| Chamber: It takes a community to land better-paying jobs |
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By: ERIN EDGEMON, Business Editor
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Posted: Sunday, August 17, 2008 8:10 am
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Michael Malone talks about his goals for the Chamber of Commerce.
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Michael Malone took the reins as president of the Rutherford County Chamber of Commerce on July 14. A month after taking the job, Malone sat down to talk with The Murfreesboro Post about his goals and the future of the Rutherford County Chamber of Commerce.
1. What goals have you set for the Rutherford County Chamber of Commerce since taking the president position?
The goals of the Chamber really haven’t changed. The goals of the Chamber have always been to increase the business climate in a positive way and to do this not only involves having business opportunities but also good quality of life for the community. Is our educational system strong? Are there places to go and things to do for the people that are coming here not just those people who go to work everyday but for the families at home and for the kids? Is there is a good athletic program, and as I said education programs and medical facilities? We continue to support and work in all of those areas. Those are our goals.
2. Are there going to be any staff changes?
No. Not whatsoever. The staff here is excellent. They are doing a wonderful job. As the old adage goes, if it is not broke, don’t fix it. Their track record has indicated that they are positive and success minded and have a lot of passion and allegiance and loyalty to this community, and they are they are doing it for the good of the community. No changes need to be made here.
3. What is the greatest opportunity in this community for economic development?
I think one of our greatest attributes is the people that are here. In any community, the people are the greatest resource. It is not found in the bricks and mortar or the rivers or the valleys in the community. It is the people who live there that make the difference in whether or not economic development will occur. People in this community have a very positive, pro-future attitude. They aren’t worried about what they can’t do. They just worry about how much they can do. It is that can-do attitude, the can-do approach — the positive outlook for future that is going to attract businesses to the community. That is a great attribute that we have. Mountains can be moved, but they can only be moved by the people who live there.
4. Can you quantify the likely impact of the new Embassy Suites conference center and hotel, which is slated to open in mid-September?
Monetarily quantify, no because I don’t think we know how large it is going to be. Subjectively, I think the impact will be increasing amount of business in the area, not only travelers that are coming in, which are a great economic incentive for the community, but also all of the supporting industry that is going to help support the Embassy Suites plus our other facilities — hospitality facilities in the community. We don’t want to leave them out. We are all out there. In looking at those properties, they all work with each other. If one facility is full, they are going to refer people to other facilities. It is a brotherhood or a sisterhood of businesses working together. So, the Embassy Suites is going to be a strong economic engine in that area. It is going to bring more people into the area. It is going to bring more expenditures for everything whether it is buying greeting cards to send back home or more restaurant and gasoline expenditures or more clothing expenditures. It is close to The Avenue (lifestyle mall). That is going to bring more foot traffic into The Avenue and into the restaurants. That is going to have a continual impact. There is nothing but positives that we can see in the future for the impact on the community.
5. Murfreesboro/Rutherford County keeps getting so close to obtaining large white-collar relocations. Is there anything we can do to grab the brass ring?
I think it is a community effort. I think everybody in the community should just keep building on our strengths. We have talked about many of those: education, quality of life and our businesses out here. We as a community can pool together and do little things to make it happen. Pick up trash along the road. Don’t be a litterbug.
Continue the pride in the community. That is always helpful out there.
The city and the citizens here have to continue to keep looking forward, look for new ideas, new technologies and things that were never though of before let’s try to do them, whether it is through education, healthcare or transportation. Let’s support our county government.
And the old saying, God put your eyes on the front of your head for a reason. If he wanted you to worry about where you have been he would have put your eyes on the back of your head. So you are looking forward all of the time. I think the community should continue to do that.
6. Why do we keep missing out? Are there any obvious weaknesses?
It is a very competitive marketplace and economic development doesn’t necessarily happen to the ones who put the most money on the table or the largest incentives. A lot of economic development comes down to personal relationships within the communities and what we have done as a organization through economic development, tourism, the Chamber, and education is develop relationships outside of our community and that is what we are going to continue to do. And through those relationships we are going to attract more businesses into the area. We have a lot of successes and the successes you are seeing aren’t necessary front-page news. There are some businesses adding employees. The Embassy Suites is a success of growth and the expansion of industries.
We opened up a new business (Aug. 13). ClaimTrust out of Florida moved here. It isn’t the 500-employee business, but I think it is 60 employees and they are already talking about expanding. We are seeing the growth of those. If you drive down any of our major thoroughfares in this community, you will find new businesses opening. You are going to find signs of help wanted.
Why are we missing out? Why didn’t we get Bridgestone? (Murfreesboro was one of two finalists for a Bridgestone technical center that could have brought 600 new jobs paying an average of $60,000-$70,000).
We had a good offer on the table — very competitive nationally, and I don’t think we really lost anything. I think we gained a lot because through that interaction people know Murfreesboro is the place to do business. Rutherford County is competing on a level with all of the major communities in the country and it isn’t that we are pushing a rock up a hill, we are at the top of the hill now so people are envious of our success in economic development and what we have to offer. So we are not losing things we are gaining things.
7. What are the top three things you sell about this community?
Transportation, environment and the community. The weather is good. It does not rock between extremes of hot and extremes of cold. It is an extremely pleasant geographic location. The climate is a good place to do business.
8. What is the next step Rutherford County needs to take with its economic development approach?
I don’t think there is a next step up. Every application and every contact and prospect is different. We continue to work with those prospects warm or cold all of the time. It is a matter of constantly improving ourselves as we address each prospect differently. It is not a cookie-cutter approach.
9. What is the timeline for the new Rutherford County Chamber of Commerce building off Medical Center Parkway? What are some of the amenities? What opportunities will it create?
The timeline right now is working through the planning and zoning process with the city of Murfreesboro. We as the Chamber are just like any other business development application through that process, and we are following the rules. That timeline is going to be governed by that process.
We are looking into 2009 before you will see a lot of significant things (construction) occur.
By having a full-blown welcome center not only for the visitors coming to the community but also our residents, too. Many of our residents will be able to come in and find out what is going on in their own backyard. The Chamber’s tourism program isn’t only designed for people coming from outside of the county. It is designed for people in the county as well and in itself being an economic development/business development engine. The other things you will see in that area is convenience and accessibility, expanded information services for our community as well as tourism and the business community as well.
It is will be close proximity to the interstate so it will be visible from there, easy egress and ingress into the facility off of the interstate so with that we are hoping to capture more of those travelers, have them stop here instead of whizzing right on by to go to Atlanta or to Florida. We want them to stop here and visit with us a little bit, spend the night, buy a new swimsuit or get a bite to eat.
I know from personal experience for people driving from Chicago to Florida, Murfreesboro is the stop-over point. It is the place to be.
10. What else do you want to inform the community about?
There were some exciting announcements (Aug. 13) with the Mind to Marketplace program. We are one of the leading partners in this consortium of businesses and organizations and educational institutions to try to bring cutting-edge technology and cutting-edge ideas to the marketplace — to encourage or inspire entrepreneurs for business development locally and to attract businesses into the area. This is a part of a Chamber, university (MTSU and others) and congressional (U.S. Rep Bart Gordon) initiative.
They have put together a technology coordinator together that runs from Oak Ridge to Huntsville, Ala. We are sitting right in the middle of it. That is exciting news for this community. There aren’t many places in this country that have this regional cooperation to make this possible.
Erin Edgemon can be reached at 869-0812 and at eedgemon@murfreesboropost.com.
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