KEDCO Helping County Businesses Grow
August 15, 2020 at 12:14 a.m.
KEDCO Helping County Businesses Grow
By David [email protected]
Chief Executive Officer Alan Tio said KEDCO is the lead economic development organization for the county.
“We work throughout the county with businesses at every stage and every size, so someone with an idea on a napkin all the way up to a publicly-traded company, we just want to make sure we provide a single point of contact for people who are growing their businesses, who are adapting/evolving their businesses. That we’re that go-to contact,” he said.
KEDCO works with its client companies and its stakeholder communities to achieve their objectives.
“So we represent the communities and a good part of what we do is helping build those communities, but then it’s sort of this virtuous cycle where we support companies, build our communities and they go hand in hand,” Tio said. “Certainly, we need to make sure we’re focusing on talent attraction, talent retention, for example on housing development. Which those then provide the workforce, the workforce is going to be located here in the community, that supports our businesses. All that then provides investment and tax revenues for our communities to then reinvest, so it then becomes a virtuous cycle.”
KEDCO is focused on working with growth-oriented companies and working to build community assets and amenities.
“For example, us working to help relaunch the Stonehenge Golf Course or we’re doing some planning around the future of the Argonne Road corridor here in Warsaw or working with the city of Warsaw to develop the Warsaw Tech Park or working with towns like Milford and Syracuse on housing opportunities. Those are all to help build the community amenities, the product we have to offer and then to support people starting and growing companies here,” Tio said.
He highlighted a couple of projects KEDCO is “very excited about” as far as the organization’s initiatives.
The first is the Entrepreneurship Initiative, to become known how KEDCO supports its entrepreneurs. Tio, who has only been here two years, coming from Whitley County, said the county has “such a great legacy of entrepreneurship to build on.”
“But other places are better known for how they support entrepreneurs. People know they can locate a business, start a business in that community. They’ll have a strong network to work with. They’ll have resources available, capital access to space. So our objective is to become known for how we support entrepreneurs in Kosciusko County, throughout the county,” Tio said.
He said they KEDCO was really happy with how that initiative was coming together.
An example he gave for that initiative was KEDCO worked with Warsaw to bring Nextremity Solutions to the Tech Park and help Nextremity Solutions to expand. “We want to see that we’re able to support more companies like them. They see the value of being here,” Tio said.
With the Housing Initiative, KEDCO is working with communities like Milford and Syracuse to provide much-needed housing.
“The market potential study the city, the county and the (Kosciusko County Community Foundation) commissioned, I believed, showed a need for up to 2,000 new residences in the next five years. My kind of back-of-the-napkin math is that the market will likely produce half that, so there is that need for housing,” Tio said.
KEDCO wants to step in and work with communities to help identify areas for development. “Do a lot of the pre-development work, the due diligence. Even then find what incentive tools we can access and find developers to match up with those properties,” Tio said.
The housing doesn’t just have to be suburban single-family homes. “We just want to be able to work with each community and help them find what is the niche they want to be able to address, the market they want to address. Find the property, do all the front work,” Tio said.
There’s a lot of potential with the housing issue, he said, but KEDCO wants to build capacity to support the long-term needs.
“We can become that single point of contact, help bring together all those different partners, and see ideally more and different kinds of housing become available throughout the county,” Tio said.
The third focus for KEDCO is its Talent Initiative.
“We’re developing a menu of services to offer to companies and help them with recruiting and retaining a workforce. Helping them build a pipeline of people from outside of Indiana who we can find who meet their job requirements and will communicate to us that they’re interested in coming here,” Tio said, adding that KEDCO believes there’s a lot of potential to market the community.
There’s many well-kept secrets in Kosciusko County, as far as amenities, he said, “so it’s up to us to do a better job of getting the word out to build that pipeline of people who are willing to come here.”
Once people are interested in locating in Kosciusko County, Tio said KEDCO can help put together customized tours of the area.
“Decent odds are that if someone is looking to come here for a job, they might have a partner or spouse, somebody else, who is just as concerned about their career. So with our Dual Career Initiative, we can help companies, if they are recruiting a person, help that other person find opportunities here. We can’t guarantee a job, but we can help make introductions, help set up interviews, just give them a better perspective of what’s here,” Tio said.
KEDCO has a countywide mandate and serves all the communities in the county, from Sidney to Nappanee and everywhere in between.
“For the companies we work with, we work quickly, confidentially and at no cost. There is no cost to a company to work with us,” Tio said. “Opportunities are going to be different with each community, but we are certainly committed to help, to work with any community to help them pursue the opportunities that are available. It’s going to vary, but we are on board.”
Without disclosing what the companies are, he said there are a fewer smaller companies in the early stages of looking to come to the area. “So for that, it’s a matter of helping them find space. Find partners if they need banking partners or suppliers. In some cases, helping them – we’re not realtors – make connections so they can find a home, somewhere to live. Again, a lot of what we do is just helping people get to know the area, provide a single point of contact, helping manage all those introductions and help them manage the process of coming here,” Tio said.
He said Kosciusko County’s economy is still “strong” despite the COVID-19 pandemic because it has the agribusiness sector, orthopedic sector and other unique businesses.
“We have companies that are experiencing – if they’re not on the same growth trajectory as they were before – they’re perhaps even greater or higher growth. It’s going to vary from one company to the next, but it seems like the companies we have in the area are still strong. The economy is still doing well overall,” Tio said. “We’re just here to help people, if there are obstacles and challenges, to help them address those. And if there’s opportunities to grow, we don’t want to miss those.”
For more information on KEDCO, visit its website at www.kosciuskoedc.com
Chief Executive Officer Alan Tio said KEDCO is the lead economic development organization for the county.
“We work throughout the county with businesses at every stage and every size, so someone with an idea on a napkin all the way up to a publicly-traded company, we just want to make sure we provide a single point of contact for people who are growing their businesses, who are adapting/evolving their businesses. That we’re that go-to contact,” he said.
KEDCO works with its client companies and its stakeholder communities to achieve their objectives.
“So we represent the communities and a good part of what we do is helping build those communities, but then it’s sort of this virtuous cycle where we support companies, build our communities and they go hand in hand,” Tio said. “Certainly, we need to make sure we’re focusing on talent attraction, talent retention, for example on housing development. Which those then provide the workforce, the workforce is going to be located here in the community, that supports our businesses. All that then provides investment and tax revenues for our communities to then reinvest, so it then becomes a virtuous cycle.”
KEDCO is focused on working with growth-oriented companies and working to build community assets and amenities.
“For example, us working to help relaunch the Stonehenge Golf Course or we’re doing some planning around the future of the Argonne Road corridor here in Warsaw or working with the city of Warsaw to develop the Warsaw Tech Park or working with towns like Milford and Syracuse on housing opportunities. Those are all to help build the community amenities, the product we have to offer and then to support people starting and growing companies here,” Tio said.
He highlighted a couple of projects KEDCO is “very excited about” as far as the organization’s initiatives.
The first is the Entrepreneurship Initiative, to become known how KEDCO supports its entrepreneurs. Tio, who has only been here two years, coming from Whitley County, said the county has “such a great legacy of entrepreneurship to build on.”
“But other places are better known for how they support entrepreneurs. People know they can locate a business, start a business in that community. They’ll have a strong network to work with. They’ll have resources available, capital access to space. So our objective is to become known for how we support entrepreneurs in Kosciusko County, throughout the county,” Tio said.
He said they KEDCO was really happy with how that initiative was coming together.
An example he gave for that initiative was KEDCO worked with Warsaw to bring Nextremity Solutions to the Tech Park and help Nextremity Solutions to expand. “We want to see that we’re able to support more companies like them. They see the value of being here,” Tio said.
With the Housing Initiative, KEDCO is working with communities like Milford and Syracuse to provide much-needed housing.
“The market potential study the city, the county and the (Kosciusko County Community Foundation) commissioned, I believed, showed a need for up to 2,000 new residences in the next five years. My kind of back-of-the-napkin math is that the market will likely produce half that, so there is that need for housing,” Tio said.
KEDCO wants to step in and work with communities to help identify areas for development. “Do a lot of the pre-development work, the due diligence. Even then find what incentive tools we can access and find developers to match up with those properties,” Tio said.
The housing doesn’t just have to be suburban single-family homes. “We just want to be able to work with each community and help them find what is the niche they want to be able to address, the market they want to address. Find the property, do all the front work,” Tio said.
There’s a lot of potential with the housing issue, he said, but KEDCO wants to build capacity to support the long-term needs.
“We can become that single point of contact, help bring together all those different partners, and see ideally more and different kinds of housing become available throughout the county,” Tio said.
The third focus for KEDCO is its Talent Initiative.
“We’re developing a menu of services to offer to companies and help them with recruiting and retaining a workforce. Helping them build a pipeline of people from outside of Indiana who we can find who meet their job requirements and will communicate to us that they’re interested in coming here,” Tio said, adding that KEDCO believes there’s a lot of potential to market the community.
There’s many well-kept secrets in Kosciusko County, as far as amenities, he said, “so it’s up to us to do a better job of getting the word out to build that pipeline of people who are willing to come here.”
Once people are interested in locating in Kosciusko County, Tio said KEDCO can help put together customized tours of the area.
“Decent odds are that if someone is looking to come here for a job, they might have a partner or spouse, somebody else, who is just as concerned about their career. So with our Dual Career Initiative, we can help companies, if they are recruiting a person, help that other person find opportunities here. We can’t guarantee a job, but we can help make introductions, help set up interviews, just give them a better perspective of what’s here,” Tio said.
KEDCO has a countywide mandate and serves all the communities in the county, from Sidney to Nappanee and everywhere in between.
“For the companies we work with, we work quickly, confidentially and at no cost. There is no cost to a company to work with us,” Tio said. “Opportunities are going to be different with each community, but we are certainly committed to help, to work with any community to help them pursue the opportunities that are available. It’s going to vary, but we are on board.”
Without disclosing what the companies are, he said there are a fewer smaller companies in the early stages of looking to come to the area. “So for that, it’s a matter of helping them find space. Find partners if they need banking partners or suppliers. In some cases, helping them – we’re not realtors – make connections so they can find a home, somewhere to live. Again, a lot of what we do is just helping people get to know the area, provide a single point of contact, helping manage all those introductions and help them manage the process of coming here,” Tio said.
He said Kosciusko County’s economy is still “strong” despite the COVID-19 pandemic because it has the agribusiness sector, orthopedic sector and other unique businesses.
“We have companies that are experiencing – if they’re not on the same growth trajectory as they were before – they’re perhaps even greater or higher growth. It’s going to vary from one company to the next, but it seems like the companies we have in the area are still strong. The economy is still doing well overall,” Tio said. “We’re just here to help people, if there are obstacles and challenges, to help them address those. And if there’s opportunities to grow, we don’t want to miss those.”
For more information on KEDCO, visit its website at www.kosciuskoedc.com
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