June 4th, 2014, By Don Catalano
The top six corporate real estate markets for emerging tech companies aren’t all as predictable as you might expect. While usual suspects like Boston and Silicon Valley remain on the list, other markets throughout the United States are also prominent, reflecting new centers of learning as well as the ongoing penetration of technology into everyone’s lives.
The birthplace of the modern computer industry remains one of the best markets in which to open a new technology company. Located approximately 35 miles south of San Francisco, Silicon Valley’s talent pool is fed by two world-class educational institutions — Stanford University and the University of California at Berkeley. The critical mass of technology jobs in the region keeps the workforce in place, even in the face of some of the country’s highest housing costs and relatively high corporate real estate occupancy expenses.
Before there was a Silicon Valley, hackers at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology were developing new ways of using technology. Centered around MIT and Harvard in Cambridge, the Boston metropolitan area remains one of the country’s best educated cities and one of its most active incubators of new technology companies, even with similar cost challenges to Northern California.
While Denver has been a top emerging tech market for years, other Colorado cities are also becoming prominent technology destinations. Colorado offers a relatively low cost of living, business-friendly tax climate and an location that is amenable to an active outdoor lifestyle. At the same time, it also offers an extensive technology community.
While the University of Utah might not be as well known as other research universities, it has nevertheless proven itself to be a hotbed of entrepreneurial activity. Coupled with Utah’s business friendly regulatory environment, reasonable rents and legendary employee productivity, SLC has already proven itself to be a major technology market.
Once a cotton center, Huntsville is now best known as the location of the Marshall Space Flight Center — a major NASA installation. In addition to the NASA presence, Huntsville benefits from a large weapons research community that make it a center for technology and knowledge based jobs. Unlike some other tech markets, Huntsville is extremely affordable both from a housing cost and a corporate real estate cost perspective.
Once known as a meat packing town and then as a financial center for credit card processing, Sioux Falls’ technology community is now ascendant. Driven by universities throughout the Great Plains that offer advanced training in data security and by a uniquely business-friendly climate that includes light regulation and no personal income taxes, companies flock to Sioux Falls for its skilled and reliable workforce. In addition, the community is becoming a major healthcare destination thanks to the development of a major health campus on its south side.