Officials in Iowa City are enjoying some positive recognition this week in a couple of national publications. Fortune Small Business ranked the eastern Iowa town 21st on it’s list of “Best Places to Live and Launch,” while Forbes ranked Iowa City 8th on it’s list of “Top Ten Up-and-Coming Tech Cities.”
Iowa City Economic Development Director Wendy Ford says the University of Iowa deserves a lot of the credit for business growth in the area. “The U-I Research Foundation has spent a lot of time working with researchers on how to commercialize the great stuff that comes out of the things that they do. And when you commercialize, you put those things that you’ve developed into the world of business. So, there’s a lot of activity and a lot of things coming out of the Iowa City area, in part, because of the great things happening at the University of Iowa,” Ford said.
The Fortune Small Business report noted Iowa City’s “lifestyle” offerings. “We’ve got a really diverse and fairly young, active demographic here in Iowa City,” Ford said. “There’s something very complimentary about young people, lots of education and the kind of lifestyle that our city offers.” The state of Iowa also received some positive reviews this week from CQ Press. The publisher listed Iowa as the 5th most livable state and the 6th healthiest state in the U.S.