Lodie Biggs loves his job. Success in his line of work means numerous people end up as the winner – the Memphis area, companies, the newly employed and ultimately citizens and taxpayers.
A shareholder at the law firm Baker Donelson Bearman Caldwell & Berkowitz, Biggs’ legal work focuses on real estate and economic development. “A majority of my practice is dealing with companies who are expanding in the Memphis MSA (Memphis Metropolitan Statistical Area—Mississippi, Tennessee and Arkansas) or locating here,” Biggs said. “In the last three months we’ve closed on Electrolux, worked on Mitsubishi, done the Trane, Praxair and City Brewery PILOTs (payment in lieu of taxes). They all come in waves and you’ve got a week to get these people talking to the state, the chamber, the city and the county.” Lodie says that the deciding factor for companies wanting to relocate generally comes down to cost.
“Everyone has focused on the best infrastructure and the best platform to do their business at the lowest cost and the incentives that are given are very material every time,” Biggs said, adding that Memphis is competing against other regions that are doing the same things or more, even though Memphis has an inherent advantage with our logistical assets.
“When you put incentives on top of that,” he said, “it’s very hard not to choose Memphis.” Communities offer varying degrees and types of incentives, but Biggs is adamant that Memphis is in a very competitive position compared to other cities. “When you come to Memphis or other Southern cities, you’re looking at the majority of your tax hit being property tax, so abating a portion of the property tax is very important,” he said. “If we didn’t have that tool, we would be uncompetitive.”
While most companies expanding or relocating here do apply for PILOTs, which is based on the number of jobs and capital investment they’re bringing to Memphis, Biggs says that most also want to be fair in the abatement they seek. Sometimes, he’s even had companies tell him ‘no thanks’ when he tells them there are additional incentives they can go after.
“As a lawyer, you want to advocate for your client to get the best deal,” Biggs said. “A lot of companies don’t want to push; they plan to be in the community for a long time and want to be fair.”
Another attractive element to companies besides incentives is a streamlined process for obtaining those incentives and other things like permits. Right now, companies seeking a PILOT go before the Industrial Development Board one time, which changed from a two-step process a few years ago.
That may not seem like a big leap, but Biggs said it goes a long way to busy company executives and makes the area look more attractive by being as efficient as possible. Biggs also said that having the City of Memphis, Shelby County, State of Tennessee and the Greater Memphis Chamber collaborating and having a working, efficient model to deal with the companies to cut the red tape makes those companies feel like they’re wanted here.
“Blues City Brewery, a company that has no connection to Memphis, bought Hardy Bottling and two other shops elsewhere,” he said. “They’re coming to Memphis and taking that facility, spending substantial amounts of money, hiring 500 people and they love Memphis. They’ll have stellar diversity numbers and great job numbers. This is great for everyone.” Biggs goes on to say that the process companies go through for incentives and permits needs to remain efficient.
“I think the reason we’re getting good projects in a bad economy is that people are realizing the logistical advantage we have and that we’re a fairly low cost state and city to do business in,” he said. “We’re family friendly and eager to add to the infrastructure.”
Companies are moving their higher cost operations here and the next step, Biggs says, is to continue to court them to move their headquarters here. “I feel like at the end of the day, everybody involved from government to citizens win,” he said. “We’re all winners. The process is to create jobs and that makes everybody happy. I love meeting new companies who want to come here—it’s fantastic.”
RELATED LINKS:
To find out more about the work Lodie Biggs does, visit:
www.bakerdonelson.com/lodie-v-biggs/
Memphis Crossroads, the Chamber's quarterly economic development magazine, is available free at select locations throughout Memphis (including Schnuck's markets), via mail for Chamber members and at the Chamber's offices on the 2nd floor of the Falls Building, 22 N. Front Street.