In addition to a wide array of member services, the GLEDC also specializes in helping companies understand and access the competitive advantages of the Great Lakes region.  Whether a company is looking to establish a single-person sales office, headquarters, manufacturing operation, or tech center, we stand ready to act as your single point-of-contact to the network of assets and partners that support a company’s facility location decision.

Our team of experts knows the Great Lakes economic development landscape. They are well versed in site selection, cost factors and economic incentives. Let us guide you in finding your next home in the Great Lakes region or connect you to one of our partner consulting agencies based in the Great Lakes.     

The GLEDC is your one-stop guide to the Great Lakes region's economic development industry. Our team can quickly begin working on your behalf to bring all the benefits of the region to your project. Some of the services the GLEDC and its partner network can provide include: 

Project Management 

Once our team is engaged by a client, we can help with single issues and requests, or act as a comprehensive, project manager helping to address a broad set of challenges and next steps through a project’s life cycle. We are a  neutral broker for the region, who is available to help each client understand the different municipalities, assets, programs, and partners and to bring them all together into a comprehensive solution to expedite investment and ensure a successful project.

Service Provider Connections 

Executing an investment project requires more than just data, land, workforce, and incentives. It requires technical experts that can help companies address issues that arise through a project’s progression ranging from legal incorporation, tax environment, visas, government permitting to project financing. The GLEDC has a vast partner network of experts that can be engaged at a client’s request.

Site Selection 

At the end of the day, all projects will require a physical location from which to operate. With today’s robust business climate, finding appropriate real estate requires an expert team that understands the dynamic, local real estate market. The GLEDC can help you quickly survey the type and cost of real estate in our region or go the next step in conducting a comprehensive market assessment, arrange tours, and provide a guided site location experience.

Incentives

The Great Lakes region has a variety of incentives to assist businesses in being more competitive.  Our team acts as a consultant for our clients, helping them understand the tool box of available incentives, mapping their project requirements to programs for which they qualify, then bringing the proper approving agencies to the table, and working as a team to negotiate a comprehensive incentive package to make the project successful in our community.

Workforce 

There is no question that talent is the driving force behind today’s business location decisions. In the early stages of a project, our team can help you understand the profile of our workforce and talent pipeline providing the necessary data to benchmark our community to ensure it meets your project needs. This vetting process might also include connecting clients with other like companies and HR professionals in our market to hear directly from experts.

Once a company chooses to locate here, our team then helps get clients connected to our local workforce development community, to develop and implement robust talent recruitment and retention strategies.

Visiting the Region 

We know that the best way for someone to understand the advantages of the Great Lakes region is to get them here on the ground, to see and experience it first-hand. The GLEDC can assist any client, site consultant, delegation, partner, or investor who is interested in exploring and understanding the region and the opportunity it presents for successful investment.  Reach out to our team to arrange your visit to the region.

Regional Data

The GLEDC specializes in helping companies understand the competitive advantages of our ecosystem through data. Our team stands ready to address any data requests: industry business cases, cost of doing, workforce availability – skills and costs, customer and supplier ecosystem, and more. See the data center for some of our prepackaged data sets.