Area Spotlights

Colorado is ranked No. 3 in the U.S. in the Beacon Hill Institute’s latest State Competitiveness Report, based on 44 economic indicators in eight categories: government and fiscal policy, security, infrastructure, human resources, technology, business incubation, openness and environmental policy. Among those groupings, Colorado scored highest (No. 2) for infrastructure, which includes such indicators as mobile phones per 1,000, high-speed lines per 1,000 and air passengers per capita. Colorado scored No. 6 for technology and No. 8 for business incubation.

Warwick, R.I., might not be as well known as Providence, its neighbor 10 miles (16 km.) to the north, but it is starting to get attention for its new intermodal hub at the Warwick Station Development District near T.F. Green Airport.

BMW Manufacturing Company, South Carolina’s greatest economic success over the past two decades, continues to add chapters to its story with no end in sight. Since production began at the plant near Spartanburg in September 1994, it has been expanded four times, has produced more than 2 million vehicles and has provided more than US$5.8 billion in compensation to its employees.

Ohio’s vibrant metro areas are producing more than their share of downtown remakes and re-visions. Funded by a range of public-private entities, TIF arrangements and incentives, these projects’ campus-style atmospheres often have direct ties to university campuses.

Northeast States: There are reasons that New Jersey (second), New York (sixth) and Pennsylvania (ninth) all place among the top 10 states in total R&D. Certainly the region’s strength in the nation’s leading R&D recipient sector, chemicals, and its pharmaceuticals subsector is one.

Baltimore, Maryland is the location of two new headquarters projects — one involving construction of a new waterfront office complex for Constellation Energy Group, which is merging with Chicago-based Exelon, and one the expansion of Under Armour’s headquarters in the Locust Point area.

In 1995, Sanford Orkin, former president of Atlanta-based Orkin Pest Control and son of its founder, purchased 922 acres (373 hectares) of land near Athens, Ga., home to the flagship campus of his beloved University of Georgia, for $7 million. Since then the “Orkin tract” has experienced several close misses with major prospects, including an initial prospect in 2000, a never-built Daimler vehicle plant in 2002 and a Novartis vaccine plant that chose Holly Springs, N.C., over the site in 2006.

Healthcare, life sciences and medical equipment and devices continue to be leading industries in Minnesota, growing on a continuum that goes back several generations and into the 19th century.

Dirt moving continues on a large scale near the southern New Mexico community of Santa Teresa. Here, seven miles (11 km.) from the Mexican border and within shouting distance of El Paso, is the beginning of Union Pacific’s colossal new rail facility.

Boosted by projects — often in multiple phases — from such companies as ExxonMobil, Shintech, Honeywell and Westlake Chemical, East Baton Rouge Parish in Louisiana tops the project tallies of all counties along the Mississippi River from July 2010 through December 2011.

Life sciences, logistics among sectors showing vitality.

The aerospace industry has had a major presence in the Rockford, Ill., region for many decades, but it was only a few years ago that the industry came to the realization that a major cluster had developed.

Last year unemployment in California fell to the lowest level since 2009, as companies put 240,300 people to work, leading the nation in job growth.

The art of storytelling is providing some global fame for Louisiana’s blossoming digital media sector.

As this issue went to press in February, site selectors in the U.S. and globally were busy recasting their lists of finalist locations for manufacturing projects to include Indiana. The state may well have ranked high on some of those lists already — its business climate is considered robust by many evaluators of Midwest states, given its record of fiscal conservatism that includes a predictable and competitive tax structure among other measures.
But becoming the 23rd right-to-work state has energized Hoosier State efforts to escape the stigma, or at least perception, of Midwestern locations being less than business friendly to companies hoping to cultivate a work force free of union requirements their workers don’t embrace.

If North Dakota’s booming economy and 3.5-percent unemployment rate is any indication, there is prosperity to be mined in domestic energy production, and the rest of the Central Plains states are on the brink of realizing some of that prosperity. Much will depend on where the political football that is the Keystone XL pipeline project lands in the coming weeks as federal approval of the project rides the fortunes of pending legislation.

Silicon carbide in Starkville. Solar industry components in Senatobia, Grenada and Hattiesburg. Mission support for Lockheed in Clinton. Advanced composites for GE in Ellisville. Process equipment in Natchez. Biofuels from Columbus to Tupelo and beyond.

A Chinese solar company has big plans for a former IBM R&D facility. Linuo Solar Group expects to start shining new light in 2012 into the long-vacant IBM West Campus in East Fishkill, N.Y

A national laboratory expansion and a new yogurt manufacturing project will deliver significant economic impact to their cities and to Idaho. Several thousand jobs are being attributed to work now getting under way at the Idaho National Laboratory (INL) in Idaho Falls, the centerpiece of which is a new, $50-million, 148,000-sq.-ft. (13,750-sq.-m.) research and education laboratory.

Maine life sciences firms run the gamut from animal care to cloud-based records. IDEXX Laboratories, Westbrook, Athenahealth, more.

Can the land of the wild, wild West become the next high-tech haven of choice? It can if more executives follow the example of Kent Holliday, the founder of Eleutian Technology in Cody, Wyo. The world's largest network of certified instructors who teach English as a second language, Eleutian recently made its home in the town.

Air cargo hubs in the Pacific Northwest help global firms streamline supply chains. For global companies using the Pacific Northwest as a gateway to the Americas, many are increasingly turning to air transport. One reason Anchorage is so popular as an air cargo hub is because it is 9.5 hours or less from 90 percent of the industrialized world.

Fifty-six counties and parishes define the U.S. shoreline of the Gulf of Mexico, simultaneously dishing up the Gulf’s bounty and taking what it dishes out. Between October 2009 and October 2011, Greater Houston’s Harris County showed the most new plant and expansion activity among those jurisdictions by a very long shot, followed by Baldwin County, Ala., a slew of Louisiana parishes, and Pinellas County in Tampa-St. Petersburg, Fla.

The Brookings Institution's December 2011 MetroMonitor report includes Detroit and Grand Rapids in its list of the 20 metros with the strongest economic recoveries, crediting growth in manufacturing activity, particularly associated with production of autos, auto parts and related durable goods.