Wherein we salute the Top 20 corporate facility investments in North
America and Top 20 in the rest of the world. E-mobility and
semiconductors rule the day, with a few compelling exceptions.
A new data partner for the index that forms the basis for the 2023 Sustainability Rankings coming to Site Selection’s July issue is The Center for
Active Design (CfAD), the global not-for-profit organization that
maintains the Fitwel standard and conducts objective third-party
assessments that lead to certified Fitwel healthy buildings. So far
there are 1,784 certified Fitwel buildings in the world, with nearly
1,400 more in progress.
A sneak preview: Combine all the certified and in-progress projects and
California has more than 420 projects — a higher total (barely) than all
of Canada. Nearly 170 are in the District of Columbia, an unsurprising
result given the wealth of LEED-certified buildings also found in the
nation’s capital. The U.S. Green Building Council’s publicly
available data on the world’s LEED-certified buildings are
another component of Site Selection’s Sustainability Rankings, which
will index all 163,000-plus of them.
Also part of the index will be data from our partners at CSRHub, who harmonize ESG data from 882 sources
for 51,921 companies in 154 countries. We cross-reference high-ESG
companies with recent major corporate facility projects from those
companies entered into the Conway Data Projects Database, which also
contributes subsets of project data from “green industry” sectors. Other
sources include the Energy Star buildings database, as well as the World
Happiness Index, Ocean Health Index, renewable energy deployment and
more.
It’s a uniquely in-depth exercise in data analysis from a company with
data in its name since 1954. — Adam Bruns
As reported by multiple news organizations in January, JPMorgan Chase is
modernizing its corporate centers in Wilmington and near Newark,
Delaware, and plans to create 725 new jobs at the facilities over the
next two years, many in tech-oriented roles. The company employs 11,000
people in Delaware. “Despite long-running predictions from in-state
pundits that taxes and other issues would send the bulk of worker bee
banking jobs elsewhere,” wrote Delaware Business Now! Chief Content
Officer Doug Rainey in February, “financial services still employs
47,000 people in Delaware despite waves of cutbacks and restructurings
that included Bank of America sharply cutting its headcount in Delaware,
post MBNA. Despite the cuts, B of A remains a major employer. It did not
hurt that the industry became more technology-driven, with banks in need
of a workforce with specialized skills that were available in this
region. Moreover, companies were able to quietly move jobs out of the
New York metro area to lower-cost locations like Delaware.”
Packaging manufacturer Huhtamaki last June broke ground on this
expansion of its molded fiber product manufacturing unit in Hammond in
order to “better serve existing and new customers in North America with
a broad range of sustainable, fully recyclable and compostable,
fiber-based packaging solutions, manufactured from 100% recycled North
American raw material.” The facility is next to the company’s existing
facility in Hammond, where Huhtamaki has operated since 1948. “The
investment in this new manufacturing capacity adjacent to our existing
site in Hammond represents our strong belief in the future development
of the region and in the continued success of our customers – both
current and new,” said Charles Héaulmé, president and CEO of Huhtamaki.
“The expansion will introduce new sustainable fiber-based products such
as egg cartons and cup carriers – manufactured on state-of-the-art
machinery developed by Huhtamaki – to our portfolio in the region and
drive production efficiency.” The expansion leverages the success of
earlier expansions of other Huhtamaki units across North America.
Huhtamaki employs approximately 4,400 people across 18 manufacturing
units in North America – 17 in the United States and 1 in Mexico. The
company in 2022 also announced a manufacturing site in Alf, Germany,
would switch its focus from plastics to smooth molded fiber products to
meet the growing demand for plastic-free alternatives for food
packaging.
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.
Nashville-based Silicon Ranch, whose Lancaster Solar Farm (pictured)
supports Meta’s renewable energy goals in Georgia, was the top
VC-funded solar company in Q1 2023 with $375 million.
Total corporate funding in Q1 2023 came to $8.4 billion
in 42 deals.
Global VC funding for the solar sector came to $2.1
billion in 18 deals in Q1 2023,
Public market financing in Q1 2023 totaled $2.3 billion,
an increase of 1,183% from Q4 2022.
There were 67 large-scale solar project acquisitions in
Q1 2023.
There were 27 solar M&A transactions in Q1 2023.
PHOTO OF THE
DAY
Managing Editor Adam Bruns made this photo on Monday from the platform
of the MARTA rapid transit station in Doraville, Georgia, as he waited
for the train to take him on the 50-minute ride to Atlanta
Hartsfield-Jackson International Airport. Bruns has documented slow but steady redevelopment progress since
2015 on the site of the former GM Doraville Plant. Gray
Television’s film and TV production studio Assembly plans to open its
19-soundstage complex there later this year, even as Gray said it would
delay construction of a large mixed-use town center phase until
macroeconomic concerns eased. Then what about all those nice facades?
They are exactly that: In a time when more housing would be more than
welcome in so many cities, the facades are part of the backlot that will
be available for film and TV productions, mimicking big-city
streetscapes from the Big Apple to Europe. The railcars in the
foreground? Real.
