Verona reeled in the biggest fish: medical records technology developer Epic Systems, with its ever-expanding work force.

Fitchburg and Middleton also are luring Madison businesses.

The Fitchburg Technology Campus, created in late 2003 at Fish Hatchery and Lacy roads, has attracted promising nanotechnology companies Imago Scientific Instruments and Platypus Technologies.

"Fitchburg offered us the opportunity to design and customize our own interior, and the price was actually more affordable than the spaces we were looking at in Madison," said Barbara Israel, Platypus chief executive officer.

The Gordon Flesch Co., a 50- year old, family-owned office equipment company, also moved there, with its 230 employees and $152 million a year in sales, departing its very visible location at 2101 W. Beltline.

"The old building was added onto three times and burned down once," said executive vice president John Flesch.

Fitchburg offered the right price. "This wasn't a move to bail on the city (of Madison), by any shape or form. This was just purely economics," Flesch said.

"Maybe that's inevitable . . . in a modern economy. (Growing businesses) need a certain kind of space and it's not available in Madison," said Bill Duddleston, economics professor at Edgewood College.

Middleton's Greenway Center, along Greenway Boulevard west of the Beltline, has brought over such ex-Madison businesses as health insurer Humana and video game developer Raven Software while the adjacent Greenway Station upscale shopping center - which opened in 2003 - has added former Madison stores World Market and Marshall's and T.G.I. Friday's restaurant to its array of shops and eateries.

Nearby, the Discovery Springs development, also in Middleton, gained a clutch of health and beauty businesses that relocated from Madison, including ANiU salon, spa and yoga and the Center for Cosmetic Dentistry.

Access is another issue, NorthStar Economics president David Ward said. "Ring communities - off the Beltline or off the Interstate - are a heck of a lot easier to get in and out," Ward said.

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