OPPORTUNITIES

Opportunities for economic development that are created by the region’s labor force:

Focusing strategic initiatives on significant regional occupation clusters

Linking available and displaced workers to employment and entrepreneurship opportunities

Opportunities to further develop the region’s labor force:

Retention and employment of the region’s college graduates

Expansion of apprenticeship programs

Expansion of mentoring programs

Establishment of a regional sourcing portal for job and training opportunities

Increase support and accessibility for on-the-job training

Focusing job and training opportunities on local workers

Creation of transferable skill training programs

Investment in career talent pipeline initiatives

Investment in entrepreneurial development

Enhancing STEAM education

Investment in traditional physical infrastructure consistent with “smart growth” principles

Expansion and / or improvement of non-traditional physical infrastructure, including:

Specialized space, dedicated equipment, information and communication technologies, business networks, linkages to the education/research/labor force training system, and logistics

Encouragement of the development of physical facilities geared toward technology-based businesses, including specialized shared-use physical facilities, especially as regards technology development (i.e., prototype development, shared testing and manufacturing equipment, test beds, etc.), shortage of diverse and affordable physical space with specialized amenities (e.g., broadband, shared conference space, shared operating and office equipment, etc.)

Investment in shovel readiness, including site development / industrial park expansion / infrastructure expansion / permitting / development along rail and highway corridors and broadband backbone corridor / interstate interchange development / spec building development

Downtown revitalization and building renovation / redevelopment

Development of more sustainable neighborhoods and walkable communities

Brownfield remediation and redevelopment

Encouragement of “green infrastructure”

Implementation of sustainable energy improvements from the Western New York Regional Sustainability Plan

Protection and restoration of water resources, waterfronts, open spaces, and habitats

Enhancement of public access to waterfront areas

Enhancement of recreational / tourism assets, including Lake Erie, Chautauqua Lake, Cuba Lake, Rushford Lake, the Allegheny and Genesee Rivers, State, county, and municipal parks, ski resorts, snowmobile/hiking/bicycle/recreational trails, and WNY Wilds

Capturing the potential of the Seneca Nation of Indians as a driver of economic development

Target industry clusters

Target industry clusters include:

Machinery manufacturing

Fabricated metal product manufacturing

Glass and ceramics

Agribusiness, food processing and technology

Forest and wood products

Tourism

Value-added export service sectors, including personal service occupations and medical occupations (e.g., therapy, counseling, and rehabilitation occupations, etc.)

Target industry cluster development strategies could include:

Catalyzing the creation of additional value-added vertical supply chain and horizontal complementary companies in the relevant significant industry clusters and significant occupation clusters.

Encouraging and incentivizing the attraction or local development of food processing businesses utilizing local food producing resources and transportation infrastructure.

Encouraging and incentivizing the attraction or local development of secondary forest products processing businesses utilizing local forest producing resources and transportation infrastructure.

Encouraging and incentivizing the attraction or local development of glass and ceramics manufacturing businesses utilizing technology and research capacity.

Catalyzing tourism development through:

Expansion and improvement of public tourism destination facilities, recreational assets (including waterfront accessibility), and festivals / events (number and variety)

Encouraging and incentivizing privately owned tourism destination facilities and recreational assets

Revitalizing downtowns, creating special districts (e.g., arts, entertainment, specialized shopping, etc.) and improving walkability

Improving accessibility and wayfinding

Developing or improving gateway, visitor, and information centers that provide comprehensive information needed by tourists

Expansion and improvement of publicly owned, privately owned, and non-profit cultural and historical organizations, community assets, and programs

Incentivizing the expansion and improvement of the tourism, recreation, and leisure support sector

Regional and localized tourism branding/utilization

Expanded tourism marketing (including specialized marketing, such as coordination of multiple complementary and cross-sectional events and facilities, eco-tourism, arts tourism, recreational tourism, etc.) and enhanced development of a related business ecosystem

Increased coordination between destinations and events and the support sector

Increased coordination of regional event scheduling (to encourage extended visitor stays)

Entrepreneurship

Development of an entrepreneurship and innovation culture through recognizing, supporting, incentivizing, and celebrating entrepreneurship and innovation

Creation of a formalized system of cluster-based business and entrepreneurial networks wherein members in a cluster (e.g., businesses, educational institutions, trade groups, employee organizations, etc.) can interact in an environment that fosters synergies and connections, including the scheduling of meetings (scheduled participatory talks on specific topics, delivering programmatic assistance, etc.), provision of meeting space and encouraging and incentivizing attendance and participation, creation of mentoring and ambassador programs, and creation of virtual meeting and networking spaces.

Increased entrepreneurship education at all levels (e.g., primary and secondary education, colleges, and adult education)

Expanding and enhancing non-technical entrepreneurial and small business assistance resources and providers (e.g., business planning assistance, etc.) and business development programs, and encouraging the utilization of these assets

Enhancing entrepreneurial funding vehicles

Increasing links between colleges and economic development organizations and private industry

Encouraging incubator development/expansion

Undertaking a regional business plan competition

Innovation

Technology transfer and commercialization opportunities, consulting, contract research, short courses/workshops/conferences/other professional development opportunities to promote workforce development, etc., in conjunction with Alfred University and other regional and nonregional centers of technology research and development

Expanded and enhanced productivity enhancement programs and resources

General business development opportunities

o Improving regional business capital market accessibility, through:

Creation and expansion of various stage private and community venture capital funds

Expansion of revolving loan fund capitalization

Increased utilization of loan guarantees to leverage commercial bank financing

Assistance to businesses with accessing private and public funding sources

Expanded and enhanced productivity enhancement programs

Expanded small business and entrepreneurial assistance resources

Enhancement of export activity, through:

Facilitation of export assistance from federal and other sources

Export mentoring by regional businesses currently involved in exporting

Increased collaboration and participation of regional businesses with the region’s university community with respect to export activities

Increased financial assistance to support export activity

Foreign outreach events

Assistance with developing export marketing materials

Assistance with export research

Assistance with export transportation logistics and foreign regulatory issues

Encourage and incentivize the development of internet-related, location-neutral, broadband dependent businesses

Increase regionalization of infrastructure services so as to improve cost efficiencies in local service delivery.

Community centers

Preserve and reinvigorate main streets and downtown business centers to avoid sprawl (“smart growth”), improve quality of life, and reduce the cost of service provision

Redevelopment and repair of buildings and public spaces, catalyzing commercial and services providers to locate in downtowns

Increase the availability of housing stock in downtowns

Create and improve creative districts

Increase walkability and wayfinding

Improve the relationship within communities of the built environment and the natural environment (e.g., public parks space and green space, trails, etc.)

Community institutions

Stabilize and grow community institutions

Address any gaps in the presence of community institutions in the region’s communities

Recreation assets

Further develop the region’s privately and publicly owned recreational infrastructure

Make older communities walkable

Cultural assets

Provide greater public and private support for the region’s cultural assets and cultural life

Housing and building stock

Catalyze new construction and repair / renovation

Incentivize increased variety of alternative types of housing options to meet varied individual tastes and requirements

Remove blight

Reduce absentee ownership of rental properties

Incentivize energy conservation improvements and adaptive reuse

Incentivize increased supply and variety of the region’s commercial building stock through adaptive reuse, renovation and repair, and speculative building construction

Public education

Consolidate schools and increase sharing to avoid potential duplication of services and high costs of education provision while making it easier to deliver state-of-the-art education services and facilities. Charter and private schools also are alternatives that can be considered.

Health care

Enhancing the recruiting and retaining of doctors and other health care workers

Improving aging and out-of-date hospitals and nursing homes

Improving access to hospitals, emergency care facilities, and even local doctors in smaller communities

Transitioning from a disease management focus to a prevention focus

Reducing teen pregnancy and smoking rates, chronic disease, and childhood and adult obesity through obtaining additional funding to support chronic disease prevention programs

Improving access to specialists in the region

Improving transportation options to help people travel to appointments

Encouraging active lifestyles by creating walkable communities

Environment and conservation practices

Encourage and require proper conservation practices

Implement and maintain floodplain regulations requirements to protect first flush from storms to impact structures and water quality

Limit overuse or inappropriate land development

Regulate certain potentially damaging business practices

Encourage sound business and government environmental and conservation practices

Limit inappropriate development patterns and infrastructure design

Social capital

Encourage the development of the resources of the “social infrastructure” of community organizations and volunteer groups engaged in activities to benefit the community

Improvement of community attitudes

Improve certain negative and divisive community attitudes (including political, geographic, ethnic, and racial divisions) that negatively impact quality of life in the region

Reduce the amount of government through centralization, regionalization, and shared services

The region should market to itself to improve self-image and reduce public apathy and negativity

Strategic comprehensive planning and economic development planning, including:

Prioritized strategic economic development initiatives

Designation and appropriation of sufficient capital resources to implement these initiatives

Systemic investment in these targeted economic development initiatives

Enhanced levels of partnership and collaboration between units of government and between government and the business community (including larger and smaller companies); the educational community; economic development organizations; workforce development organizations; public, private, and philanthropic sectors; and diverse communities within the region.

Investment in business development / business assistance capacity, especially regarding target clusters, entrepreneurial development, and innovation.

Target clusters:

Focus on, talk about, encourage, incentivize, facilitate, recognize, and celebrate the region’s significant industry and occupation clusters

Develop and implement cluster-based economic development initiatives that help build these clusters and incentivize further development within these clusters

Entrepreneurship:

Focus on, talk about, encourage, incentivize, facilitate, recognize, and celebrate entrepreneurship

Create a regional identity or brand that focuses on entrepreneurial activity and engage in regional marketing of that brand as a means of encouraging entrepreneurship

Tell entrepreneurial success stories in regional media outlets as well as social media outlets (blogs, tweets, etc.) so that these stories become known widely throughout the community and region

Position the region as a home for entrepreneurs, creating a “sense of place” with well-publicized locations of entrepreneurial activity (e.g., incubators, virtual networks, districts, etc.) and discernable nodes of creativity/activity/establishment churn

Seek to be recognized as a hotbed of entrepreneurial activity.

Innovation:

Focus on, encourage, incentivize, facilitate, recognize, and celebrate innovation

Cross-fertilization of sectors (e.g., the business community, academia, economic development organizations, etc.) for innovation

Problem solving and creation of solutions and opportunities by participants from different business groups and industrial sectors

Governments at all levels need to innovate with respect to operating practices, including adoption of new technologies and reducing/consolidating/sharing services to promote better service delivery and reduce taxes.