technology gift in its history…$211
million of computer-aided design software, hardware, and training from
General Motors, Sun Microsystems and EDS.
MEMPHIS, TN-On
August 20, 2001, four Memphis organizations formed the Memphis Business
Academy (MBA) as a two-year pilot program to promote the growth of
minority-owned and women-owned businesses in the Memphis MSA. The
organizations were Memphis Light, Gas and Water, Tennessee Valley Authority,
Memphis Area Chamber of Commerce, and the Mid-South Minority Business
Council. http://www.memphis2005.com/
On January 30, 2002 the MBA announced the
first eleven participants in the program.
ST. JOHNS, FL-
The draft Strategic Plan for St. Johns County, Fl is available at http://www.stjohnsvision.com/.
St. Johns is a fast-growing suburban county in the Jacksonville MSA. The
Bureau of Economic Analysis recently released the 2000 personal per capita
income data with St. Johns County ranking 43rd highest in the US
among 3,110 counties. St. Johns ranked 7th highest in the
Southeast and 2nd highest in Florida.
St.
Johns is a very diverse county, geographically, economically, and in other
characteristics. A 153-person Vision Task Force developed the draft
Strategic Plan. It will be available for public input until August 13,
2002. Several thousand residents will be personally introduced to the plan
for possible input. A final plan will be approved on August 26, 2002 and
five-years of implementation will begin. The Strategic Plan is co-sponsored
by the St. Johns County Commission and the St. Johns County Chamber of
Commerce. Implementation will involve several hundred organizations. The
BEA data released on May 6, 2002 is available at
http://www.bea.doc.gov/bea/regional/reis/
PAST COMMUNITY
VISIONING REPORTS, the Community
Strategic Planning Process, and client web sites can be reviewed from the
menu below. Luke Planning, Inc. provides facilitation for Community Vision
and Community Strategic Planning. Please forward this newsletter to anyone
who may have an interest in these topics.
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Henry Luke
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