The Quad Cities region is again being recognized for its economic development activity in annual rankings by Site Selection Magazine.
Both the Quad Cities metropolitan statistical area (MSA) and the City of Muscatine, Iowa, ranked in the Top 10 Mississippi River Corridor metros for economic development projects. That was over an 18-month period ending in December, 2024.
The Quad Cities MSA tied with St. Cloud, Minnesota, for No. 6 in the Total Projects category in the Site Selection report. Both communities had 13 total projects. St. Cloud’s 13 projects also earned it the No. 7 spot in the Total Projects Per Capita category.
In addition, Muscatine – located downriver from the Quad Cities – ranked No. 10 in the Total Projects Per Capita category. Muscatine, population 42,218, had two projects qualified for the rankings.
The rankings appeared in the March edition of Site Selection. They were shared in a news release Wednesday, March 19, by the Quad Cities Chamber of Commerce. “Site Selection Magazine” is an internationally circulated business publication covering corporate real estate and economic development. To read the full story click here.
The rankings include all metro regions along the Mississippi River Corridor. They are based on projects that qualified for the Conway Projects Database. To qualify, they had to be corporate facility investment projects between July 2023 and December 2024 and meet at least one of three criteria: at least $1 million invested; at least 20 new jobs created; or create at least 20,000 new square feet of space.
Top 10 by Total Projects
The Mississippi River Corridor’s Top 10 metro areas ranked by their total projects are:
- St. Louis, Missouri-Illinois, 126 projects.
- Minneapolis-St. Paul-Bloomington, Minnesota/Wisconsin, 109.
- New Orleans-Metairie, Louisiana, 63.
- Baton Rouge, Louisiana, 47.
- Memphis, Tennessee, Mississippi, Arkansas, 23.
- Tie – Davenport-Moline-Rock Island, Iowa/Illinois, and St. Cloud, Minnesota, 13 each.
- Paducah, Kentucky/Illinois, 8.
- Quincy, Illinois/Missouri, 5.
- Tie – LaCross-Onalaska, Wisconsin/Minnesota, 4.
St. Louis bi-state repeats
According to Site Selection’s report, this marked the third year in a row that the bi-state St. Louis metro area topped all the cities and towns along the Mississippi in the total number of corporate facility investment projects. Fort Madison, Iowa, with a population of just over 32,000 and three qualifying projects, took the title in projects per-capital.
A year ago, the Quad Cities region also shined among the Top 10 Mississippi River Corridor metros.
The Quad Cities MSA – along with Muscatine and Clinton, Iowa – all ranked in Site Selection Magazine’s Top 10 in the Total Projects and Projects Per Capita categories. In the Total Projects, the rankings included: Quad Cities MSA, No. 5, with 27 projects; Muscatine, No. 8, with five projects; and Clinton, No. 10, with four projects. In the Total Projects Per Capita category, Muscatine was ranked No. 3; Clinton, No. 4; and Quad Cities MSA, No. 7.
Those rankings, announced in the magazine’s March 2024 edition, were based on projects that qualified for the Conway Projects Database between July 2022 and December 2023.
