Logistics / Infrastructure
Recent Features
Contributed Content
Energy Certainty Is the New Competitive Advantage
Georgia’s integrated utility model is designed to give companies greater confidence that power will be available when projects are ready to come online.
Industrial Location Decisions Follow the Freight
Transportation costs, shifting trade routes and supply chain risk are changing how companies evaluate industrial locations.
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.
In Focus: The Cost Stack Is Inverted
Transportation represents 45 to 75 percent of operational expense for most industrial and distribution operations. Real estate by comparison, is only between 5 – 15%, a rounding error for some organizations. The implications for how location decisions should be structured — and where cost optimization effort should be focused — are significant and widely ignored.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
How Tariffs Are Rewiring Logistics
Industrial real estate is entering a new phase as tariff policy, slowing e-commerce growth, and changing trade routes reshape where demand is strongest — and where vacancy is rising fastest.
The Infrastructure of Intelligence
Why the next economic map will be drawn in megawatts, not square feet.
2026 Outlook: The Warehouse Market Isn’t Growing — It’s Sorting Itself
With demand stabilizing, industrial occupiers are shifting from rapid expansion to disciplined execution. The result is fewer speculative projects, more build-to-suit activity, and a growing premium on facilities that deliver efficiency, automation capacity, and reliable access to labor and customers.
2026 Outlook: Biomanufacturing Isn’t Slowing — It’s Getting More Selective
What looks like a slowdown in biomanufacturing is better understood as a filter. Demand remains, but companies are moving more carefully — aligning new projects with production needs, regulatory realities, infrastructure capacity, and long-term.
What Does “Site Readiness” Really Mean?
A roundup of programs—and the consultants who know what they’re worth.
40th Annual Corporate and 22nd Annual Consultant Site Selection Survey Results
For decades, the bedrock question of corporate site selection was some version of the same calculation: where can we do this most cheaply? That era is not simply fading. According to the results of Area Development's 2026 Annual Survey of Site Selection Consultants, it has ended. Welcome to the new era of operational certainty.
Last Word: When Incentives Lead, Projects Follow—Often in the Wrong Direction
Why chasing the biggest package can derail site selection decisions before they begin.
The Evolving Landscape of AI Infrastructure
AI is reshaping site strategy. This episode explores compressing “Time to First Token,” power-first location decisions, and the execution discipline executives need as data centers scale, faster than real estate cycles.
Editor's Note: Raising the Bar on Readiness
Forestry and Related Products: Why Location Mistakes Are So Hard to Undo
What corporate site selection teams must understand before committing long-term capital.
Contributed Content
Oklahoma’s Competitive Edge: Low Cost, High Performance
A central U.S. location delivering cost stability, logistics reach and industry-focused workforce development.
Contributed Content
Montgomery County, Maryland: A Global Hub for Growth and Innovation
Just outside Washington, D.C., Montgomery County pairs one of the nation’s most educated workforces with federal research assets, transit-connected development, and a deep life sciences cluster poised for its next phase of expansion.
Speed Built In—The Real Differentiator for 2026 Site Selection Projects
After a year where “shovel ready” often unraveled under scrutiny, the forward play is fewer unknowns and faster paths to operation—because constraints decide the field before incentives do.
Strategic Industries at the Crossroads: Defense, Aerospace, and Maritime Enter 2026
As industrial policy accelerated, the gap between ambition and execution widened: supply chain security, workforce clearance, and infrastructure bottlenecks revealed the unforgiving realities of building strategic industries at home.
The Geography of Packaging: Why Location Strategy Matters More Than Ever
Smarter expansion begins with smarter location decisions — especially as automation, sustainability, and supply chain risk redefine the packaging industry.
In Focus: Korea’s Blueprint for Sustainable U.S. Expansion
Why advanced manufacturers are treating site selection as a long-term business strategy, not a transaction.
Preparing for the Next USMCA Shake-Up
Business leaders should brace for potential costs and disruptions as North America’s free trade deal heads for review.
The Cold Chain Sector Recalibration
A surge of new supply, aging legacy facilities, and shifting operator strategies are creating a widening divide between modern, efficient assets and obsolete space across the nation’s cold storage footprint.
Last Word: Smart Executives Are Paying Attention to Rural Opportunity Zones
The permanent extension of Opportunity Zones under the 2025 OBBBA creates a rare opening for business leaders to shape where federal investment flows — and rural America may hold the strongest opportunities for long-term strategic growth.
Around the Horn: Data Center Supply Chains — What's Next?
Area Development magazine caught up with its Q2 guest editors, Ford Graham and Steven Pearce from McGuireWoods consulting, to talk about their reporting on data center supply chains. We also invited Ermengarde Jabir Director of Economic Research at Moody’s to join the discussion.
Where MedTech Grows Best
How data, labor, and logistics drive location decisions for next-gen MedTech manufacturing.
Too Much of a Good Thing: Can Overbuilt Spec Development Benefit Manufacturers?
Power supply, infrastructure, and specs often fall short for manufacturers eyeing overbuilt logistics sites.
