Manufacturing / Industrial
Project Announcements
RayzeBio Plans Whitestown, Indiana Radiopharmaceutical Manufacturing Operations
Japan-Based Astemo Americas Expands Berea, Kentucky, Production Operations
ProVia Plans Tuscarawas County, Ohio, Manufacturing Operations
Owens-Brockway Glass Container Upgrades Muskogee, Oklahoma, Production Operations
Ocean Aero Expands Gulfport, Mississippi, Operations
Gerard Daniel Worldwide Expands Hanover, Pennsylvania, Manufacturing Operations
Freeman Automation Plans Graves County, Kentucky, Manufacturing Operations
Industrial Electric Mfg. Plans San Antonio, Texas, Manufacturing Operations
ProVia Plans Mocksville, North Carolina, Manufacturing Operations
Great Southern Wood-NC Plans Laurinburg, North Carolina, Lumber Treatment Operations
Germany-Based Evonik Plans Vancouver, British Columbia, Manufacturing Operations
D-A Lubricant Expands Lebanon, Indiana, Production Operations
Boater’s World Manufacturing Group Plans Chocowinity, North Carolina, Manufacturing Operations
Hyve Solutions Plans Reno-North Las Vegas, Nevada, Manufacturing Operations
Recent Features
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.
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.
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.
Buildings Are Becoming Part of the Competitive Stack
AI is changing how facilities are operated, maintained, and optimized—turning buildings from fixed assets into active participants in business performance.
Google’s 100-Year Bet
What Alphabet’s century bond signals about the future of data center site selection.
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.
Where Early-Stage Life Sciences Companies Get Stuck Scaling Their Real Estate—and How to Move Forward
Biotech firms face delays in programming, permitting, and infrastructure as they scale from lab to production.
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.
Contributed Content
The Partnerships Driving Virginia’s Biopharma Success
Virginia is pairing industry investment, academic partnerships and workforce development to build a resilient biopharmaceutical manufacturing ecosystem.
Navigating Foreign Direct Investment, Foreign-Trade Zones and Manufacturing in a Volatile Market
As tariff uncertainty and industrial policy shifts reshape investment strategies, manufacturers are leaning on tools such as foreign-trade zones, accelerated workforce partnerships and vertically integrated facilities to manage risk and maintain momentum in U.S. site selection decisions.
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.
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.
Contributed Content
Beyond Shovel-Ready
How Michigan’s Site Readiness Strategy is De-Risking Investment.
Phillip Morris International Starting Building Before Plans
How a factory went from an idea to operational in about two years.
Last Word: Don’t Lose by Winning
As site scarcity shifts corporate decisions from parcels to people, execution—not assets—is becoming the real differentiator.
Contributed Content
Potential Energy: Why Power Availability is Driving Site Selection
In today’s economic development landscape, power availability is no longer an item on a checklist — it's often the entire list.
What Companies Need from Modern Manufacturing Sites
Capital, infrastructure, power and workforce now define competitive manufacturing locations.
Advanced Manufacturing Isn’t a Buzzword—It’s a Different Location Strategy
Why companies expanding today must rethink labor, sites, and operational resilience.
