Bennett Bratley - Mohave County photo
KINGMAN – On January 29, the Arizona Association for Economic Development announced that Bennett Bratley, program representative for Mohave County Economic Development, has won a Ben Warren Memorial Scholarship.
The scholarships paid for Bratley’s tuition for the Arizona Economic Development Course at the University of Arizona in Tucson.
“The course runs about $675,” Bratley said. “The scholarship paid that cost, which really helped.”
The course, which concluded on January 29, was four days of intensive study, he said. “We did a case study of a community in Georgia – Brunswick. It was an older case study concerning events from back in the 1980s. In the scenario, a company had left the community and we had to come up with ways to either bring in another company or create some other economic development in the area. We were divided into teams to give presentations. Our team actually won in the group for presenting the best plan for bringing in another company.”
Bratley graduated and was presented “my certificate. I learned a lot and met a lot of good people. And the scholarship paid for it, which was awesome.”
Bratley has been with Mohave County Economic Development for five months.
“A lot of what I am doing right now is business retention interviews with local industry for the B3 (Building Bridges to Business) program,” he said. “Presently, I am working with Kingman Airport and Industrial Park Economic Development Director Bob Riley doing interviews at manufacturing firms at the airport. Later this month, I will head to Bullhead City to train some people at BREDA (Bullhead Regional Economic Development Authority) so they can begin doing B3 interviews.”
Mohave County’s B3 program is implemented through partnerships with the Kingman Airport Authority, Lake Havasu Partnership for Economic Development and BREDA. According to the Mohave County website, “Building Bridges to Business is a business retention and expansion tool that addresses the needs of existing businesses throughout Mohave County. Using a combination of sophisticated survey instruments and customized computer software, the program evaluates each company’s value to the community, growth potential and risk of relocation or downsizing.”
“A lot of our airport industries are construction based,” Bratley said. “They have been hit hard by the economic downturn, but they are still there. Our work is to help in retention for now. When the economy turns around, most of our new jobs will be coming from these present companies rehiring and expanding.”
Bratley grew up in a small town in Illinois.
“Cedarville has a population of about 750 people,” he said. “It is about five miles out of Freeport, with about 25,000 people, which is famous for the Lincoln Douglas debate. Cedarville is the birthplace of Jane Adams, who founded Hull House” and, in 1931, became the first American woman to receive the Nobel Peace Prize.
Upon graduating high school, Bratley received a $25,000 scholarship from American Pacific Financial Group to attend college. He received an associate’s degree from Riverside Community College and a Bachelor of Science in Business Administration from California State University, San Bernardino.
“I worked for American Pacific Financial Group from 1994 until 1998 and then in the company’s Realty Group from 1998 into 2000 as a property and asset manager,” he said. “We managed more than 500,000 square feet of office space.”
Bratley wanted to go on his own, so “In 2000, I purchased a Help-U-Sell franchise and got into the single family home side of real estate,” he said. “I got my broker’s license for California, and I also have my broker’s license for Arizona now. The company did well. At one point, I was the number two agent in the San Bernardino area for listings. I expanded the company and opened two more offices – one in San Bernardino and another in Yucaipa. I had plans to open another in Highland, but then everything came crashing down with the economy. I pulled back to just one office and started thinking about my next move.”
Bratley had family in the Kingman area and had already purchased 38 acres off Blake Ranch Road.
“I took it as an opportunity to bring my children to a great place to grow up,” he said. “We bought a house in Kingman on an acre of land and I was able to get this job with Mohave County.”
Bratley’s wife, Kimbra, is a homemaker who is home schooling their four children (sons Bronsten, 7, and Beauen, 6, and daughters Berlynn, 4, and Brystal, 2).
“It’s a good thing being back in a small town,” he said. “When you are raising a family, it is best to live in a small town. We have 30 chickens and we enjoy the rural feel of the Kingman area. We are still close enough to California that I can go back now and then to manage our real estate holdings.”
And, although the economy is still a bit tricky these days, “I hope to be of assistance to our local business community with their retention and, hopefully soon, expansion efforts,” Bratley said.
Thanks for recognizing good work.