Much has changed in the five years since the Berks Economic Partnership (BEP) was founded as an economic development organization promoting Greater Reading and Berks County. Its original website had been static outside of some content updates, and with an eye on a major marketing campaign, it looked locally to Spotts, Stevens and McCoy, a Reading-based engineering and consulting firm.
The BEP became the first adopter of SSM’s licensed SpotLight service, a comprehensive suite of services and software tools designed for economic development organizations and those who utilize their websites. The service accompanies a re-designed website and allows users to easily search property and sites, customized reports and data, maps and a downloads section in addition to the site’s existing list of local resources and competitive advantages and services.
BEP’s targets include site selectors and commercial/industrial realtors, and considering 90 percent of site selectors conduct their business online, SpotLight was a necessity.
“We’ve received a lot of national press on the real estate market here and how affordable it is,” says Mike Simmons, BEP’s director of marketing. “We’re an overnight drive from 100 million people. For any company coming here, that’s a huge benefit.”
There’s been plenty of buzz about Greater Reading, a diverse region of 400,000 with a strong agricultural base and burgeoning arts and entertainment, medical device and entrepreneurial clusters.
The region has a sizable performing arts center (Sovereign Center), five local colleges that produce 5,000 graduates annually, four minor league sports teams, one of the largest jazz festivals in the country, and a Keystone Innovation Zone. The region’s Penn Corridor (downtown and West Reading and Wyomissing), is bustling with new art galleries and restaurants, and BEP will focus on that as well as upcoming development along the Schuylkill River.
“We’re seeing a trend toward young professionals and the creative class to this community, and we want to tell the Greater Reading story a little differently,” says Simmons. “I always say in 10 minutes in Berks County, you can be buying produce at an Amish farm and then come downtown for an Elton John concert.”
Source: Mike Simmons, Berks Economic Partnership
Writer: Joe Petrucci