The South's next rising star(s)

[davidzLA]

You can't stop growth and if you don't like it move to New Mexico, Montana, or South Dakota.

...but wouldn't that cause those states to grow also?

I think it's more of a "slam the door behind me" mindset, assuming one moved to a region based on its existing amenities it's distressing to see that 'perfect' scenario evolve. God knows, living in L.A., I'd just as soon 2 million people moved out. But I'm part of the problem as well of course.

[socaguy]

Im going to go way out on a limb and say Brunswick Georgia might be one to watch. I know, youve probably never heard of it or might know it from that obnoxious smell when passing through it on your way to Florida on 95, but I think it might be one of the South's rising stars in the next few decades.

Already a massive development is transforming its Downtown into what will be the second largest skyline outside of metro Atlanta, with about a dozen highrises up to 20 floors including condos and lodging. It seems to be a hot spot right now for Floridians tired of paying high insurance rates but who still want to live to Florida lifestyle. Its weather is warmer than lots of North Florida locations but it is relatively free of hurricanes due to jet stream patterns and its geographic location, (western-most coast on the east). I believe an article in the Wall street journal mentioned that as many as a million people are expected to move to the Georgia coast in the next 2 decades, and since there is only about 100 miles of coast with only 2 main cities (Savannah and Brunswick), id be willing to be half of those or more will settle in the Brunswick area.

[SimCity]

Im going to go way out on a limb and say Brunswick Georgia might be one to watch. I know, youve probably never heard of it or might know it from that obnoxious smell when passing through it on your way to Florida on 95, but I think it might be one of the South's rising stars in the next few decades.

Already a massive development is transforming its Downtown into what will be the second largest skyline outside of metro Atlanta, with about a dozen highrises up to 20 floors including condos and lodging. It seems to be a hot spot right now for Floridians tired of paying high insurance rates but who still want to live to Florida lifestyle. Its weather is warmer than lots of North Florida locations but it is relatively free of hurricanes due to jet stream patterns and its geographic location, (western-most coast on the east). I believe an article in the Wall street journal mentioned that as many as a million people are expected to move to the Georgia coast in the next 2 decades, and since there is only about 100 miles of coast with only 2 main cities (Savannah and Brunswick), id be willing to be half of those or more will settle in the Brunswick area.

I suppose that there is a real possibility of the Brunswick/Golden Isles area becoming a boomtown but I hate the idea that they and their beautiful natural suroundings might be swallowed up by endless sprawl.

[lammius]

I suppose that there is a real possibility of the Brunswick/Golden Isles area becoming a boomtown but I hate the idea that they and their beautiful natural suroundings might be swallowed up by endless sprawl.

No kidding. It's such a beautiful region! I hope it stays that way.

[raleightransplant]

The question whether a place is "rising" or "has risen already" is open to interpretation.

My three would be:

Raleigh

Charlotte

Orlando

All are experiencing tremendous growth right now, but I think even greater influence will be felt by the three metros over the next decade to 20 years.

[c4smok]

Austin, it is really coming into its own here lately..

[Okie]

Hello........ OKC, anyone?

1.2 million people and counting...fixing to overtake a few cities in population. 2,500 new downtown units proposed or under construction doesn't hurt either. Plus there's a handful of major new urbanism centers u/c in each suburb by now it seems ... including one in Edmond that will create 25,000 jobs and another in Norman that will be 2.5 mil square feet of just retail when finished ... making it #4 largest shopping center in America upon completion if that isn't outdone by then. And construction is chugging along on all of these projects...

Also add to the fact that a recent study named OKC as one of the Top 5 "rising stars" in the biotech community. Having OU in the metro and OSU close to the metro can't hurt either, and for the fine arts aficionados, Oklahoma City University is the nation's premier dance and music school, and the University of Central Oklahoma has the nation's best jazz program--the UCO Jazz Lab is truly renowned.

As for the skyline. Well, the skyline is already impeccable for a city of 1.2 mil., and a new scraper hasn't been built in 30 years...and office vacancy is now the lowest its been in 30 years. Nothing over 30 floors will be built until the multi-million-square-foot First National Center, a largely vacant historic high-rise Art Deco landmark, can be filled. It was recently bought and is currently being converted from Class C space to Class A space...and there is practically no Class A space available in downtown. Conversion of historic Art-Deco scrapers in downtown continues to take Class C space off of the chopping block, which is a good thing. Class C space creates the illusion that office space in Downtown OKC is not highly occupied and not in high demand, when in reality there isn't a single piece of very contiguous Class A space in the entire inner city.

In the 1990s nobody would be considering OKC a rising star. Crime was really high, unemployment was high, growth was low...downtown was especially dead. Community leaders got together after AA publicly called Indy a better city, and OKC a city no one would want to live in, and devised a plan. Since the completion of the Metropolitan Area Projects a few years ago almost 80 cities nation-wide have copied the precedence set by OKC in real, positive urban renewal. OKC's Bricktown district is the fastest growing entertainment district in the region and puts counterparts in Dallas and Fort Worth to shame. But Bricktown is not the only downtown district coming alive. A 300-unit residential project was just finished this month in the Arts Quarter, and another 200 units opened up last month in the CBD where the Park Harvey Center just got converted into apartments. Mid-Town, north of the CBD, has been bought almost entirely by the same investor who is already very well-underway in his conversion of the district into OKC's version of SoHo--with street retail and housing in almost every abandoned building that he's bought. Including some new additions that will be made to these buildings.

North of Bricktown is the "Triangle" area which rests between N. Broadway and I-235, made up by the districts of Deep Deuce (the region's premier jazz/blues colony, home of greats like the Count Basie Orchestra, the Blue Devils, Charlie Christian, and renowned African American authors like Ralph Ellison), The Flatiron (district made up of flatiron-shaped buildings because of the triangular street pattern), and Automobile Alley (a district along North Broadway made up of 2-3 story brick buildings that used to be showrooms for car dealers). This is where most of the new residential construction in downtown is, which ranges from dozens of new brownstones being built, to numerous mid-rise loft projects, and even a high-rise hotel. One development, The Triangle, will have 700 units when finished.

The most exciting news is south of the CBD however...where the I-40 Crosstown Land Bridge over downtown is being demolished and replaced by a new focal point avenue and I-40 is being rerouted south of downtown, opening up downtown for southward expansion for the first time in a while. It's estimated that over the next 10 years there will be 4,000 new units announced in this area--which is about half of the estimated residential unit count for the next ten years. This area south of downtown, referred to as DoSo and Riverside, will also feature a new convention center and a new light rail hub that will be a part of the Maps III initiative that is about to be unveiled. A new central park will also be built in the heart of this area to link the Myriad Gardens to the parks along the Oklahoma River.

The new American Indian Cultural Center across the river from downtown will be the premier museum for Indian culture in America. It will feature multiple Smithsonian-affiliated gallery areas, several promontories (from which you should have an impeccable downtown view across the river) and a resort hotel. A 5-star hotel is in the works for Bricktown, but this will be the first museum hotel in the metro.

Also north of downtown is the State Capitol, east of I-235. It's located in the median of the Lincoln Blvd / NW 23rd Street interchange. Along Lincoln Boulevard is a massive building plan being undertaken by the Department of Central Services to relocate state agencies scattered in office buildings around the metro to their own facilities along Lincoln Blvd. So far there are 4 new state buildings proposed for the next year, and the building campaign will aim to build at least 3 new buildings each year for the next 15 years. The design work is being handled by the premier firm for urban architecture in OKC, TAParchitecture (which is investing in many of their own urban projects themselves).

Add to all of this that Dell recently put 5,000 jobs in OKC, Boeing is relocating some of its Wichita ops to OKC, and Will Rogers World Airport has added non-stop air service to more cities than any other mid-major market in the country. Doesn't hurt that OKC unemployment is currently one of the lowest in the country and that Forbes, Expansion Management, and others have been ranking OKC in their Top 20, in some cases the Top 10, for the last five years. And while OKC's growing so fast right now, 1/5 of all of the jobs are government related. There are more State of OK jobs alone in OKC than Topeka, KS has entire workforce, and Jefferson City, MO has in entire population. Add OU, UCO, schools, municipal govt, the FAA, and the Air Force's main maintenance center, Tinker Field which employs around 30,000 alone. With 1/5 of OKC's workforce being govt jobs that means a very high degree of stability--something that hasn't always been a guarantee for OKC (with the cyclical boom or bust nature of the energy industry).

By the way...OKC is getting out of the oil industry. There isn't a single Fortune 500 company in OKC that specializes in just oil. Chesapeake and Devon are among the nation's largest drillers for natural gas and other energy resources, BOk Financial is one of the nation's larger financial conglomerates, maybe you all have heard of Hobby Lobby and Sonic...and the list goes on. OKC is even home to the nation's largest Latino-owned business. Being one of the main areas for biotech growth and being a national center for aviation and government bureaucracy related to aviation has been a great way to grow our economy and diversify beyond the oil industry. Not that oil wasn't good to us...but it's time to move on.

Oh by the way. Maybe you've heard...we're getting an NBA team, and the NHL and MLB have also expressed interest in having a team in OKC.

In case you've never seen the OKC skyline, this is what she looks like:

And here's a little love to Tulseetown:

Edited May 25, 2007 by Okie

[Alabadrock]

I'll second that. But, I really consider OKC to be more in the Midwest.

My picks are definitely:

Birmingham - UAB, Regions, biotech industry growth, great school systems in the area, regional interstate hub.

Nashville - Vandy, population growth, and much more.

Charlotte - too much to count.

Huntsville - fastest growing region in Alabama, but, I think I'm gonna pair Decatur with it, Verizon's call center, ULA (in Decatur), hi-tech hi-tech hi-tech, of course the 2nd largest research park in the country, 4th in the world.

I'm surprised no one's mentioned Montgomery, they've made a lot of headway with their downtown area, wow is all I have to say.

Charleston is also a big possibility.

I'm iffy on Mobile, though Thyssen Krupp helps a lot, especially when it's gonna give the Black Belt a lot of jobs to grow on.

[vdogg]

I'll second that. But, I really consider OKC to be more in the Midwest.

I agree, I don't really consider Oklahoma to be in the south at all.

[CorgiMatt]

Columbia, the Capital of Easy Living, and the largest ongoing dowtown urban infill development project in the US.

[Okie]

As an Okie its hard to consider myself a Midwesterner...

Especially when you consider Oklahoma's three main ethnic groups: Indian, Hispanic, and Black. OKC's blues history is more on par with Memphis than Wichita (and the jazz/blues and bbq thing is one thing that makes places like St. Louis and KC somewhat southern). The inner city school district in OKC is divided 30/30/40 (40 being Hispanic).

The whole idea I think is that OKC doesn't really know where it goes, and the rest of the nation, or at least the US Government, puts it and Texas with the south because having the differently-shaded space between Texas and Arkansas is a little jagged on the eye.

Oklahoma is definitely mostly Southern, and then the next likeliest region is the Midwest, then the Great Plains (which OKC is not really "on"), then the Southwest, then just the West.

But for the sake of this forum I guess we're Southern. So bear with us, please...

[Alabadrock]

As an Okie its hard to consider myself a Midwesterner...

Especially when you consider Oklahoma's three main ethnic groups: Indian, Hispanic, and Black. OKC's blues history is more on par with Memphis than Wichita (and the jazz/blues and bbq thing is one thing that makes places like St. Louis and KC somewhat southern). The inner city school district in OKC is divided 30/30/40 (40 being Hispanic).

The whole idea I think is that OKC doesn't really know where it goes, and the rest of the nation, or at least the US Government, puts it and Texas with the south because having the differently-shaded space between Texas and Arkansas is a little jagged on the eye.

Oklahoma is definitely mostly Southern, and then the next likeliest region is the Midwest, then the Great Plains (which OKC is not really "on"), then the Southwest, then just the West.

But for the sake of this forum I guess we're Southern. So bear with us, please...

This is the way I've always looked at it. There's a difference between a midwestern southerner, and a southeaterner. The Mississippi River being the basic dividing line. Hard to explain really, just different cultures as I see it.

[Gavdog28]

Ok, a couple of things. Places like Raleigh, Orlando, Austin, etc., they're already stars in and of themselves. I believe that the next rising stars are the cities that are currently most poised for growth and expansion. Little Rock/ Norht Little Rock is one of those places. Central Arkansas is steadily growing, and Little Rock has a very diversified ecconomy, not realying on just a couple of big companies, though Alltel, Dillard's, Acxiom, and Stephen's Inc. are all big money companies headquartered in Little Rock, and they do employ a lot of people, but Little Rock also employs a lot of political jobs, and is world-reknown for its medical centers. There are a lot of banks here as well, in fact, most every downtown LR skyscraper carries the name of a bank. A lot of development is occuring on both sides of the river, the Rivermarket, a new trolley system, brand new $40 million ballpark, Clinton Presidential Library, USS Razorback Submarine and inland maritime museum, riverfront park, and lots of condo and apartment complexes. It's really quite exciting to live in a city with so much potential. If you've never visited, I would strongly encourage you to come give us a try.

[Okie]

Just one thing. Little Rock is not world-renowned for its medical centers, no more than OKC, Tulsa, Nashville, or Shreveport. Memphis gets a free ride if someone from there chose to make that claim because of St. Jude's, and only because of St. Jude's.

The only city in the south that is "world-renowned" for medical centers is Houston. Quite possibly the nation's most advanced city, speaking of medical centers alone.

Edited June 17, 2007 by Okie

[teshadoh]

^ I thought Durham NC was "world-renowned" for being a medical center, due to Duke University. Otherwise, I admit I had never heard of Houston being well known for it's hospitals.

[Okie]

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Texas_Medical_Center

Let me help you. This one cluster of hospitals in Houston has more annual patients than there are residents in all of the Houston MSA. And I am sure you have heard of some of the more prominent hospitals in the district, like M.D. Anderson. It's also the largest medical district in the World. These are all hospitals:

Durham's medical prominence comes from the Research Triangle Park which is a major centre of health-related biotechnology. And the major economic asset that put the Golden Triangle on the map. But if I had a serious ailment, I would not go to Durham, I would go to Houston. And certainly not Little Rock. Let's just put this all in perspective for a minute. That is all.

Edited June 18, 2007 by Okie

[Sammy00]

Little Rock is certainly not world renowned in the medical field to the scale of Houston, however, it is very well known by many throughout the nation, and you're a little off by saying you would "certainly not consider Little Rock."

If you recall, there was a mini-series ABC ran nationally about 2 years ago following Little Rock Children's Hospital doctors. It is one of the largest pediatric centers in the nation and was voted as one of the Top 10 in America. It's probably most famous for its burn center.

UAMS is well received as well. This hospital alone has a $5 billion impact on the Arkansas economy. It is immense and is undergoing another huge expansion right now.

So, while not world renowned like Houston, you could get by with saying nationally renowned.

The potential is there.

Edited June 18, 2007 by Sammy00

[gannman]

Your opinion about Houston("world renowned") is just that, an opinion. I personally did not know Houston was known for its healthcare, but I do know that Little Rock has wonderful hospitals. Another thing I do know is that there are other cities in the south that rival Houston if not surpass it in Healthcare, which is my opinion.

Edited June 18, 2007 by gannman

[Justiceham]

Your opinion about Houston("world renowned") is just that, an opinion. I personally did not know Houston was known for its healthcare, but I do know that Little Rock has wonderful hospitals. Another thing I do know is that there are other cities in the south that rival Houston if not surpass it in Healthcare, which is my opinion.

Nashville

[Mr Downtown]

Your opinion about Houston("world renowned") is just that, an opinion. I personally did not know Houston was known for its healthcare, but I do know that Little Rock has wonderful hospitals. Another thing I do know is that there are other cities in the south that rival Houston if not surpass it in Healthcare, which is my opinion.

While I dont have a dog in this fight, I do know, and have known for many many years, that Houston is known for both the number, size, and quality in the health care field. I assumed that most people knew about the Texas Medical Center area. Didnt know that Little Rock was known for anything in terms of health care or hospitals, but hey...guess I learn something new every day.

[Pillsbury]

Memphis, Durham, and Augusta are known for their hospitals. Houston is on another level though just due to the sheer size of its hospitals.

[Mr Downtown]

Memphis, Durham, and Augusta are known for their hospitals. Houston is on another level though just due to the sheer size of its hospitals.

Augusta?

[krazeeboi]

^Yes, because the Medical College of Georgia is there. I also believe Augusta's burn center is one of the nation's best.

[Fear of Heights]

If income growth and a strong diversity in the local economy counts for anything, you have to throw Bham in there. Interesting to note that Birmingham has a higher per capita income than Atlanta. Same goes for Nashville which leads both cities. I believe Huntsville is very close to supassing Atlanta in this area as well.

www.bizjournals.com/specials/pages/92.html

[CapeFearRiver10]

Fayetteville is the next rising star with all the population boom & with all the development along the Cape Fear River. Downtown just open the MEGA SKATE PLAZA which is the 1st & largest indoor skate park on the EastCoast. Also Docks on the Captial will open this fall 07. Soon Fayettevile will be start clearing land for the relocations of Defence Security Companies which NC government will the RTP of security. 2007-2030 Fayetteville looks like going to be very exciting. When Raleigh-Fayetteville-Wilmington Amtrak train gets going the rest of NC will know who the next rising star. I thats all were missing now is a descent theme park.