What Attracts Occupiers to Cities?

By David Smith

What makes a city attractive to occupiers? Markets across the country grapple with this question in an attempt to be the destination of choice for new companies and organizations looking to expand to a new office location.

Just as employees are benefiting from a tight job market, companies currently have leverage in many places as they search for new office locations. Businesses are being shrewd about which cities they choose and where they locate their offices within the market. Key components in location decisions include the city’s economic growth trajectory, critical demographics, costs, and infrastructure.

Cities vary across these factors, so companies need to find the new office location that makes sense for their business strategy and future growth plans. Take New York and Minneapolis, for example. Two very different cities that offer unique benefits to corporate residents. As the largest American city, New York offers an enormous economy (over $1.1 billion); an extremely flexible transportation infrastructure; and a large pool of young, educated employees. However, it also has extremely high costs of doing business, costs of living, and real estate costs.