Story by Carol Pappas
Discover Archive Photos
Its mission is pretty straight forward: “To create Jobs, increase wealth, and improve the quality of life for St. Clair County citizens.”
Since 1999, the impact of the St. Clair Economic Development Council has been just as clear: 8,373 new jobs, over $233 million in new annual wages and over $1.7 billion in new investments.
As EDC passes this anniversary milestone, rest assured there are more up ahead.
In the next five years, EDC’s strategic goals in recruitment and retention of business and industry are:
- Announce 1,200 new jobs
- Announce $350 million in new investment countywide
- Leverage business relationships for 10 prospect leads
- Leverage business relationships for seven outbound recruitment efforts
- Develop relationships with six new industrial or commercial brokers annually
- Develop relationships with six new site selection consultants annually
In addition to reaching numbers EDC sets based on strategic planning input, the team implements programs to strengthen its relationships across the county and meet the needs of existing business.
In keeping with its push for economic development in the retail sector, EDC will be hosting a retail summit for elected officials to educate them on current retail recruitment strategies along with its other programs and initiatives.
To ensure the needs of existing industry are satisfied, they meet with existing industry and large employers annually to discuss the benefits of St. Clair County, and they meet with large employers to discuss programs of benefit.
And they build relationships with regional and statewide development agencies to promote the county’s strengths and opportunities.
“Strategic planning is time consuming,” Executive Director Don Smith admitted, “but it makes the expectations clear. It’s a matter of executing the plan. Everything else falls into place.”
