Roanoke Times
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: SUNDAY, July 16, 1995 TAG: 9507170088
SECTION: VIRGINIA PAGE: D-1 EDITION: METRO
SOURCE: JEFF STURGEON STAFF WRITER
DATELINE: LENGTH: Medium
In its 20-year blueprint for change, the New Century Council urged business recruiters to work together and, eventually, to consolidate. Three organizations would lead the effort: the Roanoke Valley Economic Development Partnership, the New River Economic Development Alliance and the Alleghany Highlands Economic Development Authority. They are the industrial marketing organizations for the nine counties and five cities in the New Century Region.
If the merger question were being decided today, it would get three `no' votes from those organizations. But there is a consensus to discuss the selling of the three regions of Western Virginia as one.
What's at stake, in part, is who will market the area to companies that will provide new jobs.
But the proposal has drawn criticism, because it entails creating one organization, after 1998, made up of all economic development bureaus, tourism-promotion groups such as the Roanoke Valley Visitors and Convention Bureau, and downtown merchant groups such as Downtown Roanoke Inc. The Blue Ridge Small Business Development Center would join as well. Each group now has a distinct job and source of funding, and it is not clear that any entity is prepared to relinquish power.
Even after establishment of a umbrella group, "there will still be a need need for suborganizations," said Matt Kennell, executive director of Downtown Roanoke, a private, nonprofit marketing and support organization.
Beth Doughty, who heads the Roanoke Valley Economic Development Partnership, said of the merger proposal, "That's kind of saying, 'Here's the shoe, make your foot fit in it.'"
A spokesman for the New River Valley Economic Development Alliance has said that group isn't interested in merging. Glynn Loope, executive director of the Alleghany Highlands Economic Development Authority, said he would like to hear more because regionalism makes sense.
"I don't think Western Virginia is in an economic position to write off any proposal," Loope said.
Apparently, there is wiggle room in the proposal that would allow the proposed umbrella organization and existing groups to coexist - and still remain true to the goal of a regional approach to marketing. Individual groups could keep their offices but function as one organization, according to Beverly Fitzpatrick Jr., executive director of the New Century Council.
"We didn't feel you would eliminate those individual regional groups, but there would just be a single overall entity that would have a single purpose of marketing the entire region," said Charlotte Reed, an economic development specialist for tourism and outreach programs at Virginia Tech, who headed the committee that wrote the recommendation.
Already, Doughty's organization shares the task of staffing a booth at trade shows with her counterparts in Lynchburg, Alleghany County and several organizations outside the New Century Region. They split the leads for new business development.
Whether that sort of collaboration can grow may become clearer in October, when New Century business recruiters are planning to hold a joint meeting.
by CNB