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| FROM SITE SELECTION MAGAZINE, JANUARY 2023 ISSUE |
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WESTERN CANADA
Fintech is one of several tech subsectors expanding in Calgary, Vancouver and beyond.
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INVESTMENT PROFILE: SARATOGA COUNTY, NEW YORK
As a semiconductor revolution takes place in the United States, New York has captured two recent blockbuster projects, based in part on longstanding industry support in the Capital Region.
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Clean Energy Investment by Region, 2014-2022
| Graph courtesy of IEA
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The International Energy Agency has released “Energy Technology Perspectives 2023,” a 464-page report about “the dawn of a new industrial age — the age of clean energy technology manufacturing.” The IEA says the global market “for key mass-manufactured clean energy technologies will be worth around US$650 billion a year by 2030 — more than three times today’s level — if countries worldwide fully implement their announced energy and climate pledges. The related clean energy manufacturing jobs would more than double from 6 million today to nearly 14 million by 2030.” For technologies like solar panels, wind, EV batteries, electrolyzers and heat pumps, says the report, “the three largest producer countries account for at least 70% of manufacturing capacity for each technology — with China dominant in all of them. Meanwhile, a great deal of the mining for critical minerals is concentrated in a small number of countries. For example, the Democratic Republic of Congo produces over 70% of the world’s cobalt, and just three countries – Australia, Chile and China – account for more than 90% of global lithium production.”
A concurrent report released 10 days ago places China’s leadership in the context of the United States’ lack thereof. “China has surpassed the United States in total innovation output and is getting close on a proportional basis,” says the Information Technology and Innovation Foundation (ITIF), a D.C.-based science and technology policy think tank, in its new study, which finds that China’s innovation and advanced-industry output in 2020 was 139% of the equivalent output in the United States, up from 78% in 2010. Supported by a phalanx of graphs and charts, the report delves into patents, degrees and researcher employment, among other factors, to back its thesis.
“China has already shown itself capable of leading the world in several advanced technologies, such as supercomputers and high-speed rail,” says ITIF President Robert D. Atkinson, co-author of the report, using such terms as “threaten,” “allied nations” and “security” to buttress the urgency of ITIF’s perspective, which takes into account a wider definition of innovation. “Simply assessing advanced-industry strength by counting the number of science-based, new-to-the-world products a country has developed is too narrow,” said ITIF policy analyst Ian Clay. “There should be no call for complacency, given China’s recent gains in areas such as space exploration, genomics, artificial intelligence, and quantum computing.”
“The key question for U.S. policymakers is not whether China will continue to make progress in innovation and advanced production,” says Atkinson. “It clearly will. But how China performs relative to the United States will largely depend on U.S. actions — so the question is whether America will make this a central organizing principle for its economic and technology policy.” - Adam Bruns
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Education Technology
Backers of a new online game initiative in South Carolina see the opportunity to alter young people’s career trajectories in life sciences and beyond.
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GSQ introduces a modern, forward-thinking destination. GEN 1 at GSQ, a premier class A office building, is surrounded by a four-level parking structure, two-acre civic park, Goodyear City Hall and Georgia T. Lord Library. This exceptional location can absorb both new-to-market and expansion of existing industry clusters in finance, insurance, and technology. The 103,629 square-foot upscale office space features:
- Concrete Construction
- Three Floors, Three Stairwells, Two Elevators
- Partial Floor to Ceiling Glass
- ±15’ to ±18’ Floor to Deck Ceilings, ±10’ Finished Ceilings
- 5/1000 SF Parking Ratio in adjacent Multi-Level Parking Structure
- Building and Monument Signage available
- Convenient Access to Highways with three Full Diamond Interchanges nearby
- Scenic Mountain Views
- Growing shopping, dining, and entertainment district
For more information, visit: https://www.developgoodyearaz.com/industries/office/gsq
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| SITE SELECTION RECOMMENDS |
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In January, the Volcker Alliance, in partnership with the Milken Institute, National Academy for Public Administration, Penn Institute for Urban Research, and Pew Charitable Trusts, convened congressional and executive branch leaders, economists, and academics in Washington DC for the Richard Ravitch Public Finance Initiative Symposium. “Participants discussed pressing state and local finance risks, and explored feasible, federally-driven policy solutions,” says the Alliance, with the event marking the official launch of the Richard Ravitch Public Finance Initiative, which seeks to “catalyze federal action to improve state and local budget practices that present looming risks to the federal system and economy.”
A Volcker Alliance release explains that Ravitch, a Volcker director and former lieutenant governor of New York State, “is credited with guiding New York City out of its 1970s fiscal crisis. In the 2010s, he advised the judge in Detroit’s bankruptcy and the U.S. Treasury during Puerto Rico’s bankruptcy.” In a discussion at a dinner kicking off the symposium, Ravitch said, “Members of Congress have an appalling ignorance of state and city budgets.” Even after the crises in Detroit and Puerto Rico, Ravitch said, “many cities and states continue to budget in an irresponsible manner.”
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| KANSAS — THE STATE OF UNEXPECTED |
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TOURISM
Here’s how Kansas is turning tourism into economic development.
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Utah
In 2022 Electric Power Systems announced this massive investment in rural Utah supported by a temporary, marginal tax reduction for its expansion awarded by the Utah Governor’s Office of Economic Opportunity (Go Utah) as part of the Legislature’s Economic Development Tax Increment Financing (EDTIF) program. EP Systems, a provider of “high-voltage, high-power, certifiable, and scalable power systems for high-reliability applications in the aviation industry,” plans to bring up to 3,130 high-paying jobs and invest significant capital at the site in Cache County over the next nine years. The company’s battery solutions are also applicable in the automotive, marine and industrial traction sectors. Investors in EP Systems have included Boeing and Safran in 2019 and in 2021, with JetBlue stepping up in 2022. The company is currently partnered with the FAA to certify batteries for general aviation aircraft “and will complete its first TSO [technical standard orders, a minimum performance standard] in early 2023,” EP Systems says.
Pennsylvania
Last June The Hershey Company cut the ribbon for a new 800,000-sq.-ft. fulfillment center and the first fully digitally enabled facility with real-time reporting on a 213-acre site in Annville, Pennsylvania, located just outside of Hershey. “The bulk of the Design-Build Annville Fulfillment Center’s square footage (783,200 sq. ft.) is dedicated to processing and storage operations,” explains The Korte Co., Hershey’s construction partner. Offices comprise the remaining 36,000 sq. ft. “Because of the ambient sensitivity of chocolate, processing and storage areas are designed to maintain a constant temperature of 60 degrees and a maximum relative humidity of 50%,” the builder explains. The project is part of an approved $1 billion investment in the company’s supply chain network that in November 2022 took the form of another new facility, measuring 250,000 sq. ft., for producing chocolate on a 55-acre site near the company’s Reese’s plant in Hershey proper. The overall investment also includes the addition of 13 production lines and the upgrading of 11 existing lines in other North American facilities.
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Photo by Kholik Olie courtesy of GCCA
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The Global Cement and Concrete Association (GCCA) this week unveiled its short list of 80 photos from around the world in the “Concrete in Life” photography competition. If that doesn’t seem so short, consider that 14,000 photos were submitted from every major continent by both amateur and professional photographers. Which adds ballast to the GCCA’s statement that concrete is the second most-used substance on earth after water. All 80 images now have a chance to claim the $10,000 prize for the overall winner and $2,500 for each of eight category winners, all of whom will be announced February 15th. This image made by Kholik Olie in the “Urban Concrete – Professional” category captures a skateboarder in action in Jakarta, Indonesia.
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