Manufacturing / Industrial
Project Announcements
Traxion Materials Expands Jacksboro, Tennessee, Production Operations
Italy-Based Bertagni 1882 Plans St. Charles, Missouri, Operations
Artisans Establishes Lexington, Kentucky, Manufacturing Operations
Virginia Steel and Fabrication Expands Bland County, Virginia, Operations
STERIS Plans Sanford, North Carolina, Manufacturing Operations
Kimberly-Clark Corporation Plans Yuma, Arizona, Operations
DRC Industries Expands Columbus, Mississippi, Production Operations
Epsilon Industries Expands Tuscaloosa, Alabama, Production Operations
Qualis Engineered Plastics Plans Evansville, Indiana, Manufacturing Operations
Swiss-Based Medacta International Plans Spring Hill, Tennessee, Operations
James & James Plans Heber Springs, Arkansas, Manufacturing Operations
GE Vernova Expands Findlay-Rostraver, Pennsylvania, Manufacturing Operations
Wenger Group Plans New Oxford, Pennsylvania, Operations
NPK Access Solutions Expands Carencro, Louisiana, Production Operations
Recent Features
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.
When Property Law Becomes a Location Constraint
How ownership restrictions are complicating industrial site selection.
Industries of the Future Aren’t Speculative Anymore
How federal capital, private investment, and place are quietly reshaping U.S. manufacturing.
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.
Amazon’s First Mass Timber Delivery Station Tests the Future of Low-Carbon Logistics
In Elkhart, Indiana, a 171,000-square-foot “wood warehouse” built by Graycor may point the way toward a more sustainable model for industrial construction.
Manhattan’s Old Ramps, New Logistics
In an undersupplied NYC market, a historic multistory facility shows why what seemed obsolete is now indispensable for last-mile distribution.
