29. Grow Quad Cities with Chris Caves

In this episode, Andrea and Griff talk with Chris Caves with the Quad Cities Chamber and the new spin-off, Grow Quad Cities. Chris has great insights into current economic development and workforce development in the region.

Transcript

SPEAKER_00 0:09

Welcome to Load It, the Hahn Ready Mix Podcast with Andrea Meyer, Griffin Hahn, producer Lex, and a special guest today.

SPEAKER_02 0:18

Welcome, Chris Caves. How are you?

SPEAKER_01 0:20

I'm doing really great. Happy to be here. Thanks.

SPEAKER_02 0:23

Excellent, excellent. We're we're really happy to have you on. And Chris, you're with the Quad City Chamber and now grow Quad Cities, right?

SPEAKER_01 0:31

Yeah, that's right. I um I serve the organization as uh vice president of business uh retention, okay, expansion, and workforce. So uh basically I just take care of existing companies in Quad Cities and make sure they're profitable and they're gonna stay and uh and troubleshoot any challenges that they're having along the way.

SPEAKER_02 0:51

Awesome. Awesome. Well that that's important stuff for us to you know, workforce development's obviously something that's a big deal for us, and as we are always looking for good people to join our team. And growth is what we do, right? So we want to have more projects to deliver concrete on. So as the Quad Cities grows, um, that's good for us.

SPEAKER_01 1:09

So it is kind of a funny little symbiotic relationship that we have. So uh so yeah, actually, uh Griffin, I appreciate that uh you recognize that Quad City Chamber is distinguishing our economic development pillar of work under a new name called Grow Quad Cities.

SPEAKER_02 1:27

Uh let's so let's talk about that a little bit. Like, you know, we've been a chamber member for forever, and um obviously the the work that the chamber does and has done is really important. But what's what's the thinking behind uh the Grow Quad Cities kind of spinning that off into a different um organization?

SPEAKER_01 1:47

Yeah, I mean the the evolution of the Quad City Chamber has has done this in the past, right? Where we've separated economic development and then based on you know the economy and a pandemic and many other uh ways to find business efficiencies, you can um, you know, re-org in the best manner and the best way to suit our membership, which are businesses. We're business membership organization. Uh, if you know nothing else about the chamber, right? If you have any question about the economy, any questions about uh starting up a business, any questions about um you know finding resources, we want to be your first call. So as a business membership organization in the region, uh we're just really here to help to support the business community. Uh we recently uh got a new CEO, so he's been with in the Quad Cities for um about 18 months, yeah. Uh came from Dallas, Fort Worth area, a little town called McKinney, Texas. So it was a little town that grew into a big town. Nice. Uh and he was the CEO of an economic development organization. Uh and the Quad Cities Board of Directors and other uh leaders in the community are like, the Quad Cities is primed for investment. I mean, I don't know about you guys, but if you travel around the country like we do and you say you're from the Quad Cities, more times than not, the folks you're talking to will say, Oh yeah, I've been through there. And we kind of want people to stop next day. Yeah. So so how do we build the infrastructure, the businesses, the retail, the tourism, the attractions, the amenities, the riverfronts, Griffin, all of these are big projects. And the funny thing is, all of these take concrete.

SPEAKER_02 3:24

They do. They do.

SPEAKER_01 3:26

We love that about those projects.

SPEAKER_02 3:29

You know, and I love um when you guys bring in like site selectors, I think that's a process that nobody really knows that that happens, right? So yeah. Um, and and I appreciate that you invite me and other business people to come and sell the quad cities and what we have to offer to those site selectors because they're being hired by companies that want to grow and expand and and set up you know new buildings or new um, you know, whatever. And that and the there's they're basically scouts out looking for the right place to be. Yeah.

SPEAKER_01 4:00

Yep, but they're like relocation brokers. Yeah. So before I got into economic development, I didn't really understand all the players in that space or or how do you get a new visit? How do you get an Amazon to come to the Quad Cities? You know, and it starts with conversations with folks that are representative of industry looking to find a new home.

SPEAKER_02 4:22

Yeah. Yeah. That's cool. That's cool. That's cool. So uh obviously there's the the new grow quad cities. What else is um kind of the big priorities for the chamber right now?

SPEAKER_01 4:35

Yeah. So uh with the chamber, um, you can continue to, you know, count on them as your your your business networking, your business convening. Uh they still want to get folks together for for networking and business development opportunity. Um so those business-to-business connections are going to be key. Business advocacy, uh, so anything government affairs legislatively, uh, if you want your voice to be heard, if you have an issue that that you want attention uh to, that the government affairs team is here to help do that under the uh traditional chamber. And then we also have a new emphasis on small and minority business development. Um, so not that we didn't have small business assistance organizations in the Quad Cities, uh, but the traditional chamber will now have uh staff and resources to help those small and minority businesses grow and get connected to resources. So that's the traditional chamber side. So you'll still see a lot of those uh big annual events, golf outings, you know, the annual meeting, those things will continue to happen. On the Grow Quad Cities side, we're gonna be focused not only on industrial where Griffin, in that's how we've known each other for years, is we always just, you know, get together and chat about industrial development projects. Um, but uh Peter Tokar, our new CEO, is really wanting to expand multi-use development, right? As well as retail and tourism attraction. How can we help support riverfront development? Uh, which all of our communities in the quad cities are focused on that. So is it is it uh apartments, is it homes, is it restaurants, is it attraction, is it uh, you know, concert venues, whatever that's gonna look like, um grow quad cities team members will be part of those conversations.

SPEAKER_02 6:23

Yeah, cool. So that you know, there's a lot of industry, and you've talked about a lot of different sectors there. What do you think has the most momentum right now, or where do you see the biggest challenges? Yeah, what what different market sectors, what's what's growing, I guess, is the is the question.

SPEAKER_01 6:39

Right. I mean, um, we were kind of having a conversation before the podcast started, and uh, you know, the economy's kind of got us in a a bit of a standstill. You know, it's a wait and see what we've noticed. You don't say we're all just gonna wait and see around interest rates and inflation. And um, you know, what are those levers that our community needs to pull to start to just uh fire up uh the furnace on development? Um is it it's a chicken and egg conversation, isn't it, Griffin? You know, do we build the attractions? Uh tourism, retail, hospitality, do we build them, hoping that'll fire up the engine? Or do you continue to keep your foot on the gas with industrial development? Uh, you know, even though with the uh economic situation that we're in, tariffs are you know making that difficult for certain products. Uh and then of course, we know with, you know, you just can't snap your fingers, folks, and just plop a new factory in the middle of the Quad City's cornfield. That's not how it works.

SPEAKER_02 7:40

That sounds great.

SPEAKER_01 7:41

We actually we actually can do that. You know, it just takes the the uh ever-loving dollar, really. And I tell people all the time when you're traveling down Interstate 80 and you see a bunch of vacant farmland, uh, you have to like think below the surface and go, who's gonna pay for the water and sewer infrastructure to bring that out before we can put a dwelling, a building, a factory on top of it. So uh it's money, money, money, folks. And when we get the right people in the right conversation at the right time, if it's industrial, if it's multi-use, if it's retail, we're gonna pull those levers. Um so we're really trying to read the tea leaves uh as we go through this somewhat stagnated economy.

SPEAKER_02 8:23

Yeah, cool. So talk to me about like your pitch. Um, when the when a site selector or a company is like, why should I do business in the quad cities? Why should I grow to the quad cities? What do you what do you sell us on? What do you tell them is is the reason why you do business here?

SPEAKER_01 8:38

Yeah, I mean, you know, there's always some sparkly things, right? As a quad city native, right? I'm super proud of the quad cities. Um, I did talk to someone recently though, Griffin. So they were a transplant. I may be getting off track with this question, but they were a transplant. They've only been a quad city resident for two years. They came from New Orleans. They are so proud to be here. They think we have the most like best weather days out of a year anywhere, right?

SPEAKER_03 9:04

Yeah.

SPEAKER_01 9:04

Um, but they they're like, why on social media are there so many antagonists, right? You know, people that aren't putting forward um that that regional or community pride. And I I took that really personally as a native. And I think so. Back to your original question, you know, what is my pitch? Um, the Quad Cities uh were a community literally established on hard work. We are a community of makers. People in this town have skills, so they know how to build, they know how to make, they know how to, you know, turn a dollar, you know, make a dollar out of a dime sort of thing. And uh uh we also have you know a lot of just other assets. We've got plenty of water, we've got uh energy assets, we've got a clean energy, renewable energy, uh, we've got a second-to-none interstate transportation system, we have multimodal transportation, so barges, train, airport, roads. You know, we've got a brand new I-74 bridge, which I know you guys were a big part of. And that is a huge, like um uh that draws a lot of attention and quite honestly, it impresses site selectors when they're in our community to see that little quad cities can build a giant, creatively beautiful bridge to increase interstate commerce. That's massive. I think that speaks to the quad cities. It's really just the uh think about the ease of going across that bridge, right? Um, and that's and that's what it's it's like to do business in the quad cities. You have access to whoever you need, bankers, leaders, CEOs, you have access in the quad cities. It's up to us to take full advantage of it.

SPEAKER_02 10:43

Yeah. I loved that you uh touched on that because one of the questions I was gonna ask was you know, how does infrastructure improvements that all of our people um are working on all the time, right? New bridges, new roads, um, how does that help businesses in the quad cities? And so, you know, talking about how site selectors um are impressed by that kind of thing is is great.

SPEAKER_01 11:04

Oh, Griffin, you never get a second chance to make a first impression. Yeah. And and uh to be able to drive our site selectors from the Quad City International Airport to a hotel in downtown Davenport in eight minutes across the beautiful bridge that says all it needs to say right there is that we know what we're prioritizing, we're proud of our community, we want to make life easy, right? We want to make a dollar, so make it look good. We don't build cheap looking stuff, right?

SPEAKER_02 11:31

Absolutely. Absolutely. All right. Um what um you is there any like upcoming developments or initiatives in the quad cities you think will have a big impact on on local businesses?

SPEAKER_01 11:44

Um, you know, I personally I've got a couple of initiatives that that I'm working on under the Grow Quad Cities team. They have more of a workforce flare, but um as I was talking to some folks earlier today, uh workforce changes, the conversation around workforce changes. So right after the pandemic, it was I need a warm body, right? And then within a year, it was I need highly skilled people, you know, within that same timeline, it was can I just get people that'll show up and then maybe not spend all day on their cell phones? Like we hear this all the time. Uh, and then right now the evolution has turned to um, how do I how do I have a workforce here in the quad cities, Griffin, that isn't just skilled in manual skills, right? Technical skills, but I also need help uh having folks with technical skills as well as automation and technology, right? Artificial intelligence is at our front door. We were just using it right before the podcast, right? Um, manufacturing automation. I know that there's different tools that you guys are using in your industry, um, either on the front end or the back end, to make you work more efficiently using technology. This is where we're going, and the Quad Cities, I think, needs to embrace that. You know, how do we incorporate new modern technologies into all of our industries? So, Griffin, that's healthcare, retail, manufacturing, warehousing, yeah, you know, even building trades. You know, we just did a report, it's called the Top 100 High Priority Jobs Report. Um, and it it tells you in the six county area, these are the top 100 jobs that we need. This is where you're gonna find a job in the quad cities. Bricklayers is on the top of that list, right?

SPEAKER_02 13:32

And your dad was a bricklayer.

SPEAKER_01 13:33

Oh my gosh, my dad was a bricklayer. Yeah, he was. I think he bricked every house in Upper Rock Island in. So I remember honestly going over to consumers as a kid in my dad's old dump truck. Yeah. Um, so lots and lots of stories. My dad had four daughters, so um, you know, none of us followed in his footsteps.

SPEAKER_02 13:51

Oh yeah.

SPEAKER_01 13:53

But yeah, I I wheeled my own concrete. Sure. I uh uh I was 16 years old and ran my Bronco 2 into a row of mailboxes, and uh it was in the middle of the winter. My dad made me go. Um, we actually had to prop that mailbox row back up on cinder blocks, Griffin, because we we couldn't fix it. Dad couldn't uh repair it the way that he wanted to until spring. And so uh we went out and made that temporary fix, and then I had to work that next summer wheel in concrete for no month. Yeah, yeah, I know. It might be inappropriate to say, but my payback to my dad then was just wearing tube tops. You showed him, you showed him.

SPEAKER_03 14:32

Sorry, mine. Okay.

SPEAKER_02 14:35

That's a great story. All right. Uh so yeah, when we talk about workforce development, it really seems like that uh that's like like it's an ebb and flow, right? Like that's changing all the time. So what does it look like? You know, what do you think five to 10 years from now? Um, what what's what's going on with workforce development as these technologies come out? You know, there's always this concern from people that it's gonna take jobs, right? I think most people here can be pretty content that it's not gonna drive a ready mixed truck. Yeah. Uh but that is gonna have major changes to the way that businesses operate. So what do you what's the future look like to for you?

SPEAKER_01 15:13

Yeah, I mean, the future can be scary, but don't allow it to be. I I'm fully embracing it. Um uh information is power. And what we're trying to do with our with our uh high demand jobs report is give our community members a blueprint. Like, look, if you're gonna go and pay for any uh education or training past high school, why not align it with a report that spells out a hundred occupations where you can go to work the minute you're done with your training? Yeah, like what so even with my own kids, I have three kids, they're all between 24 and 20. And um, and my kids are in training pathways because their mother looks at labor market information. And that's no joke.

SPEAKER_03 15:54

Yeah, right.

SPEAKER_01 15:54

I I have always told my kids, look, figure out what the world needs from you and then go be that. Um, you know, so maybe that sounds a little bit harsh to some some parents out there, but no, that's right.

SPEAKER_02 16:07

I mean, I mean, there's it's very clear that the everybody has to go to college thing, um, it didn't really work, right? It it that we need people that have skilled trades and that have are willing to get their hands dirty and go to work, right? I mean, that's yeah, that's who we are, and that's what um that's what the world needs to get things done.

SPEAKER_01 16:27

So in my work, I meet with about 125 manufacturers a year. Yeah and they all said in the last three years, hey Chris, I need I need maintenance mechanics. Yeah, I need people that can fix my equipment. The quad cities needs a thousand, they say. They need a thousand to rewrite the ship. So what we did, Griffin, just in the last um uh year, uh started working with the National Manufacturing Institute, and we are propping up a local same chapter, it's a Federation uh for advanced manufacturing education. It is a program in partnership with Eastern Iowa Community College, and it will train maintenance technicians in five semesters. So anyone with a high school degree, yeah, younger, young or or with a few more years past high school. Right if you want to find out more about this five semester training program to learn how to be a maintenance technician, where you can go to work right away in the quad cities, yeah, we want to talk to you. So that is just one example of the work that I do where I want to hear from industry. I want to know what you need.

SPEAKER_03 17:30

Yeah.

SPEAKER_01 17:31

And then let's go figure out how to build that talent pipeline to get folks into your industry.

SPEAKER_02 17:35

Yeah. No, that and that's great. And we're we're in the same boat where we have a lot of plants, a lot of equipment that breaks down that we gotta, you know, we gotta keep maintained. And so we have people that work hard doing that. And that's always a need, for sure. For sure. All right, let's see. What what do you think are kind of the headwinds for the quad cities right now? What are we challenges we're facing that we're gonna have to overcome?

SPEAKER_01 17:57

Yeah, so population is a challenge. I think we all know that. I mean, pick up a newspaper, right, or listen to a podcast. So population growth is gonna be a challenge. Every community in the country, you know, outside of like Austin, Texas or Nashville, Tennessee, but but really um if we understand that, how do we, I guess in true Midwestern form, right? How do you how do you get more out of it, right? How do you get more out of the folks that are here? So my goals every day really are um how do I get up and help family members make more money in this community? How do we wake up and make help businesses make more money in this community? And then, and then how do we deliver, right? How do we continue to generate that that gross domestic product, that GDP, those outputs for our region to show that Quad Cities is a prosperous place to do business?

SPEAKER_03 18:45

Yeah.

SPEAKER_01 18:45

Um, and so I I think the headwinds are really don't be fearful of the future, even though we may not know exactly what it looks like. But really, I mean, what is it, that old adage, right? If if you want to get through the storm fast enough, you turn and face it head on.

SPEAKER_03 19:01

Yeah. Right.

SPEAKER_01 19:01

And that's what I'm saying. Yeah, I don't know, have all the answers about technology and artificial intelligence, but I'm willing to turn toward that that that cloud of unknown and face it head on, and let's just drive right through the storm. And on the other side, quite honestly, with our grit and determination as a region, I mean, we are, Griffin, I will tell you this. Our site selectors have said over and over and over again, every time they come to the Quad Cities, they are blown away by the number of multi-generation family-owned businesses. And and yours is one of those, yeah, right. And it is something that they see nowhere else. There's a secret sauce in that.

SPEAKER_03 19:42

Right.

SPEAKER_01 19:42

Right? There is a true formula for success when when our region, for some reason, has this enduring family pride and commitment uh to working on a product, refining a product, refining the solution, finding more customers, expanding our operation. I think we've got the secret sauce. I'd love for your audience to really get behind the fact that, hey, we've got everything we need. Yeah. Let's not do it in silos, right? Think about yourself on a basketball team. You know, you can't win a game with just a point guard.

SPEAKER_03 20:14

Yeah.

SPEAKER_01 20:16

So it really takes a diverse group of people to win it, to win a game. And that's kind of how I think about it.

SPEAKER_02 20:21

You know what's interesting when you talk about the population, um, as you know, I think all of our people will know that the commercial work has just been really slow. But the residential work, even with um elevated interest rates right now, the residential work is still pretty strong, really never tailed off. Um, and I think that's because there's kind of a deficit of housing around here in the quad cities, right? So that's that's something we definitely need to address. Um, and and we and it seems like we are, but we need to continue addressing um if we're gonna get that population growth that's gonna then spur on more commercial economic activity.

SPEAKER_01 20:57

I had a conversation the other day. I found it pretty provocative, really. And they were like, you know, in the quad cities, you don't you don't ever want to see a community that's obvious, like we're talking about housing, haves and have nots, right? Just two ends of the spectrum.

SPEAKER_03 21:10

Yeah.

SPEAKER_01 21:10

They're like in the quad cities, you want to make sure you have representation of housing along the entire continuum so that people know and can see Griffin where they want to grow into.

SPEAKER_02 21:20

Right.

SPEAKER_01 21:20

So, I mean, of course, I'm not unlike anybody else, right? I had three kids in a two-bedroom house, and bunk beds were amazing, right? So, so, but I could see a path to where I wanted to go, and those opportunities were in front of me. I hope as leaders in this community, we don't forget that um anybody, you're gonna you're gonna be what you can see. And that's professionally, personally, and certainly as a homeowner or a business owner. And we want to inspire investment in residential, we want to inspire investment in commercial, uh, industrial. So that really is what gives people confidence. If you've got a community that's continuing to invest and put their best foot forward and grow, right? Put that shiny out there, then it gives you that confidence, that inspiration, that yeah, we're a prosperous community and uh and and we're moving in the right direction, despite maybe population numbers that are not as strong as they had been in generations before.

SPEAKER_02 22:21

Yeah, yeah, that makes sense. You got any questions, Andrea? You've been very quiet over there.

SPEAKER_00 22:29

There's two big talkers in the room. So I'm just taking Lex's position as a quiet participant. But no, I do appreciate the energy that you both are bringing to these topics. And I it feels good to have people like you on our side, you know, helping us grow the community and grow our business as well. So I appreciate you being here.

SPEAKER_01 22:50

No, this is this is great. I I appreciate your your audience. I mean, at the end of the day, my number one job is to be a mom. And I hope everybody out there has taken that uh responsibility seriously because it truly is the next generation that we want to proudly carry us forward uh into the future. So if you do that job uh you know with your whole heart, I I think we can't we can't be anything but successful.

SPEAKER_02 23:14

Yeah. Great. Awesome. Well, Chris, we'll do the announcement. So uh thank you so much for for um joining us today. And we really appreciate the time and and the great insights you've given here to everybody. And and I think it's a great reminder that when we get to work on a project that didn't happen in a vacuum, that doesn't just magically come about, that there's people like you working really hard in the background way before our trucks show up on the job site to make it happen. So uh we really appreciate that.

SPEAKER_01 23:44

No, this was awesome. I applaud this group for for using this medium to get their voice out there. So uh happy to be invited to be a part of it today.

SPEAKER_00 23:52

Come back anytime. Send us any topics you think we should talk about or any loaded questions we put Griffin on the spot to answer questions once in a while. So if you have anything, send it our way.

SPEAKER_02 24:00

Yeah. We'll do you guys. Have a good day. Thanks, Chris.

SPEAKER_00 24:05

Okay, so I have kind of a rough announcement here. We had a tough situation this week where um there was not a washout provided on a job, and a driver did the best they could. And despite their efforts, um concrete came off the chut onto a pickup truck that was following too closely. And the costs of auto repairs are going up so much, like exponentially compared to everything else. And we see that in our insurance rates.

SPEAKER_02 24:39

And we see it with truck maintenance too. And with truck maintenance.

SPEAKER_00 24:42

But yeah, this just a minor spill of dirty shoots on a pickup truck is going to end up costing around$13,000 in damage. So just a good reminder to all of us, you know, we need to be talking to our customers about providing proper washout, but even when we don't have a proper washout, we still have to really take the extra few minutes to figure out how to get clean up as best we can.

SPEAKER_02 25:08

Yeah. Without sending gray water into a into a job or a sewer or anywhere else that it's not supposed to go.

SPEAKER_00 25:15

We're asking a lot, but I do just want to make sure everybody knows how kind of catastrophic and also how unsafe that can be too. I mean, when you when you look at the pictures of this truck, um lucky it wasn't a person or that it didn't cause an accident from the spill on the truck.

SPEAKER_02 25:31

Yeah, that's a good point.

SPEAKER_00 25:34

All right. Thanks everyone for listening. This is kind of a unique episode for us. I enjoyed it. I hope you did too.

SPEAKER_02 25:41

It was unique because the headphones didn't work in here. So we're Oh, yeah.

SPEAKER_00 25:45

Who knows what happened? Um, but we may pick up a new audience from having the outside guests here.

SPEAKER_02 25:52

Maybe. Yeah, perhaps.

SPEAKER_00 25:53

All right, have a great week, everyone. Talk to you soon.

SPEAKER_02 25:55

Thanks so much.