New Business Ranking Paints Bleak Picture About Building Facilities in RI
Friday, March 03, 2023
Site Selection magazine ranks Rhode Island as one of the worst places in which corporations build new facilities.
Overall, Rhode Island was the site for just six new projects in 2022 — in comparison, Massachusetts was the site of 155 new projects.
And, Massachusetts was far behind other northeastern states. Pennsylvania had 230 respective projects, and New York, 309.
GET THE LATEST BREAKING NEWS HERE -- SIGN UP FOR GOLOCAL FREE DAILY EBLASTRhode Island produced a third of the projects of Maine, which had 18.
Site Selection magazine describes itself as the leading publication covering global corporate real estate strategy and economic development. The magazine highlights many of the national successes including recent successes in Kansas.
"On February 2nd, the 2023 recipient of the APEX incentives package was named. Kansas-based Integra Technologies announced plans to invest $1.8 billion in a large-scale semiconductor facility in Wichita, the second-largest private investment in Kansas history after Panasonic Energy. Employee-owned Integra is a fully integrated provider of semiconductor packaging, testing, qualification and other services. The 1 million-square-foot plant and headquarters facility will create nearly 2,000 high-paying jobs averaging $51,000 in wages. A Wichita State University, economic impact study, estimates an additional 3,161 jobs will be generated by suppliers, construction labor and other service positions," reports the magazine.
Much of the economic strategy in the past year under the McKee administration has been focused on supporting the proposed minor league soccer stadium in Pawtucket and the rehab of the Superman building into apartments.
McKee's office did not respond to questions about the Site Selection report.
Rhode Island Is Consistently Ranked Among the Worst in the U.S. for Business
The poor ranking is another blow to Rhode Island’s reputation to do business.
Just last month Rhode Island’s roads were ranked last in the country.
This past summer, in CNBC’s 2022 rankings for “Top States for Business” Rhode Island was #45.
Rhode Island received grades of "D+" for workforce -- and an "F" for infrastructure.
With around 20% of new businesses failing within one year and inflation making entrepreneurship even more difficult, WalletHub released its report on "2023’s Best & Worst States to Start a Business" in January.
Utah, Florida, and Texas rank as the best states.
While Rhode Island ranks 46th, Massachusetts ranks 19th.
