California Central Valley Economic Development Corporation (CCVEDC) markets the eight-county region to businesses and site selectors looking for a business location. In addition, CCVEDC provides regional leadership on economic development through the California Partnership for the San Joaquin Valley.

Regional Leadership
CCVEDC continued to provide regional leadership through meetings with legislators to discuss San Joaquin Valley issues and priorities. In 2016, meetings were held with 23 legislators, state officials and consultants. Regulatory reform, incentives and water storage topped the list of issues in the Central Valley. Regional collaboration focuses on various cluster industries that create jobs in the San Joaquin Valley including food processing, Ag tech and bio tech, manufacturing, supply chain management and logistics, health and medical care, and energy.

Marketing Results Overview
Marketing the brand “Central California…Center Yourself” is a regional effort, through national meetings with site selectors, trade shows, www.CentralCalifornia.org, and a vibrant marketing plan. CCVEDC contacts more than 2,300 brokers and close to 1,200 businesses per year. Results of these efforts are: produced 47 regionwide locational proposals; conducted several property site tours of the Valley; generated 575 new industrial-based jobs.

Industry Contact Program
The 2015-16 schedule included the Process Expo in Chicago, where they met with 120 companies; the WestPack Trade Show in Anaheim, where they met with 242 companies; and reaching out to 529 companies in the Food Processors and Suppliers Association. Successes from the trade shows include two new products: frozen smoothies, co-packed in the Central Valley, and one new international dry goods product distributed from the Valley.

Broker Contact  Program
The National Broker Contact Program in 2015-16 netted 1,087 face-to-face contacts. A portion of the program included conducting broker trade missions, nationwide, meeting with more than 151 site selection professionals at brokerage firms in Los Angeles, Ontario, Orange County, Chicago, the Bay Area, Sacramento, and Atlanta. CCVEDC is a sponsor of the Northern and Southern California Society of Industrial and Office Realtors, attending 15 networking events all over California. Successes this year include a major Mattress Manufacturing company that will employ 300 people in three years.

www.CentralCalifornia.org
The CCVEDC website provides valuable and comprehensive demographic information, a searchable real estate database, and news on the Central Valley Region. “One Region … One Contact” continues to be the most noteworthy component of the regional economic development plan. When a prospective site selector calls just one phone number for information (888-998-2345), they gain access to the Central Valley’s eight economic development corporations for sites, information and solutions.

Cost Effectiveness
CCVEDC runs a cost-effective marketing program using its limited funds with maximum success. Each of the counties, along with PG&E, contributes $11,000 to the marketing effort for a total budget of $99,000. For 575 jobs, that is $172 per job. In comparing results of the amount spent on marketing to the new income generated by jobs this year ($64,160,800), the result is $648 new dollars generated for every dollar spent.

CCVEDC is a not-for-profit corporation supported by the eight-county region in the Central Valley and PG&E, whose mission is to attract and retain jobs and investment in the Central San Joaquin Valley counties San Joaquin, Stanislaus, Merced, Madera, Fresno, Kings, Tulare and Kern.