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Cultivating Delaware’s economic ecosystem of emerging businesses

Kurt Foreman is President and CEO at Delaware Prosperity Partnership (DPP). Launched in 2017, DPP acts as the lead economic development resource for entrepreneurs, employers, and emerging businesses in Delaware. The nonprofit organization is dedicated to building the local business ecosystem by attracting, supporting, and retaining growth-oriented enterprises to the state. Key industries served include science and technology, business and financial services, food and agriculture, manufacturing and logistics, education, and healthcare.

EDWIN WARFIELD: I’ll ask you a question you once asked your college professor: What do you do every day? How has your job changed over the years?

KURT FOREMAN: Economic development for many people is sort of a black box. They figure it’s “you push a button on a computer and out pops the answer,” it’s XYZ place. The reality is there’s a lot more to this because people are involved. Over the last 30 years or so, it’s evolved from being very much about cheap land, cheap inputs, sort of a real estate focus; it’s moved toward a much more human resources focus. Can I find the quality, quantity and cost of people that I need to be successful? Because without that talent the rest doesn’t matter.

It also has changed in the timing. What used to maybe take companies sometimes years to make a decision can now be a matter of weeks. The collapse—not negatively—but the collapse of the process where people can because of the power of computing couldn’t find the answers to things online or whatever, they’re not asking basic questions anymore. When they get to us, they’re asking us questions they can’t find online. It’s more detailed questions about workforce or business climate. I think that’s fun. It’s fun to work on challenging questions because companies have real issues they want to work through. But for me, while it may seem like they don’t need us, in some ways they need us more, because the tougher questions need someone to facilitate and support them—to find the answers and connect to the right people. So, in many ways our job has become even more indispensable, but it has shifted quite a bit particularly around timeframe and what we focus on.

Q. Can you pitch us on what makes Delaware the perfect place for growing businesses?

A. Delaware is an interesting place because we don’t have any cities of a million or anything like that, but we have great places both small and medium size, our most prominent central city being Wilmington, which has a fabulous history of being a key place on two rivers, with a port; with the heritage, again, of innovation and business going through it, continued evolution as a community. We are at the same time the central business hub for Delaware. We’re a suburb of Greater Philadelphia. We are a number of things to many different people. But Wilmington is one of those places that is literally changing in front of our eyes and is moving from a place that had a few large corporations to a lot of innovative companies as well as a lot of large corporations. Also, I like to joke that you’re often that you’re coolest right before everyone declares you’re a cool place—not a cool person but a cool place. I think Wilmington is on that trajectory. I think we’re a very cool place that has a lot going for it, a lot of everything—from park developments to new residential to restaurants, including a recent James Beard nominee for a new restaurant that opened in our area. There’s just a lot of momentum and literally granule activity going on.

It’s also quite honestly, I think, one of the best arbitrage opportunities on the East Coast right now. We have some terrific spaces available for a company who needs to move quickly and be able to get up and running with the talented workforce in a place that’s really thinking carefully and hard about the kind of place it wants to be for the 21st century. And not only Wilmington, but then we have a lot of other great small towns up and down the state, whether someone’s interested in a beach community or wants to be in a more traditional community that has ag nearby. Or, we’re known as one of the key hubs for microbrewing and beer and distilleries and all. I think the quality of places and the quality of community is an important factor for the future. People are hungry for genuine texture, character. They want real places. They don’t want artifice. Delaware has that in spades. I think we’re a place that has that texture that people are craving, and I think they’ll be very pleased when they come look if they haven’t already.

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ABOUT NEWMARK KNIGHT FRANK

Newmark Knight Frank (NKF) is one of the world's leading commercial real estate advisory firms. Together with London-based partner Knight Frank and independently-owned offices, NKF's 15,000 professionals operate from more than 400 offices in established and emerging property markets on six continents.

With roots dating back to 1929, NKF's strong foundation makes it one of the most trusted names in commercial real estate. NKF's full-service platform comprises BGC's real estate services segment, offering commercial real estate tenants, landlords, investors and developers a wide range of services including leasing; capital markets services, including investment sales, debt placement, appraisal, and valuation services; commercial mortgage brokerage services; as well as corporate advisory services, consulting, project and development management, and property and corporate facilities management services. For further information, visit www.ngkf.com.

NKF is a part of BGC Partners, Inc., a leading global brokerage company servicing the financial and real estate markets. BGC's common stock trades on the NASDAQ Global Select Market under the ticker symbol (NASDAQ: BGCP). BGC also has an outstanding bond issuance of Senior Notes due June 15, 2042, which trade on the New York Stock Exchange under the symbol (NYSE: BGCA). BGC Partners is led by Chairman and Chief Executive Officer  Howard W. Lutnick. For more information, please visit www.bgcpartners.com.

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