Developing a ‘Pro Business Attitude’
With the stockyards gone, SSP seeks a new image
Mary Diedrick Hansen
Staff Writer
With the closing of Central Livestock and the stockyards on April 11, followed by the groundbreaking ceremony for the expansion of the BridgePoint Business Park, Progress Plus, the economic development organization for South St. Paul, is ramping up activities to promote the advantages of doing business in South St. Paul. Progress Plus, which acts as a resource for companies wanting to expand or relocate to South St. Paul and Inver Grove Heights, has created a new marketing and image campaign aimed at attracting local and regional businesses and developers. South St. Paul’s new image campaign is all about "PBA," Pro Business Attitude.
"City officials and community leadership are committed to PBA and are looking forward to a high level of redevelopment activity," said Jennifer Gale, president of both the River Heights Chamber of Commerce and Progress Plus. "It’s a good opportunity as the stockyards close down to look at the opportunities that lie ahead in the future. A lot of areas in South St. Paul are ripe for development, including BridgePoint, retail in Southview and Marie, and working with JBL developers on the Concord Exchange area of the city."
Consulting firm Dowell, Stute and Associates assisted in coordinating several months of intense data collection and market research by facilitating marketing and "branding personality" workshops. Questions were aimed at defining the city of South St. Paul’s "personality" and envisioning what it might look like in the future.
Six brand personality workshops were conducted with the brokers/development community, as well as South St. Paul elected officials, business leaders and the Progress Plus Board and River Heights Chamber of Commerce.
Just ‘who’ is South St. Paul, anyway?
"We asked them what kind of person is South St. Paul?" said Vicki Stute, of the consulting firm. "We wanted to develop a brand statement that was creative and captured the ‘DNA’ of the community and expressed its attributes and how it is positioned for optimal future growth."
Stute said everyone was fairly close on the personality description of what South St. Paul is and what it can become. The "person" of South St. Paul is confident and proud, a viable metro alternative and a quaint destination.
Part of Progress Plus’ promotion touts South St. Paul and Inver Grove Heights as strong, balanced communities that are ripe for economic development since they are ideally located near one of the best connected but least congested transportation networks in the Twin Cities area.
Promotion of South St. Paul will take place at state conferences, regionally and state-wide, letting businesses know that South St. Paul is a very good place to do business and to locate their headquarters.
Dowel, Stute and Associates are gathering funds from private and public entities for the $125,000 campaign, which will begin with a web site targeting Twin Cities-based construction companies, commercial real estate companies, existing businesses, new businesses and new developers.
"The cornerstone of our efforts allows for the two communities to be targeted to the economic development broker and investor community as a wise choice for business investment and job creation," said Gale.
Through the efforts of Progress Plus, numerous businesses have relocated to South St. Paul or expanded, creating jobs, a stronger tax base and significant economic investment.
"In order to move Progress Plus to the next level of effectiveness for our communities during this critical economic time, we believed that an aggressive plan of action for economic development outreach was in order," said Gus Briguet of Mainstreet Bank and Chair of the Board. "We’ve created a solid platform for the long-term sustainability and success of Progress Plus, ultimately supporting the organization’s original vision of enhancing the economic growth and prosperity of South St. Paul and Inver Grove Heights." |
