Top 10 Cities For Business
1. Minneapolis-St. Paul (MN)
Minneapolis-St. Paul is where it’s at when it comes to business, much more so than any other of the nation’s major urban areas. The Twin Cities ranked at the top of a MarketWatch study on the nation’s best metro centers for business, winning by a wide margin.
A healthy collection of companies — old and new, small and large, public and private — put the greater Twin Cities near the top in many categories in the study, which measured the concentration of businesses in the nation’s 50 most populous markets, as well as the job picture in each city. Minneapolis-St. Paul proved resilient in keeping its jobless rate low in a check of unemployment statistics.
(Source: MarketWatch: Minnesota Nice)
2. Denver (CO)
The Mile-High City placed in the top 20 in all categories except job growth, where it ranked 28th. Denver was particularly strong in the small-business and Russell 2000 categories, where it ranked second and sixth, respectively.
The region first attracted a number of cable and satellite operators like Echostar Communications Corp. (DISH) , then parlayed that into a technology boom that spawned the likes of Qwest Communications Corp. (Q) and Level 3 Communications Inc. (LVLT) .
3. Richmond (VA)
This city is in the bottom 10 in size, but placed first in concentration of Fortune 1000 companies and second in unemployment rankings. Among the companies in its stable are gas-and-electric giant Dominion Resources (D) and electronics retailer Circuit City Stores Inc. (CC) .
The area has good schools, available workers, a strong university system and a diverse economy, Cimino says. In addition to Dominion and Circuit City, the city also has insurer Genworth Financial (GNW) , home security firm Brinks Co. (BCO) and chemicals maker Albemarle (ALB) .
4. Boston (MA)
New England’s largest city not only benefits from a bevy of legacy firms like missile maker Raytheon Corp. (RTN) and retailer TJX Cos. ( TJX) , but also rides a resurgence in both health care and information technology. As a result, it placed high in the Forbes, Russell and small- business categories as well as job growth.
Along with Boston Scientific (BSX) and Biogen Idec (BIIB) , the city is home to a multitude of small tech firms like Progress Software Corp. (PRGS) and Irobot Corp. (IRBT) .
There are 2,371 software companies based in the state, many of which are in the greater Boston area, said Tom Hopcroft, vice president for the Massachusetts Technology Leadership Council’s software unit. In the burgeoning robotics category, there are 150 companies, institutes and research firms, he added.
The secret to the region’s success is simple: Roughly 100 colleges are within 60 miles of downtown Boston, including, of course, Harvard and the Massachusetts Institute of Technology.
5. Charlotte (NC)
Home to a diverse number of public and private companies, Charlotte placed high in the Fortune, Forbes and S&P categories, all while its population rose at a healthy clip. The city’s population growth isn’t expected to slow any time soon either, said John Paul Galles, publisher of Greater Charlotte Business, as 80,000 people are expected to move to the region this year.
Greater Charlotte is home to financial powerhouses Bank of America Corp. (BAC) and Wachovia Corp. (WB) , as well as Family Dollar Stores (FDO) and Belk, a privately held regional department-store chain.
6. Nashville (TN)
A slew of insurers and hospital companies make their home in Nashville. Some notables are Community Health Systems (CYH) , LifePoint Hospitals (LPNT) and privately held Vanguard Health Systems. The spawning of the health-care industry traces back to the founding of Hospital Corp. of America in the 1960s. Also known as HCA Inc., the company encouraged its own doctors and executives to branch out and start new hospital companies on their own.
One company that can trace its lineage to HCA is privately held Ardent Health Services. Originally set up as a group of psychiatric hospitals, it now is a group of acute care centers. Chief Executive David Vandewater previously was president and chief operating officer at a later incarnation of HCA, known as Columbia/HCA. It now has reverted back to HCA and is privately held.
Now, there are 300 health-care companies in the middle Tennessee region. Nineteen publicly traded firms are headquartered in Nashville.
7. Washington, D.C.
Having the world’s most powerful government in your hometown is good for any economy. It makes for a plentiful source of direct jobs, not to mention steady work for federal contractors.
The feds, coupled with a growing private sector, vaulted the Washington, D.C., area, which includes suburban Virginia and Maryland, to the top spot in the unemployment category. The region was the only one of all 50 metro areas to post a sub-3% unemployment average for the sample months. It also posted a solid finish in the job-growth category.
The nation’s capital also is a breeding ground for younger companies, as it fared well in the Russell category. It was in the top 20 in S&P and population growth categories, and the middle of the pack or below in others.
But the area’s sunny job prospects are what vaulted the D.C. area to the top 10. And much of that came courtesy of the federal government, which pumped $55 billion into the local economy.
8. New York
The Big Apple has the third-highest concentration of small businesses of any metro area, and its standing as the nation’s financial center propelled it to fourth place on the S&P 500 list. It also was ninth in concentration of Russell 2000 companies and 11th in both Fortune 1000 and Forbes 400 rankings. If the study had used just those five categories, it would have placed second behind Minneapolis-St. Paul.
But it dropped down the list due to sub-par rankings in population growth, job growth and unemployment, where it ranked 47th. The jobless rate in New York averaged 5.2% for the months surveyed.
9. Birmingham (AL)
Being smaller has its advantages. If you have just a few companies on one of these given lists, you have a better chance of moving up the chart. Birmingham was able to take the No. 1 spot on the Forbes list, even though only six companies on that list are in Alabama’s biggest city.
Birmingham also placed high in the unemployment and job growth rankings, but is well down the list on a number of other categories, particularly concentration of small businesses, where it ranked 37th.
Privately held construction companies are big in Birmingham, which is home to Brasfield & Gorrie as well as BE&K. Other big private concerns include periodicals publisher Ebsco Industries, mining firm Drummond and industrial equipment maker McWane.
10. San Francisco, CA
Metro San Francisco includes the Oakland and San Jose regions for the purposes of the MarketWatch study, and its ties to Silicon Valley are what propelled it to this list.
The nation’s information technology capital had the distinction of being the only city to finish No. 1 in two different categories, S&P 500 and the Russell 2000 categories, an indication of a good mix between established and upstart companies. It also was fourth in the Fortune 1000 rankings.
The Bay Area didn’t place higher, though, because of slow population and job growth over this decade. It also slipped on the unemployment index, which takes the post-Internet bubble job picture into account.
“Quality of life” plays an important role in the Bay Area’s inclusion on the list. Its residents, and business leaders apparently don’t mind the high price involved for real estate and various consumer goods.
