From Site Selection magazine, March 2004
TOP SMALL TOWNS
The Road to Boomtown
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Traverse City
repeats as No.1 small town
for new and expanded facilities.
by RON STARNER
The road to boomtown travels up through the heartland
of America and arrives at a place called Traverse City,
Mich.
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| Ranked for the second year in a row by Site Selection
as the No. 1 small town in America for new and expanded
corporate facilities, Traverse City exemplifies a community
that thinks and acts much larger than its size would
suggest. |
Tucked into Grand Traverse
County (population 79,753) on the banks of Lake Michigan's
Grand Traverse Bay, Traverse City follows a formula
for success that's now being copied in dozens of small,
rural towns throughout the U.S.
While small towns throughout America continue to lose
manufacturing jobs to low-cost, overseas locations,
Traverse City generates new employment because it maintains
one ingredient not found in most rural places: a climate
that fosters entrepreneurs. Civic leaders in most communities
fear that change will hurt their towns; the leadership
of Traverse City, conversely, embraces change.
The biggest change of all occurred for Traverse City
when a local industrialist invented a process known
as numerically controlled machining. That landmark
invention didn't kill the area's food-processing and
agricultural industries; it enhanced them. |
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That's why Traverse
City is often called "the
birthplace of the second industrial revolution."
Today, entrepreneurs in all facets of manufacturing – wood
products, pharmaceuticals, communications equipment,
surgical and optical equipment, metal products, scientific
instrumentation, plastics and composite products, transportation
equipment, electronics, abrasives, fasteners, aircraft
and aerospace equipment – gravitate to Traverse
City for its work force, quality of life and pro-business
climate.
From 2001 through 2003, Traverse City produced more
new and expanded industrial plants, 34, than any other
small town. The community produced 12 of these plants
in 2003, from Britten Media's $2.7-million, 45,000-sq.-ft.
(4,180-sq.-m.) expansion of its custom banner manufacturing
plant to Laitner Brush's $2-million, 40,000-sq.-ft.
(3,716-sq.-m.) new plant for making brushes.
Other new plants in 2003 included Trantek's 22,000-sq.-ft.
(2,044-sq.-m.) facility for automation systems manufacturing
and D&W Mechanical's 20,000-sq.-ft. (1,858-sq.-m.)
plant for mechanical contracting. |
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While manufacturing employment
declines nationwide, jobs in this sector are increasing
in the Traverse Bay region by substantial numbers.
One study shows that area counties rank among the top
10 in Michigan in manufacturing growth. Growth in manufacturing
of micro-electronic cooling devices, electro-mechanical
assemblies and precision tooling has earned the region
the moniker of Michigan's Technology Coast.
How does Traverse City do it? A new book on the subject
of small-town growth offers an answer.
In Boomtown USA: The Seven-and-a-Half Keys to Big
Success in Small Towns, author Jack Schultz cites
the fundamental factors that separate Traverse City
from the pack:
• Civic leaders adopt a can-do attitude that promotes
change.
• Political leaders adopt and clearly articulate
a vision for growth.
• Infrastructure resources of the community are
leveraged to encourage new and expanding industries.
• Strong leaders are grown from within.
• Leadership encourages an entrepreneurial approach
to growth and development.
• Planners retain local control over industrial
growth policies.
• Marketers build and leverage the community's
brand identity. |
"The time has never been riper
for small communities to prosper," says Schultz,
who wrote the book for the National Association of
Industrial and Office Properties. "Operating
costs for businesses and corporations are lower in
small-town settings. Small communities typify the
rural work ethic and provide a ready and willing
labor force. The charms of living in a vibrant small
town are legendary and real – many
people move to small towns for quality-of-life issues,
including better education, more affordable housing,
less crime, a better environment and a shortened
commute to work."
Schultz warns, however, that prosperity in a small
town "doesn't happen on its own. It happens through
solid and visionary leadership, having a 'can do' attitude
and exhibiting a willingness to take risks. It happens
through knowing what your town's strengths and resources
are and how to leverage those strengths and resources.
It happens through building a brand for your town – a
concept that often prompts quizzical looks, yet one
that successful small towns have embraced."
Most towns don't embrace such thinking, and that's
the problem, says Schultz. From 1990 to 2000, more
than half of the 15,800 small towns in America lost
population. Small towns also lag behind metro areas
in average employment change (14.7 percent for MSAs,
13.1 percent for non-MSAs) and average per-capita income
change (50 percent for MSAs, 48.3 percent for non-MSAs).
"These figures do not paint a pretty picture for
small-town America," writes Schultz.
Yet somehow, nearly 400 of these small towns found
a way to defeat the odds and prosper in the 1990s.
These are Schultz's "boomtowns."
The best one for two years running, according to Site
Selection, is Traverse City. |
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