River Cities Business Journal: Cover Story

Web site to help recruit business; Log on to find out where to locate in Mohave County

Special to the River Cities Business Journal

KINGMAN - Mohave County has a new service to assist businesses in finding property sites for relocation: http://www.mohavelocator.com/

“This new website is a GIS (Geographic Information Systems) buildings and sites database,” Mohave County Economic Development Division (EDD) Deputy Director Jonas Peterson said on June 21. “It allows us to help market local properties to businesses and investors who can use the site to analyze those properties in terms of demographics and other data.”

The site can be reached by going to the Mohave County website (http://www.co.mohave.az.us/) and clicking Departments; Community and Economic Development; Economic Development; Mohave Locator, or can be accessed directly by simply logging on: http://www.mohavelocator.com/

“We have profiled the properties with the help of commercial Realtors from the area,” Peterson said. There are links that take web users to maps of the various properties and a variety of demographic data concerning each site. “Population numbers for a radius of five, 10 and 15 miles are available for each property. The maps will show surrounding parcels, infrastructure information and if the site is in an enterprise zone.”

The EDD will keep the data accurate and updated “through a partnership with commercial Realtors throughout the county,” he said. “This website is a great marketing opportunity because it also leverages the state economic development buildings and sites database (http://azprospector.com/). Our site is geared toward site selectors or businesses seeking to expand or relocate in Mohave County. Interested parties can not only search for the type of building or site they are interested in, they can analyze properties concerning population and available infrastructure, among other factors.”

If it is for sale or lease and it is a building or site of significant size, Peterson said, “we want it in our database. This is going to be one of our big marketing tools. We leveraged the state's marketing capabilities with links so when the state works to sell Arizona, we are right there with Mohave County information.”

The EDD will do some specific mailings to inform some interested investors and businesses, Peterson said.

“We offer a searchable database for anyone to access. Most properties will have contact information for a Realtor or economic development organization. We (the EDD) will assist anyone to make a transaction,” Peterson said.

The database was developed by GIS Planning and is being used by a growing number of governmental agencies including Sacramento, Denver, Tucson, Arizona, Colorado, Indiana, Washington, Massachusetts and “many other cities, counties and states,” he said.

“This is a great marketing tool that we just simply haven't had until now. We are going to constantly tie this into all of our marketing efforts. At the end of the day, it is our job to locate people here and this is how we can really showcase our product, our area, for economic development.”

Anyone seeking more information on the database or anything concerning economic development should call Peterson at (928) 753-0723.