More Iowa sites certified as ?development ready?

DES MOINES ? Five more industrial sites in Iowa have been certified as ?development ready? by state officials, raising the hopes of officials in Forest City, Clinton, Grinnell, Waterloo and Osage of landing large projects with good-paying jobs to their communities.

The announcement Monday by Gov. Terry Branstad, Lt. Gov. Kim Reynolds and Debi Durham, director of the Iowa Economic Development Authority Debi Durham, brought to 16 the overall number of Iowa industrial locations that have met the stringent criteria set by a third-party rating agency.

?Creating jobs and increasing family incomes for Iowans is my administration's top priority,? Branstad told his weekly news conference. ?With the announcement that five Iowa sites have gone through a rigorous certification process to be considered 'development-ready,' we are moving Iowa to the top of the list for projects that are looking for a home. Those projects mean more jobs and income for Iowans.?

The program, started in May 2012, previously certified sites and parks in Van Meter, Dexter, Iowa Falls, Fort Dodge, Mason City, Norwalk, Perry, Davenport, Middletown, Cedar Rapids and Marion. To date, there has been over $490 million worth of activity on sites or parks within the program, Durham said.

The DED director said Iowa program is becoming a national leader as an independent, third-party certification process that uses the nationally recognized site selection firm of McCallum Sweeney Consulting as the sole certifying agent. The process is designed to consider a combination of national site location standards as well as Iowa's natural assets and industry needs of the state's targeted sectors, she added.

?Iowa is improving its competitive positive in the world of site selection by certifying five additional sites,? said Durham, who noted that site certification is one of the fastest growing trends in the site-selection business, and by introducing 16 certified sites to the market, Iowa is better able to compete for large-scale projects.

The five latest certified sites began the process in 2014 to meet the program standards and achieve Monday's designation. Seven subsequent application rounds have been opened since the program was established with additional sites currently working their way through various phases of the program, Durham said.

?We've had a number of firms come look at our park and, as we've been able to develop the pieces to the site certification process, you know, we've already got answers to a lot of the things they want to know,? said Clinton Mayor Mark Vulich in discussing a ?shovel-ready? rail park on the city's west side.

By going through the process, developers -- working closely with their local officials, utility partners and consultants -- are better prepared to market their sites with specific site-related information and community data, state officials said. All site due diligence is completed and resulting issues are mitigated, making the site ?risk-free? and thus accelerating the development schedule.