Hal Heiner's History of Creating Jobs.

The American success story is built on entrepreneurship. Individuals taking a risk, putting their life savings on the line to pursue a passion and a dream, relying on their abilities and willingness to work hard - with their family's support - succeeding on their own terms, always working toward the goal of creating something that previously didn't exist. It is stories like this that build businesses, provide opportunity for others and create jobs. It is the story that has made our country and area great.

And it is Hal Heiner's story. An engineer by training, in the mid-90s Hal had a good job with a Louisville real estate firm, providing for his family and contributing to the community.  Though relatively content with his work, he felt that a greater opportunity was out there and that the time was right to pursue building on a vision. It wouldn't be easy and it wouldn't be without serious risk. But nothing that entrepreneurs do is simple or safe.

In 1997 Hal tapped into his life savings and purchased options for - nearly 300 acres - off Preston Highway, an area that had not seen significant investment in years, as much of the development had moved to eastern Jefferson County. On August 1, 1997, Hal Heiner was the sole employee of Capstone Realty. He put his time, energy and effort to get his property planned for a class A business park and, after that, put everything he had into his vision: Commerce Crossings.

In 1997 what would become Commerce Crossings was little more than disparate tracks of property with little prospect for providing real economic value to the community. In 1997 the number of people employed in what would become Commerce Crossings: Zero. Hal worked tirelessly to get infrastructure built and job creators interested.  Today, the businesses in Commerce Crossing employ over 4,000 people in 20 buildings. Those jobs provide for families, our children's education and essential services by our government. Without Hal's hard work, it's likely that they wouldn't be in South Louisville. That's how economic development works.

After the great success of Commerce Crossings, a company across the river in Jeffersonville approached Capstone Realty about developing a new building and site for their operations. There was a World War II era abandoned Army ammunition facility - what is commonly referred to as a ‘brownfield,' - that would allow this company to remain in the area and expand operations. Evaluating that it made good business sense to pursue the opportunity, Capstone Realty worked with the owner of River Ridge to clean up the site, built a building and developed the infrastructure and the Indiana Company moved in.

With additional acreage and space now in Indiana, Capstone Realty continued to be contacted by companies looking to locate or expand in the region. In the intensely competitive environment of job recruitment and retention, some of these companies were global corporations, already in Louisville and evaluating their relocation options around the world. Hal Heiner met with their representatives, listened to their needs and became determined to keep those companies and jobs in the region and ultimately succeeded in retaining jobs and investment in the area.   Of the seven companies that Capstone has a business relationship with in Jeffersonville, only two companies had a presence in Louisville before their relocation to Jeffersonville.  The 440 employees (including Louisvillians and Hoosiers) working for these 2 companies kept their jobs and their paycheck as both stayed in the Louisville economy.

Louisville is the core of a regional economy. As mayor, Hal Heiner's first and highest priority will be to bring his business experience in job attraction to the mayor's office to win new jobs for Louisville.  In the event jobs also go to Bullitt County, Shelby County, Oldham County or Jeffersonville - Louisville still wins.  We win by keeping our people employed and attracting fresh dollars collected by these companies from around the world that are deposited in our regional economy.  As those dollars circulate over and over they provide prosperity and opportunity for all of us.

No other candidate in the race for mayor brings this proven experience of helping to bring and grow jobs while working with businesses to locate in the Louisville economy.  As we emerge from these challenging economic conditions, this is the experience that our city will need to compete for the best jobs in the country - experience that Hal Heiner will take into the mayor's office on day 1.