Investor Watch: May 23, 2024

UNITED KINGDOM

A new trade pact with Texas is the latest tie cemented by the UK Department of Business and Trade with U.S. jurisdictions that include seven other state agreements and various focused MoUs with metro areas. California and other states are next in line.

INTERNATIONAL UPDATE

Alexis Elmore delivers updates on Stellantis in Brazil; Novartis in Singapore; Europe’s 10 best cities; a hydrogen hub in northern Spain; solar manufacturing in India; and semiconductor materials in Japan.

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A new report outlines opportunity markets and trends across the United States, while a complementary report shines a glaring light on rent cost burdens faced by everyone.

In response to industry needs, multiple speculative building developments are underway in South Carolina’s northeastern region as a result of proactive effort from various counties.

Two speculative buildings are already available, including a 117,180-square-foot building in Florence, South Carolina; a 100,107-square-foot building along a CSX-operated rail line in Scranton, South Carolina; and a county-owned 50,000-square-foot building in Marlboro County.

Construction is underway for a 100,000-square-foot building in Andrews, South Carolina; a 51,885-square-foot building in Kingstree, South Carolina; and a 99,360-square-foot building in Conway, South Carolina.

There is no doubt these buildings will not be available for long due to soaring demand and the region’s ideal location along the East Coast, located halfway between New York and Miami along the I-95 corridor, and its direct access to the Port of Charleston via Inland Port Dillon.

To learn more, contact NESA at info@nesasc.org or 843-661-4669.

Photo courtesy of Hendricks Holding

The Wisconsin Entrepreneurs’ Conference in Milwaukee in June will present the Ken Hendricks Memorial “Seize the Day” award to Milwaukee native Dr. Valerie Daniels-Carter, president and CEO of V&J Holding Co., the largest female-owned franchise organization in the United States whose various arms encompass 102 Burger King and Pizza hut franchises in four states, as well as four non-traditional sites, according to a bulletin from the Wisconsin Technology Council. Daniels-Carter, whose honors include being recognized by Essence Magazine as one of nation’s “50 Most Inspiring” African-American leaders, is also a board member of the Green Bay Packers and a minority owner of the Milwaukee Bucks.

In early 2008, just after he died in an accident, we documented the economic development leadership of the award’s namesake Ken Hendricks in Beloit, Wisconsin, and in Keokuk, Iowa. Today, his wife and company co-founder Diane leads Hendricks Holding Co. (HHC), a private investment firm that maintains a “steadfast commitment to the Beloit community” through a total of 25 portfolio companies, investments and firms under common control. Three are in nearby Janesville and nine are in Beloit, which serves as headquarters for the company and for the couple’s original business American Builders & Contractors Supply Co., Inc. (ABC Supply). One of the portfolio companies is Northstar Medical Technologies, whose work in radioisotopes (specifically molybdenum-99) we reported on in the 2015 piece “Need Mo-99.”

The bridge over the Rock River in Beloit pictured above connects the Ken Hendricks Memorial Statue to “The Spine,” the centralized area on the Iron Works Campus, which houses innovative businesses such as Comply 365, Acculynx, The YMCA, Hendricks Commercial Properties and Global Corporations, Kerry ingredients and Rakuten. The Ironworks Campus includes 32 buildings totaling 2.2 million sq. ft. and was an investment through Hendricks Commercial Properties, says a spokesperson for HHC.

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New Clark City, a 9,450-hectare (23,350-acre) development project in the Philippines, is the country’s first smart and green metropolis.

Rendering courtesy of Bases Conversion and Development Authority

The Smart City Observatory at Switzerland’s International Institute for Management Development (IMD) each year produces the Smart City Index, produced over the past two years in partnership with the Seoul-based World Smart Sustainable Cities Organization (WeGO). With citizens surveyed and data collected in 142 cities across the world since 2019, says IMD, the new fifth edition allows for meaningful comparisons of city performance over five years.

Watch for insights from this resource and others in Site Selection’s major feature on Smart Cities in our July issue, which also includes our annual Sustainability Rankings. Want to get your advertising message into the issue? There’s still time.

March 2024 photo by Prateek Joshi / NREL 88865

The Canoe Brook Floating Solar Photovoltaic (FPV) project, the largest in the United States at the time of completion at 8.9 MW, is located on a water storage reservoir in New Jersey. The Solar Energy Industries Association says the state has 5,276 MW of solar power installed as of Q4 2023, good enough for No. 9 in the nation. Total solar investment in the state has come to $14.8 billion and prices have fallen by 47% over the past decade, SEIA reports, with solar representing 7.44% of New Jersey’s electricity production.