Batavia looking to community leaders, businesses, residents to help create city’s economic development strategy

The city of Batavia is hosting a series of focus groups as it works to create its first economic development plan.

According to a news release, the city is holding the sessions with members of the Batavia Chamber of Commerce, Batavia MainStreet, businesses, residents and community leaders to collect feedback for the plan. The meetings are by invitation only.

During these engagement sessions, attendees will participate in a SWOT analysis for Batavia. SWOT analysis is a strategic management technique used to help organizations identify strengths, weaknesses, opportunities and threats existing in the current environment that affect the target strategic initiatives, according to a recent news release from the city.

The information gathered during the engagement meetings will help the city create an economic development strategic plan with measurable objectives and action plans to achieve the objectives within an identified timeframe, said Batavia’s Economic Development Manager Shannon Malik Jarmusz.

“We are conducting these sessions to solicit feedback on Batavia’s strengths, weaknesses, opportunities and threats so we can find consensus on key items,” Jarmusz stated in the release. “The feedback will be delivered to city council for prioritization and refinement of business retention and recruitment practices in Batavia.”

The first stakeholder meeting held earlier this month included the board members from the Batavia Chamber of Commerce. Participants shared their ideas about what types of businesses they think would be a good fit for Batavia. They also completed an exercise to prioritize which challenges were the most pressing.

Margaret Perreault, president and CEO of the Batavia Chamber of Commerce participated in the first stakeholder meeting.

“I thought it was an excellent way for the city to learn what some of our business leaders in Batavia believe are the challenges we face in attracting and retaining businesses here. It was also interesting to discuss ideas for opportunities and ideas for attracting business that would make a great fit for our community,” Perreault said.

The next meeting is for Batavia MainStreet, and further meetings have yet to be scheduled.

Jarmusz said the results from the stakeholder meetings will be presented to the City Council later this year.

After the focus group sessions conclude, the city is planning to offer either a live discussion or online survey for any interested residents to provide feedback.

According to the release, the pandemic has affected many sectors of Batavia’s economy, particularly the Randall Road retail corridor, which has seen vacancies rise. The city is making a concentrated effort to recruit new businesses to fill those vacancies, as well as promoting opportunities for growing businesses to move into larger locations within the city.