Wichita economic development group gaining momentum, looks forward to 2016

Seven months ago, a who’s who of community leaders gathered at the Ambassador Hotel to proclaim a bright new day for economic development in Wichita.

They had grown increasingly frustrated with the meager results of the industrial recruitment effort, but they also wanted to broaden economic development to include education, entrepreneurship, training, downtown redevelopment as well as re-ignite a sputtering sense of regionalism.

The biggest piece of the plan was the announcement of the brand-new Greater Wichita Partnership – an umbrella group to coordinate several existing economic development groups.

Since that morning in April, news about the partnership has been sparse. Insiders say that turning an organizational chart printed on a piece of paper into reality is hard and time-consuming: lots and lots of meetings to hammer out bylaws, secure funding, make new hires and much more.

“I think we are changing the whole approach,” said Gary Schmitt, board chairman of the Greater Wichita Economic Development Coalition, one of the partnership’s components. “You start by building a solid foundation, but people aren’t excited about a foundation.

“They don’t start getting excited until they see walls going up. Next year, we’ll start seeing some walls go up.”

Jeff Fluhr, the long-time head of the Wichita Downtown Development Corp., also took over as president of the partnership in April. He pointed to how well the 2010 master plan for downtown’s redevelopment has unrolled, with vigorous activity and more than half a billion dollars in private investment, but that it took years to get up to that speed. He expects to use that model for the coalition’s job recruitment effort.

Fluhr said he understands the community’s impatience in making its economic development effort more effective. He feels and understands the pressure.

“That has not wavered,” he said. “Everyone sees the importance of getting us functioning 100 percent, 120 percent, as quickly as we can.”

Several of this year’s milestones include:

▪ Getting nonprofit tax status, writing the bylaws and designing a logo.

▪ Receiving a $90,000 grant from Fidelity Bank’s fund at the Wichita Community Foundation to put the coalition staff in 3,000 square feet at 501 E. Douglas, next to the Wichita Downtown Development Corp. offices and its Design & Innovation Center.

▪ Hiring Craig Bay as director of projects, Heather Denker as manager of special projects and Marlo Dolezal as chief financial officer for the partnership and for the Wichita Metro Chamber of Commerce.

▪ Bay and Denker shepherding the Blueprint for Regional Economic Growth, a program to help 70 to 80 companies in a 10-county region attack common problems. The companies are clustered in transportation, data services, aerospace, oil and gas, health care, agriculture and advanced materials/advanced manufacturing.

▪ Attending the National Business Aviation Association convention in Las Vegas last month.

▪ As far as actual recruitment, Fluhr said the coalition has worked on deals affecting more than 500 jobs but pointed to April’s deal with Figeac-Aero North America, for a $20 million plant expansion and 200 new jobs, as the most prominent win for the area.

There is much more to come in December and 2016 as the group gains momentum, Fluhr said. The community can look forward to:

▪ The economic development coalition moving into the new space this month. That will put all the partnership staff in one place, in the first-floor retail space near Eaton Place downtown.

▪ A new head of the coalition taking over within the next few months, formally replacing Tim Chase, who left in May.

▪ Efforts to build new bridges to regional economic development groups and a new communications/marketing effort.

▪ Fluhr asking Sedgwick County commissioners for the $300,000 they set aside for economic development. Until this year, the county commission had given that money to the coalition routinely, but that changed this year with the new, more conservative majority on the commission.

▪ The companies in the Blueprint for Regional Economic Growth enacting two or three of their top objectives.

The partnership is a complex organization. It’s an umbrella group with its own board, overseeing four existing organizations: the Wichita Downtown Development Corp., with its staff and board; the Greater Wichita Economic Development Coalition, with its staff and board; plus two special efforts, the Entrepreneurial Task Force and the Business-Education Alliance.

So there are five boards of directors and three sets of staff members, with some overlap.

Fluhr is the top staff person, the president of the Greater Wichita Partnership, but also the long-time president of one of its subgroups, the Wichita Downtown Development Corp. The head of the economic development coalition will answer to the coalition’s board and to Fluhr.

The Greater Wichita Partnership board includes: Jeff Turner and Charlie Chandler, co-chairmen; Bill Livingston, Jon Rosell, Lyndy Wells, Noreen Carrocci, Gary Oborny, Scott Schwindaman, Jeff Longwell, Dave Unruh, John Bardo, Wayne Chambers, Lynn Nichols, Jon Rolph, Paul Allen, Barry Schwan and Debbie Gann.

The Wichita Downtown Development board includes: Bill Livingston, chairman; Greg Boulanger, Jim Faith, Sam Williams, Gary Schmitt, Tom Docking, Susan Santo, Steve Anthimides, Bryce Baker, Alan Banta, Clay Bastian, John Belford, Wayne Chambers, Cindy Claycomb, Steve Coen, Shelia Cole, Marilyn Grisham, Dick Honeyman, Joe Johnson, Tom Johnson, Joel Kelley, John O’Leary, Don Sherman, Larry Weber, Mary Wright and Rod Young.

The Greater Wichita Economic Development Coalition board includes: Gary Schmitt, chairman; Lynn Nichols, Paul Allen, John Bardo, Tom Dondlinger, Sherry Hausmann, Dave Murfin, Don Sherman, Sheryl Wohlford, Jeff Longwell, Jeff Blubaugh, Richard Ranzau, Karl Peterjohn, Keith Lawing, Gary Plummer and Jon Rosell.

This story was originally published December 2, 2015 at 5:50 PM with the headline "Wichita economic development group gaining momentum, looks forward to 2016."