Site-selection expert: Here's why Cincinnati is a great place to do business

Companies seeking to open or relocate industrial and distribution facilities would be remiss if they didn't have Cincinnati on their short list of destinations.

That's according to site-selection expert Brad Migdal, who said Cincinnati's central geographic location and access to major shipping routes and highways give it an advantage many other similar-sized cities don't have.

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Migdal, senior managing director for business incentives practice in the Chicago-area offices of Cushman & Wakefield Co., pointed to the area's already sizzling industrial market, which has a current vacancy rate of just 3.3 percent, according to his research.

"That's a big win for Cincinnati, and for Ohio,'' said Migdal, who attributes much of Cincinnati's economic development success to the efforts of REDI Cincinnati, the region's leading jobs-creating initiative.

Migdal will be among a handful of site-selection experts offering their insights during a daylong conference Tuesday at the Jack Cincinnati Casino, 1000 Broadway St.

While a growing local economy and favorable tax incentives have helped lure new companies and ventures, it took the collaboration, cooperation and regional efforts of REDI and other state and local development entities to get the word out about all that Cincinnati has to offer, Migdal said.

"You're very lucky in Ohio to have that kind of economic development organization, which has done a fantastic job of cultivating regionalism,'' he said. "I live in a state where we don't, and we face economic peril.''

He pointed to Amazon.com Inc.'s recent decision to move its Prime Air cargo hub to the Cincinnati/Northern Kentucky International Airport, creating hundreds of jobs, as a prime example of the fruits of such cooperative efforts.

"Nobody needs to be anywhere, and usually in a site-selection project there are at least three sites that will work at the end of the day,'' Migdal said. "Other factors swing the decision one way or the other.''

Despite their best efforts, economic development agencies in Cincinnati and most other communities still face challenges.

Wage growth, for instance, still isn't keeping pace with inflation, based on the latest jobs report from the U.S. Department of Labor. That has forced many consumers to pull tight on their purse strings

"The thing that drives most growth in any community is people spending money,'' he said.

For that, you need good jobs and employers who pay above-average wages.

Again, Cincinnati has an advantage with six Fortune 500 companies headquartered here, including Procter & Gamble, Kroger, Macy's, Fifth Third, American Financial Group and Western & Southern.

"These companies are staying in Cincinnati, and they're always going to attract young talented people,'' said Migdal, who has represented a number of Fortune 1000 companies in corporate real estate projects.

As a result, more companies are shifting toward Cincinnati's urban core and the surrounding area for improved access to the Millennial  labor pool, which, in turn, has spurred dramatic growth and development in and around Downtown.

"The Downtown area has been tremendously improved in Cincinnati, and the city has done a fantastic job of drawing Millennials to the urban core,'' he said. "Overall, Cincinnati is a great place to do business.''