Good morning, I'm Marty Rivers and today is Wednesday,
September 12th and we're going
to start the Economic Development Board Partnership Meeting
.
It's 1102 and we will start.
First I want to introduce a couple of our new board members
.
We have Tony Clark with Independent Bank and Chris Davis
with Peterbilt.
Do you guys want to take a second to introduce yourself?
Yeah, my name is Tony Clark.
As Marty said, with Independent Bank we've lived in Denton
since 1993 and very honored
to be associated with this group of men and women.
Look forward to serving with you guys and excited about the
role here.
Thank you.
Yeah, I'm Chris Davis with Peterbilt Motors.
I've been with the company 20 years.
I've been relocated to Denton on three separate occasions.
On this occasion I've been four years now.
Feel really good about the city of Denton.
We've been here, Peterbilt's been here 38 years, so we
continue to be here a lot longer.
But again, proud to be a member of this board and looking
forward to the work.
Thank you.
We're excited to have you both on there.
So thank you.
All right, our first agenda item is EDP 18-048 to receive a
report, hold discussion, and
select a recipient for recognition at the 2018 Business
Awards Breakfast.
Good morning.
Is this on?
I have a long voice anyway.
At our last monthly meeting, this award recognition was
discussed with the current board, but
we have new members, so if you don't mind, I'll just
briefly reiterate that since 2008,
the Economic Development Partnership Board has been
recognizing a Denton business for
its contributions to the economic growth and prosperity of
the Denton community and with
a focus on their public-private partnership investment in
the city of Denton.
And toward that end, you'll see in your packet the criteria
against which the board wished
to have information provided so that they could review it
and determine a selection
premised on the company's activity in Denton against those
criteria.
And at the last meeting, you were provided WNCO, Target,
and ACMEBrick as large employers
that you might want to consider, and TRCA, which is
Technology Resource Center of America,
as a small business.
In the interim, Councilmember Briggs suggested embassy su
ites and convention center.
We've not previously considered a company that hasn't been
fully open for a year, but
there's no reason we can't.
We just hadn't.
So that information as it stands today is also provided for
embassy suites.
I think it was also discussed at the time last month that
it's very difficult to take
a look at smaller businesses.
Originally, those had not been considered when this award
was fought about that many
years ago, but it's something that was expressed that there
was an interest to maybe develop
criteria for small business so that there might be two
awards next year.
But we still have TRCA in here that is a smaller business.
They were considered for consideration this year as well.
Just to reiterate, WNCO opened an 830,000 square foot
distribution facility in 2017
serving stores in Texas and Oklahoma.
I did want to mention that they are partnered with Work
force Solutions in providing specialized
training to employment to individuals with disabilities.
And they've actually had some of those individuals be able
to emancipate themselves, purchase
cars and start living on their own due to those jobs.
They also participate in a work program that was founded or
begun in San Antonio called
Quest that is very similar to the layered workforce
development approach that is available
here in Denton through our workforce training partners.
And so they're and they're also involved in those efforts,
but that's what Quest is.
It's working toward a livable wage, developing the skill
sets people need to become independent
and able to contribute in their community.
WNCO is a United Way member.
They are a partner in the North Texas Food Bank, and they
do fundraisers for any state
accredited school that asks them.
They'll participate in that.
I believe I mentioned last time that there are shelfers and
packers at WNCO that started
with the company that are now millionaires when they retire
because WNCO is an employee
owned company and each employee working a part time to full
time schedule is given $5,000
worth of stock.
So the company's done very well and the employees have done
well.
Forbes has recognized them as one of their best private
companies, I believe number 56.
They're also recognized for successful growth and I, you
know, $112 million worth of valuation
and 150 employees.
As you come across this grid, you see also that Target,
this was a landmark facility
for them.
First robotics distribution facility and their CEOs and
others came from many states to take
a look at how this one operated because they have since
then replicated it for distribution
facilities in other states.
They also are a chamber member.
They partnered with University of North Texas and actually
hired the technology students
from that program to run their robotics distribution
equipment that is, I think was the largest
product that German company had made when they installed it
.
They're a United Way member.
The first year they were open, they did eight times their
campaign goal.
They are in served debt and board leadership or were
initially.
North Texas Food Bank, our daily bread.
As it goes on, Wilson Elementary School, they provide
grants to schools in every community
that Target has stores in.
Target still was the first to give 5% of their before, I'm
sorry, 3% of their before tax
income to education and to communities.
And so they do that still.
The volunteers over a million hours annually.
So being a part of the community in which they live is a
big deal to them.
They have eight or nine playgrounds now in North Texas that
are put in areas where children
don't have any place to play.
And that is also in partnership with a company called Kabo
om to provide that sort of thing.
So dedicated corporate wide, not just in Denton.
Again number 10, fast growing most innovative companies in
2013.
Among the first to fully implement the automated picking as
mentioned.
$100 million evaluation this year and still at 150
employees.
Acme Brick is an icon.
Began its Denton operations many, many years ago.
And it's renowned worldwide.
It's a chamber member.
They have contributed not in Denton to education but to UT
Arlington where they have a brick
masonry certification program that is exacted in Grand Pra
irie and in their Houston facilities.
Yes.
Back on target.
Okay, sorry.
Under the environmental stewardship that was blank but it
was my understanding that last
just maybe several months ago that we approved a large
solar installation for their building.
Okay, I was I'm not aware of that.
I thought that was Tetra Pak.
Well, no, the Tetra Pak is the solar array.
This was panels on their building.
Okay.
Because they applied for solar panels.
Okay, and I was unaware of that.
So thank you.
Okay, please make note.
Acme Brick, largest brick producer in the United States.
Their innovation comes from the sorts of tiles and coatings
and other building products that
evidently they have a leading edge on those sorts of things
within the construction and
the building community.
They did donate bricks that were put into a public art
sculpture that ended up in the
automotive museum in Michigan and evidently have donated
bricks to several other installations.
By the way, the public art installations that are here that
are brick from Denton artist
Carol Collins that are over at the police department and
are also Acme Brick installations.
31.6 million valuation this year and 200 employees.
So on those public artists that donated brick or just
happens to be Acme Brick?
It's not donated.
It happens to be Acme.
But I haven't talked to the artist to know whether they've
discounted brick for them.
It's specially manufactured to her specifications.
So they I mean, it is kind of a consideration because it's
small batches of special product
for her.
I know they donated brick for to help rehab the high school
baseball stadium.
34 years ago, so I think there's probably some more smaller
in things they've been doing.
Okay.
Any questions on Acme?
Any more comments?
Okay.
Embassy Suites fully opened in January of this year.
They are a chamber member.
They're engaged in the Denton ISD culinary arts project.
I know that they don't have interns happening yet, but they
are engaged with that program
with Denton ISD.
And I know they've toured that facility and that there are
still discussions happening
between our current technology and folks and them as well.
And that they are also, of course, looking to have UNT
graduates in their hospitality
management program and are engaged with UNT.
For community relations and support, their HR director has
just been nominated to the
board for our daily bread.
They are engaged in serve Denton.
I believe they hosted their gala for serve Denton and they
are the August of 2018 business
partner of the month for serve Denton.
They're United Way members.
I believe they also hosted or helped to host an event for
United Way.
Their homeless initiatives and their United Way serve Dent
on.
All those are opportunities that are provided to their
employees to be engaged in as community
service projects.
For Embassy Suites, they encourage their employees to also
be involved in their community.
And in fact, one of the events that the employees did do
was they had a car wash and they collected
money that they provided to Cumberland Children's Home to
pay for back to school supply products.
For innovation, if they are approved, they would be the
first Embassy Suites to achieve
LEED Gold certification.
The LEED certification is definitely on the future end and
kind of leading edge for hotels.
This is -- there's a growing desire of people staying in
accommodations to have them be
environmentally sustainable.
And so now Denton has that type of facility that meets
those needs.
Again, and I believe Councilmember Briggs, you mentioned a
couple of other initiatives
that Embassy Suites had as well.
They have solar -- I'm sorry -- they have charging
facilities for electric automobiles
so they can charge for free.
And for their environmental sustainability, if they've got
1,000 -- well, I've skipped
ahead.
I'm sorry.
Let me go back.
On the successful business practices, 70,000 square feet of
convention space has allowed
the City or the Convention and Visitors Bureau to
successfully bid on a number of different
conventions.
Probably 90% of the conventions that they have booked at
Embassy Suites could not have
been booked were it not at a facility with that capacity.
It expanded the City's ability to look at multi-day
conventions that were previously
100 or fewer people now to be able to accommodate 500
people with the increased 318 rooms plus
the additional suites and the 70,000 square feet of
conference space.
So it's vastly supported the stature of Denton's ability to
compete in that market as a place
for people to come and visit and have conventions.
For innovation, again, their leading edge, I would have to
say their environmental innovations.
They have green events.
You can have a green wedding with recycled products
provided.
Again, they have -- if you're up on the top floor, they
have 1,000 solar panels to the
side.
Actually, I thought it was more than that.
I thought it was a few more than that, but it's just about
a field of solar panels.
And there is a recycling focus.
They even look at things like wood chipping, the pallets
that things were delivered on
and recycling it into landscaping cover at their site.
So they're always looking for ways to engage to be
environmental stewards in the community.
Currently they're valued at $74.5 million in total
valuation.
However, I can't give you a definite amount there.
That amount is under AARB review and presently they have
170 employees.
And then for small to medium-sized employers, TRCA is a
veteran-owned company that was founded
here in 1991.
Originally, they were rehabbing used telephone systems out
of hospitals and schools.
And then they became folks that were doing data system
implementation.
They do or monitor the point of sale systems for very large
companies for actually O'Reilly's,
for PF Chang's, Dick's Sporting Goods, Fort Knox, some
Homeland Security, a hospital.
There's a wide gamut of what they do and they are one of
the largest folks that are doing
the logistics, cabling, and carrier and technology integr
ators in the United States.
They're located on Virginia Circle that if you are taking
the overpass on 380, you may
not see them because they are, the facility is down by the
railroad tracks.
A lot of folks say, "Wow, where's that company?"
But they are here and they are additionally, again, Chamber
members.
The company has a valuation of $3.4 million and but they do
have approximately $53 million
in sales and upwards.
58 employees, they are engaged, I skipped over this, but
they are engaged with North
Central Texas College's Tech Hire Program.
This is a Department of Labor grant that North Central
Texas College got to help pay for
internships for companies and transitioning folks through
high need jobs with school money
and then with money to the company to help pay for that
student's internship at that
company and provide them work experience and hopefully the
company is hiring them and having
an opportunity to have folks coming to their door that they
have the chance to help develop
into that job.
So they have been involved in that.
They have 24/7 technicians that are 58 people here, but
they are contracted nationally with
a couple more thousand folks that are independent
contractors so that they can be on site fairly
immediately.
So as you look through the Denton businesses, you could
have nominated anybody on here and
there would have been a brag sheet and we are very, very
fortunate to have the number
of companies that we do have here that are all excellent.
I think it's part of what makes us a unique and engaged
community.
So if there are no further questions.
Yes, John?
This is a Chamber Award.
No, this is an Economic Development Partnership Board Award
.
This is who you as a board are recognizing.
Okay.
Uh-huh.
That makes a difference there.
Yeah.
Okay.
Thank you.
Can you remind us of who the couple of past winners were?
Yes.
I want to look at the second or at your agenda information
sheet.
I think it's page number three for you.
In 2008 was Peterbilt Motors, then Business Air, then
Philip Baker and the Razor Company,
U.S. Aviation Group, Mayday Manufacturing, which is now ES
CO, Medical City Denton, TetraPak,
Flowers, Safran, which is Labinal, and last year it was
Victor Technologies, ESAB.
Thank you.
So that's, that's.
And you'll notice again that those have been large
taxpayers and that this has been where
this award has been centered in the past and it has not
really acknowledged smaller businesses.
So that provides an opportunity should you want to do that
in the future as well.
And here too, because TRCA is smaller.
Well, the WENCO target and embassy suites, the contingent
center are all in one way or
another recipients of incentives through this board.
So that's kind of a nice thing to see and probably a really
good example of companies
that brought in that have given back to the community,
which is a big focus of mine.
So any other questions or comments or would anybody like to
nominate one of the companies?
I'd like to nominate Target, I mean any of these would be
very wonderful.
But for me personally, the community relations support, the
partnership with UNT, just again,
it's just kind of unique.
You know, they're also awarded for their innovation.
And a big part to me too is the employee volunteering, that
they have a volunteer goal of however
many hours annually.
To me it is a true partnership award.
So not only have they partnered with this board in the past
, just to show that they
are partnering not only with our universities, our other
businesses, but also our nonprofits.
And I think they're all vital.
Again, it's not that I'm opposed to any of the others.
I've got nothing bad to say whatsoever.
They're all outstanding candidates as you said.
But thus far in looking at the totality of the criteria, I
put Target forward.
Keely?
I'll second.
All right, we have a motion and a second.
For Target, any further discussion?
Second.
All right, all those in favor say aye.
Aye.
All those opposed?
Target it is.
It wasn't easy.
Well the nice thing is they've been here since 2013 and the
other ones are new, so I imagine
they'll pop back up on the list and have an opportunity
down the road as well.
Thanks for compiling that list and information and
gathering that.
That makes our job a lot easier.
You've put a lot of effort into that, Michelle.
So thank you.
Marty, I do have a question.
At the breakfast, will the other nominees be at least
acknowledged or will they be considered
acknowledged or are we only going to pay homage to the one?
We've not done that previously in that sometimes that is,
depending on the organization, they're
unhappy that they are not selected.
So we've not traditionally done that.
Of course, we're all watching this on television right now,
so they all know.
Well and we've had, you know, and I know the Chamber
probably experiences that from some
of its awards as well because, you know, everybody wants to
be recognized and again, certainly
all of these businesses are, we're fortunate to have them
and they all can be recognized
for their contribution.
Which is kind of the fodder to my thought that at least you
let people know that they
were under consideration.
I mean to me that gives some, there's some benefit to that.
I mean even if I don't win the award, hey gang, you were
really considered very inattentive.
My only thought is that there's not a clear cut selection
process for those that are ultimately
compiled in the information package that we have.
So as far as future years and vetting who we want to once
again show who was, so with
that, is that what you're saying, the ultimate group that
were presented by the staff?
A simple statement at the breakfast.
Okay and so.
That there were other companies that were under
consideration and we'd like to at least
acknowledge them for their high levels of service and
commitment to the community.
Okay.
Should we then have this be a numerical grading situation?
I like having it vague and because things pop up and we can
't calculate the number of,
you know, the value of a thousand solar panels versus
different, I mean different things.
Like I like how we're doing it now and I don't know that I
care if we acknowledge or don't
acknowledge so I'm open to whatever anybody else wants to
do.
So Michelle and I were discussing this.
I think we're going to explore the possibility of a ranking
system similar to what's done
for the downtown reinvestment grants and we'll present the
option to y'all for the future.
So I'm glad you brought that up Jill.
Just as we go through examining our processes for pretty
much everything that we do, that
will be something that will come before you in the future
and it will be up to y'all to
decide if you prefer to keep it the same way or move
towards something different.
And I have no comment on whether we should acknowledge the
other companies or not.
So I think we're going to probably need to get a consensus
from the board if we want
to do that.
Chuck, do you have a?
Well, thank you.
John did point out, asked, had the confusion about is this
a chamber award.
We do an award that is based on the small end and we
totally bought into the philosophy
several years ago that you just talked about and it backf
ired.
There were a lot of hurt feelings.
So I would encourage you to, I know where you're going,
totally agree with it, but there's
a lot of harm shared quarterbacks Monday morning, second
guessing that goes on and it's actually
naming names and especially if you're putting, publishing
the criteria, it gets awkward.
And in our case did more harm than good.
I second that exact.
I've seen this within the last 30 days where people didn't
show up for an event because
they were nominated and then they didn't win.
So then they got angry.
As opposed to the whole.
Let me just give you a recent experience.
I was nominated to be the chairman of the state society of
CPAs, 27,000 members.
So I was one of four that was under consideration.
I did not win.
My feelings were hurt for a few days and then I realized,
man, goodness, what an honor to
be.
And so my job now as a good citizen is to support the one
that won, said congratulations
and don't be a sour apple because you never know you may
get another chance.
But anyway, that was just my experience.
So I was appreciative of being offered the opportunity.
Didn't win.
And actually I didn't win two years in a row.
So you know, so I was really hurt the second time, but you
know, I got over it.
But once again, the record, John, is our program and our
membership luncheon this Friday.
So I have to be nice to you.
Anyway, I'm done.
So I just wanted to offer that.
Thank you for the feedback.
I don't care either way.
Why don't we just leave it like it is.
We can acknowledge that we have so many, many people to
recognize.
And again, they're probably watching on television, John.
So they're going to know they're nominated.
Good discussion.
Thank you for everybody's input.
Appreciate that.
All right.
Our next agenda item is a DDP 18 to 049 or staff reports.
It looks like I'm gonna have some time to get to talk about
all those.
So who wants to go first?
I can go first.
I have a couple of items that are not included in your
backup packet.
And then I'd be glad to take questions about anything that
is in there.
For those of you that are not aware, the City Council
approved the renewal of the Chamber's
economic development contract with the city last night.
Vote of six to zero on that.
So we're happy to be moving forward with another agreement
and to be working together again
for another year.
My staff is finishing in the last month of this fiscal year
our business retention and
expansion push.
Business retention and expansion, as some of y'all are
familiar, this is when we intentionally
make appointments to go out and visit companies that are
already here to either establish
or to maintain relationships with them, help them solve any
issues that they've had come
up and make sure that they know that we're here to assist
them.
And these visits, what starts with one visit can often turn
into two or three follow-up
visits and hours worth of staff time to actually address
the issues that have come up during
the visits.
So it is a time-intensive effort, very worth the time that
it takes.
But I just want to make sure that everyone is aware that we
will push hard on that through
the end of the year and plan to continue with our
implementation of that next year as well.
Yesterday, we received news that we're going to have a
second site visit in mid-October
from an aviation research and development company that's
seeking about a 150-acre site
at the Denton Enterprise Airport.
So we're pleased to be having them back again for a second
visit and I will update y'all
on that as more information becomes available.
So those were the main things that I wanted to share and
again, I'm glad to answer questions
if anybody has any about the reports that are in the backup
.
I had a couple of questions on the Green Gloves project
that we didn't have, it was not a
target industry.
What was the industry?
Are we allowed to say that?
Marty, I'm going to have to follow up with you on that one.
We get so many of these that come through that sometimes I
can't remember exactly which
one is which, to be honest with you.
So I can follow up with the group and send an email out on
that.
On both of you guys have reports on project MODIS and one
says we have a site visit, one
says that we don't have the requirements for 1,000 acres, I
guess, available.
So where are we at on that still?
That's one that we both participated in the site visit.
It came in as a Ditten Dallas Regional Chamberlain, it came
in through I think a state lead, there
weren't responses but then somebody from Cole Ranch did
respond.
It's the only 1,000 acre site that we have in Ditten and if
you're unfamiliar with that
location it's down 35W, undeveloped property, it's just
kind of way out there.
So we did show it, it's the first time in four and a half
years that I've been here
that we showed that site.
It's the first time we've had a company wanting an area
that large.
Yeah and if I could just add to that, the issue with the
site is that we did not know
that Cole Ranch was submitting their own site for
commercial property because it has a PID
request for residential development, for 3,000 acres of
residential development so neither
Adam nor I were aware that they were putting their site
forward for commercial.
So their broker did that for them and then Adam heard from
the Fort Worth Chamber that
they were coming up here to show the site so frankly it was
a little bit of a surprise
to us but Adam and somebody from my staff did participate
in that visit so but that
happened, you know, we didn't respond directly to the RFP
because we didn't think we had
a 1,000 acre site.
When their broker contacted the Fort Worth Chamber saying
that Ditten was one of the
sites they wanted to look at, the final sites in Texas, you
know, they at least wanted us
to put our best foot forward and have somebody from the
city, somebody from the Chamber and
their broker just represent us the best we could but they
ultimately just about a week
ago deselected our site so.
And that's on the following page, the update about MODIS.
Oh, good.
Does anybody else have any questions?
All right.
I also have a packet in your backup, the last five or six
pages.
You can see all of our social media and website stats and
all that stuff in the packet.
I won't go over those.
I'm going to go over mainly the marketing, upcoming
marketing trips and previous month's
marketing trips and then the products that we're working
and things like that.
We are in our last month of the fiscal year starting now.
Our fiscal year for those of you who are new starts October
1.
So like Caroline said, our budget was approved last night
so our funds will get replenished,
our public sector funds will get replenished starting
October 1 and then we raise private
investment as well.
So right now, close to the end of the fiscal year, we had
nine new projects last month,
so total of 53 for the fiscal year with a few weeks left to
go.
Out of those nine, Project MODIS was one of those so you
guys know that one's taken off
the list.
I won't touch on all of these for you but a few of them
that we are definitely in the
final running for, Project Sagebrush AM is one of the ones
that I want to highlight.
It's one that we were selected along with the City of
Dallas proper so we're not competing
with all of DFW.
It's the City of Denton Limits and City of Dallas in
competition for a large advanced
manufacturing project plus headquarters.
They want to put the headquarters in Dallas and the
manufacturer here obviously we're
fighting for both.
That's how we like to do things but we're still in the
running so we are in the final
process of working with a broker out of Toronto, a broker
out of Dallas, out of LA and out
of Atlanta so they're all with the same company but kind of
coordinating this project's visits.
So I don't know how many, if we're competing with another
state or not but we are down
to just those two locations within our state.
Project Axelrod is one that we are working 200,000 square
feet.
We showed them a 20 acre site.
They haven't been in for a visit yet.
We showed this to them electronically so there is interest.
That one that we called McRail, that's just the name that
we made up for it, 40 to 65
acres on rail.
We're down to really one developed rail site in Denton left
right now that hasn't been
accounted for.
We think we might have a project that might go in that
location but as a backup we do
have this company that's looking at that site as well.
Project Falcon is a new one and that's a big one that we
put in a lot of work on in the
last three weeks.
It's a brokerage firm out of Dallas.
C.B.
Richard Ellis is working it and they're looking to put in 1
.2 to 1.7 million square foot project
and we are one of their finalist site selection options.
We submitted two different sites.
It's very tough to find the site that they wanted because
of the depth that they need,
165 feet back off of Western Boulevard and just how we
worked that project for them but
we are in the finalist, one of the finalist locations right
now so I'll keep you all posted
on all these projects.
A couple of other projects that I know I've mentioned a few
times in the past, the past
few months that we're still, I think we're 95% going to
close on these.
Project Conrad, it's a roofing materials company based out
of St. Louis.
They have 20 or so locations across the U.S.
They're going to put a 20 to 30,000 square foot building
here right there next to Anderson
Merchandising on an eight acre site and from what I
understand that one is pretty much
closed.
I think they're just, they're waiting, you know, the razor
company owns that property
so I think they're just waiting on final sign off on that.
Project Crown is one that we've been working on for about a
year.
They manufacture forklifts.
We're going to put them in the leftover space that's
remaining, the additional 20,000 square
feet that's at building one at Westgate Business Park.
Once building number three is built at Westgate Business
Park, they would then move all of
that production into that larger building.
So that's two that we're working on.
Along with all good success, we have had a couple of, or I
'm sorry, one recent one that
we were working on that we were one of the five finalist
sites for that they did to shoot
us down recently and they were looking at an airport site
as well which we don't have
anybody right there on the west side of the airport so that
's a great, developable site
of 150 acres.
So it's great to hear that you all are getting close on
that one project as well.
This one, the reasons they shut us down, this was an
aerospace aviation project looking to
pay $43 an hour, 200 jobs.
So I mean it was a great project.
Like I said, we made it to the five finalist sites in the
country so we put in a lot of
work on it, we made it a long way.
The reasons that they gave us were that the, in determining
these finalist sites, our utilities
were at the end of the day were not at to the site.
They were close to it, they didn't run right into the site
so it was going to take a little
bit of leg work on that whereas a couple of other sites
weren't going to take that long.
Too long of a taxiway, once again that's one of the reasons
they gave us so we'll...
Too long of a taxiway?
Too short of a taxiway.
I apologize, yeah sorry.
Only use the car you need.
Take off before you get to the end.
Yeah, I apologize.
Thanks for catching me on that.
Caroline, the aviation expert, thank you.
Where's Bob?
When Bob was here we got him.
And then fire service capabilities were not readily
available to the site.
So the three that they selected as the finalist, the fire
service was actually, they had them
on this all the time.
We need to get a fire station at the airport, just putting
that out there into the universe
for...
That's what held us back on that one.
Once again we went a long ways on that so we just keep
working on future projects for
that site as well.
Oh, I'm sorry.
Oh no, just about the fire station at the airport.
Now I'm in total agreement and council has, that has come
back within our view recently
and I've heard from the outside that there are funds that
would help us build those because
it is needed and so it's not completely too far away.
It's on the radar.
Good, that's good.
Good here.
Any other questions on projects before I get into just
brief marketing activity?
Okay, marketing activity for the last month we went to the,
and I think I reported on
this on this last month, but we went to the Southern
Economic Development Conference.
It's a non-profit membership organization.
They serve 17 states across the US.
They host conferences that consist of site location
consultants, construction and architecture
firms who work projects, site selection projects as well,
foreign direct investment consultants
and then other economic developers.
That's one that we've always done.
It's always a very beneficial conference for us and I think
I had already reported on that
last month because it fell at the beginning of the month
right before this meeting.
We also just hosted, or we did a booth in Dallas at the Net
car Conference which is North
Texas Commercial Association of Realtors.
That's basically all the Dallas, Fort Worth site selection
brokers, consultants, people
that work projects looking all across the Metroplex.
We have a booth there with the Ditten backdrop and so we're
kind of there marketing ourselves.
We came back with 34 contacts from that that we're
following up with.
34 that either were new contacts or that had expressed some
interest in doing something
up here at some point.
Marketing activities.
IAMC is next week.
That's the, I've presented this to you all several times,
International Asset Management
Council.
This one has some site selection brokers but it's mainly
comprised of larger companies
that have their own in-house site selection teams.
For instance, we located Penske Trucks from this conference
.
They put a small satellite operation here in Denton.
They have PepsiCo, Frito-A, it's all their site selection
team from all these big companies
that are representing themselves at this thing.
So we go and market Denton to them trying to gauge interest
.
And then IEDC annual conference is coming up at the end of
the month.
That's the International Economic Development Council.
That's something that Caroline might do as well.
I go to all those as well.
It's economic developers.
They have speakers and we kind of keep surprised at what's
going on in the country in terms
of economic development, what other states are doing, what
other cities are doing.
So we can make sure we maintain our competitive state here.
Adam, do you mind if I just want to mention that the theme
for this year's IEDC conference
and it's being held in Atlanta.
But the theme is inclusive economic development, which is
something that Atlanta is known for.
So it's a little bit of a different perspective than we've
seen at other conferences.
And I am planning on going to cover all those sessions
together.
Okay.
Or split them up.
Yeah, that sounds great.
Can I ask what that means?
It means making sure that you're creating opportunities for
people at all different kinds
of socioeconomic levels and providing workforce development
in a manner that's inclusive,
transportation options, childcare options, you know, just
looking at all aspects of things
that people need to have to be able to work and support
themselves and be contributors
to a community's economy.
It's also picking the bus route out to the...
It's getting the bus route out there.
Yeah, it's making sure that those things are provided for
people who want jobs.
And then something else we're participating in here in two
weeks that is something new
that we have not typically done before.
And I think you kind of received an email from me.
I've been talking with the Richardson EDC and they
basically contacted us about doing
something that's called the SME Support Japan delegation
here to the DFW Metroplex.
So they're basically spearheading everything.
The Fort Worth Chamber is getting involved, Dallas Chamber,
and they want Denton to be
involved and have maybe three or four of our manufacturing
companies there to help us represent
Denton.
But then they're also bringing in 25 companies from Japan
with a representative with interest
in doing business in Texas in the DFW region.
So obviously we're going to support ourselves here and that
's a two-day event on the 24th
and 25th.
So I'm gonna go and represent us.
We have one-on-one meetings with each one of these 25
Japanese companies.
You...
I don't know if any of you have ever done any business with
Japan, but it's a big relationship
building process.
Sometimes it might take five years, but you gotta start and
just keep working on them
and keep our name out there.
And there's...
I think there's only six communities across the Metroplex
participating in it.
So I'll keep you all apprised of how that goes.
But we do want to get at least two to three companies from
Denton to go with us and maybe
Peer Built or Mayday Manufacturing and any companies that
might want to do business with
Japanese companies.
How long is the trip?
It's actually...
It's not a trip.
It's gonna be here and it's...
They're having one day in Arlington and one day over in
Richardson.
It's two days, the 24th and 25th.
It's here rather than...
It is here.
So there will be no travel calls.
We need to check the...
Go with you.
It was in Japan.
Yeah.
That might make a difference if you have companies go with
us.
That's all I have.
Any questions?
Concerns?
All right.
Thank you for the update, Caroline and Adam.
That's a great job.
We appreciate all the information.
All that stuff's in your packet every month.
There's a lot of information.
This is a great place to get your information.
We're gonna be working on it.
I have a son at the Blues Festival.
John kicked me off the stage because it was too long.
You guys did great.
And it was also, he booked us at 7.30 in the morning on
Wednesday.
I'm not sure the festival started.
So please join us for a weekend of fun and entertainment.
That's great.
Jill?
Just a couple of things.
First, I just want to give a shout out to both Adam and
Caroline.
I heard at least tremendously positive feedback from a
presentation that they gave jointly
to the Chamber's Business Networking Luncheon, the dual
economic development overview between
what the city does in conjunction with the Chamber.
But I heard from more than a couple of people how excellent
both of you were.
So I'd like to say thank you for your time and coming out
and helping people know what
is going on and what the city and the Chamber are doing.
Secondly, I would like to thank our chair, Marty Rivers,
who came to Celebrity Bartender
Night at Queenie's.
I was the bartender.
But he represented all of you really well.
But I will take donations to the Minerva Scholarship at
Texas Women's University if you would like.
Thank you.
I was already there.
Shut up.
I think with that, we're adjourned.
Thanks to you for being here today.
Appreciate it.
Thank you.