Page 19 - Delaware Lawyer - Spring 2019

Delaware’s future workforce. These will not be discussed, as they are population demand-driven enterprises and not really wealth-creating economic development.
Common Success Factors
There have been three recurring themes leading to successful economic development in recent years and they are key to moving Delaware forward.
1. Private, public and academic part- nerships to leverage resources and enhance outcomes have worked well for Delaware. Site Selection magazine found, after workforce, the second most important thing companies look for is a partnership with a strong uni- versity. The University of Delaware’s Office of Economic Innovation and Partnerships is highly engaged with the private sector to this purpose.
2. The Carney administration and business leaders, with approval by the General Assembly, created the Dela- ware Prosperity Partnership. This is a private entity charged with leading economic development growth, mar- keting Delaware and enabling a stron- ger entrepreneurial and innovation ecosystem. This initiative brings to- gether the resources, commitment and energy of both public and private sec- tors, charged by the General Assembly with certain tasks related to economic development.
3. Delaware does better when it focus- es on and is supportive of local busi- nesses and startups with manageable risk, the prospect of organic growth and established strengths. By focusing on local and smaller businesses, we can pursue more oportunities to provide greater outcomes over time in a diverse economy. The past strategy was to pro- vide sizeable and speculative resource commitments to larger, often out-of- state businesses that have not done well or were not sustainable.
4. Most successful businesses and in- novations are interdisciplinary and all utilize information technology in many forms, especially e-commerce.
One difference from the past is that the new economic growth is organic — home-grown or smaller or medium-size beginnings with scaling potential.
The pace of technology change has ac- celerated such that it is predicted 85 percent of those just starting school will be employed working on things that don’t exist today. These facts highlight the importance of providing opportunities for education in devel- oping areas to create the type of work- force critical to attracting and support- ing new businesses, which research has shown to be the single most important factor in the location of new and grow- ing businesses.
Delaware Corporations
During the last 50 years, the Delaware economy underwent substantial loss of the historic corporate jobs in automotive assembly and their suppliers, bank and credit card companies, chemical/material manufacturing and pharmaceutical R&D. Other communities have experienced the same or worse. The challenge is what is done to reverse the situation or pivot to a new economy. Delaware appears to be at an inflection point of some corporate revival. The Chrysler and GM assembly plants, DuPont’s Experimental Station, Stine-Haskell and former Edge Moor sites as well as AstraZeneca sites are all under stages of rebirth as multifaceted opportu- nities. The Port of Wilmington and in- dustrial sites in the Coastal Zone are in various growth phases.
One difference from the past is that the new economic growth is organic — home-grown or smaller or medium-size beginnings with scaling potential. This model takes a little longer for major economic impact but collectively there is less risk and better outcomes. Incyte and Chemours are great examples of suc- cess derived from DuPont. The former DuPont Company, bedrock of the state, became DowDuPont and is soon to be broken into three new companies with two headquartered in Delaware, Corteva Agriscience and DuPont — a substantial commitment in Delaware. FMC is trans- forming the Stine-Haskell site into its global R&D center. In banking, JPMor- gan Chase has become the largest private employer on three distinct campuses in Delaware and has a strong partnership with the University of Delaware (UD) in developing graduates competent to work in financial services.
STAR Campus at the Chrysler Site
The rebirth of the former Chrysler assembly plant has been remarkable and a testimony to the value of a public, pri- vate and academic partnership. In 2008, the Chrysler assembly plant was closed and put up for sale. With no other bid- ders, UD acquired the facility with the intent of evolving a mixed academic and private-sector community of technology companies and services. In some ways, the vision for STAR Campus was inspired by the success and lessons of the Delaware Technology Park (DTP), a partnership between UD, the state and private sector that was founded in 1992 and now is fully developed on a 40-acre site near Newark, Delaware. DTP focused on a blend of cor- porations, entrepreneurs and UD R&D. This combination built a future economy around advanced materials, life sciences, renewable energy and software. In the last 25 years, DTP helped to start over 150 new companies and created 16,000 jobs in our area. The opportunities for the much larger 272-acre STAR Campus site could be much bigger than at DTP and offer a blend of corporations and aca-
SPRING 2019 DELAWARE LAWYER 17