Economic development incentives can create opportunity, but they aren’t no-strings-attached. Companies considering incentive packages should understand how public purpose, government controls and precise agreements can shape project viability.
Community Benefits Agreements are moving local commitments beyond informal promises. When paired with early outreach and confidentiality protections, they can create greater accountability and certainty.
Why Streamlined Environmental Review Is Now a Strategic Imperative.
Charlie Smith, managing director of geopolitical strategy at Newmark Global Strategy discusses the current trade tensions across North America and their implications with his colleagues, managing director Carlos Sanchez (based in Mexico) and senior managing director Gregg Wassmansdorf (based in Canada).
Typically, three factors determine whether a site survives first-pass evaluation in a serious location search. Incentives rarely substitute for deficits in any of them. Understanding the framework — and the sequencing — changes how companies should evaluate their own location options.
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.
Infrastructure can power your supply chain—but only when planned with foresight.
With supply chain pressures mounting, America’s logistics network is being rebuilt from the ground up and states are competing for the infrastructure edge by investing in ports, air cargo, and cold storage.
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.
By the time a site selector contacts a community or issues an RFP, the most consequential choices in a location process have already been made. Understanding what happened upstream — and when — changes how corporate real estate teams should structure their own decision-making.
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.
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.
Permanent authorization has removed a major source of uncertainty from the federal financing program.
Why chasing the biggest package can derail site selection decisions before they begin.
Discover how the OBBBA creates a short-lived opportunity for modular developers to accelerate deductions, leverage restored bonus depreciation, and meet tight 2026 energy-incentive deadlines.
New challenges—from automation to federal fallout—are testing how companies manage risk in incentive-backed projects
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.
How to plan manufacturing facilities with safety in mind.
Although records have been set for massive industrial spaces, the market has been shifting to smaller buildings.
To find out more about the current cyber threats companies are facing and their responses to such threats, Area Development’s staff writer, Lisa Bastian, interviewed Michael Morris, a managing director in Deloitte’s Cyber Detect & Respond practice.
The same AI tools are increasingly available to every general contractor. What separates them is the depth of the construction data behind those tools and the experience required to put it to work.
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.
Understanding the construction industry’s multiplier effect — and the workforce infrastructure behind it — can sharpen site selection and economic development decisions.
How a factory went from an idea to operational in about two years.
The search for power-ready sites is pushing data center developers toward former factories, power plants and other legacy industrial properties, bringing environmental liabilities into the project equation.
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.
Georgia’s newest innovation district bets big on climate-ready infrastructure and long-term planning.
Faced with the prospect of building a massive $700 million surface reservoir, Greeley instead pursued something few communities have dared to try.
Introducing the Area Development State Talent Pipeline Ranking.
Salary transparency in job listings offers new insights into wages.
Could a prolonged strike have disrupted U.S. supply chains further?
The new year brings some significant changes that will impact employers who have entry-level workers, with 22 states raising their minimum wages effective January 1st.
As defense manufacturers race to add capacity, the bigger constraint may be infrastructure, not capital. Existing and former military installations bring together many of the power, transportation, security and workforce assets that are increasingly difficult to assemble elsewhere.
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.
The biggest workforce challenge facing AI, advanced manufacturing and infrastructure projects isn't operating new facilities—it's finding enough skilled workers to build them.
As investment surges, a thinning workforce forces companies to rethink where—and how—they build in America.
Why labor hasn't disappeared from site selection—but is now competing with power, land, and execution risk.
AI isn’t eliminating jobs—at least not yet. But it is quietly reshaping how companies hire, and where those jobs show up.
Reestablishing the value of the office has driven trends in workplace investment and location strategy
Workforce demographics are reshaping how and where companies design and locate their offices.
The competition for transformative projects is intensifying. From $10 billion data centers to next-generation manufacturing, this year’s Shovel Awards show which states are winning—and how they’re building durable industrial ecosystems.
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.
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.
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.
As the commercial space sector matures, economic development organizations are adapting to opportunities that extend beyond business recruitment.
The fluidity of digital innovation - and its lack of dependence on a traditional industrial infrastructure - means that tech havens are blooming in newer magnets where tech-savvy workers are prevalent, ranging from Ann Arbor, Michigan to Richmond, Virginia.
Monterey Bay’s coordinated airport strategy could offer a blueprint for the next generation of aviation infrastructure.
Alabama has reorganized workforce development around a simple goal: make government easier for employers to navigate.
Smaller and mid-sized U.S. metros are outpacing big cities, leveraging workforce agility, affordability, and livability to redefine competitiveness and attract investment in 2025.
Simply put, companies want to locate and expand in places where people want to move to and live.
Area Development’s 2024 Leading Metro Locations report reveals shifting dynamics in America’s cities.
Speed, workforce alignment, and energy infrastructure now define the best states for doing business — not just incentives or tax breaks. Our exclusive rankings break down how the top performers are staying ahead in a tightening market.
Certain states just have the right ingredients for attracting and nurturing business growth. The 2024 Top States for Doing Business rankings are in, and guess what? The Southern states are shining bright once again.
Companies across industry sectors are having trouble finding all the talent they need, which makes workforce development programs even more vital as a location factor.
Headline migration statistics obscure the movements that matter most. Looking at specialized talent flows reveals a different picture of New York's competitive position—and offers a better framework for location strategy.
With hybrid work now a constant, corporate real estate leaders are shifting from “wait-and-see” to execution. The result: less space, higher cost per square foot, and a growing premium on offices that deliver measurable value in collaboration, culture and talent outcomes.
Oil and gas industry consolidation will likely lead to increased demands for higher-quality offices in top locations.
Companies prioritize values and mission when choosing modern headquarters locations.
Georgia’s integrated utility model is designed to give companies greater confidence that power will be available when projects are ready to come online.
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 the real constraint isn’t always supply—and why the risk is still real.
What Alphabet’s century bond signals about the future of data center site selection.
Transportation costs, shifting trade routes and supply chain risk are changing how companies evaluate industrial locations.
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.
Embedding automation into leases may offer companies a smarter way to balance risk, cost and productivity.
Partnerships with local economic developers and other community stakeholders are key to a company getting approval to site a big-box distribution center.
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.
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.
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.
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.
With deep roots in satellite communications, proximity to federal agencies and laboratories, and a highly educated workforce, Montgomery County is positioning itself as a hub for space and defense growth.
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.
With research strength, manufacturing depth, and a statewide workforce strategy, Wisconsin is positioning itself as a destination for biohealth and biopharma growth.
Tennessee's surging foreign direct investment numbers—record capital, landmark deals, and a strategic focus on critical industries—signal a state competing and winning on the global stage.
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.
CEO Rick Hoskins explains how the fast-growing air filter company selects its sites, scales its labor-heavy operation, and maintains speed-to-customer across multiple U.S. regions.
Astrobotic CEO John Thornton says the race to establish sites on the Moon is already underway—and location matters as much as it does on Earth.
Karis Cold’s Ken Verne joins Area Development to talk about urban infill opportunities, automation readiness, ESG strategy, and why facilities need to be designed for 2030—not just today’s needs.
A concentration of federal assets, manufacturing capacity and workforce investment is changing the calculus for aerospace site selection.
Why advanced manufacturers are treating site selection as a long-term business strategy, not a transaction.
Headcount-focused incentives punish evolving companies, payroll helps reward a different kind of growth.
Exploring the nuances of utility commitments and legal access.
As site scarcity shifts corporate decisions from parcels to people, execution—not assets—is becoming the real differentiator.
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.
With federal action slowing and market forces accelerating, private firms are finding that the most effective policy responses—on issues like energy, housing, and workforce—are coming from state and local governments with the agility to act.
A return to American manufacturing demands more than factories — it requires coordinated, community-wide ecosystem development
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.
Top States for Business
Annual Econdev Awards
Corporate Exec Survey Results
Leading Metro Locations
