Top Five Micropolitan Three Years in a Row
Aerial of downtown Auburn the seat for the DeKalb County. Click image to view the Site Selection Magazine Article.
Article by KPC Staff | KPC Media | March 2, 2023
ATLANTA, GA — For the third year in a row, the City of Auburn, DeKalb County’s county seat, has been ranked as a top 5 micropolitan city in the United States, according to Site Selection magazine.
The ranking results from nine county-wide qualified projects as submitted to the DeKalb County Economic Development Partnership office. DeKalb County also had nine qualifying projects in the 2021 ranking.
Qualifying projects within Auburn included the redevelopment of the former Cooper data building by 11th & Fulton LLC and Phoenix Auburn Industrial Investors’ purchase and remodel of the former Eaton Corp. facility on Brandon Street.
A micropolitan is defined by populations of less than 50,000 as a county/community. Micropolitan areas are ranked according to the number of corporate projects that began in 2022.
“Our excitement continues in seeing DeKalb County and the City of Auburn (collectively) rank as a Top 5 micropolitan in the United States for 2022,” said Anton King, President and CEO of the DeKalb County Economic Development Partnership.”
“This makes three consecutive years of reaching that milestone and it is a testament of the continued increased activity we have seen from the economic development landscape locally. Site Selection Magazine is a premier publication in the site selector and corporate investment world, and continuing to have a presence as a top performer showcases that DeKalb County and northeast Indiana is a premier place to do business. Much credit goes to the local leaders and teams of our municipalities and county in creating an environment where decision makers want to invest,” King said.
Projects that qualify include those with significant impact, including headquarters, manufacturing plants, research and development operations and logistic sites, among others. Site Selection does not track retail, government projects, schools or hospitals.
New facilities and expansions included in the analyses must meet at least one of three criteria:
Involve a capital investment of at least $1 million;
Create at least 20 new jobs, or;
Add at least 20,000 square feet of new floor area.
In Site Selections’ East North Central rankings of total projects, Indiana ranked third behind first-place Illinois and second-place Ohio. Michigan was fourth and Wisconsin was fifth. Ohio and Illinois swapped places from the 2021 rankings.
Based on the number of projects, Auburn tied for fifth with Greenville, Ohio for the number of projects among micropolitans with nine each. Findlay, Ohio topped the list with 32. Thomasville, Georgia was second with 12.
Regionally, Angola tied for ninth place with several other communities, all with seven projects. Richmond, Huntington, Vincennes, Washington, Crawfordsville, Peru and Warsaw made the list with at least three qualifying projects. Decatur and Marion also made the list with two qualifying projects.
