5.8.10
City's goals designed to draw businesses, help them grow

* Columbus leaders want to see the creation of 5,150 new jobs in 2010.
By: Garth Bishop - www.columbuslocalnews.com
A thousand more new jobs than average. An additional $1.2 million beyond the average in income tax revenue. Almost twice as many outreach visits to local businesses.

These are some of the goals Columbus leaders have set for 2010 as part of ramped-up economic development efforts in the city.

The plans were announced at a meeting April 29 at Columbus City Hall. Presenting them were Columbus City Councilman Andrew Ginther, city Director of Development Boyce Safford, city Deputy Director of Development Michael Stevens, Columbus Chamber of Commerce Vice President of Economic Development Matt McCollister and Columbus Partnership President and CEO Alex Fischer.

The city's efforts focus on attracting new businesses, as well as retaining existing businesses and looking for ways those existing businesses can expand. Between 65 percent and 80 percent of new jobs come from existing industry, McCollister said.

"That is really working with these companies in our community and encouraging them to ... grow in Columbus," said Stevens.

That effort includes helping small businesses grow into "the Limited Brands and Cardinal Healths of the future," said Fischer.

"This needs to be a decades-long journey that we do together," he said.

Attracting new businesses does not just mean tax incentives, said Safford -- it also means keeping the quality of life in Columbus high and arranging collaborations between the public and private sectors.

The group laid out five measures of success for 2010 to determine whether the increased focus on economic development is working:

* A 50 percent success rate in bringing businesses that enter incentive negotiations to the city;

* The creation of 5,150 new jobs, which would be up by 1,000 from the city's average;

* Income tax revenue growth of $6.4 million, which would be up by $1.2 million from the city's average;

* A total of 350 outreach visits to city businesses in partnership with the chamber, which would be up from about 200 on average; and

* Five visits per quarter to businesses outside of Columbus, at least two of which would be to the headquarters of companies that have operations here.

An increase in economic development efforts was one of the things city officials promised upon the passage of last summer's income tax increase.

"We started working on this plan right after the special election last year," said Ginther.

Council also added $325,000 to the 2010 budget for economic development efforts, with another $75,000 for the effort coming from the city's grant fund.

"These dollars are going directly to economic programming and efforts," not to staffing, Stevens said.

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