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Metro Area Ranks High on Site Selection's Top 10
Tuesday, March 04, 2014
YOUNGSTOWN, Ohio -- The Mahoning Valley is ranked among the nation's top metropolitan areas in 2013 for new and expanded facilities by a magazine that tracks such data for the corporate real estate and economic development fields.
Site Selection Magazine, which announced its Top Ten lists Monday, ranked the Youngstown-Warren metro eighth on the list of metro areas with populations of 200,000 to 1 million. It is the second time in five years that the Youngstown-Warren metro area made the trade journal's Top Ten list for new and expanded projects, according to a news release issued by the Regional Chamber, which provided the local data for Site Selection’s report.  
With 22 new and expanded facilities in 2013, the Youngstown-Warren metro tied with Lexington-Fayette, Ky., and Madison, Wis., among communities with populations of 200,000 to 1 million. The Omaha Council Bluffs, Nebraska-Iowa area led in the category with 46 projects.
“These results support the fact that there is a lot going on in the Mahoning Valley. There are new companies coming to town, our local firms are growing and jobs are being created,” said Sarah Boyarko, the Regional Chamber’s vice president for economic development, North America. 
Site Selection is published by Conway Data Inc. Its yearly analyses are regarded by corporate real estate analysts as the “industry scorecard," according to the chamber's announcement, and most of its 45,000 subscribers are involved in corporate site selection decisions at the highest executive levels.  
“It helps us market our area to other people and identify there is a lot of good activity going on here, and it does get people to look and explore those opportunities,” said Tom Humphries, president/CEO of the Regional Chamber. “This kind of ranking helps us get our name out there so people do come in and look at the opportunities that we have here.”
Last year more than 40 companies from outside the area visited the region, Humphries said, and prospects for 2014 look “really strong” as well. 
“Going into this year, we announced we had a little over $500 million in projects on our plate right now. Three of those projects, I believe, are going to be announced in the near future, meaning probably in the next three to four weeks, that we’ve been working on for a while,” he said. “We have good reason to be optimistic that we’re going to have another good year this year, just based on the pipeline and where those projects are within that pipeline.”
Site Selection also announced the winners of the 2013 Governor’s Cup. Texas won for the most qualified new and expanded projects of any state while Nebraska placed first for most qualifying new and expanded facilities per capita. Ohio, which ranked second in both categories, ranked first in the East North Central region for new and expanded projects.
Copyright 2014 The Business Journal, Youngstown, Ohio.