By MATT PIKE
St. Joseph Post
A recent expansion of Hillyard facilities has St. Joseph Chamber official's hopeful that will attract more business expansion to the city.
Chamber President and CEO Natalie Redmond says its big to see the fifth-generation company continue to expand in St. Joseph.
"A lot of the family and employees support local organizations, volunteer, live in our community, and it's just great to have a company that's that vested in St. Joseph," Redmond tells KFEQ Hotline host Barry Birr.
Redmond says many different places, even in Kansas, reached out to Hillyard's offering them room to expand, and she says it's a great story for St. Joseph and the legacy of Hillyard's that it chose to continue to expand here.
Redmond says it's important to try to lure in new businesses to St. Joseph, but local expansion is just as important.
"Because, you can't forget to take care of the companies that you have, and it's a little bit of a differing game today than it used to be in the 90's where we have different challenges, we now have challenges with workforce, we now have challenges with space," Redmond explains.
Redmond continues to say having space is one of the biggest issues the city faces right now with the limited space limiting how businesses can expand.
The market is competitive though for expansion, as most companies want ground ready to break in the city, Redmond points out.
Redmond says as the Chamber evaluates for the future, it will be important to evaluate what land the city has available to repurpose.
"So that when we're talking to that business, it's ready for them to go with, because you know you have a Hillyard that's willing to do that reinvestment, but not every community has that tight as St. Joe and businesses that are willing to do that," she says.
Redmond says it will be important to look at all the property available in St. Joseph and evaluate how useful it can be.