From Kevin Johnson, President and CEO
Happy New Year and welcome to 2019. As an optimist who truly enjoys his work, I always look forward to starting a New Year. Don’t get me wrong, I love spending time with family and friends but I’m equally excited to dive into what will be DEGC’s 41st year in business.
This year, the DEGC will focus on three priorities:
- Prepare Detroit for investment opportunities
- Attract new businesses to Detroit
- Drive neighborhood growth
Prepare Detroit: As you’ve heard me say, if you stay ready, you never have to get ready. First and foremost, that means assembling the land companies need to build and grow. Our Real Estate team is working with the City to assemble attractive and salable parcels of land for developers and identify facilities and other assets that can be repurposed.
We’re also working on our procedural readiness – streamlining and simplifying our processes, and helping companies get the resources they need to bring business to Detroit.
Attracting New Business: Our Business Development team is doubling down on bringing new investors to Detroit. Our city is bursting with competitive advantages – our proximity to global markets, mobility leadership, talent pipeline, competitive cost of living, cultural attractions and swagger, to name just a few. Our team will be circling the globe to find companies that will bring the right opportunities to Detroit in terms of quality jobs, community partnerships and industry cluster alignment.
Driving Neighborhood Growth: Our Small Business Services team is having great success adding retail density to our commercial corridors. They will continue to help build and retain small and medium-sized businesses that add jobs, high-demand goods and services, and neighborhood stabilization which will help balance growth in our city.
Having spent 2018 getting to know the DEGC staff and the members of our Board, I am confident that we’ll achieve these goals and more. Working together with Mayor Mike Duggan and his staff, our Board Chair Jerry Norcia, our regional partners and all the economic development advocates in the city, I am certain DEGC is positioned to make 2019 a truly transformative year for Detroit.
Five things you should know about the DEGC:
- Motor City Match Round 15 and Motor City Re-store Round 7 applications are open through Jan. 4.
- Kevin Johnson will serve as speaker at the Detroit Economic Club’s 2019 Economic Outlook Meeting on Jan. 8.
- On Jan. 15, DEGC in partnership with Chemical Bank will host a Pre-Rehabilitation Opportunity Session (PROS) for Detroit-based contractors seeking construction opportunities in the city.
- MCM Awardee, Dymond Designs Beauty School is now accepting applications for full-time and part-time cosmetology classes. Apply here.
- Our partners at the Detroit Development Fund were recently featured in Fortune Magazine: How Detroit Became a Model for Urban Renewal.