ATLANTA -- Ohio has won the 2011 Site Selection Governor's Cup, an award that Site Selection magazine has made annually since 1978 to the state with the most new and expanded corporate facilities.
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 2010 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, state officials say, is the implementation of a "business-like approach" to economic development at the state level, launched last February when Gov. John Kasich created JobsOhio, a public-private partnership that privatizes the development function of the Ohio Department of Development.
"We were the No. 1 job creator in the Midwest in 2011 and No. 9 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 United States.
"Ohio's comeback is impressive, with a better than 30% increase over its performance in the last Governor's Cup facilities race," said 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 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: involve a capital investment of at least $1 million, create at least 50 jobs or add at least 20,000 square feet of new floor area.
This year the scoreboard features regional rankings. 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 top metropolitan areas for new and expanded corporate facilities for 2011 were led by Houston-Baytown-Sugar Land, Texas, among metro areas with populations over one million; Baton Rouge, La., among areas with populations between 200,000 and one million; and Decatur, Ala., among areas with populations between 50,000 and 200,000.
In the magazine's ranking of top "micropolitans" -- cities of 10,000 to 50,000 people -- 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.
Published by The Business Journal, Youngstown, Ohio.