< Previous108 JULY 2018 SI T E S E L E C T IO Ntarget drones fl y against DOD defense systems, such as the Aegis combat system, and simulate incoming missiles and aircraft. A $-million contract to supply target drones to the Army, the company says, makes Kratos the sole supplier of jet-powered, sub-scale target drones to all branches of the U.S. military. Kratos’ unmanned target drones recently participated in Exercise Formidable Shield , a live-fi re integrated air and missile defense exercise conducted by Naval Striking and Support Forces NATO on behalf of the US th Fleet.“Advanced military target drones with fi ghter-like performance,” says Fendley, “have been the mainstay of our company, and we have come to dominate that market as our customers are replacing their drone fl eets with the latest technology. As a result, orders have increased substantially.”A Thriving Aerospace LandscapeAviation and aerospace is Oklahoma’s second largest industry behind the energy sector. Civilian and military aviation account for $. billion in AEROSPACE-RELATED COMPANIES1,100+200,000WORKERS EMPLOYED IN AEROSPACE- AND DEFENSE-RELATED INDUSTRIESKratos will manufacture its MQM-178A Firejet in Oklahoma.Image courtesy Kratos Defense & Security SolutionsAll of the pieces in Oklahoma fi t what we were looking for.”— Steve Fendley, President, Unmanned Systems Division, Kratos Defense and Security Solutions S I T E S E L E C T I O N JULY 2018 109economic activity annually, according to figures recently released by the Oklahoma Department of Commerce. More than 1,100 aerospace-related companies are in Oklahoma, with some 200,000 workers employed in aerospace- and defense-related industries.Vince Howie, aerospace and defense director for the Oklahoma Department of Commerce, says the state has two main “magnets” for aerospace.“In Oklahoma City,” Howie tells Site Selection, “is Tinker Air Force Base, and it’s the largest maintenance, repair and overhaul [MRO] facility for the Department of Defense. It’s got 32,000 employees. Up in the Tulsa area, American Airlines has their MRO facility, and it’s the largest commercial MRO facility in the world. They employ around 6,500. With those two entities there and with our six military bases, it’s made for quite a cluster.” Oklahoma City also is headquarters to Boeing’s Aircraft Modernization and Sustainment business. The company’s presence in the city dates back more than 60 years, when it started with a dozen people in rented office space. Today, Boeing’s employment in the area exceeds 2,400 people and includes a 300,000-sq.-ft. (27,871-sq.-m.) engineering, research and development lab facility opened in 2016. The 800-job project is developing ways to prolong the lives of existing aircraft such as the C-17 Globemaster III and the Airborne Warning and Control System (AWACS).‘Tremendous Momentum’Sustaining and growing the aerospace cluster has been a prime goal of the Oklahoma state government. Last spring, Governor Mary Fallin signed into law a bill extending incentives to employers and employees in the aerospace industry. The legislation extends the sunset date on the state’s aerospace engineer employee and employer tax credit to January 2026.“This legislation will help us attract and retain new business and retain the great jobs made available by industry giants like Boeing and American Airlines,” 110 JULY 2018 SI T E S E L E C T IO Nsaid Fallin. “ e aerospace engineer tax credit has helped create hundreds of new, high-paying jobs for skilled Oklahomans. It’s also played a key role in maintaining Oklahoma’s position as an internationally recognized hub for aerospace business.” e tax credits, which initially took eff ect in , generated some $. billion in economic output, according to a review by the Oklahoma Incentive Evaluation Commission. In addition, they were shown to have generated $ million in employee wages, , new jobs paying about $, a year and a -percent growth in aerospace engineer employment in the state. e credits include:• A tax credit to employers of up to percent of an engineer’s salary for up to fi ve years;• A tax credit to employers for tuition reimbursements they make to newly-graduated engineers;• A tax credit to qualifying engineers for up to $, for up to fi ve years. is year, Oklahoma lawmakers gave another boost to the industry by passing the Aerospace Commerce Economic Services Act (ACES). Backers say it will create a partnership of service providers to more eff ectively respond to the needs of the aviation, aerospace and defense industries in the areas of education and training, research and economic development. e bill’s chief sponsor, State Sen. Paul Rosino, said the measure could further grow the industry by billions of dollars annually.“ e aerospace industry has tremendous momentum right now and we must keep that going,” said Rosino. Ushering In a New EraFor its part, Kratos expects to invest between $ million and $ million into its Oklahoma City expansion, according to Howie. e company says it will hire a minimum of workers and as many as over the next fi ve years. e company is in the process of narrowing down a list of sites.Gov. Fallin says she hopes the company’s expansion will encourage others to follow.“When you get a company like Kratos that locates to Oklahoma, there are also suppliers to them who will look at the possibility of coming to Oklahoma because they want to do business with a major supplier of unmanned aerospace and the latest technology.”Howie believes the Kratos expansion could usher in a new era for the state’s aerospace industry.“We have a lot of manufacturing in the state,” he says. “We have companies that make parts for both Boeing and Airbus. But this puts aircraft manufacturing back in the state. And it’s been a long time. We used to have Gulfstream here, and they’ve been gone for years. One of my personal goals was to get aircraft manufacturing back into the state.”Howie isn’t alone in seeing the Kratos expansion as a potential game-changer.“ ese are cutting-edge components of technology and aviation coming to Oklahoma City,” says Roy Williams, president of the Greater Oklahoma City Chamber. “It represents the future of the industry. Much of what we have in Oklahoma City is maintenance and overhaul, which is taking care of everything that is old. is is the next wave of growth in the sector. We think this is a home run.” … this puts aircraft manufacturing back in the state.”— Vince Howie, Aerospace and Defense Director, Oklahoma Department of Commerce S I T E S E L E C T I O N JULY 2018 111 e Natural State drafts a plan for its companies’ future competitiveness. Forget plastics. A public-private partnership for advancing data analytics and computing is the best way to position Arkansas for the future. at’s the chief fi nding of a report prepared by an -member commission and presented to Governor Asa Hutchinson in December . e result is the Arkansas Partnership for Data Analytics and Computing, a non-profi t organization governed by industry leaders with representation from state government and higher education. e commission comprised mainly Arkansas company executives (Walmart, Stephens, Tyson Foods and others) and higher education leaders; it was co-chaired by Charles Morgan, CEO of First Orion Corporation, and Mike Preston, executive director of the Arkansas Economic Development Commission.“ e future of Arkansas’s economic development is tied to our ability to succeed in data analytics and computing,” said Morgan on presenting the commission’s report to the governor. “It is a technology that cuts across our leading industries. If we are to succeed in retaining and growing existing jobs and recruiting industry, we have to have the talent and technical capabilities to meet this opportunity. A public-private partnership is needed to collaborate in developing the talent we all need in industry to compete in data analytics and computing.”by MARK ARENDmar k .ar end@ site s ele c tion.c omAbove: Downtown Little RockPhoto by Casey Crocker courtesy of Arkansas Department of Parks and TourismST A TE SPO TLIGHTArkansasThe Future Is DataAnalytics & Computing112 JULY 2018 SI T E S E L E C T IO NOver the next fi ve years, strategic priorities for the Arkansas Partnership for Data Analytics and Computing include:• addressing the challenges of recruiting top talent actively involved in data analytics and computing;• raising industry awareness and understanding; and• developing, engaging and retaining homegrown top talent in data analytics and computing. e commission’s recommendations also included specifi c ways to: () advance increased networking and executive education for Arkansas companies to better integrate data analytics into their businesses; () reinforce data analytics skills development across Arkansas’s universities and connecting students with businesses; () target data analytics and computing talent retention, attraction, and retraining to ensure Arkansas can meet existing and new company demand for data analytics talent; and () raise Arkansas’s technical capabilities through a Data Analytics Strategic Improvement Plan. e commissioners estimate $ million from state government and private entities over a fi ve-year period will be required to staff the initiative and launch its near-term program eff orts as a key technology-based economic development initiative of the state.Progress ReportWhere do things stand in mid-? Has the train left the station?“A lot of work has taken place to set the program up for implementation,” says AEDC’s Mike Preston. “ e legal organization fi ling for the Arkansas Center for Data Science will be completed within a week. e organizing members are scheduled to meet in July to establish the board of directors and slate of offi cers.”Meanwhile, he adds, work has begun to establish a user group of CIOs from major Arkansas corporations to share industry problems and create a common training to address those issues. “Finally,” reports Preston, “AEDC and its partners are fi nalizing its science and technology plan, which will be the roadmap for the state’s input on this private-public economic development strategy. e document will be up for public review near the end of July.” Simmons Prepared Foods broke ground on its new chicken processing facility in Benton County in June. The project, announced in September 2017, will relocate the current Decatur facility approximately two miles away to the site between Gentry and Decatur. Scheduled to open in 2019, the new facility will provide fresh and frozen chicken products to retail and restaurant customers. Calstrip Industries Inc. plans to build a new processing facility on the campus of Nucor Steel Arkansas, near Blytheville in Mississippi County. The initial construction will be 100,000-plus sq. ft. (9,300 sq. m.), with two planned expansions that will bring the total facility size to more than 300,000 sq. ft. (27,800 sq. m.). The initial phase alone will involve capital investment of more than $15 million and creation of 45 new jobs.Sweden-based Gränges will invest $26 million to expand its Newport operations where it manufactures aluminum for various light gauge foil applications, such as food-grade packaging. The expansion will create an additional 100 full-time jobs over two years, more than quadrupling its current 21 positions. In 2016, Gränges purchased Noranda Aluminum and acquired the Newport facility along with those in Tennessee and North Carolina. Its Arkansas facility has one of the widest aluminum rolling mills in the United States and uses a proprietary coating process.Bank of the Ozarks is building a new operations building in downtown Ozark and will add approximately 130 new jobs over the next ve years. The building will add 36,761 sq. ft. (3,400 sq. m.) of of ce space and additional parking to the bank’s campus. It will join three existing buildings that house Bank of the Ozarks’ operations centers and backup data facility.ARKANSASProject Watch114 JULY 2018 SI T E S E L E C T IO NSoup’s on next door too, all part of a new master-planned development across the Delaware from Philadelphia. When Subaru of America opened a new $ -million headquarters in Camden, New Jersey, in April, it didn’t just remove some of the sting from the state’s loss of Mercedes-Benz’s headquarters to metro Atlanta. It also represented the evolution of a Camden redevelopment story begun by Campbell Soup Company years ago.First announced in , the Subaru HQ welcomes more than employees as the company consolidates from four sites (including the former home o ce in Cherry Hill) to one campus. Subaru of America was founded in in Philadelphia. e company has had its corporate headquarters in New Jersey since .“Our move to Camden is the next chapter in the long-term future of Subaru in the Delaware Valley,” said omas J. Doll, president and CEO, Subaru of America, Inc. “We have called this place ‘home’ for years, and we are thrilled that we will continue to be a part of the local community we have supported for so long.”Model for RebirthRedevelopment is a familiar strain in the Garden State, and takes many forms: cultivation of startups at a former commercial laundry in Jersey City now home to the New Jersey City University’s Business Development Incubator; Lincoln Equities Group’s e orts to transform the former Military Ocean Terminal at Bayonne into . million sq. ft. (, sq. m.) of industrial built-to-suit warehouse space; Prism Capital Partners’ infrastructure investments as it repositions the -acre ( -hectare) former Ho mann-La Roche campus spanning Nutley and Clifton as a new model of walkable urbanism it’s calling ON .by ADAM BRUNSadam.br uns @ site s ele c tion.c omST A TE SPO TLIGHTNew JerseyPhoto art by Sean Scantland S I T E S E L E C T I O N JULY 2018 115But Camden continues to set the tone.Companies that relocate to Camden are able to take advantage of the Grow New Jersey program and the Garden States Growth Zones (GSGZ) program, both part of the New Jersey Economic Opportunity Act of 2013. Grow NJ is the state’s main job incentive program, and GSGZ offers developers and tenants in the state’s lowest-income cities, including Camden, a tax incentive.Located adjacent to Campbell Soup Company’s world headquarters, Subaru’s new home is the first new corporate headquarters in Knights Crossing, a master-planned urban town center community being developed by Brandywine Realty Trust. Upon completion, Knights Crossing will include 1.4 million sq. ft. (130,060 sq. m.) of office space and will ultimately be served by two forms of public transportation. In welcoming Subaru, Gerard H. Sweeney, Brandywine president and CEO, Subaru’s choice of the master-planned development solidified the company’s “commitment to Camden and their employees’ productivity, health and comfort.”Increase BrightnessComfort is Campbell’s middle name. But the company takes corporate sustainability and social responsibility as seriously as it takes sustenance.“Campbell is a major employer in the region with over 1,200 employees that live in the Greater Philadelphia area,” explains Kim Fortunato, director of community affairs for the company, and president of the Campbell Soup Foundation. “Our employees are passionate members of the local community, in 2017 providing 12,200 hours of volunteer service, and a $1.5-million financial investment in our hometown Camden via the Campbell Soup Foundation. Campbell has also invested $132 million to remain in Camden and help revitalize its Gateway District.”Sustainability and corporate responsibility are embedded into the culture, adds David Stangis, vice president of corporate responsibility and chief sustainability officer for Campbell Soup Company. “We set targets to improve the health of young people in our hometown communities, by addressing issues such as hunger and childhood obesity in places like Camden. Campbell’s annual incentive compensation program includes goals for the absolute reduction of greenhouse gas emissions (GHG), water use and waste to landfill. Sustainability has been a part of the incentive compensation formula at Campbell for many years now.”Campbell first committed to expanding its world headquarters in 2007.“We began acquiring vacant and neglected buildings, empty parking lots and other unused parcels of land to prepare them for redevelopment,” the company recounted in an April release welcoming Subaru to the area.Campbell itself now is in the midst of a reorganization following the $6.1-billion acquisition of Snyder’s-Lance, including establishment of an on-campus Accelerator. Asked about the company’s own “redevelopment,” Fortunato says, “Camden, New Jersey, has been Campbell’s home for the last 149 years. Campbell is excited about the future of Camden and the recent economic growth and revitalization of our hometown community. Not only are we the anchor tenant for an exciting new Knights Crossing development in Camden — alongside our new neighbor, Subaru of America — but Campbell has also just completed our largest acquisition ever, Snyder’s-Lance. The future looks bright for both Campbell and Camden.” Photo courtesy of Campbell Soup Company116 JULY 2018 SI T E S E L E C T IO NOver the last couple decades, the eastern edge of New York, known as Tech Valley, has been quietly but steadily increasing its nanotech, semiconductor, bio and life sciences industries, all while fostering a collaborative environment that helps new companies succeed. Recently, a 370-page economic impact study called “Partnering to Grow the New York Regional Nano-Cluster” reported impressive economic benefits surrounding the semiconductor industry in New York’s Tech Valley region. The report’s authors, Charles W. Wessner, Georgetown University research professor, and Thomas R. Howell, a semiconductor industry attorney, said the state’s investments and efforts to grow the industry “have been substantial, particularly in regard to employment. Indeed, the benefits for the region in terms of jobs, investments and growth have exceeded all forecasts.”Tech Valley covers 250 miles (402 km.) of eastern New York stretching through 19 counties in the Capital Region, the Adirondacks and North Country, Hudson Valley and Mohawk Valley from New York City to the Canadian border. The area is a hub for technology companies and educational institutions that focus on everything from biotech and nanotechnology to the life sciences. With the region’s proximity to major metros like Montreal, Boston and the Big Apple, Tech Valley is ripe for new and existing companies bent on growth. The report, which was commissioned in 2014 and released this spring, highlights the semiconductor industry’s creation of more than 9,000 jobs in the region. The report indicates between 60,000 and 80,000 jobs make up the total number of industry jobs created directl and indirectly, including more than 3,500 construction jobs.Since GlobalFoundries first began producing commercial wafers at the Luther Forest Technology Park in Malta, New York, six years ago, the California-based company has expanded its Fab 8 facility and hired more than 3,300 people. The company, which is one of the leading manufactures of 7 nanometer chip technology, has invested more than $15 billion to construct its high-tech manufacturing complex since 2009. In 2015, GlobalFoundries took over IBM’s computer chip plans in East Fishkill, New York, and Essex Junction, Vermont. The company will produce chips for IBM until 2025. Marcy Nanocenter at SUNY Polytechnic Institute, in Utica at the heart of New York’s Nanoelectronics Manufacturing and R&D cluster, is a 450-acre (182-hectare) greenfield site that has been developed specifically for semiconductor manufacturing facilities. The Nanocenter provides opportunities for partnerships and collaborations with household names such as Intel, Samsung, Nikon, IBM and several others. The site is the largest shovel-ready semiconductor site in the world. In 2017, Austria-based AMS opened a new 360,000-sq.-ft. (33,444-sq.-m.) fab on the site. The company invested some $2 billion and plans to hire 1,500.The site is also home to The Computer Chip Commercialization Center, called Quad-C, which was designed as a shared-use co-location facility to enable next-generation device processing. Danfoss Silicon Power, the only occupant of Quad-C, is expected to be in operation by the end of the year with as many as 75 employees. The state has invested $100 million to upgrade and equip the facility for the German company. by S AVANNAH K INGs avannah.king @ site s ele c tion.c omLeading technology and innovations are made in the valley – New York’s Tech Valley, that is. Tech Grows in the ValleyST A TE SPO TLIGHTNew York S I T E S E L E C T I O N JULY 2018 117PEOPLE POWERRED RIVER VALLEY INTELLIGENCE REPORTby ADAM BRUNSadam.br uns @ site s ele c tion.c omIn geological terms, the Red River Valley starts north of Winnipeg, Manitoba, and proceeds along the river forming the boundary between Minnesota and North Dakota all the way to where the two states meet South Dakota. In economic terms, the Valley is seeing waves of investment from Grafton to Grand Forks-East Grand Forks, to Fargo-Moorhead and to Wahpeton further south.“We’re recruiting people as well as businesses,” says Lisa Gulland-Nelson, vice president, marketing and public relations for the Greater Fargo Moorhead Economic Development Corporation, Next >