State of Business 2024
“Embracing a Brand-New Day”
Introduction
Good morning and thank you Stacie for coming out of retirement to help provide a smooth transition for the Chamber.
I am excited to welcome Kristi Simon as she embarks on her new role as the President and CEO of the Howard County Chamber. With her experience with the Central Maryland Chamber, we are thrilled we have someone who has and will continue to be a steadfast partner. Our Howard County Chamber of Commerce is among the best in the nation, with more member businesses than any other local Chamber in the Greater Baltimore area. This is a testament to your engagement and active work within our business community, of which approximately 700 businesses are chamber members.
We are facing a pivotal time for Howard County’s future. This post-pandemic era has left us an uncertain global economy, but here in Howard County we are embracing a brand-new day by setting a strong foundation for the future.
Let me unequivocally say that here, in Howard County, the State of Business is strong. We are boldly setting the course for the future.
Charting the Course for Major Economic Development and Entrepreneurial Activity
We are embracing a brand-new day through extensive planning and setting a fortified foundation. HoCo By Design, our General Plan, sets the vision for the next two decades. As our roadmap for the future, it also highlights what a new day will look like for the Gateway Innovation District in Columbia. Just last month, we officially kicked off the master planning process for Gateway, which will be a robust effort to ensure that this plan is a comprehensive, actionable guide.
Gateway will be the regional destination for fresh research and ideas. It will stand out as the dynamic, mixed-use, connected, and modern spark of innovation in the heart of our State. Five years ago, our own Howard County Government building in Gateway did not exemplify the modern attraction nor the potential to anchor the area.
Within my first 100 days in office as your County Executive, we accelerated an MOU that enabled us to invest $4.2 million with the EDA to fully renovate and revive the building to become what is today. This center now serves as the nexus of resources and support for small, minority, women, and veteran-owned businesses.
I want to thank Howard County Economic Development Authority CEO Jennifer Jones for her impactful leadership. In her first six months alone, she has already helped elevate the Gateway Innovation District even further, to be on the state and national stage.
Notably, under her leadership, she helped ensure that Howard County is part of the Greater Baltimore Committee’s designation as a national Tech Hub. Out of more than 400 applicants, only 41 were designated by the Biden Administration as regional Tech Hubs.
To accelerate our competitiveness, we are investing $2 million to build out data centers and allow for businesses both large and small to house their data safely and securely within the cloud, on or off their premises.
This past Fall, when Howard County was designated as a “Capitol for a Day,” Governor Moore and members of his cabinet visited our Innovation Center. They saw firsthand the level of innovation, transformation, and our aspiration for excellence.
In this fiscal year alone, our Innovation Center added 50 firms and now has 41 resident companies. One of these businesses and a resident in the Innovation Center is Forte – a mental wellness platform. CEO Vineet Rajan is bringing increased access to mental health services, and recently raised more than $3 million for an expansion push.
Last year, we provided $400,000 toward the construction of a new café and flex space on the first floor of the Innovation Center. What was an outdated empty shell will now be filled with new energy and be a café for coffee and ideation for entrepreneurs. I invite you to join us on Friday, February 23rd at noon as we cut the ribbon on this exciting, new space.
The dawn of a new day continues with the revitalization of Downtown Columbia, where Jim Rouse’s legacy continues to be advanced and achieved.
Rouse famously remarked “We must hold fast to the realization that our cities are for people, and unless they work well for people they are not working well at all.”
Through our collaborative efforts, Downtown Columbia is now a modern, mixed-use, walkable community centered on people. We completed significant road networks, improved Downtown’s regional commuter bus stop, dedicated vibrant new public spaces, and added to the walking and biking network.
This year, we will cut the ribbon on the new, 86,000-square-foot medical office building, which will be a new major landmark of success. I want to welcome Kristi Smith, our new President of Howard Hughes’ Corporation in Maryland, as we partner to shepherd Downtown Columbia into the future.
Embracing a Brand-New Day by Boosting up Route 1, Elkridge, Laurel, Savage,
Jessup and throughout the County
We are embracing a new day in every corner of Howard County as we chart a new path forward that promotes a strong economic climate and job growth.
This includes a renewed focus on the Route One Corridor, which is one of the State’s oldest transportation corridors. And today, Route One represents one of our greatest opportunities to strengthen employment, expand vital industrial space, and grow mixed-use redevelopment.
HoCo By Design also includes a new Master Plan for Route One. Washington Boulevard can become the model world-class industrial corridor, with critical access to nearby transportation, jobs, and housing. To realize this vision, we are investing more in today’s businesses on Route One to help them grow and expand, while we attract the businesses of tomorrow. We accomplish this, in part, through our transformative Route One Tax Credit Program, which we renewed in 2020 to annually invest a quarter of a million dollars into businesses along the Corridor.
Through this credit, last year, we awarded an average of $50,000 to five businesses in Elkridge, Jessup, and Laurel. This included an award to FleetPro, an auto-maintenance business in Elkridge. They completed a comprehensive external remodel that modernized and enhanced the building and gave it greater curb appeal. To date, the program has supported 18 renovation projects along Washington Boulevard. This year, we are committing another quarter of a million dollars to make this program even more impactful.
Just as we must invest in physical infrastructure for our business community, we must also support our businesses that are growing their workforce and their reach throughout the region and our nation. Our industrial economy is home to many thriving businesses here in Howard County, including O’Donnell Metal Deck in Elkridge. O’Donnell Metal Deck recently acquired a major Tennessee metal deck distributor, growing its national footprint. It has now become one of the largest steel joist and metal deck companies in the United States. We are always thrilled to see our Howard County businesses grow and thrive.
A new era of opportunity is on the horizon for Route One, and we are embracing this new day with optimism and tenacity. As we grow and strengthen our commercial and industrial sectors, EDA is a vital partner to achieving continued success.
Together, with EDA we are pursuing a new Howard County Redevelopment Authority, focused initially on Route One, to accelerate revitalization. I am advocating in Annapolis to get legislation passed which will allow us to establish a redevelopment entity with bonding authority to do this critical work right here in Howard County. In addition, I am investing half a million dollars to jumpstart our redevelopment efforts.
We are continuing to highlight and support our hubs of small business…like Savage Mill, which welcomed 10 new businesses and saw six more expand this year. The active reuse of Historic Savage Mill as a center for business, retail, restaurants, and office space serves as a model to historic communities across our nation. I want to thank Jay and Adam Winer, Donna, and the entire Mill team for their endless contributions.
From Elkridge to Ellicott City, Columbia to Clarksville, Laurel to Lisbon, Savage to Sykesville, and beyond, we are investing in every corner of Howard County to ensure that our businesses, entrepreneurs, and visionaries can thrive.
Across our county, we welcomed 200 new businesses last year.
Our workforce is also rebounding. Just eight years ago, Howard County had a 3.7% unemployment rate. In the last year, Howard County businesses added nearly 7,000 employees. Now, we have the lowest unemployment rate in the State at just 1.6%.
Visitor spending also grew by 13% in Howard County, reaching nearly $740 million in 2022 compared to roughly $650 million in 2018. I want to take a moment to thank another partner in this effort, Amanda Hof, who is always working to bring more people back to Howard County. Visit Howard County has effectively implemented creative ways to market and support our businesses. Recently, they launched the new Koreatown website just in time for Restaurant Weeks and Lunar New Year.
Investing in Agriculture, Agribusiness- Ellicott City and the West; Energy
Independence
During the last five years, we’ve finally begun listening to our farmers to learn about their evolving needs as a business community. This month, our legislation was introduced before the County Council to establish Howard County’s very first Office of Agriculture, something our farming community has requested for decades.
This new Office will centralize all the critical support that Howard County currently provides to our farmers. That includes our economic development support, agricultural preservation program, sustainability, ag innovation grants, and more.
The creation of this new Office was also championed by a friend of agriculture and a friend to many of us: the late Mickey Day. As a past Chair of the Agricultural Preservation Board and the Former President of the Howard County Fair Association, Mickey advocated for Howard County farmers for his entire life. Together, we will honor Mickey’s legacy and continue our efforts to promote a vibrant agricultural economy in
Howard County.
We are doing more than ever and creating new opportunities so our farmers too can embrace a new day. In August, we announced our new Enhanced Agriculture Grant pilot program, which offered a quarter of a million dollars in awards to farmers, non-profits, and organizations who support Howard County’s agriculture. This important program supplements EDA’s agricultural grants, ensuring that we are directly supporting
our farmers more than ever before.
Today, I’m excited to announce the award winners for the first round of this pilot program, some of whom are in attendance today.
These grants will support innovative projects and equipment such as drone technology, new barns, fertilizer application tools, agricultural education programming, internships, and investments to expand business capacity for our farms.
As we continue to deepen our agricultural roots in Western Howard County, we are also committed to revitalizing our historic towns, including our beloved Historic Ellicott City.
Recently, I delivered my State of Ellicott City address, which demonstrated the progress we made after the three devastating floods of 2011, 2016, and 2018. Our bold Ellicott City Safe and Sound flood mitigation plan continues to move forward. It will help safeguard our town from future severe storms, and it is also becoming an international model for flood mitigation.
Last month, we took another monumental step forward as we started the highly-anticipated deconstruction of four buildings on Lower Main Street. As we break ground on these impactful stormwater projects, our small business community in Historic Ellicott City is thriving. This year alone, we cut the ribbon on six new businesses, and now have the lowest vacancy rate in three decades.
When it became clear that the historic Ellicott City courthouse would close, we began engaging the public about the future of the building. We learned that arts, civic space, and food-related uses were among the top priorities for our community.
With this feedback in mind, we recently announced the transformation of our Historic Circuit Courthouse into a new Center for Arts, Culture, and History. As the home to the Howard County Center for the Arts and the county’s first Asian American and Pacific Islander Cultural Center, this vibrant destination will bring tens of thousands of visitors to Historic Ellicott City each year.
Furthermore, we are locating our nationally recognized Roving Radish program to the Courthouse and constructing a new commercial kitchen for emerging entrepreneurs to use as they grow their businesses.
A new day for our Courthouse continues this summer when we will begin construction on a multi-million-dollar renovation to this historic treasure.
Today, I am announcing our intention to launch a new, small area transit service for Historic Ellicott City. This effort will provide transportation connections between the Historic Circuit Courthouse, Main Street, and Ellicott City’s businesses. We will be releasing a Request for Proposals this Spring to launch this exciting new program.
Furthermore, we recognize that successful businesses also must be resilient. In Ellicott City and our vulnerable watersheds, this means ensuring that our businesses have the resources they need to weather severe storms and the worsening impacts of climate change. During my time in office, we have provided floodproofing grants to business and property owners, such as Forget-Me-Not-Factory. This Spring, we are relaunching and expanding this grant program, bringing our total investment to more than a quarter of a million dollars.
Embracing A Brand-New Day for Small and Minority Businesses and Workforce
By supporting our vibrant and diverse small business community, Howard County’s economy is stronger than ever.
I invite you to join me on March 20th with Special Secretary Martinez of the Governor’s Office of Small, Minority and Women Business Affairs and many partners for the “Ready, Set, GROW!” Procurement Connections Workshop. This great event will ensure our small businesses are equipped to succeed.
We have done even more for our women and minority businesses. We made a game-changing investment of half a million dollars with our Disparity Study that is currently underway. By June of this year, we will use this critical analysis to drive our local and minority business investment to new heights.
Together, we are spending county dollars to strategically support homegrown businesses and maximize their impact to our local economy. Our Local Business Initiative skyrocketed in engagement. We have quadrupled the number of certified local businesses since 2018, going from 100 to nearly 400 so far this year —and there are still 6 months of data to be collected for the year!
Since 2018, Howard County Government has increased spending by more than 700% with local businesses, going from $4 million to $32 million last year.
It is no wonder that Dean Hof and our Office of Procurement continue to get national recognition.
Today, I’m thrilled to launch our new, interactive small local business directory on our website. This helpful tool will allow businesses to easily register with Howard County. Residents will also be able to quickly find information on any small business.
We are being more creative in how we help our emerging and current businesses. Just last month, we celebrated a new partnership with The 3rd, EDA, and the Maryland Women’s Business Center. Howard County has been a proud partner of The 3rd since the conception of their new space in 2020. I want to thank CEO Laura Bacon for her partnership and persistence to help realize this vision. As a mixed-use community hub and incubator for Women of Color-own businesses, The 3rd has been a major driving force for business development in our community.
It’s a brand-new day for entrepreneurs, existing businesses, and the workforce of today and tomorrow. Supporting the next generation of our workforce will carry us into the future, and it requires vision, determination, and new ideas. Therefore, I committed $11 million to Howard Community College for the new Workforce and Trades Center.
Dr. Daria Willis immediately identified that creating increased pipelines for our trades is a necessary and pressing investment. We are now writing the next chapter for our trades, and we will see an appreciable increase in our workforce pipelines. Thank you, Dr. Willis.
We recognize that equipping our workforce starts early. Through a transformative partnership between the Office of Workforce Development and the Howard County Public School System, we are advancing the hiring and training of 30 Career Counselors who will support our students and help them achieve their dreams.
Already, our Office of Workforce Development have had an intense focus on providing career readiness support for students. Since July 1st, they have provided workforce development services to approximately 300 students and will continue to grow that program.
In 2018, thirteen “opportunity youth”, our young people living with disabilities, who are in foster care, or those who are under-resourced, were placed into summer jobs each year. These past five years, we have dramatically expanded job placements and hired 175 young people this past summer. In just five years, our investment went from $31,000 to $302,000, a ten-fold increase to benefit nearly 15 times as many of our young people–a worthy effort to support the aspirations of students of every ability.
I want to thank many of our employers who opened their doors to offer a record 24 worksites to our young people for six weeks in the summer. Also, much thanks to local vendors DeJesus Solutions, the Jacaranda Center, and Johnson Leadership group for offering a virtual employment program to expand our reach even further.
Embracing a brand-new day means that we all need to commit to increasing our apprenticeships. Our Office of Workforce Development was recognized this past year by Governor Wes Moore and the Maryland Department of Labor, receiving the Workforce Area award. We led our state in helping businesses launch apprenticeships. We also assisted residents in finding and securing apprenticeships.
Working with our State partners and Howard County Public Schools, we invested $13 million into the Applications Research Laboratory to increase the number of career and technology placements, including apprenticeship opportunities.
In 2018, we had about 215 residents who were registered in apprenticeship programs, but we have come a long way since. Since 2018, we’ve had a 70% increase in the number of Howard County residents who are in an apprenticeship. As of 2022, 365 residents were in an active apprenticeship.
Howard County is a regional leader, which is why I was excited to be named as one of the Governor’s five statewide Apprenticeship Ambassadors. My first order of business as an Ambassador was to visit many of our Howard County apprenticeship programs. This included our very own Department of Public Works electric and plumbing apprenticeship that we created in 2019.
Today, I am excited to announce our investment of $60,000 to Howard Community College to grow and expand its cybersecurity apprenticeship program. This investment will match funds provided by EDA, creating an opportunity for more than 30 registered apprentices to reach their full potential through a rewarding career in cybersecurity.
As an Apprenticeship Ambassador, I urge every business here to please consider rebooting or establishing an apprenticeship. Our Office of Workforce Development is providing an incentive of $5,000 for every activated or reactivated apprenticeship.
Embracing Transformation
When we embrace modernization and creativity, we are embracing a brand-new day. Through our Transform Howard initiative, we have added multiple key WiFi points, including all six libraries.
This year, we are expanding to Rockburn and Western Regional Parks.
By this May, we will have expanded our fiber build-out to all 23 Columbia Association pools which will be in time for summer fun when families are relaxing by the pool. Additionally, through a partnership with Verizon and the Maryland Office of Statewide Broadband, we will bring high-speed internet to residents along Route 40 and the I-70 corridor. That means nearly 400 homes in Western Howard County will now have access to fast and affordable internet services.
I heard from many of our farmers that they couldn’t consistently access the internet in many areas. Instead of frustrating spotty internet, their farms can now access steady, safe, and secure internet services to support their operations.
We are ushering in a new day and embracing transformation so that our government can serve you better. Before 2018, a majority of our permitting processes were still paper based. Today, whether you are trying to build a deck, open a restaurant, or expand your footprint, you can now submit all your permit applications online.
Our work to build a clean economy leverages public and private partnerships, and we have already seen the results. Howard County now leads the state with the number of electric and plug-in vehicles on the road. In just the last year, our plug-in vehicle registration grew by 47% as Howard County now has more than 10,000 electric and plug-in hybrid vehicles.
To encourage more workplace EV charging, we became the first jurisdiction in Maryland to sign the “Charge at Work” pledge with the Department of Energy. Howard County already has approximately 300 publicly available charging ports, and that number continues to grow rapidly. Together, we are embracing technology of the future and leading the way forward.
Moreover, we are able to make crucial investments in our community because Howard County has worked hard to maintain and strengthen our fiscal health and national reputation. Just this week, Howard County was once again awarded a Triple A bond rating from all three credit rating agencies, demonstrating our commitment to responsible budgeting and wise investing. Howard County is among just 55 counties with this distinction out of approximately 3,100 jurisdictions in the U.S., placing us in the top 2% of counties nationally. Each year, we leverage this sound credit rating to borrow at lower rates and maximize your tax dollars.
Conclusion
No matter what happens, Howard County is on the move again. In the midst of uncertainty … hope and greatness lie ahead of us, and we are embracing a brand-new day.
Our future is bigger, bolder, and brighter. We are resilient and embracing economic vitality. We are defined by the promise of this brand-new day that will set an unshakeable foundation for our shared future.
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Related News: County Executive Refers to Economic Vitality in State of Business Address
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