Economic development group wants your money

Seeks extra $600K a year to bring city closer to what others spend on attracting business

Email | Print By Richard Lawson

01-05-2006 11:17 AM — Partnership 2010 has raised 40 percent of the $15 million budget it is seeking for the next five years.

This morning, the Nashville Chamber of Commerce’s economic development arm made its sales pitch to raise the rest of the money in the next six months and warned that representatives will be knocking on a lot of doors to boost the budget.

Currently, Partnership 2010’s annual budget is $2.4 million, $600,000 a year lower than what is being sought.

The organization gets some money from Metro, but raises a vast majority of it through private donations. Partnership 2010 does its fundraising on four- or five-year cycles, and the current one ends on June 30.

In the sales pitch, the basic message is that the city can’t rest on its laurels and be satisfied with the nabbing of Nissan’s North American headquarters. Partnership chairman Jack Bovender noted that Nashville is behind its competitors in spending on economic development initiatives, though the city continues to outperform others while spending fewer dollars.

Charlotte, for example, spends $3.5 million a year, compared to Nashville’s $2.4 million.

To help make the pitch, Mac Holladay, chief executive officer of Atlanta-based consulting firm Market Street Services, presented a list of goals and objectives he and his staff created after conducting 400 interviews locally and other research.

Even though what the city has done up to now has worked, Holladay said Nashville needs to step up its efforts to go to the next level. He said Nashville has the opportunity of launching into the global marketplace.

“You can’t do it by doing what you are doing,” he said, adding that Partnership 2010 needs more money and staff.

He listed target business sectors that don’t vary much from years past – headquarters, healthcare, manufacturing and logistics. But he emphasized a push into digital music and entertainment, particularly with the level of creative talent in the Nashville area.

The four goals in the strategy are maintaining a diverse economy, ensuring that education provides a skilled work force, fostering innovation and entrepreneurship, and investing in infrastructure.

Holladay noted in his presentation that Nashville lags in measures of innovation and that traffic and sprawl are worsening.