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Recent Features
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
Editor's Note: The Year Site Selection Grew Up
Energy availability takes center stage as companies compete for grid capacity and rethink growth strategies
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.
Around the Horn: Advanced Manufacturing’s Next Move
JLL recently launched an Advanced Manufacturing group to meet the moment, and Area Development spoke with group leaders Greg Matter, Vice Chair, Industrials, and Meaghan Elwell, Division President of Global Industrials, to get their real estate playbook for the new era. This conversation has been edited for space and style.
Electrons Are the New Gatekeepers
As grid capacity tightens, manufacturers must treat energy as a core site selection filter.
Editor’s Note: Thriving at the Intersection of Change
First Person: Filter King’s Expansion Playbook
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.
First Person: Astrobotic CEO on Building the Lunar Economy
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.
First Person: Karis Cold’s Ken Verne on Urban Demand, Automation, and the Infrastructure Gap
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.
Editor’s Note: Making Sense of the Shifts
If you’re reading this magazine, you’re likely grappling with questions that don’t have easy answers: Where will the next constraint show up? What will this election cycle do to capital flows? How do you build resilience without losing speed?
Why Cold Storage May Defy the Tariff Crunch
Food related projects remain resilient as tariff pressures shake other sectors of commercial real estate
Last Word: Time for States to Shine
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.
First Person: David Robey, Co-CEO of QTS Data Centers
With QTS rapidly scaling to meet hyperscaler and enterprise demand across North America and Europe, Co-CEO David Robey shares his perspective on site selection, utilities, incentives, and what’s next for the industry. Robey, who previously served as COO, brings a tactical mindset to an evolving set of location priorities.
In Focus: AI Is Changing Incentives Math
Headcount-focused incentives punish evolving companies, payroll helps reward a different kind of growth.
First Person: Joe Capes, CEO, LiquidStack
LiquidStack CEO Joe Capes on choosing Texas for expansion, working through AI supply chain shocks, and why hot water is the future of cooling.
First Person: Meaghan Elwell, Division President for JLL’s Industrials
Meaghan Elwell serves as the President of the Industrials Division at JLL Work Dynamics, where she oversees global outsourcing relationships across various sectors, including Manufacturing, Aviation, Automotive, Logistics, Oil & Gas, and Utilities. With over 20 years at JLL, she has extensive experience in managing corporate relationships and large real estate portfolios.
First Person: René Buck, President & CEO, BCI Global
As founder and CEO of BCI Global, René Buck has led site selection projects and supply chain projects across Europe, Asia, and the Americas. We caught up with Buck to talk about the evolution of site selection, the impact of tariffs and geopolitics, and the advice he’s giving manufacturing executives right now.
First Person: Brent Omdahl, SVP Government Affairs for Global Wafers
The EVP for Government Affairs at GlobalWafers shares insights on a $3.5 billion investment in Sherman, Texas, workforce development, and how the CHIPS Act has reshaped semiconductor manufacturing in the U.S.
Editor’s Note: The Future Is Now
All Roads Lead to Washington
We are at the dawn of America’s next Industrial Revolution, and it will be shaped in large part by the convergence of technological innovation, climate change and geopolitical pressures.
The Role of Rail in Industrial Development
Area Development talked with Norfolk Southern’s GVP of Industrial Development, Craig Hudson, about the evolving importance of rail in site selection, supply chain sustainability, and emerging sectors like metals and advanced materials.
Driving the Future of Domestic Battery Recycling: A Conversation with Steven Wu, COO of ABTC
In this exclusive conversation with Area Development, Steven Wu, the newly minted Chief Operating Officer of American Battery Technology Company (ABTC), discusses ABTC’s strategy to play a pivotal role in the U.S. domestic supply chain.
Editor's Note: Raising a future American
As site selectors, we seek communities that nurture versatile talent pools. And as parents, we’re working to prepare our kids to be part of that future workforce. In the end, both parenting and site selection come down to building for the future.
Nice to meet you, dear reader. Call me Andy.
From Steel to Silicon: Chicago’s South Works Site to Host Largest U.S. Quantum Computing Hub
The $2.2 million project will transform the former industrial site into a cutting-edge quantum computing facility, advancing Chicago’s role in the tech industry.
First Person: Scott Kupperman, Owner, Kupperman Location Solutions (KLS)
Area Development interviewed Scott Kupperman about factors affecting food processing site selection, including cost pressures, geographic preferences, financial considerations, automation, labor shortages, and sustainability.
A Final Note: An Editorial Transition at Area Development
The means by which information is delivered has, of course, changed over the last three decades, but Area Development will continue to provide our readers with what they require to make informed site and facility planning decisions.
Welcome to The Great Electron Race
The great electron race is underway, and those who innovate and adapt will shape the future of our continually evolving digital society.
In Focus: Will Serve Letters and Right-of-Way Acquisitions in Site Selection
Exploring the nuances of utility commitments and legal access.
