Best New Places To Do Business For Tech Companies - News Briefs

Highly skilled engineers tent to be family folks looking for great quality of life. So for tech firms who want to attract top talent: Head for the suburbs.

OUT TOP PICK: Route 202 corridor, Philadelphia With its great schools and affordable housing, Philadelphia's Route 202 is a magnet for engineering firms. The bucolic lifestyle and strong business climate have created a high-tech haven.

Rob McCord is betting on Route 202. Two years ago he and his wife shelled out $425,000 for a seven-bedroom, century-old stone house and then spent $100,000 more to spiff up the showplace, which is located along the Route 202 corridor, an emerging high-tech haven set amid suburban splendor.

"You can live an upper-middle-class lifestyle around here. It's 15 minutes by train from a major East Coast city and little more than an hour from the Big Apple. And no hideous commute," says McCord, 42, chief executive of the Eastern Technology Council and managing partner of venture fund Pennsylvania Early Stage Partners.

Running west of Philadelphia from Delaware and into New Jersey, the 202 corridor is attracting high-tech engineers who long for the suburban dream. At 110,000 strong, the Philadelphia region boasts double the number of IT jobs of Pittsburgh and ranks seventh nationwide behind powerhouses San Jose, Boston, Washington, D.C., and Chicago, according to Scott Anderson, Pennsylvania analyst for Economy.com, a consulting firm in West Chester, Pa.

The techies are filling up the big brick McMansions that sit on one-acre lots in pin-neat subdivisions. The houses cost half of what similar-sized homes sell for in Boston, San Francisco and New York. The public schools are terrific. The crime rate is so low that some residents don't bother to lock their doors.

If that's not enough wholesomeness to choke a horse, then imagine all of the business and residential growth amid rolling hills, arched stone bridges and grassy pastures. The area even has its own reclusive artist, Andrew Wyeth, whose paintings capture the beauty of the local landscape. Riding breeches, muck boots and Indiana Jones fedoras are as common on weekends here as tantric yoga is in San Jose.

"It's hard to get people to come here, and impossible to get them to leave," says Philadelphia headhunter Ken Kring. "Countless execs tell me they won't relocate."

The corridor's evolution into a tech center began a few decades ago when tech-dependent businesses like Systems & Computer Technology (SCT), Vishay Intertechnology and Vanguard first settled along Route 202 for the cheap land, low taxes and plentiful skilled labor. These businesses begat spin-offs and startups with a distinctly new-economy feel: Vertical-Net, Internet Capital Group, Safeguard Scientifics, CDnow, eGames and United Messaging, to name a few. Most are housed in gleaming low-rise office parks nestled among wooded hills and walking trails.

Mike Emmi, chairman and chief executive of SCT in Malvern, says he wouldn't leave for love or money. He's a General Electric alumnus who lived in 16 cities before coming here in 1985. Emmi now lives in Wayne, an upscale suburb just off 202, and he's active in the cultured world of Center City, Philadelphia's business hub. "I've always considered this the best place I've ever lived," says Emmi, 58. "We're East Coasters, but without a New York mindset. We've less of a chip on our shoulders."

SCT, which supplies software to colleges, local governments and utilities, employs 900 at its corporate headquarters. Half are engineers, and many of them migrated from elsewhere.

Vishay's Andrew Post came here 15 years ago and watched the corridor's metamorphosis from remote sticks to quintessential suburbia. "If you chalk up everything important to families -- good schools, affordable cost of living, culture and other amenities -- the Philadelphia area comes out great," says Post.

Along the corridor, shopping centers boast the ubiquitous Starbucks, Nordstrom and Pottery Barn, their parking lots filled with high-end SUVs driven by soccer and hockey moms.

But the area's not for everybody, particularly if you're young and single and you stay up past 10 p.m. There are probably more hip replacements than hip workplaces here. And if Blockbuster isn't your idea of an exciting Friday night on the town, then you'll need to take a short drive to Philly, where the newest techno-pop clubs rock into the wee hours.

If you do run into any hipsters in the corridor, they probably go to one of the 85 colleges and universities located in the area. Combined, the schools turn out some 50,000 graduates a year, many in computer and related fields. Persuading those grads to stay local is a challenge. Groups like Philadelphia's Pennsylvania Economy League, Ben Franklin Technology Partners and University City Science Center soon will launch a $2 million marketing assault to convince grads to stick around. Attracting women and employees with kids is easier; local companies rank highly when it comes to offering flextime, liberal maternity and family leaves, and generous continuing education benefits.

In addition to the suburban perks, the relatively low cost of doing business here is luring engineering companies to the region. A December 2000 Economy.com survey of metro areas based on tax burdens and energy, labor and office costs ranks the nine-county Philadelphia region 12th behind more-expensive competitors like New York City, Boston, central and northern New Jersey, and Connecticut cities New Haven, Bridgeport and Stamford. But, as in California, electricity costs are very high.

One new venture along the corridor is e-Knox Trading, a virtual securities-trading firm started last fall by partners Gary Anderson and Daken Vanderburg. They located here to distance themselves from the craziness of the New York and Philadelphia trading pits. A former Big Apple trader, Anderson endured a five-hour commute for years so that he and his family could stay in West Chester. Enough, he finally said. E-Knox is located in a corporate park near Valley Forge National Park -- and Anderson's commute is a mere 15 minutes. Instead of running to catch the 5:30 from Penn Station, he can exercise on treadmills at the office.

Vanguard, the nation's second largest mutual fund company, is elderly by comparison. It plans to build a second campus not far from its Route 202 headquarters in Malvern, where 7,000 employees, many of them techies, now work. The new compound, set to be built on a former dairy farm, will house 20,000 employees, many of them engineers and IT experts.

Filling those slots shouldn't be a problem. The corridor is one of the few places where engineers can live like kings.

Sarah E. Moran is a writer in West Chester, Pa., specializing in business issues and the arts.

FACTS

ROUTE 202 CORRIDOR, PHILADELPHIA

THE TECHIES ARE COMING

Visit the greater Revolutionary, War landmarks, including the Liberty Bell, Independence Hall, Valley Forge and the Betsy Ross House.

LET THE GAMES BEGIN

From New York to Baltimore to Philly, there are 12 professional sports teams within 100 miles.

TOWN-GOWN

The area boasts more than 85 institutes of higher learning, including Bryn Mawr, Temple, Swarthmore and the University of Pennsylvania.

IT'S A MALL WORLD AFTER ALL

With more than 300 stores, the King of Prussia Court and Plaza is the largest shopping mall of the East Coast.

THE TAXMAN GOETH

Buy a tariff-free PC February 18 to 25, the state's annual tax holiday.

TECH TOWNS: Tracking the Top Five

Paul Bonanos

A LOT OF EMPLOYEES at engineering-oriented companies are looking for a leafy suburb that offers good schools, nice parks, clean air and low crime. They want to listen to National Public Radio as they commute (20 minutes or less, please) in their Dodge Caravans. Meanwhile, their bosses like to be near universities, which can supply a steady stream of highly skilled workers. The Standard rates its top five new places for tech companies.

                  Quality of Life      Family-Friendly   Low Cost of
                  Health care, crime,  Quality of public Living
                  climate, transporta- schools, parks    Housing, food,
                  tion, pollution      and playgrounds   utilities
202 Corridor, Pa. ***                  ###               &&
Boise City, Idaho **                   ##                &&&
Tacoma, Wash.     **                   ##                &&&
Huntsville, Ala.  **                   ##                &&
Ventura County,
Calif.            ***                  ###               &
                  Higher Education       Business Climate
                  Proximity to universi- Favorable regulations,
                  ties; advanced         zoning, tax policies
                  degrees per capita
202 Corridor, Pa. $$$                    @@@
Boise City, Idaho $$                     @@
Tacoma, Wash.     $$                     @@@
Huntsville, Ala.  $$                     @@@
Ventura County,
Calif.            $$$                    @@
                  Minivan Sales
                  Purchases per capita
202 Corridor, Pa. XXX
Boise City, Idaho XX
Tacoma, Wash.     XX
Huntsville, Ala.  XX
Ventura County,
Calif.            XX
SOURCES: American Chamber of Commerce Researchers Association,
FBI Uniform Crime Reports, Federation of Tax Administrators,
Global CareGuide, National Cener for Education Statistics,
National Weather Service, Relocationcentral.com, Southern Poverty
Law Center, Polk Inc., U.S. Census Bureau, VirtualRelocation.com

COPYRIGHT 2001 Standard Media International
COPYRIGHT 2001 Gale Group