Texas tops Site Selection’s business expansion ranking for 10th straight year

Texas led the nation in business expansion projects in 2021, earning Site Selection magazine’s top honors for the 10th straight year.

The state’s project count — 1,123 — more than doubled second-place finisher Ohio. The Texas total also was 341 more than its 2020 count of 781 projects.

Under Site Selection’s criteria, projects qualify based on three criteria: investment of $1 million or more, creation of 20 or more new jobs or 20,000 square feet or more of new space.

Among major metro areas, Dallas-Fort Worth ranked second behind only Chicago for the most business expansion projects. Houston and Austin finished third and fourth, respectively. It was the ninth straight year that Chicago led the list.

Trailing Texas and Ohio in the projects race were Illinois with 480, California with 301 and North Carolina with 282.

Site Selection noted Texas’ surge in semiconductor plant investment late last year.

Texas Instruments led the way with a four-fab plan that could ultimately bring $30 billion in investment in Sherman. Not far behind was Samsung’s $17 billion plan for a new plant in Taylor near Austin.

In January, multiple news reports said Micron Technology is also scouting Central Texas for a new chip plant location.

Semiconductor plant investments accounted for the three top spots on Site Selection’s “U.S. Giants” list of costliest projects. Intel Corp.’s $20 billion chip plant in Chandler, Az., joined the two Texas projects at the top.

Other Texas projects ranking in the top 10 were Nacero’s $7 billion industrial gas investment in Penwell and Covestro’s $4.7 billion chemicals expansion in Baytown.

Competition is fierce among states and metro areas to land major projects that create jobs, expand tax bases and add panache to communities’ rosters of locally based companies. While Texas cities triumph in many of those battles, even the Lone Star State doesn’t win them all.

Fort Worth lost out last year to the Atlanta area for Rivian’s $5 billion electric vehicle assembly plant, and Plano-based Toyota North America selected North Carolina for its $1.29 billion electric vehicle battery plant, the automaker’s first in the U.S.

So far this year, Texas cities have scored seven out-of-state corporate relocations, according to a database compiled by economic development group YTexas. Last year, 64 companies moved to Texas from elsewhere around the U.S.

This fall, YTexas will host a summit at AT&T Stadium in Arlington to tout the state’s business environment and allow Texas-based companies to showcase their technologies and products.

“Since the pandemic, more than 100 companies have committed to moving their corporate headquarters to Texas, and it is projected to continue at a record pace,” YTexas founder and CEO Ed Curtis said in a statement.

The organization is expecting more than 3,000 attendees at the Sept. 30 event.