If Rob Cleveland were sitting on Santa's lap this week, he'd likely ask for somebody in the community of Michigan's Great Southwest to craft a modern, 75,000 square foot manufacturing building with 32-foot ceilings and relatively close proximity to the Interstate highway system in the region as the Christmas gift of the year. Cleveland is President of Cornerstone Alliance and he and his board members and colleagues rolled out the non-profit economic development agency's next five year strategic plan to investors and community leaders at the Inn at Harbor Shores tonight.
Cleveland says in the dog-eat-dog world of economic development where some agencies are ready to "rip your face off" to get the next job creation project, "It's all about the building." He told me after the meeting tonight, "It's literally all about the building. We get lots of leads in, meaning companies are looking at multiple states, and over 90-percent of the leads in 2016 that come to the State of Michigan have required a building. Nine out of ten projects required buildings this year, so if we don't have the right building, we're not even in the game!"
Cleveland says it's increasingly impossible "to try and sell a 50-year old building with 15 to 20 foot ceilings, because you just can't do anything in those buildings any more. So we need modern buildings that are flexible for any kind of industry form logistics to food processing or even advanced manufacturing. Buildings that are standing up and ready to go."
The new Cornerstone Alliance Strategic Plan for 2017-to-2021 is the blueprint for the next five years. Cleveland calls it "an important piece of the puzzle so that the investors, the community, our elected officials and others understand the direction that we are going. It's about making sure that everyone is on the bus together." In reflecting on the world of economic development today, Cleveland says, "It is more competitive today than it has ever been. We've got to have good schools, we've got to have good parks and all those things, but it's more than that. It's making sure we have product available to people, so that means talent, and buildings and sites and more than just a cornfield." He adds, "So that's why we're investing in making those sites as good as possible with the quality of infrastructure that people need, and for the right price."
Cleveland also says the community needs to tell its story. "Most of us in the Midwest are pretty humble people," he says, "But, we've got to do a better job of telling people how great this place is. This is a wonderful, wonderful community with bright people, and we have everything going for us…we just need to get more competitive."
Cornerstone's new 5-year plan is designed to get the community more competitive as they focus on business attraction, expansion and small business enterprise while engaging the support of the community and partners such as Kinexus and Lake Michigan College.
Cleveland addressed the more than 150 investors, community stakeholders and economic development partners at the session at the Inn at Harbor Shores, detailing how the economic development organization will use the plan to guide its work over the next five years and beyond.
He told investors and other stakeholders, "There are so many wonderful things happening in Berrien County. We have strong, growing companies that are recruiting new, diverse talent to our region. We have world-class events like the KitchenAid Senior PGA Championship that brings new visitors to our great community. The Strategic Plan will leverage these assets to strengthen economic opportunities in Michigan's Great Southwest."
The four centerpieces of the Cornerstone Alliance 2017-2021 Strategic Plan are:
- Changing Our Economic Future
- Enhancing Our Assets
- Sharing Our Secret With The World
- Investing in Berrien County's Next Chapter
According to Cleveland, with economic development as competitive as it has ever been, the work is cut out for us. Cornerstone Alliance is one of 23,000 economic development organizations throughout the country selling its regional business assets to companies, real estate advisors and site consultants. He says, "It is the responsibility of Cornerstone Alliance to do the work needed to make Berrien County a top contender for new jobs and investments, providing new opportunities for our children, neighbors and friends, not only for the next five years, but for generations to come."
The timing of the Plan is relevant, as Berrien County was recently ranked as one of the "Top 15 Leading Locations in the United States" for new and expanding businesses by Area Development Magazine. For the last six years, the publication has studied and ranked more than 385 regions across the country, using four significant criteria: Prime Workforce; Economic Strength; Year-Over-Year Growth and Five-Year Growth.
The economic development chief, who has been on the job for a little over a year now concluded, "We couldn't be better positioned to deliver positive economic development outcomes to Berrien County. This ranking proves that Berrien County is viewed by the site selection experts as a leading venue for new and expanding industry and is an ideal place for a business to locate and be successful."
Now…all we need is for Cleveland's desire for ready-to-roll buildings to come true. With any luck, Santa was listening tonight and has added a few notes to his long and growing list of worldwide wishes.
