Two years and more than 10 development projects later, the
self-proclaimed computer geek who helps drive Gilroy’s economic
engine, now plans to revive the city’s lackluster industrial sector
and begin an employee training program.
Gilroy – Two years and more than 10 development projects later, the self-proclaimed computer geek who helps drive Gilroy’s economic engine, now plans to revive the city’s lackluster industrial sector and begin an employee training program.
As the president of Gilroy’s nonprofit Economic Development Corporation for the past two years, Larry Cope has concentrated on downtown at the behest of the City Council. He oversees 19 active development applications and five potential projects within the downtown area that offers financial incentives to developers, and many officials say the “match-maker” between potential businesses and the city’s development and engineering departments has fit in quite well here.
“Larry has definitely stepped up to the plate,” said the city’s Development Department Director Wendie Rooney. “He helps to facilitate the needs of the client and the needs of the city, like zoning constraints … He’s also very cutting edge and really good at making relationships.”
Establishing rapport comes easy to Cope since he grew up watching his father, Gary, run hotels from Denver to Los Angeles. Larry Cope, 38, started off as a busboy in various L.A. hotel restaurants and then skipped college to manage a 126-room hotel in Columbia, S.C., where he acquired the southern hospitality he still displays.
“He’s no Bill Lindsteadt because he’s more into the new school side of development, but when you ask him a straight question, he’ll give you a straight answer,” said Councilman Russ Valiquette, referring to the previous EDC president credited for Pacheco Pass and Gilroy Crossing shopping centers. “There’s a big difference between bringing in a mega area on the east side of town and trying to get someone to come downtown. You’ve got to salute Larry.”
Cope’s seemingly permanent smile, ironed shirts and gelled hair showcase his attention to detail, and his lust for technology helps him unite businesses and Gilroy in a timely manner. He sends custom, real-time business proposals to different developers, all with the help of his Motorola Q cell phone.
“I can run the office from anywhere,” he said. “If you ask my wife, I’m constantly on the Internet, always trying to find new information” about technology and potential business enterprises.
In the mid-1990s, Cope ran his family’s engineering construction company in Topeka, Kan., while teaching business classes at the University of Kansas and heading his own business consulting company, which is more or less what he does now, only on a much larger scale.
Before arriving in 2005, though, Cope was the economic director for Jefferson County and Junction City in Kansas, where he attracted Foot Locker and an Irish plastics manufacturer. But his similar die-hard approach to the EDC here isn’t motivated by his $85,000 salary or the corporation’s $210,000, mostly city-financed budget.
“I just like to help people out,” Cope said. “I like seeing people turn over their open sign in their stores,” which can be easy since “I’m a one-stop source for financing, employees, engineers, statistics, real estate people, architects and developers.”
Even though Cope’s a one-stop shop of sorts, he said development can lag because some building owners are asking too much or don’t want to reinforce their earthquake-vulnerable buildings before the state deadline in two years. There are about 30 such buildings in Gilroy.
“We can’t wave a magic wand and work miracles,” Cope said of complaints that some downtown buildings are still vacant. “We work with each individual.”
Cope can offer streamlined service because he’s constantly building statewide bridges.
Last week he went to Long Beach for the California Downtown Association’s annual conference. He knows economic developers from Morgan Hill to Santa Barbara, and he sits on the board of the Silicon Valley Economic Alliance. This doesn’t include his devotion to the Gilroy Downtown Business Association or the Chamber of Commerce.
“He’s at every meeting. I don’t think he has a night free,” Rooney said. “I was hesitant of the EDC at first, but I’ve grown to respect it because it allows our economic developer to be separate from the city and present things to us from a different perspective we may not see.”
Rooney lauded Cope’s role in the Obata, McCarthy and Forest Street business parks, and Cope said he’s spent 60 percent of the last two years on downtown, and 40 percent trying to create industrial jobs with companies in biotechnology and welding.
“Now you’ll see a flip in those percentages” Cope said, adding that “nobody looked at Gilroy as a retail center before the outlets.” Now that “the downtown has become a well-oiled machine,” Cope said he can concentrate on reviving Gilroy’s latent industrial success. “That’s my plan,” he said.
Another plan is the Workforce Program he’s spearheading with eight other entities, including Gavilan College. An employee will put money into an account similar to a 401(k), and the employer, along with outside grants Cope hopes to secure, will match this dollar amount so the employee can train in biotechnology, hotel hospitality, manufacturing, welding, construction, and health care.
“This is what I’m in this field for,” Cope said. “I want communities to grow and develop in a systematic manner when it comes to physical infrastructure, but I also want citizens to grow and have better jobs.”
While he certainly has the passion, only time will tell what happens.
“His best test will be the next couple of years when things slow down,” Rooney said. “His true challenge is kind of ahead of him.”
