• COVER PAGE

  • MOTOWN RULES

  • 1998 PROPORTIONAL
  PERSPECTIVES

  • METHODOLOGY

  • NEW CORPORATE
 FACILITIES AND
 EXPANSIONS

  • THE LONG VIEW:
 MICHIGAN

  • 1999 FORECAST

  • 1998 TOP 20 U.S.
 FACILITIES

Michigan and California, the twin titans of Site Selection's 1998 state scoreboard, convincingly translated their clout into '98's metro-area tallies.

Exhibit A: Detroit, which duplicated the double conquest it rang up on 1997's SS scoreboard. In 1998's double-whammy, Motown was the No. 1 metro for total new facilities and expansions and No. 1 for new manufacturing plants (see accompanying charts). In fact, Detroit's 1998 dominance was simply dazzling. Its 1998 total of 836 corporate location projects easily doubled the 345 projects in Minneapolis-St. Paul, the No. 2 overall metro. Similarly, Detroit's 130 new manufacturing projects were comfortably twice more than the 61 projects in Chicago, 1998's No. 2 new manufacturing metro, as it was in 1997.

Like many of 1998's top metros, Detroit's touchstone has been revitalization. The difference for Detroit has been the sheer scale of its successful revitalization. "Detroit" and "decline" once seemed inextricably linked. But today's Motor City is marked by rapid auto-related growth (with just-in-time manufacturing adding an expansion boost); downtown revitalization; city-county governmental cooperation and regulatory streamlining; and even a tourism boom.

Michigan's metro spotlight also shined on the Grand Rapids area, 1998's No. 8 metro in total projects and No. 9 (in a tie) in new manufacturing.

1998's Other Leading Lights

California also fared inordinately well among 1998's top metros. In overall projects, the Los Angeles metro ranked No. 4, while the Riverside metro ranked No. 8. In new manufacturing, the Golden State stood out even more, claiming four of 1998's top 10 metros: No. 3 Riverside, No. 5 Los Angeles, No. 6 Orange County and No. 7 San Diego.

But 1998's metro hot spots certainly didn't stop at Michigan and California's state lines.

1998's top 10 in total projects, for example, included the Southeast's two-state expansion stronghold centered around Charlotte, N.C., ranked No. 5, and the Washington, D.C., metro, which leaped to No. 3 after going unranked last year. From the Southwest came Dallas, No. 9 overall, while the Midwest, in addition to Minneapolis-St. Paul's lofty No. 2 rank, had Cleveland at No. 10.

1998's top 10 new manufacturing metros included many of the same expansion stalwarts from the overall top 10. Minneapolis-St. Paul, for example, ranked as 1998's No. 4 new manufacturing metro, while the Cleveland metro finished at No. 8, just ahead of No. 9 Charlotte. SS