Consultant: Wichita has 2 drawbacks

BY DAN VOORHIS
The Wichita Eagle

A consultant said Tuesday that Wichita has at least two major drawbacks in recruiting business: lack of a ready site, and a stigma stemming from recent aviation industry strikes.

Site Selection Group of Dallas was hired by the Greater Wichita Economic Development Coalition to write a study showing how Wichita can diversify its economy.

The $70,000 study will examine how well Wichita competes against similar cities, which industries it should target for recruitment, which gaps Wichita has, and how to better market the city.

The study will be released on Jan. 18.

The firm has completed the first phase of the study, looking at how six other communities have moved from shrinking industries to diversified collections of growing ones. They are Huntsville, Ala.; Boise, Idaho; Greensboro, N.C.; Omaha; Clarksville, Tenn.; and Tulsa.

The communities first recognized the threat to their main industry, said Site Selection Group senior vice president David Brandon.

Then they built a decades-long economic development effort supported by the community's top leadership. And they raised significant, mostly private, dollars to fund the diversification effort.

Brandon said the Wichita area has a great deal going for it and was close to landing a major solar-power manufacturing plant.

But the city suffers from not having a large industrial site ready for construction and from a stigma brought on by recent union strikes in the aircraft industry.

"You have to figure out how to bring unions into the tent and create a partnership," he said.