Luxe Austin Homes

new report shows that Texas rules the nation's corporate relocation and expansion kingdom. 

Site Selection magazine ranks theAustin, Dallas-Fort Worth, and Houston metro areas among the top 10 large U.S. metro areas for the number of corporate relocation and expansion projects landed in 2019.

On the new list, published in the magazine's March issue, Houston replaces Dallas-Fort Worth in the No. 2 spot among metros with at least 1 million residents. DFW comes in at No. 3, while Austin takes the No. 6 spot.

Last year, Houston landed 276 projects that met the magazine's ranking criteria. Dallas-Fort Worth scored 261 projects in 2019, while Austin snagged 95. With 416 projects, Chicago earned the No. 1 spot. 

Qualifying projects for the rankings must have a minimum investment of $1 million, create at least 20 new jobs, or involve at least 20,000 square feet of new space.

One notable Austin corporate relocation, says Site Selection, was RV rental company Outdoorsy, which moved from San Francisco to downtown Austin, at 1300 Guadalupe St.

"We started Outdoorsy in California in 2015, but over time, we knew that we needed to be closer to our customers, which meant being in the middle of the country," said co-founder Jeff Cavins. "We initially looked at Salt Lake City, Boulder, Denver, Nashville, Charlotte, and San Diego. And then we looked at Austin, and the whole team fell in love at first sight."

Also of note, in late 2019, Apple broke ground on its $1 billion North Austin campus, which is slated to open in 2022.

In the Houston metro area, expansions included Bill.com's first expansion outside Silicon Valley, with 125 new jobs housed in 25,000 square feet in the Westchase district, and Amazon Web Services' new technology hub, with 150 new jobs housed in 25,000 square feet at CityCentre.

For Dallas-Fort Worth, Site Selection highlights Gulfstream Aerospace's new $35 million service center at Fort Worth Alliance Airport, which is expected to open by fall 2021 and create 50 new jobs. 

The Houston-DFW-Austin trifecta of top-performing markets for corporate relocation and expansion in 2019 helped propel Texas to win Site Selection's Governor's Cup Award for the eighth consecutive year.

In accepting the award, Gov. Greg Abbott called Texas "the most dynamic economy in the nation."

"Texas' skilled, diverse, and ever-expanding workforce drives our booming economy," Abbott said. "I want to thank all of our local, regional and statewide economic development teams for their work to expand economic opportunity in Texas, as well as the companies that continue to invest and create more jobs throughout the Lone Star State."

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A version of this story originally appeared on site InnovationMap.com.