New Tool to Search Business-Related Real Estate Helps Promote Sites and Polk County Assets
The Central Florida Development Council has a new tool to help site selectors and businesses seeking locations for commercial facilities, manufacturing plants, and more.
The Real Estate & Site Search website tool, available on the CFDC website, is accessible through several places on the organization’s site, including under the Do Business Here heading and Resources.
“The software we are using, scours the internet for real-estate listings that are available within Polk County,” said CFDC President & CEO Sean Malott. “It collects and organizes information so a user coming to our website can have free access to the most comprehensive and inclusive real-estate search available in our market.”
The Real Estate Search Tool
The search tool will further help showcase Polk County as Florida’s Best Place for Business.
“It’s always our goal to highlight competitive sites and buildings throughout Polk County and the greater Lakeland / Winter Haven MSA where you can find a great place to locate,” Malott said. “It’s comprehensive search functionality we haven’t had available to the public before. There are many layers and maps available to provide detailed analysis.”
The new feature allows users to search for properties by everything from type, square footage and location to demographics and workforce, targeting particular categories that a business might need, Malott said. It focuses on business-use property, including commercial, industrial, warehouse, office space, land, retail and multifamily dwellings.
“There are a variety of layers. It’s a very comprehensive tool to be able to drill down and dig into all the communities and the county.”
Benefits of the Search Tool
The county’s economic development agency developed the tool for site selectors and others to make site and building information easily accessible, he said. “We didn’t want people to have to jump through hurdles to find the information they need. Now, they can go to our website – www.cfdc.org — and search for the information themselves. If they want to talk with our team, we make it easy to reach out to the CFDC – our contact information is there.”
Malott said the CFDC will use the tool to do its real-estate searches as well. “We can use it on our own side to highlight properties for clients looking for locations.”
The search tool also gives the CFDC a way to promote broker real estate listings in the market, Malott said. “It’s a marketing tool in general for real estate. And we don’t charge any fees.”
The CFDC will continue to explore other layers it may want to add, he said. For instance, it could add County Commission districts so a client could search that way “if they wanted to buy property in a particular commissioner’s district.”
Malott said the CFDC would rather have clients get the information quickly, so they don’t skip right over Polk County. “It lowers the barriers for people to find quality sites in Polk.”
