< Previous136 MAY 2024 SITE SELECTION operations network. e biotech giant opened its Central Ohio operations in February, months after the initial groundbreaking, the fastest site completion in Amgen’s nearly -year history. Described as Amgen’s “most advanced facility to date,” the plant has been designed to meet environmental sustainability standards that support Amgen’s commitment to achieving carbon neutrality in all its operations by . “Our new facility, known as Amgen Ohio, was designed with the latest innovation and technology to deliver safe, reliable medicines for ‘every patient, every time,’ ” said Bob Bradway, chairman and CEO at Amgen, in a press release. “As part of Amgen’s global biomanufacturing network, Amgen Ohio will play an important role in helping us address serious disease around the world with our innovative biomedicines.” Amgen expects to introduce well- paying, full-time jobs through this expansion, representing $ million in annual payroll. Roles for technicians and engineers, along with quality assurance, quality control, administrative and management positions, have been made available. In addition to creating jobs, Amgen has announced plans to take a hands-on approach in preparing the local community for the opportunities it has brought to the region. In collaboration with Columbus State Community College, Amgen is hosting an inaugural -month manufacturing apprenticeship at the new facility. rough this program, the company aims to expand employment opportunities that do not require a bachelor’s degree. Columbus State is also a part of the Amgen Biotech Experience (ABE) network, which works with high school teachers to introduce their students to a series of hands-on biotech laboratory exercises. With the funds provided through this collaboration, Columbus State not only helps students develop skills in problem-solving, critical thinking, and foundational and equipment techniques essential to this industry, but it also allows underrepresented student populations to With a job growth rate of 25% over the last fi ve years and 17,000 workers, this announcement further solidifi es the Cincinnati region as the center of health innovation coupled with our world-class research universities and medical institutions.” — Kimm Lauterbach , President and CEO, REDI Cincinnati, on the 440-job, $225 million expansion by National Resilience, Inc. With a job growth rate of 25% over Image courtesy of REDI Cincinnati138 MAY 2024 SITE SELECTION learn about careers in biotechnology and gain access to skill-developing tools early on that would otherwise be inaccessible. Cincinnati e emergence of Cincinnati’s life sciences sector should come as no surprise. e Queen City is home to Cincinnati Children’s Hospital, the nation’s No. children’s hospital. According to U.S. News & World Report, Cincinnati Children’s Hospital leads in four pediatric specialty areas: cancer care, diabetes and endocrinology, neonatology and urology. It receives the second-most research and fellowship awards from the NIH among all children’s hospitals and pediatric departments nationally. In , Cincinnati Children’s Hospital received over $ . million in NIH funding through awards. Most recently, the hospital was selected to join the Consortium of Food Allergy Research (CoFAR) as a clinical research center. Previous CoFAR phases have led to important medical breakthroughs such as the development of the fi rst FDA-approved medication for food allergies, omalizumab, also known by the brand name Xolair, which reduces allergic reactions, including anaphylaxis, that may occur with accidental exposure to one or more foods. In support of its participation, the NIH has awarded Cincinnati Children’s a grant of over $ . million to be dispersed in increments of $ , annually for seven years, plus additional funding for clinical trials. rough this partnership, Cincinnati Children’s becomes the only NIH- funded clinical research center for food allergy in Ohio, Kentucky and Indiana and one of only centers in the United States. SITE SELECTION MAY 2024 139 An Expanding Ecosystem Only miles outside the city, National Resilience, Inc. (Resilience) seeks to make similar waves in drug innovation by expanding its West Chester manufacturing operations. e technology-focused biomanufacturing company is investing at least $ million to increase the site’s drug production capacity. e plans for this project include adding a fourth high- speed fi ll line and increasing the number of device assembly and packaging suites. In collaboration with REDI Cincinnati and JobsOhio, Resilience will hire new employees with an annual payroll of nearly $ million over the next three years. Manufacturing engineering, quality control, IT and management roles are among the vast array of jobs expected to be created. Of those positions, will be direct employees, while will be contracted workers. “Resilience adding more than jobs to the region supports our well-established life sciences industry, spanning nearly , business locations from startups to homegrown companies,” said Kimm Lauterbach, REDI Cincinnati president and CEO, in a statement. “With a job growth rate of % over the last fi ve years and , workers, this announcement further solidifi es the Cincinnati region as the center of health innovation coupled with our world-class research universities and medical institutions.” e expansion is a part of Resilience’s larger goal to scale its network capacity to over million units by to meet demand and support new and existing biotech and pharma partners. When the Ohio expansion was announced in December, the company also revealed that it was expanding the production capabilities of its RTP facility in Durham, North Carolina. G reat Lakes ReNEW is a project so broad and ambitious that, at fi rst glance, it might seem pie-in-the-sky. e nascent initiative being directed out of Chicago aims to develop technologies that would “turn waste into wealth” by extracting critical minerals from industrial wastewater to be reused in domestic production of EV batteries and other electronics. Presently, those cutting-edge technologies are largely dependent on imports of lithium, cobalt, nickel and other raw materials. “ReNEW,” the organization proclaims on its website, “proposes a plan to use inclusive, streamlined innovation, workforce development and stakeholder engagement to drive a decarbonized, circular blue economy that would transform the Great Lakes region.” e project, offi cials say, will create jobs while fostering entrepreneurship, new businesses and export opportunities. If that seems like a lot, the National Science Foundation clearly doesn’t believe the vision is over the top. In January, NSF announced that Great Lakes ReNEW will receive $ million for two years and up to $ million over years as one of inaugural Regional Innovation Engines. ReNEW’s winning proposal was one of nationwide submissions. “We take that as a mark of validation,” says Alaina Harkness, executive director of Current, the Chicago-based water innovation accelerator that’s leading the ReNEW coalition of more than universities, research institutions and corporate partners that include Dow, Whirlpool, Exelon and American Family Insurance. In addition to providing the funding to getting the project launched, the award, Harkness tells Site Selection, suggests the far-fl ung vision “is not only possible but critical for our domestic supply chain, the security of our water resources and the vitality of communities in the Great Lakes.” Yes, Harkness concedes, the plan is ambitious, “but we also have some of the best leaders in the country across every vertical. We’re not tackling it alone.” A Lure for Major Investments One of those leaders is Junhong Chen, lead water strategist at Argonne National Laboratory and a professor of molecular engineering at the University of Chicago’s Pritzker School of Molecular Engineering. Argonne has been at the forefront of developing new and more cost-effi cient approaches for separating contaminants and other substances from water. Chen is NSF’s designated co-principal investigator and use- inspired R&D lead for Great Lakes ReNEW. GREAT LAKES 140 MAY 2024 SITE SELECTION Big Dreams Take Shape A federally funded initiative seeks to re-imagine the Great Lakes. by GARY DAUGHTERS gary.daughters@siteselection.com SITE SELECTION MAY 2024 141 Fresh water is critical to our economic prosperity,” — Junhong Chen , Great Lakes ReNEW “Fresh water,” Chen says, “is critical to our economic prosperity, but it’s in limited supply. e way to get us beyond this challenge is to fi nd ways to recycle and reuse the water.” ReNEW’s larger mission, Chen tells Site Selection, is to attract sustainability-minded, water- heavy industries to the Great Lakes region. “ ere’s an opportunity here to articulate an argument for the Great Lakes becoming a center of gravity for water-intensive manufacturers, not only because of our history of stewardship of the water, but now with the possibility of turning wastewater into freshwater in a cost-effi cient way, while at the same time extracting critical minerals that are required for battery manufacturing.” ere’s a similar case to be made, says Chen, for extracting nutrients like phosphates and nitrates, thus keeping them out of the region’s waterways, putting them to use in fertilizers and thus elevating the Great Lakes as a draw for makers of those products. e project’s initial service area is to focus on Illinois, Wisconsin and Ohio, with Chicago, Milwaukee and Cleveland designated as anchor cites. e footprint is later to expand to cover Michigan, Minnesota and Indiana. A cornerstone of Great Lakes ReNEW, says Harkness, will be to accelerate the development of an inclusive workforce pipeline to support the emerging ecosystem of water technologies. “ e water economy today is very under- representative of the communities across the Great Lakes that it serves,” she says. “We have a huge opportunity to diversify, which for us means starting earlier across STEM programs, diversifying the trades, diversifying the off erings that city and community colleges and working to make sure we’re diversifying our higher education as well. We see it as a massive opportunity.” Over the fi rst two years, Harkness says, “we’re aiming to reach , kids across the region with STEM programs focused on the blue economy and then people trained in jobs that will be some of the fi rst out of the gate. at includes everything from the early-stage pipeline all the way up through the postdoctoral fellows who will be supporting our research projects.” Lake Erie Goes Digital Great Lakes ReNEW intends to test technologies it helps to develop at the Lake Erie Watershed Testbed, part of another ambitious project that, in the space of a little more than three years, has managed to exceed its own expectations. When fi rst profi led in the pages of Site Selection, (see “Could is Be the Dawn of the Water Belt?” Site Selection, May ), the Smart Lake Erie Watershed Initiative “was just a glimmer in our eye,” recalls Bryan Stubbs, president and CEO of the Cleveland Water Alliance, which has since converted Lake Erie, he says, into “the largest digitally connected freshwater body in the world.” e Testbed’s network of smart buoys, sensors and monitoring stations spans some , square miles, allowing for “plug and play” testing of water technologies being developed around the world. Some % of technologies tested thus far, Stubbs tells Site Selection, are being forged by companies from overseas, including France, Israel, South Korea and New Zealand. “I had no idea how fast it would take off ,” Stubbs says. “We’re reviewing about technologies per year, about % of which get accepted into training the Testbed.” is spring, the Alliance launched the Freshwater Innovation Fund, a venture capital fund that aims to raise up to $ million, targeting investments in up to companies. Each selected innovator in water technology would receive funding ranging from $, to $,. “Technology-based economic development is the core of what we do,” says Stubbs, “getting new technologies into the market. Not every community can do this, but we’re doing it well and we’re running with it.” A smart buoy installed in Lake Erie. Image courtesy of Cleveland Water AllianceC aitlin Clark brought what Iowa City Mayor Bruce Teague reported was an $. million economic impact to his city during her years playing basketball for the University of Iowa. But women have been leading Iowa companies to national prominence from headquarters in the Cedar Rapids-Iowa City region since long before Clark’s shot to stardom. ere is no shortage of nationally prominent fi rms with roots in this region known as the Corridor, where the two cities are only miles apart and have a combined population of around ,. Eight of Iowa’s INC. companies last year are based in either Iowa City or Cedar Rapids (four each). One of them is Van Meter Inc., a wholesale industrial and electrical supplier serving contractors, electricians, builders and engineers from Cedar Rapids since its founding in . e fi rm is one of Iowa’s ESOPs, or companies with employee stock ownership plans as their retirement and cultural framework, that can tally , employee-owners in the state. Van Meter has more than employee-owners in locations across seven states. “ESOPs provide an incredible framework to really engage your by ADAM BRUNS adam.bruns@siteselection.com Iowa STATE SPOTLIGHT Two growing companies from Cedar Rapids shoot to national prominence by knowing how to dish off value for others. BY THE NUMBERS IOWA Higher Ed. R&D Expenditure in $000s: 1,007,864 Number of NCRCs: 136,597 | Percent Improved 2022–23: 1.63% Business Tax Climate Rank Change 2023–2024: +5 Industrial power cost per kWh: $7.06 Total Rev. as Share of Total Expenses, FY 2007-21: 104.2% 2023 Workers’ Comp Index Rate: 1.52 Selected Top Projects by Capital Investment COMPANY CITY INVESTMENT $M Google Council Bluff s 350 Atlas Roofi ng Corp. Clinton 205 Lennox International Marshalltown 200 Nestle Purina Petcare Co. Fort Dodge 200 Michael Foods Norwalk 146 Source: Conway Projects Database 142 MAY 2024 SITE SELECTION Seeing the Whole Court SITE SELECTION MAY 2024 143 Nabyl Agourar is one of more than 800 employee-owners at Cedar Rapids–based Van Meter Inc., which operates 25 locations in seven states. Image courtesy of Shive-Hattery workforce around ownership,” says Van Meter President, CEO and Employee-Owner Lura McBride. “Midwest values of our Midwest workforce have a strong tie to this mindset. And successful Midwest ESOPs love to share their success with others and the power in this business model.” It’s a “high tides raise all boats” mentality, she says. “While ESOPs are not for every company, those that are not ESOPs can see the power in the unification it brings to companies with a common goal of creating value for others in order to grow the value of their ESOP.” Van Meter recently introduced the Spark Your Success scholarship program awarding $2,500 to up to four individuals who have completed a high school degree or GED and are pursuing a field related to the electrical trades. “Our state is doing a nice job in preparing the future workforce,” she says. “City View Community High School in downtown Cedar Rapids is the first magnet high school in the state,” she says, connecting students with a strong sense of their educational or career pathways. “Our regional community colleges are engaging in new ways with high schools as well. The trades, robotics and mechanical skills have the spotlight on them in Iowa.” Building Out from the Corridor Shive-Hattery employs 550 professionals across 16 locations that include Tacoma, Omaha, Kansas, St. Louis, Tucson, South Bend and Cleveland. But it’s firmly anchored in Cedar Rapids. “We’re proud to be a national full-service architecture and engineering firm headquartered right here in Iowa,” Shive-Hattery President Jennifer Bennett tells me. The company has grown swiftly through a series of acquisitions. Bennett says, “Our growth allows us to strengthen and diversify our offerings, capabilities and portfolio. Our growth creates new opportunities for our employees which are great for employee development, recruitment and retention.” Asked for an example of opening the eyes of clients, prospects or talented individuals to what Iowa and the company’s home community have to offer, Bennett says, “This winter, the Cedar Rapids Metro Economic Alliance reached out to us about joining them for a meeting with a confidential company from the South. They were looking to build their first facility outside of their home state. They really couldn’t have picked a better state than Iowa to start with. Our Shive-Hattery team was excited to get to join the Metro Alliance [and the City of Cedar Rapids, Midwest Equities, Alliant Energy and MidAmerican Energy] to share the story of welcome.” The conversations with the confidential company are still ongoing, she says. But, she notes, “they’ve commented several times about how easy our ‘welcome committee’ has made it to keep Iowa at the top of their list.” Investing in workforce is on Bennett’s wish list for the state’s business ecosystem. “Iowa has long been known for the quality of its education system,” she says. “We need to continue investing in our education system to attract and retain families while preparing our students for our communities’ workforce needs.” Placemaking and transportation are in her sights too: “Interstate 80 and a network of rail make this an attractive state for many businesses. We need to continue investing in our transportation infrastructure, including air and passenger rail.” Eastern Iowa Airport (CID) set a new passenger record of 1.4 million in 2023, a year which saw new flights to Fort Lauderdale, Miami and Washington, D.C. Bennett notes with pride that Shive-Hattery recently delivered one of the fastest builds in the nation for an Amazon fulfillment center in Bondurant, Iowa. And she says one of the great things about the region is the diversity and collaboration of the business environment. “Our major corporations and small and medium-sized businesses work together to improve the region and spur economic growth though organizations like Economic Alliance, ICAD [Iowa City Area Development Group] and others. We have incredible entrepreneurial, innovative and agile SMEs here, especially when it comes to technology and software. These innovative businesses can respond to market changes quickly while supporting larger corporations with designing new technology and support systems which are ultimately implemented by our larger employers.” Shive-Hattery President Jennifer Bennett Photo courtesy of Shive-Hattery144 MAY 2024 SITE SELECTION in Kentucky HOW FACTORIES ARE CHANGING by RON STARNER ron.starner@siteselection.com Hint: They’re getting cleaner, greener and bigger. Kentucky STATE SPOTLIGHT Blink 2022 at Hotel Covington in Covington, Kentucky. Courtesy of BE NKY Growth Partnership D rive 30 miles east of Louisville on Interstate 64 to Shelbyville, and you’ll find two industrial projects that reveal just how much Kentucky has changed over the years. In the middle of the American Saddlebred Capital of the World, two new factories employing advanced manufacturing technology are about to get even cleaner and greener, thanks to a helping hand from Uncle Sam. Wieland North America Recycling and Diageo Americas Supply Inc. qualified to receive funds from the U.S. Department of Energy for decarbonization projects at their plants in Shelbyville, Gov. Andy Beshear announced on March 25. Wieland, which is building a copper scrap metal recycling plant, will receive $270 million from DOE to reduce carbon emissions and put the plant in line to be the world’s cleanest copper recycler. Diageo, which operates the Bulleit Distillery in Shelbyville, is Next >