Strong Local Economy : Buzz

Whether it's through Twitter, Facebook or LinkedIn, Minneapolitans know how to build a buzz.

Minneapolis is the country's fourth most socially-networked city, according to a recent study from Men's Health magazine, which ranked 100 metropolises. At the top of the list is Washington, D.C., followed by Atlanta and Denver. Seattle follows fourth-place Minneapolis. At the bottom: El Paso, Texas.

Men's Health studied the number of Facebook and LinkedIn users per capita, plus overall Twitter usage, it states. What kind of traffic came from various social media sites also factored into the results, as did an estimate of chat room conversationalists and blog readership.  

With information from the recruiting firm, Ajilon Professional Staffing, Forbes lists Minneapolis as the best U.S. city for job-seekers. Austin, Texas, comes next.

Jodi Chavez, senior vice president of Ajilon, says in the story that Minneapolis has the lowest unemployment rate of all the cities that were studied.

It has to do with its large companies in financial services, health care, retail and manufacturing.

To get the results, Ajilon also studied the diversity of industries, cost of living, company size and education levels, the piece states.

For example, several large medical device manufacturers in the metro area continued adding jobs even amid the economic downturn. Additionally, the city now has a "demand for highly specialized positions like specialty tax, IT audit or compliance-related jobs that were not available during the recession," she says in the story.

High quality of life is also a factor. The market is "in somewhat of a sweet spot of offering jobs with relatively high pay while having a low cost of living."

Source: Forbes  

Despite a 31 percent increase in job openings in the state from the end of 2009 to the end of 2010--and nearly six jobless people for every opening--Minnesota companies are still finding it hard to hire skilled employees, writes Julie Forster in a March 5 article in the St. Paul Pioneer Press.

Forster gives examples from the medical device, information technology, and tax law industries, and she cites a survey of manufacturing executives conducted recently by Enterprise Minnesota. Of the executives interviewed, 45 percent said it is difficult to attract qualified workers and half expected wages to increase.

The Twin Cities will play Denver in some scenes of a movie called 360, which stars Anthony Hopkins, Jude Law, and Rachel Weisz, a Star Tribune story notes.

"Minnesota's snowy reputation didn't let down the movie's makers," the writer states.

The story quotes Anne Healy, who helped find the movie's locations, and who says the Twin Cities area was chosen for scenes in 360 because the movie's makers wanted "a major airport under blizzard conditions."

With the help of the Internet Movie Database, it describes 360 as "a look at what happens when partners from different social backgrounds engage in physical relationships."

Source: Star Tribune

It's a little-known fact that Minneapolis-based Game Informer is the country's fifth-largest consumer magazine, according to a story from Minnpost's David Brauer.   

With 5 million subscribers, including many male readers in the 18-to-34-year-old age demographic, in some ways its reach surpasses People and Maxim, the story states.  

Game Informer, which is available at checkout counters at GameStop retail stores nationwide, grew by 33 percent in a period when so many other magazines declined.

The magazine's writers often preview games well before they're out, which associate publisher Rob Borem says is a huge advantage. "Our primary asset is still pulling down world exclusives," he states in the story.

"Sitting on a coffee table, desk, or kitchen counter, print is an evergreen," he says, adding, "We want to reflect that it's more of an art, celebrating the joy of the game."

An English-language daily newspaper in Saudi Arabia covered a visit to Riyadh by a group of Minnesota bioscience companies earlier this month.

The Arab News report mentions a handful of Minnesota companies, including Exsulin, ODIN Industries, and Ativa, as well the BioBusiness Alliance of Minnesota, which organized the trip.

Exsulin CEO Lisa Jansa explained how the company's diabetes treatment could help Saudi Arabia, which has the third highest rate of diabetes in the world.

"We are seeking support from Saudi Arabia to ensure that more and more people will benefit from this groundbreaking new therapy," Jansa said.

The article concludes:

"All these companies hail from the US state of Minnesota, whose economy has transformed in the last 200 years to emphasize finished products and services. The economy of Minnesota had a gross domestic product of $262 billion in 2009."

When it comes to 'retirement-readiness,' the Twin Cities is the ideal place to be, according to Forbes. It cites a study by Ameriprise Financial that indicates that 83 percent of area residents have started saving for their golden years. Raleigh and Baltimore also top the list that ranks 30 of the country's largest metropolises.  

By contrast, more than 40 percent of those living in Los Angeles haven't gone there yet. Likewise, Indianapolis and Orlando are unprepared, it shows.

Craig Brimhall, vice president of retirement wealth strategies at Ameriprise, is quoted, saying that "local economic conditions have had such a substantial impact on people that their levels of preparation and confidence appear a bit out of sync."

The Winter 2010 issue of Next American City magazine says that downtown Minneapolis's Target Field has had a "transformative effect" on its surroundings.

With a record-setting 3 million-plus attendees in the first year, "the park is perhaps the first example of a publicly financed sports stadium done right," even beyond sports, it states.

Target Field, it boasts, is the country's second LEED-certified major league ballpark, with numerous green features, plus easy access to light rail, buses, the popular Nice Ride bike-sharing program, and other transit-oriented developments. The stadium has brought a neighborhood feel to an otherwise business-y district, it goes on.

The story quotes Andrew Dahl who works for the city's economic development office. Noting a dramatic increase in the use of public transportation, biking, and walking, along with more foot traffic to nearby restaurants and bars plus the emergence of pedicabs and street food vendors, Dahl states, "I think when we look back 10 or 20 years from now at what Minneapolis has become, this stadium will really be the definitive turning point."

New Scientist includes Minneapolis in a review of U.S. city "personality tests" and concludes we really are above average here.

Writer Jim Giles says cities have "ingrained characters that are stubbornly hard to change" and that they're often skewed because of population. Bigger cities have more wealth and crime than smaller ones, but a different story emerges when you factor for something called "super-linear scaling," according to researchers at the Los Alamos National Laboratory.

Basically, there are several attributes such as wealth, crime and patent activity that tend to increase faster than the rate of population growth in big cities, which makes per-capita comparisons misleading, the researchers say. "When the super-linear scaling is taken into account, some supposedly exceptional cities, such as New York, are in fact quite ordinary," says Giles. "Other less-heralded places, like Minneapolis, emerge as unusually successful." Read more at NewScientist.com.

In a Nov. 15 Minnpost story, writer Steve Berg considers the success of upscale apartment projects in downtown Minneapolis. 

The stylish Mill District building at Washington and Portland avenues, for instance, which probably would've sold condos a few years ago, he says, are moving apartments, despite the economy.  

For many young people and emptynesters who want to be in the city, Berg ventures, renting is likely the most realistic option. "Renting, long an upscale or mid-priced option in cities like New York, Chicago and San Francisco, is quickly overcoming its stigma here and becoming a smart alternative," he says.  

Developer Jonathan Holtzman, who compares his approach to that of a boutique hotel, says in the story that his target audience is a group of young, active urbanites: "Most builders are waiting for the recovery so they can come back into the market with the same old products as before," he said. "We're offering something different."

The nation's capital has the most expensive office space in the land, but Minneapolis-St. Paul has experienced the steepest increase, according a Cassidy Turnley report cited by Inc.com:

"Rents in D.C. rose 3.9 percent compared to a year ago, while New York rents were down 5.6 percent in the same period. Rents rose in 21 of the 80 markets tracked, with Minneapolis rising the most, up 6 percent, reaching $24.09 per square foot."

The Minneapolis riverfront will lead the way in a coming revival of the condo market, say some observers in the Star Tribune:

"While condo sellers are offering huge discounts and sale prices are falling, supplies of new and existing condos are the lowest they've been in several years, leading some, such as Stanton, to believe that the time is right to build new units."

Construction is one of the industries that has taken the brunt of the economic downturn. But student housing is one market that's remained vital during the recession. The Star Tribune reports on several current projects at local colleges and universities:

"Student housing is an often-ignored niche of multifamily real estate that's surviving the recession quite well in many instances, especially when it's connected to schools and universities that have growing enrollments, like the University of Minnesota.

"Unlike many other types of commercial real estate, investors in the form of real estate investment trusts (REITs) are putting money into student housing, and banks are making loans to the builders of such housing, attracted by their stable occupancy rates and the fact that rents charged to students have held up well during the recession--in some cases, even risen."

Read the full article here.

Forest Hills may have a lock on tennis' U.S. Open Tournament, but Minneapolis was able to coax the organizers of racquetball's own U.S. Open tournament to move upriver from Memphis, where the national championship has been held for 14 years, according to KARE 11:

"Minneapolis outbid five other cities to become the new home of this world-class event. Racquetball's best players from around the globe will come to Minnesota for their chance to win the sport's most prestigious event. ...

"The U.S. Open Racquetball Championships will bring 800 professional and amateur racquetball players to Minneapolis this October, plus an additional 3,000 spectators. The tournament is estimated to bring more than $4 million in economic impact to the region over the course of the week-long event."

Read the full article here.

Hotels are outpacing office and retail buildings in attracting investors' capital, especially among Real Estate Investment Trusts (REITs), according to Bloomberg.com, which cites Minneapolis' Hilton hotel as an example:

"REITs may be the primary buyers of hotels as they come on the market because 'they are fairly well capitalized and have access to attractively priced capital,' said John Arabia, managing director at Green Street Advisors, a Newport Beach, California-based real estate research company.

"Sunstone last month acquired Miami Beach's Royal Palm hotel in a foreclosure auction for about $117 million. LaSalle Hotel Properties, a REIT that focuses on upscale lodging, last week said it bought its first hotel in San Francisco as well as two in Philadelphia for a total of $292.5 million. DiamondRock Hospitality Co. in May agreed to buy the 821-room Hilton Minneapolis for about $155.5 million, and Host Hotels said in July it's seeking deals in the U.S., Europe, and Asia.

"'Publicly traded REITs will be a significant buyer of hotels over the next few years,' Arabia said. 'It's now REITs that will have their day in sun.'"

Read the full article here.