That process matters, and it has become increasingly sophisticated as data and analytics have transformed the front end of site selection. But it rarely explains the projects that break the mold — the large investments, the unusual requirements, and the opportunities that seem to emerge from nowhere.

Those deals almost always have a relationship at their center. Not a relationship in the abstract sense of professional goodwill, but a specific, maintained, trust-based connection between a site selector and an economic development professional that creates an information flow the formal process never would have.

What Relationships Actually Produce

The most concrete illustration is often the simplest.

A client arrives with a highly unusual water requirement, one that eliminates most of the markets under consideration. The standard process would be straightforward: revise the specifications, distribute them through the existing network, and wait for responses.

Instead, a text goes to an economic developer who has been known for years.

Within an hour, a site surfaces in a market that had not previously been considered. The property meets the requirement, advances into the process, and ultimately saves the client significant time and capital.

The transaction itself took seconds. The relationship behind it took years.

It was built through conference conversations, FAM tours, follow-up calls on projects that went elsewhere, and the accumulated trust that comes from treating an economic development professional as a genuine partner rather than simply a source of information.v

The economics of that relationship are not subtle. Clients pay significant fees for site selection counsel. A single qualified site uncovered through trusted relationships can create value that exceeds the cost of an engagement many times over.

The deals that don't make sense on paper almost always trace back to a relationship that was built before the project existed. That relationship is not a soft asset. It is one of the hardest assets in the process.

The Value of Optionality

The importance of relationships is closely connected to another reality of economic development: the value of creating long-term optionality.

The Foxconn project in Wisconsin provides a useful example.

Much has been written about the gap between the project's original vision and its eventual outcome. But from an economic development perspective, the more instructive lesson is what remained after the original plans changed.

The public investment was directed largely toward site preparation, infrastructure, and tax increment financing rather than the operating company itself. When Foxconn's plans evolved, the infrastructure remained. The site remained. The entitlement work remained.

Those assets helped position the property for Microsoft's subsequent data center investment, generating a new opportunity from infrastructure that had already been put in place.

The lesson is not that unsuccessful projects are beneficial. It is that investments in site readiness create durable value. A prepared site with documented infrastructure, known utility capacity, established entitlements, and a clear cost basis becomes a strategic asset that can be matched to future opportunities.

At a time when power availability, water access, and development readiness increasingly determine which sites advance through the first round of consideration, that optionality matters.

What Transparency About Losses Can Buy

One of the most underutilized tools in economic development is honest communication about employers that are leaving a market.

The instinct to control the narrative is understandable. Plant closures and workforce reductions create political, economic, and human challenges that communities would rather avoid.

But departing employers often leave behind assets that are highly attractive to prospective users: trained workers, existing facilities, utility infrastructure, transportation access, and supplier networks.

Economic developers who identify those opportunities early and communicate them candidly can transform a difficult situation into a competitive advantage.

A 450,000-square-foot facility with the infrastructure a new employer required became available through exactly this type of proactive outreach. The property surfaced because an economic developer recognized the opportunity, understood which advisors might have interested clients, and picked up the phone.

The outcome exceeded expectations. The new employer ultimately created more jobs than originally projected because the facility enabled a faster expansion than would have been possible through new construction.

The economic developer could not predict that result. What they understood was that an asset existed, that trusted relationships mattered, and that speed was important.

Building Relationships Before You Need Them

The relationships that influence projects are rarely built during those projects. They are built years earlier through conversations that carry no immediate transaction, through follow-up calls after deals go elsewhere, and through consistent engagement when there is nothing specific to sell.

Economic developers who engage only when they have a project to promote are likely to receive a professional response and a place in the process. Those who become trusted, credible, and useful sources of information often receive something more valuable: consideration before the process formally begins.

That difference has little to do with market size, budget, or incentive programs. It has everything to do with how relationships are maintained when there is no immediate opportunity on the table.

Economic development has always been a relationship business. Data, analytics, and formal processes have made the industry smarter and more efficient, but they have not changed that fundamental reality. The communities that consistently position themselves for success are often the ones investing in relationships long before the next project appears.