Mid-Sized Urban Markets Compare Well with Mega-Cities
Even before New York politics interfered with the Amazon HQ2 project, it was not the typical economic development project — not even counting the 50,000 jobs associated with it — but the decision of the company to end up in two major urban markets goes against recent corporate site location trends favoring mid-sized urban markets […]
Rural Athens, Ohio Downtown Redevelopment Program Gains Major Boost
The City of Athens made a determination that it wanted to pursue multiple Downtown Redevelopment Districts (DRD) to take advantage of the wealth of historic structures that are in the City and to take advantage of the planned investments that Ohio University would be making in Athens over the next couple decades. In June 2019 […]
Four Steps to Building the PPP for Site Development
A common misperception is that a big bag of tax incentives is the key to communities gaining large scale corporate site location projects. Incentives matter but they are the “icing and not the cake.” Successful corporate site location projects often begin with the development of a site built through a Public-Private-Partnership (PPP). Site development projects […]
The Challenge of the Legacy City
Recent attention focus’ on the challenges of Legacy City’s—communities who have not recovered from the loss of industrial jobs. While former industrial giants like Ohio continue to transform and grow, other than the Columbus and Cincinnati regions, most other regions in the state are not producing the jobs the population needs to succeed. As the […]
Crawford County Ohio Launching Opportunity Zone Fund
The Montrose Group, LLC has been retained to support the launch of a Crawford County, Ohio Opportunity Fund focused on several certified Opportunity Fund sites in Galion and Bucyrus, Ohio. These North Central Ohio communities are primarily rural in nature but have a long history based in manufacturing. Galion has focused its Opportunity Zone efforts […]
Three Strategies to Capitalize on Logistics Boom
Shifts in consumer behavior to more e-commerce, increased industrial production and increased imports are all driving tremendous growth in the U.S. logistics, distribution and fulfillment center industry. Today’s fulfillment center is replacing the job losses in the manufacturing industry as automation driven by technological advances and reduced costs of Artificial Intelligence and robotics. In fact, […]
America’s Logistics Industry Becoming an Economic Powerhouse
Logistics is becoming a growing American economic force. Driven by technological changes creating more efficient supply chain operations and consumer behavior changing the face of retail where goods and services are delivered directly to the purchaser, logistics is a growing industry worthy of attention. From an industry definition standpoint, the logistics industry includes transportation and […]
Rural Regions Facing Difficult Demographic Challenges
Rural regions across the United States have been facing troubling demographic trends impacting the economic performance and quality of life of these areas relevant to corporate site location decisions. Reviewing demographic data is a strong starting point for measuring economic success as part of a corporate site location process. Regions with an increasing population […]
Site Selectors Promote Companies and Communities Economic Success
Site selection consultants serve corporations and communities by supporting potential economic development expansions by companies and providing key insights to communities as to what it takes to retain and attract high-wage jobs. A recent Wall Street Journal story provided some insights into the corporate site location consulting industry that are worthy of further discussion. […]
Tax Policy emerges as the big issue in Ohio’s Budget Debate
With the recent passage of House Bill 166, the Ohio House version of the state operating budget for fiscal years 20’-21’. For the first time in recent memory the operating budget passed the Ohio House with almost unanimous support from both Democrats and Republicans with a vote of 85-9. One of the more significant changes […]