< Previous118 MAY 2019 SI T E S E L E C T IO Nand a highly capable team. We are very active in the job market through the diff erent channels like social media and job fairs while at the same time using referrals as a strong tool, given that our own employees are our best talent acquisition tool. We also work very closely with organizations like CINDE and university job fairs, and we are very open to taking in internships where we work with technical schools and universities bring in students and develop teams.”Roles range from call center professionals to technology and data analytics. And innovations from those teams often roll out well beyond the site and even the nation. “An example that we can share is that our center in Costa Rica has developed a Center of Excellence in Smart Automation,” Sibaja says.In Pursuit of the POSSIBLEPOSSIBLE is a digital agency that is part of WPP and Wunderman Group and works in creative, technology, strategy and data science to help clients strengthen and build trust in brands.René Zuleta, managing director for the company’s Costa Rica site, says, “Costa Rica was chosen primarily as a technology delivery nearshoring solution based on the high quality of the talent found here as well as our geographic location that makes it very easy to work with from a time zone perspective.” e site today has just over full-time employees, “and on average we have people working on projects when we include temporary employees such as freelancers or local partners that support us,” says Zuleta, who joined the company in when there were fewer than people.As for skills and the country’s talent reputation, “POSSIBLE has a strong focus on culture and our people,” he says. “Almost all of our hires come from internal referrals. We also work closely with some of the top universities in Costa Rica to bring in top students for internships, keeping many of them once their internship is over. We also cultivate our relationships with some local partners, share good practices or collaborate however relevant in order to bring in highly talented people whenever needed.”What do he and his colleagues do for fun?“Our people participate on a lot of sports on their own or together,” he says. “For the past fi ve years we’ve had people participating in a relay race that starts at midnight in San José and ends at Puntarenas” on the Central Pacifi c coast. “Besides that, we have people who swim, practice jiu jitsu, mountain bike, do trail running and do CrossFit. It’s a very active offi ce.”Zuleta says the telecom, power and other infrastructure in the country “off ers everything we need at the moment.” In terms of cost of living, Costa Rica has become a slightly more expensive place to live and do business compared to some other LatAm countries, he says. “Our main competitors in this sense are Argentina and Brazil. However, Costa Rica continues to be very competitive due to our high-quality labor, well-educated people with an amazing attitude that makes us easy to work with, and a great cultural fi t for the U.S. market.”Zuleta says the site “is well known within POSSIBLE as a standout technology hub. at’s our focus. Our creative, project management and UX capabilities are well known to focus on the technology services we provide. Finally, our offi ce focus is to work as an excellence center specializing in certain platforms and technologies within the network.” at means collaboration across geographies, time zones and types of people. “Our offi ce through our people is very well known for its attitude and collaborative spirit,” he says. “Our offi ce usually sets an example because of our collaborations with other offi ces. It’s clear that this is something that runs in our DNA.” Source: World Economic Forum, Executive Opinion Survey. The Global Competitiveness Report 2018. S I T E S E L E C T I O N MAY 2019 119 S I T E S E L E C T I O N S I T E S E L E C T I O N There is an old cliché about real estate site selection that lists the most important factors as location, location, location. And while that remains true to a large extent, if we’ve learned anything from being a fi nalist for the Amazon HQ2 project, it’s that priorities have changed. In today’s world, a more accurate list of priorities would likely be workforce, workforce, location. ADVERTISEMENTIs Yet to ComeAn Evolving Talent Show; THE BEST Recently, Holly Sullivan, the head of world-wide economic development for Amazon, said that the number one recommendation she has for communities is to lead with the talent pipeline. And this is not unique to Amazon or the tech industry as a whole. We hear from companies and site selectors that the availability and sustainability of the workforce is the most critical location factor they consider. Almost 40 percent of American employers say they cannot find people with the skills they need. In Loudoun County, Virginia, we have taken these lessons to heart and have created a proactive workforce program that is focused on the training, attraction and retention of the talent needed to drive the future of our economy. Starting Early Is Critical The new age of Loudoun’s workforce is upon us: we are taking bold and necessary steps toward building programs to prepare our students and better connect them to the knowledge, possibilities, innovation and skill demands of tomorrow’s business environment. A newly created workforce development position in Loudoun Economic Development will build connections and solutions to meet the growing and dynamic employment needs within the county’s diverse tech and industry environment. Loudoun County schools are doing their part to make sure there’s a pipeline of talent ready to join the workforce ranks. The county is equipping the next generation of workers early. Kindergarten students are learning to code in the system’s computer science immersion schools; it’s imbedded in the class curricula and in after-school enrichment programs.The Academies of Loudoun, a newly opened, three-story, world-class education facility on 119 acres in Loudoun County, is dedicated to inspiring student scholars to explore, research, collaborate and innovate in the fields of science, technology, engineering and mathematics. Experiential learning is also a vital component which allows students to benefit from direct experience outside of the traditional academic setting, in areas such as internships, apprenticeships, job shadowing, mentorships and practicums identified by community businesses. Loudoun’s business development managers create meaningful connections that help them identify workforce needs.Photos courtesy of Loudoun CountyWe hear from companies and site selectors that the availability and sustainability of the workforce is the most critical location factor they consider. 120 MAY 2019 SI T E S E L E C T IO N S I T E S E L E C T I O N MAY 2019 121New CollaborationsAs new technologies and industries develop, workforce strategies are evolving to meet new needs. Recently released reports on the demand for tech talent in the greater Washington, D.C. area indicate that employers are challenged in finding qualified talent with the necessary skill or competency experience and continue to struggle to find candidates with soft skills competencies like problem-solving and critical thinking. Employers also stated they are more willing to hire candidates without a traditional four-year degree as long as it’s not required by their customer. And higher education leaders are responding.Recently, the Northern Virginia Community College’s Loudoun campus announced it was partnering with Amazon Web Services on an I.T. and cloud computing specialization — one of the first in the nation offered by a community college. AWS also teamed up with the college to launch its only East Coast apprenticeship program. The ADVANCE program, a new partnership with Northern Virginia Community College and George Mason University, provides targeted assistance for students to make every credit count by dedicating success coaches to help them obtain their degrees. The Academies of Loudoun is a magnet school of science and technology for Loudoun County students. Their facility opened in fall of 2018. The Academies of Loudoun is dedicated to inspiring student scholars to explore, research, collaborate and innovate in the fields of science, technology, engineering and mathematics. 122 MAY 2019 SI T E S E L E C T IO NTo discuss Loudoun’s advantages and opportunities, contact Loudoun Economic Development’s Executive Director Buddy Rizer at 1-800-LOUDOUN, or by email at Buddy.Rizer@Loudoun.gov. Loudoun’s Advantage In Loudoun, we also recognize that quality of place is an important differentiator in attracting and retaining talent. Today’s workforce is attracted to areas that meet their needs beyond working, including entertainment, cultural, shopping, dining, and recreational opportunities. Loudoun is capitalizing on this live, work, play and learn trend by creating curated mixed-use communities along new Washington, D.C. commuter train stations, and elsewhere through the county. Many great companies already call Loudoun home, from divisions of multi-national corporations like Google, Discovery, Raytheon, and Verizon Business, to local success stories like Neustar, K2M and Telos. Loudoun boasts one of the most educated workforces in the country (almost 60 percent have at least a bachelor’s degree) and one of the lowest unemployment rates in the country at just over 2 percent. But in many ways, we’re just getting started. By combining a cutting-edge workforce development program with a world-class community, Loudoun continues to build a unique location with a thriving business base and an environment for healthy and happy individuals and families. It’s what we call #LoudounPossible. If your company or client needs a highly skilled, highly educated tech workforce, and values diversity and an unparalleled quality of life, consider Loudoun County, Virginia. Local universities like George Washington University’s Virginia Science and Technology Campus regularly hold STEM education outreach events.Just over two years into his time as president and CEO of the Virginia Economic Development Partnership (VEDP), Stephen Moret has assembled a team that’s serious about state competitiveness. In both and , the Commonwealth placed sixth in Site Selection’s annual Prosperity Cup ranking, which gauges success of the business recruitment and retention eff orts of state-level economic development offi ces. is year, Virginia is fi rst in the nation, a recognition Moret shares with his team of Virginia professionals, some former Louisiana Economic Development colleagues he recruited to Richmond from his time running that agency and key hires from Georgia and other locations.“ e team is really coming together — we have a lot of momentum, a lot of good wins, and we’re getting the fi nancial support we need from the General Assembly and the governor,” says Moret. “ ere are new initiatives in marketing, workforce, site characterization and development work — it’s coming along nicely.”What is state competitiveness in the context of economic development? Most state-level development executives have a better sense of that than they did before, in the wake of the Amazon HQ contest, which Virginia won. More on that in a moment. “Competitiveness is the single most important success factor in economic development,” says Moret. “I think of it as all the factors that impact a state’s attractiveness for business investment — tax and regulatory environment, infrastructure, education, workforce solutions — all the things that go into creating a great operating environment. Virginia is outstanding on all those.” In Forbes’ most recent ranking of the best states for business, Virginia placed fourth. But in two ranking components — regulatory environment and quality of life — it fi nished fi rst. ( e Prosperity Cup is an index of by MARK ARENDmar k .ar end@ site s ele c tion.c om2019 PROSPERITY CUP124 MAY 2019 SI T E S E L E C T IO NTwo marquee projects underscore Virginia’s claim to the cup. S I T E S E L E C T I O N MAY 2019 125 factors, six of which are capex-project based as tracked by the Conway Projects database — see methodology on page .)A Tough Act to FollowIt will be hard to top ’s success, at least in terms of capital investment announced — and for jobs as well. “It was easily double what a typical year would be,” says Moret. “In the current fi scal year, we’re on track to reach around $ billion, which is a huge number for Virginia. We don’t have the petrochemical projects here like we had in Louisiana. at’s $ billion of very high-quality advanced manufacturing and data centers that mainly are driving that investment.” Subtract the Micron Technology and Amazon deals, and it was still a $ billion year, he points out.In August , Micron announced a $ billion expansion at its memory production plant in Manassas, creating , new, high-paying jobs over the next years. Crystal City, across the street from Reagan National Airport, is where Amazon will put its $. billion HQ and , jobs — maybe more eventually, now that the Long Island City, New York, piece of the announcement has been scuttled. “ ose were obviously two signature wins for Virginia in the last several months, but there are a lot of other great things going on all over the state,” says Moret, adding that the same attributes appeal to investors large and small. “Virginia takes a lot of pride in being a predictable, high quality operating environment for business, and businesses feel good about that. We’re not always the lowest cost, though we’re a relatively low tax state, we’re a relatively low cost-of-living state. But the quality of the institutions, the infrastructure, the tax and regulatory environment (continued on p. 128)Northern Virginia is the rst data center market in the world to reach 1 gigawatt (GW) of wholesale capacity. The market reached 1.01 GW of existing inventory in Q1 2019, according to CBRE research. Northern Virginia is the world’s largest data center market by a large margin; London, the world’s second largest data center market, has approximately 559 megawatts (MW) of inventory.In 2018, Northern Virginia remained the most active data center market, with net absorption of 175.5 MW. Northern Virginia accounts for two-thirds of the current construction activity in the primary U.S. markets, primarily due to large requirements from cloud users.“Explosive growth in cloud computing has created strong demand for data centers in the Northern Virginia region,” says Jamie Jelinek, vice president, Data Center Solutions, CBRE. “It remains the largest and most active data center market globally. Most of the activity continues to be within a two-mile radius of the Ashburn core, and we expect this growth to continue for the foreseeable future.”With 250.7 MW under construction, and another 316 MW of inventory in the planning stage, Northern Virginia’s pipeline is larger than the existing inventory of any U.S. data center market.VIRGINIA’S DATA CENTER MARKET FORECAST: BRIGHT, MOSTLY CLOUDYWe were hopeful that the historic investment we made in higher education for tech talent would make a big di erence [to Amazon], and that did end up working.”— Stephen Moret, VEDP President and CEO, on Crystal City’s selection for HQ2We were hopeful that the historic 126 MAY 2019 SI T E S E L E C T IO NPacific1 California2 Oregon3 Washington4 Alaska5 HawaiiSouth Central1 Texas2 Tennessee3 Kentucky4 Alabama5 Louisiana6 Oklahoma7 Mississippi8 ArkansasSouth Atlantic1 Virginia2 North Carolina3 Georgia4 South Carolina5 Florida6 Delaware7 West Virginia8 MarylandEast North Central1 Indiana2 Ohio3 Michigan4 Illinois5 WisconsinWest North Central1 Nebraska2 Iowa3 Missouri4 Kansas5 South Dakota6 North Dakota7 MinnesotaNortheast1 Pennsylvania2 New HampshireT3 ConnecticutT3 New York5 Rhode Island6 Massachusetts7 Maine8 Vermont9 New JerseyMountain1 Arizona2 Nevada3 Utah4 Wyoming5 New Mexico6 Colorado7 Idaho8 Montana20192018TOP 10 STATES 1 T6 Virginia 2 13 Indiana 3 4 Texas 4 1 North Carolina 5 3 Georgia 6 2 Tennessee 7 T6 Ohio 8 8 Kentucky 9 18 Alabama 10 5 MichiganStateRankings 2019 BY REGIONNext >