South Jersey Business Trends

By ROBERT LINNEHAN | Business Trends
Prospective business owners looking to buy property now have an interesting and original tool to check out what’s available for purchase in Voorhees. The Economic Development Committee unveiled its new geographic information system powered commercial property search Web site.
The original tool is only utilized by three other cities throughout the country, representatives said, and none on the east coast. The Web site, VoorheesProspector.com, offers street-level visualization layers over a Google Map. Potential investors now have a valuable tool to research areas in the township, said Arnold Wallace Jr., chairman for Voorhees Township Economic Development.
“Site planners across the Internet are being provided the capability to effectively and efficiently evaluate properties from their offices, or in today’s active mobile environment.  The tool provides the site planners the added intangibles of local demographics (incomes, population, age distribution, labor force and education), proximity to major metropolitan areas (including rail lines, interstates and airports), and uniquely identifies other businesses in the area.  We are all truly excited about Voorheesprospector.com,” he said.
The Web site offers visitors a view and list of all available commercial buildings, land and property for sale in Voorhees. The site features a user-friendly interface, that “layers” local geographic information over a Google Map.
Some of the information available to prospective investors includes county and township lines, parcels, voting districts, hospitals, rail, zoning and the Town Center.
The new site also allows visitors to view Voorhees using Google Earth and Google Maps Street View.
Users can also quickly measure any distance on the map, select and filter certain areas of the city and quickly determine exact GPS coordinates at the click of a mouse.
Mayor Michael Mignogna, who gives a video introduction describing the Web site, greets site visitors.
“VoorheesProspector.com sends a clear and distinct message to all potential businesses. Voorhees is open and ready for business online,” he says in the video. “Visit VoorheesProspector.com today and imagine your company in Voorhees; in the center of everything and away from it all.”
The Web site is also integrated into the universal ZoomProspector.com service, which can match prospective businesses with the township and show them what’s available in Voorhees. According to representatives, when any commercial property in Voorhees matches a business’ search on ZoomProspector, the business can then click through to VoorheesProspector.com to analyze the city’s business advantages.
One of the biggest advantages for people utilizing the site, representatives said, is that they can tailor the maps and reports to suit their specific needs.
The Web site saves the prospective investors thousands of dollars on research costs that would normally takes weeks to cull from specialty data researchers.
Available properties can be viewed, along with size, use, cost, development incentives, and contact information.
Corresponding demographic reports such as labor force, education levels, consumer spending and age can be created. In addition, businesses are mapped by industry showing their distribution and concentrations throughout Voorhees.
“VoorheesProspector.com is a terrific and unique interactive tool.  The amount of information available along with ease of use will present the property in a positive and attractive manner.  I fully expect VoorheesProspector.com to help Voorhees Town Center gain awareness and connections not previously available to the property,” said Michael L. Fox, CSM General Manager of the Voorhees Town Center.