Regional economic development group aims to rev up economy

Cindy Barks
The Daily Courier

PRESCOTT - Being competitive as a region can help foster economic development, but competition within the region can have the opposite effect.

That was one of the points that a Phoenix economic-development expert made during his remarks to a fledging group in the Prescott area this past week.

Barry Broome, president and CEO of the Greater Phoenix Economic Council, was the speaker at a kick-off breakfast for a local group, the Greater Prescott Regional Economic Partnership (GPREP).

Broome urged the 90 or so local business and government leaders at the meeting to find a common strategy and identity.

The Phoenix group formed in 1989, Broome said, "Because (each community) had different strategies."

Even more detrimental, he said, was the competition that Phoenix-area communities were engaging in amongst themselves. "They saw each other as competitors," Broome said, adding that such an atmosphere is "the most damaging."

"When communities compete with each other, they waste a ton of money," he said. "(The Phoenix organization) formed out of crisis." More here.