President’s report: Riverline Development, Skilled Labor & Quality of Life Make Sioux Falls Ideal for New Corporate Model
- March 19, 2024
By: Bob Mundt, President/CEO
According to the results of Area Development’s 38th annual Corporate Survey, the availability of skilled labor is still the number-one priority for corporate executives when looking to locate a new facility or expand an existing one. What has, however, increased dramatically in importance over the 38-year course of the survey is quality of life. This may be responsible for many companies choosing smaller cities with a good quality of life for their next location project rather than larger metro areas.
In fact, quality of life considerations, which are so important in attracting skilled labor, rank higher in this year’s Corporate Survey when compared to universally important factors such as labor costs and occupancy and construction costs. The focus on quality of life is likely to continue as companies reimagine their workplaces and seek to cater to a much more mobile workforce. Quality of life and “quality of place” are seen as an indicator of whether a new location will be a match for a company’s existing corporate culture and values.
The proposed Riverline District and the development of a new “City Center” anchoring downtown at that location combined with the proposal to transition the existing convention center into an indoor recreation space for children and families is truly visionary. This forward-thinking plan for the future addresses multiple factors in building that quality of life that is so important to corporate expansions and locations as well as helping to recruit more talent and skilled labor to our region.
The Sioux Falls region is ideally positioned to take advantage of these new trends as our communities do an excellent job of building quality of place while controlling other costs of development. With the creation of Foundation Park and the ability to live in the community of your choice, we are finding these new selling points to be in our favor. Keep up the great work everyone.