2019 – A YEAR OF COMMUNITY COLLABORATION AND ACHIEVEMENT
Since 2015, Marion has attracted more than $500 million in business investments and welcomed new businesses and expansions that have created more than 700 higher-paying jobs.
Here are just a few of the many things we achieved together in 2019:
— The Marion Area Workforce Acceleration Collaborative – linking our City and County school superintendents with business and workforce development leaders – has attracted $2 million in educational grant opportunities
— Our community welcomed Enterra Feed, who is investing $30 million in its first U.S. production facility at the former Marion Power Shovel plant
— The Forge entrepreneur program, Marion’s own “Shark Tank,” is housed at Marion Technical College
— State Route 309 overpass was completed with Federal grant monies based on continued growth and success of the Marion Intermodal facility
— Downtown Marion is experiencing a resurgence, with new businesses such as Topped Ice Cream joining recent additions like Attaboys and more improvements in the works
— Marion held its first Marion Manufacturing Expo to showcase the outstanding career opportunities available to our community’s youth
— RAMTEC partnered with Silver Line Windows to use Universal Robots, highlighting RAMTEC’s leadership in preparing the next generation of workers to support advanced manufacturing (this became Yaskawa Corporation’s only public facility for training certification)
— Marion CAN DO! successfully trademarked “America’s Workforce Development Capital,” and has been cited by other communities for its marketing work and results
2020 – BUILDING ON OUR MOMENTUM!
Marion continues to attract interest from companies throughout the world that are interested in building new facilities in our community. Our focus on workforce development enables us to tell a compelling story to existing major employers whose leadership decides where to invest in business expansion.
We need your support to continue to build on our successes and want to utilize your investment to tell Marion’s story to the world.
In 2020, we want to:
— Develop a much-needed report on available and pre-certified business location sites for future development
— Create a promotional video that highlights our workforce development progress to attract new employers to our area
— Upgrade our marketing efforts through continued website improvements and social media outreach to put Marion squarely on the radar of site location professionals and business executives
— Make visits to headquarters of Marion’s top employers to thank them for their continued investments and showcase why Marion should be their first choice for future expansion
A complete review of all of Marion CAN DO!’s recent progress is available through the CAN DO! office.
Simply contact Gus Comstock at gusc@marioncando.com or call 740.387.2267.