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Top Mega-Markets the Last 10 Years
By Lee Burlett
We didn't begin ranking mega-markets in a separate
category until 1999. That's when we agreed to align
ourselves with the Southern Economic Development Council,
the premier economic development practitioner society
of the South (when site searching the South, insist
on having an SEDC member assist you). By aligning ourselves
with SEDC, we added three states to our coverage area
so that all SEDC states would be in the loop of Southern
Business & Development reporting. Those states that
we added to our coverage in 1999 were Kansas, Maryland
and Missouri. Today, SB&D covers 17 Southern states,
or, as some of you have informed us, 14 Southern states
and three "border" states.
Prior to adding those three states, the only markets
with populations over 2 million that we reported on
were Dallas/Fort Worth, Houston, Atlanta, Miami/Fort
Lauderdale/Palm Beach and Tampa Bay. When we brought
in Kansas, Maryland and Missouri, we added two more
mega-markets (those over 2 million in population): St.
Louis and Baltimore/D.C./Northern Virginia.
The final market mentioned is why we decided to add
a mega-market category when ranking metros in our annual
SB&D 100. Our reasoning was, it is unfair to compare
deal numbers of a market with 7 million people, which
is the size of Baltimore/D.C./Northern Virginia with,
say, Birmingham, which is right at 1 million persons.
Until we formed a mega-markets division, those markets
competed with majors (750,000-1,999,999) in our annual
ranking of market performance.
As you know, points are earned by markets in our annual
SB&D 100 ranking. Ten points are earned for SB&D
Job and Investment 100 deals and five points for "just
missed deals." Since we only have three years of
data on St. Louis and Baltimore/D.C./Northern Virginia,
we will rank mega-markets on their point averages per
year.
#1 Dallas/Fort Worth: Averaged 181.5 points per
year over the last 10 years
The early and mid-1990s saw this market perform better
than almost every Southern state in turning deals during
that time. That's right. For three straight years 1994-1996,
D/FW outperformed all Southern states in landing big
corporate job deals other than its own. While that fire
has turned to a flicker in comparison the last three
or four years, the point total earned by the Metroplex
in the mid-1990s is too strong not to name it the No.
1 mega-market in the South the last 10 years. It should
be noted that based on points earned, D/FW won "major
market of the year" every year between 1993 and
1997.
# 2 Tampa Bay: Averaged 101 points per year over
the last 10 years
Tampa Bay began its surge in the late 1990s when it
won its first "major market of the year" recognition.
Today, it is the second-most-active big deal market
in the South. In fact, Tampa Bay won mega-market of
the year in 2002, beating out Baltimore/D.C./Northern
Virginia and Miami/Fort Lauderdale. Tampa Bay
# 3 Baltimore/D.C./Northern Virginia: Averaged 94
points per year over last 10 years
As mentioned, point averages for the South's largest
market are skewed considering Baltimore and D.C. were
not part of our coverage area for seven of the 10 years
this ranking is based on. But they aren't skewed much,
if those seven years were anything like last year. In
2001, this mega-market put up 165 points, good enough
for second place in the mega-market division. But of
those 165 points, only 30 came from Baltimore and D.C.
The other 135 points came from Northern Virginia.
# 4 Atlanta: Averaged 81.5 points per years over
the last 10 years
Hot 'Lanta created about 100,000 new jobs in the 1990s.
That's slowed since, but the leading market in the Southeast
is still a major world market. The Atlanta/Hartsfield
International Airport, the world's busiest, has had
a tremendous effect on the growth of Atlanta.
# 5 Houston: Averaged 71 points per year the last
10 years
Houston's had it tough competing each year in the SB&D
100 against its neighbor to the north, D/FW. Houston
has been cited just once in SB&D 100 history, winning
major market of the year in 1998.
# 6 Miami/Fort Lauderdale/Palm Beach: Averaged 69.5
points per year the last 10 years.
Really not much of a player in turning big deals until
this year's SB&D 100 when South Florida had its
best year ever racking up 155 points. But as you can
see, its average is less than half that.
# 7 St. Louis: Averaged 21.7 points per year the
last three years.
We've only been able to find 65 points coming out of
St. Louis the last three years, the only three years
we've covered Missouri's largest market.
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