Magazine Names Texas No. 1 in Economic Development

Texas is getting top economic development honors from a publication that informs and tracts corporate relocations.

Based on a state-by-state survey of economic development deals over the last 12 months Business Facilities magazine named Texas -- with a total of $15.4 billion in investment and 9335 jobs to be created from new projects -- its State of the Year for 2007.

States were asked to submit information on their five largest economic development projects by both job creation and total investment over the last year. Twenty-six states completed surveys and Texas was far and away the leader according to Business Facilities.

The five projects Texas entered as examples of expansion were Rackspace Managed Hosting with 5000 jobs in San Antonio; Fidelity Investments with 1535 jobs in Lewisville; Maxim Integrated Products with 1000 jobs in Irving; Fluor Corp. (NYSE: FLR) with 1000 jobs in Irving; and Dimensional Fund Advisors with 800 jobs in Austin.

The top five Texas projects by investment were Motiva Enterprises with $7 billion in Port Arthur; NRG Energy Inc. (NYSE: NRG) with $5.4 billion in Bay City; Eastman Chemical Co. (NYSE: EMN) with $1.6 billion in Beaumont; Microsoft Corp. (NASDAQ: MSFT) with $985 million in San Antonio; and Citicorp with $450 million in Georgetown.