Press Release: Ohio Wins Site Selection Magazine’s Governor’s Cup Award for 2011

Atlanta, March 1, 2012: Ohio has won the 2011 Site Selection Governor’s Cup, which the 58-year-old Atlanta-based magazine has awarded annually since 1978 to the U.S. state with the most new and expanded corporate facilities as tracked by Conway Data Inc.’s New Plant Database. Conway Data publishes Site Selection, the senior publication in the corporate real estate and economic development field, and the official publication of the Industrial Asset Management Council (IAMC, at www.iamc.org). Site Selection’s yearly analyses are regarded by corporate real estate analysts as “the industry scoreboard.” The magazine’s circulation base consists of 44,000 executives involved in corporate site selection decisions, most at the CEO/President/COO level.

The Buckeye State’s 498-project finish for 2011 is up substantially from its 376 projects logged in 2010, which put Ohio behind Texas in the last contest. Texas finished second this time around with 464 projects, followed by Pennsylvania (453), North Carolina (310) and Virginia (273).

Key to Ohio’s resurgence has been the implementation of a business-like approach to economic development at the state level, launched in February 2011 when newly elected Gov. John Kasich created JobsOhio, a public-private partnership that privatizes the development function of the Ohio Dept. of Development.

“We were the number one job creator in the Midwest in 2011 and number nine in the United States,” says Mark Kvamme, president of JobsOhio. “In 2010, we were 47th in job creation in the United States. The governor built the cabinet and development group that was solely focused on job creation.”

All five top states, and many others, recorded substantial increases in new plant activity for 2011, reflecting keen interest on the part of capital investors to get busy with expansion plans in general and, in many cases, to move operations back to the U.S.

“Ohio’s comeback is impressive, with a better-than-30-percent increase over its performance in the last Governor’s Cup facilities race,” says Mark Arend, editor in chief of Site Selection. “The state’s new approach to working with businesses to locate and expand in Ohio will serve it well as more companies bring operations back to the U.S. and to the Midwest.”

The magazine’s New Plant Database focuses on new corporate location projects with significant impact. It does not track retail and government projects, or schools and hospitals. New facilities and expansions included in the analyses must meet at least one of three criteria: (a) involve a capital investment of at least US$1 million, (b) create at least 50 new jobs or (c) add at least 20,000 sq. ft. (1,858 sq. m.) of new floor area.

This year, for the first time, the annual New Plant Scoreboard published in conjunction with the Governor’s Cup rankings features state rankings by region. For 2011, the regions were led by Pennsylvania (Northeast); Ohio (East North Central); Missouri (West North Central); North Carolina (South Atlantic); Texas (South Central); Arizona (Mountain); and California (Pacific). The scoreboard including full regional rankings is featured in the Governor’s Cup cover story found at SiteSelection.com.

The Top Metros for new and expanded corporate facilities for 2011 were led by Houston-Baytown-Sugar Land, Texas, among metro areas with populations over 1 million; Baton Rouge, La., among areas with populations between 200,000 and 1 million; and Decatur, Ala., among areas with populations between 50,000 and 200,000. Full lists of the Top 10 Metros in each population category appear below.

In the magazine’s ranking of Top Micropolitans — cities of 10,000 to 50,000 people which cover at least one county — Statesville-Mooresville, N.C., claimed the top prize among the nation’s 576 micropolitan areas for the eighth time in 10 years, followed by Wooster, Ohio; Cullman, Ala.; Lexington-Thomasville, N.C.; and Shelby, N.C. Ohio bested North Carolina and Pennsylvania as the state with the most Top Micropolitans, demonstrating the power of small towns to drive a winning Governor’s Cup performance.

All of the above stories are posted at the magazine’s award-winning website, www.siteselection.com.

About Conway Data:
Atlanta-based Conway Data Inc. (CDI) is the parent company and publisher of Site Selection magazine. The late CDI founder and Chairman McKinley Conway began Site Selection in 1954, the first magazine ever focused on corporate real estate and economic development. In 1983, Conway also created SiteNet (www.sitenet.com), the first online network serving the development industry. In addition to publishing Site Selection, CDI manages the Industrial Asset Management Council (IAMC at www.iamc.org), a highly regarded association that includes many of the top real estate asset managers at the world’s largest and most successful companies.