ELLISVILLE - The Pine Belt is a prime spot for development as more businesses move away from coastal areas of the United States, two nationally known speakers said Thursday.

"The heartland of America has the advantage over coastal areas for the first time in 30 to 40 years," Forbes Publisher Rich Karlgaard said during Jones County Junior College's annual Economic and Technology Symposium.

One of the biggest driving factors behind the inland expansion is the rising cost of property in and around the major cities, with real estate prices often more than 10 times higher than inland cities, Karlgaard said.

That, coupled with technological advancements that allow inland businesses to stay atop information, has made Mississippi and other inland states more appealing to businesses, he said.

"This 30-year revolution has seen the gap in housing prices grow incredibly while the sophistication and information gap have gone to almost nothing," Karlgaard said.

Jack Schultz, founder of a Midwestern economic development firm and author of the book "Boomtown USA," said 11 small cities in Mississippi were among a group of 397 nationwide to outperform major metropolitan areas in recent years.

The cities, which he coined "agurbs" and he defines as prospering small towns outside a Metropolitan Statistical Area, are replacing suburbs as the next wave in community development, Schultz said.

"Great things are happening in small towns," he said, citing statistics that indicate the 397 agurbs had 20 percent population growth compared to 10 percent in major cities between 1990 and 2000.

Among those cities, Schultz identified Collins, Picayune and Oxford in Mississippi.

He said Oxford has managed to redefine itself around its town square and provides an example for many Pine Belt communities.

"In all my travels around the country, Oxford, Miss., is one of my favorite small towns to visit," Schultz said. "It has a sense of place, but I saw those same opportunities as I drove through Laurel."

Heidelberg Mayor Juan Barnett said he wished other members of his town of slightly more than 1,000 residents could have heard that message.

"I really like his teeter-totter example," Barnett said, referring to a metaphor Schultz used to illustrate the ups and downs of an area's economy.

"This is always sort of the way I looked at it," he said. "Maybe we aren't up here at the top, but I don't want us to be down at the bottom either.

Karlgaard also stressed the importance of encouraging the entrepreneurial spirit to keep communities vibrant.

"From what I've seen, there's great leadership and community spirit here," the publisher said after the symposium. "And if half the state can survive Hurricane Katrina, it can survive the global economy."

back