ICAD Planning Certified Shovel Ready Site Program

Austin Consulting and Foote Consulting Leading Project

Gigi Wood - Corridor Business Journal 

This group is planning a different type of groundbreaking.

The Iowa City Area Development Group (ICAD) is in the initial stages of creating its Iowa City Shovel Ready Site Program. Shovel-ready sites are an important economic-development tool for communities because many times when a large company looks to locate in a new town, that company wants to design and construct a building of its own. Cities with shovel-ready sites, land that is connected to utilities and is ready to build upon, are more competitive when it comes to landing those companies, economic development experts say.

ICAD officials said they are unable to respond to about a dozen business-development requests each year because land sites do not meet the specific needs and timelines requested by companies. The group hired Austin Consulting of Cleveland and Foote Consulting of Phoenix to identify land in the area to develop into shovel-ready sites.

The groups will establish criteria and processes to identify properties, then three pilot sites will be selected by the end of the season.

Consultants are expected to tour 15 to 20 potential sites this month, said Joe Raso, president of ICAD.

“I don’t foresee the three properties being identified until the middle to end of the month,” he said.

The consultants will collect data on properties, as well as demographics of the area, and compile the information into reports to be used throughout the program, he said. The pilot properties will then be certified as shovel-ready sites by the end of the year, once the lots meet a variety of criteria necessary for development, he said. ICAD will then attempt to identify additional properties for shovel-ready sites.

Properties with existing buildings will not be eligible for the program, Mr. Raso said, because company leaders typically prefer to build their own.