Month: September 2019

New Site Certification Increases Opportunities for Mitchell Industrial Park

Posted on by radius
MITCHELL, Ind. (Sept. 19, 2019) — Mitchell Industrial Park becomes the first location in southern Indiana to take advantage of a new site planning and certification program through Radius Indiana’s partnership with Verisite.
The City of Mitchell, along with the Lawrence County Economic Growth Council and Radius, joined forces with Verisite, a newly formed initiative offering an alternative and proprietary program to certify sites for development readiness that can increase marketability to site selectors and developers.
The City and its partners requested Verisite’s support to determine the best way to market the site, identify assets and challenges and to create an ideal site layout for the industrial park. Following the exclusive Verisite process, the park now has the capability to house a variety of industry sectors; it has been reconfigured to include nine lots and over 850,000 square feet of land. The available lot sizes can accommodate buildings that range from just over 5,000 square feet to over 200,000 square feet.
“On behalf of the City of Mitchell, I would like to thank those who have worked with us and been involved in the master planning of the Mitchell Industrial Park,” said J.D. England, mayor of Mitchell. “This plan opens the door for advancement and we look forward to a continued relationship with Verisite, Radius Indiana and the Lawrence County Economic Growth Council as we move our city forward.”
The new initiative is part of Radius Indiana’s revised strategic plan and allows for cost sharing with local economic development organizations to make the site certification process more affordable.
“We are pleased to see this program help our communities become even more competitive with other areas for hosting business growth,” said Jeff Quyle, president and CEO of Radius Indiana. “By certifying more sites we are increasing our chances of companies choosing our region for expansion or relocation–by offering them more choices for locations, saving them time in the screening process, reducing investment risk and reducing development costs.”
Verisite offers a comprehensive site certification program, which compensates for industry gaps, such as brownfields and existing buildings. The proprietary program creates narrative around in-depth market research and analyzes human capital components in order to provide decision-makers with reliable data.
Verisite is the result of a partnership with Ginovus, Plaka + Associates, and the Veridus Group that brings considerable industry experience in economic development, site selection and engineering. Together these  tenured firms designed and built the proprietary process for Verisite site certification to finally establish universal definitions and designations for site certification. This offers a modern, trustworthy standard for property owners, developers and communities that utilizes a consistent and standardized set of criteria to determine all aspects of a site’s readiness for development.
“Partnering with Radius Indiana, the Lawrence County Economic Growth Council, and the City of Mitchell was a tremendous opportunity for the Verisite team,” said Leslie Wagner, Senior Principal at Ginovus. “The goals of the project were to quickly set the Mitchell Industrial Park apart from its competition by mitigating the development timeline and risk of capital investment for any business looking to site a new facility. The Verisite program creates opportunities for excellent locations, like Mitchell, Indiana to become a preferred location for industrial growth and innovation.”
For more information about the Verisite Program, please contact courtney@certifiedbyverisite.com.
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ABOUT RADIUS INDIANA: Radius Indiana is a regional economic development partnership representing eight counties in Southern Indiana: Crawford, Daviess, Dubois, Greene, Lawrence, Martin, Orange, and Washington. Formed in 2009, Radius Indiana also serves as a point of contact in Indiana for Naval Support Activity Crane and leads regional collaboration by leveraging the diverse assets of Southwest Central Indiana to drive attraction, retention and expansion of business, thereby increasing employment and investment opportunities and quality of life within the region.

Radius Indiana Brings Pitch Competition to the Region

Posted on by radius

BEDFORD, Ind. (Sept. 3, 2019) — Radius Indiana is hosting its first-ever multi-county pitch competition on October 4, open to high school students and adults in the eight-county region. The contest is an opportunity to present a startup idea, product and/or business plan and receive useful feedback and advice from a panel of judges, which will be comprised of business owners from the Radius region.

Participants in the competition, which will be split into two categories based on age groups, will receive feedback from the judges and entrepreneurial advice from experts, as well as compete for cash prizes and in-kind services. Cash prizes will range from $200 to $1,000 depending on the level of competition that is won.

The competition will be divided into two regions, allowing four counties to compete at each of the opening rounds of the competition. Participants will have three minutes to give their presentation. The winners of the east and west regional contests will meet head-to-head in the final round, where the ultimate winners will be announced.

The first round of the contest will be concept-focused, with the winning participants from the two first-round competitions asked to refine their idea/product for the final round.

East Region: Crawford, Lawrence, Orange, Washington Counties

October 4, 2019 | 5:30 p.m. – 8 p.m.

StoneGate Arts and Education Center | Bedford, IN

 

West Region: Daviess, Dubois, Greene, Martin Counties

October 4, 2019 | 5:30 p.m. – 8 p.m.

WestGate Academy | Odon, IN

 

Final Round: Top contestants from East and West Regional competitions

December 6, 2019

Time and venue TBA

 

Pitch competitions are an important source of new small businesses. In Indiana alone, there are over 508,000 small businesses, with 1.2 million jobs supported by those businesses. Within the South Central Indiana Small Business Development Center region, 17 new businesses were started in 2018.

“Supporting entrepreneurship, at any point in the creative process, has become a very important initiative to Radius,” said Radius Indiana CEO and President Jeff Quyle. “Our entrepreneurship and small business growth support are services that allow Radius to provide a new level of depth and assistance to the local economic developers in our eight counties.”

All new business ideas are welcomed and may be at any stage of the development process, including the prototype stage. Presentation topics may come from a wide range of business sectors, from the restaurant industry, to new software development, to defense sector work. Contestants will be judged on the following:

  • Problem and Solution
  • Competitive Advantage
  • Target Customer
  • Financials
  • Presentation
  • Visibility
  • Overall Pitch

Information about event registration and a guide to preparing presentations for the competition are available at www.radiusindiana.com/pitch-competitions/. The registration deadline is September 20. Selected applicants for the competition will be notified by September 24.

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ABOUT RADIUS INDIANA: Radius Indiana is a regional economic development partnership representing eight counties in Southern Indiana: Crawford, Daviess, Dubois, Greene, Lawrence, Martin, Orange, and Washington. Formed in 2009, Radius Indiana also serves as a point of contact in Indiana for Naval Support Activity Crane and leads regional collaboration by leveraging the diverse assets of Southwest Central Indiana to drive attraction, retention and expansion of business, thereby increasing employment and investment opportunities and quality of life within the region.