September 7 Update
Photos from 8/18 Northwest Arkansas Democrat-Gazette article covering the CHIPS conference.
SPOTLIGHT ON EMS
HAMMRC's goal is to bring medical manufacturers to the Highway 62 corridor. Having success in this endeavor is not possible without a place for the prospective manufacturers to set up an operation. Electronic Manufacturing Solutions, (EMS, Inc.) is a potential landing spot for a manufacturer. EMS is capable of building components themselves, or EMS also has room to lease for a manufacturer to come and set up production inside the property. EMS has hosted multiple site visits from our HAMMRC prospective companies already. Their partnership will have an impact on our program.
In addition to being a partner with HAMMRC. Clayton Hornsby, Senior Vice President at EMS sat on a panel during the 2023 CHIPS conference. CHIPS held the conference at the University of Arkansas' new Multi-User Silicon Carbide Research and Fabrication Facility or MUSiC for short. MUSiC is poised to bring impactful economic growth to the region. The Silicon Carbide computer chips that are being produced by MUSiC are unique due to their ability to operate at temperatures that current consumer processors cannot. The new foundry has tempted several Fortune 500 companies to consider moving a portion of their operation to the MUSiC facility. Chamber Fayetteville's relationship with HAMMRC, the University, and EMS allows for phenomenal potential prospective medical manufacturers to move to the region.
If you would like to read more about MUSiC, Click Here to view a Northwest Arkansas Democrat-Gazette article covering the CHIPS conference. Also, you can click the button below to visit EMS' website and learn more about the company.
HAMMRC BUILDING PLAN FOR RECOMPETE GRANT
The HAMMRC leadership team, working closely with the staff of the Economic Development Authority in the Muskogee, OK office, is preparing to submit a grant under the “Recompete Pilot” offering from EDA.
Potential funding for HAMMRC members is lower in this grant opportunity than in last year's Build Back Better grant. It will focus more on the chronic unemployment situations than on preparing for building and/or land acquisitions. Our Build Back Better grant application in 2021 was well-received, according to EDA feedback, and the team plans on using as much of the research and creative approach from BBB as possible.
The deadline for the grant submission is Oct. 5. Team members are meeting weekly in person and by Zoom to gather data, brainstorm on ways to address chronic unemployment, job vacancies, training needed, and to visualize transportation options to help get willing workers to available jobs. Any stakeholder in our HAMMRC community interested in contributing knowledge or ideas to the process is welcome; contact Wayne Mays at 479-238-6999 or wmays@hammrc.com to submit ideas related to the grant request.
RETAIL ANALYSIS: MEASURING THE CAPTURE OF RETAIL DOLLARS
Mark Goodman, Economic Development Director for the Fayetteville Chamber, demonstrates the value of data analysis to the audience at the July 14th board meeting.
Last month, we crafted a column addressing retail analysis and development as one vitally important community economic development initiative, both as a “jobs” attractor/retainer and as a “family attractor/retainer” or quality of life component. In that article, we addressed the importance of calculating your retail “trade area” to geographically understand where your shoppers are coming from, and how many shoppers and dollars are available for spending locally. Once one knows how many shoppers we should be attracting, the next step is to identify how many of them (and their dollars) we’re actually capturing.
Beneficial Uses of Retail Capture Measurements
“As retail goes, so goes our community….” Calculating Retail Capture provides a measure of our communities’ overall economic health in sales tax – dependent communities and can be very beneficial to both policymakers and businesses, alike. Whether we’re capturing more people and their dollars than we should be, or experiencing retail leakage, we can use those findings strategically to help advance our initiatives and support our proposals.
To read the rest of Mark's article, click the button below.
UPCOMING EVENTS:
Next board meeting will be September 8th, 10 am, at the Farmington City Hall.
Address: 354 W Main St., Farmington, AR 72730
NEWSLETTER STATISTICS
The HAMMRC newsletter has seen growth and success since its establishment. We started it in March of 2022, sending it to 69 people, with a lower open rate than today. However, recent editions go out to over 100 people. The past three newsletters have had an open rate of June - 53.8%, July - 47.7%, and August- 65.7%. HAMMRC Leadership thanks all of our readers for improving the success of this small publication.
We want to invite any of our recipients to provide input, suggestions, and criticisms. We want your input by sending us stories in your region that will be beneficial knowledge for other newsletter readers who may not see the news otherwise. We want your suggestions on better reaching and informing you. And we would appreciate your criticisms to understand how we can help better communicate with essential members of our project.
We send out one newsletter a month, typically on Thursday afternoons. If you have a better time or day to send them or have a different suggestion, email Hank Hoggard by clicking the button below.