Chester County Economic Development Council (CCEDC), a private, non-profit, non-governmental regional economic development entity with offices in Eagleview in Exton ranked fifth on Philadelphia Business Journal’s (PBJ) List of Delaware Valley Economic Development Groups. The list, published in the publications March 28th edition, ranks 20 Delaware Valley economic development agencies in descending order depending on each agency’s number of local employees.

The Delaware Valley Regional Planning Commission with 125 local employees ranked number one on PBJ’s list followed by the Philadelphia Department of Commerce (72 employees), Philadelphia Industrial Development Corp. (60 employees) and Montgomery County Economic Development Council (50 employees) in that order.

Founded in 1960, the Chester County Economic Development Council original purpose was to attract industry and commerce to the mostly agricultural and rural county by promoting the availability of commercial land as desirable sites for industrial development.

According to the video below detailing CCEDC’s 50 year history, areas of special interest to the Council’s founding members in 1960 was “the area west of Paoli, sites along the Route 30 and Route 100 corridors and land at the Downingtown exchange of the Pennsylvania Turnpike.”

In its early days, CCEDC members focused their energies on site selection services and attracting new company and industry to Chester County offering lots of open space, cheap land prices and low property taxes.

Over the next several decades, CCEDC morphed into a full service economic development agency with 50 employees and a $7.5 million dollar annual budget.

Today the CCEDC team, led by Gary Smith (above), the Council’s President and CEO, works with local government and planning commissions to recruit and retain companies and high-income jobs to Chester County and the surrounding counties.

Check here for more information on The Chester County Economic Council.  The complete list of the region’s economic development agencies on Philadelphia Business Journal is here.

Here’s a video describing CCEDC’s 50 year history published in 2010.