'It's Gonna Be Fun'
EDC Executive Director Satisfied with Study on Industry Targets,
Ready to Move Forward

November 15, 2005
By Hill Vaden
The Winchester Star

AngelouEconomics, an economic development consultant from Austin, Texas, has been studying Winchester and Frederick County since July to determine which types of new industries would be a good fit for the area, and which existing ones warrant expansions. Winchester-Frederick County Economic Development Commission executive chairman Patrick Barker presented the broad targets to area government and business leaders at the EDC’s monthly meeting on Nov. 4. 

The study, which will conclude in December, is being paid for with about $50,000 allocated by the Frederick County Board of Supervisors.

“Overall, we have been very, very pleased,” Barker said. “This list is great. It provides us with an opportunity to focus our efforts from an economic standpoint.”

AngelouEconomics was given a set of “non-debatable requirements” in what types of industries “will enhance the community even further,” Barker said. Some of those requirements include environmentally-friendly corporations that offer high wages and can meet the needs of the Winchester-Frederick County community.

“I didn’t have any expectations,” Barker said. “I was more focused on getting business targets that were realistic and would allow the community to move forward.”

The targets highlight five distinct industrial categories: business services, defense/advanced security, life sciences, food processing, and assembly/distribution. Those categories were further broken down into potential niches with attached development time-frames (near, future).

“Based on how they reviewed the community ... [the near targets] are the ones we can go out and proactively [seek],” Barker said. “We’ve met all the requirements that they (AngelouEconomics) see the industry as having.”

Infrastructure improvements will need to be made before a great deal of progress can be made attracting the ‘future’ targets, which could be as much as 10 years off.

“There weren’t a lot of surprises,” Barker said of the initial results.

One of the more obvious targets was defense/advanced security, due to the area’s proximity to Washington.

“Defense/advanced security was probably a natural target,” Barker said. “[Those jobs] were on a wish list — if people had a wish list.”

Barker said life sciences was another sector target with a sense of “newness” to the area, like defense.

“Clearly, the life science target has a lot of reference to future targets,” Barker said. “That industry is growing. ... It’s been talked about a lot within this community.”

A lot of the sector targets have the potential to shorten the distance between Winchester and Northern Virginia.

“Our economy has always been connected in some level to Northern Virginia,” Barker said, stressing that Winchester’s economy has always been able to stand on its own. “Some of the targets may strengthen that connection to some degree. ... [But] the diversity here is far greater than Northern Virginia.”

He says Northern Virginia is more reliant on the service industry than is Winchester-Frederick County.

“We came out of the (2001) recession faster than Northern Virginia,” Barker said, citing research from Chmura Economics & Analytics, a Richmond-based research group. “The key to that was diversity.”

In addition to attracting new industries, AngelouEconomics’ study will show leaders which of the area’s exiting industries could be expanded.

“Existing businesses will always be the focus of the [EDC],” Barker said. “There are immense opportunities inside those industries to further enhance our existing base.”

AngelouEconomics is continuing to review the target findings and will assemble an in-depth report that the EDC and its New Business Development Committee will submit to the Frederick County Board of Commissioners for approval at its December meeting.

“The final report will be a very exhaustive, lengthy report,” said Barker, who expects it to exceed 100 pages. “After they (AngelouEconomics) give their final report ... they have fulfilled their contract.”

Then comes the job of Barker and other economic developers in making the suggestions a reality.

“It’s gonna be fun,” he said.