Eli Lilly and Company\u2019s development<\/a> of a new $3.5 billion pharmaceutical manufacturing plant in Upper Macungie Township is the largest economic development project in Lehigh Valley history. It\u2019s the largest life sciences development in Pennsylvania history.<\/p>\nGov. Josh Shapiro and his team\u2019s financial support and unprecedented attention to the Lehigh Valley has helped us create our next chapter as a life sciences center. We are grateful to both Lilly and the state.<\/p>\n
Big wins are fabulous. We\u2019re also grateful to many others, to all of you. To everyone who\u2019s adding a piece every day \u2014 no matter how big or small \u2014 to solve a puzzle many thought impossible. We have a unique public-private coalition \u2014 started and led by private sector leaders three decades ago \u2014 that reaches across county and municipal lines, industries and sectors to develop regional economic strategy and implement it.<\/p>\n
This Lehigh Valley coalition of community is our secret sauce. It\u2019s the reason that things happen here that don\u2019t happen elsewhere.<\/p>\n
The Lehigh Valley is the No. 1 mid-size market in the U.S. for economic development. We\u2019ve been in the top ten for a decade. This is our second first in three years. The region\u2019s GDP now tops $57 billion, more than two states.<\/p>\n
Manufacturing is once again our largest sector with $9 billion in annual output by more than 700 manufacturers producing everything from consumer products, brand name food and beverages, medical devices, construction trucks, military hardware \u2014 and soon high-quality medicines to the world.<\/p>\n
Made in Lehigh Valley is our brand. We make things here. Manufacturing is 16% of the economy, compared to 11% in the U.S. Manufacturing jobs have grown at three times the U.S. rate \u2014 and that\u2019s before Lilly hires 850 new workers with an average salary of $100,000 per year.<\/p>\n
The region has the most total jobs in its history with 343,975 and its largest population with 708,644 people living in Lehigh and Northampton counties. Our\u00a0population of young people \u2014 ages 18-34 \u2014 has grown at twice the rate of the U.S. since 2020.<\/p>\n
How?<\/p>\n
We welcome newcomers. Both counties have been hotspots for migration and immigration. People are coming here. Lehigh is in the top 5% of U.S counties for international migration, Northampton in the top 5% for domestic. Last year, Northampton led all of Pennsylvania\u2019s counties in growth of young people.<\/p>\n
The most important metrics, however, are what it means for our people. Median household income here exceeds that of the state and nation and has grown by more than $17,000 in the last five years, outpacing inflation. The Lehigh Valley poverty rate \u2014 although ideally 0% \u2014 is lower than the state and nation and has not grown since 2010.<\/p>\n
While celebrating success is important, it\u2019s equally important to recognize the new challenges that it creates. Housing is harder to find, and less affordable. Working parents struggle to pay for and find high-quality child care. Like every growing market in the U.S., availability and affordability are of concern. Young people today encounter obstacles and financial challenges not known to their parents and grandparents.<\/p>\n
Land, water and energy resources are more limited while new houses and higher-value economic growth are needed. And there are more and more hurdles for developers to deliver them. That\u2019s why LVEDC\u2019s new three-year strategic plan goes beyond job-creation to focus on targeting high-value development and building regional coalitions to address challenges of scarcity or high costs for our workers and residents.<\/p>\n
We\u2019ve conquered challenges before. When others said we couldn\u2019t, we did. The collective work of the last 25 years has made the Lehigh Valley a middle America success story. A comeback kid. The underdog, up from the ashes.<\/p>\n
Our mission is lofty but simple. It\u2019s for everyone to have a good-paying job in a safe community with quality schools, health care and neighborhoods regardless of their skills or socioeconomic status. A good job is still the best pathway to a good life. From the Ph.D. to the picker and the packer, there\u2019s dignity \u2014 and importance \u2014 in all work.<\/p>\n
The region\u2019s focus today must be different than yesterday. That\u2019s the way it should be. Solving one set of problems and challenges creates a new set. We\u2019re not the same Lehigh Valley as when these blast furnaces were firing. Change is life\u2019s constant. The key is to bend it to the good.<\/p>\n
And if we learned anything in this economic renaissance, we\u2019ve learned the power of working together, to embrace the new while honoring the old. We are a place infused with the new \u2014 new residents, new companies and new leaders \u2014 young and ambitious, using new technologies, and with a new set of dreams and goals.<\/p>\n
That\u2019s what makes us different. That\u2019s what Made in Lehigh Valley means.<\/p>\n
This is a contributed opinion column. This column is excerpted from an address at the Lehigh Valley Economic Development Corp.\u2019s Annual Meeting last month. Don Cunningham is the president and CEO of the Lehigh Valley Economic Development Corp. He can be reached at news@lehighvalley.org.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"The Lehigh Valley\u2019s economic renaissance is no longer a secret. For decades we worked below the radar, toiling…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":174844,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[10],"tags":[119,121,120,60,182,139,432],"class_list":{"0":"post-174843","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-allentown","8":"tag-allentown","9":"tag-allentown-headlines","10":"tag-allentown-news","11":"tag-business","12":"tag-local-news","13":"tag-news","14":"tag-top-stories-tmc"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/174843","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=174843"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/174843\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/174844"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=174843"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=174843"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=174843"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}