The Quad Cities Chamber is the regional point of contact to receive leads from both the State of Illinois and the State of Iowa, in addition to site selectors for prospective business attraction projects. The leads come in the form of a request for information (RFI) where the Chamber team works with the region’s local economic development partners and broker and developer community to identify the sites and/or buildings that most closely match the requirements of the company looking to expand into or relocate into the region. Once submitted, we work the prospect through a project management process as the companies narrow down communities that best suit their needs.
In the past fiscal year 2022, the Chamber received 53 RFIs and was able to respond to 31 for consideration. There were 22 new business attraction projects where the Quad Cities region did not have any properties to put forward for consideration. Similarities within these projects’ requirements show a trend in various assets that the QC region could not offer to meet prospective businesses’ needs. Common requests from our primary industry targets frequently include the following:
- Large contiguous acres of shovel-ready greenfield
- High and/or unique utility loads (e.g. some companies have requested a supply of steam with their utilities)
- Proximity to Tier 1 research institutions and universities
- Access to rail and barge
Of the projects received last year that the QC region did not qualify for, about half of them required more than 100 acres of land or over 100,000 square feet of constructed industrial space.
