New Castle County Business Advantages Win Acclaim
Published May 01, 2008
Delaware might be the nation’s second-smallest state, but successful businesspeople have no problem finding it on the map.
More than half of the country’s publicly traded companies and 61 percent of Fortune 500 companies are incorporated in Delaware, which Forbes magazine in summer 2007 named one of the Best States for Business.
Locating in New Castle County, by far Delaware’s largest in population, offers clear advantages: There are low property and income taxes and no sales tax. “It’s one of the greatest values in terms of the cost of doing business,” says Mark A. Kleinschmidt, president of the New Castle County Chamber of Commerce.
Moreover, New Castle County’s location – midway between New York City, the country’s economic capital, and Washington, D.C., the political capital – is unrivaled, Kleinschmidt says.
With so much to offer, it’s no wonder that New Castle ranked fourth on Expansion Management magazine’s June 2007 list of the top 20 mid-size counties for business recruitment and attraction.
Another recent accolade came from The Boyd Co., a Princeton, N.J.-based consulting firm. It recognized Wilmington, the county’s largest city, as one of the least-expensive places on the East Coast to have a corporate headquarters.
But the benefits of doing business here go well beyond strategic location and lower costs. There is also strong support from the New Castle County Chamber of Commerce and the New Castle County Economic Development Council, regardless of whether a company is a member of the Fortune 500 elite or a startup enterprise.
“Small businesses need access to training and information about what is happening in the community,” Kleinschmidt says. “They need business development opportunities.”
(The council is a partnership between the chamber and New Castle County Government.)
Smaller companies can contribute articles to the chamber’s Small Business News, published six times a year, and pick up marketing and business tips at Chamberworks training workshops. The chamber also sponsors a forum for home-based businesses.
For larger companies, the chamber closely monitors economic trends and government regulations “to make sure there’s nothing coming down the pike that would be a barrier for them,” Kleinschmidt says. Legislative breakfasts connect civic leaders with businesspeople, and legislative e-updates keep members informed about policy changes affecting their business operations.
In fact, the ability to interface quickly with legislators is one more factor that makes New Castle County such an appealing place for companies. So is Delaware’s Court of Chancery, which has five judges that decide cases of corporate and business law; there is no jury, and cases are handled swiftly and effectively.
“From a tax perspective and from a business-regulatory perspective, we are very predictable, and we are very consistent,” says Judy McKinney-Cherry, director of the Delaware Economic Development Office.
And that is clearly good for business.
Story by Pam George
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