March 2012

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.