Success Stories

Displaying 1 - 8 of 8

August 13, 2024

EDA Helps the Wood Products Industry Branch Out in the Northern Forest

Timber markets are one of America’s most valuable, yet unpredictable, natural resource industries. It is no stranger to volatility, going from boon to bust and back again. As recently as 2019, paper mills and biomass electric plants were closing in Maine, New Hampshire, New York and Vermont, a four-state region collectively referred to as the Northern Forest. As the plants continued to close, the demand for wood harvested in the region began to decline.
  • Innovation and Entrepreneurship
  • Manufacturing
April 4, 2024

Multiple EDA Grants Transform Base Closure into Economic Opportunity in West Texas

The place-based investment is core to EDA’s mission, with our team working closely with local community leaders to ensure EDA’s grants support targeted economic development based on each community’s unique needs. It’s not a one-size-fits-all approach, which allows EDA’s grants to be flexible, dynamic, and meet the moment that’s called for in each community. In Lubbock, Texas, that has translated into multiple EDA investments, as leaders turn a painful Air Force Base closure into economic opportunity for the region.
  • Infrastructure
  • Innovation and Entrepreneurship
  • Manufacturing
  • Workforce Development
September 19, 2023

Data Driven Investing in America: New Tools Help Advance Regionally Focused Economic Development in Washington State and Beyond

In 2018, Brookings reported: “A central development problem is that high-quality, timely, accessible data are absent in most poor countries, where development needs are greatest. In a world of unequal distributions of income and wealth across space, age and class, gender and ethnic pay gaps, and environmental risks, data that provide only national averages conceal more than they reveal.”
  • Economic Development Districts
August 10, 2023

EDA Grant Lays Foundation for Significant Broadband Investments in Missouri

Lack of access to broadband is a problem for millions across the country, including residents in the state of Missouri. According to surveys from the Federal Communications Commission (FCC), the state ranks near the bottom for access to high-speed internet. Some local business owners had to find creative workarounds including completing tasks and then traveling into town to upload their completed work. 
  • Economic Development Districts
  • Infrastructure
July 20, 2023

Wisconsin Chocolatier Achieves Sweet Success With Help From EDA-Funded Programs and Projects

“I was just a humble chocolate maker with a dream.” Daniel Herskovic, a gourmet chef who worked at top restaurants in San Francisco, New York, and Chicago, started his luxury chocolate company, Mayana Chocolate, in his apartment and eventually moved to a small table in the corner of a local cheesecake bakery on Chicago’s North Side.
  • Economic Development Districts
  • Innovation and Entrepreneurship
  • Small Business Development/RLF
June 15, 2023

EDA Assists Former North Carolina Mill Town Unleash a Paper Tiger

Throughout much of the 20th century, Shelby, North Carolina, about an hour west of Charlotte, was a powerhouse of textile manufacturing. It was home to several mills, which produced yarn and thread for the clothing industry. It also had considerable transportation assets, making these products readily available throughout the United States. By the dawn of the 21st century, however, all of that would change.
  • Manufacturing