Scope of Services and Experience

ECONOMIC DEVELOPMENT PLANNING
AND FEASIBILITY ANALYSES

Scope of Services

Rural American communities, as well as more remote Pacific Island nations and U.S. territories, often struggle to attract private investments that help sustain and expand sources of local employment and household income.  The preparation of regional or community economic development strategies is a useful planning tool that can be applied by government and private enterprise to enhance the community “business climate” and draw the attention of potential economic development targets.  The development of economic development plans is often required to receive grant monies from various U.S. agencies such as the U.S. Economic Development Administration.

The preparation of economic development plans requires a careful analyses of regional demographic and economic trends, significant factors influencing the regional economy, retail trade, community assets and constraints to private investment, primary industries in the private and public sectors, as well as potential economic development opportunities.  Close coordination with primary employers and small business owners is important to better understand the dynamics and factors influencing investment in the local economy.  PPC also has the capability to perform regional input-output analyses (see www.implan.com) to evaluate the economic value of specific private industries upon county, state, and regional economies.

As rural communities seek to attract selected private and public investments, county and municipal agencies occasionally allocate resources for the completion of feasibility analyses.  These analyses often concern potential private and public investments that could address significant community needs and/or generate new employment opportunities within the local economy.

Pedersen Planning Consultants generally approaches project feasibility by completing, at least, the following tasks:

• examine the potential market for a specific product or type of service;

• determine the availability of resource inputs, building sites and facilities, furnishings, fixtures and equipment necessary to support product manufacturing and/or service delivery;

• analyze product transportation requirements, options, and costs;

• determine cash flow requirements that are necessary to support initial capital costs, monthly labor costs, the cost of production and operating expenses, as well as long-term debt amortization;

• calculate anticipated profit and loss of the prospective business; and,

• recommend strategies to improve overall project feasibility.

Experience

PPC has completed various economic development plans and feasibility analyses for various smaller communities in the Rocky Mountain and Intermountain region of the United States, as well as various Pacific Island nations. Some examples of our firm’s economic development planning experience can be reviewed by clicking on the following links to more specific project descriptions.