Number 7 on America's Best Cities for Business in 2011 (Norfolk, Richmond: real estate, employment)

[NowInCT]

America's Best Cities for Business in 2011

Nation's capital rises to top of annual ranking

By Russ Britt, MarketWatch
Dec 20, 2010

from Yahoo.com


America's Best Cities for Business in 2011 - Yahoo! Real Estate

7. Richmond, Va. - 957 points: Richmond continues to reap the rewards of being in fairly close proximity to this year's top finisher, Washington, D.C. After a one-year hiatus from the top 10 last year, Richmond came back to claim a spot once again.
Richmond boasts the best of both worlds; it's about an hour and a half to metro Washington by car, yet it's a lower-cost, relatively smaller city. When times are hard, it doesn't necessarily feel the pain as much.
Richmond scored well, particularly in its concentration of S&P 500 companies. But it ranks low in tourism and personal income. While it has a large number of companies for its size, it didn't have a particularly strong showing in creating jobs over the last year, or the last four years. Still, it's unemployment rate over the last four years remained relatively low.
"We didn't have as much of a recovery, but we didn't have as much of a loss," said Kim Scheeler, chief executive of the Richmond Chamber of Commerce.

[ric75]

Originally Posted by NowInCT

But it ranks low in tourism and personal income.

Which is something we have room to improve upon greatly. There's no good excuse for our lack of self-promotion. Tourism would significantly increase personal income by getting employment for the people currently on the public dole.

[Tej147]

(referring to line "yet it's a lower-cost, relatively smaller city."
-----Hey? We're not THAT small and cheap, are we?

[confusedprotoplasm]

Completely agree with ric75. DCs proximity is helpful but shouldn't be the deciding factor as no one would be interested in investing locally rather than going to DC for tourism/fun things to do. As an example RIC airport passenger numbers are decreasing which is worrisome (from wikipedia: A record 3.63 million passengers used Richmond International Airport in 2007. In 2008 Richmond International's total enplaned passengers totaled 1,733,668, a decrease from 2007. In 2009 RIC's total enthronements was 1,649,248). Not sure if they are including enplaned and deplaned passengers or just the former. Compare it to Bradley International Airport (CT) which is growing exponentially. Even Tucson Airport (Pima) has way more volume.

[richmondpics]

The slight decrease coincides with the recession. With 4 other airports in close proximity (Newport News, Norfolk, Reagan National, and Dulles), Richmond's pool of passengers is smaller compared to other markets with less competition. As the economy improves, traffic should continue to bounce bank.

RIC traffic up for 4th consecutive month | Richmond Times-Dispatch (http://www2.timesdispatch.com/business/2010/dec/14/ric-traffic-4th-consecutive-month-ar-714961/ - broken link)

And with Southwest's impending merger with AirTran, hopefully Richmond gets additional destinations. Holding onto the discount carriers is huge for RIC's success.