Castle Rock Chamber of Commerce Partners With City Groups for Economic Development
business, chamber of commerce, economic development,
If two heads are better than one, then what about four heads?
A new four-member group called Castle Rock Economic Partners was formed in 2009 to help promote Castle Rock for the sake of prosperity. The four participating members are the Castle Rock Chamber of Commerce, Castle Rock Economic Development Council, Downtown Development Authority and the Town of Castle Rock.
“Many times there is competition between organizations in a community, and they simply don’t play well in the sandbox together,” says Pam Ridler, president of the Castle Rock Chamber of Commerce. “But here, we’ve brought together four entities that all receive some public funds, and we’re making sure that everyone works well with one another for the sake of economic development.”
Ridler says if one of the organization’s members knows that a particular business is thinking about relocating to Castle Rock, they inform the other groups instead of keeping it to themselves.
“That way, everyone can pull together as a team to work on that particular business,” she says. “It better ensures that the potential company thinks hard about coming to Castle Rock, instead of the whole thing being just a crap shoot.”
As a member of Castle Rock Economic Partners, each group is responsible for a different component of the overall plan. For example, the Castle Rock Chamber focuses on tourism, business support services and community branding and marketing, while the EDC concentrates on business recruitment.
Meanwhile, the town is responsible for developmental services, such as ways to push through processes quicker. And the Downtown Development Authority focuses on the marketing and expansion of downtown businesses and services.
“This seems like such a simple concept – everyone getting along – but we talked to many communities in Colorado and beyond that aren’t implementing this idea,” Ridler says. “Actually, complementing one another really isn’t done too much, but it is now part of the plan here in Castle Rock.”
Ridler says that even though the Partners program is still in its early stages, the group has already launched a www.visitcastlerock.org Web site, and has also implemented an overall “shop and do business in Castle Rock” marketing campaign.
In addition, the Downtown Development Authority hired a permanent director in 2009, while a permanent CEO was hired for the Castle Rock EDC. Speaking of the EDC, in 2009 it assisted and logged more than 150 new business prospects and 25 local company expansions.
“The Economic Partners have a lot of plans for 2010,” Ridler says. “One is a Commercial Improvement Award to recognize the efforts of businesses that improve the overall appearance of their buildings. The Partners is a group that is going to get a lot of things done, with everything aimed at always improving the economy of Castle Rock, Colorado.”
Story by Kevin Litwin
