ROME, Georgia

Economic Development Strategy (2007)

In 2007, Market Street was asked to return to Rome, Georgia for the third time to develop a fresh economic development strategy focused on taking the community’s efforts to an even higher level. Through the early years of the decade, the community benefited from strong job and income growth, thanks to the successes of the Rome-Floyd County 20/20 economic development initiative. In 1997-98, Market Street worked with the Greater Rome Chamber, City of Rome, and Floyd County to develop the Rome-Floyd County 20/20 agenda with “20 Goals for Rome and Floyd County to Grow On.” Five years later, Rome-Floyd County 20/20 asked Market Street to return to help update its strategy and examine the accomplishments of the community to date.

The strategy built on past successes and addressed new and continuing challenges for the community. The process leading up to strategy creation included a series of in-depth research phases. Successes were found in a wide variety of areas, but more work was needed, particularly in the areas of education, young professional workforce retention and attraction, entrepreneurial development, and economic diversification focused on raising local per capita income levels and other measures of wealth and prosperity.

The Rome-Floyd County 20/20 II strategy was developed based on the full breadth of the feedback and findings from the process, and outlined five new target business areas for the Chamber and its partners to focus on, including Health Care; Transportation and Trade; Professional and Technical Operations;  Advanced Process Manufacturing; and Tourism. The strategy served to take Rome-Floyd County to the “next level” of competitiveness and included comprehensive programs in education and training, talent retention and attraction, international development, economic diversification and marketing/branding. The Greater Rome Chamber – working with key volunteer leadership – is currently implementing the strategy’s priority action areas.

In 2007, Rome was profiled by Forbes magazine in its Best Places coverage for its successes in attracting international manufacturing firms to the city and training highly skilled workers. In 2010, Rome was ranked 7th by the Milken Institute out of 179 small metros across the country for five-year relative high-tech Gross Domestic Product growth. Rome has had success growing and attracting high tech manufacturing operations. Also in 2010, the Chamber announced that local textile manufacturer Syntech would expand their operations in Rome, adding 30 new jobs and $7.5 million in capital investments to the local economy. At the end of 2010, the Georgia Health Sciences University (formerly the Medical College of Georgia), announced the creation of a School of Medicine campus in Rome and Floyd County for third and fourth year students. Rome is also the new U.S. home for FP-Pigments, a Finnish company that develops and produces high-performance pigments. The project will create 20 new jobs and invest $20 million in capital expenditures. In September, 2011, home improvement retailer Lowe’s announced that it would be opening a new regional distribution center in Floyd County, which will create 600 jobs within three years and represent $125 million in project investment.