LANSING – Michigan is already a top ten state when it comes to “corporate facility expansion activity,” according to Ron Starner, executive vice president of Site Selection magazine.
Michigan ranked ninth in 2018, and it will be in the top ten again for 2019, he’s just not sure where because numbers are still being compiled.
Further, Michigan actually was number one in that category back in the 1990s for five years running, Starner told the Business Leaders for Michigan (BLM) Feb. 3 in the Lansing Center where Site Selection unveiled its Michigan’s Road to Top Ten plan.
Executive leadership from universities and companies gathered with policymakers, economic developers and educators to review data on Michigan’s progress over the past 10 years as well as outline a plan for how to keep the state growing.
They also noted areas where the state is significantly lagging behind others.
“We have a great picture of where Michigan stands today on the national scale: better, but still not best,” said Doug Rothwell, president and CEO of Business Leaders for Michigan. “BLM started collecting and analyzing this data 10 years ago, so we have a solid benchmark to see where we’ve grown and how much better off we are than in 2010.
“And yet, we’ve also identified where huge gaps remain: investing in our infrastructure, boosting K-12 educational performance and growing a working-age population. It’s tough to review some of this data and come to certain realizations: For one, that we’ve been discussing for years how best to improve education and have really failed to move our kids forward.”
