The Buckeye State’s small towns dominate as never before.
If 2024 was a year of triumph for Ohio State football, the Buckeye State blew off doors, as well, in economic development. Led by perennial powerhouse Findlay — 45 minutes south of Toledo on Interstate 75 — Ohio’s small-and-medium-sized cities have claimed an unprecedented six of the top seven spots in Site Selection’s annual ranking of Top Micropolitans. The demonstration of dominance didn’t stop there. Ohio led the way among states with most Top Micros, with 20 communities ranking. Ohio’s haul of micropolitan projects totaled 135, far and away the highest, with Georgia placing second with 46 projects across 13 micropolitan communities.
As defined by the White House Office of Management and Budget, a Micropolitan Statistical Area consists of a core urban area with a population of between 10,000 and 49,999, along with adjacent counties that have a high degree of economic and social integration with the core, primarily measured through commuting patterns. For 2024, 125 micros from 29 states found spots in our ranking, the threshold for inclusion being a minimum of two qualifying projects of at least $1 million invested, 20 new jobs created or 20,000 sq. ft. of new or expanded facility space.
Consistent with Site Selection’s past micropolitan rankings, states in the South and Midwest figure heavily among our Top 10, which is rounded out — after Ohio and Georgia — by Illinois (11 communities/33 projects); North Carolina (10/26); Indiana (9/31); Kentucky (8/24); Alabama (7/39); Kansas (6/14); Texas (6/13); and Pennsylvania (5/14). States as far flung as South Dakota, Idaho, Mississippi, Iowa, Arkansas and West Virginia are represented this year, as well.
U.S. Congressman Bob Latta visits Lakeside Book Company in Willard, Ohio.
Photo courtesy of Huron County Growth Partnership
Up and Comers
Salem, Ohio, and Richmond-Berea, Kentucky, are among the highest climbers in this year’s ranking, each having accumulated six qualifying projects as part of a seven-way tie at No. 12, up from their previous shared positions at No. 84. But no micro surged higher than Norwalk, a town of 17,000 in north central Ohio, which vaulted from the previous year’s logjam at No. 84 to claim sole possession of our No. 7 spot. Norwalk’s haul of qualifying projects ballooned from two in 2023 to nine in 2024.
“We took a new approach to how we were reaching out to companies,” says Sarah Ross, director of the Huron County Growth Partnership, explaining that her office expanded its engagement efforts beyond Norwalk proper into all corners of Huron County. “That,” Ross told Site Selection in February, “got us in the doors of more companies, and on the earlier end of their decision making. We’ve learned that the earlier we are in those conversations, the better we’re going to do.”
The new thinking paid dividends in September when Persys Engineering, which delivers precision cleaning for the semiconductor and solar industries, agreed to invest $2 million in a new facility to service and refurbish semiconductor machine parts. To facilitate the project, which is to create 24 new jobs, Ross’s team leveraged incentives that included a JobsOhio Economic Development Grant and a City of Norwalk Job Creation Tax Grant.
“We are excited to be part of the Norwalk community and wish to thrive together,” said Lior Yeshurun, general manager of the Israel-based company, which also has an operation in California. “Everyone we have worked with and met with from Norwalk and Northeast Ohio,” he said in a statement, “has been timely and helpful throughout.”
Huron County, according to Ross, also stepped up with a $700,000 industrial road improvement to help secure an expansion by Lakeside Book Company, a long-time employer, which is creating 100 new jobs through a major investment in an advanced printing press. Founded in 1956 as a producer of telephone books, today Lakeside prints about 50 million copies each year, primarily educational materials. The expansion agreement with Huron County will help to retain 400 existing jobs at the company’s 1.3-million-sq.-ft. facility in Willard.
“We’re sending a clear message,” said Dave McCree, the company’s CEO, “that we are doubling down in Ohio.”
But Why Ohio?
Long familiar to Site Selection readers, aggressive Findlay is our Top Micropolitan for the 11th consecutive year, a period during which the town of 40,000 people and its surrounds in Hancock County have accumulated $2.5 billion in combined investments that have fostered the creation of close to 9,300 jobs. Findlay’s latest accumulation of 24 qualifying projects was eight more than the Ohio town of Greenville, northwest of Dayton, whose 16 projects earned it our No. 2 spot.
As the corporate headquarters of Marathon Petroleum, with major manufacturing and distribution operations by Whirlpool, Goodyear, Lowe’s, McLane and Ball Metals, Findlay rests upon an enviable base of repeat investors. Indeed, its two dozen qualifying projects for 2024 came exclusively from expansions of existing businesses, including the aforementioned Marathon, Goodyear and Whirlpool, plus Blanchard Valley Health System, parts manufacturer Freudenberg, Grob Systems, Kohl’s, Amazon and homegrown Kreate and One Power, two rapidly expanding innovators.
Founded in 2018 by Hancock County native Nickolas Reinhart, Kreate has grown from five original employees to a headcount approaching 500. Reinhart says the design engineering firm has invested in the range of $150 million over its short lifespan, including $50 million over the past 12 months. With clients that include Home Depot, for which it was named Vendor of the Year in 2024, Kreate reimagines and refashions existing plastic products, such as Home Depot’s signature HDX plastic container.
“We’ll take categories that haven’t been touched in 15 or 20 years, analyze the entire market, re-engineer a new assortment, then partner with specific retailers on exclusive agreements. Everything in our company,” says Reinhart, “starts and stops with engineering.”
And where does he find those talented engineers? Reinhart’s answer could speak for much of small-town Ohio.
“Findlay is a very industrial town with an incredible work ethic, so we don’t necessarily require degrees,” he says. “The important thing is to understand how to manufacture the product. You can’t design it unless you understand how to make it. I grew up in factories. My lead engineer grew up in factories. So, our system is to bring people up from the production floor into the engineering department.
“And that,” Reinhart believes, “is why companies come to Findlay. It’s because they know they’re investing in a community that, from a cultural standpoint, has great people who understand how to make things. That’s why they come here.”
One Power, formerly One Energy, has enjoyed a growth curve similar to that of Kreate, having begun, in the words of founder and CEO Jereme Kent, “out of the back of my truck.” Originally a supplier of massive wind turbines that now provide power to Findlay manufacturers such as Whirlpool, Ball and Valfilm, the company has recently pivoted into developing electrified industrial parks across the state of Ohio.
“It used to be,” Kent says, “that to develop a park, you took out 100 acres, chopped it into small lots and put in some road, water and sewer for whoever wanted to do manufacturing. Now,” he says, “that’s all secondary to the tremendous amounts of power required for all these emerging industries. We’re talking unprecedented amounts of power. If you’re talking about site selection, power is the next industrial revolution. It’s a modern gold rush.”
Kreate is one of Findlay’s homegrown innovators.
Photo courtesy of Kreate
That need for industrial muscle, Kent believes, puts Ohio in prime position.
“Ohio has infrastructure at scale like nowhere else. We have the gas lines, the power plants, the transmission lines and all the rail and other big services built up around them. Ohio can handle the big things,” he says, “and that’s why companies come here.”
Four Is the Charm for a North Carolina Micro
As a vivid demonstration of how smaller towns can generate outsized economic impact, a North Carolina micropolitan an hour west of Raleigh landed five qualifying investments, four of which totaled a whopping $2.66 billion. That town is Wilson, population 47,000, once known as “The World’s Greatest Tobacco Market.”
Wilson’s diversifying economy has since come to encompass leading growth sectors that include pharmaceuticals, auto parts, aerospace, packaging and food production. Commitments inked in 2024 with Johnson & Johnson, SCHOTT Pharma, IDEXX Laboratories and Reckitt Benckiser Health are bringing close to 1,500 jobs to Site Selection’s No. 19 micropolitan — tied with seven other micros.
Johnson & Johnson announced its blockbuster project in October. The company is investing $2 billion in a 300,000-sq.ft. biologics facility at the 560-acre Wilson Corporate Park, whose life sciences tenants include Merck, Fresenius Kabi, Purdue and Neopac. Johnson & Johnson has committed to creating 420 highly skilled jobs for engineers, microbiologists, analysts and managers.
“North Carolina,” said Dapo Ajayi, J&J vice president of Innovative Supply Chain, “is an important hub for biopharmaceutical manufacturing and talent, and we are pleased to join this thriving life sciences ecosystem and become part of the Wilson community.”
Headquartered in Mainz, Germany, SCHOTT will join German life sciences manufacturers Merck and Fresenius Kabi in Wilson County. SCHOTT’s Wilson location, its seventh in the U.S., will be its first to manufacture prefillable polymer syringes designed for deep-cold storage and transportation of mRNA medications.
“Bringing this production to the U.S.,” the company said in statement, “will reduce lead times and slash transportation costs, as well as protect against future shortages of critical drugs and ensure pandemic preparedness.”
SCHOTT says the site will also have the capability to produce glass prefillable syringes for GLP-1 therapies to treat diseases including diabetes and obesity (i.e. the sort that are manufactured in the state by the likes of Eli Lilly & Co. and Novo Nordisk, both of which are also expanding). The $371 million investment is expected to yield 401 full-time jobs. The company said it did a nationwide search for its new U.S. location.
Germany’s SCHOTT Pharma is bringing production to North Carolina.
Photo courtesy of SCHOTT Pharma
“The local talent pool,” said Christopher Cassidy, president of SCHOTT North America, “combined with the proximity to the Research Triangle area — which hosts numerous universities, pharma companies and research institutions — are ideal factors for the future operation of the company.”
To facilitate the IDEXX project, the North Carolina Department of Commerce and Economic Development partnered with Wilson County, the city of Wilson, the North Carolina Community College System and ElectriCities of North Carolina. The animal health company based in Westbrook, Maine, will invest $147 million to produce veterinary diagnostic products. Announced in July, the investment is projected to create 275 jobs.
Based in Slough, England, Reckitt Benckiser Health will invest $146 million to produce its popular Mucinex tablets and liquids to meet increasing demand for cold and flu products in the U.S. The 310,000-sq.ft. Wilson facility will also have the capacity to produce over-the-counter medications including Move Free and Biofreeze, making it Reckitt’s biggest OTC manufacturing facility in the U.S.
“Our highly skilled workforce, which includes the largest manufacturing workforce in the Southeast, continues to attract companies such as Reckitt, who are looking for skill and innovation,” said Christopher Chung, CEO of the Economic Development Partnership of North Carolina. “Wilson County’s life science ecosystem and existing resources are major attractors and provide a strong foundation for life science manufacturing companies to grow.”
Planning Pays Off in West Georgia
As one of the 13 Georgia micropolitans identified in Site Selection’s ranking, the West Georgia town of LaGrange — also tied at No. 19 — landed a massive project of its own. In June, Hong Kong’s Lee Kum Kee, maker of hundreds of sauces and condiments including the ubiquitous Kikkoman Soy Sauce, announced plans for a $288 million manufacturing facility at Troup County’s Georgia International Business Park. Covering some 10,000 acres, it’s the largest industrial park in the Southeast and fourth largest in the country. Lee Kum Kee is projected to create 267 jobs there.
“International companies continue to find success in Georgia because of long-term state and community planning like the Georgia Industrial Business Park,” said Pat Wilson, commissioner of the Georgia Department of Economic Development. “Since opening just five years ago, it is now home to more than 41 international companies representing 18 countries. LaGrange and Troup County’s foresight is paying dividends for their community.”
“LaGrange and Troup County’s foresight is paying dividends for their community.”
— Pat Wilson, commissioner of the Georgia Department of Economic Development
The Lee Kum Kee facility will serve to satisfy the company’s growing need for an East Coast manufacturing presence, its previous such facilities found only in California. The recruitment was nearly a decade in the making, according to Scott Malone, president of the Development Authority of LaGrange.
“It was one of the longest-running projects in the history of Georgia,” Malone told Site Selection in February. “It grew from $70 million to $288 million, they had a generational change in leadership, and then the pandemic got in the way. But for Lee Kum Kee, this is a very strategic project. Their business is booming.”
Formerly tied nearly exclusively to the textile industry, the LaGrange MSA also includes Kia Georgia, which has invested close to $3 billion since its inception in 2009. Having expanded in 2023 to the tune of $200 million to support EV production, the Kia plant and the suppliers that have followed it to Troup County account for more than 14,000 jobs and provide an annual economic impact estimated at $4 billion.
LaGrange is one of Georgia’s 13 Top Micropolitans.
Photo courtesy of Development Authority of LaGrange
But Georgia International Business Park has proved to be its own game changer, having attracted investments totaling more than $3.3 billion since its consolidation in 2018. Already in 2025, Kia supplier Jin-Tech America has announced a $30 million expansion that’s to create at least 30 new jobs at the park. The pace of new projects has put LaGrange in an enviable position.
“We’ve turned down right around $1.5 billion of projects in the last 12 months,” says Malone. “If the starting wage isn’t at least $18 an hour, we won’t incentivize it. We’ve gotten to where we have the luxury of being selective.”
