THE VIRGINIAN-PILOT
Copyright (c) 1996, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: Thursday, August 1, 1996 TAG: 9608010001
SECTION: FRONT PAGE: A15 EDITION: FINAL
TYPE: Opinion
SOURCE: PATRICK LACKEY
LENGTH: 93 lines
Ten years ago, the Richmond area was deep in the economic doldrums. It doubted itself, as big companies like Canon placed their plants elsewhere.
In stark contrast, Hampton Roads, 10 years ago, was fat and happy, seemingly recession proof.
Today the contrast between the two regions remains stark, but now its Greater Richmond's turn on top.
That region just completed its best 24 months of economic development ever - with 56 substantial companies recruited, most of them high-end manufacturers. Average per-capita income there is well above the national average and rising.
Hampton Roads is having little success in attracting manufacturers, and its average per-capita income is well below the national average and slipping.
A good person to ask what's happening is Gregory H. Wingfield, since he has successfully recruited companies to both regions.
For seven years, ending in the summer of 1994, he was president of Forward Hampton Roads, the economic development arm of the Hampton Roads Chamber of Commerce, serving South Hampton Roads' 1 million people.
Since leaving here, he's been president of Greater Richmond Partnership, the economic development arm of the Greater Richmond Chamber of Commerce, serving Richmond, plus suburban Henrico, Chesterfield and Hanover counties and the area's 915,000 residents.
Here are two telling differences in the two organizations Wingfield has headed:
Greater Richmond Partnership's annual budget, at $2.4 million, is three times the budget for Forward Hampton Roads.
Nearly all of the Forward Hampton Roads budget comes from private sources, while half of the Greater Richmond Partnership money comes from the four local governments served - $300,000 apiece.
In other words, local governments are cooperating far more there than here, and it's paying off.
In many ways, Wingfield said, Hampton Roads and Greater Richmond are equally attractive to companies.
Both can capitalize on the fact Virginia is a low-tax, business-friendly state with a governor who is a gung-ho and effective company recruiter. Both regions have respected work forces. Both have good school systems and universities. Both have numerous amenities like museums and can offer a good quality of life.
Wingfield noted some of Hampton Roads' advantages: fantastic ports, plus splendid waterways for recreation and commerce; a stream of trained and motivated workers leaving the military. Because of those workers, he said, ``You can argue that Hampton Roads has a better labor base'' than Richmond.
Hampton Roads' biggest disadvantage, for some companies, is its location at ``the end of the road,'' Wingfield said. Only one interstate serves Hampton Roads, and the region is considered by some companies to be 90 minutes ``off the beaten track,'' meaning I-95.
When Wingfield recruited companies to South Hampton Roads, he argued that Hampton Roads was the ``gateway to the United States.'' It was, in other words, the beginning, not the end. But transportation infrastructure remains a serious issue.
By contrast, Greater Richmond is at the ``nexus,'' he said, of interstates 85, 95 and 64, and thus on the ``beaten track.''
Another disadvantage for Hampton Roads: Chesapeake and Virginia Beach do not yet have stable water supplies. Greater Richmond does. And it has a more entrepreneurial spirit than Hampton Roads, never having had the military to lean on.
Greater Richmond, with eight Fortune 500 companies and 16 Fortune 1000 companies, has a more developed corporate culture than Hampton Roads. The CEOs of many of those companies are working to attract more companies, Wingfield said.
Finally, the Richmond area harvested the biggest economic-development plum in the nation last year: a Motorola computer chip plant. That plant is pulling more high-end manufacturers to the area. Richmond has momentum.
To be more economically successful, Wingfield said, Hampton Roads needs a third crossing between the South and North sides. More must be done to train military retirees for high-paying private jobs. And, he noted, while economic development directors for the different Hampton Roads cities cooperate, local governments often don't. He believes that the name Hampton Roads is catching on and that the single name, as opposed to a list of cities, is useful in recruiting companies here. He always used it when he was here, he said.
Hampton Roads, the sixth-largest metropolis in the South, is not in bad shape. It just isn't keeping up with Greater Richmond and many other competitive cities in the nation. Hampton Roads' leaders, public and private, have a great deal of work to do, and they will have to cooperate to do it.
Hugh Keogh, president of the Virginia Chamber of Commerce in Richmond, said business leaders there informed local government officials in clear terms that the squabbling would have to stop and cooperation would have to begin - if the region was to prosper. That was about three years ago, he said, and it marked a turning point in the region's economic fortunes. ``The area,'' he said, ''has put in place a truly effective regional effort.''
If Hampton Roads leaders continue to go their separate ways, this region will fall farther behind an energized and more united Greater Richmond.
MEMO: Mr. Lackey is an editorial writer for The Virginian-Pilot. by CNB