L.A. Ranks 4th as Favorite Business Site

Ask the head of a firm doing more than, say, $100 million a year in sales to rank a dozen specified major cities in terms of their attractiveness as a business or industrial site. First in terms of seven of nine criteria will be, according to a recent survey, Atlanta.

Los Angeles ranked fourth overall, after Boston and San Francisco but ahead of Seattle, Chicago, Washington, New York, Dallas, St. Louis, Miami and Houston.

Adding in all the factors that the executives considered important in choosing a site, Atlanta received ratings of “excellent” and “very good” from 67% of the 400 chief executives surveyed by Louis Harris & Associates for the New York-based real estate firm of Cushman & Wakefield. Boston ranked second with 54% and San Francisco third with 52%, followed by Los Angeles (47%) and Seattle and Chicago tied at 46%.

“Atlanta, which I’d been thinking of in my own mind as the faded belle of the once-glorious Sun Belt, wins hands down as the choice location among cities as a business location,” Harris said.

Nonetheless, when the same top executives were asked where, of all cities in the United States, they intended to add office space within the next 12 months, New York finished first with 12% of all mentions, followed by Los Angeles (9%), Chicago (7%), Philadelphia (6%), and Hartford, Conn., Tampa-St. Petersburg, Fla., and Atlanta (all 5%).

In terms of industrial expansion, Los Angeles was the most frequently mentioned city (17%), followed distantly by Atlanta (7%), New York (6%) and Dallas (5%).

What the survey indicated is that a newcomer--assessing such factors as proximity to markets and customers, availability and cost of labor, the quality of life and availability of existing facilities--would find Atlanta highly attractive.

In rating the importance of these factors in choosing a site, the executives said the quality of life for their employees--in terms of housing, transportation and recreation and housing--ranked last.