Expert says University Park area has what it takes for economic growth

By Dave Scott
Beacon Journal staff writer
Feb 23, 2011

University Park has assembled the key ingredients to foster economic growth, an economic development leader from Boston said Tuesday.

Deborah Shufrin, senior vice president of the Initiative for a Competitive Inner City, was in Akron to address a group of University Park Alliance supporters.

Joining UPA Executive Director Eric Anthony Johnson in a meeting before the speech, she said the area has:

• Infrastructure. The roads, utilities and other support needed for economic development already exists in the 50 blocks in the middle of the city.
• Anchor attractions, including the University of Akron, Summa's City, Akron General and Children's hospitals, two new elementary schools and the STEM middle school.
• Land available for growing companies.
• Population density to provide potential customers.

Strong connections to those anchors are important.

''If you're a biotech company that is producing something in the polymer industry, the fact that you have this polymer institute facility right here, there is a lot of synergy,'' said Shufrin.

She and Johnson agreed a missing ingredient is residential housing, not just for service employees but also for professionals who work at the anchors.

''If you add up the volume of the anchors and the people who work there, it's in the thousands,'' Johnson said. ''What's missing is the residences. The way we do that is . . . to attract residents at the anchor institutions to live in close proximity.''

Shufrin has a background in investment and said linking investors to growing businesses is vital.

''There does seem to be a mismatch between the companies who need the capital and the ability of the investors that need to find them,'' she said. ''The investors will tell us we have a really hard time finding companies that we want to invest in.''

The first step is the education of the fledgling companies.

''When you are talking about minority, inner-city businesses, often they are not plugged in the same way that you and I might go to a chamber of commerce,'' she said. ''You basically have to do education and training to let them know what other resources [are available].''

Companies sometimes complain that private investors, often called angels, are scarce in this part of the country.

Shufrin said that can be overcome.

''It doesn't necessarily have to be an angel network that is parked in your backyard but having local sources of capital whether it's a community bank [or other institutions] where there's an inherent understanding of the kinds of businesses in the community.''

Dave Scott can be reached at 330-996-3577 or davescott@thebeaconjournal.com