Consultant: Region making a name for itself

www.pilotonline.com By CHRISTOPHER DINSMORE, The Virginian-Pilot © January 31, 2003

NORFOLK -- Hampton Roads, you've come a long way.

``You have indeed made a name for yourself,'' said Kate McEnroe, a leading national site selection consultant.

McEnroe, who advises companies on relocation and expansion, spoke Thursday to the annual meeting of the Hampton Roads Economic Development Alliance, a public-private partnership charged with marketing the region.

As familiar as the name Hampton Roads is to you, it is not to the rest of the world,'' McEnroe said. But now Hampton Roads does evoke a place.''

McEnroe credits Hampton Roads' growing name recognition to the marketing efforts of the alliance.

Email this Page Print this Page Newsletter Sign-up Get Wireless Pilot Subscriptions Her firm -- Kate McEnroe Consulting -- is based in Atlanta. She played a role in bringing Towers Perrin to Chesapeake, where the firm now employs about 1,000 workers.

After the luncheon, McEnroe explained that the average person outside the region still may not be able to identify Hampton Roads, but among the alliance's base of prospects, it has become a known name brand.

A name like Hampton Roads is a political expediency in markets without a clearly dominant city or with competing municipalities, she said.

It's good locally, but harder to market,'' McEnroe said. If you were starting over, I'd say you were setting a very high hurdle. But it doesn't matter anymore because you're over the hurdle.''

McEnroe praised Hampton Roads for several attributes that will help it in economic development, including decent airline service, a better cultural scene than some larger cities, moderate costs and a young, growing population.

She also said she was especially impressed by downtown Norfolk's residential nature, which she called unusual for small cities.

After a couple of slow years, corporate expansion and relocation should begin to pick up in the second half of 2003, she said, citing three caveats: Venezuela, North Korea and Iraq.

Whereas several years ago the fastest-expanding companies were telecommunications firms, active industries today include security and insurance, particularly health insurance, McEnroe said.

Long a low-cost haven for call centers, Hampton Roads can expect increasingly global competition for such centers, she said. India and the Philippines are aggressively seeking such businesses.

And call centers do not necessarily mean low-skill, low-wage jobs. Insurers, for example, are seeking medical professionals to staff call centers where they might make as much as $50,000 a year, she said.

To be successful, regional economic development efforts can't just seek ``high-technology'' jobs anymore, because the term doesn't mean anything, she said.

``The way to compete is to have tightly defined niche strategies, which I think I have seen in your plans,'' she told the alliance meeting.

Such plans play to a region's strengths and needs.

``You've made a name for yourself because you've stayed consistent, you've stayed out there,'' she said.

Thursday's meeting marked the end of Franklin ``Lin'' Earley's three-year reign as the alliance's chairman. Earley, Bank of America's Hampton Roadspresident, passed the reins to Donald V. Jellig, president of Sentara Enterprises, which oversees outpatient services, real estate and new market development for Sentara Healthcare.

Both men praised the alliance as the best example of regional cooperation they've seen.

The alliance distributed its annual report at the meeting, highlighting its successes and some of its misses. Successes this year include Target Corp.'s huge East Coast distribution center in Suffolk, Visteon Corp.'s fuel tank plant in Chesapeake and SafeCard ID Systems' production facility in Virginia Beach.

Among the misses this year was Project Inbound Financial, a deal involving the Navy Federal Credit Union. The credit union considered bringing 350 jobs to Suffolk but instead opted for Pensacola, Fla., citing that city's lower wages and the perceived terrorism threat in Hampton Roads.

``That's the first time that one had come up,'' said C. Jones Hooks, the alliance president.

Reach Christopher Dinsmore at 446-2271 or dins@pilotonline.com