By Mark Scheer
SANBORN — Niagara County’s Center for Economic Development will be looking south in 2008 as part of a campaign to market one of the area’s most abundant resources: Fresh water.
The department’s new marketing initiative will target Georgia, Tennessee, Florida and other “water-starved” southern states where business owners and residents are finding it exceedingly difficult — and costly — to cope with severe drought conditions that continue to plague their region.
“The availability of fresh water in this area gives us a competitive advantage over other areas of the country,” said Niagara County Legislator and Economic Development Committee Chairman Richard Updegrove, R-Lockport.
Through the $83,000 effort, economic development officials hope to identify at least 25 companies that will be interested in either moving their companies to Niagara County or expanding existing operations within the county during the next several years. Working with the marketing consultant, Fred Teeter of Teeter Marketing Services, the county will target southern manufacturers whose operations rely heavily on the use of not only water, but electricity, another resource available to county business owners through the New York Power Authority. Ideally, county officials would like to focus on companies that already have a connection to Niagara County and may be interested in relocating “sister” operations from the south due to extremely dry conditions.
“We are basically promoting the fact that Niagara County has an abundance of fresh water that can be used in manufacturing and other types of businesses,” said Economic Development Commissioner Samuel Ferraro. “We want these companies to know that if they are interested in expanding or doing business in the Northeast, then they should look at Niagara County.”
Teeter will be paid $75 per hour, or an estimated $54,000 for the year, for his help in accomplishing the goals of the campaign. The consultant will commit 50 hours per month, or about two full days per week to the initiative as well as to a similar marketing effort launched by the county last year to help attract Canadian firms to the area. In addition, Teeter’s firm will be paid $800 per month for travel expenses, a cost that is expected to total $9,000 by year’s end. In addition, the county will spend $20,000 to advertise in trade publications with circulations in the target area, send direct mailings to southern companies of interest and attend industry trade shows.
According to Ferraro, the Economic Development Department’s 2007 Canadian marketing campaign resulted in the county contacting 2,093 companies north of the border, with 60 more being visited by county officials. In his annual report to members of the Niagara County Legislature’s Economic Development Committee on Wednesday, Ferraro said 19 acres at the county’s Vantage International Pointe industrial park were either sold or have been contracted out to Canadian firms as a direct result of last year’s campaign.
Ferraro reported success in attracting domestic businesses to Vantage Pointe as well. In 2007, 40 acres of the 158-acre park were developed and another 31 acres were sold. He added that sales are pending on another 34 acres of property, leaving a total of 53 acres of available land on site.
For the year, the county’s Industrial Development Agency approved a total of 26 projects. According to Ferraro, the agency’s efforts resulted in the creation of 511 new jobs and the retention of another 1,660 positions. He said those new projects represented a total capital investment in the county of $172.2 million.
Ferraro identified Delphi Thermal & Interior and the Niagara Falls Air Reserve Station as the top two priorities on his department’s retention list for 2008.
Committee member and legislator John Ceretto, R-Lewiston, suggested the department also focus on supporting regional efforts to improve the local transportation system, noting that the county’s development as a tourism destination relies heavily on its ability to move visitors from attraction to attraction. While discussed many times by many public agencies over the years, Ceretto said he thinks it’s time for the county to take more of a leadership role on the issue.
“It seems like we all have the thought process that this is a good idea, but somebody has to get the ball rolling,” he said.
