What is Economic Development, Really?

You've probably seen the headline before: a new company is coming to Catawba County, bringing jobs and investment. Maybe it had a curious code name attached - "Project" something-or-other. Maybe there was a public hearing, or a mention of a tax incentive, or a number that made you wonder.

If you've ever found yourself asking what any of this actually means for you - your tax bill, your neighborhood, your kids' schools - you're not alone. It's a fair question, and it deserves a real answer. So let's start at the beginning. Not our beginning this year, or even this decade - our actual beginning. 

Where This All Started

In 1975, a Chamber of Commerce taskforce sat down and did something nobody had really bothered to do before: they counted. They looked at all 439 industrial firms operating in Catawba County and asked a simple question - what are we actually made of? The answer was a little unsettling. Over 70 percent of our industrial base sat in just three fields, mostly various corners of textiles and furniture. We had, in essence, put a few ostrich-sized eggs in one fairly small basket. If any one of those industries had a bad decade (which eventually did happen), the whole county would feel it (which we most definitely did). 

That study led to the creation of the Industrial Development Commission in 1978 - the organization that would eventually become the Economic Development Corporation (EDC) you know today. Funnily enough, I keep a copy of the February 1977 "Chamber Views" article that laid out the original case for the “Commission” in the back of the notebook I haul to most meetings, mostly as a reminder. The name has changed. The org chart has changed. Heck, even some of the problems then, remain problems today.  But the mission on that page is basically the same one we're chasing today. 

Diversification was never really about the industries themselves. It was always about two things that mattered to actual people - opportunity (jobs, and the kind of jobs that let people build a life here) and a tax base broad enough that homeowners aren't the [only] ones left holding the whole bill for schools, roads, and services. It's what pays for a new trail at the park, keeps the lights on for a Tuesday night rec league game, and keeps fire, police, and EMS crews fully staffed and quick to respond. It's the difference between a downtown that empties out at 5:00PM and one that has a reason to stick around. 

What We Actually Do

Our work generally falls into two buckets. The first is recruitment - working to bring new companies into the county that add to that diversification, which means lots of research, relationship-building with site selectors, developers and the real estate community, and finding the best ways to make the case why Catawba County is the right home for a growing company. 

The second is just as important, and it's the one people hear about the least: helping the employers who are already here grow, hire, and stay. A lot of our week and staff energy/time goes toward the businesses that have been part of this community for years, sometimes decades - and we've got a lot more to say about that work in an upcoming post, including some of what we're building right now in partnership with local companies. 

Where We Fit

We're not a government office, but we're also not far removed from one. We're a 501(c)(3) nonprofit, funded operationally by local tax dollars - Catawba County and the Cities and Towns of Catawba, Claremont, Conover, Hickory, Maiden, and Newton all invest in this work. In practice, that makes us an extension of their municipal staffs, with one job and one job only: improve the local economy for the people who live in our respective Cities/Towns. 

So think of our role less as "a part of” government and more as "alongside" it: we do the groundwork, the research, the convening, the visioning. We're the ones often pulling people into a room to figure out what's possible, on behalf of the same six governments funding the effort. 

What we don't do is cast the final vote. When it comes to whether a specific incentive or project moves forward, that decision belongs to your elected officials, made in public. Our job is to bring them the clearest, most honest picture we can build — theirs is to decide.  

Why This is Personal, Not Just Professional

It's worth knowing who's actually doing this work. Between the five and a half of us on staff, we carry more than 100 years of combined economic development experience — right here in Catawba County, not somewhere else. That's a lot of relationships built, a lot of deals we've learned from, and a lot of local knowledge otherwise obscured by a name like “EDC”. And yes, we live here too — raising kids in these schools, coaching in these leagues, choosing this county the same way a lot of you did. So when we talk about growing the tax base or bringing in new jobs, it isn't an abstract mission statement. We want it to be better for you, because it's better for us too.

Where We Go From Here

This is the first post in a series where we're going to walk through exactly how this process works — plainly, without the jargon, and without assuming you already know how any of it fits together. Up next: how local incentives actually work, and why a company doesn't just get handed a check. 

If you've ever wondered why a project shows up under a code name, or whether we're only interested in companies from outside the county, those posts are coming too. For now, the short version is this: this has been the work since 1978 — grow the county's economy in a way that benefits the people who already call it home, and be straightforward with you about how we do it.

---

Nathan Huret is the Vice President of Catawba County EDC.  Save a short 18-month stint that he left and worked at NC State, he has been with the EDC since 2007 and has led everything from the organization’s business retention and expansion efforts, to workforce programming, and now the EDC’s business recruitment efforts. 

This is the first post in an ongoing series from the Catawba County EDC team explaining how local economic development actually works. Have a potential topic you'd like us to address in a future post, please email Nathan Huret (nhuret@catawbacountync.gov).