Washington D.C. and cities dotting the Silicon Valley may have grabbed the first spots on Cushman & Wakefield’s inaugural Tech Cities 1.0 U.S. report, but Midwest cities also had a good showing on the company’s list of the top 25 tech centers in the United States.
The Cushman & Wakefield list highlights those cities with the greatest combinations of tech talent, capital and growth opportunity. San Jose, California, was named the top tech city this year, with San Francisco, Washington D.C., Boston/Cambridge and the Raleigh/Durham/Chapel hill area of North Carolina rounding out the top five.
Three Midwest cities made what might be considered surprising appearances on the list.
Columbus ranked 19th in the Cushman & Wakefield report. Paul Krimm, managing principal of Cushman & Wakefield’s Columbus office, said that while this might surprise outsiders, those who live and work in this university community know that Columbus has long embraced tech start-ups and entrepreneurs.
“Columbus has become one of the fastest-growing innovation and technology hubs in the nation because of a large, educated workforce, superior research capabilities and a strong corporate foundation,” Krimm said.
The future looks good for Columbus, too. The city won the U.S. Department of Transportation’s Smart City Challenge prize of $50 million to use toward the next wavce of transportation innovations.
Kansas City had a good showing, too, ranking 22nd on Cushman & Wakefield’s list.
“This accomplishment is the result of more than a decade of work from different parts of the community,” said Michael Mayer, managing principal of Cusman & Wakefield’s Kansas City office.
Indianapolis earned the 23rd spot in the report. This is especially impressive considering that Indianapolis has long been thought of as an industrial powerhouse. The ranking on the Cushman & Wakefield report shows, though, that there is more to Indianapolis than manufacturing, warehouses and distribution centers.
“Indianapolis has developed into a burgeoning technology hub because of the business climate that has been developed here,” said Chris Yeakey, managing principal of Cushman & Wakefield’s Indianapolis office. “We are no longer a tech secret.”
Yeakey said that Indianapolis benefits from a low cost of living, a deep pool of skileld labor and a strong roster of companies working in software development.
“Indianapolis is quickly making its mark,” Yeakey said
