I Bear as Much or More Than I Give in Return
by Bill Kalkhof, President of Downtown Durham, Inc.
n the accession of my second trip to Stara Zagora (SZ), I want to thank all these affiliated with the Bulgarian Technical Twinning Program, and especially Mayor Yablansky and his staff, for once again being gracious and generous hosts.
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This was a very hard working trip, with meetings and project evaluations scheduled all day long, followed by important networking dinners with local business community and political leaders each night.
My work focused on three priorities, adopted by Durham and SZ in the Action Plan:
- Downtown Development;
- Economic Development;
- Housing.
Working closely with Emil Vasilev, very good progress and consultation occurred with the downtown development projects. I consulted two public-private projects with Emil. In both projects, the concept of the public-private partnership is well conceived especially in light of SZ s lack of financial resources and the current confusing and complex relationship between local governments and the state government. Each project has now moved to the final draft of the competitive bid process. The competition should take place shortly. I offered 3 primary observations in the competition to Emil:
- The city and the builders must begin call to so called concessions / investments . As long the private developers to assist in the improvement of public infrastructure, especially if these improvements are near to or adjacent to the property, should be considered investments which will not only support the city in the long term, but also the long term profitability of the private development project.
- The concessions/investments should be related to public infrastructure near, or adjacent to, the private investment so that the investor can see that the concessions benefit the project.
- The city must do more financial analysis on each project to provide the investor with a reasonable estimate of his costs, and to better double of the city is asking for the proper amount of concessions.
With respect to the economic development, I met with representatives of the Regional Economic Development Agency (REDA), the Chamber of Commerce, the Union of Local Architects, the Rotary Club, representatives of 8 local businesses, and had dinner on two accessions with leaders of the local business community. These discussions focused on the general condition of the Bulgarian and SZ economy; the concept of private business leaders supporting public-private partnerships, the idea of local business leaders providing financial and time resources to organizations like REDA; comparisons of the programs of work and internal management practices of Downtown Durham, Inc. and the Durham Chamber with those of REDA and the SZ Chamber. For the future, I recommended to Mayor Yablansky that representatives from SZ visit Durham to focus on 3 issues:
- Learning about management practices and membership services provided by DDI and the Durham Chamber.
- Revealing in detail the step-by-step process DDT and the Durham Chamber employ to recruit manufacturing and industrial cheats to Durham in order to provide jobs.
- Meet with officials of the North Carolina State department of Commerce to begin to open doors in the NC marketplace for existing SZ businesses.
In reference to the housing initiative, I brought housing plans from Durham to SZ for Emil s review. Emil and I also toured the site for the now housing project to review opportunities and challenges presented by the site. The site is a good location that is close to the central downtown area and serviced by bus and trolley lines. More than the half site is vacant and so it will be easier to clear and grade the land for construction major challenges for the housing project are the technical issue of applying Bulgarian housing materials (brick, size, etc.) to an American house design (that uses primary wood), and the need to do a market survey of potential clients. Such a survey would indicate the projected cost for houses, select 50-100 individuals who can offer to buy the houses, show these people the plans, and ask if they would be willing to purchase these houses, and if not why not. The project is to build 12-15 houses, with a groundbreaking in June. The next step for Durham will be to send an American home builder to SZ to consult on the technical aspects of building the homes.
Much was accomplished during this busy working visit. Important details were worked out on each project, and a plan of action for the next steps was recommended. While much hard work remains, much has been accomplished during the times of the two visits.
On a personal note, my discussions with private business leaders left me with good optimism for the days ahead. These leaders are willing to invest in SZ for its long term benefit-and understand that if SZ can rebuild its infrastructure, their businesses will benefit in the long term even if some short term benefit must be sacrificed.
Once again, I want to thank everyone involved in this process for the wonderful opportunity these visits have afforded. As with all good partnerships, I bear as much or more than I give in return. And I remain honored and humbled by the generous and gracious nature of my hosts in SZ
- Interview with Mrs. Petya Atsinova, Executive Director of the Regional Economic Development Agency - Stara Zagora, and Mr. Emil Vassilev, Chief Architect of Stara Zagora.
- How would you evaluate your work with the American expert during the past week within the Bulgarian Technical Twinning Program ?
Mrs. Petya Atsinova, Executive Director, REDA
During his visit in Stara Zagora on January 11/17, 1998 Mr. Bill Kalkhof, President of Downtown Durham, Inc, worked on the implementation of the first free priorities of the Action Plan between Stara Zagora and Durham. A quarter of his time was spent on economic development issues. Practically, Mr. Kalkhof spent a day and a half working with the staff of the Regional Economic Development Agency - Stara Zagora.
After the Agency had studied the interest of Stara Zagora companies in establishing partnerships with companies in Durham, a working program was developed including meetings and discussions with 8 representatives of local businesses. Mr. Kalkhof visited four of the local companies and held meetings with others at the Agency s office. He was able to get an insight in their activities, interests and possibilities for developing partnerships with Durham. We made an attempt to explore in more detail those partnership possibilities while Mr. Kalkhof shared his experience in finding problem solutions. In addition, he offered his assistance in the areas of his competence.
Mr. Kalkhof s meeting with BARDA (Bulgarian Association of Regional Development Agencies) was extremely interesting and useful for our colleagues from the regional agencies. He presented Downtown Durham Inc. and the fund-raising approaches they use.
All of REDA s staff highly appreciated the meeting with Mr. Kalkhof, a person possessing great knowledge and experience obtained in a similar organization.
Emil Vassilev, Chief Architect, Municipality of Stara Zagora
My work with Mr. Bill Kalkhof was not only more than successful within the Bulgarian Technical Twinning Program but very practical and useful because of the exchanged new ideas regarding:
O the requirements concerning the future building of Slantse factory;
O the evaluating methods of concessions/investments sufficiency against the construction (property) rights on municipal grounds;
O municipal investments in American style family houses.
Personally, I feel enriched in terms of thinking and support in my sphere of interest and work.
- Do you see any development of the Program since its beginning? Has it helped the municipality?
P.A.:
E.V.:
O introduction of new model of housing policies for law income citizens. The strength of those models is the clear investment approach.;
O rethinking of the directions of sustainable and continuous communications with different actors in the field of private-public partnerships;
O the clarification of the necessity for creation of intermediary unit between the municipality and the potential investors.
- What are the practical outcomes of Mr. Bill Kalkhof s visit?
P.A.:
Quickest and most effective results in establishing such partnerships could be expected when there is an interest on behalf of Bulgarian companies in second hand equipment, mainly medical and tobacco processing equipment.
At the same time, however, in companies like Silent Labor (whose work has a particular social effect as most of the employees are people with damaged hearing), besides discussing the opportunities for production of clothes for Durham s medical industry, after defining the company s need of equipment renewal, Mr. Kalkhof offered his assistance in finding and purchasing second-hand machinery.
E.V.:
- in terms of concessions for construction rights (ownership) on municipal grounds - preliminary detailed preparation of financial projections from transferred construction (ownership) rights and related investments that the Municipality will require from developers;
- in terms of the future owners of the American style houses - they should be people owning houses/flats and willing to exchange them to buy the American houses;
- in terms of identifying the most practical use of a specific municipal site - meetings, conferences and surveys with potential developers should be conducted.
- What would you recommend to the program coordinators ?
P.A.:
E.V.:
I would recommend serious conversations with USAID representatives regarding the extension of the Program. Many good projects have been started and we will need time and assistance in order to complete them. The coordinators should keep the flexibility of the Program. This will provide an opportunity to take into consideration the necessities of different parties and make changes in order to utilize the existing possibilities for technical cooperation and assistance. I would divide the practical outcomes of my work with Mr. Bill Kalkhof into three groups: Mr. Kalkhof met with representatives of companies working in the filed of electronics, services, medicine, tobacco processing and production of wooden toys, as well as the sewing industry. At the end of each of the meetings specific steps were identified for creation of business contacts. There is definitely a development in the Program, namely its invaluable support for the municipalities regarding:The Program has already worked out . Mr. Kalkhof s visit in January defined a new stage of the Program s development. We had exchanged information and prepared necessary documentation before he arrived in Stara Zagora in order to use our time for some very practical work but not start from the very beginning.