Landing a Fortune 500 company
ardon the sports analogies, but football season is upon us, and now is the time to orchestrate a game plan for a key Baltimore economic victory. Compiled by Fortune magazine, the “Fortune 500” is the definitive list of America’s top revenue-generating companies. Baltimore is the nation’s largest city without one; a decisive win would be to land the second headquarters Amazon recently announced it’s looking to open or another a Fortune 500 company on the move.
It won’t be easy. The challenges of Maryland’s largest city are widely known: violent protests surrounding the death of Freddie Gray in 2015, record-high murder rates in subsequent years, a shrinking tax base, urban blight and underperforming public schools, to name a few. To make Baltimore an economic powerhouse, and thus alleviate social ills that arise from a lack of opportunity, we need our leaders to make a bold play.
Gov. Larry Hogan and Mayor Catherine Pugh should publicly commit to working together to land Amazon, thereby putting the city up for consideration by corporate CEOs and site-selection consultants contemplating a move. The playbook already exists to do so.
General Electric announced last year it was moving to Boston from Connecticut in one of the country’s most competitive relocation battles. Massachusetts Gov. Charlie Baker, elected in a blue state like Mr. Hogan, attributed his success in snagging the industrial icon to his collaboration with Boston’s Democratic mayor, Marty Walsh. The governor said GE was impressed at how coordinated the city and state were in finding a new home for the company. It worked in Boston; why not Baltimore?
PThe fundamentals are already there. Mr. Hogan campaigned on a lack of Fortune 500 company headquarters, and his economic development point person is working on bringing one to Baltimore. (The city’s last remaining Fortune 500 company moved to Chicago following the Constellation -Exelon merger in 2012.) Ms. Pugh, for her part, demonstrated a break with antibusiness orthodoxy often associated with big-city mayors by vetoing a minimum wage bill, which received national attention in The Wall Street Journal. Moreover, the governor and mayor are already working together, most importantly by considering ways to reduce city violence.
Confronting Baltimore’s problems is critical if an economic development partnership between the governor and mayor is to be more than a publicity stunt. If the two elected officials can execute a plan stemming crime, that alone will help boost confidence among those who would invest in Baltimore and move their families here. But Mr. Hogan and Ms. Pugh should go further and examine the city’s high taxes — property, individual income and business — and its duplicative regulations. And they should be prepared to offer unconventional economic incentives as an interim step to compete with other jurisdictions.
Meanwhile, Mr. Hogan and Ms. Pugh are getting a big assist from Under Armour CEO Kevin Plank, who wants to make Baltimore "the coolest city in the world." Mr. Plank is investing in expanded facilities in the city as the company’s growth trajectory closes in on Fortune 500 status. Underway is an effort to brand Baltimore as millennial-friendly to recruit employees who might otherwise be attracted to competitor Nike and the Portland, Ore., area. But branding only goes so far. City officials should back policies that create walkable communities and the ability to ride a bicycle around town, and they should champion Baltimore’s new “industrial mixed-use” zoning revision, which has the potential to bring an urban vibe to the city.
Supporting the goal of attracting a large company to Baltimore, we also need a candid assessment of overall economic development efforts. Take corporate satellite facilities such as offices and warehouses as an example. Site Selection magazine compiles lists of new and expanding projects and finds Baltimore is ahead of Richmond, Va., but lagging behind Charlotte, N.C., Washington, D.C., and Philadelphia and Pittsburgh in Pennsylvania — all of which will vie for the Amazon prize.
It’s not clear whether Baltimore was even considered for the Nestle USA headquarters, which moved from California to Arlington County, Va. Governor Terry McAuliffe said his state’s economic development officials spent a year wooing the international company and its 750 jobs. Did anyone try to get the company to Baltimore?
Executed correctly, a state-city push to win a Fortune 500 company need not be a Hail Mary pass. Addressing business climate and quality-of-life issues will lead to incremental progress. Imagine the logo of a great American company atop a Baltimore skyscraper — and an African-American Democrat and a white Republican committed to making that happen. At a time of so much political cynicism and racial and partisan division, such teamwork is inspiring. This is how we win.