Ohio Economic Development Association

As part of his regional tour to NE Ohio, Pres/CEO David Zak met with Vaughn P. Johnson to discuss the Cuyahoga County's economic development initiatives and projects. He also was able to meet Anthony Stella, EDFP, Matthew K., and Aaron C. Kinney from the Cuyahoga County ED team. Some of the interesting topics from the robust conversation included: 🔹The importance of Business Retention & Expansion as a core County ED strategy - partnering with Team NEO and the Greater Cleveland Partnership to support county businesses. 🔹The County's efforts in small business and entrepreneurship, including the establishment of their Office of Small Business (https://lnkd.in/eRHXApcr). They now serve as a concierge for small business resources to hundreds of businesses. 🔹The County's financing programs, and how they now have 20-25 deals in the pipeline, a great sign of both entrepreneurial energy and economic development value. 🔹The County's investment in upgrading their technology adopting Salesforce to really advance their capabilities and service. 🔹The importance of the people on the team, and how the Cuyahoga County team is pursuing excellence, with a number of new people on board and a couple of interns. They are really embracing a "high-performance" culture. 🔹The opportunities to engage the Ohio Credit Union League and credit unions in economic deals - there are 400+ in Ohio. There might be an opportunity for OEDA to partner and support their efforts. 🔹Economic development planning and the County's 5-year plan (2023-2027) - https://lnkd.in/etS_ysQh. 🔹The challenges of workforce development and efforts of Sara Parks Jackson, MPA in housing and community development. 🔹 Leveraging the lakefront and waterfront in Cleveland and throughout the county along the lake. It's a huge opportunity. 🔹The positive value OEDA's education and certification programs are making. #OEDA #CuyahogaCounty #TeamNEO #EconomicDevelopment #CommunityGrowth #BusinessExpansion #Entrepreneurship #AdvancingOhioED

Pres/CEO David Zak met with Max Upton, MPA last week at Phoenix Coffee Co. during his regional tour in Northeast Ohio to discuss City of North Olmsted, northeast Ohio, and OEDA. We appreciate Max coming to meet with us and provide insightful feedback and engage in thoughtful discussion. Some key topics included: 🔹The unique challenges and opportunities of suburban development as well as in the Greater Cleveland region. 🔹The importance of leadership, setting a vision and charting a path forward. 🔹The opportunity for OEDA to conduct a statewide salary and benefits survey. 🔹The importance of peer-to-peer networks and the opportunity to create a more formally structured mentorship program. 🔹The importance of advocacy and how OEDA can get more engaged. 🔹The Ohio CDC Association and they work they are doing, and how OEDA could partner. 🔹The importance of ensuring that OEDA has professional development content that meets the needs of suburban, rural, and urban communities. Overall, time well spent for both. There simply is no replacing intentional, in-depth conversation for sharing ideas and building relationships. 👍

Pres/CEO David Zak launched his sixth regional tour in Northeast Ohio last week, kicking it off with a series in-depth meetings with Team NEO, coordinated by board member Renee M. Ligon. The depth of expertise, commitment to the region, and innovative approaches to economic development are evident with this collaborative REDO. Thank you to Bill Koehler, Walter Good, Rene Kizys, Sylvio Mecone, Matt Saneda, Mindy McLaughlin, Nina Holliday, Kendra Cundiff, Michael Lalich, Katie Meehan, Steve Fritsch, Laura Hudak, Dawn Southard, MBA, Sondra Palivoda, Connor Stease, Alexandra O'Connor, Erika A. Roitblat-Bowers, Camille Billups, Mark Owens, MBA, Christine Nelson, and Jacob Duritsky. Among the exciting topics covered were: 🔹Leadership transition at Team NEO (a general excitement about the next evolution of the org and deep gratitude to Bill for all he's done), 🔹Exceeding most project wins in a single year plus the big projects that are in the pipeline! 🔹Various work in international and community activities, including Mindy's efforts to recruit and expand FDI, Mark's work as Honorary Consul of Ireland, and Sylvio's work with the Little Italy Redevelopment Corp. (https://lnkd.in/evWePABN) 🔹Helping increase collaboration, building relationships, and sharing more about what Team NEO does with more stakeholders, including with higher education. 🔹Integrating the innovative work on sites into the business development work, including Developing Opportunities (https://lnkd.in/epW86EzV) 🔹Continuing to drive an intentional targeted industry strategy for Northeast Ohio in BR&E, with different team members leading each one. 🔹Team NEO's mission to "Bend the Curve," dramatically improving Northeast Ohio's economic outcomes beyond current projections. It's a mission based in the cutting-edge Vibrant Economies Index work (https://vei.teamneo.org/). 🔹The new 2024 data coming in and initiatives in Research.

Last week at ED411 hosted by One Columbus, OEDA Pres/CEO David Zak hosted two panel sessions entitled, "The Future of Economic Development: Working Together For a Stronger Region." Panelists included Ben Vollrath from Logan County Chamber, Rich Fletcher from One Columbus, and Kristina Clouse from JobsOhio. The session was interesting, informative, and meaty. Topics included, among others: 🔹How do you define economic development and how is it the same or different from workforce development? 🔹How local, regional, and state levels work together to create a thriving ecosystem that has earned Ohio a stellar reputation? 🔹 What makes the Ohio model of economic development unique? 🔹 What roles can elected officials and other local leaders play to support ED? 🔹 Some communities are dealing with slow-growth or no-growth sentiment. How are EDOs addressing these challenges and what do the panels recommend for communities to ensure growth is positive and aligned?

Last week, Pres/CEO David Zak attended the incredible ED411 event put on by One Columbus. Not only were the keynote speakers Kevin Ervin Kelley, AIA and Peter Goodwin from the The New York Times amazing, the entire Columbus region was on full display with unreasonable hospitality, celebrating success and pushing for more. Thanks to Kenny McDonald and so many great team members, including Gerard Basalla, Mark Patton, Matthew McCollister, Joseph P. Henderson, CEcD, Rich Fletcher, Logan Dawson, Stephen Cone, Amy Harman, Abby Perkins, MBA, Jeffrey Polesovsky, Briauna Portis-McClendon, Haley Young, Bailey Zidar, Deborah Scherer, CGBP, Andy Gurd and so many more. Also kudos to Rick Szabrak for representing MID-OHIO DEVELOPMENT EXCHANGE, Gahanna Mayor Laurie Jadwin, and others for making remarks. Incredible facts about the Columbus Region since One Columbus was created in 2010: 🔹74,849 jobs created 🔹$4.1B in new payroll 🔹$46.4B in capital investment 🔹800 successful projects 🔹Top metro area 11 consecutive years (Site Selection) 🔹Top economic development organization 7 consecutive years 🔹 On an investment of $100M into One Columbus - what an ROI!

What a great way to end OEDA's education for 2024! We held our Site Selection core course last Thursday and Friday. In January, a number of graduates will be invited to participate on their way to OhioCED certification! We really appreciate the lead instructors of the course - Christine Nelson from Team NEO, and Brodie Lepi and Pearl-Jean Mabe from JobsOhio. Other instructors included: 🔹Michelle Comerford with Biggins Lacy Shapiro & Company (BLS & Co.) 🔹Katie Meehan with Team NEO 🔹Sarah Custer with Dayton Development Coalition 🔹Dennis Mingyar with Touchstone Energy® Cooperative, Inc. 🔹Wendy Kraft with Dominion Energy 🔹Blake Weimer with JobsOhio And, as always, we appreciate Mark Barbash, Director of the Ohio Economic Development Institute and leader of our educational efforts.

Pres/CEO David Zak presented welcoming remarks at the Mid-America EDC conference held in Columbus last week. OEDA was a proud sponsor of the event, and Zak welcomed guests and talked about the following: The 13-state region (WY, ND, SD, KS, NE, MN, IA, MO, WI, IL, MI, IN, and OH) has 20% of the US population and workforce and $5.5T in economic power. If it were a country, it would rank 3rd, behind only the US and China. The conference, which focused on megaprojects, is timely, as there are megaprojects occurring throughout the region in several industries. Here is a small selection: 🔹Automotive: Stellantis and Samsung's $7.5B plant, Stellantis and General Motors $3.5B plant, and Toyota's $1.4B plant in IN; Panasonic Energy of North America's $4B plant in KS, Ultium Cells LLC's $2.6B plant in MI; Rivian's $1.5B expansion in IL; and Ohio's $4.2B American Honda Motor Company, Inc. and LG's battery plant in Ohio. 🔹 Semiconductors: Polar Semiconductor's $525M expansion in MN; Hemlock Semiconductor's $325M facility in MI; and - of course - Intel Corporation's $28B plant in Ohio. 🔹Data Centers: T5 Data Centers's $6B project in IL; Microsoft's $3.3B in WI, $200M in WY; $1B in Licking County; Google's $2.3B in Ohio; $1B in KS; and of course, Amazon Web Services (AWS)'s $7.8B in Licking County. Of course, Springfield just announced a new $1B 5C Data Centers project as well. 🔹Energy: $9B Summit Carbon Solutions pipeline in ND/SD/NE/MN/IA; $3.2B Cerilon GTL plant in ND; Gevo, Inc. $1B Net Zero biofuels project in SD; Evergy Energy Partners's two $1B plants in KS. The conference featured great experts and leaders in economic development from Ohio, including: 🔹Nate Green and Ryan Scribner from The Montrose Group, LLC 🔹Jamie Gentry from Enterprise Advisory Group 🔹Jamie Beier Grant from Kleinfelder 🔹Nathan Strum from HDR 🔹Jim Lenner, AICP from Neighborhood Strategies 🔹Alexis Fitzsimmons from GROW Licking County CIC 🔹Amy Donahoe and Kaitlyn Tyler from The Greater Springfield Partnership (OH) 🔹Padmini Roy-Dixon, MPA, MSF from MORPC 🔹Gary Thompson, CPA from Regional Growth Partnership 🔹David Burrows from the Dayton Development Coalition

Last week, Pres/CEO David Zak was proud to participate in the Lightcast Ohio Future Ready Workforce Summit at Columbus State Community College. He joined an engaging panel discussion with workforce leaders, including John Trott of the Greater Ohio Workforce Board, Inc. Board, and Paul Fain of Work Shield moderated by Christopher Laney, EdD, MBA, CWDP of Lightcast. The session explored: 🔹The vital connection between education, workforce, and economic development and the biggest challenges facing each 🔹How Ohio can strategically position itself to attract and grow industries and which industries it is uniquely positioned to find more success attracting 🔹The importance of collaboration among workforce, education, and economic development partners and how it's being done The dialogue underscored Ohio’s incredible opportunities and the challenges we must address together to build a future-ready workforce. A special thanks to Lightcast, JobsOhio, One Columbus, and Columbus State Community College for hosting this impactful event. OEDA remains committed to advancing economic development across Ohio by fostering partnerships and promoting solutions that strengthen our workforce and communities. #OEDA #EconomicDevelopment #WorkforceReadiness #FutureReady #Collaboration

On a recent regional tour to the Dayton Region, Pres/CEO David Zak met with Mark McCormick and Jamie Dewing from FastLane MEP, along with Dayton Development Coalition's Sarah Custer who helped arranged the tour and serves on the OEDA board. The Manufacturing Extension Partnership in Ohio is strong and can be a great asset to economic development professionals. It includes: 🔹Central Ohio: MEP at Columbus State 🔹Northwest: CIFT 🔹Northeast: MAGNET: The Manufacturing Advocacy and Growth Network 🔹Southwest: TechSolve, Inc. 🔹Southeast: The Ohio State University South Centers 🔹 West: FastLane MEP Learn more: https://lnkd.in/eXbyzSrJ

Pres/CEO David Zak met up with Pres/CEO Jeff Hoagland and EVP Julie Sullivan of the Dayton Development Coalition at the well-attended Q4 LEDO meeting at the year-old AC Hotels by Marriott in downtown Dayton. It was a star-studded cast of elected officials and economic development professionals. Some highlights from Jeff and Julie, with Jeff focusing on aerospace and defense at this meeting: 🔹Even with a softer election year pipeline, the region has exceeded the investment goal (138%) and is close on payroll (~90%) and jobs (~85%). 🔹3 focus areas of DDC: ED, support for Wright-Patterson Air Force Base, and federal advocacy. DDC covers 12-county footprint with 1.3M people 🔹Wright-Patt is the largest single-site employer in the state and has incredible impact through Air Force Materiel Command, Air Force Research Laboratory, Air Force Life Cycle Management Center, U.S. Air Force Institute of Technology, and so much more. In the last ten years, WPAFB has grown from 26k employees to more than 36k employees. 🔹The DDC, JobsOhio, DaytonDefense (Dayton Area Defense Contractors Association), and DRMA - Dayton Region Manufacturers Association all work together to support the defense industry here 🔹The Wright Patterson Regional Council of Governments is a great asset., 🔹The Advanced Air Mobility initiative, started in 2006, has made incredible progress with the most recent success the Joby Aviation announcement in Sept. 2023. 🔹The Sierra Nevada Corporation cut the ribbon on Hangar 2, broke ground on two more. This is the first military maintenance/repair/ops facility off-base in Dayton since WW2! 🔹The onMain Innovation Hub is going to be a game-changer - with an est. $500M economic impact, 2k new jobs, and 3k new STEM grads and certificates. #EconomicDevelopment #DDC #OEDA #EconomicDevelopment #ddc #OEDA #JobsOhio #DaytonRegion