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FCEDC: Talk of prospects encouraging
Published 6/25/2009 in Local News
By STEPHANIE FARLEY
The fact Finney County Economic Development Corp. has to, at times, deal with confidentiality and keep its prospects' identities under wraps, referring to them by ID numbers, has been cited before as a barrier to helping the public better understand economic development.
On Wednesday, though, FCEDC President Eric Depperschmidt and his board of directors took the discussion of economic development prospects a little further, looking at some of FCEDC's possible successes as the entity prepares for an August meeting with its funding partners to, among other things, get the partners' viewpoints on economic development.
FCEDC's board set the meeting with funding partners the cities of Garden City and Holcomb, Finney County and Garden City Community College for 1:30 p.m. Aug. 6. Board Chairman Ron Schwartz said there have been changes on the commissions and boards, and the meeting will give all of the entities a chance to get reacquainted and discuss economic development.
On Wednesday, Depperschmidt shared with the board some successes the group could see in the future, including a research and development prospect (prospect 5-09) FCEDC and other funding partners involved recently met with. Depperschmidt told the board that FCEDC is working on a possible incentive offer that would be reviewed by the partners. The project still is pending. Depperschmidt said a lot of the incentives, since there's not really cash on hand, deal with helping prospects on utility rates, land and other infrastructure incentives. An estimate of the cash value of the offer was not available this morning.
He said the main partners involved would be the county, city of Garden City and GCCC. Depperschmidt said the group has been looking at land in the industrial park area at Garden City Regional Airport for the prospect, adding the prospect seems interested in the location because Garden City is close and there's access to U.S. Highway 50. The prospect would be looking for between 5,000 and 10,000 square feet.
Another prospect (5-09-2) made contact with FCEDC through a site selector to provide maps of possible locations with transportation requirements, including being close to railroad lines. Depperschmidt said the site selector informed FCEDC that Finney County is currently the secondary site because of contract negotiations with various railroad representatives. The prospect is described as warehousing and distribution. Sites proposed, Depperschmidt said, include one on the east and west side of town.
The prospect is looking for 20 to 25 acres, Depperschmidt said, and it's a matter of finding property adjacent to the railroad line. An incentive package also is being considered for that prospect.
Another prospect, dealing with renewable energy production and labeled as 6-09, is fairly set on locating in Finney County, Depperschmidt said, explaining FCEDC has agreed to work on locating possible temporary office space for the company. The prospect has informed FCEDC of land contracts and agreements being made with owners and will work with FCEDC to arrange a pending announcement, he said.
Depperschmidt said another manufacturing prospect (6-09-2) is planning to make a community visit by the end of the week. He said the prospect could provide about 800 jobs at the height of the operation.
A third manufacturing prospect (6-09-3) is planning to make a site visit and could bring 100 to 150 jobs to the community, Depperschmidt said.
Altogether, Depperschmidt told the board, the five prospects would have an average starting wage of about $17 an hour, with the lowest wage at $14 to $15 an hour.
He also estimates that between the five prospects, the community's looking at about $350 to $400 million in capital investment by the prospects.
Depperschmidt and FCEDC also are revisiting prospects that were interested in Finney County before Sunflower Electric Power Corp.'s air quality permit was denied by the Kansas Department of Health and Environment about two years ago. The prospects had said they'd still be interested if the situation was resolved but that they wanted to see how the issue played out. Sunflower recently reached a compromise with Kansas Gov. Mark Parkinson to allow one 895-megawatt plant.
Depperschmidt said FCEDC is working to see if the prospects still are interested in locating or expanding in Finney County and how the entity can help them move forward.
After Wednesday's meeting, Depperschmidt said he felt the county was in a good situation compared to what the country's seeing with the national economy. While some business has slowed, he said, the area seems, for the most part, to be strong and progressing with some smaller expansions occurring.
While the county didn't see a huge increase in valuation — up about 1.7 percent from $488,591,128 in 2008 to $496,774,093 for 2009 — it didn't drop, Depperschmidt said, adding FCEDC is excited about the possibilities of the various prospects considering the county as a location.
Any kind of development is a good thing for the county, Depperschmidt said.
FCEDC board member Doug Keller said the August meeting also could be a chance to do some "Economic Development 101," or an introduction to how economic development works and give examples of some of what other communities are doing as far as economic development and how they're funding it.
Schwartz said he was interested in, when wind farm developments come to Finney County, exploring using some of the tax exemption the developments receive from the state, such as the machinery and equipment exemption, to help fund economic development.
"I'm interested in that meeting," Keller said about the Aug. 6 meeting. "I'm looking forward to it."
In other business, the FCEDC board also approved a 2-percent increase in salary for Depperschmidt from $62,500 to $63,750.
What do you think of FCEDC's efforts? Talk about it at SWKTalk.com.
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