As the child of a military man, Hollie Askey has made a lot of short stops across the country. But Iowa is where her heart is, and after owning and managing fitness centers in Florida, where she also served a stint as a television personality, she has settled into a role she “loves” as executive director of the Warren County Economic Development Corp. She was named to the job in August, succeeding Jason White, who took a similar position in Oshkosh, Wis.

Did all of the travel when you were growing up help or hurt in your business career?
You are not afraid of much after a while.

What led you to the fitness business?
In high school, my primary sport was cheerleading — dance and gymnastics. It was very athletic, and that’s what got me into weightlifting and running. We had to do both of those to be on the team. I loved it, and I loved the results. And the fitness industry was very fulfilling because you would have people come in with diabetes, high blood pressure, heart issues, severely overweight, terribly depressed. They had all sorts of things going on, and you could take them and watch them over the next couple of years and they would completely change their life, come off their blood pressure medication, come off their meds. It just changed their lives. So that was fulfilling. 

You took a big leap from owning a fitness center to directing economic development programs.
It was a leap from fitness to economic development. However, where it ties together is the business ownership part. I had a lot of management and ownership experience that really helped me in the economic development field. A lot of times, economic development professionals, that is really all they know. They come out of school just knowing the private sector, the public sector …  but as far as the grass-roots, hitting-the-pavement business owners, it’s a different ballgame. I love economic development. It’s become my baby. And I like politics.

What are the opportunities and challenges in Warren County?
There are a lot of pros and cons to being in such an active metropolitan region. We feed off of it, but we also compete with it. But overall, it is a positive thing. We are able to receive a very large national and international lead from the Greater Des Moines Partnership and the state of Iowa. When companies are looking to relocate, they are looking at a region. We are able to compete for larger projects. That’s a huge plus. We have a lot of available land, so as the region starts to get a little bit landlocked for development, we are the ones with shovel-ready sites and certified business parks. The only thing that seems to hurt us a little bit is that when we get companies who want to locate around here, sometimes I think they believe they will get a really cheap deal for development when they go south of Des Moines. But our costs are the same. We have the same developers, the land is worth the same as it is in Waukee. I think that surprises people a little bit. But one thing that we are able to push forward a little bit in Warren County is that we do have really good, expedited regulatory processes. Our cities are willing to work quickly to make things happen.

What challenges are businesses facing?
Right now they need expansion assistance, they need more land, they need more room.

What do your communities need?
It’s really shifted over time. Historically in economic development, so much focus was just on growing the job base, and bringing in large manufacturers, warehouse and industrial-type companies. And that is still a focus, but it is shifting because communities see a different need. Now we really need retail (particularly discount retailers), hotels, restaurants — that’s a big push now in all three of our large communities (Carlisle, Indianola and Norwalk).

Do you have any new programs in mind for the economic development corporation?
We have a successful small business program … with classes, workshops, consultations —  we’ve been able to help a lot of people with it — and a small business grant program. I want to push exporting. I’d like to integrate that more in our companies. We have a lot of companies that could export. And a final initiative is the Home Base Iowa program.