NWSCDC News and Blog

RFP: Business Management Consultant needed for 3-Year Strategic Plan

Monday, 08 March 2010 15:05

NWSCDC

Request for Proposal

Business Management Consultant for Non-Profit Community Economic Development Agency

Project: 3-year Strategic Plan

 

Beginning Spring 2010, NWSCDC will be developing a new Strategic Plan for 2011-2013.

The NWSCDC seeks a management consultant that will guide our Board of Directors and key staff through a rigorous and engaging strategic planning process to help plan what is anticipated to be a period of growth for the agency.

 

The consultant will engage the board, staff, and area stakeholders during a series of planning committee meetings and will develop a written plan and PowerPoint presentation for our full board of directors' retreat in September 2010.  The plan will also be presented on our website.

 

Planning meetings should begin no later than May 1st, 2010.  Any questions can be directed to Sam McGovern-Rowen, business development director of the NWSCDC.

RFP submissions are due no later than March 22nd, 2010.

 

Agency Background:

Spurring Development Where it is Needed Most

Since 1983, the Northwest Side Community Development Corporation (NWSCDC) has provided business focused programs designed to enhance the standard of living for some of Milwaukee's lowest-income residents by improving the business climate for some of the city's most struggling neighborhoods. Through a combination of neighborhood strategic planning, land use planning and development, and various business and workforce development programs, NWSCDC spurs commercial growth in Milwaukee's most blighted areas.

An Innovative Collaborative Approach

NWSCDC targets Milwaukee's struggling northwest quadrant, which stretches northwest from the intersection of Interstates 43 and 94 to the city's far northwest corner. Long home to thriving commercial districts, vibrant neighborhoods, and a large share of the city's industry, this area-home to one-third of the city's population-retains a solid foundation for economic and community vitality in places prioritized in our previous strategic plan such as the 30th Street Industrial Corridor and the historic Old North Milwaukee.  (See Attached Map)

 

Beginning in the late 1990s, NWSCDC implemented a new community economic development business model that emphasizes formal collaboration in business creation and real estate transactions with local businesses and investors, in lieu of direct property ownership and management in the area. Since 2000 the NWSCDC has lent more than $3.2 million dollars to a variety of major projects, creating more than 500 jobs and catalyzing further growth.

 

Examples of previous projects include:

 

  • In 2005, the NWSCDC lent $600,000 to Inland Western LLC, a publically traded, Chicago-based Real Estate Investment Trust, to help finance the construction of Phase Two of Midtown Center that created four new retail businesses resulting in over hundreds of new jobs at Midtown.

 

  • In 2006, the NWSCDC lent Capital Foods $436,688 to complete construction of a newLena's onTeutonia AvenueandWest Capitol Drive. Over 150 new jobs were created.

 

  • Financing the startup of Paradigm Sensors, a handheld biodiesel testing device manufacturer and the first minority-owned, "green" technology company in the State of Wisconsin.

 

A sample of our current projects includes:

 

NWSCDC is the catalyst behind the unprecedented plan to construct a sustainably designed neighborhood library that will be combined with 47 new units of mixed-income housing for grandparents who are primary caregivers for their grandchildren. This project, at North 34th Street and Villard Avenue, marks a first-of-its-kind collaboration between NWSCDC, the Local Initiative Support Corporation (LISC), housing development firm Gorman USA. The project has received a city budget appropriation and zoning approval, and tax credits from the Wisconsin Housing and Economic Development Authority.

 

NWSCDC has also received recent acclaim for its Milwaukee Technology Incubator Center (MTIC). MTIC occupies 300,000 square feet of previously unused space within DRS Power and Control Technologies on North 30th Street, and is intended to assist in the area development of minority-owned, high-technology, and "green" technology companies. The co-location with DRS, a major defense contractor and manufacturer of control technology for naval vessels, is attractive to technology startup businesses.

 

An Eye to the Future

 

Beginning Spring 2010, NWSCDC will be developing a new Strategic Plan for 2011-2013. Among the directions anticipated are finding ways to assist in the redevelopment of the old Tower Automotive site and in the conversion of the former St. Michael's Hospital. NWSCDC anticipates working with DRS and the Southeastern Wisconsin Energy Technology Research Center (SWETRC) to assist in developing a "Power and Controls Center of Excellence" to be located within the MTIC facility.   SWETRC is the first-ever research and funding collaboration between UWM, Marquette, MSOE, local foundations and several area power controls companies

Committed People

One of NWSCDC's most important resources is its management and board of directors. Executive Director Howard Snyder helped found the organization and brings a wealth of institutional knowledge and long-time commitment to the Northwest Side's low-income communities. Board President Farshad Maltes serves as Director of Economic Development at the Wisconsin Housing and Economic Development Authority. Other board members come from a diverse collection of the city's best employers: DRS, Plunkett-Raysich Architects, CH2M HILL, Jefferson Wells, Northwestern Mutual, GE Healthcare, Robert W. Baird & Co., Foley & Lardner LLP, and others.

 

Description of Requirements

 

The Northwest Side CDC operates under a three-year strategic plan.  2010 is the last year of our current three-year cycle.  The strategic plan is the framework for our agency to set goals, monitor our progress, and measure our impact on the community we serve.  Having a carefully crafted strategic plan is critical to our success as an agency and our ability to report to our board on our progress.

 

The planning process is as important as the document itself.  Having a professional management consultant engage our board of directors and staff in a process to reflect on the agencies' past, present, and future is extremely valuable to our agency.  During the process we review our past performance on the goals we set in the previous plan and analyze where we met or exceeded our goals, and where we may have fallen short.

 

Over the past three years our agency has evolved.  We have grown in terms of our reach, budget, our impact, and we have undergone some major changes such as the critical role the NWSCDC plays as a lender to businesses in our service area.  We became certified as a Community Development Financial Institution in 2009, which was not part of the earlier strategic plan, but is anticipated to be a centerpiece of the 2011-2013 plans. The consultant should be able to help us address whether being identified as a lender changes our agency- that question-and more will be discussed, analyzed, and incorporated into the next plan.

 

We anticipate the plan years to be a continuation of the evolution and expansion of our agency and the consultant should be able to develop a plan to follow as we increase our lending activity, grow our workforce and business development services, and significantly increase the number of jobs we help create for people in the community we serve.

 

Deliverables:

 

1. Review our existing strategic plan and discuss where we have met or exceeded goals, and where we have fallen short.

2. Develop the Draft of the plan: Through Strategic Planning Committee meetings, workshops, or events where our Board Committee members will engage in lively, thoughtful, well-prepared discussions to identify the key items that will be a part draft plan.

3. Incorporate the decisions made in the committee meetings into a final 3-year Strategic Planning Document written by the consultant and presented to the board in PowerPoint presentation in September 2010. 

 

Description of Proposal Submission and Evaluation

Submission must include the following to be considered:

1. Cover Letter

2. Consultant's approach to the planning process

3. Organizational chart of team

4. Proposed Scope of Work and Timeline/Plan to Accomplish the Work

5. Description of similar projects completed

6. Fee Schedule and Proposed Fee to Accomplish the Work

 

Consultant Fee should not exceed $15,000

Contract Duration:  April 19th to September 30th

 

Please submit (5) hard copies of your proposal and submit (1) electronic copy via email to be received NO LATER THAN March 22nd 2010 at 5:00PM.

 

Northwest Side Community Development Corporation

Attn: Sam McGovern-Rowen

4255 N. 30th

Milwaukee, WI 53216

This e-mail address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it

 

The evaluation process includes:

 

1.      Staff review to ensure that submission is complete

2.      Review and ranking by Strategic Planning committee

3.      Interviews and presentations with top proposers

4.      Reference checks by NWSCDC staff

 

Criteria for evaluation may include the following factors:

1.      Experience and expertise of the proposers/ Relevancy of similar work experience -20%

 

2.      Understanding of the scope of the project-50%

 

3.      Cost for the work to be completed-20%

 

4.      Availability of firm's personnel for meetings-10%

 

 


 

Hell Freezes Over!

Wednesday, 03 March 2010 14:30

HELL FREEZES OVER!

by Howard Snyder

What is it that Spanish capitalists understand about Milwaukee that Metro Milwaukee capitalists don't understand about Milwaukee? A good deal, I guess (get the double entendre?).

Well, hell finally froze on Tuesday when Governor Doyle and Mayor Barrett announced the lease at Tower Automotive to Talgo, the Spanish railroad company, and purchase of trains that will be built at the site.

I am aware that some of high speed rail and this deal with Talgo is controversial. That didn't contribute to global cooling that froze hell. It was that anyone convinced anyone to move to Tower. To the North Side! To da 'hood! Where it is too dangerous for development. Where the broker and developer community said crime would have to go away before anyone would invest. Until hell froze over.

Congratulations to the State, to the City, to Congresswoman Moore and to Talgo for the vision and good business acumen to move to one of Wisconsin's hottest neighborhoods!  OK, so that's a bit of an exaggeration. But still, we're moving in the right direction.

Read more...
 

Not Too Hopeful About Jobs

Monday, 25 January 2010 16:56

The term"jobless recovery" slips off the tongue so easily now, to be thought of as a permanent condition. That is, it is to be expected that with each severe recession, jobs lost, for the most part, will not return to the American economy. CNN/Money reports that in the current recession, we've lost over seven million jobs.

What generally happens now is that people move to new jobs and opportunities, get retrained, take different jobs, relocate, retire early (if they can) or just give up.

It does seem that after each downturn, the economy comes back more robust, more efficient, and companies that survive return to profitability, and so on. The overall economy readjusts with industries and markets moving from continent to continent, as easily as capital flows. Think electronics, steel, etc. Is it unthinkable that someday the US will produce no cars?  No, it's not. In fact, it very well could happen. Sometimes readjustments can be beneficial overall if for every job lost, there is a job gained.

That may be statistically true and good for most American workers, but it is not true or good for central city residents. Jobs that were here will not come back. Residents are locked out of new opportunities in the suburbs and locked-in to the 'hood. Low income, low skilled workers tend to lack mobility, education, resourcefulness, connectors and relationships that they used to get and keep jobs in the past. It's almost as if the economy in central cities just picked up and left.  Companies left for suburbs and exurbs, particularly manufacturing. Eastern Waukesha County, for example,has become a hub for thriving manufacturers.

None of this is new. What is new is the stark realization that this is permanent. With few decent jobs in the central city, people locked out of jobs in the suburbs, the compressional impact of millions of jobs lost forces high paid workers to take lesser paying jobs and push the next rung of workers into a downward spiral. There is not much to be hopeful about.

What to do? There are several alternatives.

The first alternative takes the longest amount of time. New business start ups in the inner city can be attractive, especially with various incentive packages. But like the NWSCDC's support of Paradigm Sensors, our bio-diesel tenant in the incubator, start ups are perilous and new businesses, even the best of them, fail at a rate of four out of five.

The second requires the creation of strategic partnerships like the one we have with DRS, who hired 31 people from the community for union, machinist jobs in 2009. The problem with this strategy is that there needs to be businesses that are committed to hiring, and a non-profit partner sophisticated enough to service the business and the community. This one takes time. We've been at it 25 years.

The last is the fastest, which are transition jobs, training jobs or flat out government jobs meant to hire off the street for what some might call a "make work" jobs. Frankly, I don't have a big problem with this. If asked nicely, we could put 25 people to work in the community and we'd administer the program for a modest admin fee. Every non-profit in town would. Last time I was in Washington, there was an "ambassador" or two at every intersection in the tourist areas. I saw hundreds of people doing something that needed to be done, was helpful for tourists, and put people to work.

Look, if this was China, we could give incentives for out of work citizens to migrate to areas of the country where jobs are. But this is not China. Even in Haiti, it took an earthquake to empty Port-Au-Prince to the country side in search of food, work, or shelter.

I don't know the answer. If we can't get health care for everyone, how will we get a jobs program that will transition an entire generation for years of employment until we cycle out of our current situation? We are willing to do whatever it takes. The country isn't.


 
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