(Rock County, WI) – Rock County 5.0 announced on October 8, 2013 that Milton’s Crossroads Business Park has earned the Austin Consulting shovel-ready site designation. As an indicator of barrier-free and speed-to-market processes, a shovel-ready designation is increasingly playing a larger role in today’s build-to-suit development environment. With the addition of the Crossroads Business Park’s designation, Rock County has approximately 600-acres of independently recognized shovel-ready property – one of the largest concentrations throughout Wisconsin.
“As the City of Milton prepares to leverage the opportunities created by the recently completed STH 26 / STH 59 Bypass, this shovel-ready designation will fulfill an important supportive role with regards to the development of the Crossroads Business Park”, said Jerry Schuetz, Milton City Administrator. “The depth of information and related processes that have been clearly identified throughout this designation process will enable the City to effectively, as well as efficiently, address the Park’s development needs”, said Schuetz.
Frank Spano, Managing Director of Austin Consulting added, “The shovel-ready designation process resembles the exact same methodology that businesses deploy when conducting their site selection processes. By utilizing the tools contained within a community’s shovel-ready report, prospective end users can significantly decrease the amount of time, expense and risk typically attributed to the property due diligence phases.”
According to James Otterstein, Rock County Economic Development Manager, “These independent, third party designations drive home the County’s value proposition by reinforcing our Economic Development Team’s speed-to-market responsiveness.”
This is the fourth shovel-ready project undertaken between Rock County 5.0 and a Rock County community. Rock County 5.0 is a five-year public / private economic development initiative designed to reposition and revitalize Rock County’s economy. The initiative’s efforts are focused on the following five economic development strategies: Business Retention & Expansion, Business & Investment Attraction, Small Business & Entrepreneurship, Real Estate Positioning and Workforce Profiling.
For additional Rock County 5.0 information, visit www.rockcounty5.com .