202: How a City Gets Ready for Growth with Kyle Touchstone, Director of Raleigh Economic Development

What if the incentive package isn't what decides where a company goes?

Kyle Touchstone grew up in South Mississippi, the kid of a hardware store owner who watched one large manufacturer change what a small business and its employees could afford. Today he is Director of Raleigh Economic Development, a program of the Greater Raleigh Chamber that provides business recruitment, retention and expansion services on behalf of the City of Raleigh.

Kyle says the Raleigh area is growing by about 100 people a day, up from about 33 ten years ago. That kind of growth gets attention from companies. Kyle says it is not why they come.

He puts it plainly: companies come for the talent and a competitive cost of doing business. Incentives are part of the game, but they are the dessert.

So what does a city need beyond the pitch? Kyle says developers who took a chance on the market created the opportunities for companies to locate there, like the redevelopment of an old steel mill that became home to Audemars Piguet's North American service center. He also points to a city process that brings developers and the AEC community to the table on day one, with a plan, a date and a reconvening meeting.

In this episode, Kyle and Rens dig into:

● How a hardware store in South Mississippi shaped Kyle's view of what one large employer can do for a community.

● How Raleigh Economic Development works with the Greater Raleigh Chamber, the City of Raleigh and regional partners.

● Why Kyle says the Raleigh area is growing by about 100 people a day, up from about 33 ten years ago.

● Why Kyle calls incentives the dessert, and what he says companies actually come to Raleigh for.

● How Raleigh structures incentives as a grant tied to the property taxes a company pays, with approval through a public process.

● Why Kyle says developers who took a chance on the market created the opportunities for companies to locate in Raleigh.

● Why Kyle says Raleigh has never been an office spec market, and what that means for new deliveries.

● How the city brings developers and the AEC community together from day one, so a project knows what it takes and when.

● Why predictability may matter more to developers than speed.

● The cost of growth analysis the city is working on as it plans for the next 30 years, and why Kyle thinks it could build support for density.

● What Kyle calls radical collaboration, including pitching companies alongside partners in Durham.

● Why the Greater Raleigh Chamber takes about 180 civic and business leaders to another community each year to ask what they would do differently.

● Where Kyle sees the next wave of opportunity, including billions of dollars of investment in downtown Raleigh.

The business lesson underneath the episode is bigger than Raleigh:

Pay attention to what actually brings people to the table.

Sometimes the winning move isn't a bigger incentive.

It's a predictable path from the city to the developer.

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