Friday, February 17, 2012

Have you met LOIS?

We would like to introduce you to LOIS. She originally hales from Kansas City, Missouri but now is working in 18 states across the country. LOIS, short for, LocationOne InformationSystem, is an online economic development site selection tool used by Iowa Economic Development Authority to help decision makers and site selectors to get detailed information on buildings, sites, and locations for businesses looking to expand or to locate initial operations in Iowa.

This Iowa Economic Development web application allows for searching by both existing buildings or available land. It allows for a search by location at the county, city, or metro level. There are multiple search criteria that you can choose from to narrow your search including: square footage, ceiling height, rail service, building type, special features, and zoning type.

Another feature of the site is the ability to overlay the thematic/demographic maps onto the building site map. This gives a potential investor more information about the neighborhood population and workforce surrounding the property. LOIS also allows you to add layers that might be of importance to specific businesses such as hospitals, schools, airports, rail lines, and county boundaries. It also has the capability to use NAICS codes to identify specific business types in a region.

The available buildings and site locations are typically submitted to LOIS by local economic development professionals, Iowa Economic Development staff, and utility partners. LOIS is available to every community in Iowa which can be a valuable marketing tool for attracting new businesses.

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