Gold Shovel Sites Program

Momentum West, in partnership with Wisconsin Economic Development Corporation, launched a new program - Gold Shovel Sites. This program will allow for an alternative designation to WEDC's Certified Sites Program that is scaled down but still provides site selectors and corporate real estate brokers a level of assurance that the site is suitable for development.  

The Gold Shovel Sites program is not meant to replace or compete with the State of Wisconsin's Certified Sites program but to act as a scaled down version for smaller sites or sites that are not able to meet the State's criteria.  The Gold Shovel Sites Program differentiates itself from the State of Wisconsin Certified Sites program in a number of key ways, such as:

• No site minimum or maximum size
• No underlying site criteria (geographic location, proximity or density requirements)
• Emphasis on disclosure or knowledge of site capacities rather than minimum standards
• Verification by municipalities engineering/consulting firm
• Significantly lower cost of data assembly and program fee

Gold Shovel Sites is designed to be cost effective and to capture the basic site information that one would need when contemplating developing a site.  It is envisioned that some sites could eventually become certified under the State's Certified Sites Program.

Gold Shovel Sites is designed for both public and private sites by identifying the basic information that a property owner should have readily available when marketing a site.  Through this process the property owner can utilize an existing relationship with an engineering/consulting firm or select one of its choosing to perform the work while providing a cost effective but independent verification method.  This approach also provides some assurance that site preparation and future development will take into account the program's criteria.

In partnership with the West Central Wisconsin Regional Planning Commission and the county and city economic development corporations in the Momentum West Region, we will: 1) verify that the required information has been submitted but will not be verifying the information for accuracy, 2) insert the information into a standard template and, 3) upload the supplied information to the LocateinWisconsin property database system.  Finally, those sites that go through the process will be highlighted on the soon to be launched new Momentum West website, included in the Momentum West marketing collateral used at tradeshows and when meeting with site selectors, disseminated upon approval to our database of site selectors, and working with WEDC it is envisioned that these sites would also be highlighted via the State website.

It is the program's goals to increase the quality of site documentation, the overall number of sites that are closer to development ready, and to continue to market the Momentum West region to prospective businesses both for business expansion/retention and for attraction projects. Momentum West is committed to effectively marketing sites certified through the Gold Shovel Sites program and provide communities in the region another outlet to market available properties. 

Other Priorities

We continue to work with the Northwest Wisconsin Engineering Consortium on the need for additional engineering programs in the region. A follow-up meeting was held at UW Stout with a member of the board of regents not present for the December presentation. This is a vital part of addressing the workforce issue and we are thrilled to be a part of this effort as well as other initiatives targeting these challenges. It is our plan to look for ways that we can take a lead in gathering the parties working to resolve these issues into an efficient collaborative effort and as a group maximize our resources and outcome.

Board Member Changes

Vicki Hoehn, VP of Community Engagement for RCU, and Mark Mitchell, head of project development for Derrick Construction, are joining the Momentum West board, along with Bryan Symes from Ruder Ware. We are pleased to have them as part of our team and welcome them. Bruce Barker, President of CVTC has joined the Momentum West Executive Committee as Secretary/Treasurer. Thanks Bruce for your expanded role with Momentum West.

The board is losing three members, Randi Osberg from Ruder Ware, Scott Rasmussen from Durand Builders and Pete Marsnik from Northland Buildings. Thank you gentleman for your service to the board.

Momentum West Annual Meeting

The date and location has been set for the annual meeting. We will be meeting at 29 Pines, just north of Eau Claire on Hwy 29, on March 11th. Registration will begin at 11:30, with lunch and presentations to start at noon. Sponsorship opportunities are available, and we hope to see many of you there. Details on the program will follow in the next few weeks.

Other News

We'll be attending the St Croix Valley and Chippewa Valley Rally's in January and February in Madison (additional details available in the upcoming events section), as well as the Governor's conference on economic development.

In the foreign trade arena, we are looking at options to form or revitalize a regional international trade association. We believe we can effectively educate and connect those in a position to capitalize on foreign trade with the resources and support structure that exists to further regional trade overseas. We'll keep you posted as we move forward.

Thanks,

Steve

____________________________________________________

Steve Jahn

Executive Director Momentum West