Manufacturing / Industrial
Project Announcements
Utili-Serve Expands Conover, North Carolina, Headquarters Operations
Shield AI Plans Des Moines, Washington, AI-Piloted Aircraft Manufacturing Operations
Westwin Elements Plans Natchez, Mississippi, Nickel Refinery Operations
QT Corporation Plans Goldsboro, North Carolina, Manufacturing Operations
Aleris Nutrition Plans Menomonee Falls, Wisconsin, Production Operations
Blue Origin Plans Hutto, Texas, Manufacturing Operations
Lockheed Martin Expands Douglas County-Jefferson County, Colorado, Operations
M.C. Dean Expands Caroline County, Virginia, Manufacturing Operations
Netherlands-Based VDL Groep Expands Oakwood, Georgia, Operations
Corvid Technologies Expands Mooresville, North Carolina, Manufacturing Operations
Koinonia Plans Drew, Mississippi, Manufacturing Operations
Methode Electronics Plans Southfield, Michigan, Headquarters Operations
GSK Expands Montgomery County, Pennsylvania, Manufacturing Operations
R/S-Godwin Truck Body Expands Floyd County, Kentucky, Operations
Recent Features
Contributed Content
Building a World-Class Defense Workforce in Virginia
From accelerated manufacturing training in Danville to a massive maritime talent network in Hampton Roads, Virginia is building workforce pipelines designed to meet the defense industry’s growing demand for skilled labor.
In Focus: Ohio Builds for Aerospace Scale
A concentration of federal assets, manufacturing capacity and workforce investment is changing the calculus for aerospace site selection.
How Aerospace and Defense Site Selection Criteria Are Evolving
A historic defense manufacturing buildup is rewriting the rules of site selection, as labor analytics, power capacity and competitive intelligence push companies beyond the industry’s traditional markets.
Contributed Content
Ohio’s 15-Year Bet on Speed and Infrastructure
With surging demand, business-friendly legislation and billions in investment, Ohio is building the energy infrastructure that factories, data centers and advanced manufacturers need to grow.
Top States for Doing Business in 2026: Where Competitive Advantage Becomes Project Certainty
The strongest states are doing more than assembling attractive business fundamentals. They are connecting talent, executable sites, utility capacity, government responsiveness and operating economics into a credible path from site search to operation.
Ready to Show: Five Things Every EDO Should Be Able to Answer Right Now
The communities winning projects aren’t necessarily those with the best assets. They’re the ones that know exactly what they can deliver — and can prove it quickly.
In Focus: The Cleared Personnel Challenge
In defense-related site selection, access to workers who already hold security clearances can narrow the location search before incentives or real estate enter the discussion.
Reshoring Gains Ground in Defense and Advanced Manufacturing
Defense procurement, domestic-content rules and federal support for semiconductor production are creating opportunities for foreign and domestic manufacturers, even as broader reshoring remains constrained by labor costs.
Connecticut’s submarine boom tests its workforce pipeline
Eastern Connecticut has built an unusually coordinated system for moving people into manufacturing careers. Now the scale of submarine production is testing whether the region’s suppliers, schools and infrastructure can keep pace.
Space and Defense Are Becoming One Industrial Ecosystem
As launch, satellite and defense engineering increasingly draw on the same technology, talent and supply chains, communities built around one industry may already have what the other is looking for.
Industrial Location Decisions Follow the Freight
Transportation costs, shifting trade routes and supply chain risk are changing how companies evaluate industrial locations.
Site Constraints That Money Alone Can’t Solve
Engineering risks don't always show up in project budgets. The biggest threats to schedule are often the approvals, easements and utility commitments that money alone can't accelerate.
Last Word: Data Centers and the Infrastructure of the Intelligence Revolution
Meta’s Louisiana project illustrates both the legitimate concerns surrounding large-scale data centers and the potentially transformative rewards for communities prepared to accommodate them.
Why Great Sites Get Eliminated: The Critical Role of Information Presentation in Site Selection
Strong locations can fall out of contention when communities submit information that is difficult to interpret, compare or verify.
Steel Is Back—and Infrastructure Is Deciding Where New Mills Locate
A new generation of domestic steel investment is reshaping the industrial map. The projects are larger, the infrastructure requirements are more demanding, and the communities that can compete are fewer than most economic developers realize.
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.
Project Counts Are Falling. Why That's Not Bad News for Economic Developers
Activity is down from its post-COVID peak, average investment is up, and the competition for major projects has gone global. Understanding what those trends mean for your community's strategy is more important than chasing the next announcement.
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.
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.
Why Your Next Facility Should Be Looking for an Energy Park, Not an Industrial Park
Energy-intensive operations need more than a parcel with available power. The emerging energy park model puts generation, storage, grid access and room for expansion at the center of industrial site selection and long-term growth.
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.
Semiconductor Demand Is Infinite. The Talent Isn’t.
AMD is racing to build the chips powering the AI era. First, it has to build the engineers to design them.
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.
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.
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
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.
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.
In Focus: Rethinking Water in Data Center Site Selection
Why the real constraint isn’t always supply—and why the risk is still real.
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.
