Q&A with Patrick Hickey, economic development director at E-REP
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Earlier this year, Patrick Hickey became the economic development director at the Evansville Regional Economic Partnership. He previously worked as E-REP’s economic development program manager.
Hickey has been leading E-REP’s pursuit of a Comprehensive Economic Development Strategy, an economic roadmap aimed at diversifying and bolstering the local economy. He spoke with Inside INdiana Business about the importance of the strategy and the I-69 Ohio River Crossing project.
Tell me about your previous E-REP role as an economic development program manager.
When I started in January 2023, I came in as a program coordinator. I was more on the community development side at a regional level and promoting and encouraging investment in quality of place and quality of life amenities. Especially from an educational or resource standpoint. Part of my job was identifying all the funding opportunities that can help move projects from an idea to a plan on the shelf, from a shovel in the ground to a ribbon cutting.
I spent a lot of time in our surrounding counties—Posey, Warrick and Gibson that are a little under-resourced—learning about priorities, trying to meet communities where they are, and then spending time to connect projects to the funding opportunities or trying to help position communities to be competitive for grant programming through local planning. I continued in that role for about 15 months before accepting this new position.
What is your new role as E-REP’s economic development director?
My role is proactively working with our public and private sectors to cultivate and steward a business environment that is increasingly conducive to attraction, growth and expansion in the Evansville region. It’s part strategic marketing, part relationship building and part technical skill and know-how.
What can we do to generate new business development leads and support the growth of business? How can we use the latest research and analysis to form our decision-making? How well do we know our business community? How well do they know us? Would they say that we’re here for them and they know who to call when they’re struggling and when they’re growing?
What conversations are we having and drumming up with site selectors, developers and businesses looking to locate or relocate here? How are we growing in the same direction as our state partners at the [Indiana Economic Development Corporation]?
Talk about E-REP’s pursuit of a Comprehensive Economic Development Strategy.
I was given the opportunity early on to be the lead manager of our pursuit of a Comprehensive Economic Development Strategy. Along with Bob Grewe, our previous director, we wrote an application that awarded us a $60,000 planning grant from the Economic Development Administration to develop that CEDS plan through a consultant. It’s well underway, and we’ll have a public draft coming out around September or October.
I’m excited about the potential of establishing this process, doing it with annual reports and five-year updates, hopefully becoming an Economic Development District, launching that board and what it will mean for future, sustainable efforts of making our region more equitable, competitive and resilient.
Seeing CEDS through to adoption is an early goal I have. Getting it approved by the Economic Development Administration is a step to applying for that Economic Development District designation. The EDD is a short-term goal that we’ll have met hopefully in 2025. I want to be able to say we are recognized as the newest EDD in the country. It’s a designation we’ve never held, and it would open a lot of doors to funding and technical assistance.
What are your other short-term goals in this new role?
I would love to work with our team on building up our economic development marketing materials and continuing to develop relationships across the board from local to federal. It’s important for us to put our best foot forward in selling our greatest assets in the region to site selectors and prospective businesses looking to relocate here.
My intent is to be intentional and proactive in our business retention and expansion efforts. I want people to see that E-REP is busting it to play our role in growing the economy.
What are your long-term goals in this role?
A long-term vision of our region and its business opportunities is incomplete without talking about the I-69 Ohio River Crossing. We’re currently in the middle of a study funded by [Regional Economic Acceleration and Development Initiative] 1.0 and being developed by MKSK out of Louisville that’s advising how we develop land assets for future mega-sites for advanced manufacturing and supplier parts.
The study will allow us to work in tandem with the construction of the bridge to showcase a regional vision and present marketing opportunities to potential investors and build support and consensus in our region. We can leverage bridge and transportation assets like I-69, I-64 and the airport to meet our community’s shared vision and goals of population growth and thriving workforce. The MKSK plan is expected to be finished toward the end of the year.
You mentioned population growth and thriving workforce, two of the goals from Talent EVV’s annual report along with upward mobility and live well. How will you help advance those goals?
Manufacturing plays a critical role in driving economic growth and prosperity in our region. It’s 20% of our total private sector employment and 40% of our total economic activity. But it does face some challenges that I’d say threaten the future competitiveness of the industry, including rapid adoption of digital technologies, supply chain resiliency, aging workforce and high materials costs.
While our regional manufacturing base is in a position of relative strength compared to national trends, one of the best things that I could do to help advance Talent EVV goals is working toward building up what is called Industry 4.0 and enabling occupations within it. Our region has lost its share of those occupations in the last five to seven years.
The alignment of talent may present a limiting constraint on the rate of technology adoption and integration. Working with our manufacturing partners, our tri-state manufacturing alliance, it’s currently strong, but there are critical challenges around digital transformation and some talent that need to be addressed.
E-REP has had several changes over the past six months, including Lloyd Winnecke becoming CEO and Justin Groenert being named chief strategy officer. What do these changes mean for the organization and the regional economy?
When I was interviewing, I was told by our former COO, Audrie Burkett, and others that E-REP is an ever-evolving organization. Change is inevitable. But when I see who we’ve replaced ourselves with—we go from Tara Barney to Lloyd Winnecke—it gives us a lot of confidence that we’re in good hands. I see the changes as something that presents new opportunities more than anything.
Lloyd Winnecke, Josh Armstrong [senior vice president of economic development] and Justin Groenert, they bring their own set of skills and relationships to the table that are different than the previous team. And different takes some time to get used to, but embracing the unique skills that they bring to the table is going to be important.
What’s your regional economic development outlook for the rest of 2024?
It’s a planning year for us, between CEDS and the I-69 corridor plan. We’re getting our ducks in a row to be able to effectively move forward. The good news is that those plans will be done by the end of the year, and they will set the table for what’s to come with the bridge.
We’ve never had an EDA-approved CEDS, so we’re leaving dollars on the table. We’re seeing some of our peer and aspirational cities who have EDA-approved CEDS and who are EDDs get these grants to advance their goals, and we’re not in a position yet to do so.
For us as an organization, it’s getting these plans done and then executing them, but there’s still day-to-day work that needs to be done. The typical blocking and tackling of business retention visits, supporting our key partners, that will always be done.
We were one of six regions across the state to get the maximum $45 million with READI 2.0 [funding in April]. So we’re excited about beginning to leverage that for quality of place because it’s the buzzword. It attracts talent, and talent leads to new business opportunities. There’s a lot of momentum right now in addition to some other developments. We have to continue to keep pushing the ball forward with marketing our best assets in the region.