Site Selection Factors / Strategy
Recent Features
Twenty-Four Hours to Save Boeing
A tropical storm, a former phosphate mine and one unforgettable phone call helped shape one of the most consequential aerospace investments in South Carolina history.
Where Construction Investment Goes, Economic Growth Follows
Understanding the construction industry’s multiplier effect — and the workforce infrastructure behind it — can sharpen site selection and economic development decisions.
Beyond the Launch Pad: Why Huntsville and Colorado Springs Are Winning Commercial Space Investment
Legacy aerospace assets are becoming the foundation of tomorrow's commercial space economy
Companies Can Plan for Tariffs. They Can’t Plan for Uncertainty
International interest in the U.S. remains strong, but shifting trade rules are delaying commitments and giving prepared communities time to improve their position.
What Site Selectors Discuss After the Site Visit Ends
The factors that decide close location contests rarely appear in a scorecard. They happen in the debrief conversation after the site visit ends.
The RFI Is No Longer the Starting Line
AI has moved the front end of site selection upstream by weeks — and the communities you evaluate are being scored before you contact them. Understanding what that pre-screening process surfaces changes how corporate real estate teams should think about their own location process.
Reading the Signals Most Companies Miss During Site Selection
The competitive intelligence that shapes location decisions is often available to your consulting team but rarely makes it to the client. Understanding what's being held back, and why, changes how you manage the relationship.
Why Relationships Still Win Projects in Site Selection
Economic development is often described as a data-driven process. RFIs are issued. Responses are scored. Sites are ranked. Incentives are compared. A winner emerges.
What Economic Developers Can Learn From the World's Best Restaurant
Exceptional project experiences rarely happen by accident. The communities that stand out build systems that empower employees to create memorable moments when they matter most.
The Primary Problem
Now more than ever before with projects, local economic development teams are asking consultants to wait until after the election. That is a sentence that would have been unthinkable a decade ago. Here is what it means for how the job gets done.
What's Driving Site Decisions Right Now: Gold Shovel, Deal Killers, and the Korean Investment Wave
Four conversations from SelectUSA and the field reveal what’s driving investment now — from Mississippi’s execution model and workforce pipelines to project delays and a surge in Korean manufacturing interest across the Southeast.
The Shifting Landscape of Location Strategy
Five surging forces reshaping where — and how — companies grow.
2026 Outlook: Five Logistics Trends Shaping 2027 Site Decisions
As supply chains evolve beyond pure efficiency, companies are rethinking where they build, store, and move products. The result is a new generation of logistics decisions centered on resilience, flexibility, and long-term performance.
The 20-Year Test: Will This Site Still Work in 2045?
Why long-term resilience—across climate, supply chains, and technology—is now part of the site selection decision.
Incentives Don't Fix Execution Risk
Why tax breaks and grants still matter—but can't compensate for weak sites, limited power, or delivery uncertainty.
Workforce Still Matters—But It's No Longer the First Filter
Why labor hasn't disappeared from site selection—but is now competing with power, land, and execution risk.
Power Is the New Gatekeeper in Manufacturing Site Selection
Why infrastructure readiness and utility capacity now determine whether a project moves forward—or stalls before it begins.
Why America's Largest Companies Are Investing in Skilled Trades
The biggest workforce challenge facing AI, advanced manufacturing and infrastructure projects isn't operating new facilities—it's finding enough skilled workers to build them.
Community Risk Can Kill a Project Before It Breaks Ground
Why NIMBYism, political scrutiny, and local opposition are now core site selection risks—not afterthoughts
If the Site Doesn't Work on Paper, It Won't Work in Reality
Why land constraints—not incentives or labor—are eliminating manufacturing sites before the process even begins.
Geopolitics Is Now a Site Selection Variable
Why trade policy, tariffs, and global instability are reshaping where manufacturing projects land—and whether they move forward at all.
The Aluminum Smelter That Could Reshape the U.S. Industrial Map
How Oklahoma landed the first new U.S. aluminum smelter in 45 years and why the investment structure matters most.
Training for an Economy That Isn’t Fully Here Yet
Northland Workforce Training Center is opening two facilities this July that bet the region’s future on a gap most people haven’t noticed.
2026 Outlook: Why Rail Is Showing Up Earlier in Site Selection Conversations
As companies rethink supply chain risk, intermodal access is becoming a strategic consideration rather than a transportation afterthought.
First Person: Tate Reeves, Governor of Mississippi
An examination of how Mississippi is structuring large industrial projects: maintaining excess power capacity, pre serving sites with utilities in place, and coordinating workforce development through a single entity to reduce timing gaps across infrastructure, permitting, and hiring.
Editor's Note: A Higher Bar for Winning Projects
Projects are still advancing—but fewer are clearing internal hurdles. As assumptions around cost, timing, and delivery get tested, only the deals that stand up to full internal scrutiny are moving forward.
Avoid These Red Flags, Deal Killers, and Blunders in Site Selection
Industry experts from site selection, construction, law, and supply chain consulting weigh in on what's derailing projects in 2026 — and what it takes to keep deals alive.
In Focus: Rethinking Water in Data Center Site Selection
Why the real constraint isn’t always supply—and why the risk is still real.
Why Some Utilities Are Now Looking at Flexible Loads
Some utilities are experimenting with flexible-load strategies that could help data centers and manufacturers access capacity faster without waiting years for new generation.
21st Annual Shovel Awards: The American Industrial Economy Remade in Real Time
The competition for transformative projects is intensifying. From $10 billion data centers to next-generation manufacturing, this year’s Shovel Awards show which states are winning—and how they’re building durable industrial ecosystems.
21st Annual Shovel Awards: The Projects of the Year
The investments that stood apart for their scale, strategic significance, and economic impact — from advanced manufacturing and life sciences to headquarters expansions and AI-powered data centers.
First Person: UCB's $2 Billion Bet on Gwinnett County
For Philippe Mantelet, a $2 billion biologics facility represents more than a capital investment. In this interview, he outlines how UCB approaches site selection — balancing speed, infrastructure, talent, and long-term certainty — to make decisions that hold up well beyond the initial buildout.
What Korean Manufacturers Underestimate About Building in America
U.S. expansion decisions are increasingly won—or lost—before site selection begins. For Korean manufacturers, aligning capital strategy with infrastructure realities has become the defining challenge in executing successful investments.
Google’s 100-Year Bet
What Alphabet’s century bond signals about the future of data center site selection.
The Infrastructure Bet: Three Stories About Where American Industry Is Being Rebuilt
Episode 13 of The Site & Facility Planning Podcast explores Oklahoma’s $4B aluminum smelter bet, active infrastructure for grid constraints, and workforce training for clean energy facilities.
Can AI Help This Supply Chain?
Companies are changing how they forecast demand, manage inventory, and make location decisions — and that transformation is happening against a backdrop of tariff turbulence, nearshoring pressure, and relentless port volatility. Here's how to read the signals.
