Linton Location Earns Silver Site Certification

LINTON, Ind. (Aug. 31, 2020) — A site in Linton in southern Indiana has received Silver Site Certification and is the latest regional location to take advantage of a new certification program through Radius Indiana’s partnership with Verisite.

The Silver Certification gives companies and site selectors the assurance the site is ready for expedited development and that all needed documentation and data has been compiled and verified, which results in cost savings and speed to market for a new business.

Located near State Road 54 on County Road 1000 West in Greene County, the 60.97-acre greenfield site is a prime location for a future small to medium production, manufacturing or logistics facility with readily available access to electric, water, sanitary sewer, natural gas, and existing roadways as well as potential access to rail. The site also affords unencumbered design choices for parking, landscaping, and signage.

While the site had undergone preliminary, foundational planning, the City of Linton partnered with Radius Indiana and Verisite, to increase marketability and visibility for development.

“Linton needs every advantage it can get in order to stand out to site selectors for potential investors. We pursued the Verisite Silver Certification to accomplish just that. Now, a new business looking for locations to build has one more reason to take us seriously,” said Linton Mayor John Wilkes.

In addition to the physical site attributes, the City and its partners requested Verisite’s support to identify the community assets that contribute to potential opportunities for future development. The site is eligible for multiple local and regional incentive programs and has connections to a myriad of workforce development initiatives underway in the area.

Radius Indiana, the regional economic development organization, is actively recruiting veterans to the region through a digital marketing campaign designed to help bring additional talent to meet local employers’ needs. In addition, Radius is launching two new workforce training programs: “Catapult” and “Build Your Own,” which focus on the upskilling of workers to meet the needs of manufacturing and construction trades. Another regional organization, Regional Opportunity Initiatives (ROI,) is actively administering a program called Ready Schools that leads to the creation of student-run manufacturing businesses as training grounds. In addition, ROI has programming for STEM Fellows, digital fabrication labs, out-of-school STEM learning, graduation and career coaches, career pathways, educator boot camp, and work-based learning.

Linton actively partners with both organizations to better connect growing talent to the region’s career opportunities to include advanced manufacturing, life sciences, and defense.

The site certification initiative is part of Radius Indiana’s strategic plan and allows for cost-sharing with local economic development organizations to make the process more affordable. “We are pleased to see how Linton and their community partners have rallied together to move this site forward to be competitive for business growth,” said Jeff Quyle, president and CEO of Radius Indiana.

The Verisite program creates opportunities for excellent locations, like Linton, Indiana, to become a preferred location for industrial growth and innovation.

Verisite offers a comprehensive site certification program, which compensates for industry gaps, such as brownfields and existing buildings. The proprietary program creates a 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.

“In today’s competitive market, communities that undertake site due diligence are at a competitive advantage.  Whether helping existing businesses grow or attracting new industries, having a certified site increases speed to market and reduces risk. We commend Greene County and the local Linton leadership for their efforts in further preparing the community for economic development,” Leslie Wagner, senior principal, Ginovus.