Since much of its staff work remotely or at one of its regional sites across the country, the fictional Snappy App Studio, a mobile game developer, wants to move its headquarters out of their expensive, too-large space in Manhattan. It doesn’t want to move too far, though, and its founders love to ski, so it’s considering upstate New York for its new HQ.
The company wants its HQ to be relatively close to universities and their supply of high-skilled talent and is prioritizing up-and-coming cities with high-quality amenities (like ski resorts) that are experiencing population growth. For these reasons and more, the company is looking closely at Buffalo, Syracuse and Ithaca, New York. While the BRT can’t tell you how many ski resorts are in a region, it can give you information on population growth, which hints whether the area has amenities that draw people to the region; earnings, an indicator of a region’s standard of living; and which industries have the highest employment. So, as part of their site selection process, the company enlists the help of the BRT (in addition to skicentral.com, naturally) to decide on a city.
The 50-mile radius report for Buffalo shows there are five counties within the radius, for a total labor force of 657K. The region has grown over the past 10 years, but upon further inspection, the site selector sees that Buffalo (i.e., Erie County) is driving all of that with a 3.3% growth rate, while all other counties have experienced declines. Perhaps this will inspire the site selector to do some more research into Buffalo and what kind of amenities may be contributing to growth.
Ithaca’s labor force and average earnings per job are slightly higher than Buffalo, and it has the advantage of being closer to world-class universities like Cornell and Syracuse. However, the 50-mile radius has experienced population decline of 2% over the last 10 years, although Tompkins County, where Ithaca is located, has experienced growth of nearly 2% over that same period. The BRT can also help users discover other places that may have flown under the radar; perhaps the site selector sees that Ontario County, NY is the fastest-growing county in this region and decides to do some research on it. If they do, they will discover a ski resort just a stone’s throw from Canandaigua, the county seat, which is a big plus!
The company’s third option is Syracuse, which has a good amount of overlap with Ithaca. The labor force, earnings and region’s 1.8% population decline are comparable with Ithaca’s 50-mile radius. The region has the lowest unemployment rate among the three options, and Onondaga County, home of Syracuse, has had a static population over the past decade.
While each city has its merits, relying merely on the BRT may suggest Buffalo as the best option for the company. It’s experienced significant population growth over the last decade and is the second-largest metro area in the state. There is a large labor force to draw from, though they may not have the education and skills like the college towns of Ithaca and Syracuse do. In sum, site selection comes down to the unique needs and priorities of the company. The age of remote work, however, has thrown a wrench in the process, particularly for knowledge-intensive industries where workers sit in front of a computer most of the day. Which city would you choose?