Site Selection Names Global Groundwork Index Leaders, Canada's Best Locations and Top Utilities in Economic Development

Contact: Adam Bruns,
Editor in Chief, Head of Publications
(770) 325-3491
adam.bruns@siteselection.com

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Atlanta, September 3, 2024 : The new September 2024 issue of Site Selection features three rankings prominent in the world of corporate location decision-making and economic development.

First, the issue’s cover story reveals Canada’s Best Locations. Based on Site Selection’s exclusive, proprietary project data tracking corporate end-user facility investment activity, the business publication’s Canadian Competitiveness Award once again recognizes Ontario as the most competitive province in a competitive nation, followed by Québec and Saskatchewan. Metro areas from Halifax to Vancouver and Québec City to Calgary populate Site Selection’s annual Canada’s Best Locations list of top Canadian economic development groups (see full lists below), with 11 of the 20 regions in Ontario. The strong performance of municipalities within these regions is also noted, including such communities as Oakville, Vaughan and Markham in Ontario and Burnaby, Surrey and Richmond in Greater Vancouver.

“The project data across such sectors as green technology, electric vehicles, energy and batteries,” says Adam Bruns, editor in chief of Site Selection, “shows a country long known for its natural resources naturally evolving to leadership in clean tech and beyond.”

This elite group is determined by examining total corporate facility projects and their associated capital investment and job creation numbers over a period from June 2023 through May 2024. The projects qualified for Site Selection’s Conway Projects Database (at least $1 million invested, at least 20 new jobs created or at least 20,000 new sq. ft. of space) are evaluated on both a cumulative and per-capita basis.

The Global Groundwork Index looks back at five years of Conway Projects Database corporate facility project data, then blended in data from the Federal Permitting Dashboard (which tracks infrastructure projects across the nation) and OECD infrastructure data to arrive at a unique snapshot of where private- and public-sector physical facility investment are converging for the public good and increased prosperity.

Among U.S. states, Ohio tops the list, just ahead of powerful corporate/infrastructure blends in Indiana, upstart Arizona, Louisiana and Illinois. For the second year in a row, metro areas were evaluated too, led by repeat No. 1 Indianapolis-Carmel-Anderson, Indiana. The Top 5 included a cluster of Midwest metros with Louisville-Jefferson County, Kentucky-Indiana, No. 2; last year’s No. 2 Columbus, Ohio at No. 3; the tri-state region of Cincinnati rising from No. 5 to No. 4 and Reno, Nevada, at No. 5.

“As with last year’s Global Groundwork Index, there’s no denying the impact of Intel’s initial $20 billion investment in two chip fabs in Ohio on both the corporate end-user and infrastructure sides of our index,” says Bruns. “Look closely at the other top performers in our state and metro rankings — including No. 1 metro Greater Indianapolis — and you see what it means to be called a crossroads of commerce.”

The United States is far and away the world leader when it comes to the combined infrastructure and corporate end-user facility investment and job creation data. Topping the list of foreign countries were last year’s No. 5 the United Kingdom at No. 1, followed by Australia, Ireland, Mexico and Germany.

Also featured in the September issue are Site Selection's Top U.S. Utilities in Economic Development (see list below), based on analysis of corporate end-user project activity in 2023 in those utilities’ territories. In addition to examining facility investment project totals and calculating those projects’ jobs and capital investment numbers on a cumulative and per-capita basis, Site Selection also welcomed questionnaire responses about the utilities’ website tools and data, and innovative programs and incentives for business. This year the rankings are accompanied by bonus online content featuring utility economic developers’ compelling insights into meeting record demand for large power loads amid a glut of data center, semiconductor and EV/battery sector projects.

“The elite Top Utilities we named this year earned the honor due to their economic development teams’ outstanding efforts connecting to business and community leaders as well as to power sources,” says Bruns of the rankings Site Selection has published since 1999. “What they hear and what we hear from those leaders is that power provision is top of mind.”

The new issue of Site Selection also includes stories on site development, transit-oriented development, eds & meds, quality of life, rare earth operations, outdoor recreation, food & beverage, advanced materials and logistics. In addition to the Greater Phoenix Intelligence Report, the issue features a special report on downtown Atlanta, Georgia and the $5 billion Centennial Yards project. International spotlights focus on Asia and the Middle East. U.S. spotlights look in on Texas, California, Pennsylvania, Upstate New York, North Carolina, Arkansas, Nevada, Idaho, Massachusetts, the Upper Midwest, the Mid-Atlantic and the I-80 Corridor. The September issue also includes Site Selection Investment Profiles about San Bernardino County, California; Consumers Energy; Ardmore, Oklahoma; Washington, D.C.; and Antioch, California. Two resource guides put Site Selection’s corporate readers in direct contact with economic development organizations across Canada and with utility economic development departments.

Site Selection magazine, the leading publication covering global corporate real estate strategy and economic development, is in its 71st year of publication, with a qualified circulation of more than 41,800* corporate end users in print, in addition to publishing all of its material at www.siteselection.com. Global corporate expansion experts Conway Data Inc. — publisher of Site Selection, state economic development guides under its Custom Content Publishing Division, and the Site Selection Investor Watch, Project Bulletin and Snapshot newsletters, has been a trusted source of business intelligence to corporations, government economic development and investment promotion agencies around the world since 1954. Conway Data also manages the Atlanta-based Industrial Asset Management Council, a professional association of corporate real estate executives, economic developers and commercial real estate service providers.

*June 2024; all circulation information is publisher’s own data unless otherwise specified.

Methodology: Cumulative and per-capita calculations based on Conway Projects Database projects, project-affiliated job creation and project-affiliated capital expenditure, Jan. 2020 through July 1, 2024. Cumulative and per-capita calculations based on project and funding data from the Bipartisan Infrastructure Law (BIL) Maps Dashboard. Retrieved from https://d2d.gsa.gov/report/bipartisaninfrastructure- law-bil-maps-dashboard)

Methodology: Cumulative and per-capita calculations based on Conway Projects Database projects, Jan. 2020 through July 1, 2024, and cumulative and per-capita calculations based on OECD infrastructure funding data by country retrieved July 2024