Tempe ranks high in attracting new businesses

Tempe is the best city in Arizona to start a business, according to "BusinessWeek" magazine.

Mayor Hugh Hallman said his city scored high in all areas as the magazine selected one small city from each state and ranked it on 11 variables. Cities were limited to populations between 20,000 and 200,000.

"We had a huge number of our residents having bachelor's degrees, a huge number of white-collar workers, a young and educated population, workers in the creative professions, international talent, universities," Hallman said.

The city has been working hard to attract new businesses, the mayor said, adding that, during the last six months of 2008, Tempe had the most development activity in its history.

Light rail and the city's free shuttle service have contributed to the business boom, Hallman said.

Corey Woods, co-chairman of technology and economic development for the city, said he and the City Council "have done a lot of work to streamline things such as codes and sign ordinances to make sure we're obviously offering the most palatable environment possible for businesses, and for small businesses, to do start-up work."

Some restrictions have been lifted, Hallman said.

"The Chamber of Commerce has been working for years to make it easier for businesses to get going. We as members of the government group have to make sure people abide by our codes, but our codes don't have to impose unnecessary burdens."

Hallman said, "What we've done over the last four and a-half years is try to eliminate barriers to entry, so that people who wanted to build buildings or bring start-up businesses and build out office space could do so cost-effecitvely and efficiently."