A dedicated coalition of regional business leaders, economic development officials, state cabinet workers and politicians has worked tirelessly for decades to put in place the building blocks for economic development. Their efforts led to Braidy Industries decision to locate in Northeast Kentucky.
Late in 2016, Kentucky Governor Matt Bevin caught wind that plans to build the nation’s first greenfield aluminum mill in four decades were being laid by entrepreneur and businessman Craig Bouchard. The mill, being designed to serve high-strength aluminum, would compliment Kentucky’s existing portfolio of automotive and aerospace businesses and it fit his vision of making Kentucky the center of U.S. advanced manufacturing.
Bevin was so convinced Braidy needed to be in Kentucky that he personally began pitching the state to Bouchard and his board of directors, while directing Kentucky Cabinet for Economic Development (KCED) Commissioner John Bevington and his team to activate local networks to prepare to sell the state too.
In early 2017, within weeks of making a decision on the location of their new plant, Bouchard agreed to come to Kentucky to visit a handful of carefully selected sites. Among them was a 300-acre site in South Shore, Kentucky, sandwiched between U.S. 23, a CSX railroad line and the Ohio River.
The plan was simple. Bouchard and his team would fly to the Ashland Regional Airport in Wurtland, where they would be met by a local delegation that included Ashland Alliance President Tim Gibbs, Kentucky Power President Matt Satterwhite and Greenup County Judge-Executive Bobby Carpenter. They would have two-and-a-half hours to make their case for the South Shore site.
“We have been working for five years to be ready for this opportunity. This community, us, and all our partners have been working to build the capacity to handle a project like this,” said Brad Hall, then external affairs manager for Kentucky Power, who has led the business’ economic development efforts since 2012.
They had worked to build a playbook around all eastern Kentucky has to offer prospective businesses. That playbook touts an inventory of land suited for development: the location in the heart of America’s automotive and aerospace manufacturing region, it’s network of rivers, roads and railroads; abundant water and electricity; and most importantly, it’s skilled but underemployed workforce.
“We have worked to build a team of regional economic development officials and we have great community partners that understand the mission and have a passion,” added Satterwhite. He noted often the hardest part of attracting development is getting the decision makers on the ground.
“If we can get people on the ground for a site visit, we can move to the front of the pack. They get over the stereotypes and realize ‘Oh my goodness. This is like Nirvana;’ it has everything they could ever want! When they get here, they want to be here. We just have to get them here,” said Satterwhite.
But when the day of Braidy Industries' initial visit arrived, the morning dawned, with a blanket of thick heavy fog. Their plane was diverted to Huntington Tri-State Airport – a nearly 45 minute drive from the Greenup County meeting site.
As Gibbs, Satterwhite and Hall headed to the airport to pick up the team, it seemed at first that their carefully laid plans were ruined.
“We had lost so much time that there was no way we would have the time or the ability to give our presentation. So, from the first second, we said, ‘Mr. Bouchard, tell us about your project and the most important components that will be your decision makers.’ With Craig in the front seat of the car we were able to address the 500-pound elephants in the room very, very quickly as we raced to Greenup County,” recalled Gibbs.
In the discussion was the recent AEROready certification, which vetted the region for aerospace development, in addition to the findings of a comprehensive workforce study, completed by the Eastern Kentucky Concentrated Employment Program in 2016. A key finding, as it pertained to Braidy, was that the region has eight times the number of skilled metal workers than the U.S. average.
“We’re a hot bed of that skill set; it is high in demand all around the country and no one knows it is here in eastern Kentucky. It’s an untapped resource, it’s just a phenomenal thing to have,” said Hall.
That fact alone may have sealed the deal. It’s a fact Bouchard has often quoted, saying, “Anywhere else we would’ve had to go steal 600 people from other companies. In Ashland, they are just knocking down our door to come work for us.”
“It was unbelievable how it all came together,” said Hall, “because of that fog bank we had 45 pristine minutes.”
All those years of preparation and planning paid off again later – allowing the region to keep Braidy Industries by relocating the plant to EastPark. EastPark, through the efforts of that same economic development network, is certified as a Kentucky WorkReady site.
“That’s the beauty of the preparation work we had already done. We had a solution because this community worked hard and we were ready. If we are not looking 10 years down the road, we are missing opportunities,” said Hall.
“That is what economic development is: trying to mitigate the risks and setting the state so people can understand they can make money here,” said Gibbs. “I think there are going to be many, many more jobs to come,” he predicted. “Think of Braidy as the anchor for a vast supply chain. The same reasons we gave for why it made sense to put the mill in this community, make sense for the supply chain too.”