Consultants Recognize States’ Pro-Business Environments in Area Development Magazine’s 11th Annual “Top States for Doing Business” Survey — Georgia Ranks #1

WESTBURY, N.Y.--(BUSINESS WIRE)--Area Development, the leading site selection and facility planning publication, announces the results of its 2020 Top States for Doing Business survey of leading location consultants. According to the results, the Top 10 States for Doing Business are Georgia, Tennessee, South Carolina, Texas, North Carolina, Alabama, Indiana, Virginia, Ohio, and Florida, in that order.

Area Development asked a select group of consultants who work with a nationwide client base to name their top state choices in 13 categories that impact companies’ location and facility plans. The states were ranked based on their number of mentions in each category, and total mentions were calculated to rank the top 20 states overall.

“Area Development polls selected site consultants who are responsible for their clients’ decisions that result in new location or expansion for hundreds of projects each year, billions of dollars in capex, and millions of square feet in new construction, but most importantly creating thousands of new U.S. jobs,” said Publisher & President Dennis J. Shea.

For the seventh year in a row, Georgia ranked first among the states by ranking #1 in 10 categories, including overall cost of doing business, business incentive programs, competitive labor environment, workforce training programs, energy availability and costs (tied with Tennessee), logistics and infrastructure, available real estate, cooperative and responsive state government, favorable regulatory environment, and speed of permitting.

Tennessee, which ranks #2 overall, ranked first for its site-readiness programs; California and New York are tied for the #1 spot for access to capital and project funding; and Florida ranks #1 for corporate tax structure.

A full review of this year’s Top States for Doing Business, along with commentary on the results by leading consultants to industry, is presented in the Q3 issue of Area Development magazine and posted online at http://www.areadevelopment.com/topStates.

Area Development is published quarterly and also maintains several highly visited websites, which can be reached at www.areadevelopment.com. It also has produced more than 50 Best Practices Consultants Forums for economic developers since 2006.