A bird’s-eye-view of site development

Drones take to the skies to capture footage, helping market commercial and industrial sites

February 2021

Marketing commercial and industrial sites for development in member communities consists of detailed data for use by site selectors. This information includes area utilities and regional workforce demographics. Also important are the visuals.

Capturing each property visually involves getting in an aircraft to get a bird’s-eye-view. Rising up to 8,000 feet shows site topography and property lines. This can be an expensive and time-consuming process. It is also one that has been dramatically improved by drones.

Today, trained drone pilots enter GPS coordinates, and a drone equipped with a camera take to the sky. With sites as large as 100 acres, a drone makes multiple passes to capture them row by row. When complete, software stitches the images together and the results are high-quality and cost-effective. Add a video camera to the drone and footage is as cinematic as you can get for a field of grass.

These subtle features are part of the effort to attract businesses to member communities. This footage is put to use at HoosierSites.com – a site maintained by the Hoosier Energy Economic Development team to promote Commercial and Industrial (C&I) sites in member communities.

Connecting sites with businesses is part of the work done by Hoosier Energy’s Economic Development team.

“Taking the time to find new ways to market sites in member communities is in an important part of the work we do on their behalf. The use of drones help elevate sites so businesses continue to see Indiana as a strong state in which to do business,” said Harold Gutzwiller, Manager of Economic Development and Key Accounts.

The first site using the drone footage is the Knox County Industrial Park served by WIN Energy. At elevation, the drone took a 360-degree shot of the property and features such as nearby highways and area businesses can be clearly seen. This aids site selectors as they work with business prospects during the information gathering phase for clients.

“As a picture says a thousand words, these images and videos are part of the toolset used to bring new businesses to Indiana and is driven by our focus on our members,” added Jeremy Sowders, Economic Development Manager.