A new website designed to drive business growth and investment in Pennsylvania will help promote the area’s available business properties, local economic development officials said.
The largest nation-wide site selection network of its kind, PASiteSearch.com, which was recently launched by the state Department of Community and Economic Development and Team Pennsylvania Foundation, includes up-to-date community demographics, built-in social-media integration, Google Maps, labor and infrastructure assets, as well as workforce and expenditure reports for properties of interest. Geographic information system, or GIS, mapping technology is part of the website as well.
“State websites are a very important resource for companies and site selectors looking for relocation or expansion sites. Having this state of the art website with its GIS technology gives Pennsylvania and our region a tremendous economic development asset and positions us well in the site selection process,” said Penny Cannella, President of Penn’s Northeast.
According to GIS Planning Inc., the company that designed and built the system, PASiteSearch is the first website to integrate site selection information from Pennsylvania and the United States into a single, user-friendly site. PASiteSearch is integrated with ZoomProspector.com, which allow visitors worldwide to conduct a national search of communities and commercial properties that match specific criteria.
When a community or commercial property in Pennsylvania matches a business search on ZoomProspector, users can immediately click through to the new website to get the information that will help them analyze the unique business advantages offered by the Pennsylvania site.
In developing PASiteSearch, DCED worked with Penn’s Northeast, local economic development partners and Team Pennsylvania Foundation to ensure that the most critical site selection information would be available to users.
“Successful economic development requires teamwork. Penn’s Northeast and our members work in partnership with the Commonwealth and Team PA Foundation on an ongoing basis in business attraction and welcomed the opportunity to participate in developing this site,” said Cannella.
“This enhancement makes SiteSearch a unique, indispensable economic development tool and it gives Pennsylvania a major advantage over other states that are competing to retain, attract and expand business,” said Rich Hudic, Team Pennsylvania president and CEO.
For additional information please contact: Penny Cannella, President, 570-883-0504, canella@pennsnortheast.com
