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ONLINE INSIDER
From the September Issue

Let’s Get Together

“Isolation will kill any company's chance of success,” says the founder of a firm studying hybrid workspace strategies worldwide.

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FROM SITE SELECTION MAGAZINE, MAY 2023 ISSUE
From the May Issue

TRIBAL ECONOMIC DEVELOPMENT

Coming Full Circle

Lance Morgan, CEO of Ho-Chunk, Inc., calls himself an Indianocrat. “I have one issue,” he says, “and it is us.”

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From the September Issue

INVESTMENT PROFILE: SALT RIVER PROJECT

Interconnection Brings Central Arizona Economy to Life

For Salt River Project, the concept supports sustainability and prosperity all at once.

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 CONWAY DATA SNAPSHOT 
This PwC graph shows the substantial role family offices play in investments in startups worldwide.
Graph courtesy of PwC

This week we learned from the Hong Kong Economic and Trade Office that Hong Kong’s Legislative Council this month passed a bill offering tax exemption for eligible family-owned investment holding vehicles managed by single family offices in the city. “The bill takes effect on May 19, with the tax concession applicable to any years of assessment commencing on or after Apr 1, 2022,” the agency explained. “Secretary for Financial Services & the Treasury Christopher Hui said the tax concession will facilitate family offices to set up and operate in Hong Kong, create new business opportunities for the asset and wealth management sector, and generate demand for other related professional services. ‘We are committed to creating a conducive and competitive environment for the businesses of global family offices to thrive in Hong Kong. This would foster Hong Kong's position as a premier family office hub and an international asset and wealth management center.’ ”

Investopedia explains family office is a term for “private wealth management advisory firms that serve ultra-high-net-worth individuals.” Some national, state and regional EDOs are now focused on this niche as an economic development target, seeking to attract them to their regions for many of the same reasons they want venture capital firms. PwC offers this analysis how how family offices have evolved, citing among other sources a multi-part study the PwC team performed last year that found that family offices were involved in 10% of all deals globally in 2021. The firm maintains a database of more than 6,000 family offices. A more recent study posted last month by PwC states, “Family offices are major players in the global market for investment in startups. Overall, family office-backed deals represented a total of 10.1% of all investments in startups worldwide in 2022. Even more remarkably, fully 32.5% of all capital invested in startups in the same year was contributed by family offices.”

Watch for more insights into global startup ecosystems in the July 2023 issue of Site Selection. — Adam Bruns

 

MASSACHUSETTS ECONOMIC DEVELOPMENT GUIDE 2023-24

CONNECTIVITY

Massachusetts: The Most Connected State in the Country

An update on transit improvements in the place that birthed public transit in America.

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From the September Issue

SMALL TOWNS

Seasons of Change

These small towns in Massachusetts have more to offer than just their histories.

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Site of the Week
From the January Issue

PASCO READY SITES PROGRAM

Industrial Development Ready Sites in North Tampa Bay, Florida

Pasco County is one of the fastest growing counties in Florida. Companies are locating to Pasco for expansion sites strategically located along major transportation corridors providing access to consumer markets, skilled workforce and vibrant communities near Tampa International Airport, Port Tampa Bay and CSX Rail.

Demand for project-ready industrial properties has never been higher as speed to market puts pressure on companies to make quick and informed location decisions while allocating precious time to design, construct and open a new facility. As such, the site selection process demands entitled sites with large contiguous developable acreage serviced with roads and utilities sized for industrial development.

The Ready Sites Program features nearly 2,000 acres of assessed properties ready for industrial development. Additionally, there are millions of square feet of spec office and industrial buildings under development and ready to meet market demand. Each Ready Site features numerous digital tools for site selectors to utilize and tour the site.

 

 PROJECT WATCH 

India

Lest one think Micron’s massive investments in the U.S. mean it’s placed all its chips on one number, this deal illustrates the company’s global growth. As reported by Indian publication Money Control, based on documents obtained by Propstack, the company has executed a 10-year lease for 16 floors in the Phoenix Aquila building in the Hyderabad metro area. Gachibowli is a suburb known for its business parks and tech employers. As reported by Telanganga Today and others last year, Micron plans to add as many as 2,000 employees in the Hyderabad area by 2024, adding to some 3,000 employed at a site in Raidurgam. “We plan to shift the existing employees to the new facility and also add 2,000 employees thus taking our total headcount to 5,000 in the next couple of years,” Anand Ramamoorthy, vice president and managing director of Micron India, told the paper. “While currently, we have 3,200 employees in India, about 90% of them work in Hyderabad and the rest are in Bengaluru and New Delhi. Hyderabad is the headquarters site for Micron in India and it houses 14 centers of scale and expertise here.”

Source: Conway Projects Report

Wisconsin

DC fast and ultra-fast charger manufacturer Ingeteam announced last week it will expand its 140,000-sq.-ft. production facility in Milwaukee so its production lines can kick out more than 13,000 units a year. The company noted that the facility “will be Buy America compliant under the Federal Highway Administration (FHWA) requirements for domestic manufacturing, Buy America Act for funded EV chargers according to the NEVI program (National Electric Vehicle Infrastructure).” We will bring the technology from our R&D centers and manufacturing facilities in Spain, and the experience of more than 35,000 EV charger connectors already deployed globally,” said Jesus Rodriguez, executive vice president of Ingeteam EV Chargers USA. “This significant investment, in addition to the more than $20 million already invested in our cutting-edge manufacturing plant since 2010, will add up to 100 new well-paying jobs to the region and to our production facility in Milwaukee, Wisconsin, over the next five years.” The business line is an expansion of Ingeteam’s U.S. business that has included wind turbine generators and solar and energy storage inverters.

Source: Conway Projects Report

 

 

 SITE SELECTION RECOMMENDS 

Time series of average summer (black) and maximum summer (red) daily maximum temperatures averaged over England and Wales, 1960-2021.

Graph courtesy of Matthew Patterson, Department of Physics, University of Oxford, and Eurekalert

“Oh, to be in England now that April’s there,” poet Robert Browning wrote in 1845. July and August? Not so much. The University of Oxford posted a news release yesterday calling attention to a study by Dr. Matthew Patterson from the university’s Department of Physics that finds that the hottest days in northwest Europe have warmed at double the rate of average summer days. Published by Geographical Research Letters, the study analyzes air temperatures recorded over the past 60 years.

“These findings underline the fact that the UK and neighboring countries are already experiencing the effects of climate change, and that last year’s heatwave was not a fluke,” Patterson said. “Policy makers urgently need to adapt their infrastructure and health systems to cope with the impacts of higher temperatures.”

 

 PHOTO OF THE DAY 

This coming Saturday, May 20th, marks World Bee Day. It’s a fact many company sustainability leaders know because of the work of firms such as Quebec’s Alveole and North Carolina’s Bee Downtown, who work with companies to install and maintain beehives at corporate campuses and office buildings. We last caught up with Bee Downtown founder Leith-Kathryn Bonner one year ago when she extolled the attractions of Greater Charlotte for members of her growing staff. Bonner sent us this photo from the beehive installations at Innovation Park, located in University City in Charlotte.

Why does World Bee Day occur on May 20th, you ask? It’s the birthday of Anton Janša, who in the 18th century pioneered modern beekeeping techniques in his native Slovenia. Among the many reasons to salute the bees, the Food & Agriculture Organization of the UN reminds us that pollinators “contribute to 35% of the world’s total crop production, pollinating 87 of 115 leading food crops worldwide.”

 
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