What is AR-TX REDI?
Founded last year, AR-TX Regional Economic Development Inc. aims to attract businesses to the area, providing leadership and coordinating the region's numerous development organizations. The idea is to create a single point of contact that can connect the region with business opportunities, and to be aggressive in attracting job-creating businesses to the region. The funding goal for the group's first five years is $600,000 per year, half of which is to come from private foundations and half from local business leaders. REDI will also ask local public and private entities-including both cities of Texarkana; Bowie County, Texas; and Miller County, Ark.-to begin setting aside funds in preparation for offering businesses financial incentives in the future. REDI's board members are President Sonja Hubbard, Vice President Cary Patterson, James Henry Russell, Emily Cutrer, Steve Ledwell and Dean Barry. The board plans to add representatives appointed by the Texarkana, Texas, City Council; the Texarkana, Ark., Board of Directors; Miller County Quorum Court; Bowie County Commissioners Court; and the Texarkana USA Chamber of Commerce. In September 2018, Arkansas Gov. Asa Hutchinson and Texas Gov. Greg Abbott made a joint appearance in Texarkana at an event launching REDI. -Karl RichterTwo weeks into his tenure as AR-TX REDI's president and CEO, Rob Sitterley has begun working to bring new businesses to the area and improve the situation for those already here.
In an interview Wednesday, Sitterley shared his perspective on the Texarkana region's economy and plans for growing it, beginning by clarifying what economic development corporations such as REDI do.
"Their job is to go and find work and diversify the economy, their local economy, as best they can.
"It's a two-prong approach. Their sole job is not to go out and recruit business. That's one half of it. The other half is to work with the local businesses that are already in place and help them make the community much more business-friendly," he said.
What he sees here convinced him to leave his position as a principal of Merit Advisors LLC, which provides strategic tax and incentives guidance. Previously, Sitterley headed the business development team for Florida's principal economic development organization, a public-private partnership called Enterprise Florida Inc.
Between residents' enthusiasm and assets such as location, the Texarkana region seems like a place where he can succeed, Sitterley said.
"I can see a real hunger and kind of can-do attitude for bringing business here," he said "From my board to just the average citizen on the street (people are) saying it's time to do what we can here to bring more business and jobs to the area."
"Road infrastructure is incredible," he added. "I mean there are highways that just flow through this area, and it's such a logistic kind of dream spot, in that you're perfectly located between Little Rock and Dallas on some great highways. Not too far south where it doesn't make sense for a major manufacturer to be able to get product elsewhere around the country. And so it's logistically a really, really good place to be."
That includes being minutes away from four different states.
"I've been all over the country. I've done site selection work for a number of companies, and it's truly a unique opportunity just how connected this place is to other major markets all around the South," he said.
At top of the agenda is identifying viable locations where companies could build. He pointed to TexAmericas Center as a "great, great" option but aims to add other spots to the portfolio.
"We've got to find some on both sides of the state line, some land in Arkansas and the equivalent in Texas that we can identify, aggressively market and then relentlessly sell," he said.
To do so, he will call upon the relationships he has established in the economic development world.
"The better part of 12 years I've spent building those relationships both directly with the companies, directly with their in-house groups that make those decisions, in terms of where they're going to relocate or grow future operations, and again, with site selectors. Site selectors are tasked by businesses to go and find them where they want to grow and prosper for the next 50 or 100 years.
"There's roughly 2,000 nationwide but really 100 that are the real movers and shakers that work with large Fortune 500, Fortune 1,000 companies. And you know, over my time in Florida and my time as a site selector, I've built relationships, friendships with these people. And so I will be reaching out to them once we have something to actually sell," Sitterley said.
Not only more jobs, but better, higher-wage jobs will be among REDI's indications of success.
"You measure it by the number of jobs that you've influenced to come here. You measure it by the capital investment that's been made by the companies that have chosen the region for their growth. And you measure it by the average wage of what those companies pay.
"So we're always going to go out and do our best to attract high-wage jobs to the area. Every job counts, and every job matters, but we're going to look a little bit higher than minimum wage. We're going to try to go and attract businesses that raise that level, whether it's 115 or 120 percent of the average wage in the area. Those are the kind of jobs that we're going to try to promote and attract," Sitterley said.
As for REDI itself, it's probable that additional staff will eventually come on board.
"For sure the group has got to be bigger than one. We'll need some marketing strength at some point. We'll need some business development individuals that can continue the message outside. So I see the staff remaining relatively small. It's never going to be a big organization, but maybe at some point six or seven folks in five years, maybe a handful more. It will really depend on how successful we are as to how we grow," Sitterley said.
Community support is not only welcome, it is essential, he said.
"I appreciate all help, and this truly is a community kind of all hands on deck sort of approach. And economic development is truly a team sport," he said. "And so I welcome folks reaching out to me. I can't do it alone. I need their help. And I look forward to working with the community at large."
Under Sitterley's leadership, Enterprise Florida established 425 economic development projects that created more than 78,000 jobs, retained more than 34,000 jobs and invested $7.9 billion in new capital expenditures throughout Florida, according to information provided by REDI.
Before that, he worked in the private sector for more than 12 years, serving as vice president at Fiscal Advisors and Marketing Inc., the largest privately held financial advisory firm in the state of New York.
While there, he worked as a public finance advisor for New York's schools and municipalities, specializing in the issuance and marketing of municipal bonds and assisting more than 300 local governments in the planning, coordinating, negotiation, financing and marketing of approximately $7.2 billion in temporary and permanent financing.
He earned dual bachelor degrees in economics and business and graduated cum laude from Skidmore College in Saratoga Springs, N.Y. In 2013, Skidmore inducted Sitterley, as a member of the 1993-1994 men's golf team, into the school's Athletic Hall of Fame.