After almost two years of discussion, Grow Idaho Falls and Bingham Economic Development merged into the Regional Economic Development Corporation for Eastern Idaho, also known as REDI (pronounced “ready”), on April 6.
Darlene Gerry, REDI’s interim director, said the goals of REDI are the same as the goals of Grow Idaho Falls and Bingham Economic Development used to be – to attract new business to the area – but with more power and a better reach.
“If you’re a site selector [for a company] then you’ve got all kinds of people vying for your attention – lots of little guys and then a bunch of bigger guys who represent a bigger area [and] bigger workforce,” Gerry said. “[With the bigger group,] you don’t have to talk to multiple people so that stronger voice, that united voice, that bigger group is going to get more of your attention.”
Linda Martin, former CEO of Grow Idaho Falls and active member of REDI, said she thinks it is wise to combine resources to reduce redundancy and increase effectiveness. She also said the combined effort gives businesses a wider range of sites, buildings and workforce to choose from in making their decision on whether or not to come to or expand in eastern Idaho.
Gerry said discussions began among representatives from Bonneville, Bingham and Bannock counties in late 2013.
“People were concerned with how they could better compete for new businesses,” Gerry said. “They saw the success of what was going on in Magic Valley, which is definitely a regional approach to economic development, and started to talk about whether it made sense for this region to do something similar.”
Although Bannock decided the time was not right for them to become part of the combined effort, Bonneville and Bingham made the decision at the beginning of this year to join forces.
“I think this is an opportunity to show that two communities can join together for a common purpose, and that purpose would be to try to attract new companies, new funding and new jobs into the eastern Idaho region,” Martin said.
Gerry said their long-term goal would be to expand to the entire eastern corridor because it is a very powerful region.
“REDI is about more than Bingham and Bonneville counties; it’s about the region in the broadest sense,” Gerry said. “When we work collaboratively to attract companies looking to relocate and to help our existing industries grow, we all win.”
She said they are still working to merge the two companies’ operations, but, once that has been completed, they will start to reach out to additional counties.
As part of the two-company merge, REDI is searching the nation for a new executive director.
“We are pleased to have Darlene [Gerry] join REDI,” said Scott Reese, another executive board member. “Darlene retired as the Executive Director of Innovation for Idaho State University about a year ago and has stayed involved in economic development. She’s a natural team builder and will lead the nationwide search for the new executive director.”
Gerry said REDI has retained Jorgenson Consulting, Inc., a national firm, to aid in their new director search. She said she does not intend to pursue the position herself and came on board in the first place to assist with the merger, something she has experience with.
“I’m really excited about bringing these two companies together,” Gerry said. “It was definitely the right thing to do.”