COVID-19 Impact: Suburbs & Mid-size Cities are in

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COVID-19 Impact: Suburbs & Mid-size Cities are in

June 15, 2020

Suburban areas and mid-size cities, followed by rural areas, will be the biggest winners of new corporate expansions and relocations, with large urban areas falling to the bottom of the list, according to a Site Selectors Guild survey on the impact of COVID-19.

Conducted the week of June 29, 2020 in partnership with Development Counsellors International (DCI), the online survey of Guild members aimed to uncover changes and new trends in corporate location strategy brought on by the COVID-19 crisis. The COVID-19 impact survey of Guild members was the second of its kind, with the first conducted in April 2020.

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Suburbs and mid-size cities will be the next winners for corporate location projects

Top mid-size cities for new location or expansion projects

61% of Guild members say companies are moving forward with site selection projects

69% say the majority of project activity will resume in 2021

Food and beverage processing emerges as hot industry, biotech and manufacturing activity hold strong

Economic developers should begin shifting focus back to business attraction

When asked about priorities for EDOs – on a scale from 1 (not a priority) to 5 (high priority) – Guild members rated business attraction at 3.6, a strong increase from the rating of 2.9 in April 2020.