Stacy Adam proud of VWAEDC tenure

DAVE MOSIER/for the VW independent

Three decades of business experience was a giant plus when Stacy Adam was hired as the first executive director of the newly created Van Wert Area Economic Development Corporation in December 2016.

Moreover, it didn’t take long for Adam, who is retiring from her VWAEDC position at the end of the week, to realize she had a challenge ahead of her. In fact, the realization came on her very first day on the job.

“When I came in, I had no staff, no furniture, no computer, no printer, no email set up,” Adam said with a smile. “We started from scratch.”

Putting the office infrastructure into place was her first move, with a priority on finding competent staff members who could support her development vision for the community.

It’s obvious that Adam feels that goal was accomplished in a big way.

“I think we have built an incredible staff that are efficient and delivering results,” she said.

Steering a path for the first joint city-county development effort ever attempted in Van Wert County wasn’t an easy task. Prior to the VWAEDC, city and county development efforts were separate — and often at odds with each other. 

But Adam showed that forging partnerships was one of her strengths, as well as the tact needed to heal long-existing city and county rivalries.

“I think we have developed great partnerships and earned some confidence of other organizations in the community,” she said, adding she feels the community is on the road to accomplishing even more together in the future.

Adam was especially proud of her partnership with Vantage Career Center, noting the relationship has been a positive for both entities. One benefit for both is the Vantage Carpentry program’s building of new homes on lots where blighted structures were demolished by the Van Wert County Land Reutilization Corporation (land bank) — eliminating eyesores and creating new housing in the community. 

Vantage’s skilled trades and other vocational programs are also a plus for local development efforts.

Although there remain a number of future challenges, Adam said Vision Park is a good example of what has been accomplished locally in the past six years.

She noted that, when she arrived in early 2017, Braun Industries was the last company of any size to locate in the industrial park on the northwest edge of Van Wert. That was in 2002.

Today, the park includes a new facility constructed for Alliance Automation, while Custom Assembly is also building a new facility there and GLM Transport is expected to move into its new facility this spring. In addition, a spec building should be completed in Vision Park in May and a pending deal, named “Project Hulk,” is currently moving forward. Project Hulk would also result in an extension of Vision Drive within the park. In addition, AEP is seeking to purchase land adjacent to Vision Park for a new electric substation.

It could be said, though, that what is torn down is just as important to the future of Van Wert as what is constructed.

Adam’s work to create the land bank has resulted in the purchase of more than 80 blighted properties and the demolition of condemned houses and commercial properties throughout the county. Properties demolished include the old Day’s Inn motel, the former Anthony Wayne elementary school, and the old Eagles building on Central Avenue.

Although much has been accomplished, Adam said there are three things still on her bucket list for the county:

• Finding an end user for the mega-site property.
• Completion of the Van Wert County Foundation’s downtown development project.
• Growing the county’s population.

“I think we’re on the road to all of that,” she said.

She’d also like to see the county retain more of its young people through partnerships with local schools and businesses, such as the countywide CEO program and Vantage and Northwest State Community College’s vocational programs.

Most of her colleagues would say Adam has accomplished quite a lot during her six-year tenure as VWAEDC director. However, she is very much aware that local development is not a one-woman show.

“One person cannot and will not do it alone,” she said. “It takes different organizations, it takes elected officials at times (and) it takes sometimes people to invest, such as the Foundation and BDC (Business Development Corporation).”

Strangely, one her greatest accomplishments may the fact that local residents now see development as mostly positive. Making change palatable to a community not exactly open to it is indeed a worthy achievement.

With retirement just days away, Adam said she has at least one additional challenge remaining: spending as much time being a doting grandmother as possible.