WHEN the CEO of Foundation for Regional Development Peter Bailey contacted Nambucca Shire’s Wayne Lowe to ask if the shire would like to host the organisation’s biennial summit, Wayne did not hesitate.
Subscribe now for unlimited access.
$0/
(min cost $0)
or signup to continue reading
“To have something like this come to town is wonderful … especially as we were selected,” Wayne, who is the council’s business development manager, said.
“It really puts us up there, in the spotlight with businesses and potential investors here in our backyard. They can see what we have achieved and where we are going.”
For Mr Bailey the choice of Nambucca Shire was an easy one.
“The shire is really punching above its weight as far as attracting business and job creation are concerned,” Mr Bailey said.
“From the huge loss of jobs that occurred when MIDCO closed in 1998, now more than 1000 new ones have been created.”
The aim of the summit, which is based at the Nambucca Heads RSL Club, is to offer education and training in the fast-moving business world.
“Our responsibility is to help communities (develop) by showing them examples.
“Before business was all about getting people through the door, now businesses can pull people from all over, be it Kempsey, Canberra or London.”
And to that end the summit has a program of ‘movers and shakers’, who will share their knowledge for the 70 delegates who have booked.
Movers and shakers like Christopher Saunders who works with Renew Newcastle, the organisation that put life and colour back into the heart of the regional city.
“I’m here spreading the love of urban renewal,” he laughed as he explained to the Guardian how the organisation turned a main street (Hunter St) full of 150 empty shops in 2008 into a bustling centre with creative enterprises that has seen Newcastle become a sought after place for investors.
“Our CEO, Marcus Westbury, is the visionary behind it all,” Mr Saunders said.
“What he found back then was that leases were indexed to property values and if leases dropped so did the value … there was no incentive to bring life back through the traditional route, so he worked out a system to get around these obstacles.
“Instead we borrow premises and put creative enterprises, who would otherwise be working from their homes and selling their work online, in there … we incubate the businesses by removing obstacles and keeping entry costs low.”
The results speak for themselves – 250 projects have been started so far, with another 50 currently on the go. Eighty one properties have been fixed up and 65 are now leased commercially – with 34 of those leases going to business who got their start through the project.
“And it is the property owners who are the big winners, because the market is now back on the rise.”
And lest one get too carried away, Christopher said the project’s success had now brought it to a vital crossroads …
“We are now having the conversation about how do we sustain this success. With the gentrification that has now started to happen, how do we keep a healthy balance of dollars, community wellbeing and culture.”
* This afternoon (Thursday) delegates enjoyed a tour of the businesses in the Vehicle Body Manufacturing Cluster as well as Lend Lease’s bridge prefabrication plant in Macksville.