The site selection tool is part of the IEDC's redesigned Web site, and will speed-up and simplify the process of business attraction and site selection for expanding and relocating businesses. IEDC is partnering with the Indiana Economic Development Association (IEDA) and the Indiana Business Research Center (IBRC). The IBRC is providing technical, data, and administrative support for the project, with the twin goals of advancing the technology for the site and ensuring that the content is up-to-date and accurate.
"The site and building database provides immediate access to critical business development information needed to facilitate economic growth in Indiana," said Mickey Maurer, Indiana's incoming Secretary of Commerce and chief executive of the IEDC. "Geographic information systems (GIS) are playing an increasingly integral role in the world of economic development and corporate real estate, and this tool will answer the main questions that businesses have when they are involved in the site selection process."
IEDC's Web site provides startup and existing businesses with tools necessary to analyze the marketability of new locations around the state. Through the use of GIS technology, users can quickly locate appropriate properties that meet their requirements in terms of size, features, and demographic and economic characteristics of the surrounding area.
GIS is an integration of software and geographic data designed to efficiently display and analyze information. With the use of GIS technology in the site and building database, visitors to the Web site will be able to rapidly tailor maps and reports to suit their needs and access data that previously required significant investments of time and money to obtain.
The database currently holds site and building information from two Indiana Utilities -- Northern Indiana Public Service Company (NIPSCO) and Cinergy/PSI -- but will soon be populated directly by local economic developers throughout Indiana. The Web site will focus on industrial and large commercial sites and buildings. It is an attraction and expansion tool that IEDC is providing to site locators so they can quickly find what they need -- right here in Indiana.
Training sessions will be scheduled over the next month in locations around the state for local economic development organizations to learn how to use the database and enter and update property information.
