The Site Selectors Guild Annual Conference is arguably the most important conference in the world of corporate location decisions. So, naturally, we took “The Project” on the road to Cincinnati, Ohio to hear from some of the smartest minds in corporate site selection about what we like to call “next practices” in corporate location decision-making. On this special episode, we share three insights from interviews with Guild members Didi Caldwell, Principal at Global Location Strategies; Darin Buelow, Principal at Deloitte Consulting; Angelos Angelou, Founder and Principal Executive Officer of AngelouEconomics; Mike Mullis, President and CEO of J.M. Mullis Inc.; Tracey Hyatt Bosman, Managing Director at Biggins Lacy Shapiro; Jay Garner, President of Garner Economics, LLC; and Jeanette Goldsmith, Vice President of Strategic Development Group.

This week we bring you the story of Nokian Tyres, the world’s northernmost tire manufacturer. The Finland-based company announced plans last year to invest $360 million to build its first North American plant in Rhea County, Tennessee. The battle for the plant, which involved 20 different communities across the U.S., took the winning community from Tennessee all the way to Russia and Finland and even involved a major change in legislation. We spoke with Tommi Heinonen, Head of Nokian Tyres North America, and Dennis Tumlin, Executive Director for Rhea Economic and Community Development, to get the story behind the decision.

You might call Cardone Industries America’s original green manufacturer. Founded in 1970, the company specializes in remanufacturing used automobile parts – items like brake calipers, drive shafts, steering pump and camshaft synchronizers. By remanufacturing these items, the company saves raw materials, saves energy and keeps the old parts out of landfills and junkyards.   

The Philadelphia-based company needed to build an enormous, new distribution center. They looked in a wide range of states and communities but settled on an area of the country where they already had major operations: the Rio Grande Valley in the city of Harlingen, Texas. At 920,000 square feet and an overall construction cost of $50 million, the recent announcement is the largest economic development project in Harlingen’s history.  

We interview two key players in this episode. George  Zauflik is a twenty-year veteran of the Cardone Industries. He is the Senior Vice President of Compliance and Government Relations and had primary responsibility for the site search. Raudel Garza is the CEO of the Harlingen Economic Development Corporation, a position he has held for the past five years.

Dr. Richard Florida, author of The Rise of the Creative Class and The New Urban Crisis, did something unusual last week. After conferring with other leading experts on cities, he created a “Support for a Non-Aggression Pact on Amazon HQ2” petition and put it on Change.org. So far over a thousand leading thinkers from across the country have signed the document.

We spoke with him about the pact, his candid “this is nuts” view on Amazon HQ2 and why he thinks this is a “teachable moment” for the economic development profession. Listen to this high-energy conversation on your phone, tablet or computer.

Mercedes-Benz has been successfully building vehicles in Tuscaloosa, Alabama for twenty years. But with a decision to move forward with two major expansion projects -- an 800,000 square foot global logistics center and a 1.3 million square foot after-sales parts hub – the company quietly began looking for new location options in Alabama, Georgia and Mississippi.

Bibb County – a rural Alabama county with a population 22,000 – was the winner of both projects. We talk Jason Hoff, CEO and President of Mercedes-Benz in the United States about the decision. But we also talk with Jeff Traywick, an economic development from the regional group the Birmingham Business Alliance who managed the project. He helped us identify and recognize two unsung heroes that made the deal possible.

So what does 2018 look like in terms of site selection? Will Amazon’s HQ2 search process be replicated by other companies? What will happen in the area of foreign direct investment? And how will the recently approved tax bill impact investment decisions? 

“The Project” Podcast gets face-to-face with Mark Williams, President of the Strategic Development Group and Dennis Donovan, a Principal with WDG Consulting for their perspective on the year ahead. Both individuals are members of the Site Selectors Guild. They share interesting answers to some difficult questions in the first podcast of the new year.

In November 2017, M&M Industries announced a $42 million expansion in Chattanooga, Tennessee, where the company has been based since its founding in 1986. The manufacturer of plastic containers for the chemical, paint and bioscience clients looked at locations in other parts of Tennessee as well as the states of Georgia, Texas and Ohio. And while many factors played a role in the location decision, ultimately, it came down to the costs – both hidden and direct – of building a company culture. To get the full story, we spoke with Glenn Morris, President & CEO of M&M Industries, Inc. and Steve Hiatt, Director of Existing Business Development for the Chattanooga Area Chamber of Commerce. 

Evoqua Water Technologies moved just 20 miles from suburban Warrendale, Pennsylvania to the top floors of a 37-story corporate office building in the heart of Pittsburgh’s central business district. The company press release said it was all about tapping into the “vibrancy and energy” of downtown. But in the wake of the company’s rapid growth and a successful, initial public offering, it was also about sending a message to employees, customers and the entire Pittsburgh region that Evoqua is a company on the move. To get the full story, we speak with Christopher Wild, Evoqua’s Global Corporate Real Estate Manager and Patty Horvatich, Vice President, Business Investment for the Pittsburgh Regional Alliance.

"Tell me if this is true or false. If it's true, I'm gonna throw you out this window." This was one of the more colorful exchanges when a member of the Alabama economic development team confronted a  Mercedes-Benz negotiator with a USA Today article that said the company’s automotive manufacturing plant was headed for the state of North Carolina.  

In our continuing “The Big Deal” series, we take a look at Mercedes-Benz’ announcement  of plans to open its first and only manufacturing plant to North America in 1993. Tuscaloosa County, Alabama was the winner of this 1,500 person manufacturing plant that has grown to nearly 7,000 workers over the past 20+ years. To get the full story, we talked to Dara Longgrear, Executive Director of the Tuscaloosa County Industrial Development Authority, Samuel Addy is a Senior Research Economist with the University of Alabama and Neil Wade, a veteran economic developer who was the President of the Economic Development Partnership of Alabama at the time of the Mercedes-Benz announcement.