< Previous76 JULY 2019 SI T E S E L E C T IO N better refl ects the state of the industry with the BLS and industry/educational partner grant funding (approved in the most recent FAA Reauthorization Bill). We also see a push in both the executive branch and the legislative branch to have a renewed focus on the blue collar/ trade careers.” Have current or looming workforce shortages aff ected plans for facility expansions or new MRO locations? “ e ability to properly staff our locations plays a signifi cant role in our decision-making process as we select new facility locations,” Dallaire says. “Not only are we concerned about the ability to initially staff the facility, but also the ability to maintain staffi ng and have a solid pipeline to account for attrition. When selecting our newest location in Albany, New York, we looked at the workforce development eff orts in the area to see if we would have a sustainable workforce.” at ,-sq.-ft. (,-sq.-m.) facility opened in May at Albany International Airport. e newly renovated hangar is the sixth maintenance facility for Piedmont and doubles the size of Piedmont’s workforce in Albany, adding new jobs to the area. Piedmont, American Airlines and the Albany County Airport Authority partnered to complete more than $ million in initial renovations to the hangar, with more improvements to come. Piedmont will hire aircraft maintenance technicians (AMTs), avionics technicians, quality control inspectors and aircraft parts clerks to maintain up to three aircraft per night. To attract quality candidates, Piedmont is off ering technicians up to $, in bonuses based on experience, and an additional $, in incentives for veterans transitioning into civilian careers. Piedmont operates a growing fl eet of Embraer regional jets maintained at Albany and six other East Coast locations: Philadelphia International Airport, Charlotte-Douglas International Airport, Roanoke Blacksburg Regional Airport, Richmond International Airport , Harrisburg International Airport and Salisbury Ocean City Wicomico County Regional Airport. Its recruiting toolkit also includes actual tools: Piedmont’s Military Transition Program provides veterans and soon-to-be separated aviation mechanics with a personalized transition plan that includes a Snap-on mechanic toolbox and tools valued at over $,. Institutions and Industry Get Together Fewer than , students across the country are currently enrolled in AMT programs. So Choose Aerospace, an awareness campaign spearheaded by the Aviation Technician Education Council (ATEC), is bringing together a coalition of industry stakeholders and educational leaders to quantify staffi ng needs and promote aerospace technical careers. Hampton Roads, Virginia–based Aviation Institute of Maintenance (AIM) has signed on as Choose Aerospace’s primary educational sponsor. AIM has FAA-Certifi cated schools teaching aircraft maintenance in Atlanta; Charlotte; Philadelphia; Dallas; Houston; Indianapolis; Las Vegas; Washington, D.C.; Kansas City, Missouri; Fremont, California; Orlando and Norfolk, Virginia, where it’s doubling the capacity to train students at its Hampton Roads campus by moving to a ,-sq.-ft. (,-sq.-m.) site. In addition to the Norfolk move, AIM also is expanding its campuses in Charlotte, Fremont, Las Vegas and several other campuses. “It is clear that United Airlines, Envoy Airlines, PSA Airlines, Piedmont, and the other industry partners who are supporting Choose Aerospace hope to increase the fl ow of certifi ed professionals to service their aircraft,” said AIM Vice President of Operations Dr. Joel English when the program was announced this spring. “But this eff ort addresses not just the problem of a technician shortage. It addresses the problem of the average family not thinking about aerospace as an accessible and lucrative career path.” Kevin Dallaire, Recruiting Manager, Human Resources, Piedmont Airlines78 JULY 2019 SI T E S E L E C T IO N With roots tracing to the Curtiss-Wright Flying Service, Pittsburgh Institute of Aeronautics (PIA) was offi cially founded in . Today, PIA — an AIM competitor — is a non-profi t, career- focused family of schools off ering programs in Aviation Maintenance and Aviation Electronics at sites in West Miffl in, Pennsylvania; Youngstown, Ohio; Hagerstown, Maryland; and Myrtle Beach, South Carolina. According to data based on employed graduates between July , , and June , , PIA graduates traditionally start their fi rst positions at salary levels between $, ($./ hour) and $, ($./hour). PIA, like AIM, is a Part school, meaning it meets requirements defi ned by the Title Code of Federal Regulations (CFR) part , fi rst established in , that governs aviation maintenance technician schools that hold a Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) certifi cate. “ e industry has historically used Part schools such as PIA as a pipeline for talent,” says Piedmont’s Kevin Dallaire. “Over the past four years, Piedmont has taken a more active role in some of those partnerships, specifi cally looking for ways to invest in and enhance the relationships. For example, we realized that PIA’s greatest need was help in attracting students into the industry. We made it a point to visit high schools and attend job fairs with PIA recruiters to talk about career progression. We realize that we couldn’t just wait for PIA to graduate students — we needed to help build the pipeline.” PIA recently held open houses at its campuses, as even a program at what Forbes called the No. two-year trade school in the nation has a fl agship campus at only % capacity. “ e issue is there are not enough individuals interested in going into a skilled trade,” even when the skilled trade can get higher salaries with less debt than a four-year degree, says Steve Sabold, director of marketing and IT for PIA. “We’ve been ingrained for generations that you must get a four-year degree to be successful.” He says it helps when employers get involved at such open houses “because it’s saying, ‘Listen, this is no joke, we really need aircraft technicians.’ It resonates diff erently with a student and family, because they can feel comfortable that there really is this demand. It’s not a sales tactic.” It shouldn’t take many tactics. e facts speak plainly enough. Roxanne Ober, PIA’s director of admissions and outreach, says according to notes she took from a recent virtual presentation by Boeing, not only is the aerospace manufacturer covering % of educational benefi ts, it gave out some $ million in total bonuses across the board last year. at includes AMT and related professions. “What I’ve seen change in the years I’ve been here is the signing bonuses,” she says, “thousands and thousands of dollars for signing bonuses.” Encouraging Trends: Females and Pathways If it sounds like companies are scrambling, it’s because they are. “At the campus today, we have Bombardier recruiting,” Ober says, with a recruiter looking to hire airframe and powerplant technicians by the end of the year. “Our class is students,” she says. “He was already at one of our other campuses, and is scheduled to be at two of our four campuses in the next few weeks.” One encouraging trend: ere are more females in the mix. When Sabold started at PIA in (with just two campuses), female enrollment was at %. As of three months ago, it stood at .%. Still paltry, but progressing. “One female here got nine job off ers prior to graduation,” says Ober. “She said, ‘I’m going for my degree.’ And all of those employers said, ‘As soon as you’re fi nished, you call me.’” ose employers are looking down other avenues too . e Bombardier representative visiting PIA was from the company’s site in Bridgeport, West Virginia, where “they actually have multiple fi eld trips a week from middle schools and high schools,” says Ober. “ ey are doing whatever they can to whet the appetite.” Asked to what degree his team is pursuing career pathways and apprenticeship programs that reach into K- systems, Piedmont’s Kevin Dallaire says, “We are very interested in creating career pathways that reach into the K- system and apprenticeship programs for those currently attending Part schools. We anticipate having more news about this later this year.” Though some campuses have been under capacity, two of Pittsburgh Institute of Aeronautics campuses are at full occupancy for this coming fall, and open houses at all four of its campuses earlier this spring netted around 260 prospective students. Photo courtesy of PIA80 JULY 2019 SI T E S E L E C T IO N INVESTMENT PROFILE: HOOSIER ENERGY Backed by Hoosier Energy, Indiana launches a bid to bring in data centers. by G ARY DAUGHTERS gar y.daug hter s @ site s ele c tion.c om Bold tax incentives newly off ered by the State of Indiana have quickly earned the attention of data center developers. “We’ve already had fi ve visits and inquiries, and they’ve all told us that the only reason they are looking at Indiana is because of the data center legislation,” says Harold Gutzwiller, manager of key accounts and economic development for Hoosier Energy, an -member cooperative serving counties in southern Indiana and eastern Illinois. Indiana has long trailed its neighbors in the race to attract the massive data storage facilities that accounted last year for $ billion in capital expenditures, an astounding increase of % over , according to Synergy Research Group. In next-door Ohio, the Columbus region alone boasts some data centers; all of Indiana totals . e state’s previous tax structure was blunting Indiana’s repeated bids to crack the data center market, says Tim Comerford, senior vice president of the site selection fi rm Biggins Lacy Shapiro (BLS), as well as managing director of BLS affi liate Sugarloaf Associates, an energy services company. “In Indiana, all construction material, all fi t-out, all computer equipment and all support equipment was subject to the state sales tax,” Comerford says. “ ey were also subject to the business personal property tax. e combination of the two made Indiana extremely uncompetitive versus some of the other states in the area.” at’s hardly a rogue assessment. “Indiana was clearly at a Photo courtesy of Hoosier Energy S I T E S E L E C T I O N JULY 2019 81 This Investment Profile was prepared under the auspices of Hoosier Energy. For more information, visit www.hoosiersites.com, or contact Harold Gutzwiller at (812) 876-0294. disadvantage due to our tax structure,” says Gutzwiller, “which is really an anomaly because we’re good in almost every other tax situation. is may be the only major sector where taxes worked against us.” e message got through to Indianapolis, where lawmakers in both houses passed the new incentives nearly unanimously in March, with Gov. Eric Holcomb signing off in May. “ is could turn out to be the biggest economic development bill this session,” said state Sen. Mark Messmer. Money Matters Packed with row upon row of servers, data centers are prodigious energy users. So much so that up to % of operating costs can go toward electricity. Indiana’s new incentives exempt electricity costs from the statewide % sales tax, a crucial advantage found in just a handful of states, says Comerford. e sales tax exemption extends to the purchase of data center-related equipment, such as servers, routers, wiring, software and other components. “On a large data center, with servers that have to be refreshed every three or so years, you’re talking % of that investment,” says Gutzwiller. “And that adds up to a lot of money. ose savings will be substantial on an ongoing basis.” In addition, the onerous personal property tax can be abated by local communities that choose to do so, another attractive cost- saving measure. Comerford says the changes put Indiana in the top fi ve states for data center incentives. As a condition, at least % of data center construction material and labor must be sourced through Indiana vendors, and the tax exemptions expire after years unless the data center investment tops $ million, which extends the exemptions to years. A three-tier investment threshold gives an advantage to the state’s least populous counties, such as many of those served by Hoosier Energy. To qualify in a county of , or more residents, a data center investment must total at least $ million over fi ve years; the threshold drops to $ million in counties of , people or fewer, where labor costs often are lower. “We have a lot of rural communities,” says Gutzwiller, “that would welcome a $ million investment with open arms.” The Rural Advantage Armed with the new incentives, Hoosier Energy — already a visible and active economic development player — is going all in to bring data centers to southern Indiana. e -year-old energy co-op has partnered with BLS to identify potential data center sites throughout its ,-sq.- mile (,-sq.-km.) service teritory. BLS isn’t new to the game, having certifi ed sites for data centers in more than a half- dozen states. “In any geographic location,” Comerford says, “electricity is one of the fi rst things we’ve got to take a look at. What’s the capacity? What’s the transmission system? Being near a substation is optimal.” Earning BLS consideration as a data center site, says Comerford, begins with: • Transmission lines within one mile (. km.) • Access to fi ber-optic cable • An owner willing to either sell or lease long-term • Land above the -year fl ood plain. “Deeper dive” analysis, Comerford says, includes considerations such as road access, water and sewer capabilities, potential pipeline issues and facility orientation. Parcels can range from acres ( hectares) for smaller “edge” data centers to a minimum of acres ( hectares) for “hyperscale” facilities. Increasingly, developers such as Facebook, Google and Amazon Web Services are demanding access to % renewable energy to power their data centers, a box that Hoosier can check. Hoosier also is competitive on the all-important matter of cost. “We have an economic development rider, which will discount the cost of electricity for the fi rst six years of a project,” says Gutzwiller. “We also have a market-based rate for those particular projects, where we can provide energy costs based on the market. We are here,” he says, “to make this happen.” Effective July 1, Indiana now offers aggressive incentives for data center development, including sales tax exemptions for equipment and electricity use. A three-tier scale for quali cation favors less populated rural counties, such as those covered by Hoosier Energy. AVAILABLE INCENTIVES COUNTY POPULATION Minimum Investment within Five Years STATE LOCAL Sales Tax Exemption • Equipment Purchase • Electricity Property Tax Abatement Real & Personal Property UP TO 50,000 50,000 - 100,000 100,000+ $25 million $100 million $150 million82 JULY 2019 SI T E S E L E C T IO N Economic development at the fringes of civilization offers a testbed for new strategies in rural communities. Given the community’s remote location, not to mention lack of infrastructure and connectivity to a major population center, a traditional strategy for attracting investment was simply unrealistic. Yet the community was able to identify opportunities within their unique context, mobilize available resources, and successfully attract the attention of global companies that resulted in economic growth for the community. Community leaders understood the assets (and obstacles) that they had available. As an old U.S. Air Force Base used during World War II and the Cold War as a refueling stop for transatlantic flights, the community had an 8,600-ft. runway, capable of accommodating large aircraft. The location of course provided consistently cold temperatures in excess of -20 F for long periods of time. And, as a remote arctic community with no direct access to urban centers, it provided a degree of privacy, away from prying eyes of potential competitors. These attributes provide a perfect location for aircraft manufacturers such as Boeing and Airbus to conduct cold-weather testing. Before new aircraft can be put into commercial use, they first must by CHRIS TOPHER S TEELE & MARK MORRIS SE Y e ditor @ site s ele c tion.c om RURAL ADVANT AGE Airbus engineers testing the A350-1000 in Iqaluit, Nunavut, Canada, in March 2017 were treated to a spectacular view of the aurora borealis. Photo by S. Ramadier, courtesy Airbus DO YOU BELIEVE IN UNICORNS? Often left behind by traditional economic development strategies, rural markets present their own challenges for economic sustainability, innovation, and resilience. These communities bring their own strengths to the table as well as their own context. However, to make them successful, it is important to apply strategies that are going to work within a rural context, rather than trying to graft a suburban or urban tactic onto a rural environment. Take Nunavut, for example. No really, take it. Iqaluit is the capital city of Nunavut Territory in the Canadian Arctic. Located at the head of Frobisher Bay, on Baffin Island, the city has a population of just under 8,000 people. With no roads leading in or out, it is only accessible by air (1,300 nautical miles north of Ottawa) or by ship during the short summer months. Whence the pun-inducing name? In the Inuit language of Inuktitut, Nunavut means “our land.” Nunavut became Canada’s third territory when it was officially separated from the Northwest Territories in 1999. S I T E S E L E C T I O N JULY 2019 83 Top U.S. Rural Counties for NCRCs TOTAL RANK STATE COUNTY CERTIFICATES 1 LA Avoyelles Parish 4,146 2 MS Monroe 4,102 3 NC Sampson 3,888 4 AL DeKalb 3,831 5 NC Duplin 2,875 6 SC Chesterfield 2,769 7 WI Waupaca 2,716 8 SC Barnwell 2,599 9 OK McCurtain 2,577 10 WI Polk 2,377 Source: Conway Projects Database Top U.S. Rural or Micropolitan Counties for NCRCs TOTAL RANK STATE COUNTY CERTIFICATES MICRO TITLE 1 NC Robeson 8,536 Lumberton, NC 2 SC Orangeburg 6,265 Orangeburg, SC 3 SC Greenwood 6,260 Greenwood, SC 4 WI Walworth 5,989 Whitewater-Elkhorn, WI 5 MS Lee 5,414 Tupelo, MS 6 NC Cleveland 5,263 Shelby, NC 7 AL Marshall 4,894 Albertville, AL 8 WI Manitowoc 4,510 Manitowoc, WI 9 WI Dodge 4,470 Beaver Dam, WI 10 MS Lowndes 4,338 Columbus, MS Source: Conway Projects Database Top States for Rural NCRCs TOTAL RANK STATE CERTIFICATES 1 KY 36,962 2 WI 35,222 3 IA 28,462 4 AL 28,199 5 MS 25,400 6 NC 24,899 7 SC 20,902 8 OK 20,124 9 LA 17,801 10 MO 16,453 Source: Conway Projects Database Top States for Rural & Micropolitan NCRCs TOTAL RANK STATE CERTIFICATES 1 NC 94,523 2 WI 73,642 3 MS 65,664 4 KY 61,597 5 AL 56,507 6 SC 51,736 7 IA 46,889 8 OK 43,732 9 MO 34,663 10 LA 33,850 Source: Conway Projects Database UNIQUE ANALYSIS SHOWS WHERE RURAL CERTIFICATIONS ARE STRONGEST Repeating an exercise first published in our September 2017 issue, Site Selection has collaborated with ACT to analyze that organization’s National Career Readiness Certificate (NCRC) data across every county in the United States, filtering the data so that we can glimpse the top performers in the four categories at right. Fred R. McConnel, director, ACT Work Ready Communities, says regions are “doing some great things by leveraging their Work Ready Communities teams and using the NCRC to create a common language within their career pathways.” West Alabama, working with Shelton State Community College, is one. Mississippi County in northeastern Arkansas is another. And Eau Claire County, Wisconsin, working with Chippewa Valley Technical College, has seen 52 area employers recognize the NCRC, along with such activities as apprenticeships, incorporating ACT’s Workkeys into K-12 academic and career planning, and increasing partnership with the Department of Corrections to offer Workkeys testing to soon-to-be-released offenders. A 2018 study from ACT showed a correlation between NCRCs and higher wages. “What’s more, higher NCRC levels translate into higher increases in earning,” said the report. “In fact, adults with some postsecondary education earned approximately $8,000 more with a Silver NCRC as compared to a Bronze NCRC, and roughly $5,500 more with a Gold or Platinum NCRC as compared to a Silver.” “The challenge for many rural communities is the misconception that they do not have enough skilled workers to support existing employers and attract new ones,” says McConnel. “By proving not only the quantity, but the quality of their skilled workforce, these communities are able to show current employers that they are committed to their future success within the community and that they can help grow any new employers in the same way.” — Adam Bruns84 JULY 2019 SI T E S E L E C T IO N be subjected to extreme environmental conditions to ensure they will operate safely and as designed. Airbus has been using Iqaluit since the 1990s, testing models such as the A380 and the A350. Each time a new aircraft touches down, it brings with it 20-plus engineers, technicians, and crew, who stay at a local hotel, eat at local restaurants and contract with a local caterer, rent equipment and vehicles, and contract with the local fixed-base operator (FBO) to look after logistics for them. Local leaders quickly realized the economic impact these testing missions had on the economy, and banded together with businesses, the territorial and federal government, as well as other stakeholders, to actively market themselves to other aircraft manufacturers and OEMs such as Dassault and Embraer. The site continues to be a world-class cold-weather testing center, and local leaders have begun to explore expanding opportunities in this field to look at component testing as well as the construction of related research facilities. Capacity Building Companies can find some truly unique opportunities by investing in these remote and rural areas. However, they will likely face some challenges in finding the EDO support they would find in more urbanized areas. These challenges may come in addition to a lack of available workforce or access to market, aging or insufficient infrastructure, or simply identifying the market in an ever-crowded market place. While these may seem obvious, they are not insurmountable. What many rural EDOs lack — and it is by far one of the largest obstacles they face — is the resources and capacity to pursue a strategic investment attraction agenda. This often manifests in two distinct scenarios: Scenario 1: Rural EDOs are tasked by those overseeing their operations with a business retention and expansion (BRE) focus. Shifting focus away from BRE can be a challenge as local businesses can interpret investment attraction as an attempt by the EDO to lure in competition. They often do not take kindly to any attempt to shift resources and attention away from them, or to use “their tax dollars” on anything other than local issues. Further compounding this problem is that in rural areas these local companies, particularly established employers, often have the ear of senior managers and elected officials. Scenario 2: Rural EDOs who do place a focus on attracting investment are trying to adapt an urban strategy to a rural context. They spend time and resources on unrealistic targets, or skip over the important foundational steps in understanding their community and value proposition, by going straight to a shotgun approach to investment attraction and targeting everything and anyone that crosses their path. Often this situation is driven by elected officials who want to be seen as championing their municipality, but who lack a broader understanding of the site selection process and the intricacies of investment attraction. The term “unicorn list” has started to appear in the lexicons of rural EDOs, referring to unrealistic targets that elected officials and senior managers are pushing EDOs to pursue. The greatest challenges for the economic development professional in these settings are to create awareness of opportunities and then to increase both public- and private-sector readiness to make the most of them. Rather than focusing on a unicorn list of things that are aspirational but well beyond realistic capacity, a thorough assessment of weaknesses/obstacles helps partners on both the public and private side focus their efforts on making real progress toward economic sustainability and advancement. Some rural areas are attempting to combat brain drain and aging populations by promoting low cost and high quality of life and community. Atlantic Canada has posted some success in this area. Maine has taken a similar approach statewide by offering to assist in repaying student loans for those young workers who choose to come settle throughout the state. Similar approaches are happening in Vermont and in Michigan’s Upper Peninsula. Rural communities pose unique challenges to economic development and investment attraction. However, their size and idiosyncratic nature also allow them to act as testbeds for new and flexible strategies. Christopher Steele is Vice President, Advisory, at Conway Advisory, has more than 25 years’ experience in corporate location and facilities consulting. Mark Morrissey is the Director of Economic Development for the City of Fort Saskatchewan in Alberta, and has over 10 years’ experience in economic development and investment attraction, including six years working in Arctic communities.Next >