Economic development group on the prowl

The Northwest Iowa Developers Coalition is putting both feet forward in its efforts to bring economic development to the area.

Gary Tucker, Plymouth County's economic development director, shared with the Plymouth County Supervisors Tuesday some of the group's plans for 2009.

Pooling resources with Sioux, O'Brien, Osceola, Lyon and Cherokee counties, several cities and utility companies, the Iowa Workforce Development Plymouth County joined the Northwest Iowa Developers Coalition to market the region with a unified front.

Tucker said the developers are working to put together an advertising campaign that will display northwest Iowa's attributes in magazines like "Business Facilities."

"With 'Business Facilities' we're going to be advertising in the site selection guide," Tucker said. "We will be sending an e-mail newsletter out through 'Business Facilities' with this advertising. It will reach 31,000 subscribers."

As part of the advertising campaign, the developers also plan to place some real estate listings in the magazine and online next year.

"That's a very large subscriber network that we can reach," Tucker said.

Although the developers will be spending more than $45,000 for the advertising, it's a necessary step. That money will come from the coalition's pool of funds.

Tucker said the group also plans to do an updated tax study, which will help prospective companies identify what taxes will be in each area.

"We can plug in the numbers and tell that company where it is an advantage for them to locate and why," Tucker said.

Also part of the action for next year, Tucker said is the purchase of project tracker software which will keep track of every lead on every company and the result of that information that comes through the area.

The web-based data will be available to each of the six counties at any time from anywhere with a password log in, Tucker said.

"It's going to be great," he said. "I'm really excited."

The developers also have access to a prospect database where they can search for companies nationally and internationally by entering pieces of information.

For example, a search could be done based on the type of company and how many people it employed and it's location.

Tucker said each part of the developers' action plan is necessary to move forward in the constant search to bring companies to the area.

"As scenery changes economically, we have to be a little more aggressive," Tucker said.