New Hamburg Board of Trade ‘To Partner With’

The Township of Wilmot The NHBOT Evening Presentation

Early planning ‘ideas exchanged’ between Ross of Sanford Holshouser Economic Development Consulting LLC, The New

Hamburg Board of Trade and the Township of Wilmot. Wednesday, February 25th, 2015

A discussion tool and conversation

• Tonight we intended to introduce the New Hamburg Board of Trade (NHBoT) members of meetings where the Board of Trade Executive expressed their willingness to bring together some significant talent, expertise and creative thinking. The goal of several recent meetings between the Township of Wilmot (Twp), the New Hamburg Board of Trade (NH BoT) and Ross have focused on the planned Employment Lands including the Historic Downtown New Hamburg commercial core as they relate to business sustainability and growth within the Twp. Ross had read the New Hamburg Independent where Steve Wagler was quoted as wanting the NHBoT to be a part of the efforts involving these same lands. Ross thanks the NHBoT for taking a lead position here.

Together, we understand GRCA and the power of the Nith River and have ‘historically harnessed’ our community resources

Respecting the many churches and their environs, celebrating their past and current uniqueness’s

We celebrate our Agriculture Experts Here Wilbur Shantz sees his employee being inducted into the Canadian Agricultural Hall of Fame in 2014

Wilbur, a current resident in Nithview started as an A.I. technician here in Wilmot

We help the existing businesses, where needed, to help them grow inside the Township The Cressman Family continues to invest heavily into New Hamburg and our Township

Our community continues to collectively support and reinforce the rich history and ongoing efforts of economic development (Marie Voisin’s project)

Our families continue to celebrate their ‘Entrepreneurial Heritage’ (Hallman’s Mill) New Dundee

The township has a long history in arts, music and community theatre Most recently even feature length films (Farm North of Baden) All three filmmakers for The Volunteer movie came from Wilmot Twp

We build and understand the value of our water under the ground’s surface of clay, gravel, sand and we love silt

We’ve had an existing motel in Wilmot that has worked for us a long time indicating it meets a market demand

We support harmonious ‘infill’ development in New Hamburg and within the Twp towns

We’ll be sure to ‘connect the dots’ on new and existing trails And transportation corridors

We make plans for the future in Wilmot

Employment

Lands

History of Achievement in ‘working together’ before

Ross Steckley when Pres of Tacoma Steckley

• Ross started his consulting business in New Hamburg in 1989 (Scott’s Home Centre)

• Was working with Jim Murray as President of New Hamburg - Board of Trade and also Dave Scherer who loved birds and wanted North America’s Largest Waterwheel celebrating our rich/productive heritage. My consultant selected than was Landscape Architect Any Kalm.

Board of Trade when working with Jim Murray and the “Waterwheel”

• Murray family retained Ross under Architectural Accord and Tacoma Steckley to help plan, design and build the Waterwheel. Then also had him design and develop a flood way ‘farmland’ which currently hosts Sobey’s and Mennonite Savings and Credit Union all in the flood plain. We were able to meet the Region and GRCA’s Concerns allowing the development to move ahead.

Ideas and visions first have to be clearly portrayed to the masses and

understood by many

From the Dam Sketch to the big day

From sketches to reality it took a selected team, each contributing special skills working together.

An engineering nightmare with only 10 feet of head, high winds could turn it backwards ?

And on the big day – It works!

Ross with son Jonathan setting Armour Stone onto crossing walkway

Strengthen Partnerships

Township of Wilmot • Desire ‘Continued growth, Stability and

Credibility’ and want a strong tax base (local jobs that enable many to live, work, play with all investing into our community)

• Has a Mayor, Council and a CAO wanting to support economic development efforts

• Build on the rich history of the partners having worked together successfully before

• Strengthen the Strategic Plan currently in place by bringing in more resources and expertise in economic development

• Encourage, welcome and support planned development

• Support to Partners (Financial and Admin) • Staff may need some JV training • We have a refreshing four (4) years to

continue to work hard and smart for our political and business community

New Hamburg Board of Trade • Offer ‘Vision and Energy’ and some Money • Support Wilmot Township by helping lead

the creation of the vision and development of the Employment Lands and the (Historic) Commercial Core of New Hamburg into 2050

• Concerned that if we do not have ‘product- ready’ property available we will lose or continue to lose businesses to neighbouring townships or regions

• Seeks and finds potential ‘help’ to Achieve and Expand Strategic Plan Objectives by working inside arrangements where they achieved challenging goals with before.

• Desire to bring in as strong allies, Baden Board of Trade, (New Dundee - assist with Brownfield Site) and the many Transport & Logistics Groups as one collective voice

• Be or create the entity assisting the Twp and the NHBofT in meeting these goals in a timely fashion

USA and Back

Ross takes Tacoma Steckley to North Carolina, USA - Ontario’s largest trading partner

Ross moves family to USA

Weldon NC, USA

In 1992 Ross Initially entered the USA under an L1–B Visa as an Expansion of Tacoma Steckley under the North American Free Trade Agreement NAFTA

Later in 2000 he was asked to be an Economic Developer and was

accepted into the USA with Permanent Resident Green Cards under the Classification:

‘Economic Development’

International Economic Development

SEUS-CP Alliance Meets, May 4 to 6, 2014

Sanford Holshouser Economic Development Consulting, is willing to look at this effort and would love to help

Ernie Rocky Mike Ross

Some existing “structures” & “organizations” may need some ‘extra’ reinforcing and possibly new ones created

The Board of Trade’s Space is very valuable and there is much opportunity waiting to bloom

Remember me? Cortez What’s next with Huron Street?

We can get a New Hotel as we work together on the Employment Lands

Support and grow our Agriculture and Light Industry as Advance Manufacturing emerges

Agricultural Interests Facilities in the employment lands planned community (these are in Guelph)

1

2 3

We can make sure that new Hotel comes to Wilmot to support agriculture, sports, arts and commerce while we,

Keep and support those businesses here in the Township as they grow…… Strongly bolster the Agricultural Business Community within the Township Provide a ‘vision’ for the Employment Lands and Downtown (long term) Work together with the help of Wilmot citizens, business leaders and all Twp staff to better our Strategic Plan in the areas of economic development and tourism. ……………….making us find creative ways as to how we move forward from here?” Further capitalize on the tourism corridor-link in building a stronger tourism links between Elmira and Stratford to our collective benefit Create ‘Bill’s Shop’ again for early companies to begin work here in Wilmot Twp similar to where and how, Don Pestell’s, D&S Trucking (Challenger Motor Freight), and later Expressway Motors began. Anyone game for a spec-building?

We can get LEED Gold, offices like Roxul, Milton, Ontario because we have a very strong workforce in our area and could easily recruit Head Offices into Wilmot

Develop an initial action plan describing the businesses we desire to grow and locate in our community

And when we develop we will always treat our past with dignity while respecting our waterways and connecting trails and corridors

Together we will continue keeping a financially strong Twp while exploring the options available to us

Understanding Cash Flow and the Costs

Explore the Investment Options

We have started to review a ‘draft letter of intent’ between SHEDC and NHBoT establishing the ‘scope and

players’ and better understanding what the deliverables might be and who this effort will benefit

the NHBoT membership. The players will be?

Board of Trade (s?) and Township of Wilmot together with, Willing and Dynamic local Business and Community Leaders (NH BoT) An Educational Institution that wants to join-in (Conestoga, UofW?) Sanford Holshouser Economic Development Consulting LLC (SHEDC - Ross) Strong Regional Partner of Architects and Engineers (Walter Fedy) Strong International Tourism Group (SHEDC, NH BoT and another player-dci ?)

The current Wilmot Strategic Plan (glad we have one) would be enhanced and

strengthened with a strong focus on Design, Product-Development and Marketing of our Employment Lands • Evaluate where we are now and

identify the areas of the Strategic Plan’s weaknesses and where we need some help to achieve the goals along with (SHEDC and NH BoT)

• Create the ultimate Vision and design and evaluate options (SHEDC and Walter Fedy)

• Secure funding partners and timeline for development

• Develop “Product” and a certified site or even a shell building ready for a ‘targeted company’

• Market the “ ________ “

Create the Vision for Downtown

• Families, like the Murray’s, Voisin’s and Zehr’s are already helping us

• Let’s delineate, evaluate and collaborate to show the citizens of Wilmot and the Region “the to-be-made conceptual plan”

• Establish Historic ‘Zones’ and flexible-controls ensuring proper infill and redevelopment

• Review and approve incentives for entrepreneurs and new ideas generators to take advantage of when they add value to our community (the Huron St. Space?)

• Explore the options, find the players

A Proposed Strong Collaboration

Most Important “ideas and support” we currently seem to share here with Wilmot Leaders and Administrators

What we desire • To continue working in concert

with NH BofT in defeating the word “Wilnot” by investing in staff training and receiving ‘selected’ third party help in understanding customer service

• Collaborative support continued with employment lands development and infrastructure ‘Product’ ready for the Market

• Building vibrant downtown (s)

• Create desire to ‘come and stay’

What the Twp desires • To build a cohesive and stronger

community while adding tax base to support same (outside of housing)

• Implement the Strategic Plan and inject proven methods to have engagement embraced by the business community

• Establish tax base that employs residents who live here

• Expanded Tourism and the expansion of new and existing businesses as they grow

Sanford Holshouser Economic Development Consulting LLC, New Hamburg BofT and Ross have a strong history

of turning ‘Visions into Reality’ by working together

Always working to keep a Thriving, Vibrant and Attractive Downtown

Before Vacant After with Retail

Design, clarify, and then promote and market the Employment Lands goal(s) and vision

Proposed Go-Train Site

50 minutes to Toronto Air Port Or less than two hours to USA

Potential Ontario Certified Site

Future Interchange

End

Who knows all what the future could hold for our local economy?

Bringing you the “Leading EDge”

Ernest C. Pearson Our Founding Partner Ernie is an attorney with Nexsen Pruet and is a founding partner of Sanford

Holshouser Economic Development Consulting. He has been involved in

economic development matters at the state, regional and local levels since 1989.

From 1989 to 1993, Ernie served as Assistant Secretary of Economic

Development for the North Carolina Department of Commerce. His work in a

broad range of legal disciplines include Corporate, Real Estate, Employment and

Labor Law, Environmental, Litigation, and Regulatory Matters, coupled with his

focused experience in economic development matters, allows him to understand

and coordinate all issues connected with a company’s siting of a new or expanded

facility.

Ernie has been recognized by Southern Business & Development Magazine as

one of the top economic development attorneys in the 18 southern states. In 2013,

he is one of only 28 nationally, listed in Best Lawyers in America® f o r

Economic Development, and one of only 33 in 2014.

Ross Steckley Canadian Associate

Ross Steckley, became an associate with Sanford Holshouser Economic Development Consulting in 2008. He has been involved with industrial and commercial development for over 35 years in both Canada and the United States. Ross was co-founder of an engineering firm, Tacoma Steckley (which practices today as Tacoma Engineers) in Guelph and while with the company designed and constructed more than a million square feet of industrial and commercial space.

In an expansion of the company, Ross moved his family to North Carolina in 1992 to provide consulting services and redevelopment planning to the public and private sectors in eastern N.C. In 1996 he was hired as the Economic Developer for Washington County, and in 2002 was re-admitted into the U.S. as a permanent resident under the status of economic development. In 2006 he was asked to return to Canada to work on the remediation and planning of an urban, multi-use property and a Brownfield site for an established non-profit.

In 2008 he started consulting with T Musselman Excavating and became President in 2013. Over three years he also handled the remediation and retrofit of a commercial facility on Foundry Road in Baden for Bachert-Duff. Ross will, over time, lessen his involvement with Musselmans and add time and energy to his consulting work as he grows business for SHEDC in Canada and Central America. He desires to help grow his home community. Ross applies his creativity in his approach to business start-ups and economic development.

He understands the need for quality jobs and investment in small rural communities having practiced economic development in that setting. He has firsthand knowledge of the challenges of starting or expanding businesses in both the USA and Canada. For the NHBoT – Wilmot economic development efforts he is The Local SHEDC Guy.

The SHEDC Team in Action in Raleigh, NC In January 2015

Rocky Lane Jr Rocky Lane

Mike Geouge

Bob Goforth

David Denny

Bob Leak Special Guest

Ernie Pearson

Ross taking a ‘Blackberry Passport’ Photo

Together we will continue to celebrate new enterprise and grow existing local businesses - members of the New Hamburg Board of Trade

% Business Climate

55 Dialogue with industry peers

44 Articles in newspapers and magazine

37 Business travel

31 Meetings with economic development groups

24 Rankings/surveys

22 Online sources

21 Word of mouth

13 Personal travel

12 Other

9 TV and radio newscasts/shows

4 Advertising

2 Direct mail

2 Social media

How can an economic development organization best promote a favorable reputation among executive decision makers? In order to begin to answer this question, we must ask another: What sources of information do executive decision makers look to in developing perceptions of a location’s business climate?

Info taken from a recent ‘dci’ report

Let us suggest…. that together we build upon our past-successful ventures by working together in the guidance of Wilmot’s Employment Lands by

a) Creating a collective vision with SHEDC (Ross) guiding and facilitating a small local forum

of stakeholders and local government, gathering ideas and presenting findings to the NHBoT

b) Completing an Existing Business and Industry Preliminary Assessment and also reporting the findings to NHBoT

Sanford Holshouser Economic Development Consulting LLC (SHEDC) strongly believes with the help

of many as suggested here, we can together further ‘develop product’ to help grow and locate expanding businesses here at the Wilmot Employment Lands.

Closing Statement:

The SHEDC call ‘Attempt’

Call 1-760-569-0800

Enter Passcode #