Most economic development organizations can tell a prospect where their best industrial site is.

The harder question is how much they really know about it.

A modern industrial project can begin eliminating locations almost immediately based on power, water, environmental conditions, transportation, workforce or development timelines. That makes site knowledge one of the most basic components of economic development readiness.

Here are 10 questions worth putting to your team.

Total acreage and usable acreage aren't necessarily the same thing.

Wetlands, topography, setbacks, easements, stormwater requirements and other constraints can dramatically change the amount of land available for a facility.

Know both numbers.

Better yet, know what kinds of footprints can realistically fit.

Ownership complexity creates risk.

Is the property publicly owned? Privately held? Under option? Split between multiple owners?

A site selector needs to know whether a property marketed as available can actually be delivered.

"Served by a major utility" isn't enough.

You should understand current available capacity, required upgrades, likely timelines and the point at which additional load changes the answer.

For power-intensive projects, this may be one of the first questions asked.

Again, capacity and theoretical capacity are different things.

Know current excess capacity, permitted capacity, infrastructure limitations and what improvements would be necessary for a major user.

If the answer depends on an expansion that hasn't been funded yet, say so.

Phase I assessments, wetlands delineations, endangered-species reviews, archaeological work and geotechnical testing can remove uncertainty from a site.

The more work completed in advance, the fewer surprises a company has to price into the decision.

Roads. Turn lanes. Rail spurs. Utility extensions. Substations. Pump stations.

Make the list.

Then identify who would build each improvement, who would pay for it and how long it would take.

Don't stop at "we have expedited permitting."

Map it.

Which local and state approvals are required? Which agencies control them? Can reviews happen simultaneously? Which approval represents the longest potential delay?

A company is trying to establish a credible construction schedule. Help it.

County population is not a workforce analysis.

Know the relevant occupations, wages, commuting patterns, competing employers and training capacity.

The labor answer for a food-processing facility will be different from the answer for an aerospace supplier or battery plant.

Measure them.

Distance and drive time to interstate access, airports, ports, intermodal facilities, suppliers and customers are more useful than saying the site is "centrally located."

And don't ignore bottlenecks simply because they aren't flattering.

This may be the most important question on the list.

Gather the people who know the site best and ask them to argue against it.

Where is the uncertainty?

What hasn't been studied?

Which infrastructure commitment isn't firm?

Which assumption are you making because nobody has challenged it yet?

Those answers create your work plan.

Because site readiness isn't a designation or a sign at the edge of an industrial park.

It is the reduction of uncertainty.

And the communities that know their sites best give companies fewer reasons to eliminate them.

The first 48 hours of a location search are a terrible time to figure out who has the answer.

The email rarely arrives at a convenient time.

A site consultant or company representative sends a project description and a list of questions. There may be a confidentiality agreement. There may be a code name. There is almost certainly a deadline.

Suddenly, information has to come from a utility, local government, workforce agency, property owner, engineering team and perhaps several state agencies.

This is where economic development organizations discover whether they have a project response system or merely a collection of good relationships.

Relationships matter enormously.

But the middle of an active project is not the ideal time to determine how those relationships work.

An EDO should be able to identify the people it would contact today if a major project landed tomorrow.

That roster will vary by community, but it commonly includes representatives responsible for:

utilities and infrastructure; planning and permitting; workforce and training; transportation; environmental and engineering issues; incentives; property control; and state-level economic development assistance.

The important question isn't whether you know these people.

It's whether everyone understands what happens when a project arrives.

Who coordinates the response?

Who talks to the prospect?

Who is permitted to see confidential information?

Who verifies numbers before they leave the building?

Who can commit to a timeline?

Who gets called when an answer is missing at 5 p.m.?

That process should not have to be invented under deadline.

Most communities have answered enough requests for information to know what is coming.

So build your own.

Create a standing data file containing the information prospects repeatedly request: property information, utility capacity, tax rates, transportation distances, major employers, occupational data, wages, training programs, permitting requirements and applicable incentive programs.

Then assign an owner to every field.

Some information changes annually. Some changes monthly. Some can change overnight.

A major employer closes. A substation gains additional capacity. A new speculative building comes online. A training grant expires.

Someone should be responsible for knowing.

Speed matters in site selection, but an incorrect answer delivered quickly can be worse than a correct answer delivered a few hours later.

The goal is not to answer immediately.

The goal is to have already done enough preparation that verification is quick.

That is especially important with utilities.

A map showing infrastructure near a site is not the same as a utility confirming capacity for a particular load.

Likewise, an incentives brochure is not an incentive proposal.

A labor-force statistic is not evidence that workers with the required skills are available at the wages a company intends to pay.

Useful project responses distinguish between what is known, what is estimated and what still requires confirmation.

Here's an exercise worth trying.

Give your team a fictional project Friday morning.

It needs 100 acres, 1 million gallons of water per day, 40 megawatts of power and 600 workers. Operations must begin within 24 months.

Give everyone four hours.

Then see what happens.

Where did the response slow down?

Which number couldn't be verified?

Which partner couldn't be reached?

Which question produced three different answers?

That is valuable intelligence.

Economic development organizations spend considerable time trying to generate opportunities.

But opportunity creates its own test.

Eventually, somebody calls.

Readiness means already knowing what happens next.