Robert M. Ady has identified more prime business locations in the U.S. than any other person.  LSEDC is proud to feature him as guest speaker for the April 7th Quarterly Investor Luncheon.

Mr. Ady is frequently quoted in the national media on topics such as global competition, business location trends, future workforce availability and incentive negotiations. He has written scores of articles and contributed to numerous books.  He has also lectured at special forums including the World Conference on Economic Development and the White House Staff Conference on Economic Development.  Bob is a long-time friend of Jim Devine through their membership in the International Economic Development Council (IEDC).  Bob is the 2003 recipient of IEDC's Ed Deluca Lifetime Achievement Award.

During his trip to Kansas City Bob will also be addressing the Kansas City Area Development Council.

Thanks to the LSEDC Board and Advisory Board for a very productive planning retreat.  We reviewed last year's accomplishments and set out six focus areas for the coming year.  They are:

• Enhanced support and funding for our public schools. We recognize that Lee's Summit's schools have been and will continue to be critical components of our community's economic development success.

• Increased City and LSEDC focus and funding for redevelopment, including acquisition of sites for commercial development.

• Increased marketing, public relations and a cohesive multi-agency brand identity for merchandising Lee's Summit, particularly focusing on our quality of life and unique water amenities in the region.

• Increased partnering with the State of Missouri to ensure Lee's Summit benefits from its share of state incentives.

• Increased research, education and advocacy in the public debates about growth and development issues in our community and region.

• Increased outreach to investors, businesses and stakeholders.

Over one third of our membership responded to the January 2004 confidential e-mail survey seeking your opinions on the LSEDC and its work.  Key findings included:

• 80% believe the LSEDC's Mission Statement is very appropriate. 

• On a scale of 1-10 with 10 being the highest, 88% rated LSEDC with scores of 7 to 10 when asked about value received.

• On a scale of 1-5 with 5 being excellent, 82% rated the professionalism of LSEDC staff as excellent and 65% rated the overall performance of LSEDC as excellent.

Thanks to all for your candid assessments.  We sincerely want to continuously improve your services.

Development Initiatives of Kansas City has been hired by the LSEDC to work with the City of Lee's Summit and current landowners in examining downtown development opportunities.  Taking the recently approved Downtown Master Plan to its implementation phase is essential.  Our goal is to identify three pilot projects and to develop detailed analysis to see what could potentially be built on selected parcels.  The selected sites strengths and weaknesses will be incorporated into a pro forma of costs and suggested public/private sector redevelopment tools.

We believe it is important for LSEDC to be proactive in examining redevelopment opportunities such as these.  Otherwise, unattended opportunities may languish for years.

Expansion and retention of existing businesses is a critical element of economic development.  That's why we are excited that four local firms are interested in expanding for a total of about 250,000 square feet.  Three are well underway in their site decision process and the other is evaluating remaining in the same location or moving elsewhere in the community.

A follow-up survey of our recent post card marketing campaign yielded the following positive results:

• 87% of the recipients had a better impression of Lee's Summit after receiving the post cards. 

• 40% had a positive impression of Lee's Summit before receiving the cards.

• 93% said the campaign was better than other community promotional campaigns.

LSEDC is pleased to have coordinated the campaign with the Lee's Summit Chamber of Commerce and Downtown Main Street who are also using the "Surprised!" theme.  We will continue to work closely with our community partners on a future marketing initiative.

We’re pleased to welcome Greg Fitzsimmons of Titan Construction and Tina Shipman of The Eby Group.