The Jasper Industrial Development Board recently hired Green Suttles, III, as its new economic developer, a position that involves recruiting new industry and supporting existing businesses in the area.
Suttles, who was born in Selma and moved to Mobile in 1985, has been involved in economic development for most of his career. He has held several different roles in economic development, giving him various perspectives on the field. Suttles was most recently an economic developer in Pickens County, Ga.
He was recently a guest of Jasper Mayor David O’Mary on his weekly YouTube series as the mayor introduced him to citizens.
“I will be very candid, every county, every community has a certain amount of resources. They either have so much land, they have so much experience, they have so much resources, whether it’s the ability to get things done, the money to participate in economic development, the will to do so, and Jasper is really strong,” Suttles said.
He said Jasper has every resource, including land, which he said is difficult to find in some places. He said Jasper has a 355-acre industrial park, with some of it flat and ready for development, and all utilities available.
“You have the ability to do deals if you get a good prospect in here and they need some help. The resources are right there, and the will to use them,” he said. “So my job is to coordinate and pull these together.”
Suttles said his main tasks are recruiting new industry and taking care of the existing industry, which he said is the most important thing.
“When that new prospect shows up, he’s going to talk to your existing industry, and, if you’re a good partner with them and you’re the community and they’re happy, you’re going to win. If they’re not, because you haven’t been paying attention to them, it’s going to be tough,” he said.
He said recruitment also involves land development, which is why he applied for a state grant to prepare a site on White House Road for potential investors. The grant, called the SEEDS program, offers $40 million to match local funds to make sites ready for development.
“We just yesterday submitted our SEEDS grant for the White House Road site to make that site absolutely ready to go. So it’s a must-see for anybody looking for a 50-acre site in the Birmingham metro area. So that’s a very exciting thing for me as a practitioner, that’s a very good thing,” he said.
Suttles said he is also looking for the next site to develop, since Jasper has 355 acres of land available.
“The existing industry part is bringing resources from the state to support the existing area if they have an opportunity to capture. They might want a partner to help them with the local board, be able to capture that expansion opportunity, or if they’ve got a real problem, then they may need some help to solve that problem,” he said.
Suttles said he also plans to implement an ongoing calling program where he will visit the local industries and help them with their challenges and opportunities.
“One of the biggest problems that almost every company faces, certainly 80% if not more, is workforce. Everybody’s struggling for more talent,” he said.
He said his role is not to interfere with the state or the school system, but to be the voice of the businesses and find ways to help the community prepare people for good-paying jobs.
“That’s the other thing that’s important that I want everybody to understand. Our business is about raising the wages and the living income of every person, of sustainable living wages. There’s no point in us incentivizing anybody to come here if they’re not going to pay enough for you to live well in Jasper. It doesn’t build a tax base, does it? It does not. So we’re all about that. Not only am I worried about how many jobs someone creates, but also what they’re going to pay,” he said.
Suttles said he has a broad and complex scope of work as an economic developer, but he follows four basic principles that apply differently in every community.
“Those four principles are recruitment, land development, existing industry and workforce. They are very complicated, but every time you apply them in a community, they all get unique every single time. Because every place is unique. That’s pretty much it,” he said.
Suttles said he is encouraged by the support he has received from the city council, which has allocated funds for the Industrial Development Board without any contractual obligations.
“They have more than adequate funds for us to run a successful program. Just to give you an example, back to the SEEDS grant, it requires a 75-cent to the dollar match for Walker County. So if I ask for a dollar on that grant, I’ve got to put up 75 cents locally. The Industrial Development Board passed a resolution the other day, they’ll match it up to $750,000. We’re going to ask for a million, and they have the cash. They’re ready to go,” he said.
He said he is confident that he has the ability and the flexibility to come up with creative solutions that make mathematical sense for the community.
“One of the things I’m going to be sure to do is we’re going to do cost-benefit analysis for every single thing we do. So that way, whatever we’re going to put up on the table for support, incentives, tax breaks, whatever it is, we’re going to be looking at what the impact will be of that business here in real dollars. Tax dollars for the community. And if it doesn’t make mathematical sense, I’m not necessarily going to recommend it,” he said.
Suttles said he is looking forward to working with the Jasper Industrial Development Board, the mayor, the city council, and the community to promote economic growth and development in Jasper.
