Georgetown No. 2 on 100 Best Places List in Fortune Small Business

Citing Georgetown’s growing healthcare, life sciences, and technology sectors, Fortune Small Business magazine picked Georgetown for the number 2 spot in the country in a recent list of “100 best places to live and launch.” The ranking is featured in the April 2008 issue of the magazine. The article is also available online via a link below.

With the number 2 rank, Georgetown topped some of the nation’s trendiest and most dynamic cities, including Portland (no. 6), Charlotte, North Carolina (no. 8), Fort Worth (no. 9), Santa Fe, New Mexico (no. 17), Asheville, North Carolina (no. 41), and San Jose, California (no. 66). Austin, Chicago, Dallas, Houston, Los Angeles, and New York were not on the list.

Georgetown’s “up-and-coming business scene” is thriving, in some measure, due to a business climate with low utility rates, low property tax rates, regional business-development efforts, and a planned convention center.

Lifestyle factors also helped Georgetown’s rank. The Fortune Small Business reporter who visited Georgetown wrote that “residents who settle into one of the city’s restored Victorian homes or new Tuscan villas can enjoy a walk along the bank of the San Gabriel River or play a round of golf on one of the five local courses. Mountain biking trails around Lake Georgetown lead riders to the edge of Texas Hill Country.”

Georgetown’s proximity to Austin’s live music scene was noted, as well as home-grown cultural offerings: “Georgetown’s annual food and arts festivals, independently-owned restaurants, rodeo, and nearby wineries are enough to keep residents close to home most of the time.”

A sidebar article in the 100 Best Places feature highlights Chris Damon and Judith Manriquez (see photo), a Georgetown couple who bought the Masonic Lodge building on the Square. After extensive renovation, the historic building is now home to Romeo’s Italian restaurant and GX Creative, their design and marketing firm. Other entrepreneurs have opened new restaurants and shops in historic downtown buildings, creating a bustling dining and entertainment district. “Georgetown’s biggest asset turned out to be the historic Victorian-era buildings around the downtown square,” the article observes.

To develop the top-100 ranking, Fortune Small Business first identified 296 metropolitan areas in the U.S. that were scored for business factors like tax rates, job growth, population growth, and new business startups. The magazine also looked at lifestyle elements such as parks, arts and cultural offerings, health care facilities, low crime rates, housing costs, and average temperatures. Reporters visited many of these cities where they interviewed local officials and business owners to choose the city in each of the top 100 metro areas “that best blends business and pleasure.”

The number 2 ranking for Georgetown follows other recognition last fall when the city was rated the number 1 place to retire in the U.S. in the seventh edition of Retirement Places Rated, a Frommer’s publication.

To see the Fortune Small Business feature “100 best places to live and launch” online, go to money.cnn.com/magazines/fsb/bestplaces/2008.

For information about business development opportunities in Georgetown, contact Mark Thomas, economic development director for the City of Georgetown, at (512) 930-3546.

Date Entered: March 27, 2008
For questions about this article, please contact mthomas@georgetowntx.org.