This evening, the Corridor will facilitate an online meeting of elected officials in Dickinson County on behalf of the board of supervisors. The supervisors wanted to test the county’s virtual communication platform and also encourage conversation on various city-county matters. They turned to the Corridor with the expectation of professional planning and execution.
The meeting is another example of regional players finding new and novel ways to leverage Corridor services.
Since the Iowa Economic Development Authority relaunched the state workforce housing tax credit program late last month, our team has helped five different developers prepare applications.
Investors should already be aware of efforts by Business Retention and Workforce Development Coordinator Joanne Follon to bring commercial air service back to the region, but did you know that Joanne has also been active with a variety of groups assessing local childcare shortages?
Down in Storm Lake, the Corridor has been working closely with Buena Vista University to help transfer established businesses to a new generation of owners.
When a Florida-based consulting firm was putting together an economic impact analysis for a proposed fitness facility in our region, they relied on the Corridor to collect and interpret local hotel/motel and sales tax data.
And Covid-19 has tightened the bond between the Corridor and the small employers. In April alone, Senior Vice President Brian Dalziel helped 79 companies navigate state and federal relief programs. That brought his total number of clients in FY 2020 to 100.
Partnership, Progress, Prosperity: FY 2021-2025, the Corridor resources campaign, anticipates that our programs will continue to diversify within the framework of our five focus areas: business retention and expansion, business recruitment, entrepreneurial support, workforce and housing development, and community improvement.
More than $1.3 million has been committed to the campaign so far, with another $2 million pending. That had us on target to blast through our minimum goal of $3.5 million when the Coronavirus pandemic forced us to put investor visits on hold.
With the state reopening, we are slowly reconnecting with partners on the pending list. Responses have been great. The Corridor has been noticed doing more things in more places.
Economic development means something different today than it did just 20 years ago. Rural areas cannot simply offer up cheap land and tax breaks and expect a national manufacturer to ride to the rescue. We must have a mindset of continuous community improvement and we must act broadly.
Given that, the Corridor's importance will only grow. We look forward to sharing our message with other current and potential investors in the months ahead as the
Partnership, Progress, Prosperity drive draws to a successful close.
To learn more about supporting the Corridor and the return on investment to your business, contact Kiley Miller,
kmiller@lakescorridor.com
, 712.264.3474.
