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Editor's Notes

1. A significant success for the city and our residents was the announcement of the $315 million expansion of Riverside Community Hospital. This will bring400 medical services direct jobs, plus hundreds of construction jobs. This was a great example of where our Business First Initiative – streamlined development review and approvals – played a key role in capturing a growth opportunity for one of our existing businesses. This is also an excellent example of how important our partnership with the Chamber is. We worked on this hand in glove and gave it the attention and priority service it deserved. Retention and expansion plays a significant role in our economic development efforts.TRANSITIONIndustrial Recruitment was highlighed by….
2. The recruitment of Hayneedle.com and World Kitchen. These businesses Combine to add over 300 jobs and fill over 900,000 sq. feet. Of industrial space.Hayneedle is a point of sale as an internet sales site and will generate sales tax revenue for the City. They specialize in any product that is needed for your home.World Kitchen designs, manufactures and distributes kitchen supplies..brands include Corelle, Pyrex, Chicago Cuttery and CorningWare.TRANSITIONAll told, staff helped businesses create or retain over 2300 permanent jobs….
3. And 10,000 construction jobs.Our web exposure continues to grow and our online marketing efforts have brought over 400,000 unique visitors to the city’s various websites. Webpage views have increased by over 15% in the last 12 months and over 68% over the past five years.We continue to monitor and enhance our websites because we understand that many businesses begin their search for a new corporate location on the internet.TRANSITIONYou have each received a draft of the….
4. the draft Economic Development Action Plan for next fiscal year. It is organized around the 4 pillars of Seizing Our Destiny. In March, City Manager Scott Barber held a staff retreat where we discussed last year’s results and focused on new initiatives for the coming year. The following are a few highlights of our plan.TRANSITIONIn January, Forbes Magazine recognized Riverside as the #2 hot spot for tech. Our tech industry grew by 18% over the last ten years.
5. The Beacon Economics Report identified Technology as a highly desired industry because of the hub of activity occurring in this sector and because of the higher than average wages associated with it. While we have partnered with Innovation Economy Corporation to provide incubation for tech related businesses, we continue to develop plans for the creation of an incubator for spin-offs from UCR with UCR economic development staff. We are also working with Start-up IE to find a location for a co-working space for entrepreneurs and freelancers. Start-up Weekend Riverside took place May 3-5 and included over 54 hours of start-up related training and advice for local entrepreneurs. InSoCal Connect offers a business accelerator and regional marketing as a tech hub.TRANSITIONWe will continue to market Riverside as a location of choice.….
6. We will continue to market Riverside to be the location of choice special events, conferences and conventions. The completion of the Riverside Convention Center will allow us to bring thousands of new visitors to the city. Recently announced host of the Fireball Run Adventure Rally finish will bring thousands to downtown Riverside and give us national exposure on the web and extensive local media coverage. Our success in hosting Splash is just the start for the Riverside Aquatics Center, as the RCVB continues has also landed deals to host national training programs and the State HS swimming finals.A new Strategic Marketing Plan for the City will be created, led by our new Marketing Manager – Collette Hannah – We will be focusing on how we integrate more videos into our strategy, as well as the development of marketing materials that are specialized for each of our targeted industries.TRANSITIONEconomic Development is everybody’s job in the city….
7. EcDev is everybody’s responsibility in City Hall. To spread our Business First philosophy across all staff, we will have a renewed focus on customer service by offering training for front-line personnel. We believe it is important to receive feedback from our clients and investors and will be utilizing customer service surveys to continue to improve our development process.Building on the Shop Local movement and the Made in CA initiative,We will be developing a tool that connects our manufacturers with suppliers in Riverside. This will help our businesses grow by offering supply chain solutions in our own backyard.Collaboration Partners:Hispanic ChamberBlack ChamberSmall Business Development CenterCounty EDAInSoCal ConnectInnovation EconomyUCR, CBU, La Sierra UniversityOffice of Foreign TradeWorkforce DevelopmentSBACommercial and Industrial RE BrokersMarch JPA – Foreign Trade ZoneChambers of Commerce – business visits, industry roundtables, business retention and expansionTRANSITIONOur real estate broker outreach program…
8. Our broker outreach program was a great success last year. We visited with over 250 real estate professionals and we will continue this outreach in the next fiscal year. They were held in Costa Mesa and downtown LA. We also sponsored a bus tour that brought hundreds of brokers to Riverside. We are formalizing a Realtor Regents program and taking over the program from the Mayor’s office. Residential realtors are an important resource and we believe that with the right training and knowledge, they can be among our strongest advocates.We will have a concentrated effort on helping our local businesses grow by opening up foreign markets for their goods and services. We have a strong relationship with the Riverside County office of foreign trade and we will continue to work with them to make sure our businesses are in a position to take advantage of the benefits that come from exporting. We will have a future workshop for the Council relating to foreign trade, sister city program and March JPA during foreign trade month in May.TRANSITIIONOur plan can be summarized…
9. Targeted Industries.I’ve distributed for you a breakdown of employment in major and targeted industries. These are CITY numbers, as opposed to the Beacon report that used county data.Professional Services – specifically management, scientific and technical consulting is growing at a very fast pace 31 and 21 percent since 2010.
10. Targeted Industries.Manufacturing – while not all segments have grown over the past 2 years, others have. We will continue to monitor this trend and adapt our recruitment efforts as needed.
11. Capture the spin-off activity of the future UCR school of medicine. Business Attraction Plan based around the future ancillary and compatibleuses of the School of Medicine. For example: Medical City in Lake Nona, FLOutpatient care growing at a remarkable pace. This seems to be the future of healthcare. I heard a statistic at the ULI conference recently that 1/3 of all hospitals will be closed over the next 20 years. This may not apply to Riverside because of the lack of current supply, but the future is in home healthcare and outpatient services. We need to be mindful of this trend as we move forward.Our plan can be summarized…
12. Our efforts can be summarized into 3 main categories… Marketing – telling our story and being a champion for the City. Business Attraction and Formation – recruiting new businesses and helping launch start-ups. Business Retention and Growth – Retaining our existing employers and helping them grow via local supply chain initiative and exporting.We have formulated an ambitious plan for economic development. We believe that while recovery is important, it is only our first goal. Our best days weren’t back in 2007- prior to the recession. Our best days are ahead of us. We believe this set of objectives and these initiatives will help us create a brighter economic future for the city of Riverside.