- [Announcer] Wheelan-Pressly Funeral Home and Crematory, a proud supporter of WQPT, has been serving Quad City families since 1889.

They now have livestream capabilities for viewing your loved one's funeral or memorial service.

- [Announcer] At IHMVCU, we've always been here for you.

You are and always will be our top priority.

We care about your financial and physical health, and we are here.

IHMVCU is a proud supporter of WQPT.

- A future with Amazon.

And are you ready for changes in the job market in The Cities?

(upbeat music) By the time the announcement was made news of Amazon's plan for a huge robotic distribution center in Davenport came as no surprise, but it's still seen as a lightning bolt to the economy in the cities.

After all, it's hard to ignore the impact of 1,000 new full-time jobs, a $250 million investment in Davenport, and an unexpected $148 million annual economic impact for the region.

So how did this all come about, and what type of ripple effect is expected?

We sat down with Quad Cities Chamber President and CEO Paul Rumler.

Is this that big of a deal?

- Jim, it's great to be with you.

Yes, this is a big deal.

This is the largest economic development project that we've attracted to the Quad Cities area in my memory, in the history of the Quad Cities Chamber, which was 11 years, this is by far the largest and going back a few decades, I can't think of anything bigger.

So that bringing in 1,000 jobs to the area, it means a lot.

- Operation Scrabble, as it was known.

I mean, you do give some of these code words, I'm sure when you're trying to attract a new business.

Tell me how this unfolded, because you first got contact almost like a Thanksgiving gift, it was back in November.

- Yeah, so this project's been in the works for about eight months, which is pretty condensed in terms of a timeline for an economic development deal.

Typically deals take two to three years to mature, to get to a final announcement stage.

What I found is that Amazon and their development team does their homework, and in the economic development business, we always say that our website's our best calling card, that so many businesses and site selectors are doing research on our communities without our knowledge.

And that's what probably happened with Amazon, is that they knew that they wanted to be in a certain Midwest geography, and that they called us to talk specifics in November.

And then for that, it came down to, we want to be in your general area.

They needed help on site selection in terms of what land was available, what sites were developable.

They wanted help on work force and trying to figure out and navigate how they could actually bring the project to fruition.

So that took a lot of partners to make it happen.

- Well, I mean, in real estate, it's location, location, location.

That seems to be what you're kind of underlining, but they didn't have to pick this location.

What do you think tilted it in your favor?

- Yeah, I think Quad Cities was definitely on the radar screen, but what they're trying to do is get to their customers.

So they wanted a really solid transportation network, and the Quad Cities, we know we have plenty of interstates and access west, north, east, and south.

So having a logistics warehouse facility located in a center epicenter of transportation like this makes a lot of sense.

They also want to make sure that they could get products to their facility.

They also want to make sure that they can get work force.

Now, obviously work force is top of mind in every community right now, in every industry, and in the Quad Cities, it's no different.

So this is a problem that I'd like to have in the Quad Cities versus having it be discussed in some other communities.

So work force is definitely something that is going to, there's going to be a little pressure on our market in the coming year as Amazon hires.

And while other employers are also looking for talented people, but we're focusing on how do we build more people in our region?

How do we attract more people to come to the Quad Cities, which would then provide an ample work force for existing employers, as well as new ones like Amazon.

- Well, I don't want to diminish the work that your team did and the city did, and every one of your partners did, but like you said, it looks like Amazon pretty well already had its sights set on Davenport.

So it's not necessarily the work that was done since November, it's all the work all of you people, your partners, the city all did before that.

Because I think you were saying that Industrial Park really lured Kraft Heinz to stay in the Quad Cities as well.

- Yeah, so the consistent story has been having ready sites that are provided as options.

But first you need to be able to market, you need to have your story straight.

You need to have relationships among your partners, so that way you can navigate the challenges that will necessarily come up during the process.

And that happened again this time.

So Amazon was looking in our area.

It didn't have to be in our area, though.

So we worked with them on a few options.

The first option didn't work out, so we worked on a second option, and that option is the option that ended up landing their site in Davenport.

And so it was really great that GDRC, the Greater Davenport Redevelopment Corporation was able to get options on that property in advance of Amazon, and was able to turn that property over so quickly, and that we had utilities ready to go and all that.

So there is a lot of early work that goes on so that way you can be ready at the right time.

- And you were a part of the Chamber of Commerce, of course, when there was an Illinois Chamber of Commerce, and there was Davenport, and then there was Iowa.

You know, I mean, it was all fractured.

And it used to be that, oh my gosh, Moline just took a business from Davenport, or Bettendorf got something from Rock Island.

Coming to Davenport is really coming to the Quad Cities when it comes to Amazon.

- Oh, this is definitely coming to the Quad Cities.

It's located at, every new business has to be located in a certain geography, right?

Everybody needs an address.

But they're going to be drawing work force from across our region.

We have a labor shed that stretches to Cedar Rapids and Waterloo and Dubuque and Galesburg, almost to Peoria.

So we're going to be pulling people from a very wide geography to work at Amazon, but this is going to be a big lift, because they're going to be living in our community, they're also going to be relying on companies to supply product and have relationships that exist throughout our Quad Cities area.

So this is going to be a large impact, almost $148 million annual economic impact is what Amazon will have in our area.

That is above and beyond the $250 million that they're going to be investing in this facility over the next year and a half.

So we're talking just in the first two years alone, almost a half of a billion dollars invested from Amazon to be an influx in our community.

And we were about a $27 billion economy right now.

So this is going to be, you know, an order of magnitude that's going to be noticeable in our area.

So I really think going back to your first question, Jim, this is a big deal.

- A big high-tech deal, too.

I mean, let's be honest, you did say look at the Arconix and look at Deere & Company, and then these are older companies that are still investing in the Quad Cities, so they should not be forgotten.

They shouldn't be thrown on the side of the road because something shiny has shown up.

But let's be honest, this is a high-tech company.

That's a big deal.

And the second thing is, and I'm not exactly sure if I'm saying this right, but I think the Quad Cities felt a little slighted because so many high-tech jobs were kind of going to that Iowa City, Cedar Rapids corridor, now it's here.

- I can tell you that when you mentioned the John Deere and the Arconix, we have a lot of companies that are upgrading their equipment and they're becoming more automated and more robotic, and so Amazon is no different.

This is going to be a robotic fulfillment center.

1,000 workers are going to be working in a very large facility with a lot of automation.

And so this is really about how we have a talented work force that is skilled, knowledgeable, that can also deal with the new technology that's hitting just about every company.

You know, we're at a center of manufacturing and distribution, but it's not old school manufacturing and old school distribution.

We have a talented work force that can deal with the technology of today's era and be prepared for tomorrow, which is why companies continue to invest in the Quad Cities region.

- The other thing that the Chamber is pushing all the time is not only gee, we got a great work force.

Gee, we got a lot of people here, but it's also a great place to live.

And I know that's been a major push for all of the Quad Cities.

And now that you have Amazon here, it may attract other companies to follow suit.

And do you think the selling point is also the community and how it has come together and that its quality of life has improved dramatically?

- Jim, it is the most important thing that we have to talk about.

Companies locate where workers are, and workers locate in a place where they want to be.

And so that's why investing in place matters, whether it in our downtowns or along our riverfront or in all of our neighborhoods, we want to make sure the Quad Cities is the best.

And I think we have a really great product right now that we can go out and sell and talk about, but that's why companies value the Quad Cities area.

They know that they can recruit and retain their workers in the Quad Cities area, because they love it here.

How many times have you heard stories of people who aren't from the Quad Cities, they get here and they say, wow, I wish I knew about this sooner, I love it here.

And I want to stay.

And they end up staying for a long time.

So we're actually at the Chamber launching a talent attraction campaign here in the next few months.

They're going to be out telling our story, making sure the Quad Cities brand is known across the country and beyond to make sure that people understand that the great quality of life and the fun things that we have to do here.

- Now, Amazon has another distribution center, not far away in Bondurant, Iowa, which is north of Altoona over on the east side of Des Moines.

Have you been in contact with them?

Do you know the impact that's occurred in that community that you can somehow expect here?

- Well, they fulfilled their expectations there.

So they built a similar sized facility in Bondurant.

They hired a similar amount of people at that location.

And if you look at what happened around that facility, there is ample growth.

There is additional facilities that have been stood up.

So the impact has been beyond that initial opportunity.

And we're very hopeful that that'll be something that happens here in the Quad Cities too.

- And then that's what I wonder, because you also said during your news conference, that it's important to recognize the impact of Amazon, but it's also important for Amazon to make sure that perhaps they spread some of the wealth with some of the local companies.

Instead of bringing in all this new business, perhaps businesses that are already here could benefit from Amazon as well.

- Yeah, it's the Quad Cities way, Jim.

We want to keep it Quad Cities, which means we want to be encouraging existing companies to work with new ones like Amazon.

We've already provided them with a list of contractors and suppliers and vendors in the Quad Cities area that we're encouraging them to do business with.

Give them a leg up because we want to maximize that economic impact.

And I believe that Amazon does too.

- Well, I mean, I think you must be smiling, since all the T's were crossed and the I's were dotted.

And I would think that as a person who's in charge of the Chamber, as well as your fellow executives somehow think, wow, this is a huge gift.

This is a great legacy for all of us that worked on this for the future of the Quad Cities.

Is that the way you see it, is that this is a turning point, and that people are going to remember, wow, this was the day Amazon came?

- I think it's a major milestone in the Quad Cities story.

I wouldn't say it's the watershed moment, but it certainly going to be a day that people remember, just like some of the other past announcements.

But I think we have some great wind in our sails and good momentum that we're going to carry forward.

So maybe there's going to be an another announcement or another deal in the next few years that we'll be talking about in the same manner that we do with Amazon.

Because I think that the Quad Cities is a great place and we're just going to keep telling our story.

And we do have a great team, Jim.

You mentioned that I had a team that worked so hard on this project.

I didn't do the majority of the work.

Tami Petsche, Julie Forsythe, Jenelle Wolber are my teammates that work extremely hard on it.

This is a proud moment for them.

You know, we're only as good as our team members, and I have a great team at Quad Cities Chamber, and we work with some great team members at Davenport and GDRC and the state of Iowa to make this project reality.

So kudos to everybody that worked on it.

- So do you have another Operation Scrabble that you're not telling me about?

- We have right now upwards of 75 similar projects that are on our pipeline, Jim.

We're a very attractive place in the Quad Cities, and we're working very aggressively on those projects to see how we can complete them in a similar manner.

- Quad Cities Chamber President and CEO, Paul Rumler.

In a moment, the job market in The Cities, and what it takes to get a new job.

But first here's Lora Adams with some great ideas for you, your family and your friends, who all want to go Out and About.

- [Lora] This is Out and About for July 19th through 26th.

The 47th running of the Bix Seven takes place in downtown Davenport the 24th at 8:00 AM, while the Junior Bix takes place the 23rd at 6:00 PM.

The QC Senior Olympics kickoff at Augustana College, the 25th running through the 31st.

Plus it's time for the 150th Rock Island County Fair at the fairgrounds in East Moline on the 20th running through the 24th.

Each Friday, check out Mercado on Fifth in downtown Moline.

While North of 40 performs Thursday night, the 22nd, at the Bass Street Landing Summer Concert Series.

Live@Five Courtyard Series at RME features The Blackstones on the 23rd, and the Concert Series at Veterans Memorial Park presents Big River Brass on the 23rd.

The Moline Township Activity Center Summer Concert in the Park presents North of 40 on the 26th, while there's comedy with Brooks Wheelan who performs at Tomfoolery on Tremont.

Timber Lake Playhouse continues their run of Jesus Christ SuperStar at the Mount Carroll Theater through August 1st, and Saturday Night Fever brings the night fever to Circa 21.

Genesius Guild performs Euripides, translated by Ian Johnson at Lincoln Park through the 25th, while August Wilson's classic, The Piano Lesson graces the Playcrafters stage through the 24th.

And finally, Lauren Gunderson's beautiful play I and You completes their run at the Black Box Theatre on the 24th.

For more information, visit WQPT.org.

- Thank you, Lora.

Lojo Russo says she's a one woman show that shows you only need one woman.

She joined us at Moline's Black Box Theatre last year to perform one of her originals.

Lojo Russo, and Restless Soul.

(soft folk guitar music) ♪ There's a sign down on Main Street ♪ ♪ Attracts me like a moth to a flame ♪ ♪ Illuminating words saying thank you ♪ ♪ Please come back again ♪ ♪ It reminds my restless soul ♪ ♪ I've been here too long ♪ ♪ Without any word or a whisper ♪ ♪ Going, going, gone ♪ ♪ There's a girl back in Boston ♪ ♪ Who remembers the better me ♪ ♪ When I took everything for granted ♪ ♪ Gave it all away for free ♪ ♪ It reminds me of a time ♪ ♪ When I thought I could do no wrong ♪ ♪ And like a fading photograph ♪ ♪ It's going, going, gone ♪ ♪ I am tired of running ♪ ♪ From all the lies that I've sold ♪ ♪ Comes a time and a place ♪ ♪ When you stand face to face ♪ ♪ With the weight of it all ♪ ♪ You heard it's all wrong ♪ ♪ There's a side to the story ♪ ♪ No one has ever heard ♪ ♪ It's the side that's the truth ♪ ♪ And the side where no one gets hurt ♪ ♪ I'm reminded that history is written ♪ ♪ By those who are strong ♪ ♪ And like pages, torn and scattered ♪ ♪ Going, going, gone ♪ ♪ And I'm gone ♪ ♪ I'm tired of running ♪ ♪ From all my faults and regrets ♪ ♪ Comes a time and a place ♪ ♪ When you stand face to face ♪ ♪ With the weight of it all ♪ ♪ You heard it's all wrong ♪ (soft folk guitar music and vocalizing) ♪ There's a sign up ahead ♪ ♪ Telling me it's time to come home ♪ - Lojo Russo and Restless Soul performed on the stage of the Black Box Theatre in downtown Moline.

The announcement that Amazon plans to build a Davenport distribution plant with 1,000 jobs instantly makes the company one of the area's biggest employers and one of the biggest high-tech investments in the region.

One of the selling points of their arrival was the local work force in the cities.

But how do you prepare for a high tech job?

We talked with Martha Garcia-Tappa from IowaWORKS.

Well, Martha, the big news of course, is that Amazon is coming here.

And one of the things that attracted them to the Quad Cities area was the work force.

And we talked to people with the Chamber of Commerce and people who were involved in the negotiations, who said that this area can draw everywhere from Galesburg over to Iowa City, to Fulton and Clinton that is a qualified work force.

Is that what we're seeing right now?

I mean, IowaWORKS has been very active in not only finding people jobs and finding companies employees, but also training these workers as well.

- Yeah, IowaWORKS has a lot of good opportunities for job seekers to prepare them even for a new career path.

We have our Title I folks that can help them with training, with paid training, on the job training, getting an internship established, and getting a registered apprenticeship established.

So there's a lot of good opportunities for training for folks going into new jobs, or that want to have a career path change.

- Well, and in the Quad Cities, it's kind of interesting because when Sterilite came, there was a big push for training employees.

Now we're expecting the same thing with Amazon.

It's kind of interesting what's happening now because instead of a person starting at a job and then that company is there forever, these are brand new companies.

These are really new opportunities for employees in our area.

- It is a very exciting time.

And there are a lot of companies, and we try to work with all the companies coming into our area to provide services so that we can have job seekers match what their positions are or the jobs that they're going to have.

And so those are the services IowaWORKS can have and can provide to both the job seeker and the company so that they're prepared for the work force and they're prepared to a new community.

- And Martha, I mean, this is very much a service economy that we've seen so much, but manufacturing isn't lost in the Quad Cities.

I mean, we're seeing a strong manufacturing base that needs trained employees.

- There's a lot of manufacturing facilities and that's where we come into play with placing job seekers in possible registered apprenticeship programs that can, you know, get them ready with the correct on the job training together with the related job training in a classroom.

So we are sitting pretty good in terms of what we could provide to companies if they wish in this large manufacturing, predominant manufacturing community.

- When you talk about apprenticeships, I think a lot of people think young kids getting into the business, but age is not really any restriction, is it?

- There are folks out there that, you know, may have worked in an industry for years or are retired and want to get a fresh start.

So it's all age groups we're seeing getting placed in apprenticeships and internships, all seeking new opportunity.

I guess that's the best way to say, is that they're all looking for new opportunity, and maybe something that they want to change in terms of a late career or an early start career.

- And is that something that you're seeing more and more of, is that people aren't really sticking to one job, sticking to one career?

I mean, people are floating not only from company to company, but also from career to career.

- Exactly, so they're stepping out of their comfort zone.

I mean, we've seen all walks of life come in and say, you know what?

I've been in the food industry for 20 years.

You know, I'm looking to go into the customer service area and maybe work on customer service phone lines to marketing.

So it's really exciting.

It's really an exciting time, because the jobs are there and the difference than in the opportunities of having people explore new options, new opportunity in careers and new opportunity in, you know, pay.

And it's just an exciting time right now because the jobs are out there.

- I liked the fact that you said getting out of your comfort zone.

I think some people, me included, I mean, you gotta open your eyes to different opportunities and IowaWORKS can actually help do that.

- Exactly, and what we provide to job seekers is another great opportunity because the job seekers now are in the driver's seat as well.

Because if you come into our office in our center, we can provide you with how to freshen up your resume, get you acclimated with the job searches, and get you out in front of employers that are desperately seeking employees right now.

And so, the job seekers, it's an exciting time for them right now.

- You recently had a job fair, a drive-through job fair.

And I think you were giving out, I don't want to say baskets, but it's not baskets, but you're giving out opportunities for about 60 jobs that were inside little bags.

And you had a line of cars, you had a huge turnout right off the bat.

What does that say about the Quad Cities right now?

- It says that our community is very vibrant in jobs.

I mean, there were over 2,000 jobs in that small little bag 2,000 jobs with 80 employers that were eager to announce that they're looking for good people.

And more than I think 850 people drove through for these packets.

So you can tell that there's a lot of excitement out there for work force.

There's a lot of excitement for our employers that want to see dynamic faces in their places of employment.

So it is a really good time right now for both the job seekers and our employers, because, you know, we're booming with jobs, we're booming with opportunity, which is great.

And it's a win-win situation for all of us.

- Well, and it's also coming off of one of the worst times for business, getting out of this COVID pandemic right now.

How has that changed things?

Let's start with the two different ways.

How has that changed things from the company viewpoint as far as what they're looking for among employees?

- So I think that, with the recent pandemic, we've seen a higher need right now for employees, because we're looking at there's a time where employers, some had to scale back, some had to close doors.

So we're looking at an opportunity where, we want to come back, we want to thrive again.

We want, these employers are looking to grow after a hard time.

And I think that we're in a good position because the jobs are out there and the potential employees are out there.

There are job seekers that still are displaced, and they're looking for a home to go to work.

They're looking for their opportunity.

And so opportunity is out there.

And it's just a matter of reaching it, and IowaWORKS has the most awesome programs to help with that.

From the veteran hiring to folks that want to change their career through the education components, all attainable by just being in contact with us.

- And then from the other side of the coin, the employee, I mean, are you seeing people that, like we were talking about, being more flexible, that they want to work from home, or that they want to have a higher wage, because there are so many jobs and so few people.

I mean, are we seeing it?

You know, when you think of the housing market, you think of the buyer's market or the seller's market, is this now the employee market?

- It is an employee market.

And you hit the nail on the head perfectly, because we're seeing that potential employee that wants to try something new because they had a year of, hey, you know what?

Maybe I could work from home.

Maybe, you know, there's a job out there because I feel comfortable working from home because I had to be home for so long.

Or the person that's ready to be out there to look for opportunity and say, you know, this is a good time for a change.

So maybe go from manufacturing to food service.

Because I could tell you every industry right now, there are jobs out there.

And if you're looking for a change, or if you're looking for a good opportunity, you will find it.

- And your services at IowaWORKS are costly?

- Our services at IowaWORKS are at no cost to the job seeker and at no cost to employers.

We help fit job seekers to employers.

That's the good thing that we do.

We get to know our employers to see what they're looking for, what their needs are.

If maybe there's opportunity, if there's on the job training for them, we can provide them the training at no cost to the employer.

And at the same time, we can find a good fit for the employer with a job seeker that says, hey, this is what I want to do.

And help with some of those training costs to our programs, or help a displaced veteran right now that may be just came back from active duty, is looking for work.

In our Home Base Iowa, we can match their resume.

When an employer signs up in Home Base Iowa database, and they get those veteran resumes directly sent to them.

So there's a lot of neat programs.

I encourage people to go to IowaWORKS.gov, to navigate our jobs, or IowaWORKSDevelopment.gov to look at all the programs we have to offer.

- Martha Garcia-Tappa from IowaWORKS.

On the air, on the radio, on the web, on your mobile device, and streaming on your computer, thanks for taking some time to join us as we talk about the issues on The Cities.

(upbeat music) - [Announcer] Wheelan-Pressly Funeral Home and Crematory, a proud supporter of WQPT, has been serving Quad City families since 1889.

They now have livestream capabilities for viewing your loved one's funeral or memorial service.

- [Announcer] At IHMVCU, we've always been here for you.

You are and always will be our top priority.

We care about your financial and physical health, and we are here.

IHMVCU is a proud supporter of WQPT.