Michelle, an economic development staff member, told the Planning and Economic Development Committee that Allegany County is in a soft launch of a business retention and expansion (BRE) program that combines one‑on‑one outreach, customer‑relationship management and location intelligence data. "It's a business attraction tool. It gives you real time business intelligence," Michelle said, describing BRE as "an engagement with your business community."

The nut of the program, Michelle said, is to identify problems that could force a company to close or relocate and to help businesses that are considering expansion. She described a workflow that pairs personal outreach with data tools — HubSpot for contact management, a commercial real‑estate service to track available properties, and Placer AI for location intelligence — and said the county relies on regional partners including Southern Tier West, ACCORD and Cornell Cooperative Extension. "We are here and that we're interested in what they're doing and their accomplishments," Michelle said of the county's outreach approach.

Michelle gave examples of what Placer AI can show, saying it uses cell‑phone location data from devices with location services enabled to produce heat maps and visitor behavior trends. She reported that Placer AI counted about 13,200 unique visitors at the 2024 balloon rally and that, across Allegany County in the last 12 months, the out‑of‑market visitor count was approximately 1,300,000. She also cited peak out‑of‑market daily counts of about 51,000 around Memorial Day, 57,000 for the July 4 weekend and 62,900 over Labor Day weekend. "Placer AI uses cell phone data," Michelle said.

Committee members asked how event organizers and businesses could be added to the system and who would be the contact. Michelle said she will be the primary point of contact in the county office, that the county will work with Placer AI to load event dates and will accept GIS files from the planning office to improve location definitions. She said the county has limited user seats for the software and that training with Placer AI is scheduled.

Michelle described the launch as deliberately small: outreach so far has been by cold calls and in‑person conversations while marketing materials and web pages remain in draft. She told the committee the county will provide more detailed reports and case studies as staff gain experience using the tools.

Next steps listed in the presentation include finishing marketing materials, completing staff training on Placer AI, populating the system with events and business locations, and reporting back to the committee after roughly one year of use.