COVER STORY, JULY 2012

A CONSORTIUM FOR GROWTH
Property owners in suburban Atlanta reap the benefits of a strong economic development program they created.
Chuck Warbington

In recent years many communities have espoused an economic development strategy that capitalizes on public-private partnerships. Nowhere has that strategy been more successful than in Gwinnett County, Georgia. Gwinnett is Georgia’s second most populous county, located just northeast of Atlanta. Like most communities, Gwinnett was hit hard by the recession. However, some strategic planning and strong partnerships have allowed the community to maintain a strong economic footing with momentum to emerge in a positive direction.

Gwinnett has led the metro Atlanta region with the lowest unemployment rate for the past 36 consecutive months. That type of success comes from a skilled group of local economic developers, a world-class education system, a dedicated group of county and city staffers, community groups, nonprofits and a local business community that are all working toward a shared goal of strengthening the local economy.

The community improvement district (CID) model is a great example of the effectiveness of public-private partnerships. CIDs are self-taxing districts, and the concept has been used to revitalize and spur investment in communities around the country for decades. Today, CIDs are an increasingly popular way of focusing investment in concentrated areas. CIDs are formed by commercial property owners who band together, agreeing to impose an additional tax on themselves, with the goal of leveraging that seed funding to attract implementation funds for needed transportation, security and aesthetic improvements.

In 2006, property owners formed the Gwinnett Village CID. Made up of 550 property owners, the CID represents roughly $1 billion in commercial property value. The 14 square miles that make up the CID serve as the gateway community between the city of Atlanta and its largest suburb. In its first five years, the Gwinnett Village CID has successfully leveraged the roughly $10 million in locally collected revenue to attract more than $30 million in transportation improvement investments, which have funded projects like interstate landscaping, the upcoming reconstruction of the Jimmy Carter Boulevard/I-85 interchange, and private security and additional police patrols for the entire district. The recent recruitment of FedEx Ground is one great example of how focusing on infrastructure investment can be a strong incentive for companies. FedEx invested $55 million in the construction of a 215,000-square-foot facility, bringing 240 full- and part-time employees and 75 independent contractor opportunities.

For a company looking to increase its size, speed and efficiency in the Southeast market, access to robust, interconnected logistics infrastructure is a must. The CID and local economic development partners worked with FedEx to find a suitable location that could provide the access and mobility that the company needed. The CID consistently works with local businesses and property owners to identify logistical chokepoints and works to plan improvements that help companies like FedEx Ground grow and thrive in our community

In June 2011, Hyundai Construction Equipment relocated its North American headquarters to Norcross, Georgia. The state offered $2 million in incentives to the company.

By focusing on enhancements that make the area more attractive to prospective tenants and customers — as well as investing in programs that support local commerce — many existing property owners have reaped the benefits of having a local partner working to make the area more desirable for end users. Some companies that have decided to call the greater Gwinnett Village area home in recent years include QualTex Laboratories, a company that provides testing services for patients, donors, and regulated biological products; NanoLumens, a digital signage company; and Hyundai Construction Equipment. The recent QualTex expansion brought $12 million in investment and 100 new high-wage jobs. NanoLumens relocated to a 32,000-square-foot facility and added 175 new jobs. Hyundai Construction Equipment recently chose Gwinnett as home to its North American headquarters and warehousing facility, bringing a $10 million investment and 100 new jobs over the next five years.

But a relatively small community cannot enjoy economic development success without paying notice to the broader economic environment. Gwinnett has continually been a premier location for individuals, families and high-profile employers. In order to maintain that position, the Gwinnett Chamber of Commerce and more than 160 public-private partners (including the Gwinnett Village CID) came together in 2007 to create the Partnership Gwinnett initiative, the county’s first public-private effort dedicated to economic development programming.

Since the initiative’s inception, members have helped to bring more than 280 companies and 12,500 jobs to Gwinnett. The Partnership Gwinnett team works in collaboration with the cities and Gwinnett County to give immediate access to the community’s services and resources. This includes specialized data services, property searches and tours, navigation of the licensing and permitting processes and effectively marketing the area to brokers, developers and site selection specialists.

RockTenn announced last August that it would invest $5 million to expand its corporate headquarters in Norcross, Georgia. The state and Gwinnett County gave the company an additional $15.7 million in incentives for the project.

Partnership Gwinnett was instrumental in two key retention/expansion projects in recent years. The group worked with county and state officials to put together an incentive package that encouraged RockTenn, a company that specializes in packaging products, to stay in Gwinnett. The company consolidated its Chicago and St. Louis operations to its Gwinnett location, adding 500 employees to the 1,100 already employed in Georgia. Partnership Gwinnett also worked closely with the State Department of Economic Development in recruiting and facilitating NCR’s recent relocation of its global headquarters from Ohio to Gwinnett, bringing 1,250 new jobs to the community. The technology company specializes in self-service solutions for ATM machines and software, point-of-service and retail systems, as well as airline check-in systems.

“Why Gwinnett County? Why Atlanta? Why Georgia? It was really simple,” says Bill Nuti, chairman and CEO of NCR. “It’s about skilled labor, it’s about a great place to live and it’s about access to great facilities and academic institutions.”

These types of business desires are drivers of Partnership Gwinnett’s holistic approach to economic development. It’s about much more than giving companies incentives that will benefit them in the short run. Partnership Gwinnett believes it’s about building a community where the companies and their employees can grow and thrive for decades to come. And that is the real success story of Gwinnett. It’s about the focused cooperation of 160 organizations all working to make Gwinnett a place in which companies feel safe investing — a community with hundreds of partners ready and willing to help them succeed.

It’s easy for districts, municipalities, counties and states to get caught up in the throes of competitive recruitment, but Gwinnett’s success shows that broad-base collaboration is the only way to achieve long-term economic success. Nowhere is the power of public-private partnerships more evident.

Chuck Warbington is executive director of the Gwinnett Village CID.

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