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hen Graceland Fruit announced the US$15 million, 60,000-sq.-ft. (5,574-sq.-m.) expansion of a food-processing plant in the Traverse Bay area of Michigan in 2002, the news only confirmed what many corporate executives already knew about this location.
It’s the Top Small Town in America.
According to the Conway Data New Plant Database, Traverse City recorded 45 corporate real estate projects during the 2000-2002 period. Traverse City beat out strong competition from other towns that have been traditional powers in the race for new and expanded facilities.
Second-place Statesville, N.C., a former repeat winner of the award, registered 39 projects from 2000 to 2002. Third-place Plattsburgh, N.Y., had 37 projects, while No. 4 Mooresville, N.C., last year’s winner, had 36.
The remainder of the Top 10 Small Towns were No. 5 Bowling Green, Ky., with 34 projects, followed by Danville, Ill. (31), Effingham, Ill. (20), DeRidder, La. (20), Morristown, Tenn. (19), and Plaquemine, La. (19).
Traverse City moved up from its No. 3 spot last year to claim the top honor in 2002, thanks largely to solid, sustained growth in food processing, automotive manufacturing, health care, electronics, printing, plastics and metals.
The largest industrial manufacturing project for Traverse City last year was the announced $37-million expansion of the bolt, nut and screw factory for Federal Screw Works. Other major manufacturing expansion projects for the area in 2002 included a $30-million plant for Tower Automotive, a $19-million facility for Skilled Manufacturing Inc. and the $15-million project for Graceland Fruit.
The growth of Graceland Fruit, like many other manufacturers in the service area of the Traverse Bay Economic Development Corp., has been remarkable. Founded in 1973 in the small Traverse Bay town of Frankfort, the company has grown from only four full-time employees in 1988 to 175 today. Another 45 to 50 workers will be added once the expansion is complete.
“Michigan has improved its business climate immensely in the last 12 years,” says Don Nugent, president and CEO of Graceland Fruit. “The state has significantly reduced its taxes, and the Traverse Bay EDC has played a leading role in assisting companies like ours that want to expand.”
When asked why he selected the Traverse Bay area for expansion, Nugent says, “For one thing, this is a wonderful place to live. It’s a wonderful area for recruiting employees. Plus, Michigan is the No. 1 producer of cherries in the nation.”
Traverse City’s central Upper Midwest location enables Nugent’s firm to distribute goods to top U.S. markets quickly. 
“We can rapidly move product to the East Coast market, and we’re only a day’s drive to over half the U.S. population,” he says.
Graceland Fruit is also a major U.S. exporter, having been named Exporter of the Year by the state of Michigan. “Exporting from this location is not a problem for us,” Nugent says. “In fact, Japan is our No. 1 market.”
Traverse Bay EDC President Charles Blankenship says Traverse City’s No. 1 ranking is “the result of a well-defined economic development strategy to develop the business and industrial parks and financing products needed to assist expanding companies.”
Asked why his region prospered so much during an economic slowdown, Blankenship says, “During a downturn is when a company can relocate. Many companies were changing their operations to become more efficient, and they were selecting this location.”
Blankenship says the area had no major plant closings during the recession, but.instead had a significant number of facility expansions.
That trend seemed to define the entire state of Michigan, which from 2000 through 2002 recorded 517 small town projects, good for the No. 1 ranking in the nation.
Other Michigan cities with strong small town rankings for the 2000-2002 period included Coldwater and Cadillac, which both finished tied for No. 17 with 14 projects each.
The remainder of the Top 10 States for small town projects for 2000-2002 were No. 2 North Carolina, with 480 projects, followed by Ohio (436), Illinois (362), Kentucky (326), New York (267), Tennessee (254), Pennsylvania (241), Mississippi (234) and Alabama (188).
Michigan further demonstrated its overall strength by placing the highest number of cities in the Top 100 Small Towns, with 18 towns from the Wolverine State making the list. Ohio placed the next most towns in the Top 100, registering 17. Other states on this leaderboard were Illinois, with 15 small towns in the Top 100, and Kentucky and North Carolina, with 10 each.
For 2002 only, North Carolina garnered the top state ranking, with 143 total small town projects, beating out second-place Tennessee, which had 140. Other states in the Top 10 for 2002 only were Ohio (136 total small town projects), Michigan (120), Kentucky (101), Illinois (101), Indiana (88), New York (74), Georgia (65) and Pennsylvania (63).
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