Los Angeles County, California: Economic Recovery Strategy. TNDG served as the prime consultant for a major contract with the Los Angeles County Community Development Commission to prepare a strategy to assist businesses in recovering from the January 1994 Northridge Earthquake. The Recovery Strategy included ten cities within the County as well as all of the unincorporated area.

The initial phases of the project involved a comprehensive assessment of remaining assistance needs of affected businesses, and identification of potential financial resources available to fund additional recovery efforts. Given the broad geographic scope of the study, the final strategy document serves not only as an earthquake recovery program but will also guide the County's overall efforts to facilitate future economic development in the affected communities.

Los Angeles, California: San Gabriel Valley Council of Governments (SGVCOG) Economic Development Strategic Plan. TNDG served as prime contractor for an integrated study for the SGVCOG involving the development of an Economic Development Strategy for the region.

TNDG's primary role was to identify realistic demand for future growth within the COG region by land use category, the opportunities and constraints related to retention of the existing industrial and business base in the community, and attraction of new job creating industrial growth to the degree those opportunities arise in the near- and long-term timeframe.

Anaheim, California: Industry Location Analysis and Marketing Program. TNDG completed a comprehensive marketing program for the City of Anaheim in conjunction with Golin/Harris--a national communications firm.

TNDG's work focused on assessing Anaheim's strengths as they relate to industrial attraction and identifying specific industry clusters which the City should emphasize in its future marketing efforts. The study involved an evaluation of employment data to determine the industries which have historically had a strong propensity to locate in Anaheim, interviews with executive-level decision makers in firms in key industries to identify their location decision criteria, and an evaluation of the City's real estate inventory.

Based on this primary research, TNDG developed a series of business attraction strategies which were integrated into the marketing and media program being developed by Golin/Harris. TNDG's recommendations included both recruitment and ?growth from within? strategies, and placed a special focus on high-technology firms which will likely be attracted to the fiber optics network currently under development in the City. In addition to identifying industry sectors which the City should emphasize in its marketing program, TNDG also identified industries which the City should not devote resources to attracting given their propensities to cluster elsewhere and/or their general status as declining sectors.

As the final work product for this effort, TNDG developed a list of approximately 3,000 firms to be targeted by the City via direct mail and telephone solicitation. This list was compiled based on a range of criteria including industry (at 4-digit SIC code specification), firm size, and geographic clustering.

Ventura County, California: Implementation Plan for Heritage Valley Recreation Area. TNDG served as the lead consultant for the preparation of an Implementation Plan for the Heritage Valley--a tourism-based economic development initiative for the Santa Clara River Valley area of Ventura County. The program area includes the communities of Santa Paula, Fillmore and Piru, and offers rich historic, cultural and recreational resources. TNDG's work involved a market demand analysis to project potential visitation levels to the area's existing and developing tourist attractions; a financial analysis to project the public and private costs and revenues associated with the potential visitation; and forecasts of the amount of commercial space (i.e., hotel, retail and restaurant facilities) necessary to accommodate the indicated visitation levels. In addition to the technical assessments, the final work product included a detailed action plan outlining the specific steps necessary to bring the indicated potentials to fruition. The action program is currently being implemented by an ad hoc master committee including city and county officials, as well as various private sector representatives.

Kern County, California: County-wide Economic Development Strategy. TNDG has just completed a comprehensive economic development strategy for the County of Kern. The primary purpose of the Strategy is to expand and diversify the County's employment base.

The Strategy was developed over a one-year period and involved the following major elements: an industry ?cluster? analysis to identify potential growth sectors in the County; an assessment of the County's organizational capacity to undertake economic development; extensive community outreach and interface with industry leaders; and preparation of a detailed ?blue print? for industry retention, expansion and attraction.

Key industry clusters targeted in the Strategy include Aerospace, Chemicals, High-tech, Film/Tourism/Retirement, Financial Services, Textiles/Apparel and Value-added Agriculture.

San Bernardino County, California: High Desert Industry Cluster Analysis. TNDG has just completed an industry cluster analysis and preparation of related marketing recommendations for the High Desert Regional Economic Development Authority. The assignment involved a detailed analysis of employment sector trends throughout the five-county southern California region, and place particular emphasis on identifying industry segments with a strong propensity to relocate from the Los Angeles basin to lower cost locations such as the High Desert.

Based on the analysis, TNDG recommended a ?short list? of three industry clusters that should be the focus of REDA's near term recruitment efforts and outlined a multi-pronged marketing approach consistent with the locational criteria of the target industries.

San Fernando, California: Image Enhancement Campaign. TNDG is currently serving as the lead consultant on a marketing program for the City of San Fernando. The campaign has several major areas of focus: promoting the City's specialty shopping areas to the regional market; attracting new commercial development consistent with a recently adopted specific plan; and elevating the City's profile and identify within the southern California region (San Fernando is a small city entirely surrounded by the City of Los Angeles -- the general public is not largely aware of its status as an independent city).

TNDG's work on this campaign has included development of a theme, slogan and related logo/art work for the marketing campaign; implementation of a series of special events to promote the City's unique cultural and commercial facilities; and development of a City of San Fernando web site.