Buffalo edges up on expansion cities list

[steven]

In its 8th annual listing of the nation's 50 hottest metropolitan areas for business, Expansion Management magazine ranks Buffalo 43rd, one spot higher than last year.

The publication surveyed more than 80 site location consultants in compiling the rankings, which are based on business climate, workforce quality, operating costs, incentive programs, and the ease of working with local politicians and economic development agencies.

While Buffalo moved up one place, Rochester jumped 15 spots from last year, rising to 35th from 50th. Syracuse fell two spots to 44th after placing 42nd a year ago.

http://www.bizjournals.com/buffalo/s...0/daily28.html

[Linda_D]

I followed the links from Business First to the full article. It was an interesting read. One of the most interesting parts of the full article was at the end:

The Regional Approach

One of the common strengths that many of America’s Hottest 50 Cities have is their regional approach to site location. Instead of the primary city and its suburban counterparts bickering over a potential project, they work together because they know in the end, everyone in the metro area benefits — no matter where the project is sited.

Jobs Now! is the first coordinated, regional economic development strategy in the Knoxville-Oak Ridge metro area, also known as Innovation Valley, and its investors include more than 170 private and public partners. The aim of the program is to increase jobs and capital investment in the region.

“This has allowed us to pool resources, avoid duplicating efforts and really engage business leaders in economic development,” Knoxville Mayor Bill Haslam said. “We believe this is just the beginning of our success.

“We’ve worked really hard in Knoxville to think and act regionally in our economic development efforts, to leave our egos and our logos at the door, and I believe that’s paying off for our community,” he added.

Nashville’s Miller said the regional approach extinguishes the city and county lines — lines that mean nothing to an expanding company.

She pointed to the relocation of Louisiana Pacific in 2004. The company put its corporate headquarters in downtown Nashville (Davidson County), its research and development facility in Williamson County, its corporate jet hangar in Rutherford County and a number of executives live in Sumner County.

“If you are squabbling and backbiting, nobody will land the deal,” she said. “At the end of the day, everybody [in the region] benefits in you work together on a project.”

This seems to me something that WNY needs, especially Buffalo and Erie County. From reading the SNOOZE, one would think that the editors would have preferred National Fuel to move to Erie, PA, rather than to Amherst. GEICO is criticized in some circles because it chose a suburban location rather than praised for bringing in an eventual 3000 jobs. On, the other hand, a company moving from an East Side Buffalo location to downtown is cheered, even though no new jobs are involved, as is a manufacturing company that relocates its HQ from Angola to downtown Buffalo. There should not be town vs town or city vs town or even county vs county competition when a company seeks to come here, expand here or even find a new location.

Of course, the only kind of "regionalism" that seems to interest the movers and shakers in the Buffalo area is governmental consolidation that results in less power over their affairs for the voters and that makes it easier for well-oiled political machines (and their well-heeled contributors) to control things. Small scale consolidations that could actually save money are generally ignored. Cooperation among municipalities is a dirty word.

[300miles]

Agreed, the competition in WNY is unhealthy and non-productive. There's nothing wrong with new jobs going to Amherst instead of Buffalo.

But I think some of the concerns with the Geico deal are still valid. It's not that it's going up in Amherst... it's that it's going up in the middle of nowhere at the outer reaches of the suburbs. Geico is bring in 3000 people and in turn the gravity of that mass of people is bringing in hundreds more from other area businesses setting up shop there.

So 4000 people are being plunked down on what is basically a 2-lane country road far away from most area services. They have to build a new off-ramp from the freeway. The roads will need to be widened. Traffic controls added, sewer and drainage added, more snow plowing, more police patroling, more gas consumption to get there.

To ignore all these hidden costs is being blind. And it's wrong to constantly criticize govt spending on city projects while ignoring all the long-term govt spending required to support these ex-urban projects on the fringes of civilization. There really was no reason why they couldn't have developed closer to existing Amherst development or other existing suburban business areas.