Natural Gas Infrastructure with Nicor
On episode #41 of the Building BN podcast, BNEDC CEO Patrick Hoban sits down to speak with two representatives from Nicor Gas — Bernard Anderson, Regional Manager of Community Affairs for Nicor’s Southern Region; and Nicholas Crite, Manager of Economic Development. Crite has been with Nicor Gas since 2015, working in various positions, including Field Operations, System Operations, and Economic Development. Anderson has worked for Nicor Gas for over 40 years, including positions in Regional Media, Economic Development, Franchise Management, and Local Philanthropy.
Nicor Gas, from their website, has been serving Illinois customers with natural gas for six decades. “As the state’s largest natural gas distributor, and owner and operator of one of the largest natural gas reservoir storage systems in North America, [Nicor] delivers the comfort and convenience of natural gas to 2.2 million residential, public sector and business customers in more than 650 communities throughout northern Illinois.”
Crite explains that his role as Manager of Economic Development is a newly created position with an important goal: implementation of Nicor’s economic strategy for the 656 Illinois communities they serve. He explains, “My [typical] day looks like this: We're helping EDO's (Economic Development Organizations) and municipal partners, responding to requests for information, doing research on businesses that want to [potentially] move in to our territory and basically selling natural gas as a viable solution for a utility infrastructure in Illinois.”
Infrastructure is vital to any development project, Hoban explains, as are relationships within the local Economic Development community. He says, “Without the gas, without the utilities that are there, we're not going to do any type of development. And that's why our relationship [with Nicor] is so important. We're getting quite a bit of [requests for information]. It’s so important for us because we might look at a site that meets all the criteria, but maybe it doesn't have the right infrastructure in place, which is why we have to talk to you guys before we submit anything.”
Another new program Nicor has in place, explains Crite, is a partnership with data analytics firm NextSite. Says Crite, “We are using this [partnership] to help municipalities that may not have economic developer community departments to help realize their development so they don't just write a plan and put it on the shelf. They actually go from start to finish. [NextSite is] a firm that will do a lot of data on the front end, help you identify your locations in the community so that you can market those to developers at conferences.”
Listen to the entire conversation with Nicor’s Bernard Anderson and Nicholas Crite here. For more information about Nicor gas, visit https://www.nicorgas.com/. Bernard Anderson can be reached by email at bander3@southernco.com. Nicholas Crite can be reached by email at ncrite@southernco.com.
