Columbia, Missouri
Fast fact: Home of University of Missouri.
Pros: Aura of college town, reasonable cost of living, median home price $167,000, high doctors per capita.
Con: Weather extremes.
COLUMBIA, Mo. – Veterans United Home Loans, based in Columbia, Mo., was recognized as the No. 29 job creator in the United States yesterday in Inc. magazine’s inaugural Hire Power Awards. The awards honor America’s 100 top private job creators over the past three years. Veterans United generated 564 jobs from 2008 to 2011.
Columbia is constantly growing with a strong economy based on the education, healthcare and insurance industries. Columbia works to attract new businesses to our area and diversify its economy in order to assure a prosperous future for our community.
Columbia offers small-town friendliness with big city features and a high quality of life for people of all ages and interests. Columbia is a great place to live due to a low cost of living, an excellent education system, outstanding health care facilities, abundant entertainment opportunities, beautiful parks and trails, a clean environment and much more.
MU’s strategic contribution to the vitality and growth of the statewide and more specifically the regional economy of Central Missouri is reflected in its role as a provider of jobs, contributor to increased tax revenues, and a means of enhancing value-added economic and social capital.
Teamwork is key at the Bond Life Sciences Center where internationally-recognized interdisciplinary research teams are working 24/7 solving problems in human and animal health, the environment and agriculture.
Located near the largest university-based research reactor in the country, the life science business incubator provides an environment conducive to company growth and a place for researchers to further develop their research into profitable companies.
REDI and the League of Innovators launched a downtown incubator on September 6, 2012. The space, next door to REDI’s headquarters, will serve as an affordable, 24-hour office space for entrepreneurship in Columbia, providing resources and space for local entrepreneurs.
Area Development ranked 365 MSAs across 23 economic and workforce growth indicators. In the results we see that even amid the recessionary gloom, there were blooms of prosperity, and there are some places that have gotten back on their feet faster than others.
Featured Investor
Shelter Insurance Companies
The Shelter Insurance® group of companies is a leader in the insurance industry, providing customers with exceptional insurance and financial products and services. Our policy for customer satisfaction and overall success is simple: emphasize integrity, excellence, and a commitment to improvement. Our goal is to benefit our customers, our communities, our employees, and our agents. Our friendly, professional way of doing business has transformed us from a small company providing Missourians affordable car insurance into a leading corporation offering a variety of insurance products in 14 states.
In 2005, the University of Missouri Board of Curators approved the development of a section of Columbia’s South Farm for a new research park. The belief was, and continues to be, that the research occurring in the living fields and laboratories at South Farm, and at the University of Missouri, will attract tenants who desire close proximity to innovative intellectual resources. It is the mission of the University of Missouri System Office of Research and Economic Development to link research and commercialization from the system’s four campuses with emerging and existing firms across the state—Discovery Ridge does just that.