Doug Venable, Janesville Economic Development Director, left, and Rock County Economic Development Manager James Otterstein both work tirelessly to promote the area for economic development.
For more information about the Rock County Development Alliance, including a presentation the group makes to potential investors, visit www.rockcountyalliance.com.
JANESVILLE — They typically fly well below the radar, working the phones and Internet, quietly meeting with prospects or handing out information at trade shows.
Doug Venable and James Otterstein are selling Janesville and Rock County as a prime location for companies to expand, relocate or start up.
With a local economy devastated by plant closings and job losses, their work has a sense of urgency.
As employment evaporates, the citizenry wants to know what its government—federal, state and local—is doing to bring relief.
The answer, at least at the local level, is as much as it can, said Venable, Janesville’s director of economic development, and Otterstein, Rock County’s economic development director.
“People get frustrated because of the loss of jobs, but James and Doug are out there every day,” said Rock County Administrator Craig Knutson.
Regional approach
Venable, Otterstein and others realized long ago that a regional approach to economic development was best. Pitting Janesville against Milton, Clinton or Beloit just wasn’t the most effective use of resources.
The pair was instrumental in the formation of the Rock County Development Alliance, a team approach to selling the area.
The alliance includes Rock County, the cities of Janesville and Beloit, their chambers and other county communities that don’t have dedicated economic development departments. The alliance taps a bigger war chest of talent and money.
“We’re a strong region, and we all work well together,” said Otterstein, who came to Rock County in 1998.
“We all realize that jobs in one community help all the others. We talk up Rock County with one voice, not ‘I’ or ‘me’, but ‘we.’”
Each week, the group is in either Milwaukee or Chicago making detailed presentations to potential brokers, developers and investors. One attracted 75 people on the Friday of Memorial Day weekend.
Closing a deal
At any given time, there are about 125 development projects of $10 million or more floating around the country.
“We can’t win them all, but we’re getting solid looks,” Otterstein said, adding that the alliance currently has 12 active projects on its books.
Most will not appear on any public radar screen. Discretion and confidentiality are an integral part of dealing with prospects.
“Often, they don’t get the credit for the good things that do happen, but they are the guys behind the scenes that make it happen,” Knutson said.
Eric Schwartz agrees, referring to Venable and Otterstein as Janesville’s “secret ingredients.”
The Middleton-based real estate developer has about a quarter of his $80 million Wisconsin portfolio invested in Janesville.
“If I’ve got a company considering Janesville, and I can just get them there, these guys will close the deal,” Schwartz said. “These guys are very clear on their mission, and that’s to bring jobs to the area.”
Last year, Schwartz tried to locate a global designer of factory automation equipment in one of his Janesville properties. Assembly & Test Worldwide ultimately landed in a competitor’s building.
“They went to the Parker Place building, and that’s fine,” Schwartz said. “From the community perspective, the point is to just get them, tackle ’em, and that’s what they did.”
Schwartz also tried to lure a company that required a manufacturing site that involved the use of explosives.
“Doug really understands industrial behavior, and he found a way to make that company—which really posed no danger to anyone—work in Janesville,” Schwartz said. “Ultimately, it didn’t work out for Janesville, but another community approached the project with the attitude that they needed to lock up the women and children.”
Venable has been in Janesville since 1983, when he started a four-year stint as the county economic development agent. He joined the city staff in 1987.
The 1980s presented similar challenges: High unemployment and uncertainty in the local auto sector.
“General Motors was making some changes, and then the plant got the medium-duty line and eventually the full-size sport utilities,” Venable said. “There was a lot of activity with the first-tier suppliers such as Midland Steel, Lear, Eaton Corp. and CTI.”
But there also were efforts to grow and diversify the local economy.
Existing companies such as Lab Safety Supply, SSI Technologies and Panoramic posted exponential growth.
“As a city staff, we certainly like to think we were contributors to that,” said Venable, who along with Otterstein and others from Rock County are past presidents of the Wisconsin Economic Development Association that represents public and private sector economic development interests.
Venable spends about 75 percent of his time on business retention. Fifteen percent is focused on attracting new companies, with 10 percent targeted on entrepreneurial activity. It’s about the same for Otterstein, who also finds time for tourism, downtown efforts around the county and workforce development.
“I found very early on that if the local businesses aren’t happy, you’re in trouble,” Venable said. “Any other company considering Janesville would certainly find that out through their due diligence.”
Details, details
For both men, the hours are long and the work is met with far more nays than yeas. The nays, however, help build relationships that could lead to yeas down the road.
John Beckord is president of Forward Janesville and an active member of the alliance, which he represented in Milwaukee last week with Otterstein and Andrew Janke, executive director of the Greater Beloit Economic Development Corp.
“These guys are smart, knowledgeable experts who understand the process,” Beckord said. “They’re on the frontlines working with the company decision makers and those who represent them.
“We got positive feedback on our visit to Milwaukee, but we also heard of the hurdles we must overcome, and some of those things are controversial, such as the state’s business climate.”
Wisconsin typically ranks in the lower third of states on its business friendliness. Improving that ranking, however, goes well beyond the job descriptions of Venable and Otterstein, Beckord said.
“Most of these projects have many details, they’re quite nuanced, and James and Doug understand that as well as anyone,” he said.
Those details are varied. One company might be most interested in specific employee skill sets. Others are more interested in transportation costs, taxes and regulation or how fast they can get into a building.
A company’s decision might ultimately rest on state and local incentives, which Beckord said is usually a deal maker or breaker. In Wisconsin, he said, it’s often the latter.
“As a matter of public policy, we may not like the incentive game, but it’s what’s being played these days,” Beckord said.
Still, there are times when a local company expands or a new business arrives.
That justifies the heavy workload, Venable and Otterstein said.
“Like the guy on the ‘A Team’ used to say, ‘I love it when a plan comes together,’” Venable said. “It doesn’t always happen, but when it does it is very rewarding.
“Some people like to say we get lucky once in a while, but (former city manager) Steve Sheiffer used to say luck is where opportunity meets preparation, and I agree with that.”