From our Director












Judy McKinney-Cherry
DEDO Director

Welcome!

The beginning of summer is always marked by celebrations. It was no different for the Delaware Economic Development Office as we joined Governor Ruth Ann Minner in celebrating the accomplishments of three Delaware businesses. Atlantis Industries, Inc. in Milton recently became the first woman-owned manufacturer in Delaware to upgrade its quality system to the ISO/TS 16949:2002 standard. A significant contributor to our state's Automotive Manufacturing Cluster, we were proud to support this effort.

We were also very pleased to welcome the addition of two new companies to our state's vibrant Financial Services Cluster. Swift Financial in Wilmington and Credit One Financial Solutions in Newark are both led by executives from leading banking organizations, including the former MBNA.

Two of our cities in Delaware were celebrating this month, too. fDi magazine ranked the city of Wilmington among the Top 10 North American Cities of the Future, receiving honors for Most Business Friendly, Best Human Resources, Best Quality of Life, and Best Economic Potential. Wilmington is an ideal gateway to North America for foreign investors. I am particularly proud of the Best Economic Potential category which speaks to our strong research and development activities in Wilmington and throughout the state.

Our state capital of Dover earned top honors in Inc.'s annual report of the nation's boomtowns. Dover was ranked among the top 20 small cities in the nation for doing business.

Just like summer, I promise the celebrations are only beginning. Keep posted for more good news!

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ABOUT THE
DELAWARE ECONOMIC DEVELOPMENT OFFICE
The mission of the Delaware Economic Development Office (DEDO) is to be responsible for attracting new investors and businesses to the State, promoting the expansion of existing industry, assisting small and minority-owned businesses, promoting and developing tourism and creating new and improved employment opportunities for all citizens of the State.

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WHAT'S NEW?

WIRELESS BROADBAND INTERNET SERVICE FORUM - Internet service is no longer merely a convenience - it's a necessity for downtown economic growth. With its low cost and ease of installation, wireless broadband Internet service has emerged as the Internet technology of choice for many towns and cities. Please join us for a free forum on wireless broadband Internet service at the Dover Public Library in Dover on Tuesday, June 12 from 9:30am-11:30am. Learn about the cost of broadband vs. wireless, the existing infrastructure and what's on the horizon, and the benefits that wireless broadband will bring to your town, businesses, and schools. The forum is free, but registration is required. Please RSVP by Monday, June 11 to Diane Laird, Main Street Program Manager, at (302) 672-6834 or diane.laird@state.de.us.

NEW BUSINESS DEVELOPMENTS - HD Supply Utilities LTD, the wholesale distribution division of Home Depot, recently signed a lease to occupy 90,000 square feet of distribution space in the Riveredge Business Park in New Castle. This represents a more than doubling of the size of their previous facility. Zenith Products Corporation and Five Below Inc. have announced they are leasing space in a an 420,000 square foot building currently under construction in the Twin Spans Business Park in New Castle County. Zenith Products Corporation is known as a leading manufacturer of bathroom storage and organizational products for the retail market. Zenith products are distributed nationwide through home centers, bath specialty shops, mass merchants and catalog retailers. Five Below is a new retail concept positioned to become the leading extreme value retailer to the teen market and beyond.

NEW DSU FARMERS MARKET - Delaware State University will be holding its new farmers market from 8:00am 12noon, every Saturday morning beginning Saturday, June 9 through late October. The market will be located in parking lot 1. This is an opportunity for the University, working with the College of Agriculture and the Agriculture Extension Office of Delaware State University, to be of additional service to the Dover and Kent County farming community. Please visit http://www.desu.edu/landing/farmers_market.php for more information.


DEDO NEWS

GREAT STUFF HAPPENING WITHIN DEDO - Great organizations are comprised of employees who uphold and reflect vital organization values. With the help of a professional facilitator, the entire DEDO staff began defining these vital values. This exercise will culminate in July 2007 with a written Values Statement that all employees will pledge to uphold when working with other DEDO staff or when working with external clients and business partners. DEDO also introduced employee Desk Manuals for every employee this quarter. When fully implemented in July 2007, each manual will contain job tasks as well as the finer points of how each employee does his or her work. The idea is to capture the nuances and best practices of our respective jobs so that DEDO is always striving to operate as an evergreen organization.

DEDO WEBSITES ARE A "HIT" - Since the new www.visitdelaware.com went live in November, unique visitors to the site are up 75% from the first full month, December 2006, to this past month, May 2007. Also, the Delaware Department of Technology & Information started using a new web stats package in March for all state sites. April was the first full month recorded, but we have registered a 65% increase in unique visitors to dedo.delaware.gov in one month (from April to May)!

AUTO CLUSTER HEADS TO PLASTEC EAST - The Delaware Economic Development Office, along with Negri Bossi USA, Atlantis Industries, and PlastiScience, will exhibit at the PlasTEC East trade show from June 12-14 at the Jacob Javits Convention Center in New York. The trade show is one of the largest on the east coast featuring plastics processing resources for manufacturers in aerospace/aviation, appliances/housewares, automotive, electronics, medical, packaging, and consumer goods. If you plan to attend the show, please stop by booth number 629 to discuss opportunities for your company in Delaware. For more information on the plastics industry in Delaware, please contact Terry Deputy, CEcD, Automotive Cluster Market Leader, at (302) 672-6802 or terry.deputy@state.de.us.

HEALTH SCIENCES CLUSTER UPDATE - DEDO's Health Sciences Cluster Initiative is well underway with Gary Ferguson, COO, Christiana Care Health Systems, serving as the Co-Chair. Our first planning meeting is scheduled for June 11. Mr. Ferguson has been aggressively reaching out to other health-care-related industry leaders to gather private sector support for the cluster initiative as well as gathering additional information regarding their business development goals and needs. The June 11 planning meeting will focus on answering the following questions:

Who? Who should we invite to participate in the cluster meetings?

What? What are the goals of the meetings?

When? September, October, November?

Where? Participant to host? Where should meetings be held?

For more information, please contact Patty Cannon, Health Sciences Cluster Market Leader, at (302) 577-8485 or patricia.cannon@state.de.us.

CHEMISTRY & ADVANCED MATERIALS CLUSTER UPDATE - Matching grant available for conducting research in the field of clean energy. Companies in the Chemistry and Advanced Materials Alliance should take note that DEDO will receive proposals from companies doing research in areas such as solar cells, hydrogen generation, fuel cells, tidal energy, and wind energy. DEDO is offering matching (1:1) grants for industry-initiated and paid research, which must be conducted by, or in cooperation with, the University of Delaware and/or Delaware State University. Proposals will be accepted until 4:30 p.m. EDST on June 15, 2007. Contact Zena Tucker at (302) 672-6835 or via e-mail at zena.tucker@state.de.us for more information.

BIOTECHNOLOGY CLUSTER UPDATE - The Biotechnology Cluster continues to demonstrate positive impact for our existing life science and biotech companies as well as serving as an asset in attracting prospective new companies. DEDO led the effort to ensure that Delaware was well represented in Boston at BIO2007, the biotechnology industries annual international convention, with 7 companies joining the Delaware Pavilion and bringing home 470 leads. DEDO is working closely with the New Castle County Redevelopment Office on a biotechnology prospect that is close to making their final relocation decision.

TOURISM CLUSTER UPDATE - The Tourism Cluster has had a very productive Spring! Just last week, the Cluster hosted a very successful Governor's Tourism Summit with over 175 attendees learning how to apply best practices from other successful tourism-related businesses. Plus, Governor Minner presented awards to 11 Delaware tourism organizations for their outstanding efforts in the past year. Click here http://dedo.delaware.gov/Awards053107.pdf for the full story. Plus, the Cluster was instrumental in securing the 2007 Amateur Athletic Union Middle Atlantic District Track & Field Championship and the AAU Region II Track & Field Championship which will be held the weekends of June 15-17 and July 11-14 respectively. And, if this weren't enough, www.visitdelaware.com won both a Gold and Silver award in the 2007 Horizon Interactive Awards. Get the full story here: http://www.dedo.delaware.gov/Web051507.pdf.

DEDO E-NEWSLETTER SETS GREAT EXAMPLE - Swiftpage, the online ACT! mailing service DEDO uses to distribute this e-newsletter, has informed us that our design is being used as a good example of what an e-newsletter should look like! The link to their Government/Non-profit category template gallery is here: http://templategallery.swiftpage.com/templates/templates-by-industry/non-profit/. Youll see our e-newsletter on the front page! We hope you like the e-mailings as well and welcome your comments and suggestions.