< Previous188 SEPTEMBER 2018 SI T E S E L E C T IO NSouthwestern Pennsylvania is a little bit ahead of maturing our infrastructure to move gas east and to the northwest as well as the South. In northeast Pennsylvania we have a major pipeline called Atlantic Sunrise under construction. Once that’s complete there will be additional volumes to come on line. But that infrastructure in the Northeast has been a little slower to mature.How important is it to build more ethane crackers?Spigelmyer: I think we look at this play a little more regionally than we do as just a state. You’ve got Ohio, West Virginia and Pennsylvania all in the mix of looking at facilities to manage ethane and liquids. We’ve had billions of dollars of investment already in cryogenic fractionization facilities. Companies have put enormous capital into this region to be able to split out those various hydrocarbon chains. Ethane is the primary feedstock for plastics. There are other products that are primary drivers for accelerants like butane or propane that’s used for home heating and agricultural uses. We don’t have a lot of oil in Appalachia, but those other products are drivers for our economy, and those investments to build those facilities are extraordinary. The investments on ethane cracking facilities may just be beginning. If you look at the various studies, Pennsylvania could support as many as four additional ethane crackers. One thing that we as a coalition have been focused on is to make sure that operators have the predictability and certainty that if they park investment capital in Pennsylvania, we have the policies in place that will allow them a predictable return on their investment. Either that, or we lose economic opportunity. We’re working hard to make sure we have the right policies in place so folks can invest here to grow jobs and economic opportunity. S I T E S E L E C T I O N SEPTEMBER 2018 189Want to know where business is booming? Find out where they’re making more bricks, shingles and cement.Odds are, if you locate the places where building materials manufacturers are expanding their production capacity, you’ll uncover pockets of economic growth.That’s what Lehigh Hanson did in Mitchell, Indiana, where the Irving, Texas-based cement maker announced a $600-million expansion on July 12. The modernization project is expected to create 1,000 construction jobs and 50 permanent, full-time jobs.The project is the largest expansion and modernization investment that Lehigh Hanson has ever undertaken in North America, said Jon Morrish, company president and CEO. “The capabilities of the new plant will enable us to better serve our existing customer base in the Midwest while also expanding our reach in this growing market,” he said. Construction willbegin in 2020 and wrap up by the end of 2022.Lehigh Hanson is a subsidiary of HeidelbergCement, a €15-billion conglomerate based in Germany. Jeff Sieg, director of corporate communications for Lehigh Hanson, says that several factors drove the company to select southern Indiana for this record expansion.“The main reason is the abundance and quality of limestone in the area,” he says. “That is the essential ingredient in our operation there. Secondly, the economic conditions of the Midwest were a factor. We think this is a strong market for us. We have been operating in this market for over 100 years, and we like what we are seeing there right now.”The modernization and expansion will enable Lehigh Hanson to increase cement production from 700,000 tons a year now to 2.8 million tons a year upon full production. “This will help us meet the current demand and will help us reach into markets we have not been in before, such as Ohio,” says Sieg. “This will broaden our market reach.”Lehigh Hanson is not alone. Throughout the Upper Midwest region of Indiana, Illinois, Iowa, Michigan, Minnesota and Wisconsin, building materials manufacturers are seizing on an opportunity to provide the essential ingredients that companies need to grow.The Building Blocks of ProgressSince the start of 2016, no fewer than 14 significant expansion projects have commenced in this region in the building materials sector, by RON S TARNERr on. s t ar ner @ site s ele c tion.c omUPPER MIDWESTLehigh Hanson’s $600 million expansion and modernization is the largest in their 100-year history.Photos courtesy of Lehigh HansonLehigh Hanson expands upon a century of work in Indiana.190 SEPTEMBER 2018 SI T E S E L E C T IO Naccording to Conway Analytics. These range from a $4-million investment by Orange Crush LLC in Chicago to a $12.2-million expansion by The Bristol Group in Charlestown, Indiana. Seven of the expansion projects landed in Illinois, while six were announced in Indiana.The largest of the bunch, by far, is Lehigh Hanson’s investment in Mitchell, a town that gained fame as the birthplace and hometown of Gus Grissom, one of the seven original NASA Project Mercury astronauts.Sieg says Indiana provided the right stuff for Lehigh Hanson to grow. “Indiana has been a very friendly business climate for us,” he says. “We are working with the Indiana Economic Development Corp. on incentives for this project, and we are also looking at some energy incentives with Duke Energy. Incentives are a big part of what makes this a good decision.”With 9,500 employees at more than 550 locations in the U.S. and Canada, Lehigh Hanson operates a vast network of quarries, ready-mix plants, and concrete and pipe plants.“We also have a soils business in California and a stabilized sand business in Houston,” says Sieg, noting that the modernized plant will “produce even more cement in a much more efficient and environmentally sustainable way. We will reduce S I T E S E L E C T I O N SEPTEMBER 2018 191emissions and energy usage significantly.”He also notes that the town of Mitchell “has been very supportive of the project. We will increase jobs in the community, and our employees are very pleased with this investment.” Other notable building materials plant investments in Indiana recently include K Tech Specialty Coatings in Auburn; Pro-Mark Building Solutions in Bloomington; Sanders Pre-Cast Concrete Systems in Indianapolis; and Smith Ready Mix in South Bend.Why Blue-Collar Jobs Are So ValuedAccording to a 2017 report by the National Association of Manufacturers, the Midwest has five of the 10 largest states in manufacturing employment. The top 10, according to NAM:California: 1,284,100 manufacturing workersTexas: 848,100Ohio: 687,400Michigan: 598,800Illinois: 571,800Pennsylvania: 566,000Indiana: 516,900Wisconsin: 472,400South Carolina: 460,200New York: 451,200192 SEPTEMBER 2018 SI T E S E L E C T IO NManufacturing jobs have become even more crucial to the Midwest as the region has lagged other parts of the country in total job growth. According to the Bureau of Labor Statistics, the Midwest recorded the lowest job growth of the four major regions in the country, adding 259,541 jobs from 2016 to 2017.By comparison, the South led the nation by adding 759,652 jobs last year, while the West added 668,485 jobs and the Northeast added 303,159 jobs, according to the BLS.In the Upper Midwest, Michigan added the most jobs from 2016 to 2017, with a net gain of 53,469. Minnesota was next in line with 40,668, followed by Illinois with 36,797 and Indiana with 30,842. Nationally, California recorded the biggest net gain, at 317,465, followed by Texas with 205,469 and Florida with 184,147. New York was fourth with a net gain of 120,981.The Center for Economic and Policy Research corroborated these findings on July 24 when it reported that employment in the region comprising Illinois, Indiana, Iowa, Michigan, New York, Ohio, Pennsylvania, West Virginia and Wisconsin (coined the “TrustBelt” in these pages five years ago) continues to trail the national growth trend in blue-collar jobs.“June saw all three blue collar job sectors — manufacturing, construction, and the combi-nation of mining and logging — in the region grow by 0.1 percent, compared with 0.2 percent nationally,” CEPR stated. “Last year, the region’s blue-collar sectors gained 2.1 percent, or 122,900 jobs, compared with a 3.1 percent nationwide.”On the bright side, Iowa turned in one of the country’s strongest performances in real gross domestic product in the first quarter of 2018, surging by 2.9 percent. That put Iowa in the top five best-performing states in the nation in GDP growth.The rest of the Upper Midwest region lagged the country, as Michigan and Minnesota each recorded GDP growth of 1.6 percent, while Illinois had 1.4, Indiana 1.3 and Wisconsin 1.2. S I T E S E L E C T I O N SEPTEMBER 2018 195196 SEPTEMBER 2018 SI T E S E L E C T IO NINTRODUCTIONALBUQUERQUE INTELLIGENCE REPORTThe influence of culture in Albuquerque is so pronounced that even the area’s unique new bus-rapid-transit (BRT) project gets to be called ART. Which allows Kim Hedrick, COO of Molina Healthcare, to say things like “There is no segment of the population that ART won’t benefit.” It’s not the only example of regional synchronicity across the spheres of ABQ business, education, health, family and the arts and sciences.The new 505 Central mixed-use loft redevelopment of a former Sears building downtown is conveniently located in a resurgent center city, and has a street address that matches the region’s area code.The stadium where the Triple-A Albuqerque Isotopes play is known by everyone as “The Lab” — a nod to Sandia National Laboratories just down the road. It’s also where the newest United Soccer League team in the nation will start play in 2019, becoming New Mexico’s first professional soccer franchise.“This new professional soccer franchise is the vehicle, but our vision is much bigger than soccer,” said President and Team Owner Peter Trevisani in announcing the new team in June 2018. “Our passion is for the sport and the power it has to uplift and transform communities.”Trevisani’s soccer team will be arriving in a metro that’s seen the population rise by nearly 2.7 percent since 2010 (almost 25,000 new residents) to around 911,000. All the more people to enjoy a paleta at the Rail Yards Market, stroll through the BioPark, take in the city’s lively murals and lowrider scene, and benefit from one of the best large-city school districts in the nation. It’s easy to see why the metro area just ranked No. 4 in Livability’s 2018 10 Best Cities for STEM Workers, the type of talent that’s been flowing into the area ever since a flight training school became Kirtland Air Force Base.That focus is still there, but you’re just as likely to discover other layers. For instance, the work of ABQ native Elizabeth (Liz) Kistin Keller, a Rhodes scholar with advanced degrees in international development who’s a principal systems analyst at Sandia and an adjunct professor at the University of New Mexico, has focused on management of water resources. She’s also the wife of new Albuquerque Mayor Tim Keller, whose “Reach,” a mural by artist Mark Horst, adorns the side of HB Construction’s headquarters in Albuquerque.Photo courtesy of Studio Hill Design and MurosABQALBUQUERQUE INTELLIGENCE REPORTeconomic development vision, announced in July, “focuses on creating more economic opportunities for our families, our local businesses, and our homegrown entrepreneurs.” His approach includes an annual service campaign called the One ABQ Challenge that this year focuses on connecting youth and the elderly. He recognized Bosque Heating and Cooling for their efforts to assist a 92-year-old woman unable to afford a pipe repair.Bosque is a type of riparian forest along river floodplains, and is associated with a number of hiking areas in New Mexico, (including a cottonwood park right in the city) as well as Bosque Brewing Co., an ABQ outfit that just refurbished the classic Jackalope building in Bernalillo County in order to expand to a second location.Trevisani’s fellow USL team owners all have New Mexico roots or have raised their families there. They include Sandia Holdings Founding Partner Ian McKinnon from Connecticut; Ed Garcia, executive chairman of the Garcia Family of Companies (which has gone from car dealerships to opening a new Taos Lightning whiskey distillery in downtown ABQ); Ben Spencer, CEO of Titan Development; and Jason Harrington, CEO of HB Construction.If you visit HB’s headquarters in the city, you’ll come full circle from business back to art, because there you will find, on a huge scale across the entire length of the building, a mural entitled “Reach” from artist Mark Horst.“I was painting while some of his crew was building out their offices,” Horst tells me, “and the work they did was beautiful — exposing old headers and grinding old concrete to look like fine terrazzo. [HB CFO] Adam Harrington was extremely generous and helpful — a great guy. “Working with HB was a treat for me,” Horst says. “The whole organization is professional, yet human.”Greater Albuquerque, it seems, allows you to be many things at once. — Adam Bruns, Managing Editor, Site SelectionNext >