Delaware Prosperity Partnership connects business, state
New businesses coming to Delaware are starting small with 25 to 100 employees, but officials with the Delaware Prosperity Partnership say they expect big returns from new companies.
Kurt Foreman, president and chief executive officer of the DPP, said the partnership is working on 62 projects that could translate into jobs and companies setting up shop in Delaware. Most are small, with 25-100 employees, and half are manufacturing or logistics companies, he said.
“It's a marathon, not a sprint. Some projects can take five years to complete. Many are existing businesses that are growing,” he said.
The partnership is a nonprofit group created in 2017 with a combination of state and private funding. State bond bill money funded $2 million a year for three years, and the group receives $1 million a year in private funding.
Now in its final year of funding, the partnership will need legislative approval to continue, but Foreman said he is optimistic that the group can make an impact for small businesses that want to open for business in Delaware or existing businesses that want to expand.
“A business with 10 employees is an opportunity,” he said.
Marketing Delaware is a big push for the the group.
“The competition is not our neighbor, but whether Delaware was even considered,” Foreman said.
Delaware's location and proximity to major hubs is an asset, he said, but if companies don't know about Delaware, then the state will never be considered.
Foreman said the group is reaching out to companies across the country and in Europe to let them know about everything Delaware has to offer.
Although the state has plenty of shuttered industrial sites with water and sewer hookups, Foreman said, the state has a reputation of lagging in broadband infrastructure. Delaware's small size, however, is definitely a plus, earning praise from many companies for easy access to state officials and state services.
“As small as we are...we're bigger because of our size,” Foreman said.
