Lucas County now has an economic development agency tasked with promoting the county in a conscious attempt to move away from a “Toledo-centric” mindset that has characterized some economic development initiatives.
The inauguration of the new department was held Monday afternoon at the Designetics Inc. plant at the Westwinds Industrial Park on Eber Road in Holland. Lucas County commissioners and other public officials were on hand to mark the event.
The new department will facilitate business retention and expansion, develop new and existing business sites, and nurture startup ecosystems that foster innovation, collaboration, and economic growth within the county.
According to Lucas County Commissioner Pete Gerken, the announcement's location highlights the country’s previous successful economic development efforts.
”This industrial park has been a success of Lucas County for 40-some years now. But there’s more we can do, and that’s what we want to talk about today,” Mr. Gerken said.
Mr. Gerken noted that although the Department of Economic Development is brand new, the county commissioners have been assisting with economic development for a long time.
“We’re not new to this,” Mr. Gerken said. “We’re not new to economic development, but we’re going to formalize it in a way that everybody can see that it has a benefit to everybody — our residents and our businesses.”
Matt Heyrman will lead the new department as the deputy county administrator and director of economic development. His salary will remain at $154,627.20 annually. Three other employees will complete the department’s staff: an economic development program manager whose annual salary will be $81,931.20; a business engagement specialist who will be paid $81,744.00 annually; and an economic data analyst at $70,824.00 per year.
County Commissioner Lisa Sobecki stressed that the new office would take a two-pronged approach to supporting local businesses through both economic and work force development. She cited data from the Regional Growth Partnership that showed that 74 percent of all new business expansion projects in northwest Ohio involve businesses that are already operating in the community.
Another function of the new department, according to county Commissioner Anita Lopez, will be to ensure that “every dollar we help businesses save all comes back to Lucas County. When our businesses grow, and they hire, we grow as a community and create a long-term commitment and investment.”
The Westwinds Industrial Park is the product of a partnership between Spencer Township and the village of Whitehouse that formed a joint economic development zone to promote job creation and retention in the area.
“For a long time at the county level, no one was promoting Westwinds,” Michael Hood, a Spencer Township trustee and lifelong resident, said. “But now, with the new department, we will have the opportunity to do that. And there are other developments out in the rest of western Lucas County, so Westwinds will serve as a template for the area if they want to create an industrial or other development.”
Lucas County is also home to other public entities tasked with promoting economic development, including the Regional Growth Partnership, the Toledo-Lucas County Port Authority, the Toledo Department of Economic Development, and the small business and nonprofit workspace at the Toledo Lucas County Public Library.
“I’m probably the most excited person in the room to hear that they’re doing this,” said Dean Monske, president and CEO of the Regional Growth Partnership of Northwest Ohio. “We do over 400 business retention and expansion calls a year, but we cover 17 counties. We don’t have the resources to do enough. We could find so many more opportunities for companies in Lucas County, but we don’t have the bandwidth or the people to knock on doors and do it. Having them put their resources into that, that’s huge.”
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