The Redlands Coast Chamber of Commerce announced that RPS has been chosen to deliver the first significant component of the Championing Redlands Coast (‘CRC’) initiative.
Director of RPS Economic Strategy and Investment team, Mark Wallace, said ‘RPS has a long and proud history of working with Council, major businesses and the Redlands community to foster a robust, sustainable and dynamic economy. We are looking forward to working with the Chamber to help local businesses and industry recover from the impacts of COVID19 and lay the foundation for robust and resilient economic growth in the future.’
The first stages of the project seek to understand the city’s project and infrastructure pipeline; identify how these opportunities can be leveraged to support new or expanding businesses; and what talent pool Redland City will need to support these projects. The project also includes a key focus on what the likely impact of COVID19 will be on Redlands Coast’s project, investment and jobs pipeline.
Chamber President, Rebecca Young believes ‘families and businesses are looking forward to recovery and the CRC project is about identifying these opportunities with a focus of creating and sustaining local jobs’.
What is the CRC? The Redlands Coast Chamber of Commerce was awarded the Regional Jobs Committee (‘RJC’) posting by Department of Employment, Small Business and Training (‘DESBT’) in January 2020. During industry engagement, the Chamber became aware of a number of exciting new businesses, initiatives and projects which have the potential to attract investment, new residents, employment opportunities and improve lifestyles within the region. CRC Project Manager, Rhett Bowlen, said ‘we identified that there is a tendency to look at projects and initiatives in isolation without understanding how they fit within the vision for the city as a whole. Chamber started asking the question, how do projects like the Capalaba Town Centre upgrade, Weinham Creek PDA, the Redland’s Regional Sports Precinct and other key projects shape the Redland’s identity and our position within SEQ? What opportunities do they present to local businesses? What employment opportunities do they provide for the Redlands community?’
The Chamber kicked off a flagship initiative called Championing Redlands Coast, with the first stage of the project seeking to identify and consolidate this information in a pipeline that the city can use to understand the narrative, or story of where the city is headed. Rhett said, ‘the Chamber is excited to be working towards creating an attractive narrative that will support the confidence in, and growth of, our city.’
The first milestone for the CRC project is expected to be in late August when the initial projects pipeline and narrative is finalised.
