Site Selection: Memphis ranks 9th for corporate expansions in 2009
Memphis Business Journal
Forbes magazine may say Memphis is ‘miserable,’ but Site Selection magazine has placed the metro area in its top 10 for new and expanded corporate facilities. The magazine ranked Memphis 9th in its “Top 10 Metro Areas: Tier One New and Expanded Facilities in 2009” for metros with a population over 1 million.
There were 58 new corporate location and expansion projects in 2009, according to Site Selection, bringing with them a total of 3,867 new jobs and more than $552 million in capital investment. Tennessee ranked No. 5 overall with 234 new corporate locations last year. The city’s ranking reassures leadership at the Greater Memphis Chamber that its MemphisED plan — the economic development piece of the broader Memphis Fast Forward initiative — is working, said Mark Herbison, the chamber’s senior vice president of economic development. “We continue to see a steady flow of existing and new companies looking at projects in Memphis, even during the sluggish economy,” Herbison said in a statement.
Site Selection’s research does not track retail and government projects, schools and hospitals. The expansions are all significant as well, since the magazine requires a project meet one of at least three criteria to be counted: involve a capital investment of at least $1 million; create at least 50 new jobs; or add at least 20,000 square feet of new floor area.