CHESTER CONSTRUCTION COUNTY OVERVIEW
Paul Redman President & CEO Longwood Gardens
What is Longwood’s role in the community? Longwood’s role is as a community and cultural hub, a place for people to come, gather, be together, be inspired by nature and learn. We’re truly one of the finest horticultural display gardens in the world. The importance of Longwood and its indispensability was affirmed over this past year. When things were shut down, people couldn’t access places for families to gather. People couldn’t go to restaurants, museums, and so forth. Longwood has served as an outdoor space that is safe and beautiful. It has served as a community gathering place that is safe for families to connect. Longwood serves as an anchor in the beautiful oasis that Chester County is. Economy Chester County is home to 15,529 businesses that employ around 310,000 people, representing around 3.8% of Pennsylvania’s total jobs. Healthcare and social assistance provided around 15% of jobs in 2018, followed by retail at 11%, professional and technical services with 10% and finance and insurance at 8%. The majority of Chester County establishments are small and mediumsized enterprises (SMEs), with over 10,500 small businesses employing between two and nine people, while 16 businesses have 1,000 or more employees. From 2000 to 2018, Chester County saw significant job growth of over 20%, outpacing the national average and the state average. As of 2019, investment management firm The Vanguard Group was the largest employer, followed by home shopping channel QVC, the County of Chester and Chester County Hospital. Chester County’s GDP exceeded $45 million in 2019, which is more than double the $21 million recorded in 2001, according to St. Louis Federal Reserve data. As of 2018, the largest contributing industries to Chester County’s GDP were information, at 14%, professional, scientific and technical services, which provided 13%, real estate, contributing 12% and finance and insurance, with 10%. Manufacturing also provided 10% of GDP.
What is Longwood’s impact on the local economy? Prior to the pandemic, we were on track in 2020 to have one of our most successful and highly attended years ever. We were on track to have 1.6 million visitors. We have a $67 million operating budget and we’re getting ready to embark upon a $250 million capital expansion. Through our ongoing operations, our budget and with the indirect and ancillary impact that we’re having, we help to generate and support 2,600 jobs in the region, and we put $276 million back into the economy annually. That’s just our operations. The $250 million project alone is going to generate another 2,230 jobs, and it will put another $214 back into the community. How is Longwood involved in education? We were the first public garden in the world to deliver live, synchronous K-12 education programs. For eight years now, we’ve been doing the virtual learning that became so important when schools shut down. We were able to pivot and activate that entire platform on an entirely new level. That outreach is free. These programs are not only helping students achieve the science, technology, engineering, math and arts curriculum requirements they need, but are also serving as an introduction to careers working with plants. www.capitalanalyticsassociates.com
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