Hub hears recommendations on economic development

ASHEVILLE – With more than 30 different agencies involved in economic development, Asheville might be better served by focusing efforts and money in a single umbrella group to oversee job growth and business expansion, consultants recommended Tuesday.

The Asheville Hub Alliance heard a preliminary report from the Strategic Growth Institute, a consulting group at the University of Central Arkansas hired to inventory Asheville’s economic development efforts and suggest improvements. “The wheels aren’t coming off in this community, but we want to help get those wheels aligned,” said Robert Pittman of SGI.

The Asheville Hub Alliance is a community-wide group promoting the area’s strengths in health care, tourism, the arts, technology, manufacturing and other sectors to create new jobs and industry in a changing economy.

Pittman and his SGI team found that no single agency is in charge of setting the long range vision for new jobs and industry in the Asheville area. Their initial recommendation is to revamp the Economic Development Coalition of Asheville and Buncombe County with a broader-based board of directors.

Now housed in the Asheville Chamber of Commerce and funded through the city and county, the EDC has been slowly trying to create a new identity for itself, according to Rick Lutovsky, CEO of the chamber and a member of the Hub Alliance. The group was first known as a commission, “but that sounded governmental,” Lutovksy said.

Pittman suggested a name like the “Greater Asheville Partnership, which would help the city market the region to outside industries.

With 53 consecutive months of job growth, Asheville is becoming a model for many other communities who want to duplicate that kind of success, Lutovsky said. “We aren’t recession-proof, but we like to think we’re recession-resistant.

The consultants will deliver a final report to the Asheville Hub in November. SGI won out over 22 other groups to provide the new study at a cost of $50,000. Buncombe County contributed $30,000 for the study, and individual Hub members contributed the rest.