What are the hottest American places for new and expanding businesses? That's the question posed by Area Development Magazine in their sixth annual search for the top spots nationwide. Short answer? Right here! While they admit that it is a complicated question to answer due to countless metrics that could point you to countless locations, they continue to use the metrics most critical to site selectors searching for places to drop anchor and launch new or expanding enterprises.
The excellent news for Michigan's Great Southwest is that Berrien County ranks at #15 out of more than 390 standard metropolitan statistical areas in the nation. Area Development's 2016 Leading Locations for New and Expanding Business study pegs the Niles-Benton Harbor SMSA at 15th nationwide when looking at four primary indicators designed to reflect the area's most recent and future economic vitality and success. Those four primary indicators include:
- Prime Workforce
- Economic Strength
- Year-Over-Year Growth
- Five-Year Growth
Berrien County's leading economic development agency, Cornerstone Alliance, says our economic strength is anchored by our "location, location, location." Close proximity to the major interstate corridor of I-94 and situated on 40-miles of Lake Michigan coastline make the region accessible to multiple transportation routes including air, ground, rail and water, connecting to major market hubs, domestic and international.
Cornerstone President Rob Cleveland says, "The Area Development report validates what we have been telling companies for a long time; that Southwest Michigan is a great place to locate and grow your business. To be recognized among the top 3-percent of locations in the entire United States, and to rise from 355th to 15th in only two years, is due to the investment that Berrien County companies have made in their employees in this community."
Furthermore, Michigan's business climate is much more competitive than ever due to the elimination of inventory tax and other exemptions related to property. Access to talent is also a top factor in determining if a company will locate to an area or whether an existing business will expand. Berrien County is fortunate to share a border with Indiana, giving access to more than 615,000 employable individuals.
Cornerstone's Cleveland says, "Among the many standout aspects of the Area Development report is the fact that the state of Michigan is represented four times in the top 20 locations. We're proud to be associated with other talent-rich Michigan communities like Kalamazoo, Grand Rapids, and Saginaw."
Cornerstone also points to the abundance of innovation, with Michigan ranked first in the nation for concentration of engineers, and Berrien County employs six times the number of engineers of any other area per capita in the country, employing more than 2,000 engineers across the region.
Area Development Magazine's factors in determining leading locations across the nation are both an examination of the past and a glimpse into the potential future. The study says, "It's worth noting that growth really matters in the calculations for leading locations. Careful longtime followers may observe that certain high-ranking locations from last year are nowhere near as high on the list this year. That is not necessarily a sign of economic disaster in those cities that have slipped in the rankings — they may, in fact, still enjoy an enviable economic position, but their growth trajectory has cooled a bit since the last tally."
Metro areas like ours near the top of the economic strength list tend to have economies with a strong manufacturing influence, because, as the magazine notes, "Times are better for U.S. manufacturing than they've been in a good while, so it makes sense that manufacturing heavy communities are among the strongest economically."
The local climb up the success ladder has been remarkable considering the same report two years ago ranked Berrien County at 355th and a year ago we ranked 141st in the nation.
Nationally, San Francisco ranked 1st followed by Napa, California at 2nd and then Grand Rapids scored a 3rd place ranking this year, to match their third place finish a year ago, up from 42nd two years back.
Rob Cleveland says the magazine cited Berrien County, "For dramatic changes in key workforce areas that included an influx of young workers with a Bachelor's Degree or higher, and a significant improvement in our unemployment rate over the last three years, as well as our strength in manufacturing employment." He concludes, "The Southwest Michigan economy is strong, and it's driven by the many talented men and women who design, engineer and manufacture some of the world's most advanced products, tools and molds, right here in Berrien County."
