Surry Business

For the third consecutive year – and for the sixth time in seven years – North Carolina ranks first in Site Selection magazine’s annual state business climate analysis.

Fifty percent of each state’s total score is based on the magazine’s survey of corporate real estate decision makers and 50 percent comes from data associated with actual project activity as tracked by Site Selection’s proprietary New Plant database. The survey respondents ranked Texas ahead of North Carolina and put Georgia third. However, North Carolina moved to the top of the overall list because it attracted more investment dollars and larger plants than Texas. (Click here for Site Selection’s feature article about North Carolina.)

The magazine’s annual report gives high weight to the decision makers’ opinions. The objective statistics may run counter to the opinion makers’ views. Ohio ranked near the top in new plants (No. 1), new plants in 2004-06 (No. 2), investment dollars (No. 3) and total size of facilities (No. 2), but the Buckeye State ranked 14th of on the executive survey and finished seventh on Site Magazine’s list of choice states.

The magazine this year asked survey respondent to rank site-selection criteria in order of importance. Here’s the result:

1. Existing work-force skills.
2. Ease of permitting and regulatory procedures.
3. The state and local tax scheme.
4. Land and building prices and supply.
5. Availability of incentives.
6. Transportation infrastructure.
7. State and local economic development strategies.
8. Flexibility of incentives programs.
9. Access to higher education resources.
10. Union activity.

“A state’s business climate will, in general terms, reflect its performance in these areas,” wrote Editor Mark Arend, who added, “It is clear that environmental concerns are emerging as a new priority for the corporate real estate profession, particularly on the industrial side. The extent to which states can work with private industry to ameliorate those concerns may one day soon be an important new business-climate criterion.”