Business View Magazine | April 2020

191 BUSINESS VIEW MAGAZINE APRIL 2020 OPEL I KA , ALABAMA including commercial, residential, and industrial activity, resulting in many accolades for its ability to create jobs. In 2015, Forbes Magazine ranked the Auburn-Opelika metro area as the seventh best small city for jobs in the country; in 2016, it was ranked the sixth-best performing small city in the Milken Institute’s 2016 Best- Performing Small Cities: Where America’s Jobs are Created and Sustained report for the third year in a row, and up four spots from the previous year’s 10th-place ranking. “Since 2005, we’ve created 3,821 jobs and $1,465,000,000 worth of capital investment,” reports Lori Huguley, CEcD, Opelika’s Director of Economic Development. “That is strictly on the industrial/manufacturing side, and not inclusive of all the retail development that has come into the area since 2005. In 2019, we were very fortunate that we were able to announce the creation of 423 new jobs and also a capital investment of $127.6 million.” “New jobs also bring new residents to Opelika,” adds Community Relations Officer, Leigh Krehling. “New home construction in our community is at an all-time high. Last year we permitted more than 278 new homes and with more than 380 single family lots ready for homes. There are another 386 lots in active development, and an additional 862 apartment units and 168 townhouses planned in 2020.” The largest employer in the Auburn-Opelika area is Auburn University, with over 5,300 full- time workers; the largest employer in Opelika is the East Alabama Medical Center, with a staff of over 3,000. Other major employers include the Mando America Corporation, a supplier of brakes and steering components to Tier One automotive manufacturers, and Hanwha another Tier One supplier of plastic injection molded parts. “We’re fortunate to have the automotive suppliers because of our location between the Kia manufacturing plant in Georgia, which is 20 minutes away, and the Hyundai manufacturing