Proactive marketing strategy is key difference in success of Redmond’s enterprise zone and nearby Madras’ failure.
Oregon currently has 59 enterprise zones, and some are great successes while others in nearby cities fail.
The key difference that makes an enterprise zone succeed is a proactive marketing strategy, economic development experts say.
The most basic formula for an enterprise zone contains three elements: location, land and labor force. A large tract of buildable land located next to a transportation corridor in an area with a sizable labor pool can attract companies, said Arthur Fish, incentives coordinator for Business Oregon.
However, Fish added, those three factors – even when combined with the promise of abated property taxes – may not be enough to guarantee the success of an enterprise zone.
In the cases of Madras and Redmond, for example, both met the main criteria for their enterprise zones. Redmond, however, met a fourth: a proactive marketing strategy that Redmond economic development manager Jon Stark said employed multiple platforms to spread the word.
Read more at the Daily Journal of Commerce.
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