Economic Development Strategy Services

The vendor is required to provide economic development strategy on how the county can best support economic development efforts in the county.
• Local business support: retention and expansion services. 
• Business attraction and site location assistance: collaboration with local, regional and state economic development entities to promote the county as a viable location for business development; to facilitate the development of pad ready sites in the county, and to assist businesses in locating appropriate sites. 
• Financial and incentive packaging: identification of funding opportunities, including grants, tax incentives and other funding support. 
• Export guidance: program development, identification and promotion of growth areas, identification and promotion of funding opportunities
• Entrepreneurial support: support in business structure, planning, and promotion. 
• Business and workforce training and education: collaboration with local, regional, and state organizations to promote workforce training, to identify grants and tax incentives for training at current and new businesses.
 • Community development assistance: promotion of resident lead planning, and identification of grants and tax structures that augment community development. 
• Matchmaking assistance: identify and facilitate finance partners, suppliers, b2b production and business collaboratives. 
• Single point of contact: liaison for working with local, state, and regional officials to facilitate permits and processes.
- Requirement:
1. Organizational assessment and documentation review:
• Conduct a thorough assessment of the county’s current state of economic development. 
• This includes analyzing existing programs, demographics, and reviewing of relevant publicly available documents to determine the current state of economic development in the county.
2. Organizational capacity: 
• Analyze the organizational capacity of the county to execute and implement economic development programs and initiatives. 
• Identify additional resources that may be needed to successfully support the implementation of strategies.
3. Evaluation: 
• Perform a detailed assessment and comparison of various methods used by counties to provide economic development services including, but not limited to, partnering with a the 501(c)(3) economic development agency and a county appointed economic development corporation created under pa 338 of 1974, mcl 125.1601. 
• This evaluation should include pros and cons of each approach.
4. Economic development success rate: 
• Assess the effectiveness of current economic development programs in the county including the economic development alliance's work in supporting the county of new business attraction and business retention efforts.
5. Independent opinion and recommendations: 
• Provide a recommendation along with an implementation plan on the optimal economic development structure for the county of going forward. 
• The recommendation and plan should identify potential costs, staffing needs, areas of risk and a timeline for implementation. 
• Develop a clear and actionable implementation plan. this plan should include:
o Clearly defined strategic goals and objectives.
o Actionable strategies and tactics for achieving the goals.
o Measurable performance indicators and evaluation methods
o Costs associated with implementation
o Staffing needs
o Areas of risk
o Timeline for implementation.
- Contract Period/Term: 1 year
- Questions/Inquires Deadline: August 8, 2025