Statesville Regional Development Earns National Honor As Top Economic Development Group
Site Selection magazine has named Statesville Regional Development (SRD) to its annual list of Top 10 local economic development groups in the U.S. for 2011. SRD joins economic development organizations from Houston, Chicago, Pittsburgh, Baton Rouge, Dallas, New York City, Kansas City, Philadelphia, and Nashville in receiving the honor.
Each year, Site Selection ranks local non-governmental economic development groups based upon four objective categories: new jobs, new jobs per 10,000 residents, new investment amount and new investment per 10,000 residents. Then the organizations are scrutinized for more subjective attributes — among them innovation, leadership, marketing and customer service, with only the best of the best named to the Top Groups list.
“For the most part, the strategic plans that were implemented in these winning, Top Group communities were formulated during the depths of the country’s worst recession since the Great Depression of the 1930s,” said Ron Starner, Executive Vice President and General Manager of Site Selection publisher Conway Data, Inc. “The ensuing turnaround stories catapulted these locations to record levels of economic development performance. The proof is in the numbers.”
In 2011, the Statesville Region -- along with Iredell counterpart Mooresville-South Iredell -- beat out all other micropolitans by registering 28 corporate facility expansions. In addition to these projects, SRD was recognized for its innovative business and economic development practices, including; partnership with Mitchell Community College in business retention and corporate training, accessibility of data on its website, targeted Internet marketing, leadership in state and regional economic development organizations, and involvement in community development efforts.
Dr. Steven Binder, Chairman of the SRD Board of Directors commented on the announcement, “We are honored to be included on a list of top economic development groups along with traditional national leaders like World Business Chicago, the Dallas Regional Chamber and the Greater Houston Partnership. I cannot say often enough what an incredible job our staff does or how important the financial support of our Committee of 100 and Opportunity 2015 Investors has been. The Greater Statesville Development Corporation, now Statesville Regional Development, has always been an outstanding organization, but the additional resources made possible through Opportunity 2015 have allowed us to take economic development in the Statesville Region to a new level, and this award is indicative of that.”
