Louisiana-based energy infrastructure company Black Bayou Energy Hub plans to expand its Lafayette headquarters and a whole lot more. Tata Consultancy Services subsidiary HyperVault has acquired the land necessary to pursue a new $7.3 billion AI data center campus in Hyderabad. An Indiana town near the state line with Ohio has the ingredients to attract a new $215 million liquids production facility from Switzerland-based flavor, fragrance and cosmetic ingredient manufacturer Givaudan.
Just in time for the Great Lakes Economic Development Council’s annual conference in Milwaukee this week, Site Selection’s report features a letter from the Council’s board chair; a review of the region’s economic development accolades; a visit with the leader of a unique museum; updates from the region’s eight states and two Canadian provinces; analysis of the region’s economic drivers and workforce; a look at connectivity and infrastructure; sustainability and resilience as seen through the lens of Cleveland; and a tribute to the late Mark Litten.
When up to 1,500 executives, scientists, entrepreneurs and officials from around the globe convene on the campus of the University of Maryland (UMD) in College Park this week for the Quantum World Congress, they will quickly comprehend why it’s the right place to be.
The Real Deal reported earlier this month that Related Ross purchased the 124-acfe former IBM headquarters property in Palm Beach County, Florida, known as the Boca Raton Innovation Campus, noting that the property “comes with developer entitlements for a ‘micro-city.’ ” Site Selection EVP Ron Starner spoke with billionaire Stephen Ross exactly one year ago this week about the momentum in Palm Beach County in “The Developer Who’s Transforming West Palm Beach.”
No, this has nothing to do with college football … Energy legislation aimed at boosting Mississippi’s stature as a nexus for data centers and other large power users received much attention during the state’s latest legislative session.
“Greater New York leads all BOMA markets with $48 billion in total output attributable to building operations,” says a new market study from BOMA, “followed by Greater Los Angeles at $29.6 billion and Boston at $28.4 billion.”
Photo by Julienne Schaer courtesy of New York City Tourism + Conventions
The Building Owners and Managers Association (BOMA) International last week released its 2026 Market Study: The Economic Impact of U.S. Commercial Real Estate, finding that “the operation and maintenance of office, retail and industrial buildings across BOMA’s 79 U.S. markets generate $609.9 billion in annual economic output and support 3.9 million jobs.”
Among the highlights in the 109-page report, BOMA noted that federal construction statistics still classify data centers as private office construction. Thus, in 2025, “data centers accounted for approximately $41.2 billion, or nearly 46%, of the more than $90 billion in private office construction nationally, compared with less than 5% a decade earlier. Traditional office construction excluding data centers totaled approximately $48.4 billion in 2025.”
Industrial construction also remains at historically high levels, BOMA stated. “Warehouse and manufacturing construction totaled approximately $274.2 billion in 2025. While down 7.9% from the previous year, investment remained more than twice its 2020 level and represented the third-highest annual total on record.”
PHOTO OF THE DAY
Photo courtesy of Ayers Rock Resort
While tomorrow marks the autumnal equinox in the northern hemisphere, it marks the spring astronomical equinox in Australia, where, earlier this year, the large-scale light installation “Field of Light” by Bruce Munro, located at Ayers Rock Resort, Uluru, marked its 10th anniversary.
Set in the desert near Uluṟu, the installation opened as a temporary installation in 2016 and had welcomed more than 750,000 visitors as of early 2026. The work spans seven football fields and comprises 50,000 solar-powered stems inspired by native wildflowers after rain. “The installation sits gently on Aṉangu Country,” stated a release from Ayers Rock Resort, “a place of continuing cultural significance stretching back tens of thousands of years.”
The installation has spawned other Munro installations at Sensorio in California, Longwood Gardens in Pennsylvania, Freedom Plaza in Manhattan and Salcombe in the UK.
