Houston #3 in expansions and relocations
Continuing the good business news this week for Houston, today Governor Perry announced that Houston ranked third in the nation in 2005 for business expansions and relocations.The Houston region is being recognized for its contributions to creating jobs, opportunity and wealth in the March edition of Site Selection Magazine, an industry publication for site selection professionals.The Governor's web site added a few other details:
...The Houston region announced 214 projects in 2005, landing a 3rd place spot on the magazine's list of top metropolitan areas for new and expanded facilities. Houston's contributions helped Texas earn the coveted Governor's Cup award for the second consecutive year.
In 2004, the region ranked sixth on Site Selection's list.
The Governor’s Cup rankings are determined by tracking the number of business expansion projects in a state that involve a capital investment of at least $1 million, create 50 jobs or more or involve 20,000 square feet of new floor space. Texas secured 842 such projects in 2005 – a 26 percent increase from the previous year. Ohio, which placed second in the rankings, had 598 projects. Last year, Texas won the award with 668 job expansion projects.What's the catch, you ask? Well, our friendly rival to the north came in second.
Site Selection, a corporate real estate and economic development magazine, found that the Chicago/Naperville/Joliet metro area led the country with 389 new or expanded corporate facilities in 2005. Second-runner up Dallas/Fort Worth had 309 projects.Backing out the math, it looks like the prosperity is getting spread pretty well around the state: 842 total - 309 around Dallas - 214 around Houston = 319 for the rest of the state. The governor's press release gave a few examples of those:
This year, the magazine noted that several Enterprise Fund projects were important for Texas’ success, including expansions by Tyson Foods in Sherman, T-Mobile in Frisco, Hilmar Cheese in the Panhandle, and Washington Mutual’s decision to bring 4,200 jobs to San Antonio, which was the largest job creation project in America for 2005.Common traits of the top 3 cities? Large metros with many amenities, centrally located with good air access to both coasts and the world, and with affordable quality of life. A theme for the future is hinted at in a Chicago story: U.S. affiliate offices for foreign companies. Chicago is incredibly well positioned there because O'Hare has great nonstop access to both Asia and Europe, but Houston should also be able to do pretty well in that game, as the energy industry has already established our "global city" credentials.
posted by Tory Gattis @ 8:31 PM
1 Comments:
I think that using total number of units is a poor measure. Are the 4200 WaMU jobs in San Antonio suit adn tie banking jobs or are they back office administration jobs? How could you compare 100 Schlumberger executives and 100 Hilmar Cheese assembly line workers?
As far as the Dallas thing goes I don't think that we're shooting for the same targets. Dallas is going to get the Telecoms and we are going to get the Energy companies. I'm sure there are some small fry overlap, but not so much on the big prizes.
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