NORTHERN VIRGINIA DAILY

Article Date: June 26, 2003

Closing the last deal

EDA director to leave at end of July for N.M.

By:  Jonathon Shacat

What Stephen A. Heavener enjoys the most about his job is doing the big deals.

“ I consider myself a facilitator,” he said.  “My job is to identify resources and bring the resources to the table to help with business development efforts”.

After nine years with the Front Royal/Warren County Economic Development authority, Heavener, 49, is resigning from his position as executive director effective July 31.  He has accepted the executive director’s post with the Department of Development in Carlsbad, N.M.  He starts his new job Aug. 15.

Heavener said he wasn’t actively pursuing the new position.  But when he was contacted by a search consultant who had an offer that sounded interesting, he pursued it.

“I have been very, very happy here,” he said.  “The political support and the board support has been fabulous over the years.  I mean, that’s really where our successes have come from.  It’s easy to say, ‘Well Heavener did this and Heavener did that,’ but the reality, is that none of the successes we’ve had would have been able to occur without the strong support of the political        leadership of the town and the county and at the EDA board level.”    Heavener has been instrumental in working with the EDA, the town of Front Royal and Warren County in attracting new industry to the community.  He has helped create 1,500 jobs and some $250 million in capital investment.

During his tenure, several major projects were brought to the community by the EDA, including Pen-Tab, a paper products manufacturer and distributor, and Toray Plastics, a manufacturer of automotive components, in 1995; Family Dollar in 1997; Ferguson Enterprises, a distributor of plumbing supplies, in 1998; and SYSCO, a food distributor, in 2002.

Heavener is carful, however to not take all the credit for the success.

“I’m the chief operating officer, I work for the board and the town and the county,” he said, noting that Front Royal, Warren County and the EDA board voted on every deal and provided the funding.  “My job is to bring them the deal.  It’s their job, meaning the elected bodies and the board, to give me the tools to close the deal.”

In addition, Heavener has been a key player in the Avtex redevelopment project.  Avtex once manufactured rayon that was used in parachute cording, missile nose cones and space suits.  The site was shut down in 1989 due to environmental violations, and it soon became the largest Superfund project in Virginia.  The EDA currently owns the property, which it is redeveloping.

Ronald Mabry, chairman of the EDA’s board of directors, said he wishes Heavener well in his new position as he continues to develop his career.

“Stephen has been instrumental in making our economic development program a success in Warren County and he will be greatly missed,” Mabry said.

Heavener said the timing of his departure from the EDA is appropriate.

“If there’s ever a good time for somebody like me to leave with nine years of institutional memory, the time is good right now,” he said.  “We’ve finished the Avtex building after 3-4 years, we’ve used all the demolition money up at Avtex, we’re in transition waiting to get to the next level of congressional support, which is probably a year or two away.”

Also, the EDA is probably finished doing the big deals with the SYSCO’s and Family Dollars of the world, he said.  “By definition, that gigantic million-square-foot deal isn’t going to happen anymore, just because we don’t have the land.”

In 1995 the EDA was charged with creating a tax base and jobs, said Heavener.

“The initial goal was to create enough high value added or high capital investment tax base to generate revenue to support the services of the county,” he said, noting that the companies he helped recruit, not including SYSCO, are paying over $1.5 million a year in new tax revenue to the county.

Now the EDA is making a transition to attract more diverse commercial-, retail- and technology-related companies.

“They’re not going to be as big in the way of capital investment, but the jobs in the future will pay more and there will be more variety,” he said.  “Instead of the Family Dollars employing 500 or Ferguson employing 200, we’ll have multiple companies with 20 to 100 people.”

While Heavener is confident he could evolve to take on the responsibilities at the EDA, he prefers a position that is more about organizational creation rather than organizational redirection.  He said Carlsbad will offer him that.