Editor's Note: This article was written by Steve Kaelble for MEDC and approved by Area Development.
In site selection, time is money, and uncertainty is expensive. As companies search nationally, Michigan stands out by helping communities get shovel-ready and offering a portfolio of sites that lets executives move fast and with confidence.
“In today’s world, clients are moving so fast that the sites that are prepared and already have due diligence completed are the ones that rise to the top of the list,” says Lindsey Cannon, managing director of Quest Site Solutions. To ensure these evaluations meet the highest national standards, Michigan enlisted Quest to serve as an independent third-party validator.
“We’ve recognized that it’s a highly competitive landscape,” says Paul O’Connell, vice president of real estate development for the Michigan Economic Development Corporation (MEDC). The MI Sites program, developed in collaboration with Quest, is a key answer for helping Michigan communities position their industrial sites for investment. “This is not a site certification program. This is a site readiness program. Our goal is to land the best of the best in terms of projects.”
MI Sites has established structured, consistent criteria for analyzing sites objectively and creating standardized documentation. Local communities submit sites for evaluation, which results in a deep dive into their attributes, resources, and readiness. The process leads to a mock site visit, O’Connell says, “with Quest leading it as if having a company in tow. They ask all the questions that site selectors would ask when a real project comes along.”
Each site is ultimately assigned to one of the MI Sites program’s three tiers: bronze, silver, or gold. The tiers reflect levels of readiness and due diligence completed, and the vetting process uncovers opportunities to make each site even more attractive to investors. “The goal is to prepare everyone involved in the process and have a large portfolio of sites with third-party vetting,” Cannon says. “We’re educating communities and making them smarter, more ready. At the end, not only do they achieve their designation, but they also are provided with a marketing deliverable going into a lot of detail on all aspects of the site.”
In today’s world, clients are moving so fast that the sites that are prepared and already have due diligence completed are the ones that rise to the top of the list.
Michigan stands ready to lend a hand when the process reveals site improvement opportunities. The Strategic Site Readiness Program (SSRP), for example, offers financial incentives, including grants and loans intended to build Michigan’s inventory of investment-ready sites. State support can help local sites move their way up the tier system, further their due diligence, and improve their readiness.
“We are being proactive and aggressive in creating great sites in the state of Michigan,” O’Connell says, “and also putting significant dollars behind it.” In the past three years or so, the state has invested more than $460 million in proactive site readiness grants.
It’s worth noting that sites don’t have to grab the gold to benefit from MI Sites participation. The criteria for the gold tier are pretty stringent, O’Connell notes, but a bronze designation still indicates a whole lot of value.
Take the case of Midbrook Manufacturing & Fabrication as an example. “We sought out a shovel-ready site that could get us up and running as quickly as possible,” says Jamie Willis, Midbrook’s chief operating officer. “We knew that the Jackson Technology Park North had received the MI Sites bronze certification, which removed a lot of time and risk from our site search. It resulted in us being in our brand-new, purpose-built facility much quicker than if we had to conduct all the necessary due diligence required for ourselves on numerous sites.”
What was good for Midbrook was also good for Jackson County, according to Keith Gillenwater, president and CEO of Accelerate Jackson County, who says MI Sites was helpful in building out Jackson Technology Park North. “The process was very thorough and ultimately led us to building one of the premier business parks in Michigan.”
Ultimately, programs such as MI Sites and the SSRP are about more than just preparing sites, says O’Connell. The initiatives are helping the state up its game in how it evaluates, prepares, and markets sites, and how it meets the needs of site selection professionals. “It’s not just the readiness of sites but the readiness of Team Michigan. It’s an overall readiness program in terms of addressing the needs of site selectors.”
To learn more about the MI Sites program or to view a portfolio of designated properties, visit michiganbusiness.org/mi-sites-program.
