Who Would Have Thought This City Had A Certain Industry?

[Razor]

Originally Posted by edale

Also, while it's not a hotbed of musical production anymore, Dayton and Cincinnati basically brought America funk music. I don't think too many people know about that!

Yup news to me..I always thought that Detroit was the birthplace of that genre along with soul. Another cool little factoid.

Also, re: Chicago and candy..That one is also news to me...The naming of Wriggley field now makes sense..I never equated Chicago with being a magnet for candy companies before..Shipping hub, Pizza, and lots of financial yes...

[hughfb3]

Space City USA, Los Angeles

The Los Angeles metro area is arguably the headquarters of the Space industry. While NASA may be most famous for their facilities in Houston and Florida, LA has the NASA sponsored Jet Propulsion Laboratory (JPL) as well as the headquarters of SpaceX. All of the rockets and shuttles America puts into space are designed and built in the Los Angeles area. Los Angeles has in the past had major aerospace companies headquartered in the city (Northrup Grumman, Howard Hughes' company) and currently still has major precence with all major companies (Boeing, Lockheed etc). With SpaceX's recent announcement to build a new assembly facility for the Mars destined BFRocket at the Port of Los Angeles, it will seem to remain Space City USA for the foreseeable future.

Also of note, the southern California, Los Angeles area has major design studios for most automobile manufacturers and many of the top auto designers study at the industry's top design school, ArtCenter. The split-window Corvette, the Boss 302 Mustang, the original Ford Taurus, the Audi TT, the BMW Z8, the modern Mini, the Lamborghini Murciélago, the Ferrari F430—all of these iconic cars were styled by ArtCenter talent. And to top it off; arguably the best car EVER MADE, the Tesla Model S... was designed here. Tesla's are all designed in Hawthorne at their design facility.

[Illithid Dude]

Originally Posted by hughfb3

Space City USA, Los Angeles

The Los Angeles metro area is arguably the headquarters of the Space industry. While NASA may be most famous for their facilities in Houston and Florida, LA has the NASA sponsored Jet Propulsion Laboratory (JPL) as well as the headquarters of SpaceX. All of the rockets and shuttles America puts into space are designed and built in the Los Angeles area. Los Angeles has in the past had major aerospace companies headquartered in the city (Northrup Grumman, Howard Hughes' company) and currently still has major precence with all major companies (Boeing, Lockheed etc). With SpaceX's recent announcement to build a new assembly facility for the Mars destined BFRocket at the Port of Los Angeles, it will seem to remain Space City USA for the foreseeable future.

Also of note, the southern California, Los Angeles area has major design studios for most automobile manufacturers and many of the top auto designers study at the industry's top design school, ArtCenter. The split-window Corvette, the Boss 302 Mustang, the original Ford Taurus, the Audi TT, the BMW Z8, the modern Mini, the Lamborghini Murciélago, the Ferrari F430—all of these iconic cars were styled by ArtCenter talent. And to top it off; arguably the best car EVER MADE, the Tesla Model S... was designed here. Tesla's are all designed in Hawthorne at their design facility.

This is a good one. I almost posted it because the aerospace industry used to be much MUCH bigger but I'm glad it's on here. Los Angeles is also arguably the video game capital of the US. Activision, Sony Santa Monica, Naughty Dog, Blizzard, Insomniac, and Riot Games are all based in or around Los Angeles, with literally every major publisher and developer having satellite office here.

[Austin55]

Fort Worth has a massive aviation industry.

American Airlines operates in FW city limits near DFW airport and is currently building a new Pelli designed campus. They are the largest employeer in the city at 22k.

Lockheed Martin's Air Force Plant 4 is the 3rd largest building by floor area in the US (Behind only the Palazoo and the Pentagon), currently holding the production line for the F-35 and various missiles and weapons. Employs 15k, 3rd in city. The attached naval air station employs 10k on it's own in addition.

Bell Helicopter, one of the "big 4" of helicopter manufacturing has their corporate headquarters, a production facility, and training facility on the NE side of town employing nearly 4k.

Alliance Airport on the cities north side is fairly unique as it was built to a purely industrial airport for moving goods and freight and also serving as a maintenance and training facility. It contains dozens of tenants with a large employee base.

The rest of the region has a few other notable facilities like the SW Airlines HQ in Dallas, and Airbus Helicopter production and Lockheed Martin weapon facility in Grand Prairie, dozens of airports for general aviation, etc.

Outside aviation, we have a few other surprises.

Downtown's largest employer is GM Financial, not sure how they ended up here and not Detroit or Dallas or something.

Alcon Laboratories has a corporate campus and North American HQ on the S side of town, employing 3k or so. They specialize in eye care products and medical equipment.

Pier 1 has a rather well known building downtown. Rather odd that a furniture store with such a title is based in a city without piers or imports really at all.

[mhays]

I was going to refute that square footage claim with Boeing's Everett, WA, main assembly building, but by golly, by square footage Ft. Worth's is larger.

[wwmiv]

As to the major cities where I've lived:

Austin is almost wholly associated with tech, government/education, and music (no need to recount why on any of those), but also in various respects food/restaurant/hospitality/travel/recreation (in the form of beer, wine, liquor, food, bars/restaurants/nightlife, recreational tourism, music festivals, and convention business)

Originally Posted by austin242

Austin makes a lot of Vodka and Tequila. Deep-eddy Vodka, Titos Vodka, Enchanted Rock Vodka, Dripping Springs Vodka, Dulce Vida Tequila, Republic Tequila, Etc are all made here.

None of the tequilas are made in Austin, they are only owned and managed from Austin. They are as by law produced in the Mexican state of Jalisco and parts of Tamaulipas, Nayarit, Michoacán, and Guanajuato.

Dulce Vida, for instance, distills in San Ignacio Cerro Gordo at Campanario.

Despite that asterisk, however, I'd agree with you that Austin has a burgeoning presence in the beer, wine, and liquor industry. The Texas Hill Country, of which Austin is the major city, is nationally known for its wine production (https://www.thrillist.com/travel/nat...-sonoma-valley) and Austin has a good number of successful craft beer operations (there are about 50 in the metro area, according to this map: https://www.craftbeeraustin.com/texa...r-listings-map -- I know for certain that they're missing some, too, such as Austin Eastciders).

I'd add to your list of distilleries:

Paula's (liqueur), Crystal Creek (moonshine), Garrison Brothers (Texas Bourbon), Pecan Street (rum), Still Austin (whiskey), and Treaty Oak (rum, gin, vodka) all have solid histories and distributions and there are some good upstarts as well (see here: https://www.americaninno.com/austin/...eep-eddy-vodka)

I'd also consider food to be in the same vein: Schlotzsky's, Whole Foods, Thundercloud (regional chain only),

In other words, Austin has strengths in many areas which underpins the enduring strength of its economy.

Area to watch: pharma/healthcare/biotech. UT just opened a medical school which will continue to see massive expansion and with Merck opening a state of the art tech facility nearby that industry is bound to explode from an already solid starting point with Mirna, XBiotech, and Aeglea. Pharmacyclics started in Austin, too, but was bought out like Whole Foods. (https://www.statnews.com/2016/03/09/...tech-industry/)



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San Antonio is military and a regional center for health care, and a tourist destination.

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Columbia, SC is pretty much just a state capitol, military base, and university town.

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And Ruidoso, NM is a ski-town.

[skyscraperpage17]

Most people are aware that Atlanta has a significant media, university (specifically HBCUs), finance, airline and defense/aerospace industry.

That said, I'm not sure if it's been mentioned, but Atlanta also has a sizeable food/restaurant/hospitality industry.

Everyone obviously knows restaurants that have become American cultural icons (Waffle House and Chick-Fil-A) originated from Atlanta, but it's also home to:

*Church's Chicken
*Huddle House
*Arby's
*Wing Zone
*Mellow Mushroom
*Great Wraps
*Popeye's
*Uncle Maddio's Pizza Joint
*Hooter's
*Krystal

Atlanta's also becoming an increasingly bigger player in the Automotive industry. It's home to the HQs of:

Porsche (North America)
Mercedes-Benz (North America)
PSA Groupe (North America)
NAPA Auto Parts

Kia also contributes significantly to Atlanta's economy with its US manufacturing plant 1 hour SW of downtown. BMW's training center is also located in Atlanta.

[Shawn]

Man, I'm really out of the loop. Out of that entire Atlanta list, I've tried Popeye's and Arby's, and have heard of Church's and obviously Hooter's. Never even heard of the rest.

[wwmiv]

Originally Posted by Shawn

Man, I'm really out of the loop. Out of that entire Atlanta list, I've tried Popeye's and Arby's, and have heard of Church's and obviously Hooter's. Never even heard of the rest.

Huddle House is mostly a rural southeast thing, Wing Zone is one of the largest chicken wing places in the country (second to Buffalo Wild Wings, I think), Mellow Mushroom is a pizza joint that's ubiquitous in urban hipster locales throughout the south, Great Wraps and Krystal are mostly in the southeast as well.

[north 42]

Windsor produces more than just cars, it’s also home to North America’s largest distillery! Hiram Walker and Sons, a fixture in the city since 1858!
Known mostly for whisky production, it also produces rum, vodka and liqueurs!

http://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/windso...lery-1.2800384

[Centropolis]

Originally Posted by wwmiv

Huddle House is mostly a rural southeast thing, Wing Zone is one of the largest chicken wing places in the country (second to Buffalo Wild Wings, I think), Mellow Mushroom is a pizza joint that's ubiquitous in urban hipster locales throughout the south, Great Wraps and Krystal are mostly in the southeast as well.

mellow mushroom historically has been a hip urban neighborhood southern mini-chain but they appear to be filling the "cool suburban pizza chain" niche in st. louis and cincinnati sort of emulating the successful deweys pizza chain thing. we also have huddle house all around surrounding st. louis, sort of hovering on the interstates.

[niwell]

Interesting, I did not realize Mellow Mushroom was that ubiquitous of a chain. We stopped in for a beer at the one on Oak St in New Orleans when I was there last month completely at random - based on the menu I assumed it just had a few local locations. There's even one as close as Cleveland! For a chain the drink selection was actually quite good though, pretty much all local craft beer.

[JManc]

Originally Posted by mhays

Houston is pretty average for NIH grants. It has a large healthcare district, but that's largely about how local organizations are clustered (as well as some healthcare areas where its institutions are leaders), not about the city having that much. .

Yea...no. I work in the Texas Medical Center. It is the largest of it's kind. Period. It may be average in NIH grants but that could be for a variety of reasons but people from all over the world come here for treatment. And no, we don't cluster our hospitals in one area; they are scattered all over the region. Only the two Level 1 trauma centers but they are teaching hospitals. I don't think I ever come across a comment until now dissing the TMC as meh.

[mhays]

It's both. It's certainly at the top for a variety of treatments, along with a half-dozen others (Johns Hopkins, Cleveland Clinic, etc.). But much of the size is about clustering.

This is something I'm trying to understand better as marketing guy for a contractor that builds healthcare facilities (and apartments, offices, retail, hotels, schools, etc.). Every region has some clustering of healthcare and some dispersal.

[JManc]

Johns Hopkins, Cleveland Clinic, etc. are individual institutions. The TMC consists of dozens of institutions with about half a dozen huge ones; MD Anderson, Houston Methodist, Texas Children's Hospital, Baylor St. Lukes, etc.

[hughfb3]

Originally Posted by skyscraperpage17

Most people are aware that Atlanta has a significant media, university (specifically HBCUs)
Atlanta's also becoming an increasingly bigger player in the Automotive industry. It's home to the HQs of:

Porsche (North America)
Mercedes-Benz (North America)
PSA Groupe (North America)
NAPA Auto Parts

Kia also contributes significantly to Atlanta's economy with its US manufacturing plant 1 hour SW of downtown. BMW's training center is also located in Atlanta.

Love this about Atlanta being “EuroAmerican Motown.” Wish LA could have at least 1 HBCU so we can have homecoming festivities... it’s one cultural thing I miss about the south that’s not present on the west coast.

New discovery to add to Los Angeles being “Space City USA” is the announcement that Virgin Orbital is building a factory in Long Beach for their Mars destined rocket. I guess we can specifically call Los Angeles “MarsMan City” (Mars Manufacturing City) or the “Rocket Coast” or “Mars Beach”

[toddguy]

I knew Atlanta had a film industry, but I had no idea it was as large as it is. Surprising to me.

[Ric 0_0]

Atlanta also has a sizable distribution/design industry of industrial parts.
It's home to
AGCO
Genuine Parts
Graphics Packaging Internation

Also, Atlanta is home to one of the largest car dealership groups
Asbury Automotive Group

[Shawn]

Originally Posted by wwmiv

Huddle House is mostly a rural southeast thing, Wing Zone is one of the largest chicken wing places in the country (second to Buffalo Wild Wings, I think), Mellow Mushroom is a pizza joint that's ubiquitous in urban hipster locales throughout the south, Great Wraps and Krystal are mostly in the southeast as well.

Thanks for this! I'm trying hard to understand the regional quick service category chain environment in America. What has worked and what hasn't. This is for both client work and personal business plans. I'm excited to see so many successful regional chains with niche or semi-niche offerings.

[Wigs]

Certainly not an entire industry, but many people do not know that...
New Era Cap Co. is headquartered in Buffalo, NY with the HQ (and flagship store) located in the former Federal Reserve building on Delaware Ave. in downtown Buffalo.


Siracuse Engineers

In the $2 Billion baseball cap industry, New Era controls about 66% of the market share.
They have ~2, 000 employees, with about a quarter of that between the Buffalo HQ and a manufacturing facility south of Buffalo in Derby, NY. They also have 16 offices around the world.

The company manufactures 60 Million baseball-style caps a year. In other countries, they have cornered the apparel market (Brazil) or backpacks (Japan).

22 Steps to make the perfect ball cap
• Video Link


Spike Lee is often credited with turning New Era into a fashion brand when he wanted a custom Red NY Yankees cap in the 1990s.


Black Ice Ent. LLC

New Era owns the naming rights to the football stadium where the Buffalo Bills play (former Ralph Wilson stadium)

Wenner Media

fun facts:

USA Today

article:
https://www.rollingstone.com/sports/...-world-w468720

https://www.usatoday.com/story/sport...ries/91475046/

Next time you see a New Era hat or apparel item, tip your hat to Buffalo, NY