Investor Watch: September 28, 2026

Italy-based tire manufacturer Pirelli will invest $1.2 billion in the other Rome. UK-based quantum algorithms company Phasecraft has decided to place its North American HQ in Arlington, Virginia. Slovenia’s capital city Ljubljana, recognized last year by IMD as one of the world’s top Smart Cities, will welcome a $300 million biosimilar drug substance facility from Swiss pharmaceutical manufacturer Sandoz.

LOGISTICS

They also perform well in the cold chain niche, where things are changing rapidly.

INVESTMENT PROFILE: FLOWER MOUND, TEXAS

Ranked the No. 3 best place to live in America by U.S. News & World Report, the Town of Flower Mound is cultivating mixed-use hubs that are connecting residents to an unmatched quality of life in North Texas.

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Ameren Missouri’s Cass County Renewable Energy Center
Photo courtesy of Ameren Missouri

In keeping with Ameren’s recent recognition by Site Selection as a Top Utility in Economic Development, a new study by HR&A Advisors released last week finds the utility’s economic activity supported approximately 63,000 jobs and generated $25.9 billion in economic output across Missouri and Illinois in 2025. In addition to its economic development work — a planned $3.6 billion and 3,700 jobs in total from companies with which Ameren’s team engaged — Ameren last year spent $2.5 billion with in-state vendors and generated approximately $1 billion in state and local tax payments.

The study also highlights “the important role reliable energy infrastructure plays in attracting investment, supporting business expansion and preparing communities for future growth,” the release said. Among recent investments, Ameren Missouri in late 2024 announced 500 megawatts of new solar generation (including this 150-MW installation in Cass County), representing a total investment of approximately $950 million, were serving customers. In 2027, the $900 million, 800-MW Castle Bluff Energy Center, a simple-cycle natural gas energy center built in St. Louis County on the site of the former coal-fired Meramec Energy Center, is expected to be ready to serve as a reliable backup source of energy.

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Graph courtesy of U.S. Census Bureau

Three news items from the U.S. Census Bureau over the past month merit further attention from Site Selection readers. First, according to 2019–2024 combined data from the Survey of Income and Program Participation, full-time workers ages 25 to 64 with a non-degree credential reported 16.4% higher annual median earnings than those without one. About 37% of adults in that age cohort with at least a high school diploma went on to earn nondegree credentials (NDC) — professional certifications, licenses or certificates — which typically target specific skills and occupations. The finding applies to those with only a high school diploma and those with college degrees.

In August, the Bureau announced new partnerships with institutions in Colorado, Maryland, New Mexico, New Jersey, Pennsylvania, Utah, Tennessee and Vermont for its Post-Secondary Employment Outcomes (PSEO) experimental data product. “People considering attending college can use the PSEO to find earnings and employment outcome data by major, degree level, post-secondary institution and state,” a release explains. “Partnerships with eight new educational systems, plus new institutions from four existing partners, add data from 165 post-secondary institutions to the PSEO. This brings the total to 1,117 institutions, covering about 40% of all U.S. college graduates.”

As for the employers those credentialed individuals hope to work for, the Bureau early this month released the full dataset from the 2024 Annual Integrated Economic Survey (AIES), offering a single, comprehensive annual snapshot of U.S. employer businesses. “The AIES provides economic data, including business revenue, expenses, payroll and employment at detailed geographies,” the Bureau announced, including data at the national, regional and divisional levels, with state-level estimates available for selected sectors. 

Photo © Scott Streble courtesy of Farm Aid

This archive photo from Farm Aid 2023 shows Farm Aid board artists Neil Young, Dave Matthews, John Mellencamp, Willie Nelson and Margo Price, all of whom performed over the weekend at Farm Aid 2026 in Virginia Beach, Virginia.

A Farm Aid release stated that Chapter 12 farm bankruptcies rose 46% in 2025, marking the third year in a row that filings increased. “Around 15,000 farms nationwide closed in 2025,” Farm Aid stated. “The stakes are particularly visible in Virginia, where family farmers face growing competition for land from development, including the state’s rapidly expanding data center industry. In Virginia Beach, more than 23,000 acres of farmland exist alongside neighborhoods, businesses and one of the nation’s largest military communities.” (Read more about the Hampton Roads region in “Authentic & Transformative,” a Site Selection Intelligence Report published in March 2026.)

“When farmers can’t make it, we lose access to food, businesses lose customers and communities lose people and land that can’t be replaced,” said Farm Aid President and Founder Willie Nelson. Since 1985, Farm Aid has raised more than $90 million to support programs that “help farmers thrive, expand the reach of the Good Food Movement, take action to change the dominant system of industrial agriculture and promote food from family farms,” the organization stated on Saturday.