Success Stories
EDA investments catalyze strategic, regionally-focused plans to build strong economic ecosystems that will support entrepreneurship and business growth, enhance and grow their existing economic assets, and create well-paying jobs in growing sectors. By investing in bottom-up regional economic development EDA helped communities devise new, well-thought-out, sustainable strategies based on their unique assets.
EDA’s economic footprint is wide and its tool box is extensive—including technical assistance, post-disaster recovery assistance, trade adjustment support, strategic planning and research and evaluation capacity, thereby allowing the agency to offer the most effective investment to help communities succeed in the global economy.
We are proud of our grantees’ accomplishments and encourage you to submit your success stories:
Read some Success Stories from our Annual Reports.
Archives: Disaster | Economic Development Districts | Infrastructure | Innovation and Entrepreneurship | Manufacturing | Small Business Development/RLF | Workforce Development
In Teton County, Idaho, EDA And ECIPDA Incubate InnovationWith a population of just 25,000, Rexburg, Idaho, may not be the first place you imagine when you think innovation, but don’t let its size fool you. December 2020 |
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Upstate New York Start-up Incubator Guides Hardware Entrepreneurs Through Manufacturing ProcessA spice bottle cap that pre-measures your spices. A breastmilk pasteurizer for home use. Gluten-free, wheat stem straws. A battery for storing renewable energy in buildings. December 2020 |
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At a Landlocked Port, Water is VitalGrant County, Washington, is not where you would expect to find a port. Best known as the nation’s most prodigious potato-producing area, it is a landlocked county covered in dry grassland more than 150 miles from the Pacific Ocean. December 2020 |
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EDA Supports University of California Efforts to Protect America’s Citrus CropThe commercial production of citrus fruit generates more than $7 billion annually for California’s economy, a contribution credited with supporting tens of thousands of jobs in the Golden State. That vital economic engine, however, is at constant risk from a variety of diseases that have devastated crops in citrus growing regions around the world. December 2020 |
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Economic Development Districts Denim to Dairy in Texas: Lamb County’s Road to Revitalization Through EDA PartnershipIn 2015, one of the last remaining denim mills in the United States shuttered its doors permanently, leaving 300 workers in Lamb County, Texas, without a job. In an area with nearly 6,000 residents, the loss of the denim mill was devastating to the county and region. December 2020 |
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Decades of Growth and Success: EDA and the New Mexico Sandia Science and Technology ParkThe Sandia Science and Technology Park (SS&TP) opened its doors in 1998, transforming open desert foothills in southern Albuquerque, New Mexico, into an expansive industrial park focused on high-tech innovation and job growth. December 2020 |
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EDA’s Revolving Loan Fund Program Helps Bakers Move from Kitchen to Front OfficeWhen the Food Network visited Chico, California’s Upper Crust Bakery and Eatery for a 2019 episode of its popular series “Diners, Drive-Ins and Dives,” viewers got a taste of some of the signature dishes, like black bean chili with jalapeño cheese corn muffin, that have long earned the Upper Crust rave reviews from locals. November 2020 |
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Purdue University Northwest Leverages EDA Innovation Grant to Help Entrepreneurs Manufacture and Bring Products to MarketMichelle Pearson’s idea for an invention came to her in a dream, but the reality of bringing her product to market proved to be a bit more challenging. Pearson’s invention is an automated communion server, which would automatically dispense the wafer and wine during the Eucharist for Christians in churches, hospitals, nursing homes, and correctional facilities. November 2020 |
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Native Village of Napaimute Sets Sail to Greater Prosperity with EDA GrantFor members of the Native Village of Napaimute — an Alaska Native tribe in Western Alaska — the forests of the Yukon–Kuskokwim Delta are not only the heart and hearth of their ancestral home, they are also an important contemporary fixture of the village’s economy. In fact, Napaimute, in the Yup’ik language, literally means “forest people.” November 2020 |
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Innovation & Entrepreneurship, Manufacturing Success Story: EDA Innovation Investment Supports Textile Manufacturing in North CarolinaNorth Carolina has a vibrant history in textile manufacturing, which dates back decades before technological advances such as the high-tech knitting machine. October 2020 |
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EDA Investment Advances Locally-Driven Strategy to Establish Flood-Resilient Business Sites in Viroqua, WisconsinThe new Viroqua Business District is nearly complete and an agreement was finalized in August to welcome its first new business. September 2020 |
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Krampade Sports Drink Leverages Revolving Loan Fund to Secure Public/Private Investment for Business GrowthEDA makes Economic Adjustment Assistance (EAA) grant awards to establish Revolving Loan Funds (RLFs) that make loans to businesses that cannot otherwise obtain traditional bank financing. These loans provide access to capital as gap financing that enables small businesses to grow and lead to new employment opportunities with competitive wages and benefits. August 2020 |
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Economic Development Districts EDA’s nearly $175 million in Foreign Direct Investment projects in Distressed Communities Attract Investors from Across the GlobeForeign Direct Investment (FDI) is one of EDA’s main investment priorities and critical to supporting projects that promote and facilitate business investments in the United States. June 2020 |
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EDA University Center Participates in Cross-Campus Collaboration to Respond to Aid COVID-19 PandemicAn EDA University Center partner, the Tom Love Innovation Hub at the University of Oklahoma (OU), is participating in a cross-campus effort to create and validate essential medical equipment in support of our healthcare heroes. May 2020 |
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EDA’s Partnership with the Philadelphia Industrial Development Corporation Drives Economic Growth in PhiladelphiaThe Philadelphia Industrial Development Corporation (PIDC) is Philadelphia’s public-private economic development corporation. March 2020 |
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The Russell Center for Innovation and Entrepreneurship Brings Diverse Economic Growth to Atlanta Opportunity ZoneFounded by the late Herman J. Russell, an Atlanta entrepreneur and philanthropist, H.J. Russell & Company is the largest minority-owned real estate and construction company in the United States. February 2020 |
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U.S. Economic Development Administration Supports Disaster-Impacted Missouri Businesses and Communities in Times of NeedMissouri has a history of severe storms, including flooding, damaging wind events, winter storms, ice storms, droughts, and wildfires, and has been impacted by federally declared disasters more than 30 times from 1998-2018. February 2020 |
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