Where the money went, who moved, and why places win.
Welcome to Issue No. 7.
Election week turned into a referendum on data centers. Voters sided against them in 40 of 41 local ballot measures, and new governors in Texas, Ohio and Georgia ran on pausing approvals. Also in this issue: aerospace and defense keeps piling into our Tracker, what manufacturers were actually talking about on Election Day, and Kate Crowley on why the council meeting is where deals get won or lost.
MARKET INTELLIGENCE
Data centers lost 40 of 41 ballot votes
Voters in 10 states decided 41 local data center measures on Tuesday, and 40 went against the industry. The lone exception was in Harwood, N.D. Ohio had the most on the ballot at 21, and none went the industry's way.
The governors' races may matter more. Texas Gov.-elect Gina Hinojosa has promised a moratorium on new approvals in a state that holds about 26% of the planned U.S. data center pipeline, by a Jefferies estimate. Ohio's Amy Acton and Georgia's Keisha Lance Bottoms have called for pauses of their own.
FROM THE PROJECT TRACKER
Aerospace and defense keeps piling in
Our Tracker has logged 57 aerospace and defense location decisions so far this year, up from 13 in 2023, more new projects than any other sector. North Carolina's recent projects carry more announced jobs than any other state's, at 15,584.
SECTOR INTELLIGENCE
Manufacturers weren't waiting on the election
On Election Day morning, BDO's Bill Pellino told us the vote barely came up in his conversations with manufacturers. Costs, margins and workers did. The ISM manufacturing index hit 55.5 in October, its 10th straight month of expansion.
"It's not just the number of workers; it's the right workers at the right location," Pellino said.
ACROSS THE TABLE
Kate Crowley on working both sides of the deal
CapCivic's Kate Crowley splits her time between companies and the communities courting them. She says incentive votes are never certain anymore, because more residents are reading the council packets and asking good questions.
"The electorate got engaged faster than our processes caught up," she said.
ON THE RADAR
Ten projects worth knowing
The biggest of this week's daily briefs:
U.S. Steel · Nearly $3B for a new hot strip mill, Mon Valley Works, Pa. →
SEG Solar · $950M solar cell plant, Tomball, Texas →
GSK · More than $800M and 300-plus jobs, Upper Merion, Pa. →
Hyundai · Nearly $450M for hybrid engines, Montgomery, Ala. →
Lockheed Martin · $420M and 650 jobs at its missile plant, Camden, Ark. →
Aternium · $380M hydrogen and heavy water plant proposed, Dover, Del. →
Boom Supersonic · $150M turbine factory, Centennial, Colo. →
Vantive · $100M for its dialysis plant, Mountain Home, Ark. →
ABB · $50M and 227 jobs at a new plant, Selmer, Tenn. →
Rittal · 182 jobs with Ohio tax credit backing, Urbana, Ohio →
MOVERS, SHAKERS & HOT JOBS
Who moved, and who's hiring
Tiffani Wooten · Conroe taps an 18-year Tomball veteran to lead its economic development council.
Awards: JEDCO took home three IEDC honors.
Hot jobs: Four new openings, plus a reminder on one we flagged earlier.
FROM OUR PARTNERS · STRATA PLATFORMS
Billion-dollar location decisions start with trustworthy data. Strata Platforms' LOIS (LocationOne Information System) puts available sites and buildings alongside the data that shapes site selection, from workforce and demographics to major employers and infrastructure. Economic developers use it to market their communities, and site selectors use it to compare them.
THE 30-SECOND VERSION
Data centers lost 40 of 41 local ballot votes · Three new governors ran on pausing approvals · Aerospace and defense is up to 57 projects in our Tracker · Manufacturers say costs and workers matter more than the election · U.S. Steel leads our radar
That's the whole issue. You're caught up.
COMING NEXT
For Veterans Day: the programs turning military service into civilian careers, from the Airpower Foundation to a Texas A&M program that trains veterans to farm. Sector Intelligence: America is building shipyards faster than it can staff them, with a new Vista Site Selection analysis of Puget Sound and Hampton Roads.
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