Where the money went, who moved, and why places win.
Welcome to Issue No. 5.
Finding a waterfront site is the easy part of building a shipyard. Somebody still has to own the dock, pay for the cranes and carry the risk when the first contract ends; Brian Curry explains the whole thing. Also in this issue = Oklahoma City's long game, + Taylor Stepp on the risk that gets site selectors fired + CREtech's AI bets.
FROM THE PROJECT TRACKER
Defense is drawing the 2026 map
Our Location Intelligence Tracker now follows 1,326 major U.S. location decisions since 2023, including 354 this year. Aerospace and defense accounts for 49 of them, tied with energy equipment for the most of any sector.
The newest entries lean hard that way, from Corvid Technologies' $95 million, 423-job expansion in Mooresville, N.C., to Blue Origin, Redwire and SPX in Huntsville. The biggest recent addition is GlobalFoundries' $10 billion commitment in Malta, N.Y.
SECTOR INTELLIGENCE · SHIPBUILDING
Who really owns the next shipyard?
Private money is pouring into shipbuilding, with $3.7 billion from Anduril in Maryland, more than $3 billion from Saronic in Brownsville and $1 billion from Davie Defense in Galveston and Port Arthur.
Brian Curry argues the next yards may be owned by funds, ports and public landlords, with builders as tenants. His warning for regions and investors: "A facility built around one program can become a strategic asset, or it can become a very expensive stranded asset."
MARKET INTELLIGENCE
Oklahoma City's long game
Oil built Oklahoma City. Now it also has an $8.8 billion aerospace industry around Tinker Air Force Base, a plan to recruit 200 university researchers and a $150 million biomedical gift from oilman Harold Hamm.
"Really, it has been several decades in the making, very intentional investments," said Christy Gillenwater, who leads the Greater Oklahoma City Chamber.
ACROSS THE TABLE
The site selection risk nobody was measuring three years ago
"If you're in my shoes and you provide a finalist site and the company gets embarrassed because of out-of-left-field negative community sentiment, you're going to get fired."
Taylor Stepp, Strategic Development Partners
CRETECH
The big firms want AI they can trust. The startups want the map.
At CREtech New York, the big firms talked about AI as a governance problem. The startups were busy turning every county's zoning, permit and parcel data into something comparable.
Site selectors and EDOs will be buying those startups' tools within a few years, and I wouldn't be surprised if the big names buy a few of the startups, too.
ON THE RADAR
Ten projects worth knowing
The biggest of this week's daily briefs:
Hyundai Translead · $600M, 3,750 jobs, Will County, Ill. →
Carrier · $600M+, 1,500 jobs, Fort Worth →
M.C. Dean · $412.5M, 1,950 jobs, Caroline County, Va. →
Phoenix Tailings · $375M rare earth plant, Rochester, N.Y. →
Blue Bird · $300M, 375 jobs, Fort Valley, Ga. →
Lockheed Martin · $300M missile parts expansion, Grand Prairie, Texas →
US Conec · $149.7M+, 224 jobs, Hickory, N.C. →
Corvid Technologies · $95M, 423 jobs, Mooresville, N.C. →
SendCutSend · $63.2M, 309 jobs, Pittston, Pa. →
U.S. Space Command · The Pentagon is seeking a builder for a $4B headquarters at Redstone Arsenal, Ala. →
MOVERS, SHAKERS & HOT JOBS
Who moved, and who's hiring
Brian Mefford · New EVP of economic development and innovation at the Bowling Green Area Chamber of Commerce.
Awards: IEDC hands out 226 Excellence in Economic Development Awards in New Orleans next week.
Hot jobs: Six openings, all paying six figures, led by data center developer Montera at up to $275,000 plus bonus.
THE 30-SECOND VERSION
Funds and ports may own the next shipyards · Aerospace and defense ties for the most projects in our 2026 Tracker · OKC's aerospace industry hits $8.8B · One client paid more to get power 12 months sooner · CREtech's startups want the map · Hyundai Translead's 3,750 jobs lead our radar
That's the whole issue. You're caught up.
COMING NEXT
Receipts: the full battery accounting. Sector Intelligence: Vista's Puget Sound shipyard workforce analysis.
One last thing
Projects we missed, moves you're too modest to announce and anything we got wrong all go to [email protected].
Andy Greiner
Location Decision