Posted: 06/21/2010
Author:
Jana Russell
Amanda S. Nobles, Executive Director of Kilgore Economic Development Corporation, received Business Retention and Expansion International’s Individual Service award to acknowledge an individual for innovative, effective and exemplary retention and expansion programs in economic development.
She will receive the award August 16 during a joint BREI/Southern Economic Development Council Conference in New Orleans. The annual awards program evaluates international entries in community and individual categories and congratulates outstanding contributions to successful economic development programs.
During her tenure in Kilgore, Nobles has guided KEDC into contracts that have retained and created 8993 jobs as well as more than $195,225,128 investment in the city of Kilgore. From 1990 to 2008 real and business personal property in Kilgore has increased from $374,029,476 to $1,041,760,705. In addition, the residential to industrial tax base is a 1:2 ratio, more balanced than for similar cities.
“Under Amanda’s innovative leadership KEDC has been able to institute a number of development programs such as the Triple Freeport Tax Exemption through PILOT (Payment in Lieu of Taxes) agreements; the Foreign-Trade Zone/Alternate Site Framework Designation, which was the first of its kind in the nation; the Texas Highway 349 widening project, which was the first financing arrangement of its kind in Texas; Synergy Park at Elder Lake; and the public/private partnerships that enabled KEDC and its partners to build Shell I and Shell II,” said Bobby Beane, KEDC president. “These tools have allowed Kilgore to compete with much larger market destinations.”
BREI is the leading professional association for business retention and expansion and was established in 1994. The organization is headquartered in Bismarck, N.D. The Southern Economic Development Council is the oldest and largest regional economic development association in North America with members in 17 states in the American South.
