Investor Watch: December 19, 2024

After surveying its global prospects and fielding offers almost too good to be true, closely held Arctic Circle-based multinational S.C. Ltd. (SCL) has decided to keep the home fires burning at the North Pole.

MONTANA

Film production projects keep discovering the Big Sky State, including a new complex in the same town where Edison made the first Montana film 127 years ago.

NEW INTERSTATE CORRIDORS

Out of 102 high priority corridors officially designated by Congress, 35 are designated as a future Interstate highway.

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M1 Concourse was recognized in 2023 by RACER Trust for its innovative reuse of a former GM manufacturing property in Pontiac, Michigan, for an 87-acre automotive events and entertainment venue, shown here hosting the 2024 Woodward Dream Show & Festival

Photo courtesy of M1 Concourse

A study released this week finds “nearly 70,000 jobs and $24 billion a year in economic output can be attributed to the activities of RACER Trust and the buyers and end users of its former automotive manufacturing properties in 14 states,” the Trust announced. Three-quarters of those jobs were indirect or induced, based on modeling by Industrial Economics, Inc.

The Revitalizing Auto Communities Environmental Response (RACER) Trust was created in 2011 to oversee properties relinquished by the former General Motors Corp. in bankruptcy. At its effective date, RACER Trust’s real property portfolio consisted of 336 tax parcels; 34 million sq. ft. in 167 buildings; and 6,776 acres of land at 83 locations. It has completed 98 transactions across its 14-state portfolio, approximately half in Michigan, including United Wholesale Mortgage’s 4,300-person site in Pontiac and an Amazon facility in Livonia. Through July 1, 2024, RACER also had obtained a No Further Action status for 61 components of environmental cleanup at its properties.

“From new manufacturing and light industrial development in Flint and the American Center for Mobility in Ypsilanti Township, to an array of innovative and successful projects in Pontiac including the M1 Concourse, RACER Trust has played a key role in Michigan’s successful efforts to clean up and promote the reuse of former brownfield properties,” said RACER Trust Redevelopment Manager Bruce Rasher, first interviewed by Site Selection in “Further Action” in June 2012. We’ve checked in periodically in the ensuing 12 years as well, including this piece on the novelty of autonomous vehicles in 2017. The Trust last year completed the sale of the Buick City property in Flint to Ashley Capital, which is pursuing the development of Flint Commerce Center on the property in phase one of a development expected to consist of 10 buildings and 3.5 million sq. ft. of space. The site previously had welcomed a major investment from Lear Corp., documented by Site Selection in this Consumers Energy Investment Profile in May 2018.

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Denmark is among the countries most ready for the future of manufacturing, says a new report from the World Economic Forum and Kearney. Shown here is the iconic harbor in the country’s second-biggest city, Aarhus (pronounced “Or-hoose”).

Photo by Roar Paaske courtesy of Visit Denmark

In collaboration with Kearney, the World Economic Forum has released a new report called “Beyond Cost: Country Readiness for the Future of Manufacturing and Supply Chains” which identifies seven country readiness factors and ranks the top three countries in each category, with Singapore and Denmark appearing most frequently across the board.

Photo courtesy of Nelson Byrd Woltz and v2com newswire

At the Dezeen Awards 2024 in London earlier this month, the Land Bridge & Prairie at Memorial Park in Houston was recognized as Infrastructure and Transport Project of the Year. U.S. studio Nelson Byrd Woltz Landscape Architects “built two tunnels covered with soil and native grasses to create a land bridge that links two sides of the 1,464-acre park, offering new animal habitats and cleaner air for humans,” said the citation. The Memorial Park Conservancy recently celebrated its 100th anniversary.