Good business climate: Lafayette-West Lafayette is one of Forbes magazine's Top 25 Best Small Metro Areas.

• Author: Mayer, Kathy
• Position: REGIONAL REPORT NORTH CENTRAL

EARNING A SPOT ON THE Forbes magazine list of Top 25 Best Small Metro Areas for good business climate means measuring up in cost of doing business, workforce-education levels, and job and income growth. That's the business end. On the community side, crime rate, culture and leisure, and cost of living come into play.

Lafayette-West Lafayette's good readings on every count landed it at Number 23 out of 168 communities in the latest ranking.

Achieving those kudos came from tangibles--affordable facilities and utilities, residents' aim-high view of education, and an aggressive approach to keeping and attracting good jobs, locals say. Add to that music and art venues, Big Ten and community sports, lots of house for the money, and you've achieved an enviable climate, they add.

How did it happen?

"Collaboration and cooperation," says West Lafayette mayor Jan Mills.

"It's a combination of a lot of different things," says Lafayette mayor Tony Roswarski, citing job incentive and creation programs, city job training money, public/private partnerships, good infrastructure and local governments that work well together.

And that cooperation extends beyond government, says Dana Smith, president of the Lafayette-West Lafayette Chamber of Commerce. "What we have working here is an extremely cooperative group of government, business and not-for-profits that have known each other well over the years, and therefore can work well together, despite different political affiliations. We communicate and work out differences and are able to push various community agendas forward."

One example began in the 1970s, when the community decided to move center-of-town railroad tracks and the 42 different places you could get stopped by a train to a new riverside rail corridor. That was achieved in the 1990s, eliminating those "stopped by a train" excuses for being late.

Community pride fueled more, such as West Lafayette's $57 million riverside Wabash Landing retail development.

Next to be put to the test: development of 2,000 acres along a 20-mile stretch of the Wabash River, being tackled by the newly formed nonprofit, Wabash River Enhancement Corp., a cooperative venture of Lafayette, West Lafayette and Tippecanoe County.

Evidence of the good-for-business climate abounds, from new construction to industry growth in diverse sectors.

Construction cranes and building activity dot the landscape.

Downtown, the $25 million, three-building Renaissance Place block is under...