Following an announcement by Nokia Corp. that it had begun to lay off nearly 300 employees from its regional office in Harrison, on July 7 the Westchester Coalition for Business Development released its long-awaited report that details steps for generating new jobs across the county.
“Job creation must be our number one goal,” said Marsha Gordon, president and CEO of the Business Council of Westchester, which sponsored the coalition and its work. “We must work to create a pro-business environment.
The coalition, comprising 35 leaders of the Westchester business community and chaired by Tim Jones, managing director of the Robert Martin Co. L.L.C., amassed nearly 1,000 hours of research and deliberation in advance of the 39-page report”™s finalization.
Among the report”™s key findings were the need to halt the exodus of young adults from Westchester, to strengthen the legislative agenda of the county”™s business community and to educate county residents on the importance of establishing strong business roots here.
Gordon said the coalition was particularly concerned by a recent poll conducted by Marist College, which reported that 36 percent of New Yorkers under the age of 30 said they planned to leave the state within the next five years due to the high cost of living and the lack of a social appeal to the county”™s downtown areas ”“ a statistic that Gordon called “frightening.”
She noted the case of UBS, which has been reportedly seeking to trade its home in Stamford, Conn., for new offices in New York City, citing difficulties in recruiting young professionals to work in the company”™s Stamford headquarters, and said she and Jones both stressed the importance of ensuring that is not the case for Westchester businesses.
“We really need to do everything we can to help the people who are here today,” Jones said.
The coalition first convened in November 2010 and was broken down into eight committees: Legislative and Regulatory, Incentives, Infrastructure, Financial, Workforce and Education, Real Estate, Quality of Life, and Positioning and Marketing.
The short-term goals being targeted include:
- Establishing a marketing campaign to promote Westchester and its business “hot spots” to companies looking to relocate;
- Creating an internship clearinghouse and centralized recreational opportunities to help retain young adults;
- Establishing an investment consortium and investor forums to assist businesses seeking to expand or to create a foothold in Westchester;
- Promoting more mixed-use developments on the Platinum Mile stretch along I-287;
- Repealing the MTA commuter tax to ease the burden on businesses;
- Creating a joint public-private organization to help secure immediate funding for the Tappan Zee Bridge project; and
- Emphasizing research and development in the biotech and health care sectors, among others.
Westchester County Executive Rob Astorino, who was present at the announcement along with members of his staff, pledged to continue to work closely with the Business Council as well as other regional business associations, such as the Westchester County Association, which in May released its own assessment of what is needed in the to promote job growth.
He underscored the need “to develop strategies to make sure Westchester is truly open for business,” both now and in the future.
