Prosperity Partnership networks with consultants in NYC

NEW YORK, N.Y.>> In order for businesses to build warehouses in new areas, connections have to be made. For two days last week Marty Vanags built connections in New York City at Consultant Connect to sell Saratoga County to site consultants that make new business sites happen.

“You can call an individual company but that takes a lot of time or you can work through this industry, this small little niche called site consultants,” said Vanags. “And site consultants are based in some of the major Metropolitan areas—-New York, Chicago, Dallas and Atlanta.”

These site consultants are either independent or work as part of a larger firm. About 14 site consultants met with economic developers like Vanags, who is president of Saratoga County

Prosperity Partnership.

“It was great. I had a lot of really great conversations with site consultants,” said Vanags. “Part open discussion and part speed dating.”

Vanags met with each site consultant individually.

“We each get a chance to talk to the consultants’ oneon-one basis for a short period of time and do our elevator pitch,” said Vanags. “Tell them about our community, tell them about the virtues of Saratoga County, describe to them our most recent projects and some of how our economy works... talk about just everything there is to talk about in terms of our community.”

Last month Saratoga County Prosperity Partnership partnered with Land Remediation Inc. to open a $1.8 million headquarters in Waterford.

Vanags said each consultant expressed interest in Saratoga County.

“They are impressed with GlobalFoundries and what happened there,” said Vanags. “They are impressed with the fact that we have Luther Forest Technology Campus and the STEP Park, so all of those are in our favor.”

It’s important for Vanags to network the way he does to bring economic opportunities to Saratoga County for job growth. The Land Remediation Inc. headquarters, for instance, will hire at least 12 new employees over the next three years.

There’s no data base for site consultants to use to find the right opportunities to build a warehouse distribution center. A company will contact a site consultant to find the perfect place in the Northeast, which, because of the relationships Vanags builds, hopefully brings more opportunities for businesses to build in Saratoga County.

“They know now, ‘OK, I got to go to New York, I got to start with Marty. I’m going to start with Saratoga County,’” said Vanags. “So being in front of the line, I guess, is an advantageous place to be. And it’s why we go out and develop these relationships with site consultants because we want them to know who we are.”

There are about 15,000 economic development organizations in the country, each hoping for businesses to expand to their region. Events like Consultant Connect, which is based out of Michigan, help Vanags tremendously.

“It’s really important that in order to get the word out about the county and in who we are, that we market ourselves to the outside world and this is one way of doing it,” said Vanags. “If we don’t do it, who will?”

Next month, Vanags will attend another networking event, this time in Chicago.