Alliant Energy news release

Site Selection magazine recognizes company’s contributions to business development and job creation for the second year in a row

MADISON, Wis. – September 8, 2020 – Alliant Energy was named a Top Utility in Economic Development by Site Selection magazine. The annual list recognized the company for its contribution to community development, job creation and partnerships with institutions of higher learning in the territories the company serves. For the second year in a row, Alliant Energy is the only Iowa energy company to make the list.

Site Selection’s September issue credits Alliant Energy’s economic development team and its collaboration with local, regional and state partners for delivering more than $1.2 billion in new capital investment and more than 2,600 new jobs in Iowa and Wisconsin in 2019. In addition, Alliant Energy’s partnerships with the communities it serves helped bring 44 new industrial, warehouse and office projects to life.

Alliant Energy’s partnership with Beloit College in Beloit, Wisconsin, led to the creation of The Powerhouse. This project took a retired coal-burning facility and transformed it into a new gateway to downtown Beloit along the city’s riverfront. The seven-story complex includes a conference center, a theater, coffee shop, competition-style swimming pool and field turf for football, softball, baseball, lacrosse and soccer.

The company’s new Community Growth Investment Program provides grants to economic development groups in Iowa. The funding pays for industrial site certification and also for studies and strategic plans to address issues with the local workforce, housing needs and unique community concerns.

Alliant Energy also launched a digital manufacturing lab in Ames, Iowa in partnership with the Iowa State University Center for Research and Service (CIRAS) and the Iowa Economic Development Authority. The initiative benefits small and midsize rural Iowa manufacturers, helping to educate them about technologies such as collaborative robots, 3-D printers and advanced vision systems.

Site Selection delivers expansion planning information to 45,000 site location consultants and executives of fast-growing firms and is considered the senior publication in the development field. The magazine bases its ranking on a utility’s efforts to cultivate industrial business development, job creation and the populations it serves.

To share information about its service area with site location consultants, Alliant Energy created a new interactive economic development website at alliantenergy.com/economicdevelopment.