Business Assistance, Retention & Expansion

Over the past several months, the EDC has invested in resources to create a foundation for a coordinated business retention program. In the summer of 2007 the EDC created BizBAM. We have now designed a marketing plan to increase our creative awareness of the brand promise of Building Acceleration & Momentum towards business growth. Watch for BizBAM across Bloomington-Normal and be sure to continue referrals for meetings.

C7 – We are in the process of gathering feedback from both mentors and protégés to make minor program adjustments to ensure the best experience for all involved. Initial suggestions have been very positive, and we are excited about enhancing this entrepreneurial asset for Bloomington-Normal.

Incubator – The required grant forms to obtain the previously appropriated $250,000 are due April 10th and will be used later this summer to fund an incubator feasibility study, business plan and conceptual design.

For more information on these activities, please contact Chad Carson at (309) 452-8437 or chad@bnbiz.org.

New Business Recruitment & Development

Marty Vanags, CEO, will be traveling to the CoreNet Global World Congress in San Diego in the beginning of May to continue our attraction strategy. CoreNet Global is the largest corporate and economic development professional organization in the world. The EDC is a Chicago Chapter sponsor and participant, and Marty attends Chicago Chapter luncheons regularly. Working with the Illinois Development Council, Marty will be joining a number of Illinois economic development groups in marketing their communities in a booth sponsored by the respective communities attending. Working together in the booth will be: Exelon, Ameren, St. Louis Regional Chamber & Growth Association, EDC of Decatur and Macon County, Growth Association of Southwestern Illinois, City of Rockford, Peoria Economic Development Council, Greater Springfield Chamber of Commerce, 34 Logistics Corridor Group and the City of Springfield.

Recently, the developers of the McLean County Industrial Center placed their marketing in the hands of one of the biggest real estate services firm in world, CBRE. This industrial park is a large, master-planned, mixed-use development of over 500 acres just off of I-55 in Chenoa. The site includes industrial, commercial and residential uses and has immediate access to I-55 and Union Pacific rail lines. The project has access to public water and sewer and is within a TIF district. The developer of the property is offering build-to-suit options. It is perfect for warehousing and distribution facilities. This project will be highlighted when we go to San Diego.

Community Improvement

One Voice
This month, nearly 40 local community members embarked on a journey to Washington, D.C. to urge our congressional delegation to provide funding for four crucial projects. Representatives from business, labor, government and education banded together to show that McLean County is united in its support of these projects: Normal Multi-Modal Transportation Center, Regional Creativity Center for the Arts, Lexington Wastewater Treatment System and the McLean County Business Incubator.

Other highlights of the trip included meetings with U.S. Supreme Court Justice Antonin Scalia, Amtrak, the U.S. Treasury, the Economic Development Administration, Gov. Blagojevich's Washington, D.C. office, the House Transportation and Infrastructure Committee and the House Financial Services Committee. Matthew Chase of the National Association of Development Organizations, Jeff Finkle of the International Economic Development Council and Phillip Singerman of B&D Consulting and former deputy secretary for the EDA also joined One Voice participants in a panel discussion on the federal economic development agenda.

Thank you to all those who took time out of their busy schedules to join us in this important effort. We will soon begin the planning of next year's trip. For more information relating to the fly-in and the One Voice priority projects, visit www.1community1voice.org.

Program Oversight & Investor Relations

The EDC held an Investors Roundtable meeting in February to provide communications and opportunities for input for our largest investors. However, as an investor you don’t need a special invitation to provide the EDC with input on its activities. All investors should feel free to call Marty or anyone on the board to ask about any aspect of our plan. The EDC is working to implement the plan set forth in our Navigating a New Direction program. To refresh your memory, please see the NAND portion of our Web site, www.bnbiz.org/Campaign/default.asp.

We are excited about our New Leadership Board initiative. We had over 60 nominations for 40 seats on our first-year board. The NLB is designed to be an advisory group of people ages 17-39 who will work with the leadership of the EDC to establish an additional set of priorities for the economic future of the Bloomington-Normal area. The goal is to create a generational dialogue and provide ongoing input to our business, economic and political leadership regarding these emerging generations’ concerns, bringing a voice to this untapped resource.

The NLB will engage in a variety of discussions. The goal of each session and each discussion is the shaping and development of a “white paper” with general goals and objectives pertaining to the subject matter followed by specific recommendations to the EDC board for implementation. The questions will include:

• What is the future of the workplace?
• Who’s the boss?
• The value of technology
• Quality of life

Area Promotion

The EDC, while certainly not the only agency interested in the promotion of McLean County, does promote the area whenever possible.  The EDC gives McLean County a presence in several trade and development organizations that span the immediate region and beyond.  The EDC participates in the I-39 Logistics Corridor Association, the Central Illinois Development Partnership, the Illinois Development Council, CORENet Global, the International Economic Development Council and many others.  Each year, the EDC attends numerous trade shows and networking events through our participation in these groups.  At each event, we present a common message – McLean County is a great place to do business.

12,000+sf flex/industrial building with 1,000 sf of office space with A/C.  Two dock doors, 14’ ceiling height.  Built in 1976, broker asking $475,000.  Only one mile from the Interstate.
Call Nate Brent, (309) 662-2125.

Learn more about our building and sites locator.

The World Without Us by Alan Weisman
Reviewed by Marty Vanags

When I was ten years old, my family and I took a summer vacation trip to the Colorado Rockies. We drove all the way to Colorado, five people, in a 1966 Chevy Impala sans air conditioning across Iowa, Nebraska and up into the Continental divide. In our plush, easy-living world of today, it’s hard to imagine driving anywhere in the summer time without air conditioning, a multi-speaker sound system and global positioning map system mounted on the dashboard. The Interstate system was still relatively young then, and as we got to Colorado, we drove on local roads and mountain highways with some fear and trepidation as my father assured us, in his heavy accent, that driving in the mountains is something he experienced in the “old country,” and as the back end of the car nearly skidded off the side of a mountain, we could only pray he wasn’t kidding. Only later we found out the “old country” tallest mountain elevation was no higher than the glacial till aftermath of a bunny ski hill in southern Wisconsin.

At that time Colorado was still wild in many areas. Many parts of the state still had bad roads, and the nouveau riche had yet to discover many of the plush ski resorts and hip artist colonies. What this meant and what excited me most were the many ghost towns and abandoned mines we saw along the way. I was utterly fascinated that entire towns, or at least several buildings, that might have consisted of a small cluster of living human inhabitants would be abandoned or lost to time. These buildings were uniformly dark in color, and often times one would see a tree growing through the roof or weeds blocking the entrance to the door. I desperately wanted to stop and explore and see if we could discover old bones, artifacts or maybe encounter a ghost. My mind was full of imaginative ideas about what was located in these old ghost towns. Click here to read more...

Midwest Food Bank's Hunger Awareness Week

Midwest Food Bank will be holding its first annual McLean County Hunger Awareness Week April 14th-19th. According to the 2006 Illinois Report on Poverty, there are 10,000 to 20,000 people living in poverty in McLean County. The Midwest Food Bank believes that, together, we can help bridge the gap between prosperity and poverty for our neighbors in need.

Several events will be held throughout the week. On April 15th, the Midwest Food Bank is offering hunger tours and presentations from 1-5:30 p.m. CJ's Restaurant and the Redfire Grille are also joining in the fight against hunger by donating 10 percent of each bill to the food bank on April 16th (CJ's) and April 17th (Redfire Grille).

For more information on these and other events and to learn how you can help, visit www.midwestfoodbank.org or call Jessica Junis at
(309) 663-5350.

A Tongue-in-Cheek Perspective of Chad Carson, Business Retention Manager
by Chad Carson

One non-professional job I have had:

1. Summer job planting flowers in the median of a four-lane highway in Buffalo, NY. My unemployed friends had a joyous summer heckling me as they drove by!

Two movies I watch over and over:

1. The Outsiders
2. Fast Times at Ridgemont High

Three places I have lived:

1. Buffalo, NY (born & raised)
2. Buffalo , NY (my co-workers tell me I mention Buffalo way too much...so I listed it twice)
3. Orlando, FL

Other Things....

I have miniature ears - my ears are small. It doesn’t effect my hearing, and they look okay.

Having to wear corrective lenses can be burdensome at times, I’ll admit. But I’ve grown accustomed to seeing the world through them. I also like how I look wearing glasses. I feel smarter in them.

I can successfully lick my elbow.

I have an excellent phone manner.

I am naturally young-looking, so this looks positive for the future.

I take the time to write letters to supervisors of employees that are helpful and courteous, commending them for their actions and recommending they get a raise. You can thank me later Ken, Brooke & Michelle!

I’ve (embraced?) (treasured?) (come to terms with?) the fact that sometimes I just can’t think of the word I’m looking for, and someone is just going to have to fill it in for me.

You may never catch me at a SpeedNet event…1 ½ minutes is not long enough for me to talk about myself…and way too long to listen about someone else….Just kidding!

On that note, I have lots of humility.

I am a pretty open person, in that I share a lot about myself with people (even when they don't think they want to hear it).

Sure, there are things that I would like to change about myself, and I know I will do so with a bit of persistence. However, I’m pretty pleased so far with what life has dished out and how I’ve turned out. This has been a fantastic exercise. It’s made me stop and think about how fabulous I am, and I feel so much better about myself. Yeah! *Insert thumbs up here*

Uptown Toastmasters

Do you have trouble speaking in front of a room full of people? Would you like to find out how to better express your ideas? Are you interested in learning how to run meetings more effectively? Toastmasters can help you become a better speaker AND leader!

The EDC has started a Toastmasters International chapter, the "Uptown Toastmasters." At Toastmasters, members learn better communication skills by speaking to groups and working with others in a supportive environment. At each meeting, members give impromptu and prepared speeches and receive constructive evaluation from their peers.

Toastmasters helps employees give better sales presentations, improve their management skills, work better with other employees, effectively develop and present ideas, offer constructive criticism and accept criticism more objectively.

If you are interested in joining the group, please contact Brooke Weishaupt at (309) 452-8437 or brooke@bnbiz.org. Meetings are held the second and fourth Thursdays of each month at 5:30 p.m. in the Bank of Illinois Community Room, 200 W. College Ave., Normal. To learn more about Toastmasters, visit www.toastmasters.org.

EDC board member receives national promotion

Congratulations to EDC board of directors member, John Penn, who will soon become the Midwest regional manager and vice president for the Laborers’ International Union of North America.

Penn currently serves as business manager for the LIUNA Great Plains Laborers' District Council. In his new position, he will oversee over 50,000 union members in 10 states and have a greater say in shaping the union’s national policies. Click here to read the full article in The Pantagraph.