America's Jobs Team

America's Jobs Team


Episode 187: How Are Project-winning Communities Keeping (and Gaining) Their Momentum?

March 03, 2022

“Economic development is a team sport. We are only successful when we can work with, collaborate, empower and guide others in a common direction.” –Jonas Peterson


Despite significant hurdles like ever-increasing costs of materials, labor shortages and supply chain challenges, the project pipelines have been overflowing the last few years. While most communities have experienced growing demands on their resources for projects to land, there are a few regions that are especially on fire with successfully attracting new investment to their area. How are they doing it? What keeps companies coming back for more? And, possibly most importantly, are there key pieces of advice that other communities can implement?


Today’s episode features four economic developers from various regions in the United States that are experiencing success. We hear from Chris Strayer (Fort Worth Chamber of Commerce) to learn how the Fort Worth, TX region is doing business that translates to winning projects, and from Ryan Combs (Research Triangle Regional Partnership) as he shares how the Raleigh-Durham region of North Carolina has become a big destination for not only life sciences and tech companies, but also for people. Then we shift over to Christine Mackay (City of Phoenix) to dig into mega sites and how Phoenix, AZ navigated the TSMC mega deal, then we close out with insights from Matt McQuade (One Columbus) about the three things that set Columbus, OH apart to build momentum and talent.


In this line of work, finding inspiration to do try new things is vital, and today’s episode aims to inspire new ideas. Tune in now! You can listen on our website, via Apple Podcasts, Spotify, Amazon Music, or wherever you get your podcasts.


America’s Jobs Team is sponsored by Research on Investment / Gazelle.ai