The 2008 Queensland council amalgamations broadened the footprint and horizons for Logan City, opening up new opportunities for this versatile region. The ‘new’ Logan is home to more than 20,000 businesses and plays a unique role in bridging Brisbane, the Gold Coast, Ipswich, Redland, Beaudesert and Boonah regions. Featuring some of Australia’s best commercial, industrial and administrative precincts, Logan City has a compelling appeal for business.

Logan City has experienced significant change over the last 12 months, and is now well positioned to become the economic gateway for new business opportunities in South East Queensland.

During this time Logan has grown from a city of approximately 180,000 people to an expanding population in excess of 260,000 and has a business base of over 20,000.

Not withstanding this level of growth, Logan is still a relatively young city and with this youth comes a high degree of vibrancy, community spirit, adaptability and entrepreneurialism that other older more established cities do not necessarily possess.

Logan City Council has embraced this entrepreneurial spirit and recently established a new company - Invest Logan Pty Ltd - to drive economic development in the city.

The board of Invest Logan includes the Mayor, Councillor Pam Parker, Deputy Mayor Cr Russell Lutton, Chair of Governance and Finance Cr Luke Smith and Chair of Planning and Environment Cr Cherie Dalley who will be joined by four externally appointed directors. The role of the board is to recommend initiatives and actions for Council to pursue to enhance the economic and tourism development of the city.

Logan City has a diverse range of industrial and commercial development happening right now - and in the near future - to meet the needs of a wide range of interested investors and businesses looking to establish operations in the region.

As an added attraction for investors, Logan City Council is developing and delivering a number of economic development-related programs designed to specifically meet the needs of the local business community in these challenging economic times.

Location Logan

One of Logan City's most significant competitive advantages is its location and accessibility.  With easy access to local, national and international markets via major transport routes, Logan City is both an effective and efficient location for businesses on the move.

Major connections include:

• The M1 motorway links Logan City to the Brisbane CBD in 20 minutes and the central Gold Coast in a similar amount of time.

• The Gateway Motorway links Logan City to the Brisbane International Airport and Port of Brisbane in about 30 minutes.

• The Logan Motorway links Logan City to the Western Corridor and the City of Ipswich in about 30 minutes.

• The Mt Lindesay Highway links Logan City to proposed major industrial hubs such as Bromelton.

• The standard gauge railway line travels through Logan City on its way between Sydney and the Port of Brisbane.

These key infrastructure connections ensure businesses based in Logan City have all the distinct advantages of being located in the CBD without the issues of cost and traffic congestion.

Logan City Mayor, Pam Parker acknowledges that 2009 will be a challenging year for many businesses - but said "with challenges come opportunities".

Cr Parker said she believed, "Logan City Council, through the Logan Office of Economic Development (LOED) has a responsibility to work closely with our local business community and deliver programs that will provide businesses with many of the tools required to meet these challenges head on, and establish 2009 as a year of optimism."

BizConnect Centre

One of the initiatives being delivered through LOED is the BizConnect Centre.

Cr Parker said, "Logan City has a prominent small and home based business community, and the start of the New Year is a great opportunity for businesses to be assessing where they are currently at and their goals for 2009, and our newly established BizConnect Centre can provide this service for businesses in Logan City."

The BizConnect Centre is a concept developed by LOED to provide hands on support to the small and home based businesses in Logan City.

The centre aims to promote the development of a successful enterprise culture that will support Logan businesses to recognise and embrace opportunities through a variety of support mechanisms.

Some of these mechanisms include:

• Working with Logan businesses to identify specific issues holding back their business growth.

• Educating Logan business owners about how to deal with these specific issues.

• Working closely with the business owners to implement the solutions.

Each of these mechanisms are delivered through a range of different formats. Initially each business meets with a representative from the BizConnect Centre to determine the level the business is at and, therefore, determine the level of program they will join.

Beyond this initial meeting there are a wide range of workshops, one-on-one sessions, coaching and mentoring sessions that will help to identify and address business development opportunities for the local businesses.

In total there are 17 different workshops delivered through the BizConnect Centre, covering topics from initial business set-up requirements to positioning, lead generation, all other aspects of marketing, financial planning and developing a business plan.

It is working well already.

One local business in Logan recently provided this feedback in relation to the centre and directed towards one of the facilitators: "Thank you for your time spent with me this morning. I was thrilled to meet you and come away with much needed revived ideas. I am so looking forward to the journey through this course."

Early in 2009 the BizConnect Centre is going to trial ‘Satellite Sessions', where the traditional workshops are delivered in an online format to clients.

Cr Parker said, "As a result of Local Government amalgamations Logan City now covers a large and diverse area, so the delivery of online workshops through the BizConnect Centre will allow us to reach all corners of the city, and ensure everyone has the opportunity to benefit from this excellent service."

Logan's Enterprise Corridor

Logan City is experiencing unprecedented growth and a significant number of commercial and industrial developments are coming online or are planned for launch in the near future.

It is believed the provision of accessible and cost effective industrial and commercial land in the region will act as a stimulus to enhance the confidence of businesses in the region and continue to provide jobs for the people of Logan City.

Consistent with this, an Enterprise Corridor is forming through the heart of Logan City that will provide a variety of business and residential solutions for Logan's growth over the next 30 years.

This Enterprise Corridor extends from Logan Central in the north to planned developments such as Flagstone and Yarrabilba in the south.

Starting from the north it commences along Wembley Road, where industrial and commercial options are now available in developments such as Loganlink South, and will be available in the near future through Loganlink North, SouthWest 2 and other opportunities.

Heading south through the corridor mixed industry business options are available in the nationally recognised business park, SouthWest 1.

SouthWest 1 is a Logan City Council owned development with a focus on attracting high value, low impact advanced manufacturing businesses, and other professional and service based organisations that will add significant value to the supply chain integration opportunities in the area.

Directly opposite SouthWest 1 is the well-established Crestmead Industrial Estate. Opportunities for greenfield sites in this area are limited, but plans are being progressed to release a number of small parcels of land in the near future. Furthermore, the businesses that are already based there are major contributors to the local economy and are a significant part of the Logan City supply chain.

South from Crestmead, the proposed Master Planned Area of Park Ridge is currently going though a structure planning process.

As Park Ridge is developed over the next 20 years it will eventually cater for a population of about 30,000 people, and will provide up to 8,000 jobs.

It is anticipated that Park Ridge will include enterprise precincts to provide a diverse range of knowledge-based employment opportunities that will be integrated with the urban community. Over time it is anticipated this region will develop into a major economic hub.

South west of Park Ridge is Flagstone, which is earmarked in the South East Queensland Regional Plan as having the potential to accommodate a population of up to 80,000 people.

South east of Park Ridge is the proposed Yarrabilba which, over the life of the project anticipated at 30 years, has the potential to develop a population of approximately 60,000 people. In addition to this Yarrabilba has established a target of creating 26,000 jobs, with a major focus on self containment.

This snapshot of the major development activity happening in Logan City demonstrates the versatility opportunities the city offers.

For businesses that are looking to relocate in South East Queensland, Logan City presents a wide range of opportunities ranging from large industrial parcels of land to smaller light industry and mixed business areas, to the vast array of commercial opportunities.

Furthermore, through LOED, Logan City has recently established a network of business relocation stakeholders in the city that are able to provide interested investors with the answers to all their relocation questions, and enhance the welcoming environment for businesses moving into the city.

Innovation answers

Another of the exciting new initiatives  LOED is planning to launch early in 2009 is the Innovation Café.

Again with the philosophy that from every challenge comes a range of opportunities, the Innovation Café will help deliver a variety of solutions to local businesses designed to assist them in establishing a platform for an optimistic and successful year ahead.

It is widely recognised that an economy that focuses on delivering innovative solutions and new ideas will help to create opportunities for a healthy community.

The term innovation in the past has been stereotypically associated with people wearing lab coats discovering complex inventions, whereas in fact innovation is quite simply about doing things differently, more effectively and encouraging new and entrepreneurial ideas within the business community.

The Innovation Café is about providing an environment for local business leaders to come and actively engage in robust discussions and facilitated workshops about specific and relevant themes, which have been identified to have an impact on the productivity levels of business.

For this type of event, the LOED believes the days of ‘stand and deliver' presentations are long gone. For business people time is extremely valuable and in the current economic climate this is even more so.

"We want to make sure that we are delivering sessions and hosting discussions that businesses will benefit from and take away information that will encourage higher levels of innovation in the way they operate," an LOED spokesman said.

"In turn it is hoped this will assist them in realising some exciting opportunities and productivity gains in 2009." ◊

For further information about Logan City Council’s BizConnect Centre, telephone (07) 3412 4888 or email bizconnectcentre@logan.qld.gov.au

For further information about business relocation, contact the LOED on (07) 3412 4888.

For further information about the Innovation Café, and other Logan City Council economic development initiatives contact
(07) 3412 4888.

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