ECONOMIC DEVELOPMENT - EDCUTAH

ECONOMIC DEVELOPMENT: EVOLVING AND ADAPTING TO CHANGING TIMES

By Theresa A. Foxley, President and CEO, EDCUtah

The Economic Development Corporation of Utah (EDCUtah) is a statewide economic development organization (EDO) with a mission to catalyze quality job growth and increase capital investment in the state. A partner of the Governor’s Office of Economic Opportunity, EDCUtah specializes in corporate recruitment, economic research, site selector marketing, and community development. Our daily interactions with companies interested in bringing operations to Utah give us unique insights into a range of trends.

Theresa A. Foxley, President and CEO, EDCUtah

The pandemic has brought changes to the mix of companies looking to expand in Utah and the top-of-mind concerns of those companies. Two years since COVID-19 first began to impact our country’s economy, we in Utah are experiencing the following shifts, some of which are surprising, some less so.

Our pipeline of active recruitment projects is at record levels. The appetite for corporate expansion is robust.

As they navigate the changing world of remote work, information technology and financial services companies (aka “office projects”) are still essentially on the sidelines. However, we see small incremental increases in this part of our pipeline.

Manufacturing and distribution companies (aka “industrial projects”) are going gangbusters as these companies seek to de-risk their shop floors, supply chains, and logistics. More than half of EDCUtah’s project pipeline is in this category, up from a third of the pipeline two years ago.

Nationwide, shovel-ready or move-in-ready industrial properties are scarce. Utah is experiencing this same shortage. Combine this trend with increased interest from industrial projects, and you can see why one consultant has said, “Speed to market is the new incentive.”

The pandemic exposed disparities when it comes to our nation’s diverse communities. Across all industries, there is a rising level of interest in environmental, social, and governance (ESG) issues. Increasingly, companies care about creating a sense of belonging for all of their employees and are adding ESG criteria to their location decisions.

To address these changes to our client mix and client concerns, EDCUtah has undertaken three main strategies.

Redeployment and Training — EDCUtah staff members have become more conversant in manufacturing complexities. Two years ago, one business development (BD) staff member might have specialized in the financial services market, another in life sciences, and a third in tech. Today, all BD staff share the load to service a wide range of industrial projects.

EDCUtah investors have been generous in sharing their specialized knowledge on industrial water, power, other site utilities and construction issues making them vital to our learning curve. These invaluable connections have made us wiser and helped us serve our project clients better. At the same time, our community strategy team has been sharing technical knowledge with our public sector investors, supporting our partner cities and counties to become more responsive to complex manufacturing opportunities.

Site Ready Utah and Product Development — EDCUtah has launched a program to build an inventory of project-ready properties. Across the state, municipalities and landowners are following a disciplined process to gather site information, including detailed engineering studies. The Site Ready Utah program (Site Ready Utah) is expanding the number of industrial sites of 50 acres or more across the state that have standardized information available. Certification under this program indicates to an interested company that the evaluation, permitting, and construction processes at a given site will be streamlined should the company choose that site. In other words, speed to market.

Diversity — Utahns are more diverse than our national reputation indicates. Utah is comparable to Colorado, Ohio, Minnesota, and Missouri in the percentage of non-white population. And that percentage is changing fast. One in four Utahns is a racial or ethnic minority, up from one in five only a decade ago. This rate of change grew by 50% since 2010, compared to 17% nationally. Further, Utah’s public and private sectors have aspirations to welcome the world, as evidenced by the January 2021 signing of the Utah Compact on Racial Equity, Diversity, and Inclusion.

Part of EDCUtah’s approach is to better communicate Utah’s changing demographics to out-of-state companies and site selectors. At the same time, we wish to make the case to out-of-state talent from diverse backgrounds that Utah is a welcoming place with unparalleled live, work and play characteristics. Toward these aims, EDCUtah has formed the Center for Economic Opportunity & Belonging (CEOB).

With the support of Comcast (an EDCUtah investor), CEOB has launched stereotype-busting video assets for human resource and corporate recruiters to use when engaging with diverse out-of-state talent. EDCUtah will also share these videos with site selectors and corporate executives of companies considering Utah for an expansion project.

These “We Are Utah” videos are found on EDCUtah’s YouTube channel and are available free of charge for companies to use in their recruiting efforts. These videos are early components of a larger, multi-year “Belong In Utah” campaign that CEOB will launch in 2022.

EDCUtah continues to evolve and adapt to our world’s changing conditions to help ensure a quality job for every aspiring Utahn.