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The Gulf Coast is known for corporate giants whose names adorn multi-million dollar casinos or national chains anchoring area shopping malls.

But signs now point to the increasingly important role smaller businesses are playing in generating new jobs for coastal residents. Particularly surprising is that the area’s small retail and service companies doing business on the Coast are as successful, in many cases, as the big ones in riding out the harsh economic downturn following Hurricane Katrina.

Studies by the Mississippi Gulf Coast Chamber of Commerce — a partnership among the Biloxi, Gulfport, Long Beach and Pass Christian Chambers of Commerce — suggest many small businesses are realizing the business viability of either rebuilding or entering the market for the first time as the area prepares for a major boost in tourism.

“Small businesses now account for about 80 percent of our total membership, and that is amazing when you consider that many locally owned companies suffered total losses a little over two years ago,” said Elizabeth Slade, executive director of the Gulfport Chamber. “Now that our business economy has started to grow again, it appears that smaller firms and companies will be generating many new jobs, which hasn’t always been the case.”

For years, small business in the United States has prided itself on its image as the prime source of new jobs. But in recent years, the Coast, with a strong concentration of large corporations, particularly in the dominant casino industry, was thought to be an exception to the rule.

Recent growth figures however, suggest that smaller companies, particularly fresh start-up businesses, are of growing importance to the Coast in creating new jobs.

To foster that growth, the Gulfport Chamber’s Small Business Grant Program was created in 2006 to facilitate rebuilding efforts among small businesses affected by Hurricane Katrina. The grants were designed to help rejuvenate Gulfport business districts and facilitate a stronger post-storm economy.

To qualify, the businesses had to be located in Gulfport, employ less than 50 people, and hold a membership with the Chamber of Commerce, Slade said. The program was funded by revenue generated by the Gulfport Chamber’s annual Margaritafest.

Recipients last year included Cassady & Associates Inc., Encore Designs, Penny’s Pampered Pets and Martin Warren Jr. Law Offices, recipients of $500 grants. Gulfport Tire Co. and Shaw Design Group were awarded $750 grants, while School & Carnival Supplies received $1,500.

Now in its second year, the program has increased more than 200 percent in both number of recipients and grant dollars awarded, Slade said. Twenty Gulfport area businesses received a combined $12,500 in grants Oct. 24.

Grants were awarded to Bernadette Levens Tolson CPA, Canon Hospice, Chris’ Beauty College, ConFusion Restaurant, Lenny’s Sub Shop, Finishings, Finley Services, Gaston Point Community Development Corporation, General Lumber & Millwork, Grace Healthcare Medical Equipment, Just Your Style Salon, Labor Force, Perry, Murr, Teel and Koenenn, Premiere Southern Events, Robinson Mayer Builders, Salute Italian Restaurant, Semi-Precious Signets, Southern Grounds Coffeehouse, Sparkle Car Cleaning and Super Mart.

Salute expanded its hours of operation recently to include lunch and a weekend brunch, offerings owner Rob Stinson hopes will enhance his customer base and increase sales. While additions to the menu had been Stinson’s dream prior to Katrina, it seemed totally out of reach after Katrina devastated the restaurant.

Rebuilding in a new location and receiving a $4,000 small business grant made “this plan and much more possible,” Stinson said.

“This grant was much-needed and really came at an opportune time,” Stinson said. “Of course, I realize it will help my business, but I also feel it will impact the local economy through the additional sales and other benefits I hope to reap.”

Slade said the grants program has assisted small businesses while initiating a spirit of cooperation from large corporations. Contributions to the program have come through support of Margaritafest and additional donations, she said.

“There really is a new spirit on the Coast that is unlike anything we’ve experienced in the past,” Slade said. “Small businesses are being encouraged to come and in fact, welcomed by large companies, who realize that the Coast will only be enhanced by the charm and uniqueness of boutiques and family restaurants. And of course, small service and retail businesses play an important role in supplying many large businesses with the products they need.”

Slade said that the upturn in entrepreneurial and family owned businesses illustrates one of the most positive aspects of the Coast’s recovery from Katrina.

“Many of our small businesses appear to have a talent for survival,” Slade said. “If they can not only come back, but come back bigger, better and stronger, then the consensus is they should be supported in every way. Their strength is something that has impressed our larger corporations, who have been a valuable asset in growing our grants program.”

Slade said the Gulfport Chamber is the only one in the area to award small business grants. However, she is encouraging other chambers to adopt similar programs.

“We know the program is working; we only have to look at businesses like Salute that are expanding or adding new employees to see a very real return on the investment,” she said. “I do feel it’s one of the best things any Chamber can do. The results speak for themselves.”

The state of Mississippi has determined that there are still 40,000 homes to be rebuilt in order to bring its six southernmost counties up to their pre-Katrina count.

Based on a (2005) pre-Katrina population of 445,375 individuals in the six coastal counties of Pearl River, Hancock, Stone, Harrison, George and Jackson, this figure places the number of standing homes before Katrina at about 110,000.

State estimates indicate that 2 years later, the 40,000 are still not livable — they remain either as slabs from water damage or crippled by excessive wind damage to walls, ceilings and roofs.

Because insurance rates are said to be generally lower north of Interstate 10 and can be afforded by many homeowners, the trend toward new housing has gained momentum within the past year.

But if the 40,000 remaining homeowners are still waiting for the state’s wind pool rates to drop, there may be more than a slight delay. Because State Insurance Commissioner Mike Chaney says that while he is working toward a lower rate, rates may rise before they fall.

Tippy O’Bryant, administrator of the new Gulfport office set up by Cheney, said he has not heard of anyone who has dropped his or her wind pool insurance because of the rate structure since insurance is necessary if one is to finance the rebuilding of a home.

O’Bryant is the former mayor of Pascagoula, CEO of O’Bryant-O’Keefe Funeral home in Pascagoula; and was previously a casino developer, associated with the former Biloxi Belle.

Commissioner Cheney started off his term of office by opening a Coast GHQ in Gulfport, to personally answer the questions that still plague residents now in limbo about how to rebuild and when to buy insurance. The office telephone is 867-2202. The office is located on the northwest corner of 24th Avenue and 17th Street in Gulfport.

Cheney said that Mississippi does not want to drive insurance companies away, adding that the state is trying to reach a happy medium between higher insurance rates the insurers have sought against lower rates the home owners are seeking.

While Chaney has the authority to regulate rates, the wind pool plan is under the direction of David Treutel of Bay St. Louis.

O’Bryant said that wind pool, the state-assisted plan that began after Hurricane Camille, was joined by 16,000 who were prepared for Hurricane Katrina long before they knew it would strike in 2005. So far, the 16,000 have been paid $720 million in recovery money.

But after Katrina, 36,000 more homeowners joined wind pool in preparation for the next hurricane. O’Bryant said, “That puts the state’s potential liability to the wind pool fund at $5.5 billion — and counting.”

Contributions are pouring in from U.S. Housing and Urban Development Administration in the amount of $80 million, and the 2007 Legislature promised $20 million a year for four years.

“If we can go a couple of more years without a major storm, we look for this picture to change,” Chaney said.

Home magnets

The one factor that draws the homebuilder to a brand new neighborhood is the location of a new school nearby. Harrison County code enforcement officer Richards Herrin said that when the Harrison County School District chose Wortham Road for Wortham Elementary, “parents moved as close to the school as they could get.”

County school superintendent Henry Arledge expects the same affect when Harrison opens a new high school on Beatline Road south of Landon Road and again when a third high school opens at D’Iberville.

“It is a matter of family convenience for children to attend a school that is close by,” he said.

Camelot off Orange Grove Road

Adams Homes, which has for years built single-family subdivisions all along the Coast, has unveiled an elegant concentration of exclusive single-family brick homes at one of its newest collections — Camelot — half a mile west of U.S. 49 on Orange Grove Road.

The brick homes there — now numbering close to 50 — are noted for spaciousness, and the neighborhood lives up to its Old English charm. The homes currently start at $190,000.

Camelot is only the beginning. Adams Homes has 10 such neighborhoods underway in Harrison, Jackson and Stone counties.

Apartment housing

Also, for those who have not rebuilt the 40,000 lost homes, a burgeoning industry is making strides all along South Mississippi through the miracle of the pre-planned subdivision, the gated community or the apartment complex.

In some areas of the Coast — like Tradition — they call them neighborhood cities.

Brynn Joachim, marketing director for Tradition, the largest subdivision in Mississippi, said that the opening last year of the 4,800-acre city has brought the concept of neighborhood communities to a new level — within walking distance of the center of Tradition one finds a high school, the blueprints of a retail city, plans for William Carey College and the introduction of several levels of housing.

“We are already preparing for the $350,000 home buyer but are also geared to develop a variety of subdivisions for persons at all stages of life,” Joachim said. “Tradition will offer homes geared for the employee, the teacher and the middle income family, starting at $125,000.”

The range, she said, will feature a list of options including cottages, estates, apartments, condominiums and townhouses.

Tradition is nestled in a circular four-lane highway as Mississippi 67 crosses the new Mississippi 605.

Gulfport Columns

Foundation work is nearing a finish on the former Racquet Club property at Courthouse Road and Commerce Street in Gulfport and structural work is moving rapidly on the 426 apartment units. Completion date will be announced.

Larry Wolfe, president of Engineered Concepts Inc., developer and builder of the swank apartment project — along with Seth Greenberg, partner and president of the Columns project, said that 19 three-story wood frame buildings now occupy more than a city block in what was once the west side of historic Handsboro.

Old Town Gardens

One of the latest neighborhood cities is Old Town Gardens. Situated on 40 acres less than half a mile from the beach, The Home Team, a family owned contracting firm on the Coast for the past 30 years, describes Old Town Gardens as a new experiment.

The landscape is dotted with lakes, and sprays of water shoot up at intervals. It represents a different appeal and another different appeal is the price — single family homes begin in the 140s and David Bourdette, sales manager, who predicts that all 180 lots will be sold on short order.

“You take West Railroad and turn north on South Seashore,” he said.

Bourdette said Old Town offers other drawing cards: its nearness to an elementary school and the fact that it is in a flood control area. The planning departments of coast cities and counties are amply supplied with maps pinpointing the locations of easily 300 subdivisions devoted to 21st century luxury wrapped in pleasant surroundings and affordable prices.

After a half-year shut down for expansion, the Convention Center is back in business just in time for 2008 business events. But the expansion project is not complete. Like the Wizard of Oz, construction crews work their magic behind velvet decorator draperies in off-peak hours.

Multiple snafus in the bidding process delayed expansion groundbreaking last summer when the project went out to bid three times, and almost no one came to that party. Contractors were either too busy to take on another job, or couldn’t bring the job in under budget. The ultimate solution was value engineering. Carve the work into smaller chunks. Open the bids to sub contractors. Convention Center management acts as general contractor.

“We had to open in January because of business on the books,” said Bill Holmes, executive director. “It’s important to the community. Mardi Gras balls, the first one was Jan. 4, attract up to 2,000 people. Conventions like Abbey Commercial’s carpet show; the Mississippi Municipal Association, 3,000; hairdresser convention, 6,000 — they have nowhere else to go.”

Holmes calls it “touch and go” now — open, but still under construction. Guests and event attendees move around freely and safely, unaware of behind-the-scenes messes. To accommodate normal business, parties and meetings for thousands, special wireless public address systems and over-ceiling power drops are the norm.

Like bees maintaining their hive, builders attend their duties in early mornings and, sometimes, on weekends — dashing in before the days’ events and being ushered out by frantic cleaning crews, just as guests stream through the doors. Holmes says they’ll get through it and vows to fall inside budgetary limits.

He said he appreciates everyone’s tolerance. He says the center is “beautiful” and well-functioning, but everyone’s job will be a challenge through this year. And still, interested coastal business people ask, “Will there be a hotel there when the dust settles?”

The answer, according to Holmes is a definite maybe. And a flag hotel, to boot. To interpret the answer, you have to absorb the background.

Holmes explained the center is not tax-supported other than its share of the area hotel room tax. You can’t spend what you don’t make, he said, maintaining that the center has always generated enough revenue to sustain operations.

Major players in the convention and event industry lack on-site hotels. He points to Dallas, a prime example. A huge, busy, viable center, he said, where organizers understand room accommodations are off-site, and shuttling is how you get there.

He reported, also, that Mississippi Gulf Coast Coliseum and Convention Center has been, for 30 years, successful. It expanded successfully, he said, and it is doing it again – within budget. He underlined that success will continue. That doesn’t depend upon having a hotel, though having one, he granted, would give the center a bigger pie slice.

Natural resources draw people to an exciting experience on the Coast, Holmes explained.

“Is it better to have a hotel here? Sure. Is it the means to success? Not necessarily,” Holmes said.

That said – he said that more than one “flag” hotel company, meaning big-name chain, are looking at the site and expressing serious interest.

“Right now, there are lots of plans out there,” Holmes said. “I would think in the next three months you’ll hear a for-sure announcement on a major, non-casino, hotel right here at the center.”

He has, he said, spoken with more than one developer.

“(They) have finished feasibility studies and will announce other flag hotels,” he said. “Not condotels – hotels within a mile of here. I would foresee, in the next couple years, three to five such hotels.”

For now, the focus is to create a good experience for any event, convention, or ball at the center, Holmes said. People will have to ignore what’s behind those drapes.

Said Holmes: “We make it nice and inconspicuous as possible. We appreciate the business and ask them to bear with us – and they do. It’s beautiful, if a little rough. We’ll get there.”

It’s not just about fish and timber any more.

Mississippi has long been associated with catfish, timber, cotton and poultry, but the state is earning a reputation as a center for technology. Companies now operating in Mississippi include firms using nanotechnology, creating advanced materials, manufacturing cutting-edge aerospace products and designing software for a global market.

The Coast has an alliance determined to get the area recognized as a major technology corridor. The Mississippi Gulf Coast Alliance for Economic Development includes the Jackson County Economic Development Foundation, Harrison County Development Commission, Hancock County Port and Harbor Commission, George County Economic Development Foundation, Stone County Economic Development Partnership and Partners for Pearl River County. The Alliance commissioned a study identifying technology assets not only in Mississippi but its neighboring states.

“We are so serious and so focused on technology development in Mississippi that we commissioned a body of research that has created a comprehensive database of all research activities from New Orleans to the Florida panhandle that deal with research and technology in key industrial sectors,” said George Freeland, president of the alliance and head of the Jackson County Development Foundation. The sectors the group focused on include aerospace, shipbuilding, advanced materials, geospatial activities and marine science.

“It requires a commitment to regionalism,” Freeland said. “As Jackson County, Mississippi, it would be difficult, if not impossible, to create an image on the national, or certainly international scale.” Freeland said the alliance has done a good job of identifying the region’s assets: physical, human and political. Now it is up to the economic community to use that information to create an image that will attract more high-tech industry to the state.

“The reason we are focusing on that market and would like to see that market grow is because high-tech jobs generally demand higher salaries,” said Larry Barnett, director of the Harrison County Development Commission.

Heartbeat in Hattiesburg

State higher learning institutions are key to attracting technology industry. Leading international management and technology consulting firm, Bearing Point Inc., chose Hattiesburg as the location for its U.S.-based software development center largely because of its proximity to several institutions of higher learning that could provide talent for its companies.

And state universities have found ways to turn research into marketable products. Noetic Technologies Inc. is the marketing and commercialization arm of the University of Southern Mississippi Research Foundation. Noetic functions as a technology transfer office creating opportunities for inventors to connect their technologies to the marketplace.

An Innovation and Commercialization Park was recently launched in Hattiesburg with construction underway on a 50,000-square-foot National Science Formulation Laboratory, which will include state-of-the-art lab equipment and instrumentation.

“It will provide the incubator space and opportunities for entrepreneurs to help realize their dreams,” said Les Goff, president and CEO of Noetic Technologies at Southern Miss. The new facility will house the Mississippi Polymer Institute. The park, a 521-acre site located _ mile from U.S. 49 in Hattiesburg, provides space for high-tech companies locating in South Mississippi, particularly those seeking access to university projects involving polymers and high performance materials.

USM is also home to the Trent Lott National Center for Economic Development and Entrepreneurship serving the needs of the economic development profession with both its degree programs from undergraduate to Ph.D. in Economic Development and its research and service outreach to communities and industries. Dr. Ken Malone, founding director of the center, said the University attracted Hybrid Plastics, a nanotechnology firm, to Hattiesburg. Malone said Hybrid Plastics is unique in that is a profitable company in nanotechnology, a field that is so new that most in the field are just research companies. Malone said the trend indicates it will be a trillion dollar industry by 2020 (in today’s dollars.) Because they employ a highly skilled work force, they pay employees nationally competitive salaries.

Hybrid Plastics. In 1991, the Air Force Applied Propulsion Research Program at Edwards Air Force Base, Calif., led by Dr. Joe Lichtenhan, began research to develop an entirely new generation of building blocks for polymers. Lichtenhan is president of Hybrid Plastics, which relocated to Hattiesburg in 2003 and now manufactures this new building block under the trade name POSS (Polyhedral Oligomeric Silsesquioxane). The firm supplies nanostructured chemical products to the Department of Defense and commercial users in the fields of electronics, sensors, food packaging and filtration. Lichtenhan said he was in graduate school in Seattle during the bloom of Microsoft.

“I saw firsthand how the identity of Seattle changed almost overnight from that of a logging town and a place that built a few jets into a high-tech software hub,” he said. “I am convinced that this same transition can happen in Mississippi and look forward to being part of it.”

The POSS compounds are being hailed as the next big leap in plastics and molecular technology, and represent the first new class of chemical feedstocks to be developed in 50 years, said Carl Hagstrom CEO of Hybrid Plastics. Hagstrom said USM’s leading role in polymer science and the fact that Hybrid Plastics was able to lease independent lab space at the university while preparing its new facility, were keys to choosing Mississippi over other states that recruited the company. Hagstrom said the company has been hiring locally and half its employees are Ph.D. scientists.

Neonatal Developmental Care. There are a number of diverse tech firms emerging from USM’s association with Noetic. Malone said these include Neonatal Developmental Care, a company that teaches nurses and parents how to care for pre-term babies, and KDL Solutions, a group that has developed a rehydration fingerprinting technology and provides consulting help to forensic science and crime scene teams. Kelli Booth, marketing director with Noetic, said the company works with private companies in addition to marketing technologies coming out of USM. “We Link the innovation and commercialization part and move outside pure research to marketable products,” she said.

Ablitech Inc. This company that has emerged from a collaboration between graduate students at USM and the University of Mississippi is developing a new technology for coronary stents. Coronary stents are an alternative to coronary by-pass operations, but the current design made of steel has become controversial as studies have shown an increased risk of clots forming around the metal. Ablitech Inc. has received $100,000 in funding from the National Science Foundation through its Small Business Innovation Research program for the development of bio-transformable drug-eluting coronary stents.

Greg Tregre, CEO of Ablitech, said the new stent is made from an innovative polymeric material with properties that can change over time within the body. He said the stents would be rigid during initial healing after surgery but gradually will become more similar to surrounding tissue and allows the body to go through natural cleaning processes. Work on the product is still in very early stages and will have to go through series of clinical trials, Tregre said.

BearingPoint. Another type of technology firm, Bearing Point Inc., a leader in global management and technology consulting, chose Mississippi as the site for its U.S.-based software development center. Last year, BearingPoint opened a 30,000-square-foot facility in Hattiesburg and plans to bring up to 250 new high-tech jobs to the community, part of the Gulf Coast Opportunity/Reconstruction Zone.

Paul Nadeau, BearingPoint’s senior vice president for public services solutions practice, said the local economic development climate, the proximity to USM, and the available workforce were key factors that influenced BearingPoint’s decision to locate in Hattiesburg.

Steve Lunceford, spokesman for BearingPoint, said the company will be able to hire people who would have had to leave the state to find employment in the field and that Hattiesburg provides a good quality of living area for employees.

The growing Coast

Seeman Composites. An advanced material manufacturer on the Coast, Seemann Composites, developed a process to formulate a lighter, stronger fiberglass composite product that is used nationwide in applications from military submarines to luxury yachts. Will Seemann said his family developed a process they called SCRIMP (Seemann Composites Resin Infusion Molding Process). He said it is an alternative to traditional open molding techniques where resin is manually applied to dry fiberglass cloth.

Seemann also said it is an environmentally friendly product because the closed process prevents harmful CFCs from being released in the environment. Seemann said his company sold the intellectual rights to the process, which is used nationwide in Northop Grumman ship systems and by companies that include Hatteras Yacht Co. Seemann said his company creates lightweight solutions to replace things manufactured in metal in the past. He said they create-external fiberglass components for Virginia class submarines and are working on a transportable modular carbon fiber army bridge that can be folded into a C130 plane and brought it into the field and put together to span whatever it is designed for.

Seemann said Seeman Composites has more than 70 employees and is expanding its 50,000-square-foot manufacturing facility to about 100,000 square feet. He said his father started the company while living in New Orleans and chose to move it to Gulfport because there was a good labor pool here.

“Today, we find the same thing — a very dedicated workforce of smart, incredible employees,” he said. He said the support of local and federal politicians is also important. “We couldn’t be in a better place as far as our representation in Washington and Jackson. “

Aquaculture. An emerging field for the Coast is marine aquaculture. The world’s demand for seafood is outstripping supply, and the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration has focused its attention on aquaculture to help meet the demand. Vance Flosenzier, technical director at Noetic, said USM’s Gulf Coast Research Lab is positioned to take a leadership role. He said there will be challenges in competing with foreign aquaculture because land and labor costs are higher in the United States and subsidies for aquaculture are less than those for corn and dairy products.

Flosenzier said U.S. aquaculture’s advantage over foreign competitors is that it can provide fresh, never frozen filets. He said part of what needs to be done is marketing. People will likely pay more for a product if they know it is fresh, raised in a controlled environment and not exposed to unwanted antibiotics and contaminants. Flosenzier said marine aquaculture is more challenging than freshwater aquaculture because the young are often smaller and not yet able to eat traditional feed. He said GCRL has had success in larviculture (technique of rearing hatched eggs into juvenile stage).

Aerospace. Jackson County became home to cutting edge aerospace technology when Northrup Grumman chose it as a location for a plant for its unmanned aviation systems.

“After Katrina, we were looking to do something to help build up the area. The quality of engineers in that area is good. It was a good match for us. We were able to get the quality of people and number of people we were looking for,“ said Rene Freeland, communications manager for Northrop Grumman Integrated Systems.

The 101,000-square-foot Moss Point Unmanned Systems Center opened in April 2006 in the Trent Lott Aviation Technology Park in Moss Point. Its focus is assembly work on the Fire Scout MQ-8B vertical takeoff and landing UAV; subassembly work on the RQ-4 Global Hawk high altitude long endurance UAS fuselage; and retrofit work on the Hunter MQ-5B next-generation tactical UAS.

Freeland said a Global Hawk was used several weeks ago to survey the wildfires in California. She said the unmanned helicopters are used by the Army and Navy for surveillance and to safely get supplies into areas where it could be dangerous to send a pilot.

Geospatial technology industry cluster. With a statewide cluster of 30 geospatial companies, Mississippi is taking a lead spot in a rapidly growing industry. Geospatial technology is responsible for those dramatic overhead photos of Katrina destruction. These images are useful for much more than news, they are tools that can be used to display data and help with planning and problem solving.

Lisa Stone, associate director of Enterprise for Innovative Geospatial Solutions (EIGS), said Stennis Space Center “was the impetus to grow the geospatial presence in South Mississippi.” She said about 10 years ago, NASA partnered with the state to support research efforts, help grow the geospatial businesses, and develop a geospatial workforce.

EIGS, a program funded by the state and headquartered at the University of Mississippi, coordinates geospatial activities in the state working with government, universities and private agencies. Stone said the program has focused on research and development and linking university researchers with companies looking to provide geospatial product. She said EIGS also helps these small companies with marketing to help grow the state’s geospatial industry.

The technology has far-ranging applications from flood management to national defense and as a growing technology sector is predicted to have a significant impact on the U.S. economy. Geospatial technology can be used to take guesswork out of commercial farming, helping plan more crops in less space. The technology can also help first responders by providing critical information about roads, weather in emergency situations. It can also be used to gather information for land use planning, finding optimal fishing conditions, calculating commuting times, modeling traffic flow, designing efficient school bus routes and monitoring environmental data.

EIGS statistics show geospatial revenues in Mississippi have grown from less than $20 million in 2001 to more than $77 million in the past year.

George Freeland says there is strong evidence South Mississippi has already arrived as a technology center.

“Northrop Grumman Integrated Systems now manufactures its two leading unmanned products in Jackson County in a $40 million state-of-the- art facility and has plans underway to expand,” he said. “Rolls Royce cut the ribbon on a new test facility in Hancock County. We are well underway to broad recognition of who we are and what we can support in South Mississippi.”