< Previous158 MAY 2019 SI T E S E L E C T IO Nhelps to minimize tra c impact to the city, giving employees options for public transportation, carpooling and alternate routes,” said Indeed.Infosys | Indianapolis, Indiana$224 MILLION, 1,000 JOBSIn March , Infosys opened its rst U.S. Technology and Innovation Hub in Indianapolis and in April the company expanded its hiring plans for Indiana from , to , new jobs by the end of . By November, it was breaking ground on its U.S. Education Center, a training campus and residential center for its employees — and the employees of select clients — that will revitalize a . -acre ( -hectare) site on the West Side of Indianapolis on the grounds of the old Indianapolis airport terminal.“Continuous learning and reskilling are core components of Infosys’ DNA,” saidUB Pravin, COO, Infosys, “and we look forward to the important role this facility will play in our e orts to train our , new American hires as well as our existing employees and those of our clients.”“ is massive site will be restored to the local tax rolls, and be transformed into a valuable asset to the West Side that we hope will attract other like businesses to the area,” saidIndianapolis Airport Authority Executive Director Mario Rodriguez.Maple Leaf Foods | London, Ontario$660 MILLION, 1,450 JOBS e largest single-site food industry investment in the history of Canada’s food industry was announced in November by this Canadian poultry processor. e deal was nalized under the province’s previous Ontario Liberal government, but reviewed and still adhered to by the current Ontario Conservative government, led by Premier Doug Ford. e project will also boost the fortunes of some , chicken farmers across Ontario. In a Q&A with the London Free Press, Maple Leafs Foods president and CEO Michael H. McCain credited London’s available shovel-ready land, and its location “in the heart of the poultry-growing area” of southwest Ontario. Production of million to million chickens a year will begin in .Mazda Toyota Manufacturing | Huntsville, Alabama$1.6 BILLION, 4,000 JOBSAs documented by Site Selection Senior Editor Gary Daughters, this January win over both North Carolina and South Carolina came exactly a decade after Huntsville barely lost out to Chattanooga for Volkswagen’s major plant investment in , and then took subsequent actions to improve water and sewer infrastructure and environmental permit completions. e new jobs will pay an average of $ , a year.While states that were considered for the plant also included Midwestern players such as Michigan, Illinois, Indiana and Iowa, “a source involved in discussions says that Toyota-Mazda ultimately wanted, and got, a location in the Southeast, where wages are lower and governments more reliably business-friendly,” Daughters reported. “Financial incentives were not the deciding factor. At least two other incentives o ers eclipsed Alabama’s,” although the nal package totals about $ million in state and local incentives. “Huntsville’s win was a direct result of the ties it had established with Toyota, which opened an engine plant in the city in ,” Daughters wrote. In addition to training incentives, also helping seal the deal was a pre-certi ed TVA megasite in Limestone County.Micron | Manassas, Virginia$3 BILLION, 1,100 JOBSMicron in August announced this investment in the city miles ( km.) west of Washington, D.C. e average annual wage will be close to $ ,, plus bene ts. At the time ( weeks prior to the Amazon HQ announcement), it was the largest private capital investment ever in Virginia by a private company.Two out of every three chips installed in automobiles around the world are produced at the Micron factory in Manassas. As reported by Site Selection Executive Vice President Ron Starner, the Virginia Economic Development Partnership worked with the City of Manassas and the Virginia General Assembly’s Major Employment and Investment (MEI) Project Approval Commission to win the project over competition from Japan, China, Singapore and at least one other U.S. state. Boise, Idaho-based Micron will be eligible to receive an MEI custom performance grant of $ million for site preparation and facility costs. e City of Manassas, Dominion Energy and other entities agreed to provide a broader and more comprehensive package to enable the expansion, including substantial infrastructure upgrades and additional incentives. “We were super-engaged with Micron for many months,” said Stephen Moret, president and CEO of VEDP, of a process that took a year to unfold. S I T E S E L E C T I O N MAY 2019 159Nestlé | Veracruz, Mexico$154 MILLION, 1,200 JOBSIn its first phase, this new coffee factory, which will process around 20,000 tons of locally sourced green coffee a year, will employ 250 people directly and generate a further 2,500 indirect jobs. “It has the potential to provide 1,200 direct jobs and 12,000 indirect jobs at the end of its expansion, including support for the training of young people through the dual training model,” said Nestlé. “With the new site, Nestlé will have 18 production facilities in Mexico, producing a range of products including coffee, dairy products, bottled water, cooking aids and pet care,” said the company.“We are very pleased to share joint objectives with President Andrés Manuel López Obrador and his team,” said Fausto Costa, CEO of Nestlé Mexico, after meeting with the Mexican president. “We both believe in supporting young people, where Nestlé has been a pioneer in the country. We also believe in the strengthening of the Mexican countryside and the importance of accelerating the growth of the Southeast region.”Nikola Motor Co. | Coolidge, Arizona$1 BILLION, 1,800 JOBSAfter initially planning to build a factory in Buckeye, Arizona, this startup hybrid truck manufacturer switched gears and chose Coolidge after a major order for 800 semis from Anheuser-Busch bumped up the company’s timeline. “The site that they were looking at in Buckeye wasn’t going to be ready in time,” Tim Kanavel, economic development manager for Pinal County, told AZBigMedia.com in November. So Saint Holdings — the owner and developer of the park where Lucid Motors is investing in its own big plant — teamed with the county and the City of Coolidge to recommend the company look at Saint’s Inland Port Arizona site in Coolidge, where a shovel-ready site waited.The average salary at the Coolidge plant will be $80,000, with the promised positions to be created by 2025. Salt Lake City–based Nikola also will move its HQ and an R&D center to Phoenix, where around 300 more employees will be based.Norfolk Southern | Atlanta, Georgia$575 MILLION, 850 JOBSPassage of a $600 million bond issue by the City of Atlanta to help develop an office tower and redevelop company-owned property in a downtown area known as the Gulch was the final switch that enabled this HQ relocation from the railroad company’s hometown of Norfolk to Atlanta, where it’s long maintained a major operational presence. “Alignment, collaboration, and accountability are the hallmarks of Norfolk Southern’s plan to transform this company and its culture. Our new headquarters in Atlanta advances these key elements of success,” said Jim Squires, chairman, president and CEO.The company is working with Cousins Properties on developing the new campus.“With a shared history dating back to 1846, we are proud Norfolk Southern now calls Atlanta home,” said Atlanta Mayor Keisha Lance Bottoms. Invest Atlanta, the city’s economic development arm, approved $23.6 million in tax breaks, in addition to incentives from the State of Georgia.Raytheon Missile Systems | Tucson, Arizona$550 MILLION, 2,000 JOBSRaytheon leaders dedicated new facilities in May, part of a wave of new construction. “This project validates Southern Arizona’s strengths in innovation, technology and quality of life for our growing workforce,” said Dr. Taylor W. Lawrence, Raytheon Missile Systems president, “and has been made possible by the strong collaboration and support of government and private sector partners.”Those partners include Arizona Governor Doug Ducey, Arizona Commerce Authority, Pima County, City of Tucson, Sun Corridor Inc., Tucson Airport Authority and Tucson Electric Power. “We literally moved county roads and invested in buffer space because we understand the economic value of Raytheon to Pima County,” said Pima County Supervisor Ramón Valadez. Raytheon Missile Systems is Southern Arizona’s largest private employer, with an annual statewide economic impact of more than $2.1 billion. SK Innovation | Commerce, Georgia$1.67 BILLION, 2,000 JOBSIn the same year this Korean conglomerate broke ground on a new $211 million electric vehicle battery plant in Hungary that will have a production capacity of 7.5 GWh, it announced this investment worth more than seven times that amount, in a facility that will be the largest-scale electric vehicle battery plant in the United States. The Jackson County site is northeast of Atlanta, near I-85, at Commerce 85 Business Park.“This latest investment will allow us to work with the growing automotive industry in the 160 MAY 2019 SI T E S E L E C T IO Nsoutheastern United States, ensuring future partnerships for years to come,” said Jun Kim, CEO of SK Innovation, which already employs nearly , U.S. workers across states. SK may do even more business in Georgia: e CEO in early January hinted that further investments totaling up to $ billion may be in the works.Toyota Motor Manufacturing Canada |Woodstock and Cambridge, Ontario$1.4 BILLION, 450 JOBSCanadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau in May announced a C$ million investment to support this dual investment in two plants, matched by an equivalent amount from the Province of Ontario. In addition to the new jobs, the investments will support more than , jobs in the region, and around , new co-op placements. Toyota also will invest $ million in Canadian R&D over years. “With years of manufacturing experience, our success is a result of TMMC team members, who are known for their dedication, high levels of skill, and challenge mindset,” said Fred Volf, president of Toyota Motor Manufacturing Canada. e federal support comes via Canada’s Strategic Innovation Fund, a C$ . billion program to support research, development, and commercialization of new products.160 MAY 2018 SI T E S E L E C T IO NINTERNA TIONAL T OP DEALSAbu Dhabi National Oil Company |Ruwais, Abu Dhabi, UAE$45 BILLIONAbu Dhabi National Oil Company/Saudi Aramco |Ratnagiri, Maharashtra, India$44 BILLIONAl Khaleej Sugar Co. | Al Minya, Egypt$1 BILLION, 1,500 JOBSBMW | Debrecen, Hajdu-Bihar, Hungary$1.1 BILLION, 1,000 JOBSBOE Technology | Chongqing, China$7 BILLIONBoeing | Bengaluru, Karnataka, India$173 MILLION, 2,300 JOBSContemporary Amperex Technology |Erfurt, Thuringia, Germany$280 MILLION, 650 JOBSDevki Group | Kili and Nairobi, Kenya$435 MILLION, 1,600 JOBS S I T E S E L E C T I O N MAY 2019 161Grasim | Bharuch, Gujarat, India$385 MILLION, 2,500 JOBSGuangzhou Dongsong Energy Group |Tororo, Uganda$620 MILLION, 2,500 JOBSHaier Appliances | Noida, Uttar Pradesh, India$437 MILLION, 3,950 JOBSHCL Technologies |Amaravati, Vijayaawada and Gannavaram, Andhra Pradesh, India8,500 JOBSHero Motocorp. | Chittoor, Andhra Pradesh, India$240 MILLION, 2,000 JOBSNissan Motor Co. |Thiruvananthapuram, Kerala, India3,000 JOBSQualcomm, Hyderabad, Telangana, India$405 MILLION, 10,000 JOBSSiemens Healthineers | Shanghai, China$433 MILLION, 500 JOBSSiemens | Goole, Yorkshire, UK$264 MILLION, 700 JOBSSK Hynix | Icheon, Gyeonggi-do, South Korea$13 BILLIONTajik Aluminium/Yunnan Construction Engineering Group |Tursunzova, Tajikistan$1.6 BILLION, 1,200 JOBSVivo India | Noida, Uttar Pradesh, India$560 MILLION, 5,000 JOBSVolkswagen/Skoda |Mlada Boleslav, Czech Republic$265 MILLION, 650 JOBSWuxi No. 1 Cotton Textile Factory |Dire Dawa, Ethiopia$220 MILLION, 3,000 JOBS 162 MAY 2019 SI T E S E L E C T IO NINVESTMENT PROFILE:MOROCCOWith aerospace and autos leading the way, Morocco is poised for a breakout.Other than providing the backdrop for the classic movie, “Casablanca,” Morocco is perhaps best known for its exotic cuisine, pristine beaches, picturesque villages and exuberant cities. Here’s the secret you need to know: is peaceable Kingdom of million people has established itself as one of the friendliest business locations in the Middle East and North Africa (MENA), as well as a magnet for manufacturing giants the likes of Renault, Boeing, Bombardier and Peugeot.None of this has happened by accident. A mere nine miles ( km.) from Spain at the Strait of Gibraltar, and with coasts on both the Atlantic Ocean and Mediterranean Sea, Morocco is blessed to lie at the nexus of Europe and Africa. “ e geostrategic position of Morocco has helped it position itself as a regional manufacturing and export base for many international companies,” says Hicham Boudraa, General Manager of the Moroccan Investment and Export Development Agency (AMDIE).Sound economic management paired with ambitious growth strategies and aggressive reforms have resulted in Morocco becoming a major economic player within MENA. In “Doing Business ,” the World Bank Group ranked Morocco second among MENA nations for ease of doing business, based on factors such as starting a business, registering property, getting credit and enforcing contracts. e study hailed Morocco’s recent eff orts to strengthen border infrastructure for exports and imports, increase administrative effi ciency and strengthen creditors’ rights. Eye on ManufacturingManufacturing is one of the fastest-evolving sectors of the Moroccan economy, and the Kingdom’s true growth engine. Launched in , the government’s Industrial Acceleration Plan (PAI) set a goal of raising manufacturing’s contribution to GDP from % to % by while creating , new jobs. e initiative aims to capitalize on the - National Pact for Industrial Development (PNEI), which fostered modernization of Morocco’s automotive, aerospace, agriculture, off shoring, textiles and pharmaceutical sectors.Flexing its manufacturing muscle, by G ARY DAUGHTERSgar y.daug hter s @ site s ele c tion.c om162 MAY 2019 SI T E S E L E C T IO NAn aerial stunt team performs at the annual Marrakesh Air Show.Photo: Getty Images S I T E S E L E C T I O N MAY 2019 163This Investment Profile was prepared under the auspices of the Moroccan Investment and Export Development Agency (AMDIE). For more information, contact AMDIE at +212 5 37 22 64 00, or by email at info@amdie.gov.ma. S I T E S E L E C T I O N MAY 2019 163Morocco, in 2017, surpassed South Africa as the continent’s top maker of passenger vehicles. Groupe Renault, which opened a plant in Tangier in 2012, produced its millionth vehicle last year. The plant has an annual capacity of 340,000 vehicles and employs some 8,000 workers.Auto industry exports are expected to reach $10.7 billion by 2020, thanks in large part to PSA Peugeot Citroen’s sprawling new factory in the Kenitra Atlantic Free Zone. Half-way between Tangier and Casablanca, the plant is slated to produce 100,000 vehicles this year and double that in 2020. “The PSA Group has set up a comprehensive system in Morocco covering the entire automotive value chain,” says Jean Christophe Quemard, PSA Group’s executive vice president for Africa and the Middle East. “Our project,” says Quemard, “has no equivalent in Africa.”With Morocco’s labor costs vastly cheaper than those in Europe, PSA sees Kenitra as a key manufacturing base for mass-market models to be sold throughout the MENA region, where Peugeots and Citroens enjoy significant market share. By locating in the Kenitra Free Zone, the company received a five-year exemption on corporate income taxes, with a rate of 8.75% over the following 20 years. It’s also exempt from value-added taxes and customs duties. PSA has agreed to export 85% of the vehicles it builds there.Morocco’s rapidly expanding aerospace sector now comprises 140 companies and 11,500 employees, 40% of whom are women, according to Moroccan officials. The sector accounts for $1.7 billion in annual exports. Boeing, which established a footprint in Casablanca in 2001 through a joint venture with Paris-based Safran, is presently in the midst of an effort to bring 120 Boeing suppliers to the country, with the intent of generating $1 billion in economic impact and creating 8,700 skilled jobs. Boeing is helping to train the local workforce.“Through our business in Casablanca, we have already seen with our own eyes the unique opportunities offered by Morocco to aeronautics subcontractors in terms of cost effectiveness, all the while producing quality products,” said Boeing Vice Chairman Raymond Conner. The development of economic zones devoted to aerospace has proved to be vital in nurturing Morocco’s avionics sector. The Casablanca Integrated Industrial Park in Nouaceur, near Casablanca’s Mohammed V International Airport, boasts the presence of Boeing, Safran, Matis, Sabca, Dassault Aviation Airbus and Ratier Figeac. Canada’s Bombardier, which employs 400 workers at its plant in the nearby Midparc Free Zone, recently broke ground on an expansion that’s to double the plant’s footprint and allow for production of the Airbus A320 platform nacelle Thrust Reverser.‘Forward Planning and Thinking’“I think what’s impressing us most about Morocco is the forward planning and thinking that the government has been embarking upon as far back as the early part of 2000,” says Walter Siouffi, CEO of Citibank Morocco. “Part of that thinking was that, given its proximity to Europe, Morocco figured out that it could be an important part of the supply chain to companies in the aerospace and other sectors.”AMDIE is the national body in charge of promoting national and foreign investment, as well as the export of goods and services. The agency can inform potential investors about the country’s regulatory framework, financial incentives and investment opportunities. The agency also facilitates access to international markets and helps to sign export contracts with local players. “AMDIE currently plays the role of a ‘super agency,’ which offers a wide range of services,” says Boudraa. “One of the main objectives of the agency is to provide investors and exports with enough clarity to succeed and make profits in Morocco. By offering them assistance, our agency can probably help save companies up to 30% of the cost involved in establishing themselves in other countries.” Renault’s factory in Tangier produced its one millionth passenger vehicle in 2018.Source: AMDIEWhat do you do when you know you’re onto a big idea but can’t make the costs work? If you’re Rachel Carpenter and Joey French, you look for a better spot to build your business.In 2013, the co-founders of fintech startup Intrinio packed up their boxes in Chicago and set out for St. Petersburg, Florida, where the weather is warm and the costs are low.The company that specializes in creating an by RON S TARNERr on. s t ar ner @ site s ele c tion.c omST A TE SPO TLIGHTFlorida164 MAY 2019 SI T E S E L E C T IO NBeaches aren’t the only draw for entrepreneurs in the Sunshine State.166 MAY 2019 SI T E S E L E C T IO Naccessible and affordable marketplace for financial data is no stranger to data analysis, so when Intrinio crunched the numbers, Florida made sense in more ways than one.“Joey and I met at the University of Wisconsin in Madison. We were trying to build an app for the financial sector,” says Carpenter, CEO of Intrinio. “We graduated and taught ourselves how to program. We built a website app that allows you to value stock and tells you whether to buy or sell. It is all powered by data. The problem was that we had to call all the big data vendors and they were giving us quotes of $60,000 to $70,000 a month. We could not afford that.”Couple that with the costs of doing business in Chicago, and the startup founders were left with a dilemma — either go broke trying to make their dream work in Chicago or move their operation to someplace a lot more affordable.They chose the latter, and the ensuing history is a case study in how Florida’s business climate breeds entrepreneurs, and how entrepreneurs respond in kind. According to the Kauffman Foundation Early-Stage Entrepreneurship Index, Florida ranks behind only California and Missouri among the best states for entrepreneurs. Florida also ranks third in the nation in the rate of entrepreneurs as a percent of population, and fifth in the average number of jobs created by startups in their first year.Florida ranks No. 3 in the nation in the rate of entrepreneurs as a percent of population, and No. 5 in the average number of jobs created by startups in their first year. Source: Kauffman FoundationJoey French and Rachel Carpenter, co-founders of Intrinio, walk in downtown St. Petersburg, Florida. Photo courtesy of IntrinioDowntown St. PetersburgPhoto courtesy of Greater St. Petersburg Area EDCNext >