November 2024siteselection.com T HE 2024 S TATE B USINESS C LIMATE R ANKINGS NOVEMBER 2024 Volume 69 • Number 6 SITE SELECTION2 NOVEMBER 2024 SITE SELECTION ▼ INVESTMENT PROFILES 30 SAN BERNARDINO COUNTY, CALIFORNIA 116 WINFIELD, KANSAS Cover design by Bob Gravlee 82 ▼ COVER STORY The 2024 Business Climate Rankings Our 14-part index fi nds Texas at the top once again, which is good news for companies big and small. ▼ FEATURES 22 INCENTIVES UPDATE By exclusive arrangement, Alison Wakefi eld of Pew Charitable Trusts shares four things to know about tax incentive program evaluations. 34 U.S. OPPORTUNITY ZONES No organization tracks OZs better than Novogradac, whose Jason Watkins analyzes the latest data in the midst of eff orts to extend the program. 41 BUSINESS RETENTION Fender Musical Instruments stays in tune with Greater Phoenix. 42 FDI IN AMERICA States in the sweet, sunny South continue to score massive wins in foreign direct investment. 50 TOP FREE TRADE ZONES Indexing data from the 85th Annual Report of the Foreign-Trade Zones Board to Congress, we name the top FTZs and top states for FTZ impact. Plus a look at the latest analysis of free zone activity abroad. 75 PORTS & FREE TRADE ZONES DIRECTORY ▼ INDUSTRY REPORTS 14 DATA CENTERS The world needs more data center workers. 38 GLOBAL AUTOMOTIVE South American powerhouse Brazil is more eclectic than electric, says one insider. Plus a look at how Europe and the United States are responding to growing Chinese EV companies. 104 MEDICAL DEVICES & TECHNOLOGY The fi rst North American investment from Japan’s Nipro Medical Corporation helps fuel a cluster in eastern North Carolina. 128 AEROSPACE & DEFENSE Big numbers in a new industry report are borne out by big projects. Plus insights from two A&D experts at JLL. THE MAGAZINE OF CORPORATE REAL ESTATE STRATEGY AND ECONOMIC DEVELOPMENT VOLUME 69, NUMBER 6 November 2024 SITE SELECTION NOVEMBER 2024 3 ▼ DEPARTMENTS 4 EDITOR’S VIEW: The Waiting Is Was the Hardest Part 183 INDEX TO ADVERTISERS ▼ AREA SPOTLIGHTS 49 NEW INTERSTATE CORRIDORS Every clogged highway today was once pristine. Where the next wave of priority Interstate corridors are forming. 110 SOUTHWEST These fi ve fast-rising boomtowns are making a splash in the desert. 118 KANSAS The new Kansas City International Airport terminal means just as much to Kansas as it does to its neighbor. Plus a look at Panasonic’s megaproject and logistics industry momentum. 125 WYOMING Home to the nation’s best business tax climate for the fi fth year in a row, the state sees multiple projects land in Laramie. 126 DAKOTAS A pioneering unmanned aerial vehicle program takes off in North Dakota, while an earthmoving equipment company expands in South Dakota. 142 VIRGINIA Why a UK maker of roadsters chose a small Virginia town; and a conversation with Virginia Governor Glenn Youngkin. 150 NEW YORK The state’s invaluable milk supply secures major project wins. 152 OHIO RIVER CORRIDOR Metro Louisville tops the rankings this year; it’s not the only area benefi ting from parts of its region located in another state. 154 MISSISSIPPI Liebherr Group lands in Tupelo, and a new medical cannabis program launches at the University of Mississippi. 156 WASHINGTON Collins Aerospace’s local GM sheds light on the company’s decision to invest in Spokane, home base for one of the nation’s new Tech Hubs. 159 MONTANA Film production projects keep discovering the Big Sky State, including a new complex in the same town where Edison made the fi rst Montana fi lm 127 years ago. 160 SOUTHEAST Hot Off the Presses: Cool projects make the news on properties that used to print the news. 164 NEBRASKA ImagiNE Nebraska, the state’s newest incentive program, is paying dividends. Just ask 3M and Mutual of Omaha. ▼ INTERNATIONAL UPDATE 18 WORLDREPORTS A port expansion in the Republic of the Congo; bioproducts in Queensland, Australia; more chips in Japan; India’s solar boost; and record robotics stats. 20 INDIA The steel behind India’s economic surge. 27 GERMANY Microchip and quantum product investments are among Germany’s notable wins. 28 NORTH AMERICANREPORTS Meta comes to South Carolina; Linde joins Dow’s clean hydrogen project in Alberta; Eli Lilly doubles down in Indiana; Arzyz Metals invests $650 million in Mexico; GM invests in battery cell prototype development in Michigan; Austal grows in Alabama. 36 ASIA How Asian countries’ approaches to the semiconductor industry compare to off erings from other global regions. 141 CARIBBEAN Teleperformance is one of many BPO fi rms growing in Jamaica, where a major bakery investment is also rising. Plus a major silicone and sealant manufacturer chooses to grow its home base in Puerto Rico. ▼ SPECIAL ADVERTISING SECTIONS 169 RAIL PARKS & INLAND PORTS 181 TALENT ATTRACTORS siteselection.com 6 IAMC INSIDER: A Letter from the Chair; the return of the member profi le; and snapshots of FDI involving IAMC member organizations. FOLLOW US!4 NOVEMBER 2024 SITE SELECTION I n 1983 when our founder Mac Conway launched SiteNet, he had already helmed the magazine and Conway Data for 29 years and published tens of thousands of pages of reports and directories. I can see them on our office shelves, bound in books. I was 19 years old then, a sophomore in college and bound up in books myself, on a continuum that encompassed poetry, French, the Beat Generation, Ultimate Frisbee, philosophy, snooker in the game room, tennis, theater and writing for my school’s literary magazine and weekly newspaper. Waiting for news to be delivered was an accepted fact of life. But Mac didn’t accept it. So SiteNet was conceived as the proverbial one- stop shop, in electronic form, for information about industrial sites and buildings around the world. I have in front of me an ad we ran for it with instructions on how to access it. Step 1: “Set up your computer with telephone modem switched to 300 baud, full duplex, 8 bit, no parity.” That sounds funny in today’s quantum era. But connections abound: That breakthrough modem had been invented two years earlier by our Atlanta suburb neighbor Dennis Hayes of Hayes Microcomputer Products. I got to meet Hayes in 2018 during a commemoration ceremony across the street from our HQ as the City of Peachtree Corners launched a partnership with Mac Conway’s alma mater Georgia Tech. At Conway Data the wait is over: This month marks the debut of the redesigned Site Selection website. Thanks to the work of Designer Ashleigh Porter, Director of Programming and Analytics Daniel Boyer and the whole team at Conway Data and at Indiana-based Rare Bird, we’ve arrived at a next-generation site that is, as our announcement says later in this issue, user-friendly, visually oriented, modern, seamless and as attuned as ever to the need for data. This is a new era of print and digital integration here at Site Selection. The publication you hold in your hands will continue to be the most valuable publication in its field, showcasing exclusive conversations, analytics, rankings and blockbuster projects as only Site Selection can. Our new promotional series, put together by our crack team of designers and also launched in this issue, reinforces that message. At the same time, we are not waiting around to tell the stories and publish the business intelligence we know our global readers crave via our new website, our Site Selection Investor Watch e-mail newsletter and its family of online departments such as the Online Insider, Project Bulletin and Site Selection Snapshot. To sign up, visit siteselection. com/newsletter-subscription.cfm. Advertisers welcome! Check out the following pages. Visit the rich content and searchable archives of the new siteselection.com. Write to us at webmaster@ conway.com or to me at adam.bruns@conway.com to let us know how we’re doing and what we need to do better. In the meantime, we’ll keep getting after it. There’s no sense in waiting around. — Adam Bruns, Editor in Chief Site Selection (ISSN: 1080-7799) (USPS ), November 2024, volume 69 number 6. Published six times a year in January, March, May, July, September and November by Conway Data, Inc., 6625 The Corners Parkway, Suite 200, Peachtree Corners, GA 30092 USA. Periodical postage paid at Peachtree Corners, Georgia, and additional mailing offices. Single issue: $20 plus shipping. Annual subscription: $95 in the United States; $135 to non U.S. addresses. PRINTED IN USA. POSTMASTER: Send address changes to Site Selection, 6625 The Corners Parkway, Suite 200, Peachtree Corners, GA 30092 USA. ©2024 CONWAY DATA, INC. Publisher/Director LAURA LYNE Executive Vice President RONALD J. STARNER Head of Publications & Editor in Chief ADAM BRUNS Editor Emeritus MARK AREND Senior Editor GARY DAUGHTERS Associate Editor ALEXIS ELMORE Assistant Custom Content Editor LINDSAY LOPP Art Director NEGIN MOMTAZ Production Coordinator/Designer BOB GRAVLEE Lead Designers SEAN SCANTLAND RICHARD NENOFF Designer ASHLEIGH PORTER Data Services Manager KAREN MEDERNACH Senior Research Associate BRIAN ESPINOZA Research Associate McKENZIE WRIGHT GLOBAL SALES & MARKETING Vice President of Sales CHARLES FITZGIBBON Regional Director — Northeast U.S. MIKE GLENNON Regional Director — Midwest U.S. CATHY McFARLAND Regional Director — Southeast U.S. MARTA RUSSELL Regional Director — Western U.S. PAUL NEWMAN Director of Sales & Marketing for Custom Content U.S., Central & South America MARGARET ROSE Europe BRENDAN DOHERTY, +44 7999 786752 Japan HIROKO MINATO, +81 50 8882 3456 Korea CHUL LEE, +82 2 466 5595 Sales Administrator CHRISTI STANSBERRY Sales Development Representative BRE ROGERS BUSINESS DEPARTMENT Chief Financial Officer DEBBIE PORTER Accounting Associate DAVIS WILSON CIRCULATION Circulation Manager JULIE CLARKE DIGITAL TECHNOLOGY TEAM Director of Programming & Analytics DANIEL BOYER IT Coordinator MARK BERTRAM Webmaster DANIEL MONAGHAN The publishers believe that the information contained in this publication is accurate. However, the in formation is not war ranted, and neither Conway Data, Inc., nor the Industrial Asset Management Council, assumes any liability or responsibility for actual, consequential or incidental damages re sulting from inaccurate or erroneous information. Site Selection incorporates Industrial Development. PHONE: (770) 446-6996 FAX: (770) 263-8825 TOLL FREE: (800) 554-5686 EMAIL: editor@conway.com WEB: www.siteselection.com EDITOR’S VIEW The Waiting Is Was The Hardest Part6 NOVEMBER 2024 SITE SELECTION insider November 2024 Mark Your Calendar … www.iamc.org BOARD OF DIRECTORS Fall 2024 - Fall 2025 Chair Cary Hutchings BNSF Railway Company Vice Chair Matt M. Boehlke Excel Energy Secretary-Treasurer Jim P. Horigan Corning Inc. Past Chair Betsy Power PepsiCo James Chavez South Carolina Power Team William DeBoer Kohler Co. Connie Fricke Land O’Lakes Lindsay Friedman Prologis Robert Kontur EnerSys Dave Quinn, CEcD Fairview Texas EDC Eric Zahniser Cresa Marcus Rose NFI Industries Jonathan Majors Mohawk Industries Kristin Cahayla-Hoffman Lehigh Valley EDC IAMC President & CEO J. Tate Godfrey, CEcD Growth Matters: Strengthening Connections and Building Communities A t IAMC, we believe that growth extends beyond just numbers — it’s about fostering meaningful relationships and actively engaging with both our organization and the broader professional and personal communities. Our focus on building connections drives everything we do, helping members thrive in their careers and make lasting contributions to the communities we serve. This year, our commitment to growth and connection has shone brightly through the outstanding attendance numbers and participation at our Spring and Fall 2024 Forums in Greenville, South Carolina, and Quebec City, Quebec, Canada, respectively. In fact, the Spring Forum saw record-breaking numbers across the board: 527 attendees (117% of our target) including 122 corporates (163% of goal). One of the things that sets IAMC apart is our dedication to the communities we visit. Since the Spring 2011 Forum in Albuquerque, New Mexico, the IAMC Volunteer Service Project (VSP) has been a cornerstone of our commitment to giving back. This year, our members came together to support Harvest Hope Food Bank in Greenville and Mission 1000 Tonnes in Quebec, with nearly 80 members participating. These efforts not only strengthen the communities we touch but also exemplify what IAMC stands for — making a positive impact through collective action. Professional growth is at the heart of IAMC’s mission. Our IAMC Info Exchange sessions are prime examples of how we bring members together to share insights and discuss the pressing issues and trends affecting our industry. From navigating evolving supply chains to addressing sustainability challenges, these group discussions create immediate and long- lasting impacts that benefit all our members. In short, at IAMC, we are deeply committed to maintaining strong relationships with the communities where we live, work and play. Whether it’s through our professional efforts or our community service initiatives, we aim to contribute to, sustain and protect these vital networks. As we continue to grow as an organization and strengthen our professional community, there’s never been a better time to get involved. Whether it’s through attending our next Forum or local event, participating on a committee, or serving as an ambassador, your involvement is what makes IAMC successful. Let’s continue building relationships, sharing knowledge, and giving back to the communities we serve. Join us on this journey — your involvement matters. To learn more, visit iamc.org or call IAMC staff at 770.325.3430. LETTER FROM THE CHAIR Cary HutchingsNext >