Southern Business & Development magazine has named Augusta to the South’s top honor as the best “Mid-Market of the Year” in 2017, according to the Augusta Economic Development Authority. In 2015, the magazine named Augusta as one of the “Ten Sizzling Mid-Market Economies” in the South.

Michael Randle, Publisher of Southern Business & Development, said, “Augusta garnered the top spot among all medium-sized economic development markets based on their strong recruitment efforts for new jobs and investments.” Randle continued, “Throughout the South, there are communities on the move, where cities’ economic growth and development are outpacing the rest of the country. Augusta is one of these cities, with the Augusta Economic Development Authority leading the way. Their overall ranking was impressive.”

In Randle’s state-by-state summaries, “It was a nice year for Georgia, with its highest point total in several years. A nice mix of industries and service projects. Augusta had a year like no other to win “Mid-Market of the Year”.

The magazine points to recent Augusta locations of Unisys, EdenCrete, Jacobsen Turf, Textron Specialized Vehicles and the CyberSecurity Command at Fort Gordon, along with expansions at Automatic Data Processing, Standard Aero, Starbucks, and Solvay as reasons for the top honor.

The remainder of the top five mid-markets after Augusta’s first-place showing was Brevard County FL, Durham-Chapel Hill NC, Montgomery AL and Spartanburg SC. Other top performances after the top five were Northern Kentucky, Gulfport/Biloxi MS, Kingsport/Bristol TN, Roanoke VA, Corpus Christi TX, Huntsville AL and Lexington KY.

The rankings are based on a point system for expanded and new manufacturing, service projects and military-related projects. Retail, lodging, entertainment, office buildings and industrial parks are not eligible in the totals.

According to Randle “It should be noted that there is a new industry sector listed this year that shows the performance of each sector over the last six years. Cybersecurity has never been listed as a sector in any SB&D list, simply because there were not enough cyber deals to post. Yet, with eight big deals this year, cybersecurity made it onto the list for the first time. As that industry matures, look for plenty of projects coming out of Northern Virginia and Augusta, where the new Army Cyber Command is being built at Fort Gordon.”