Monday, March 20, 2017

Solano cities work together to market area

Solano cities work together to market area

While each city in Solano County is independently competitive when it comes to marketing its assets for business development, each city must also work collaboratively and with Solano Economic Development Corporation (Solano EDC) and private companies to leverage a broad campaign to market Solano County to a target audience.
Moving Solano Forward, Phase II the visionary marketing campaign led by Solano EDC’s project team was unveiled last week and outlines how the economic strength of the collective seven cites is powerful when harnessed and targeted to maximize economic outcomes.
Why all of a sudden is there so much focus on Solano County cities banding together to get aggressive on economic development activities? It has always been important for a coordinated approach to market Solano County on a regional, statewide and national basis for new business opportunities.
However, the recent economic downtown brought to light a lot of economic related red flags for all the cities and the county that needed attention. There is intense competition between communities and states for new economic development projects in today’s economy, and the struggle to attract and retain business is further intensified by the use of many variations of economic incentives to the potential businesses. Surrounding counties and regions are getting very aggressive in looking to recruit businesses within our county, and unless we have a strong and coordinated business attraction campaign focused on marketing Solano County and its cities, new business opportunities will bypass or depart from Solano County.
The US Department of Defense, Office of Economic Adjustment provided funding for the county to do an economic opportunity analysis to study the challenges facing Solano County. Utilizing the services of Solano EDC and its project team, the analysis from the initial study (Phase I) morphed into Moving Solano Forward Phase II to address the initial issues identified, and develop tools and strategies to enhance a collaborative approach.
At the basic economic development level, Benicia, Dixon, Fairfield, Suisun, Vacaville and Vallejo all focus on elements to improve the quality of life and economic well-being for the respective communities with programs to retain jobs and support and grow the tax base. Moving Solano Forward, Phase II provides a strategic plan to showcase the attributes of each city and identifies facility types (i.e., office services, light manufacturing, heavy manufacturing, distribution), and cluster targets (i.e., advanced materials, logistics, biotech/biomedical, food processing, etc.) and sites for suitable investment.
In Fairfield for example, Green Valley Corporate Park, Busch Corporate Center, Solano Business Park, and the future Canon Station industrial area all contain land that align with the objectives of Moving Solano Forward, Phase II –namely strengthening investment opportunities and the local economy. All the sites are well positioned to support regionally significant job-creating investment. We have noted before in this column that Fairfield has water capacity to support continued growth, including investments by large water users such as food and beverage operations. Land resources well suited for manufacturing, distribution and laboratory operations are ready for development.
Moving Solano Forward, II is an action oriented mission-focused forward-thinking effort with four recommended initiatives to grow the Solano County economy and jobs and guide stakeholder activities and collaboration:
·   Marketing & business attraction: Each city has their own unique business attraction messaging while leveraging a broader campaign through consistent and frequent marketing to the target audience. Increasing lead generation is the major goal of the business attraction initiative. Prospecting efforts for business leads will target specific identified clusters in predetermined geographic markets. The more leads that can be generated, the greater the chance of landing new jobs and investment, and working in a cooperative fashion with an organization like the Solano EDC creates a greater marketing “reach” for the county and cities within to do just that.
·   Business retention & expansion: The Solano EDC will coordinate existing business retention and expansion efforts performed by respective cities through the Economic Development Task Force, host program software and the Solano Business First! Key message and program. Showing some love to existing businesses can help keep them happy and identify key issues at an early stage that may need a regional approach to resolve.
·   Competitiveness: Solano EDC will work with each city and the County to evaluate financing options for infrastructure, and market programs that help make Solano unique. There are various assets that help differentiate Solano County from other areas. For example, our natural resources and lower costs for businesses to build, maintain and operate compared to other Bay Area and out-of-state locations gives Solano a competitive advantage.
·   Resource hub: A computer-generated one-stop clearinghouse accessible to businesses for accessing data, research, industry reports, economic indicators and links to local resources and assistance will be maintained by Solano EDC. When site selectors are looking for information, it’s helpful to have one catch-all source for Solano County.
To help foster collaboration with cities, Solano EDC will present each city with their plan for enhanced services and performance measures, and with that, a proposed budget that is comparable to other economic development organizations in the United States. Team members from each city have been meeting regularly with Solano EDC for marketing coordination activities. Solano Moving Forward, Phase II is the chance for all cities and the County to take necessary action to show that Solano Means Business.
Economic Notes is an update from Fairfield City Hall written by Brian Miller and Karl Dumas of the Fairfield Planning and Development Department. They can be contacted at 428-7461 or email at kdumas@fairfield.ca.gov or bkmiller@fairfield.ca.gov.