Texas leads in new corporate projects for 11th year
Texas in 2022 topped the rest of the country for new corporate facilities — the 11th year in a row the Lone Star State had headed the annual list.
Site Selection magazine sponsors the yearly ranking of U.S. states with the most new and expanded corporate facilities.
With 1,028 projects, Texas had more new corporate projects than the next two states in the ranking — Illinois and Ohio — combined, according to the Atlanta-based magazine’s Governor’s Cups listing.
Texas’ 2022 projects total was down slightly from 1,123 in 2021, but not enough to knock the state off its top perch.
“Texas truly is America’s economic engine, and we stand apart as a model for the nation,” Gov. Greg Abbott said in response to the annual award. “When choosing where to relocate or expand their businesses, more and more innovative industry leaders find themselves at home in our state.”
Some of the largest projects that helped Texas keep its first place spot in 2022 were an $8.5 billion chemical plant in Orange, an $8.5 billion liquified natural gas plant in Corpus Christi and the $5 billion Globalwafers chip plant in Sherman.
Wells Fargo’s new regional office campus in Las Colinas — which Site Selection valued at $200 million — also made the list.
“The Lone Star State’s economy is larger than that of Canada, South Korea and Australia,” Site Selection said in its March issue.
Looking at metro areas, Chicago was ranked the top city market with 448 projects in 2022. Dallas-Fort Worth was a close second with 426 new corporate facilities, followed by Houston with 255 projects.
Austin and Dallas-Fort Worth were the top metro markets on a per capita basis.
Kansas was the leading state per capital for new corporate deals.
To make Site Selection’s annual list, projects must have a capital investment of at least $1 million, create at least 20 new jobs or total at least 20,000 square feet. The listing does not include government, retail, education and hospital projects.