Take the Bait As the competition to attract new business sharpens, small Iowa towns look for creative ways to get corporations to pay attention and . . .

Small Iowa towns are getting creative to cut through the din of thousands of economic development groups competing nationwide for new jobs and millions in corporate investment.

Armed with the standard economic development tools – land, speculative buildings, roads, water and sewer access – some communities are looking to add pepper to their pitches.

"There are 15,000 economic development groups in the U.S. alone – plus foreign communities competing for jobs," said Drew Conrad, president of Professional Developers of Iowa, a group of economic development leaders.

"Small towns don’t have the money of the larger cities, so they have to do things to differentiate themselves."

Sometimes the effort is attention-grabbing marketing. Sometimes, it’s a creative approach to financing. For example:

By DONNELLE ELLER
REGISTER WRITER

Full Story: http://www.desmoinesregister.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20050403/BUSINESS04/504030318/1029/BUSINESS