The Business Facilities 2024 Metro Rankings include more than 30 categories focused on factors important to corporate relocation and expansion decisions. Now in its 20th year, these rankings are designed to provide quick insight for site selection projects across North America and beyond. The rankings look at recent activity and performance, as well as considering future opportunities emerging in these states and provinces.
In Business Facilities’ 20th Annual Rankings Report, metro areas and cities of all sizes are recognized for attracting and retaining businesses. From Best Business Climate to Fastest Growing Cities and from Tech Talent Leaders to Food Processing, the rankings showcase the variety of location choices for site selection projects across all types of business.
Cities are the economic engines behind the growth of states and regions. As part of the Annual Rankings Report, Business Facilities recognizes the activity and accomplishments occurring at the local level with the Metro Rankings each year.
Industrial Parks
This year’s Business Facilities’ Industrial Parks ranking focused on size in terms of acreage, then honed in on locations that excel in strategic location, transportation and infrastructure, and amenities. Ranging from 100,000+ acres to close to 2,000, the top ranked parks this year showcase the breadth of options for companies of all sizes. As decision-makers seek leading logistics, flexible space, and amenities there are a growing number of properties with a variety of choices for companies.
Taking the No. 2 spot is AllianceTexas, in Fort Worth, TX. The 27,000-acre AllianceTexas site serves as a world-class intermodal logistics hub, transporting goods by rail, air, and major highways like I-35W from Mexico to Canada. The master-planned mixed-use community is currently home to 574 companies. Within AllianceTexas, the Perot Field Fort Worth Alliance Airport is ranked as #19 in the U.S. for cargo operations, moving 2.5 billion pounds of cargo during 2023. The airport also serves as a regional air hub for Amazon, FedEx, and UPS Ground.
When it comes to rail, the AllianceTexas corridor contains two Class I rail lines through Fort Worth-based BNSF and Union Pacific, with BNSF Railway’s intermodal facility performing over one million lifts per year.
Finally, the AllianceTexas corridor in Fort Worth is home to the Mobility Innovation Zone (MIZ), which offers an ecosystem to support the advancement of logistics and mobility technologies. Companies have access to complex airspace to test and commercialize their supply chain solutions, which has made the MIZ an effective site for drone delivery testing by Wing, as well as robotic trucking by middle-mile leader Gatik, and unmanned robotic couriers by Clevon.