Whitehall Works

Economic development is definitely a team sport and a lot of economic development factors are not limited to jurisdictional boundaries.

Infrastructure, workforce and site selection are just a few of those areas that need cross-jurisdictional collaboration.

Something that the Columbus Ohio Region is known for is doing things the "Columbus Way." Which simply means working together to pool all our regional resources to help the growth and sustainability of our metro area.

We are lucky in the Columbus Region to have the https://columbusregion.com/mode/ (Mid-Ohio Development Exchange (MODE)), which is a membership based organization that includes municipalities, counties, public sector organizations, private-sector businesses and utility providers throughout the region.

One of the most important things that MODE does is providing a space for economic development professionals to continuously learn. Whether that is by providing educational funds for courses through the https://ohioeda.com/ (Ohio Economic Development Association (OEDA)), https://www.iedconline.org/ (International Economic Development Council (IEDC) )and others, or the regular programming on latest trends in economic development.

We welcome Nate Strum as our guest. He is Board President of MODE, and soon to be the Director of Economic Development for the City of Gahanna.

Plus, we welcome Niel Jurist for our regular segment, More With MORPC!

Join Jenna and Zach monthly as they have representatives from Franklin County (OH), as well as special guests from government and other organizations, to talk about different topics that are important throughout the Central Ohio region.

That's part of the reason we named this podcast Whitehall Works. https://www.whitehall-oh.us/ (The City of Whitehall (OH)) is working with a lot of different partners on transportation, affordable housing and workforce development. These are just some of the important topics that not only the City of Whitehall (OH) is working on, but everyone needs to work on.

www.whitehall-oh.us

www.whitehallmeansbusiness.com

In this episode, Zach and Jenna explore the link between expanding parks and recreation opportunities and economic development, with a focus on all the parks and recreation developments Whitehall has seen in the last decade. In fact, since 2017, the City of Whitehall has...

Seen a 230% spike in program participants

Received Nine Ohio Parks and Recreation Association (OPRA) Awards

Attracted 25k attendees to the Whitehall Food Truck and Fun Festival

Reinvested $9.3 million into the City's five parks and parks facilities, including the Whitehall YMCA Branch, the new Splash Pad at John Bishop Park and new playground equipment

Also in 2021, the City is excited to see our first new park open since the 1970s, located inside the new Norton Crossing development at the corner of East Broad Street and Hamilton Road

Coming soon, the City is also looking forward to the redevelopment of the Woodcliff Condominiums and golf dome site at the northeast intersection of East Broad Street and Hamilton Road, and its ties into the 80-acre Whitehall Community Park.

To learn more, Zach and Jenna welcome Shannon Sorrell, Director of Parks and Recreation for the City of Whitehall.

https://opraonline.org/2021/04/28/whitehall-community-park-ymca-wins-2020-opra-governors-award/?mc_cid=8181c1f262andmc_eid=748ebff6a4 (Congratulations go out to her and her team for winning the 11th Annual Governor’s Award for Parks and Recreation presented by Ohio Parks and Recreation Association.)

In order to truly serve the community, the Whitehall YMCA needed to emphasize programs like ESL classes, job readiness, and programming for Middle and early High School students in addition to fitness and wellness.

On November 22, 2019 the new, 25,600 square foot Whitehall Community Park YMCA opened its doors. Features include:

Teen Hub: Outfitted with study spaces, musical instruments, podcast studio, robotics lab, and gaming computers.

4,000 square foot indoor artificial-turf field

Teaching kitchen

Community Hub: Combines adult-centric furnishings adjacent to kids’ activities.

Plus, https://www.morpc.org/ (More With MORPC) and https://www.morpc.org/about-morpc/leadership/ (Niel Jurist). Neil goes into more detail about what MORPC is doing to encourage green space and parks in the Central Ohio region.

Join Jenna and Zach monthly as they have representatives from Franklin County (OH), as well as special guests from government and other organizations, to talk about different topics that are important throughout the Central Ohio region.

That's part of the reason we named this podcast Whitehall Works. https://www.whitehall-oh.us/ (The City of Whitehall (OH)) is working with a lot of different partners on transportation, affordable housing and workforce development. These are just some of the important topics that not only the City of Whitehall (OH) is working on, but everyone needs to work on.

www.whitehall-oh.us

www.whitehallmeansbusiness.com

We welcome Keith Myers, VP Planning, Architecture and Real Estate, Office of Administration and Planning to talk about RAPID 5 Project (Rivers and Parks Imagination Design).

The goal of RAPID 5 gets us back to the most basic definition of economic development, which is improving the economic well-being and quality of life for a community.

Economic Development professionals traditionally have focused on attraction of jobs to a community, but in recent years, our focus has had to shift, to also concentrate on quality of life or quality of place factors.

Not only is it important for our communities to grow in a smart and sustainable way to thrive, it is also important for businesses in regards to the attraction of employees to have desirable living amenities.

It is a big, collaborative puzzle to put the pieces together and have a truly transformational project for your community. It takes partnerships from the public and private sectors to develop, add new businesses, create housing options, have various modes of transportation, parks, restaurants, shops, etc.

Keith talks about some memorable projects he has worked on that have had a transformative impact in Central Ohio. He also gives a very detailed overview of the RAPID 5 project.

In short, this new large-scale project will be connecting all of Central Ohio’s major waterways and trails together into a cohesive system for residents and visitors. The “Rapid5” program is being spearheaded by local leadership at the Urban Land Institute of Columbus, MetroParks, MORPC, Franklin County and others.

The five major waterway systems that would be interconnected include Big Walnut, Alum, Olentangy, Scioto and Big Darby. A comprehensive system could include navigable waterways for long distance kayaking and cross-city biking and running trails that touch most major parks throughout all of the municipalities of Franklin County.

The RAPID5 can put park greenways and waterways within a mile and a half of every resident of Franklin County.

Join Jenna and Zach monthly as they have representatives from Franklin County (OH), as well as special guests from government and other organizations, to talk about different topics that are important throughout the Central Ohio region.

That's part of the reason we named this podcast Whitehall Works. https://www.whitehall-oh.us/ (The City of Whitehall (OH)) is working with a lot of different partners on transportation, affordable housing and workforce development. These are just some of the important topics that not only the City of Whitehall (OH) is working on, but everyone needs to work on.

www.whitehall-oh.us

www.whitehallmeansbusiness.com

Happy Anniversary to us! We are celebrating our first year anniversary of Whitehall Works. 2020 was a difficult year to keep new episodes coming to your podcast player. We are looking forward to this year, and a more normal schedule with great topics.

We've talked about transportation before (https://player.captivate.fm/episode/f079e926-13da-4c50-ac9f-c9ab270a8590 (episode 5)), and this time we have a different twist on the subject.

Transformational transportation and economic development.

There are number of reasons why we have an interest in transportation and the options it creates for our community.

To recap a bit on Episode 5, we covered more of the day to day transportation as an attraction, retention and expansion strategy for business.

And also how it is a workforce development and community development strategy. The strategy is to develop transportation alternatives and to rethink the ways communities develop their land-use and transportation patterns.

This can bring more jobs and talent to a community as well as for communities to be well-rounded and sustainable for the long term.

To dive into the future of transportation, we welcome Thea Walsh Ewing from https://www.morpc.org/ (MORPC) (Mid-Ohio Regional Planning Commission).

Thea gives us some background on MORPC and its role in transportation in the mid-Ohio region, and well as how MORPC is working toward preparing for growth. All from the lenses of adapting to the new normal from the pandemic.

We also get into more detail about the https://linkuscolumbus.com/ (LinkUS Mobility Initiative), https://gohiocommute.com/#/ (Gohio Commute), and hyperloop and rail options.

https://www.morpc.org/event/state-of-the-region/ (The State of the Region) is one of Central Ohio’s most significant events of the year. Being presented virtually in 2021, we will highlight community accomplishments and showcase upcoming plans for leading our region into the future. Wednesday, March 31, 11:30 a.m. – 1 p.m.

Plus, Mayor Kim Maggard invites you to join the City of Whitehall for our virtual https://www.whitehall-oh.us/457/State-of-the-City-Address (2021 State of the City Address) on Thursday, March 18 at 6:30 p.m. The event is free and open to any interested community member.

A link to the virtual event will be emailed out by March 15. The theme of the address, as well as our 2020 Annual Report, is Decade of Opportunity.

Join Jenna and Zach monthly as they have representatives from Franklin County (OH), as well as special guests from government and other organizations, to talk about different topics that are important throughout the Central Ohio region.

That's part of the reason we named this podcast Whitehall Works. https://www.whitehall-oh.us/ (The City of Whitehall (OH)) is working with a lot of different partners on transportation, affordable housing and workforce development. These are just some of the important topics that not only the City of Whitehall (OH) is working on, but everyone needs to work on.

www.whitehall-oh.us

www.whitehallmeansbusiness.com

When we say financing, there are a lot of different direction to go.

As Economic Development professionals, there are various ways that we may have a hand in financing, depending on the type of organization you are.

From the local government perspective, our main focus is helping our businesses with finding resources to bridge financing gaps or assist in ventures where social and economic benefits outweigh the risk of financing.

In this episode, we focus on how we assist businesses with finding resources to bridge their financing gaps.

Depending if you are a local government or non-profit economic development organization, you may offer programs assisting businesses in their financing gaps in a number of ways.

When it comes to local financing assistance, it's typically used in conjunction with private sector funding that has been secured by the company independently.

Private sector lending institutions provide debt financing and equity financing.

We cover the number of reasons businesses need financing. It's not limited to just starting a business.

There are a number of resources on financing through local, state, and federal programs.

The City of Whitehall is working on financing. One specific example is the newly developed http://whitehallmeansbusiness.com/covid_19/reboot-whitehall/#:~:text=The%20City%20of%20Whitehall%20has,from%20the%20COVID%2D19%20pandemic. (Reboot Whitehall Program).

Our guest, Kevin Goehring is our guest on this episode. He is a https://osdc.net/about/staff/ (loan officer) at the https://osdc.net/ (Ohio Statewide Development Corporation), a local partner that helps small businesses fill that financial gap.

The OSDC's mission is "to promote business investment and job creation by providing SBA 504 and Ohio 166 loans to small businesses for buildings and equipment. Sometimes that means lending directly to businesses, other times it means partnering with their existing lender. But the end result is the same: we help small businesses across Ohio secure the financing they need to grow."

We cover what is the SBA, when might an SBA loan be a good fit for a business, basic eligibilities, and much more.

Join Jenna and Zach monthly as they have representatives from Franklin County (OH), as well as special guests from government and other organizations, to talk about different topics that are important throughout the Central Ohio region.

That's part of the reason we named this podcast Whitehall Works. https://www.whitehall-oh.us/ (The City of Whitehall (OH)) is working with a lot of different partners on transportation, affordable housing and workforce development. These are just some of the important topics that not only the City of Whitehall (OH) is working on, but everyone needs to work on.

www.whitehall-oh.us

www.whitehallmeansbusiness.com

The Ohio Economic Development Association, like many other organizations at this time during COVID-19, held their annual summit virtually.

And so we recorded our podcast audio while we held our video session via Zoom during the 2020 Virtual https://ohioeda.com/ (OEDA) Annual Summit.

The theme for this year's summit was Moving The Needle. We also included our session overview https://ohioeda.com/wp-content/uploads/2020/08/Whitehall-Works-Moving_the_Needle_Final.pdf (with a link here), with our focus being on The Broad And Hamilton Redevelopment Zone.

To illustrate how Whitehall has come to the point of developing a key intersection in Central Ohio, there have been many pieces to this puzzle, or many moves of the Rubik’s cube, if you will, to change the face and perception of our community.

In this episode, we run through a few of the key areas where the City is working on moving the needle.

Housing

At the beginning of September, the Mid-Ohio Regional Planning Commission released the results of their Regional Housing Study, which clearly defines the core housing issues the Central Ohio region is facing as we are expect over 700,000 new residents between now and 2050.

The study calculates that 11,000 new residential units will need to be developed annually to keep up with the new demand.

Business

Just for reference, we are a City of about 19,000 residents with 650 Businesses and 33,000 jobs

Since 2011, the City has grown income tax revenue $6.5 million annually

More than 114 Million economic investments per square mile invested since 2010

More than $228 million of taxable income, payroll, and business profit have been added since January 2012

2,300 jobs added since January 2012

From a business retention and attraction standpoint, bringing in new business has given us more leverage for new development to occur.

Safety

In 2017, the Division of Police implemented its first three-year Safer Whitehall Strategic Plan and is in the process of adopting the 2021-2023 Strategic Plan.

The 2017-2020 Strategic Plan set in motion the new "A Safer Whitehall Initiative". During the 3-year period, the City has had a:

27% Drop in violent crime

38% Drop in robberies

46% Drop in burglaries

Recreation

2017 was a big year of implementing new strategies at the City! Since 2017 we have seen a:

230% spike in program participants

7 Ohio Parks and Recreation Association Awards

Tying It Together

Four components have put us in a position to move the needle for the next decade, and we cover these in detail in this episode.

Join Jenna and Zach monthly as they have representatives from Franklin County (OH), as well as special guests from government and other organizations, to talk about different topics that are important throughout the Central Ohio region.

That's part of the reason we named this podcast Whitehall Works. https://www.whitehall-oh.us/ (The City of Whitehall (OH)) is working with a lot of different partners on transportation, affordable housing and workforce development. These are just some of the important topics that not only the City of Whitehall (OH) is working on, but everyone needs to work on.

www.whitehall-oh.us

www.whitehallmeansbusiness.com

There are a number reasons why transportation offers so many options for a community.

One reason is for attracting, retaining and expansion of businesses.

It is an important workforce development strategy. Developing transportation alternatives and rethinking the ways communities develop their land-use and transportation patterns can bring more jobs and talent to a community.

Real estate development is another reason. We cover what is meant by "Smart Growth" in this episode.

Neighborhood Economic Development is another piece of the puzzle. Quality of life factors and the development of dynamic neighborhoods has become increasingly important to businesses since this is what is important to employees.

The health of a region and city is based on perceived strength of neighborhoods that make up a community.

Partnership is key in economic development. Some key organizations we work with are our regional planning organization, https://www.morpc.org/ (MORPC), Mid-Ohio Regional Planning Commission. We also work closely with https://www.cota.com/ (COTA), Central Ohio Transit Authority.

Whitehall is working on transportation...

by ensuring our developments have integrated transit

by being involved with the MORPC study creating bus rapid transit corridors in the Columbus region, specifically the development of East Broad Street

We welcome https://www.linkedin.com/in/michaelloges (Michael Loges from COTA) to the podcast. He talks more about the LinkUS Mobility Corridors Initiative, including the East-West RFQ.

Michael also covers...

Why is bus rapid transit so important for a city/region like Columbus?

How has COTA made adjustments during the COVID-19 pandemic?

What other contactless transit investments has COTA made recently?

How as COTA/Plus ride sharing program been accepted?

How does affordable transit play into the quality of life for a community?

As always, we "Kick It To The County" with our guest https://www.linkedin.com/in/talexberes/ (Alex Beres), Assistant Director at Franklin County (OH) Economic Development and Planning.

Join Jenna and Zach monthly as they have representatives from Franklin County (OH), as well as special guests from government and other organizations, to talk about different topics that are important throughout the Central Ohio region.

That's part of the reason we named this podcast Whitehall Works. https://www.whitehall-oh.us/ (The City of Whitehall (OH)) is working with a lot of different partners on transportation, affordable housing and workforce development. These are just some of the important topics that not only the City of Whitehall (OH) is working on, but everyone needs to work on.

https://www.whitehall-oh.us/

We talk about what is currently, and arguably, the hottest topic in economic development: workforce development.

Economic development and workforce development are two different professions with unique focuses. Economic development has a very collaborative focus, and is more broad. Workforce development focuses on education and transferable skills of the employee at an individual level.

But while different, economic and workforce development share a common goal, which is to strengthen the local talent pool of workers to match the needs of local and regional employers.

In this episode, we cover some interesting stats about the workforce in Whitehall, and our strategies, and welcome https://www.linkedin.com/in/matt-backiewicz-a71ba28/ (Matt Backiewicz), Vice President of Sales and Business Development at https://www.dawsoncareers.com/ (Dawson Careers) as our guest. Matt covers a lot of ground, including:

Who is Dawson Careers

The need to continuously prepare the workforce for retraining

Trends in the workforce, despite COVID-19

What the Dawson Community Workforce Programs entail

As always, we "Kick It To The County" with our guest https://www.linkedin.com/in/talexberes/ (Alex Beres), Assistant Director at Franklin County (OH) Economic Development and Planning.

Alex talks about a couple of Franklin County initiatives including:

https://www.omjcfc.org/franklin-county-skill-boost (Franklin County Skill Boost): The Franklin County Skill Boost is aimed at assisting individuals recently affected by employment shutdown due to the Corona Crisis and are experiencing financial challenges. Learn more by calling 614-559-4792.

https://jfs.franklincountyohio.gov/worktowardatrade (Building Futures): A 12-week "pre-apprenticeship" program provides you with the skills and trade-specific instruction to enter an apprenticeship. Learn more by calling 614-232-5496.

Join Jenna and Zach monthly as they have representatives from Franklin County (OH), as well as special guests from government and other organizations, to talk about different topics that are important throughout the Central Ohio region.

That's part of the reason we named this podcast Whitehall Works. https://www.whitehall-oh.us/ (The City of Whitehall (OH)) is working with a lot of different partners on transportation, affordable housing and workforce development. These are just some of the important topics that not only the City of Whitehall (OH) is working on, but everyone needs to work on.

https://www.whitehall-oh.us/

The City of Whitehall views affordable housing not only as a moral issue, but certainly as an economic development issue. And that's why we wanted to dedicate an episode talking about this topic.

As economic development professionals, people see us as really focusing on the business side. But it is also important for us to have that sustainable community and the diversification of our housing stock.

As public sector employees and as economic development professionals, we hear the term affordable housing a lot. But, it can also be called low income housing or workforce housing.

If a family pays more than 30 percent of their income on housing, it's considered a cost burden on that household. That's according to the US Housing and Urban Development Department.

Depending on a family's income levels, these high housing cost options can cause some problems for residents. They have to make hard choices between paying their rent or mortgage. Versus having to pay for other basic needs, like food, childcare or health care.

We talk to https://www.homeportohio.org/ (Leah Evans from Homeport) in this episode. Homeport is committed to closing the housing gap by at least 250 individuals per year through profitable Low-Income Housing Tax Credit development.

We discuss the idea that we aren't building fast enough. And that creates additional problems that, as a region, we have to really step up and figure out. We need to work on our partnerships, and work on our collaboration to really tackle these kind of issues.

Over the last decade or so, Whitehall has actively participated in what now is the creation of over 300 affordable or workforce housing units, supporting low income housing tax credits to actually working on land acquisition for projects.

Our administration's policy, which we set in 2019, is that 20 percent of all future housing developments will be affordable or workforce housing. We coupled that with our Whitehall Works Development Blueprint plan that was adopted in 2019.

And so combining those two things, both our overall comprehensive plan on how to increase density and mixed use, but also do it in a way that ensured we were leaving no one behind. And we're obviously pleased that our city council viewed it as importantly as we did.

As always, we "Kick It To The County" with our guest Alex Beres, Assistant Director at Franklin County (OH) Economic Development and Planning.

Alex confirms that affordable housing is Franklin County's absolute number one built environment priority, meaning things in development that they can affect in place and in the built environment.

They concentrate on efforts of economic development incentives and partnership with the https://columbusfinance.org/ (Columbus Franklin County Finance Authority), the https://cocic.org/ (COCIC Franklin County Land Bank), the Central Ohio Community Land Trust, and all these other low income housing tax credit developers in a grand strategy partnership. This is led by the county commissioners efforts, both through the poverty blueprint.

One of the four pillars of the Franklin County Commissioners' poverty blueprint was affordable housing. And the top priority in their economic development strategic plan from 2019 was affordable housing.

For our upcoming podcast next month. We will have a discussion on the creation of live, work and play neighborhoods.

Join Jenna and Zach monthly as they have representatives from Franklin County (OH), as well as special guests from government and other organizations, to talk about different topics that are important throughout the Central Ohio region.

That's part of the reason we named this podcast Whitehall Works. https://www.whitehall-oh.us/ (The City of Whitehall (OH)) is working with a lot of different partners on transportation, affordable housing and workforce development. These are just some of the important topics that not only the City of Whitehall (OH) is working on, but everyone needs to work on....

In this episode we talk about getting back to business here in Whitehall, OH, amidst the COVID-19 outbreak, and what we are concentrating on at the City.

The coronavirus has been a different type of natural disaster than a weather related natural disaster. As economic development professionals, we would normally follow steps of disaster preparedness by having mitigation discussions, putting emergency preparedness plans in place, and implementing a recovery plan and respond.

This is different because it's not like a tornado that does the damage and then it's over for us to fix. We are still living the coronavirus and figuring out the recovery and response while still having to be cautious.

We have had to adjust how we do work in general. More phone calls and Zoom meetings.

In the state of Ohio, a City is funded by income tax. With many jobs having the ability to be remote, we have more people working from home. This has had a major impact on our budgets and many programs and events we were going to have in 2020.

Our state law makers are actually working on legislation on whether income tax will be collected by where the home office is, or if it will be based on where people work.

We have great news about the Air South Commerce and Tech Park. https://www.jobsohio.com/news/posts/cerelia-ohios-food-industry/?fbclid=IwAR3DGHBKs-PKiGp54XqgZ_2Esbppp_I1rqLvvKdSIgB48FbQewNRlP1rFA0 (France-Based Cérélia Will Grow Within Ohio’s Strong Food Industry.) The European leader in the production of ready-made doughs and baked goods will invest more than $29 million in its expansion. This company will bring 120 jobs to Whitehall.

And as always, we "Kick It To The County" with our guest Alex Beres, Assistant Director at Franklin County (OH) Economic Development and Planning. He covers the Franklin County (OH) efforts and programs that are helping employees get manufacturing and tech jobs.

Join Jenna and Zach monthly as they have representatives from Franklin County (OH), as well as special guests from government and other organizations, to talk about different topics that are important throughout the Central Ohio region.

That's part of the reason we named this podcast Whitehall Works. https://www.whitehall-oh.us/ (The City of Whitehall (OH)) is working with a lot of different partners on transportation, affordable housing and workforce development. These are just some of the important topics that not only the City of Whitehall (OH) is working on, but everyone needs to work on.

https://www.whitehall-oh.us/