Business Partnerships Fuel Community Growth

Building relationships with local businesses is one of the key components of the City of Dublin’s Economic Development program. It is vital that the city stay connected with the business community in order to meet the needs of our business leaders, as well as to maintain the economic vitality of our community.

The Economic Development team works to assist business owners in expanding and growing their companies in Dublin. We also seek to attract new businesses and to help entrepreneurs in the creation of new companies. Many of these goals are accomplished through the homegrown and international relationships we build in the community.

IGS Energy is a great example of a Dublin business that was looking to expand its headquarters in Dublin. Because the City of Dublin already had a great working relationship with IGS Energy, when the company was looking to move its corporate headquarters to a new building, we worked in partnership.

As a leading residential supplier of natural gas in the U.S., it was important to IGS to create an energy-efficient and sustainable building. The City of Dublin was able to create a customized economic development agreement to help IGS achieve its goal.

Earlier this year, the new IGS Energy headquarters built in 2010 at 6100 Emerald Pkwy. earned the Platinum certification for its Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design (LEED).

IGS Energy’s headquarters is the largest LEED Platinum Certified building in Ohio and the only commercial office building to achieve Platinum certification in central Ohio.

IGS Energy and the City of Dublin will again partner this time to improve the deployment and usage of energy resources in our community by the city as well as by our residents.

In early 2012, the City of Dublin and IGS Energy will open a new compressed natural gas (CNG) vehicle fueling station at 6351 Shier Rings Rd. IGS Energy will manage access to the 24-hour fueling station and plans to offer station access to local residents and businesses.

Key card access will be required to the facility, and Dublin residents and businesses may have limited access to the station once they contact IGS Energy in order to set up an account. There will be no minimum monthly purchase requirement to maintain an account. Account holders will receive a key fob that they can swipe when they fuel up, and then will receive a monthly statement from IGS. Information about business and residential accounts and vehicle conversion to CNG or bi-fuel (CNG and gasoline) capability is available from automobile dealers or at http://cng.igsenergy.com.

Initially, the station will fuel approximately 44 City of Dublin vehicles, growing to more than 200 city vehicles in the years to come. A grant funded by the U.S. Department of Energy’s Clean Cities program is enabling the city to convert the fleet for CNG usage.

Operating City vehicles on CNG provides significant cost and energy savings to our fleet. On average, CNG costs about 50 percent less than gasoline, while still delivering the same power and performance. As fuel costs and emission standards increase, Dublin City Council sees the value that CNG can add to the city’s bottom line. For more information on the program, visit www.igsenergy.com.

IGS Energy is just one example of the many successful and valuable business partnerships that support Dublin’s continued growth and leadership in central Ohio’s economy. For more information, visit http://dublin.oh.us/econdev.

About Dana McDaniel

Dana McDaniel serves as Deputy City Manager/Director of Economic Development, a position he has held since 2004. He has worked for the City of Dublin for 23 years.

In addition to serving as Dublin’s economic development director, Dana oversees Land Use and Long Range Planning, Engineering, Building Standards and the Streets and Utilities programs. Previously, Dana served as the City’s Director of Public Service and began his career in Dublin in the City Manager’s office as a Management Assistant.

Dana’s key projects during his service to the city have included: achieving accreditation by the American Public Works Association; expanding Dublin’s broadband infrastructure to include over 100 miles of fiber optics and a 24-square-mile WiFi system; the Dublin Entrepreneurial Center and other award winning economic development programs resulting in over 11,000 jobs retained and attracted since 2004. Dana attributes the success of the city’s programs to the leadership of City Council Members and City Managers, past and present, who have supported and continue to support the spirit of innovation.

He is active on several regional government and civic boards, including Franklin County Public Health Department, Franklin County Emergency Management & Homeland Security, Dublin Chamber of Commerce and Dublin Counseling Center.

Dana has a bachelor’s degree from Miami University of Ohio and a master’s degree from The Ohio State University, both in public administration. He also holds a master of strategic studies degree from the U.S. Army War College.

Dana and his wife, Lisa Patt-McDaniel, live in Dublin and are the parents of two daughters, Caitlyn and Colleen.