Investor Watch: June 15, 2023

For three decades, Florida looked to EFI to lead economic development, reports Site Selection Executive Vice President and veteran Florida journalist Ron Starner. What went wrong?

UTAH

Federal CHIPS Act funding entices a billion-dollar business investment.

The combination of 3,400 developable acres on a 7,400-acre park, strong infrastructure, and business-friendly environment, makes the shovel-ready West Weber Industrial District a preferred site for industrial expansion. Targeted industries include advanced manufacturing, aerospace and defense, distribution and logistics, and data centers. Build-to-suit pads offer up to 30M SF of industrial space zoned M-3. The complex’s infrastructure includes existing water rights and rail service. Other amenities: labor force of more than 300,000 within a population of 635,000; workforce training offered by six universities, two tech colleges, and other private colleges; and a landscape full of recreational opportunities.

Just 20 minutes from the Ogden-Hinckley Regional Airport, and 45 minutes from the Salt Lake International Airport, the complex is also within a one-day drive of population centers like LA, Phoenix, Portland, Canada, and Denver.

Visit https://nuea.org/2023/06/05/west-weber-industrial-district/ for more information.

Last week Montana Governor Greg Gianforte joined Dvele CEO and co-founder Kurt Goodjohn in Butte to break ground on the first of 10 planned U.S. factories to produce prefab modular homes. The La Jolla, California–based Dvele (“dwell” in Norwegian) is making an $80 million investment that is expected to create 300 manufacturing jobs and 180 field jobs churning out and delivering scientifically designed, sustainable and healthy modular-design homes to address the shortage of affordable housing. A release from the state noted that Gov. Gianforte in May “signed a series of bills into law designed to increase the state’s supply of housing and make housing more affordable and accessible for Montanans through zoning reform, regulatory relief, and investments to grow the state’s skilled workforce.”

Dvele says it won’t open the doors on what it calls its new “foundry” until January 2025, but has set aside capacity for five new projects at its operating foundry in California for Montana developers.

How dire is the housing picture? The Harvard Joint Center for Housing Studies (JCHS) is one of the nation’s best go-to resources. Watch this space a week from today for insights from “The State of the Nation’s Housing 2023,” a new report due to be released by the JCHS on June 21.

On Fountain Square in downtown Cincinnati last week, Divisions Maintenance Group employees, leaders and their families celebrated the first day in their new headquarters at The Foundry with after-work games, food, photo ops and fireworks. The event culminated in a group walk (pictured) to the new HQ and the lighting of a large DMG sign at the top of the building, formerly home to a Macy’s flagship store. A release explained that, among other unique architectural and workspace features, the HQ is divided into 15 neighborhoods named for communities in Cincinnati and Northern Kentucky. The HQ is split among three floors (about 100,000 sq. ft.) with the option to expand upward in the future, as the building was originally designed to support 10 stories.

DMG expects around 600 people to work at the HQ initially, in addition to its hundreds of remote and international employees. Launched in 1999 to manage lot sweeping for a single store in Alexandria, Kentucky, the company today employs nearly 850 people delivering facility maintenance for tens of thousands of sites across the country, including some of the biggest brands in retail, real estate and distribution (many of whose corporate real estate and facilities directors read Site Selection). “It’s incredible,” said DMG Founder, President and CEO Gary Mitchell. “I would come down here as a little kid, and you just wouldn’t imagine being part of all these wonderful companies. And here we are, center stage with some of the best companies in the state. It’s just an honor.”