For a second consecutive year, the Lehigh Valley Economic Development Corporation (LVEDC) has been recognized as one of the Top 20 economic development organizations in the United States.

LVEDC was the only economic development agency in the Northeastern United States region to receive the recognition, according to Site Selection magazine, which announced the Top 20 selections on May 4.

“It’s an honor once again to be recognized by Site Selection as one of the 20 best in the country,” said LVEDC President & CEO Don Cunningham. “This award really recognizes the tremendous economic success of the Lehigh Valley and all the employers, governments and organizations that have helped to make it happen.”

LVEDC Board Chair Jane Long added, “This is a wonderful acknowledgement by some of the most knowledgeable people in the economic development world, and an excellent recognition of the amazing work done by Don Cunningham and the entire LVEDC staff.”

Adam Jones-Kelley, president of Conway, Inc. and publisher of Site Selection, said the Top 20 distinction not only reflects economic and job creation successes from the past year, but may also indicate which economies will lead the global recovery following the coronavirus pandemic.

“Our collective fear and uncertainty about the future cannot diminish the successes celebrated on these pages,” Jones-Kelley said. “Let us hope that the kind of ingenuity, policies and reforms that allow regions like these to succeed will be deployed to help guide us through today’s debilitating crisis.”

LVEDC has received one of Site Selection’s Mac Conway Awards for Excellence in Economic Development, which are awarded annually to 20 local and regional economic development agencies across the nation for their roles in helping to deliver prosperity to their communities.

Most of the other winners are from metropolitan areas much larger than the Lehigh Valley, such as Dallas, Houston, Cincinnati, Columbus, Detroit, Indianapolis, Savannah, Ga., Charlotte, N.C., and Austin, Texas.

Site Selection is one of the nation’s leading real estate industry economic development publications.

“Mac Conway Award winners are those economic development groups that have demonstrated to our readership that they have the resources and workforce assets required for capital investment,” says Mark Arend, Ste Selection Editor in Chief. “According to our methodology, Lehigh Valley Economic Development is more than deserving of this recognition.”

The Top 20 organizations were not ranked. They were selected based on an index of corporate job creation and facility-related capital investment data calculated both cumulatively and per capita, according to Site Selection.

This is not the first distinction Lehigh Valley has received from Site Selection this year.

The magazine also ranked Lehigh Valley the third-best region in the Northeast this year, as part of the magazine’s prestigious Governor’s Cup Awards.

Despite competing with much larger metros, Lehigh Valley outranked such regions as Boston and Pittsburgh, and had only one fewer project than Philadelphia. Additionally, for a fourth consecutive year, Lehigh Valley ranked among the Top 5 regions nationwide with a population size between 200,000 and 1 million.

LVEDC serves the Lehigh Valley, the third largest metropolitan area in Pennsylvania. The eastern region of 670,000 people encompasses Lehigh and Northampton counties, which includes 62 municipalities and three cities: Allentown, Bethlehem, and Easton.

The mission of LVEDC is to market the economic assets of the Lehigh Valley and to create partnerships to lead the recruitment, growth and retention of employers.

Site Selection is the senior publication in the corporate real estate and economic development fields and is the official publication of the Industrial Asset Management Council. It has a circulation base of 48,000 subscribers, most of whom are involved in corporate site selection decisions at the CEO/President/COO level.