The Alliance connects new entrepreneurs with its local resources like the Women’s Business Center, SCORE, and USA’s Small Business Development Center. And, it has access to venture investment capital of $100 million through Alabama's "CAPCO" program. So yes, this focus brings new business ventures, but the Alliance also focuses on existing business needs. Nationally 80% of new jobs come from existing businesses and only 20% from new starts and recruiting. Putting a focus on existing business helps in the Alliance’s focus on creating good paying jobs for the area, because the Alliance is competing with 17,000 similar recruitment organizations across the US for new projects. By connecting existing businesses with new startups, both the business of those existing companies and that of the new startups, are augmented. Such a strategy is a positive lure for bringing new jobs and new businesses to the County.
At this time there are about 160,000 people in Baldwin County. Those counties that surround us make a total of nearly a million. Baldwin is central, then, to nearly 1 million people, all of which makes Baldwin County a central crossroads for both the retail and hospitality industries. Although people of the area typically look at the hospitality area as the primary job-growth engine, retail growth is a significant component to Baldwin’s economic development. Over 3 million square feet of major retail space is being added in new local malls. For every 1000 square feet of rentable retail space, about 3 jobs are added to the work force. For each of those 3 jobs, another 4 jobs are created because of services related to those people. By the time you get to the bottom line, these 3 million square feet may have generated 21,000 new jobs!
This does not denigrate the hospitality job generator in Baldwin County, however. Virtually everyone in Baldwin understands that there is a building boom on the beaches. Part of that boom resulted from the devastation of Hurricane Ivan last year, but there is a turn over of property and refocus of type of construction on the beach. Think about 24,000 properties for rent on the beach. For every 100 rooms for rent, it takes 30 or more people to make those rooms functional--that’s 30 or more jobs. Retail jobs result from those rooms and from the service personnel. There are conservatively speaking, 15,000 new hospitality-related jobs in Baldwin in our very near future because of the so-called “condo” boom in Gulf Shores!
In the past 15 years Mobile grew at .4% a year while Baldwin grew in numbers at a 4% year level. At current growth projections, Mobile and Baldwin will have the same populations in just 30 years! The major Baldwin north-south thoroughfare, Highway 59, is already stressed under current population levels at times. Imagine gridlock in 30 years! Population megatrends suggest that there is a mass migration to the coasts of this country with 75% of people seeking to live within 50 miles of a coast by 2025. To place this tidbit in perspective, in 1999 only 53% lived that close to a coastline. Then think of Baldwin County and its location. There are indeed population issues beyond job-incubation and worker-recruitment.
This kind of growth impacts Baldwin infrastructure far beyond just our highways. Do you invent new ways of moving people, like the ferry idea being floated by Mobile? When you look at population growth, is it just an issue for Gulf Shores or is it just as much an issue for Fairhope and Daphne and Orange Beach and Foley? The answer becomes obvious.
Headquartered in Robertsdale, Alabama, Alliance Vice President Higgins shares his expertise with a variety of organizations and business groups in the County and is a voice on the state level. In Alabama Higgins chairs the Business & Marketing Education Advisory Committee to the Alabama State Board of Education. He is a member of the Baldwin County Public Transit Coalition, the Economic Development Association of Alabama, Envision Coastal Alabama, the National Business Incubator Association, and the Alabama Information Technology Association.
