C.R. Metro Economic Alliance remote worker recruitment campaign meets new resident goal

CEDAR RAPIDS — After “overwhelming” interest in the program, the Cedar Rapids Metro Economic Alliance has concluded its remote worker recruitment campaign two months early.

The organization this week signed its 15th mover in the program, through which income-qualified remote workers received a cash incentive and other benefits to relocate to Cedar Rapids, Hiawatha or Marion.

The pilot program aimed to increase resident recruitment as part of the larger Collaborative Growth Initiative, a public-private partnership around supporting population growth in the greater Cedar Rapids area.

Jodi Schafer, director of talent attraction at the Economic Alliance, said more than 300 people expressed interest in the program since it launched this summer. More than 100 completed formal applications.

“We saw a lot of interest, a lot of press and a lot of phone calls,” Schafer said. “Generally speaking, I don’t think anybody’s just moving here for $5,000, but it is something that pushes them toward our community.”

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Qualified candidates were selected for the 15 spots on a first-come, first-served basis after providing proof of having signed a local lease or mortgage.

The campaign was completed in collaboration with MakeMyMove, an online service that connects remote workers to cities with relocation incentives. Applications were open to out-of-state remote workers making at least $55,000 a year who committed to relocation within six months.

Area leaders hoped to attract 15 movers through the program by the end of the year, which was ultimately achieved in early November. The campaign brought 30 residents to the area, including nine children, between the movers themselves and their families.

The 15 movers came to Linn County from 10 states including Colorado, Utah, Florida, Texas and more. Just under 75 percent of those movers were under the age of 40, and the majority have family or friends in the area.

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Two of those new residents are Kyle Louis Loecke and Haley Crowson, a couple from Wichita, Kan., who moved to Cedar Rapids earlier this fall. Both work remotely, but it was Loecke, a 29-year-old materials supplier and sales representative, who officially received the incentives.

The pair were looking to relocate to Iowa to be closer to the industry partners with whom Loecke works frequently. Both grew up in Kansas, although Loecke has family in Delaware County.

“Haley saw the MakeMyMove program online, and it made us give Cedar Rapids a little bit more consideration,” Loecke said. “I think we would have still moved to Iowa (regardless), but I don’t know if we would have moved to Cedar Rapids” without these incentives.

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Since moving, the pair have taken advantage of several of the non-cash incentives included in the relocation package — including six months of free coworking space at the Armstrong Hub in downtown Cedar Rapids.

The pair has also started to explore the local trails system, hit up area coffee shops and try out new restaurants as they get to know the area.

“There’s still so much to learn, but one thing that I really appreciate about (Cedar Rapids) is that it feels like a metropolitan city, … but then you can drive 30 minutes and hike the Palisades-Kepler State Park and have close access to nature trails and the outdoors,” Crowson said.

Schafer said that kind of exploration is exactly what program leaders want to see from movers given the initiative’s overall goal of bringing new residents into the area to increase the local population and tax base.

Based on data from other MakeMyMove programs, relocating 15 households to a given community contributes to roughly $1.3 million in economic impact within one year and another $2.5 million the next.

Economic Alliance staff are now exploring where to take the program next and/or how to take lessons learned from the campaign into broader Collaborative Growth Initiative implementation.

The initiative began in 2023 as a collaboration between the cities of Cedar Rapids, Hiawatha and Marion and the Economic Alliance. Each of the three cities and the alliance has contributed funding toward the project with the hope being to foster increased private investment moving forward.

“We’re seeing that the incentive-based program tends to work, but we do want to move into the workforce space, so we’re right now looking at options for what we can do for people that are seeking jobs and will move here not just for the community but also for the right position,” Schafer said.

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