QC Chamber launches Grow Quad Cities, a new economic development organization (2024)

The Quad Cities Chamber of Commerce is looking to 'grow' with a new organization aimed solely at economic development.

"Grow Quad Cities will be our regional, parallel, economic development organization that will be nested within the Chamber of Commerce focused on expanding our economic development footprint in the region," said Chamber CEO Peter Tokar III. "This new division of the Chamber will be entirely focused on economic development priorates of the Quad-Cities from both a public and a private perspective."

Tokar has been leading the Chamber as president and CEO since January, when he and his family moved to the region from Texas. Since then, he has hit the ground running with new ideas for how to grow the Chamber with a renewed focus on economic development, he told the crowd gathered for the Chamber's annual meeting at Rhythm City Casino in Davenport on Wednesday.

Currently the Chamber's focus is on community development, he said, growing the region, businesses and quality of life from within. The efforts are all internal to keep the community engaged in growing.

Tokar said the Chamber will continue these efforts, but will now move forward with more economic development, the external focus. The idea is to grow the GDP, population and footprint by looking at outside factors.

The main difference between the two, Tokar said Wednesday, is the Chamber is focused on networking, promoting and supporting the existing business. Grow Quad Cities will focus on on business development, workforce and talent development and quality of place development.

Business development looks at retaining and attracting new businesses while workforce and talent development helps to ensure there are high-quality, high-paying jobs in the region. A focus on quality of place ensures the Quad-Cities is an area people want to move to.

"Competition for talent and resources is at an all time high. Even though the economic development efforts of the Chamber and our partners have done an amazing job over the past few years of bringing development into the region, we are not realizing our full potential," Tokar said.

This is proven in many ways, Tokar said, pointing primarily to population growth, adding that in the last 10 years, the region has grown 0.86%.

"We are not taking specific actions to maintain the long-term sustainability of our region," he said. "From a GDP growth perspective, from a population perspective, from a diversity perspective, we will continue to remain stagnant if we don't use more economic development practices."

Current economic development practices are limited to the industrial sector, Tokar said. In the last three years the Chamber has helped create more nearly $400 million in economic impact for the region. While this is great news, there is more to development than just industrial work, he said.

"Economic development is not a one-lane road. To me, it's a six-lane highway," he said. "While we're very successful in our limited operation, we could be more impactful by serving the community in all areas of opportunity in the region."

Marketing is one area where Tokar feels the Chamber has done a great job of beginning, but the economic team can pick up the pace. Before his interview, Tokar said he had never heard of the Quad-Cities, but was sold on the area upon getting to town and experiencing it himself.

"The economic development organizations' role is to be the cheerleader for the Quad-Cities to the nation and beyond," he said. "Knowing is half the battle."

Tokar said with the help of the Grow Quad Cities, the two entities can work side-by-side to reinforce their joint mission of growing the region. Grow Quad Cities will focus on a handful of priorities, the first being business development that includes a new, robust market plan.

Targeting new industries is another goal, Tokar said, referencing his six-lane highway metaphor. By turning eyes to another form of development in the community, it opens another lane into the Quad-Cities that comes with jobs, economic growth and new opportunities.

For Chamber members, everything will stay status quo, Tokar said. The Chamber will continue its mission of supporting businesses within while Grow Quad Cities sets off to expand the reach and look for new investments to continue growing the region, the goal since the Chamber was formed in 2010.

Prior to then, Chambers of Commerce existed on both sides of the river. That is until about 1,250 people cast votes to merge the two into one unit, the Quad Cities Chamber of Commerce. That step unlocked growth opportunities for the region, Tokar said, and this new organization is aimed at doing the same.

"The Chamber has been a work in progress since its consolidation and it is now a highly effective organization serving the Quad-Cities," Tokar said. "Today, just like we did many years ago, we are taking our first step with Grow Quad Cities to begin our regional economic development journey together once again."