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Part of any successful local, county or regional economic development plan focuses on many aspects of recruitment and retention.
The latter tends to be under-appreciated. But my goodness is it vital.
Recently, it came to light that Billy Goat Industries - a professional lawn care manufacturer that has called Lee's Summit home for 45 years and is locally owned by Will Coates - had retained a consulting firm to look at its best options for a future home and warehouse location.
Even a rudimentary look at that simple fact tells us immediately that, at the very least, the company is exploring options for leaving town. With 100 employees and plans to add up to 10 a year for the next five years, that's the kind of thing that gets on the radar of city leaders real quickly.
Billy Goat is located on South 291 past the U.S. 50 interchange.
Reportedly, other municipalities, including Pleasant Hill, have offered economic incentives to get Billy Goat to pick up and leave. And while those are always tempting offers for companies (see the ongoing border war between Kansas and Missouri) it is always a lengthy process and long road down that path from "interest" to actual "moving" for a company.
Picking up and moving any large operation or manufacturing facility takes an investment of time, money and, surely, patience.
Specifically for Billy Goat, Lee's Summit, possibly Cass County and neighboring cities that would want to boast housing a known commodity in worldwide lawn care, the prospects of gaining or losing a company of this magnitude become immediately clear.
Pleasant Hill, which houses its economic development department under the city, gains a tax base and jobs, not to mention the build out on the new warehouse, while reportedly offering some Enterprise Enhancement Zone incentives to get them to move. Remember, too, Lee's Summit balked at approving EEZ measures previously.
If Lee's Summit gets them to stay, it preserves 100-plus jobs, keeps a tax base of over $100,000 (total for all municipalities) and adds another $110,000, approximately, in new tax revenue.
Discussions on incentives include Chapter 100 bonds and a 75 percent tax abatement over 10 years, not to mention improves on Jefferson Street around the Billy Goat complex.
The Lee's Summit City Council voiced support at the Sept. 4 meeting for keeping Billy Goat in town and vowed to look at all plans to make that work at its Oct. 2 meeting. They also heard directly from Coates and the new President of the Lee's Summit Economic Development Council, Rick McDowell. McDowell, only on the job for 30 days, reiterated what many in the council chambers already knew - that keeping Billy Goat in Lee's Summit should be considered at the top of their priority list.
In the meantime, in the competitive environment of economic development, it will be interesting to see what Pleasant Hill or others come up to to try and lure the manufacturer away.
Stay tuned.