Mark Clasby admits it can be hard to forget the ones that got way.
For the past 12 years, the executive director of the Haywood County Economic Development Coalition has been working to bring economic development to Haywood County.
Yet, during his tenure, he saw Jacob Holm Industries pick Buncombe County for its textile plant 11 years ago.
He watched as Elkamet chose to manufacture its custom-molded plastic containers in Henderson County nine years ago.
Both times, Haywood County made a bid to bring those businesses to its community.
Both times, Clasby saw the companies he courted choose someone else — his Western North Carolina neighbors.
“But it’s not a total loss,” Clasby said this week. “Certainly, and maybe selfishly, I would like for them to be here in Haywood County. But, from my perspective, as long as they stay in the region, it’s a win.”
And he’s not alone in that kind of thinking.
Like Clasby, other economic development leaders outside Buncombe County agree that banding together for the good of the region is the right approach to creating more jobs, attracting more companies and, ultimately, strengthening Western North Carolina’s economy.
“Companies don’t look at county lines when they’re looking for an area to locate their business,” Clasby said.
However, that doesn’t mean economic development officials like Clasby aren’t looking at ways to bring home the proverbial bacon.
As the Economic Development Coalition of Asheville-Buncombe begins work on its new five-year job creation plan, officials from three neighboring counties also have been thinking about ways they can strengthen their local economies.
While all agree they would like to be attracting more companies to their respective ZIP codes, their other areas of focus differ as much as the counties themselves.
Henderson County: ‘We play good defense’
Before Andrew Tate talks about the push to add new businesses to Henderson County’s tax base, he talks first about the need for retention.
“In economic development, so much of what we do is about the day-to-day, the meetings, the deadlines,” Tate said. “What we are trying to do is make sure that we are also thinking long-term.”
That’s why the three staff members who work at the Henderson County Partnership for Economic Development, including Tate, dedicate more than half of their time to maintaining relationships with existing industries and businesses.
“Our first organizational focus is taking care of the companies that are already here. There are 138 manufacturers in the county, and they employ more than 15 percent of our workforce,” Tate said.
“First and foremost, our priority is to protect and strengthen those relationships wherever possible and encourage them to grow here and stay here in Henderson County,” he said. “Bringing in someone new only to quietly lose them through the back door is not a net gain for us. We play good defense.”
But they also play good offense, too.
In March, Bold Rock Hard Cider announced it would begin producing its craft cider at a new facility in Mills River.
In February, German manufacturing company Raumedic picked Henderson County for its first stateside manufacturing facility.
That move is expected to bring an estimated $26.3 million investment and create 138 jobs in Henderson County over the next five years.
And that was just this year.
Three years ago, Sierra Nevada bought 90 acres in Fletcher for its East Coast production facility. That move was a nearly $110 million investment.
Though finding that plot of land was important to sealing the deal, Tate said land remains a scarce resource across Western North Carolina.
The mountainous terrain adds to the region’s aesthetic appeal, but it’s of no help when companies are looking to build.
“Our organization is now focusing a lot of resources on where the next piece or pieces of property will be to make sure that we can continue to do all of this,” Tate said, noting the major economic drivers in Henderson County are manufacturing, health care and tourism.
That’s a stark contract to what Jackson County is going after with its economic development goals.
Instead of looking to manufacturing to grow its economy, Jackson County is turning its attention to its university and its entrepreneurs.
Jackson County: ‘We’ve got to get more creative’
Rich Price, director of the Jackson County Office of Economic Development, said job creation in his community may not happen with big job announcements and fanfare.
Small business, on the other hand, is a real opportunity.
“We are looking at the assets we have, and how we can get small businesses to come here, establish themselves and be sustainable. I’m not waiting for General Motors to call me tomorrow about a Cadillac assembly plant,” Price said. “We’ve got to get more creative and focused about what’s going to fit here. Instead of creating 100 jobs at a time, it may be more like 15 or 20 or 30 at a time.”
Within the last month, Jackson County hosted recruiters from the Economic Development Partnership of North Carolina. The nonprofit corporation with roots just outside of Raleigh is focused on attracting companies to the state and helping existing North Carolina companies expand.
Their visit, said Price, was designed to showcase the available inventory of large-scale buildings or developed sites that could be of interest to companies wishing to locate to the area.
That kind of stock is not something Jackson County has in great abundance, but they do have Western Carolina University.
Instead of looking at building sites, recruiters were given a tour of the campus and spoke with faculty and staff about academic disciplines that could be helpful in luring businesses to the area.
“We know this happens across the University of North Carolina system all over the state. Cullowhee and Jackson County should be no different,” Price said. “The resources of faculty and student research and study programs are paramount to providing a community of professional expertise that is desired by businesses who want to be here.”
Recently, Western announced a second building would be built on its Millennial Campus. The campus designation allows the university to partner with private developers for the construction of new facilities designed to enhance the region’s economic development.
“As health sciences continues to be a strongly sought after discipline, a new medical office building will be erected by a private developer which will house multiple medical service providers, thus allowing for WCU students and faculty to partner and gain practical application experience,” Price said.
Just as Henderson County works to retain its businesses, Jackson County is working to retain one of its greatest assets.
“That is young men and women who walk across the stages of our higher education institutions to get their diplomas at several intervals throughout each year,” Price said.
But one of the greatest assets for the regional economy could be the way economic development leaders work together.
Haywood County: ‘We work together’
Clasby, executive director of the Haywood County Economic Development Coalition, said his office has been preparing for a meeting with international investment directors.
“They are coming into town next week and we are going to give a presentation to them so that when they go back to England, Japan and South Korea, they will be familiar with Western North Carolina so that they can try to attract companies that may want to invest here in the Southeast,” Clasby said. “Part of it of course, is our location. We have I-40 running right through us and we have close access to I-26. Having that corridor is certainly a benefit, because companies usually want access to an interstate.”
But beyond its proximity to roadways and a strategic plan that focuses on target clusters, such as growing its manufacturing and tourism base, Clasby said Haywood County’s greatest asset is being a part of Western North Carolina.
In the early ’90s, a voluntary group called CarolinaWest was formed to attract economic opportunity to the mountains.
Its members include the city of Asheville, along with Buncombe, Haywood, Henderson, Madison, Mitchell, Transylvania and Yancey counties.
The group’s founding predates AdvantageWest, a regional development entity that encouraged economic development in the region’s 23 counties.
But earlier this year, AdvantageWest closed its doors after 21 years of operation.
Clasby said that closure makes groups like CarolinaWest even more important today.
“A lot of our workforce population here in Haywood County actually works in Asheville and Buncombe County,” Clasby said. “We work together.”
The group attended an annual luncheon in Charlotte. While there, the group met with site consultants and developers. Other trips have included Chicago, New York and Toronto.
Tate, in Henderson County, said that’s the story no one hears about economic development: Even though counties may be competing for projects, they are also collaborative.
“A lot of people don’t know that we get together and, yes, we share information. We try to help one another where we can,” Tate said. “Even though we may have competing interests from time to time, we are friends and we do see the bigger picture.”
Clasby said that’s why he tries not to think about Jacob Holm Industries or Elkamet as a loss.
“In the mountains, people will travel. We’re 20 or 30 minutes away from Asheville. We’re about 45 minutes away from Hendersonville. Those job opportunities are still available,” he said. “If they’re not going to be in Haywood, I want these companies to be in Buncombe or Henderson or somewhere else in Western North Carolina. We want them here.”
Leave a Reply