Beaumont, Texas – Matching the right people to the right places is key to economic development and the new jobs that growth can bring to a region. In Southeast Texas, Entergy Texas, Inc. wants to help.

The company’s economic development team today announced a state of the art Web site where commercial and industrial properties available for development in Southeast Texas are listed along with a wealth of information about the property and surrounding areas. By the same token, individuals, groups or companies looking for such property will now have a comprehensive research tool to help them find exactly what they are looking for.

Representatives from the governor’s office, the Regional Economic Development Initiative and the Southeast Texas Economic Development Foundation were all on hand for today’s unveiling.

“When a company, large or small, is looking for a place to do business, a lot of work goes into research before a single brick is put into place,” explained Michael Barnhill, director of economic development, Entergy Texas, Inc. “That means the property has to be a certain size, in a place accessible to whatever transportation that industry requires and in a place that makes it easy for the company to serve its clients.

“This Web site brings all those factors and more into play in what can be a one-stop shop for developers,” Barnhill said.

The Web site, www.TxSiteSelection.com, answers all of those needs and more. It is a means to promote commercial and industrial properties to prospects worldwide. It includes:

• Interactive maps.

• Detailed demographic and business data.

• Coordinated extraction from high-resolution aerial photography for precise mapping.

• Automatic e-mails to ensure data is current.

A developer looking for property will be able to determine factors such as whether a given location is near a school or other sensitive community area. Other examples of information immediately available would be proximity to railroads, waterways and highways.

“There are three major components to what will be placed on this Web site,” Barnhill said. “First is the searchable buildings and sites database. Second will be the county and community profiles and, finally, a geospatial data download center.”

Commercial realtors or commercial property owners who participate with the Web site will be able to create their own property entries, free of charge.

Similar Web sites are either online or under way in other states served by Entergy Corporation. They have been well-received by those communities.

Entergy Texas, Inc. provides electricity to 400,000 customers in 27 counties. It is a subsidiary of Entergy Corporation. Entergy is an integrated energy company engaged primarily in electric power production and retail distribution operations. Entergy owns and operates power plants with approximately 30,000 megawatts of electric generating capacity, and it is the second-largest nuclear generator in the United States. Entergy delivers electricity to 2.7 million utility customers in Arkansas, Louisiana, Mississippi and Texas. Entergy has annual revenues of more than $13 billion and approximately 14,700 employees.

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