Facebook’s Prineville, OR data center

By Bill Trüb
From the March/April 2013 issue

Data centers are crucial to operations across countless sectors, from retail to information technology, government to biotech, logistics to engineering. Many consumers, however, have little awareness or understanding of just how massive and expensive these facilities are. Large-scale data centers are known to use the amount of electricity equivalent to small towns and, despite many greening initiatives, some centers release a significant amount of air pollution in the form of diesel exhaust. Furthermore, the amount of security necessary to run a successful data center is enormous due to the highly sensitive information and pricey equipment housed in such storage units. So high are these stakes that the Telecommunications Industry Association has even published a document detailing the minimum requirements for the infrastructure of data centers and computer rooms.

But the business of IT is one that changes quickly. The International Data Corporation claims the average data center is nine years old, which is troubling when coupled with research company Gartner’s assertion that data centers more than seven years old are obsolete. In May 2011, Uptime Institute reported that 36 percent of large companies will exhaust their IT capacities within the next 18 months. Yet according to a “Green Data Centers” report by Pike Research,the global market for green data centers segment of the industry is expected to more than double in size in the next four years. It can be overwhelming to try and keep abreast of these fast-moving, ever-changing, air-conditioned rooms of priceless information.

Greene And The Greening Of Data Centers

In an effort to reduce the shocking levels of diesel exhaust that many data centers emit into the atmosphere, the industry is being proactive in finding environmentally sound operating solutions. Aptly-named Nicholas Greene, writer for www.greendatacenterconference.com, penned “Ten of the Biggest Data Center Trends” at the tail end of 2012. Let’s recap a few of his most notable prognostications.

“Cloud Computing’s still got a long way to go before it’s the world-changing behemoth that everyone predicts it will be, but this year saw more and more organizations finding their way to cloud computing, and loving every moment of it,” writes Greene. “Hybrid clouds took off, and Infrastructure-as-a-Service, Software-as-a-Service and Platform-as-a-Service vendors really came into their own. Unfortunately, the great strides cloud computing made this year are going to have some unfortunate side-effects in the near future. Moving forward; scalability is going to be a huge concern: our current data center infrastructure, powerful as it is, might not be able to handle the increased demands of the cloud.”

Greene continues, “2012 also witnessed the birth of the software defined data center. As a direct result of this, we’ve been seeing an increased focus on virtualization with the configuration of the data center’s hardware dealt with by upper-level software. Software Defined Networking, though still in its nascent stages, has the very real potential to revolutionize the way data centers are operated, with new options for resource optimization, availability, storage, and mobility.”

According to Greene, the push for eco-sensitive options has been a success. “The environment has been getting a lot of love from data center operators this year,” he says. “We’ve been seeing a massive shift towards green computing throughout 2012, with big names such as Apple and Microsoft hopping on the environmental friendliness train. The looming threat of global warming, coupled with the obvious energy savings one accrues as a result of green initiatives (not to mention the good press an organization can receive) have combined to make green IT a near-integral part of data center design.”

Greene gives us the word of the year: “Server racks are becoming denser and denser as many organizations consolidate their data centers in order to save on energy and real-estate costs. Consolidation is the word of the year, as data centers grow smaller and more powerful and energy management turns from a good idea to an integral discipline for data center operation.”

And finally, openness and transparency is where the industry is headed, led by kingpins Facebook and Google. “In April 2011, Facebook founded the Open Compute Project—an initiative which I’m sure that many initially took as a very bad April Fool’s Joke. It wasn’t—and it’s been gaining steam ever since,” asserts Greene. “The notion that data centers should be defined by their software infrastructure rather than their physical hardware seemed novel at the time, but Facebook has demonstrated that it’s got real value. Even organizations that are typically secretive to the point of paranoia, such as Google, have loosened up a bit, giving us some insight into the inner workings of some of their facilities. Maybe one day in the future, Facebook’s ideals will pay off, and we’ll be rewarded with true transparency in data center operations.”

Google Searches, Hits On South Carolina

Speaking of such Internet giants, Google held a groundbreaking ceremony in January in Berkeley County, SC to announce it will expand its operations at the Mt. Holly Commerce Park. The additional $600 million in investment at the site brings Google’s total investment to more than $1.2 billion. The data center in Berkeley County currently houses thousands of servers to support services such as Google search, Gmail, Google+ and YouTube. As Google’s services grows, the company must ramp up its data centers to meet demand.

Google’s data center in Berkeley County, SC. Google is using the rainwater retention pond as another means for cooling its data center.

“Today’s announcement is another big win for South Carolina,” says Governor Nikki Haley. “We celebrate Google’s decision to grow its footprint in Berkeley County with a $600-million investment. When a world-class company like Google decides to expand in the Palmetto State, it shows we are providing the sort of business environment that helps foster success.” Many states aggressively pursue data center business through various tax incentives because data centers are often a boon for local economies.

“South Carolina and the Berkeley County community are great places in which to work and grow,” says Data Center Operations Manager Eric Wages. “When Google first announced plans to come to Berkeley County in 2007, we were attracted to not only the energy infrastructure, developable land and available workforce, but also the extraordinary team from the local community that made us feel welcome. Today’s announcement is just a continuation of our investment in the state. Google is proud to call Berkeley County home.”

Google first announced plans for a South Carolina data center in 2007, making an initial investment of $600 million to get the center up and running. In November 2010, Google announced plans to construct a second building at the site, which is now serving traffic.

Google is also involved in supporting science and mathematics programs in South Carolina’s schools. Since 2008, it has awarded more than $885,000 in grants to local schools and nonprofits. It also has helped implement a free, downtown Wi-Fi network in Goose Creek.

“Google has been a great partner, exceeding expectations when the data center was first proposed,” says Berkeley County Supervisor Dan Davis. “They have invested capital, created good jobs and more importantly partnered with local businesses to help them do business better.”

“When our community came together to develop this business park, we wanted to attract leading companies that would establish deep roots and grow,” says South Carolina Sen. Paul Campbell. “Google’s expansion is an example of how Berkeley County can serve the needs of the world’s most innovative and dynamic companies. I hope Google’s growth here prompts other growing businesses to put down roots.”

Facebook ‘Likes’ Oregon

Facebook stores more than 240 billion photos, with users uploading an additional 350 million new photos every single day. To house those photos, Facebook’s data center team deploys 7 petabytes of storage gear every month. But what do you do with an exabyte of digital photos that are rarely accessed? That was the challenge facing Jay Parikh, Vice President of Infrastructure Engineering at Facebook.

The team decided a dedicated data center at its Prineville, OR campus could house older photos in a separate “cold storage” system and would dramatically slash the cost of storing and serving these files. The facility has no generators or UPS systems, but can house up to an exabyte of data.

Last year, Facebook built a 62,000-square-foot data center on its Prineville campus to house its cold storage, which can house 500 racks that each hold 2 petabytes of data, for a total of 1 exabyte of cold storage. Similar facilities will be built at Facebook’s data center campuses in North Carolina and Sweden, Parikh said.

The cold storage data center has no generators or uninterruptible power supply (UPS), with all redundancy handled at the software level. It also uses computer room air conditioners (CRACs) instead of the penthouse-style free cooling system employed in the adjacent production data centers in Prineville.

Most importantly, each rack uses just 2 kilowatts of power instead of the 8 kilowatts in a standard Facebook storage rack. But Parikh said it will be able to store 8 times the volume of data of standard racks. Not many companies face storage challenges at the kind of scale seen at Facebook. But Parikh believes more companies will be confronting these massive storage issues.

“Our big data challenges that we face today will be your big data challenges tomorrow,” he says. “We need to keep coming up with advanced solutions to our storage problems. The most important innovations are the problems people solve before the scale of the problem emerges. I believe big data is one of those problems. And we won’t keep up unless we work together.”

Facebook completed a second huge data center on its campus in Prineville, Oregon in 2012. The facility is similar to its existing 300,000-square-foot data center, Facebook Data Center Manager Ken Patchett announced at a Prineville City Council meeting.

“We believe the construction of the phased expansion of Building 2, and the operation of Building 1, staffing and supplying of the Prineville Data Center will continue to have a positive impact on the Crook County-Prineville economy,” Patchett told the city officials.

The second building in Prineville created up to 450 construction jobs, with the project lasting approximately one year. At the time, Facebook said it would add 10 full-time jobs in Prineville, where it currently employs 54 full-time employees providing building maintenance, security and server maintenance. The Prineville project is Facebook’s first company-built facility, and is optimized from the two-story structure right down to the servers to reflect the company’s vision for energy efficient data center operations.

CoreSite Realty Picks NJ

CoreSite Realty has purchased a 280,000-square-foot building in Secaucus, NJ for a new data center, and expects to invest $65 million to buy the facility and redevelop the initial phase of 65,000 square feet of data center space.

The facility, which will be dubbed NY2, is the company’s first data center in New Jersey and a sign of continuing activity in the northern NJ market. CoreSite already has a site in New York City and the Secaucus facility will mark an important expansion for the provider.

CoreSite is under contract to acquire the building, with the acquisition expected to close in early February. The 280,000-square-foot facility sits on 10 acres of land, which allows additional data center development as the market demands. At full build out, CoreSite expects it will offer 19 critical megawatts of capacity. Construction will start in Q1 2013, with turn-key capacity expected to be available in Q4 2013.

CoreSite intends to ensure the availability of high-capacity and high-speed lit services as well as a robust dark-fiber tether between NY2 and CoreSite’s NY1 location at 32 Avenue of the Americas in Manhattan, enabling CoreSite to provide seamless interconnection across its New York campus.

The company has been aggressively building out data center campuses across America. Focusing on network centric and cloud oriented applications, these data center campuses are network-dense.

“CoreSite’s entry into Secaucus is an important step in the execution of our strategy to extend our U.S. platform supporting latency-sensitive customer applications in network-dense, cloud-enabled data center campuses,” says Tom Ray, President and Chief Executive Officer, CoreSite. “Our New York campus is designed to meet performance-sensitive customer requirements supported by our location at the nexus of robust, protected, low-latency network rings serving Manhattan as well as global cable routes to Chicago, Frankfurt, London, and Brazil. Additionally, customers are able to connect directly to service nodes for Amazon Web Services Direct Connect.”

The Secaucus facility follows the launch of CoreSite’s previously announced 15 data center, located in Reston, VA. CoreSite’s national platform spans nine US markets and includes more than 275 carriers and service providers and more than 15,000 interconnections.

The availability of direct connections to high speed networks in NY2 will be of particular interest to financial firms looking to reduce latency and improve performance. Three network service providers have pre-committed to serve NY2, consisting of CoreSite partners Sidera Networks, Zayo, and Seaborn Networks, each of which provides high-performance network support to the financial services, cloud and network communities.

“The new CoreSite data center in New Jersey fits perfectly with Sidera’s growth strategy,” says Clint Heiden, President, Sidera Networks. “This expansion gives CoreSite customers immediate access to over 40 financial exchanges and the Sidera Xtreme Ultra-Low Latency Network.”

In addition to the new facility, the company also announced an Open Cloud Exchange, an initiative looking to offer a range of cloud services to customers. The Exchange will offer best-of-breed partnerships and services from a broad range of providers. It capitalizes on demand for hybrid infrastructures, letting Enterprises, Managed Service Providers (MSPs) and Systems Integrators (SIs) in CoreSite facilities connect directly, via a single resource, to the cloud service providers of their choice. This provides customers with flexible options to securely and easily connect to all types of cloud offerings.

“We’re building the industry’s premier home for cloud services,” says Jarrett Appleby, COO, CoreSite. “With networks—the oxygen for cloud services—as the foundation, adding the industry’s leading cloud providers will create best-in-class scalability, management, automation, software, and many-to-many exchange capability. The Open Cloud Exchange offers our customers enormous provider flexibility, guaranteed performance, real-time monitoring, and easy management of cloud infrastructure services.”

The initial four best-of-breed partners in Open Cloud Exchange are CENX, Rightscale, RiverMeadow Software and Brocade.

• CENX will provide its CENX Automated Ethernet Lifecycle Management software specially designed for CoreSite’s Open Cloud Exchange, enabling easy, single sign-on management of Layer 2 cloud infrastructure services and full MEF CE 2.0 compatibility.
• RightScale, will provide its platform for deploying and manage business-critical applications across public, private, and hybrid clouds. RightScale offers efficient configuration, monitoring, automation, and governance of cloud computing infrastructure and applications.
• RiverMeadow Software will deliver its automated cloud onboarding SaaS developed specifically for migrating servers and workloads into and between Carrier Service Provider Clouds.
• Brocade will provide the hardware infrastructure and switching logic at the heart of the Open Cloud Exchange.

Planned future enhancements include the ability to connect to providers across multiple CoreSite locations within the same metro area; connections between customers and providers in various on-net buildings throughout the country; and the Choice between numerous software and services providers to support performance sensitive customer applications through a marketplace portal. The service is available immediately in seven campuses: Los Angeles, San Francisco Bay Area, Chicago, New York, Northern Virginia, Boston, and Washington, DC.

In addition to this monster of a facility from CoreSite, Northern New Jersey has been no stranger to activity these last few months. Internap announced a 100,000-square-foot project in Secaucus last October, its third in the NY Metro region, to address growing demand. With its supply of data center space in northern New Jersey running low, Digital Realty recently announced construction in Clifton.

Apple Blossoms In NC

Apple currently is building huge new data centers in three states, including the North Carolina iDataCenter. Meanwhile, it is leasing large quantities of data center space in California’s Silicon Valley.

Many of the largest cloud computing providers opted to lease new Internet infrastructure in 2012, according to new data from a veteran market watcher. The report highlights the shifting tides in the “buy or build” decision, in which geography and market economics are contributing to a two-tier infrastructure for many of the largest Internet players, with footprints split between company-built data centers and wholesale space.

Apple, Facebook and Microsoft were among the largest consumers of turn-key “wholesale” data center space in 2012, according to Jim Kerrigan, Director of the Data Center Group at Avison Young. Microsoft leased 12 megawatts of new wholesale space in 2012, with Facebook (10 megawatts) and Apple (8 megawatts) not far behind.

The trend is notable because all three companies have recently been building their own massive data center facilities. Facebook has 1.5 million square feet of data center space that is either built or nearing completion, while Apple has finished its huge iDataCenter in North Carolina and is building new facilities in Oregon and Nevada. Microsoft has built its own server farms in seven sites around the U.S. and Europe over the past 5 years.

After years of building huge data centers in remote areas, in 2012 the geographic focus shifted back to historic Internet hubs in northern Virginia, Silicon Valley and Chicago. Apple and Facebook have moved armadas of servers to rural locations in North Carolina and Oregon that offer cheap power and cheap land. Cloud builders will continue to do this going forward, but a portion of their infrastructure must always be housed near the Internet’s key intersections, where they can connect with dozens of other networks. Both land and power are more expensive in these Internet hubs, resulting in different economics for large-scale new construction. That’s why the largest wholesale data center providers have a large presence in these markets.

General Motors Gets Specific In Georgia

General Motors announced plans to hire approximately 1,000 high-tech workers to staff its new Information Technology Innovation Center near Atlanta. The automaker needs software developers, project managers, database experts, business analysts and other IT professionals for the third of four centers in the United States.

“Locating this center in Atlanta makes good business sense,” says GM Chief Information Officer Randy Mott. “We can draw from a deep pool of high tech expertise through the surrounding colleges, universities and talent residing in the area.”

“This Innovation Center is exactly the kind of employer we want in the state,” says Georgia Gov. Nathan Deal. “The information age will be with us for a long time, and attracting companies such as GM that are on the cutting edge of manufacturing and technology is a huge win for Georgia.”

Mott is leading a rebalancing of information technology at GM under which the majority of IT work will be done by GM employees instead of being outsourced, which has been the GM model for most of the last three decades.

“We look to the Innovation Centers to design and deliver IT that drives down the cost of ongoing operations while continuously increasing the level and speed at which innovative products and services are available to GM customers,” Mott says. “The IT Innovation Centers are critical to our overall GM business strategy and IT transformation.” The location of the fourth site will be announced at a later date.

Gartner’s View On Cloud Computing

Drue Reeves, Gartner’s Vice President and distinguished analyst, recently outlined five trends that will transform the data center industry for Computer Weekly. Reeves’ expert predictions focus heavily on cloud computing, which requires the use of computing resources (both hardware and software) that are delivered over a network, usually the Internet. The name comes from the use of a cloud-shaped symbol as an abstraction for the complex infrastructure it contains in system diagrams. Cloud computing entrusts remote services with a user’s data, software and computation. Here are Reeves’ five trends, in his own words, for the future of data centers.

• Hybrid IT: Perhaps the greatest effect of public cloud computing on IT concerns operations. IT organizations realize that not only do they need to compete with public cloud service providers (CSPs), but also act as intermediaries between internal customers and all IT services (internal or external). IT organizations are becoming brokers of a set of IT services hosted partly internally and partly externally — that is, of hybrid IT. As intermediaries, IT organizations can offer internal customers the price, capacity and provisioning speed of the external cloud, and the protection and security of the internal cloud.
• Internal clouds: When businesses grow accustomed to consuming IT as a service, IT organizations will be compelled to build internal clouds. Unfortunately, building an internal cloud is hard work and few blueprints exist. Although vendors are building products that will help customers build internal clouds, there is no turnkey solution. IT organizations will struggle to cobble together the necessary pieces to build internal clouds. Nevertheless, building them will be a key data center trend in 2012 because of the need to compete with external cloud computing.
• Hybrid clouds: Hybrid clouds are connections between two clouds, usually an internal private cloud and an external public cloud. They are constructed using software that enables applications and data to migrate more easily between clouds. For example, many applications depend on identity management systems to authenticate users, have gigabytes of data, and have input/output latency dependencies for storage. These attributes often prevent applications from migrating to the external cloud, but hybrid cloud solutions them in unique ways. For example, hybrid cloud software can enable WAN acceleration and VPN connections between clouds that allow IT organizations to keep application services and critical data in the internal cloud, and to move the workload itself to the public cloud. As IT budgets continue to shrink and capital resources remain scarce, hybrid clouds will become a more popular option for augmenting IT capacity and enabling disaster recovery than building another data center or signing a long-term outsourcing agreement.
• User-centric computing: To compete in a global market and retain key employees, organizations often have to accommodate staff who live in remote locations and use personal devices for work. Some organizations are attempting to radically reduce the operational expense of supporting numerous desktop devices for large groups of users with various application requirements. These needs create new challenges for IT organizations to secure data; back up data; support smaller, less functional devices; and support a broader range of devices. Therefore, many IT organizations are rethinking their desktop and mobility strategies and adopting a user-centric, rather than a device-centric, point of view.
• Data center efficiency: Competing with the external cloud requires IT organizations to strive for hyper-efficiency in their data centers. If critical data and applications are to be housed in an internal private cloud, IT organizations must deliver internal IT services in an efficient, cost-effective manner. This requires them to squeeze further costs out of their data centers by virtualizing as many applications as possible, using storage efficiency technologies such as data deduplication, and buying servers that enable them to maximize space and power and to consolidate applications.

The post FEATURE STORY: The Story Of Storage appeared first on Business Facilities.

By Business Facilities Staff

Each year, Business Facilities selects the organizations that have established and consistently executed the best practices in our industry, bringing measurable success in targeted economic development to the locations they represent.

We honor these organizations with our Economic Development Excellence Awards, which are earned by the overall performance of the organization on behalf of its location, and with a series of awards for specific Achievements in Economic Development for categories including achievements in targeted incentives, business retention, downtown revitalization, public- private partnerships and ports/FTZs. We also bestow our Achievement in New Media Award for Best Use of Video and Best Use of Social Media.

The finalists for our new overall Economic Development Excellence awards were asked to prepare a detailed submission that summarized the most productive project development in their locations and gave our us an overview of the economic development strategy they have deployed to ensure sustained long-term growth. The information provided included the top projects (initiated since the beginning of 2012), in terms of capital investment and job creation. These projects included new facilities, expansions, relocations or corporate headquarters. In their strategic narratives, finalists identified the growth sectors they’re targeting and described the specialized tools being deployed to achieve growth in these sectors. We encouraged them to specify their approach to workforce training, specialized incentives and the support they provide to the development of start-ups, small businesses and other entrepreneurial initiatives.

In assessing the candidates for our Excellence awards, we assessed the diversity and scope of the agency’s overall economic development program (in terms of the expansion of existing industries as well as the attraction of new ventures). Our Achievement Awards throw the spot- light on agencies and organizations that have established the best practices in their specified category.

And now, without further ado, here are the winners of our 2013 Economic Development Awards.

Population Greater Than 500k

Greater Fort Lauderdale Alliance
The Greater Fort Lauderdale Alliance, through its CEO Council—and through its headquarters marketing and recruitment initiative—set a new standard of excellence in 2012 for the delivery of high-quality, effective economic development programs. These programs have resulted in substantial upward mobility for current and new Broward County residents, while providing substantial returns on investment to local municipal partners through the generation of new revenue as a result of capital investments.

In 2012, a national TV ad blitz continued to promote Greater Fort Lauderdale/Broward County’s strong business value proposition. The campaign, built on the tagline of “Life. Less Taxing,” aired for six months in the NY/NJ/CT, Boston and Chicago markets.

Key to the new marketing initiative was a CEO Council-sponsored hosting event for leading corporate real estate executives, site selection consultants and media outlets, which included a reception at Nova Southeastern University’s new $50-million Oceanographic Center.

The Greater Fort Lauderdale area continued to notch headquarters relocation and expansion success stories, including:

• Custom clothier Astor & Black moved to Pembroke Pines, creating 62 jobs in a $1.48-million capital investment over a three-year period. State and local incentives from Florida and the City of Pembroke Pines totaled $554,000, including $434,000 from the Qualified Target Industries Tax Refund Program and $80,000 from the Governor’s Quick Action Closing Fund
• SmartWater CSI, a UK forensic technology firm also established its North American Headquarters in Fort Lauderdale, and UK-based Private Jet Charter expanded its headquarters there.
• Connecticut-based Turbine Controls, Inc. (TCI) announced it is undertaking a $1.5-million expansion in Miramar, creating 60 jobs. TCI, an industry leader in air- craft engine component MRO services, will locate its facility at Miramar Park of Commerce.

There also were 23 other company relocations and expansions throughout Broward County in 2012, resulting in 1,669 new jobs, 1,689 retained jobs and more than $88 million in new capital investment. Highlights include the largest industrial spec development lease in the last five years in Broward County. AeroTurbine, the Miami-based aviation supply company is expanding to a new, 264,000-square-foot building in Miramar. The project offers a direct capital investment of $30 million dollars and will create 75 jobs.

Saveology’s move to Margate will add 700 jobs to its operation. The Internet company received a $2-million incentive package (tied to job-creation commitments) for its relocation to the 100,000-square-foot office. Stretch Wrap Packaging Industries, a manufacturer of plastic stretch wrap for the logistics industry, also has relocated to the Fort Lauderdale area from Suriname, South America; the company has committed to add 200 jobs over the next three years. The total foreign direct investment is $12 million.

The Alliance substantially expanded international business activities to raise the global footprint of Greater Fort Lauderdale/Broward County by taking an active and participatory role in Gov. Rick Scott’s missions to Brazil, Colombia and Spain, and a separate mission to Mexico, along with hosting and facilitating visits from Australia, Brazil, Chile, China, Colombia, Italy and the United Kingdom.

The Alliance has a strong partnership with Broward County’s Workforce One employment center, securing nearly $1 million state and local training assistance for 1,107 employees in local companies.

The Alliance supports the GrowFlorida program designed to provide both technical assistance and access to capital to second-tier, high-growth companies in the area; it also provided assistance to Broward College to establish a new business incubator to promote small business.

In 2012, the Alliance formed its first Port Everglades Action Team, led by CEO Council member Terry Stiles, to work with the business community to generate support in securing necessary state and federal funding for expansion projects in the county’s Port Everglades Master Plan. Port Everglades, the 12^th largest cargo port in the U.S. and one of the top cruise ports in the world, is embarking on three critical expansion projects that will create 7,000 new jobs regionally and support 135,000 jobs statewide over the next 15 years.

Throughout the year, a primary focus of the Alliance is assisting local companies succeed through its Business Retention and Visitation Outreach (BRAVO) program. In 2012, the Alliance visited 178 companies to assist with access to capital, workforce training opportunities, permitting issues and site location assistance.

Gaining Honorable Mention Awards in this category were Greater MSP (Minneapolis Saint Paul Regional Economic Development Partnership) and Columbus (OH) 2020.

Greater MSP launched in 2011 as a public-private partnership dedicated to accelerating job growth and capital investment in the 13-county regional MSA. Thanks in large part to Greater MSP’s efforts, the region now boasts the highest per capita concentration of Fortune 500 and large privately held corporate headquarters. The area also has the second-highest concentration in the U.S. of employment in its biotech sector, anchored by its world-class research institutions, including the Mayo Clinic and the University of Minnesota.

Columbus 2020 represents the 11-county region centered on Columbus OH, working in collaboration with JobsOhio and local partners to offer comprehensive services to companies evaluating the area. The organization has targeted development in growth sectors including logistics, international business, manufacturing, corporate headquarters and bioscience.

Population Between 200K-500K

Lincoln (NE) Partnership
Lincoln, NE is a community recognized around the nation for its aggressiveness in pursuit of new job creation opportunities. This effort is focused at the Lincoln Partnership for Economic Development. The primary service territory of the organization is Lancaster County and its primary focus is on Business Retention and Expansion (BR&E), Business Attraction, Entrepreneurship and Innovation (E&I) and Community Competitiveness.

In 2012, the Partnership completed 100 annual surveys of key businesses in the region; it is spearheading key workforce issues including the development of a career academy which will be a partnership between Lincoln Public Schools and Southeast Community College to provide career-based educated for juniors and seniors in the LPS District. The overall BR&E program brings together representatives of the City, the County, Lincoln Electric System, Black Hills Energy and the State of Nebraska. Most recently, the Lincoln WIB was brought into the group.

The Partnership works through a regional marketing consortium that includes regional communities, utilities and higher education institutions including the University of Nebraska.

The Partnership and the Chamber and Convention and Visitors Bureau recently launched a new community branding strategy called “Life is Right: that is targeting young executives, workers and entrepreneurs.

The E&I program has been the top priority for the Partnership over the past three years, focused on two significant programs:

• Innovation Connect brings the engineers and executives from manufacturers together with University of Nebraska researchers, promoting the use of UNL technology in Lincoln-based businesses.
• Health Care Connect was unveiled in 2012. The program asks local health care providers to identify problems they believe can be solved through new technology, and then forwards these challenges to Lincoln’s software community. After two months, a quick-pitch contest was held and the winning software proposal got a 120-day test period at the health care institution.

The Partnership sponsors numerous quick-pitch and business plan competitions, and it was a key facilitator of the area’s software angel fund, Nebraska Global, which helped launch five companies in 2011 and 2012. Nebraska Global has launched its fifth software company, Elite-Form, which is producing programs for recording, coaching and evaluating strength training. Prototypes now are being used at the University of Nebraska’s athletic department.

The Partnership helped spearhead a successful effort by the University of Nebraska to take over the former state fair grounds; $80 million is being invested on four new facilities to attract, expand and grow new companies. The first, announced in 2012, is ConAgra’s new facility and research agreement. When fully developed, the project is expected to add over 2,000 high-tech jobs to the community.

The Partnership is leading an effort to undertake a $2.5-million redevelopment of the Lincoln Airpark, a 1000-acre industrial park located on a former Air Force Base. The project is expected to generate more than 3,000 new manufacturing jobs in the city.

The largest project in the community’s history, the West Haymarket redevelopment project, was sup- ported financially by the Partnership through the passage of a bond issue that will construct a new 16,000-seat arena. Over $100 million in investments are expected to be made by concerns adjacent to the arena, which could generate over 1,000 new jobs, new retail and significant quality of life enhancements.

Cabela’s credit card operation has moved into its expanded space in northwest Lincoln. The company $7.2-million expansion is to create about 340 new jobs. Cabela’s site is part of Nebraska Technology Park.

Family-owned Duncan Aviation is undertaking a $25-million expansion including an 80,000-square-foot maintenance hangar, 95,000 square feet of office and shop space; the new facilities are scheduled to open in June 2014. Last year, Duncan Aviation opened an $11.5-million paint shop. When all of its projects are complete, Duncan will employ more than 1,300 people in the Lincoln area.

Receiving Honorable Mention Awards in the 200k-500k category are Brick City Development Corp., Commerce Lexington, Joplin Area Chamber of Commerce and Mobile Area Chamber of Commerce.

Brick City Development Corp. (BCDC) was formed in 2007 to be the primary economic development catalyst for New Jersey’s largest city, Newark. BCDC is focusing on industrial, technology and commercial growth sectors, putting New Jersey’s Urban Transit Hub Tax Credit to good use to secure capital investments of more than $50 million for large-scale renovation or new construction projects.

A key priority is revitalization and development of site in Port Newark, the nation’s third-largest port; the program has succeeded in closing a series of industrial deals covering 750,000 square feet of production space. Pacific Group Holdings, one of the world’s largest importers, brought its Northeast U.S. headquarters to Newark.

BCDC also is targeting food processing and distribution. Success stories include Bartlett Dairy, kosher food producer Manischewitz, Damascus Bakery and grocery store distributor Wakefern.

More than 90 biotech incubator start-ups are now up and running at the University Heights Science Park, a mixed-use technology park anchored by the city’s huge university cluster. A major French pharma research concern, Biotrial S.A., has purchased a 1.2-acre parcel in the tech park for a new facility.

Commerce Lexington scored a major coup in 2012 with its recruitment of Bingham McCutchen’s Global Services Center. Lexington was chosen after a site-selection competition which considered 350 cities across the U.S.

Commerce Lexington is one of three members in the Bluegrass Business Development Partnership (BBDP), which Lexington’s economic development team together the University of Kentucky and the Lexington-Fayette Urban County Government in a coordinated program which serves as a one-stop service provider linking entrepreneurs with key programs and incentives to help them jump-start business initiatives.

In May 2011, Joplin, MO was devastated by one of the worst tornados in U.S. history. In the months before the tornado hit, Joplin Area Chamber of Commerce was spear- heading two new regional development initiatives, the Joplin Regional Prosperity Initiative (JRPI) and the Joplin Region Partnership (JRP). Even during the massive recovery effort undertaken after the storm (about 560 business facilities were destroyed by the tornado), these development efforts have continued to grow and bear positive results.

In the wake of the tornado, these efforts have created more than 1,800 jobs in Joplin area. The Joplin Tomorrow Fund was deployed to distribute more than $1 million in funding to restart two companies, expand four businesses and assist a new start-up. Today, more than 500 of the businesses directly impacted by the storm have reopened, retaining more than 4,500 jobs in Joplin that had been considered “at risk.” Jasper County, which includes Joplin, has been named Missouri’s first national ACT “Career Ready Certified” community (Missouri is one of only four state’s that have made it to ACT’s second round).

In 2012, Airbus selected Mobile for its first final assembly line in North America, an investment of $600 million that is expected to create at least 1,000 direct jobs. The Airbus decision already is spurring suppliers to put down roots in Mobile, including a recent new plant announcement from Labinal.

In 2012, the Mobile Area Chamber assisted more than 1,600 entrepreneurs in developing business plans, one-on-one counseling and access funding.

Population Between 50K-200K

Operation Oswego County
Operation Oswego County (OOC) is a private, non-profit organization that works to enhance, promote and protect the business and industrial climate of Oswego County. To achieve that goal, they provide comprehensive assistance to existing businesses and those seeking to relocate, whether they are developing a business plan, looking for the best site, or searching for financing or other assistance.

OOC’s primary objectives are to help create new job opportunities, retain employment, build a broader real property tax base, diversify the economy and improve the area’s quality of life through a planned, organized and environmentally-friendly economic development process. They are guided by a board of directors made up of community-minded people from business, labor, education and government throughout Oswego County.

Coordinating and implementing special economic development initiatives allows OOC to enhance the potential to create and retain jobs. They operate three industrial parks in Oswego County—the Oswego County Industrial Park in Schroeppel, the Airport Industrial Park in Volney and the Lake Ontario Industrial Park in the city of Oswego—with other sites currently being studied for potential business parks.

The Start-up Facility in the Oswego County Industrial Park and the Business Expansion Center in the city of Oswego are designed to help non-retail, industrial and service businesses achieve significant growth and development during the first few years of business with the intention of eventually moving out of the building and into private commercial space.

OOC facilitates programs supporting entrepreneurship and small business development and growth including Women’s Network for Entrepreneurial Training, Connections Women’s Symposium, Next Great Idea Business Plan Competition and Workforce Development. The businesses obtain Minority and Women Business Enterprises state designation and are authorized to finance projects using the SBA 504 loan program which can fund up to 40 percent of fixed asset financing for eligible businesses at below market rates.

Oswego County is experiencing a growth spurt in the food processing sector. Over the last year, three companies have purchased existing facilities and are expanding their food processing ventures into Oswego County. Champlain Valley Specialty is renovating and expanding a former onion packing site into an apple processing facility. The $5.5 million project will create approximately 90 jobs. Teti Bakery USA plans to renovate a 200,000-square-foot building in Volney, using about 40,000 square feet of it as a bakery for its Italian flat breads. The Canadian company will create 63 jobs with the $5 million investment.

Our Honorable Mention Award in this category goes to Peoria Economic (AZ) Development. Peoria is taking an aggressive approach toward business attraction by creating partnerships focused on targeted industries including bioscience, health care and renewable energy.

The top 10 projects in Peoria in 2012 included a $75-million investment in Trine University Peoria Campus, a development which will create more than 1,200 direct jobs; a partnership between the city and BioAccel to create the Bioinspire Medical Device Incubator, including six start-up companies; and Genome Identification Corp.’s relocation of its forensics lab from Virginia to Peoria, where the company will continue to develop its proprietary DNA analysis technology.

Population Less Than 50K

City of Rochester (NH)
The City of Rochester has an independent and focused attraction program unique to the goals and objectives of each Targeted Industry Initiative.

The program for Advanced Manufacturing is based on input from the existing manufacturers and includes introductions and referrals as well as industry and trade publications and trade shows. Once a business has interacted with the development program, they may offer a testimonial on the www.thinkrochester.biz website, and may refer vendors and suppliers. The Retail/Hospitality strategy is based on data from the University of Shopping Centers Economic Development Program by the International Council of Shopping Centers (ICSC). The city contracted with the Buxton Company to develop a comprehensive retail assessment and analysis to support the commercial districts and the attraction of private developers and retailers. That research supports the trade shows and targeted retail and hospitality efforts of the city.

Rochester partnered with the Dukakis Center for Urban and Regional Planning at Northeastern University to complete a competitive analysis focused on infrastructure, local policy, planning and other factors established by NAIOP. This report led to infrastructure and policy improvements, and as part of this continuing emphasis, the city reorganized all the development related departments, creating the Community Development Division. The city is considering locating all of the staff in a modern and efficient “one-stop” center to improve efficiency.

The Back Office/Call Center effort involves the owners of the major office buildings and office parks in the city to do collaborative marketing and research. The Medical/Health Care program is based on a strong relationship with the city’s major medical center and other health care partners. They utilize community listening posts that included all of the major employers to discuss health care demands and anticipated impacts of changes to health care and insurance requirements.

Strategic Action items now on the agenda for Rochester’s economic development program include: Establishment of the Granite Ridge Commercial District; Expansion of the Granite State Business Park, Establishment of incentives including Tax Increment Financing, Establish a Downtown Revitalization Organization (Rochester is one of 10 NH communities Certified by the National Trust for Historic Preservation); and Implement a Business Retention and Expansion Plan.

Albany Engineered Composites and Safran USA have partnered for a $100 million state of the art aerospace composites facility on a 50-acre site in Granite Business State Park. They will add approximately 500 employees with a payroll of more than $30 million annually to produce LEAP-X engines, which incorporate green technology while retaining aviation power. The local economic development office for Rochester, NH led the Recruitment Team for the project, and persevered during a two year selection and negotiation process, managing a complex package of deliverables. The ultimate key to success was the team being small, talented and committed, and support from the State Department of Resources and Economic Development, the NH Business Finance Authority and Governor John Lynch.

Construction of a 57-acre, 330,000-square-foot marketplace that could bring up to 800 jobs in the Granite Ridge Development District is also under development. In addition, the City of Rochester recently issued a $100,000 JOB Loan (its biggest ever) to the young firm, LHR Sporting Arms, LLC so that they can begin hiring employees.

The city has created two Tax Increment Financing Districts with a third in process, to expand the municipal infrastructure to industrial and commercial zones. The city has adopted three NH Economic Revitalization Zones, offering corporate tax credits to qualifying businesses. The City has two HUB Zones through SBA, and is a New Market Tax Credits eligible community. The city is working with the NH Foreign Trade Zone Program to consider expansion of an existing zone to Rochester.

The city has a Special Downtown Business District with an expedited approval process to encourage adaptive reuse. Also in Downtown, the city has adopted the property tax credit program 79e enabling real estate investors in the District to recoup their investment over five to 13 years before a tax increase. The city created a Sign & Façade Matching Grant to encourage investment into exterior improvements, even on a small scale. Rochester also has a revolving loan fund capitalized at $600,000 from Community Development Block Grant (CDBG). This program has created more than 300 jobs over the last ten years in manufacturing, hospitality and service industries, including start-ups. City staff provides one on one support for business plans, application process and follow up.

Honorable Mention Awards in the Population Less than 50K category went to Jackson County Industrial Development Corp. and Ponca City, OK.

In April 2012, Cummins-Seymour announced it will invest $219 in a new engine plant in Jackson County, IN, creating 290 new jobs. Jackson County Industrial Development Corp., which is based in Seymour, also scored a local success with Valeo Sylvania’s decision to invest $28 million in an expansion of their Seymour facility (creating 187 new jobs) and Aisin U.S.A. Manufacturing’s announcement that it will undertake a $21-million expansion of its two Seymour facilities (114 new jobs). Additionally, Seymour Tubing is putting about $20 million into expanded workspace and new equipment.

The top five projects in Ponca City, OK in 2012 totaled $78 mil- lion in capital investment. The largest capital investment in Ponca was made by Phillips 66, which is putting $50 million into an upgrade of its alkaline units, a lift station at its South Plant and equipment upgrades throughout it complex. Mertz Manufacturing, an oil and gas concern, completed a new $12 million facility on an 80-acre site. Dorada Foods, a chicken processor and supplier to McDonald’s restaurants, is preparing to add a new production line with upgraded equipment. The project is expected to create 75 new jobs.

Two companies new to the Ponca area were drawn to the location due to new oil drilling and the general resurgence in the oil and gas sector in Oklahoma spurred by fracking operations extracting natural gas/ Dawson Geophysical brought 85 jobs to their new office in Ponca City; Crescent Services, an independent oilfield support service and management company, established a satellite office in the city.

Business Facilities congratulates all of the well-deserved winners of our 2013 Economic Development Excellence Awards.

Achievement In Targeted Incentives

When we launched our annual Economic Development Awards two years ago, there was one category for which we knew the podium would be crowded when it came time to call up the winners. Every year, there are dozens of new incentives programs to consider for our Achievement in Targeted Incentives Award. This year was no exception and, as always, it was difficult to narrow the field. Here are the four winning programs that meet our criteria for an innovative effort to snare new projects for a targeted growth sector:

The widespread use of hydraulic fracturing drilling techniques to extract an abundant supply of natural gas from shale formations in the U.S. is transforming the economies of several states, especially in the region that includes the Marcellus formation (stretching from Ohio through Pennsylvania and into upstate New York). The fracking boom itself has become a development magnet, so it shouldn’t be surprising that state economic development agencies are beginning to tailor targeted incentives related to natural gas resources.

Pennsylvania has jumped ahead of the curve with its PA Resource Manufacturing Tax Credit (PRM).

Beginning in 2017, any manufacturer purchasing natural gas containing ethane as a petrochemical feedstock at a facility within the Commonwealth could be eligible for a PRM Tax Credit equal to five cents per gallon ($2.10 per barrel) of ethane purchased and used in manufacturing ethylene, so long as the company makes a capital investment of at least $1 billion and creates the equivalent of at least 2,500 full-time jobs while constructing the facility.  This credit is effective for ethane purchased between Jan. 1, 2017 and Dec. 31, 2042.

Thanks in part to the health care reforms enacted in Washington in 2010, employment in the health care sector is expected to outpace national averages in coming years. Anticipating this, Mississippi has structured an incentive which throws down a welcome mat for health-care providers to come to the Magnolia State.

The Mississippi Health Care Industry Zone Incentive Program was enacted in 2012 to encourage health care-related businesses to locate or expand in the state. The program benefits medical services providers and other health care-related businesses, such as those engaged in medical supply, biologics, laboratory testing, medical product manufacturing/distribution and diagnostic imaging that locate in a qualified Health Care Zone in the state. Health Care Zones are defined as areas where there are three contiguous counties which have Certificates of Need for more than 375 acute care hospital beds—the business must locate or expand within a five-mile radius of a health care facility with a Certificate of Need and/or areas located within five miles of a hospital that will be constructed before July 1, 2017, with a minimal capital investment of $250 million.

Qualifying businesses are eligible to receive an accelerated, 10-year state income tax depreciation deduction, a sales tax exemption for equipment and materials purchased from the date of the project’s certification until three months after the facility is completed, and a 10-year ad valorem tax exemption.

Workforce training remains a top priority across the nation, and we’re impressed with an initiative in Florida that targets incumbent workers to enable companies to maintain their competitive edge and retain employees.

The Incumbent Worker Training Program (IWT) provides training to currently employed workers to keep Florida’s workforce competitive in a global economy and to retain existing businesses. The program is available to all Florida businesses that have been in operation for at least one year prior to application and require skills upgrade training for existing employees. Priority is given to businesses in targeted industries, Enterprise Zones, HUB Zones, Inner City Distressed areas, Rural Counties and areas, and Brownfield areas.

The program provides funding for training to existing for-profit businesses. IWT grants are structured to be flexible to meet the business’s training objectives. The business may use a public or private training provider, or may use an in-house training provider based on the nature of the training.

Through June 2012, Workforce Florida awarded 230 IWT grants totaling more than $6.1 million to help companies train and retain more than 12,000 full-time employees. Trainees’ wages have increased more than 25 percent on average within a year of completing IWT-supported training.

Funding priority in the Incumbent Worker Training Program is given to businesses with 25 or fewer employees that is located in a distressed rural area, urban inner city or Enterprise Zone. The business should be part of a targeted sector whose grant proposals represent a significant layoff-avoidance strategy.

Recent announcements from Louisiana make it clear that the Bayou State is emerging as leading high-tech hub. Louisiana is moving quickly to capitalize on this trend and maximize its impact.

The Technology Commercialization Credit and Jobs Program provides a 40 percent refundable tax credit (not to exceed $250,000) on costs related to the commercialization of Louisiana technology and a 6 percent payroll rebate for the creation of new direct jobs.

The Tax Credit Incentive is open to individuals or businesses that invest in the commercialization of Louisiana technology in Louisiana. The technology must be created by a Louisiana business and researched by a Louisiana university or college. A company must submit the completed Technology Commercialization Eligibility Application and fee. The eligibility application should include a description of technology to be commercialized; an agreement with a university; a business plan; an estimate of commercialization cost, number of new jobs, wages and health benefits created. Eligibility application is due by December 31 of the year the company is seeking tax credits.

Achievement In Business Retention

New Jersey Partnership for Action; Metro Denver Economic Dev. Corp.
We are honoring two organizations this year with our Achievement in Business Retention Award: the New Jersey Partnership for Action and Metro Denver Economic Development Corp.

When Gov. Chris Christie took office in 2010, he made it a top priority to change the negative perception of NJ’s business climate by initiating one of the most comprehensive reorganizations of statewide economic developments we’ve seen in a long time. The new structure consists of three highly-focused organizational elements, all under the umbrella of the Partnership for Action—Choose New Jersey, the New Jersey Economic Development Authority, and the Business Action Center—that provide economic development services, link companies to incentive programs and attract international investment to others.

Armed with NJ’s innovative Urban Transit Hub Tax Credit, the Partnership for Action has achieved notable success in its business retention efforts, including deals that kept Panasonic’s headquarters in the state and spurred Prudential to commit to a new HQ building in the heart of Newark.

NJ has used the forward-thinking transit hub credit as a financial tool to spur private capital investment, business development and employment by providing tax credits for businesses planning a large expansion or relocating to one of New Jersey’s designated Urban Transit Hubs.

The program offers developers, owners or tenants up to 100 percent of a qualified capital investment made within an eight period. Taxpayers may apply 10 percent of the total credit amount per year over a ten-year period against their corporate business tax, insurance premiums tax or gross income tax liability. Developers or owners must make a minimum $50 million capital investment in a single business facility, and at least 250 full-time employees must work at that facility. Tenants in a qualified business facility can represent at least $17.5 million of the capital investment in the facility, and up to three tenants may aggregate to meet the 250 employee requirement.

The Metro Denver Economic Development Corporation (Metro Denver EDC), an affiliate of the Denver Metro Chamber of Commerce, was one of the nation’s first regional economic development entities. Its partners include 70 cities, counties, and economic development organizations in the seven-county Metro Denver and two-county Northern Colorado region. Metro Denver EDC works to create a competitive environment that attracts companies and is backed by the region’s business community, with primary funding coming from private-sector investors, as well as participating cities and counties. Strategic initiatives are developed among the partners, with final decision-making authority by an investor board of directors.

From energy to aerospace, to bioscience, information technology-software and financial services, Metro Denver offers a diversified economy of viable industries and the nation’s third-most highly educated workforce. Metro Denver is first among the 50 largest metros for total private aerospace workers, with 19,600 people employed at aerospace companies. Colorado has the nation’s second-largest aerospace economy and is home to four military commands, eight major space contractors, and more than 400 aerospace companies and suppliers. Denver International Airport and three reliever airports create a solid foundation for 15,910 workers directly employed by aviation companies.

Ten Metro Denver higher education institutions with bioscience programs and numerous bioscience research assets support the region’s bioscience industry. The industry also is enhanced by the opportunities to bring together academic, research, and corporate biotechnology institutions at the 578-acre, $5-billion Fitzsimons Life Science District and the adjacent Anschutz Medical Campus.

Metro Denver’s Mountain Time Zone location makes it the largest U.S. region with one-bounce satellite uplinks, providing companies real-time connections to six of seven continents. With a broad mix of broadcasting and telecommunications firms, the region ranks sixth out of the 50 largest metros for employment concentration in this growing sector.

The integration of cleantech and Colorado’s rich energy resource base places the Metro Denver region at the forefront of energy development. The National Renewable Energy Laboratory (NREL) in Golden is the U.S. Department of Energy’s laboratory for renewable energy and energy efficiency R&D.

The Metro Denver region also is one of the few areas outside of the Northeast with a substantial financial services industry in three key market segments. A variety of trade associations and service firms support the diverse financial services industry base of more than 13,020 companies and 87,750 employees in the region.

Achievement In Downtown Revitalization

Indianapolis Downtown, Inc./Indianapolis
This year’s Achievement in Downtown Revitalization Award goes jointly to Indianapolis Downtown Inc. and the Indy Partnership for their continued success in making Indiana’s largest city a winning combination of business-friendly growth and exceptional quality of live. While progress has been notable in the past year, this award also honors a body of work that stretches back two decades.

Downtown Indianapolis has been transformed into a vibrant 24-hours-a-day, seven-days-a-week urban center over the past two decades. Businesses have taken note and are flocking to the city.

Cities across the country look to Downtown Indianapolis as a revitalization model. Since 1990, Indianapolis has invested nearly $9 billion of public and private funds equaling more than 485 projects through 2011. This is an average of more than $408 million of new investment each year, for the past 22 years.

Even in a tough economy, Downtown development momentum continues with $3 billion of new construction and renovation efforts to be completed by 2017.

More people continue to come Downtown on a regular basis. Annual attendance at major Downtown leisure attractions has increased by 83 percent since 1994 to 8 million visits. Surveys of Central Indiana residents show 79 percent of Marion County residents visited Downtown in a six-month period, up from 47 percent in 1994.

Businesses are taking note, and they are flocking to the city. Rolls Royce last year moved 2,500 employees to Downtown Indy. Economic studies show spending by the company and its employees is expected to boost the Downtown economy by $510 million each year.

Three Fortune 1000 companies’ world or regional headquarters in Downtown Indianapolis continue their commitment through growth and expansion, including WellPoint, Inc. (32 new jobs), Eli Lilly and Company (122) and Simon Property Group (573).

NCAA recently completed a $40-million, 150,000 square-feet headquarters expansion; Simon Property Group, North America’s largest real estate investment trust, WellPoint, Inc., Emmis Communications, and Urban League of Indianapolis have all opened headquarters Downtown. Other Downtown headquarters include OneAmerica Financial Partners, Inc., Indiana University Health, Denison, Inc., Farm Bureau of Indiana, Regions Bank, The Indianapolis Star, Kite Realty Group, LDI, Ltd., National Association of High School Athletics, National Bank of Indianapolis, National Wine and Spirits Inc., Reilly Industries, Inc., and The Steak N Shake Company.

Achievement In Public-Private Partnership

Buffalo Niagara Enterprise; Upstate SC Alliance; Tucson (AZ) Regional Economic Opportunities
As more and more states decide to reconfigure their economic development operations from the traditional government-run structure to a public-private model, there are more entities to choose from when we make our annual pick of the best public-private programs. This year, we’ve selected three organizations as the co-winners of our Achievement in Public-Private Partnership Award.

Buffalo Niagara Enterprise (BNE) is a nonprofit, private business development and regional marketing organization dedicated to the proposition that, as a place “where life works,” the Buffalo Niagara region is the ideal place for businesses to locate, grow, and start-up.

The Buffalo Niagara region is comprised of eight counties that form the western-most end of New York State. The region is strategically located with in 500 miles of 40 percent of the continental North American population and is a bi-national gateway for commerce, facilitating $81 billion in annual trade between Canada and the United States.

BNE’s team includes local investors, a board of directors, economic development partners and professional staff. Since it was launched in 1999 by members of the local business community, BNE has succeeded in attracting more than $2.9 billion in capital investment and created or retained over 36,000 jobs in our region.

BNE provides services that run the gamut from demographic information to tax incentives to site identification. BNE acts as the central clearinghouse for the information and supporting services required by companies interested in locating and growing in our region. It provides market data and other information services relevant to business location decisions, including economic indicators, workforce information, industrial and commercial real estate information and customized business development data.

BNE also provides professional account management services, offering potential investors in our region a one-stop shop for information on economic development, and serving as a liaison with local economic development organizations.

Formed in 2000, the Upstate South Carolina Alliance is a public/private regional economic development organization designed to market the dynamic 10-county Upstate region to the world. The 10 counties represent the commerce-rich northwestern corner of SC.

The Upstate SC Alliance’s vision is to compete for business investment globally. The Alliance’s goal is to spearhead an aggressive, innovative and comprehensive global marketing strategy to attract new investment to the Upstate region. By creating a powerful brand and image for the region, Upstate SC Alliance is confident increased opportunities will ultimately lead to greater investment, enhancing the prosperity and quality of life for the entire Upstate. Funding for the Upstate SC Alliance comes through two sources: member counties/cities and private sector business partners. The Alliance’s private sector partners number more than 170 individual companies/organizations.

Tucson Regional Economic Opportunities, Inc. (TREO) was formed in 2005 to serve as the lead economic development agency for the greater Tucson, AZ area and its surrounding regional partners. The primary goal of TREO is to facilitate export-based (non-retail) job and investment growth, in order to increase wealth and accelerate economic prosperity throughout Southern Arizona. A secondary role is to shape policy and mobilize resources to ensure the region is competitive.

TREO engages in partnerships focusing on demonstrating leadership to strengthen education, create a vibrant downtown and engage in infrastructure improvements. To serve a population approaching one million residents, TREO offers an integrated approach of programs and services that support the creation of new businesses, the expansion of existing businesses within the region, and the attraction of companies that offer high wage jobs.

Achievement In Ports/FTZs

Philadelphia Regional Port Authority; El Paso, TX Foreign Trade Zone No. 68; Port of Mobile
We’ve only been bestowing our top honor for Achievement in Ports/FTZs for two years, but we already have our first back-to-back winner. We are pleased to grant this distinction to the Philadelphia Regional Port Authority. A co-winner of our port award is the Port of Mobile. El Paso International Airport’s Foreign Trade Zone No. 68 got our top honor for FTZs.

Philadelphia, one of the oldest and most venerable ports in the United States, continues to outshine the competition as it gears up to compete for what is anticipate to be a surge in new shipping next year.

Philadelphia’s harbor often was the point of arrival for the nation’s founding fathers when they emigrated from Great Britain in the early 1700s, but the port and the City of Brotherly Love are not resting on its laurels: the port is busy preparing to meet the challenges of 21st Century commerce, including an expansion of the Panama Canal that will see huge cargo ships arriving at East Coast ports directly from Asia beginning in 2014.

PRPA has renewed its MOU for the Panama Canal Authority and it has undertaken a channel-deepening project along the 102-mile Delaware River shipping lane. We also are impressed with PRPA’s ability to maintain and grow a thriving shipping hub while undertaking these improvements, evidenced by double-digit increases in cargo tonnage at the port in the past two years, despite a very challenging national and regional economy.

FTZ No. 68 is an integral part of El Paso’s regional and international investment strategy, providing a business platform for domestic and foreign trade to prosper in the region. The City of El Paso is the Grantee and Operator of Foreign-Trade Zone No. 68; it is administered through El Paso International Airport. The zone consists of 5 regional sites totaling 3,443 acres within El Paso County.

FTZ No. 68 has been ranked first in exports among U.S. General-Purpose Zones, ITA (2010). FTZ No. 68 is the only Grantee in the nation providing compliance and training services and one of only five Grantees with an Accredited Zones Specialist. FTZ No. 68 contributed to over 1,300 direct jobs to the El Paso economy in 2012, using innovative best practices in zone management and strategic alliances.

A recent economic impact study prepared by John C. Martin Associates, LLC, a leading maritime industry economic consulting firm, estimates $22.3 billion in total economic value for Alabama from the cargo and vessel activity at the Port of Mobile; of this value, $18.7 billion is directly tied to the Alabama State Port Authority’s (ASPA) public terminals. Martin’s study calculates between 55 and 65 million tons of cargo moves through the Port of Mobile annually.

In FY (Fiscal Year) 2011, there were 141,029 jobs in Alabama related to the cargo and vessel activity at the ASPA and the private terminals at the Port of Mobile, with 127,591 total direct, indirect, induced and related user jobs directly linked to ASPA’s operations. Martin concluded that the terminals at the Port of Mobile generated $573 million in direct, induced, indirect and related user taxes paid to state and local governments by individuals and firms dependent upon the Port of Mobile cargo and ship repair activity.

Achievement In New Media

BEST USE OF VIDEO

Saratoga Economic Development Corp.
SEDC is a perennial candidate for our top video award, consistently producing eye-pleasing and informative packages promoting the Saratoga, NY region. This year’s award-winner is a video entitled SEDC 35th Anniversary—Success Without Limits. The video is posted below. We encourage everyone to take a look at it and enjoy the presentation.

Our Honorable Mention Award in the Best Use of Video category went to Lubbock Economic Development Alliance (LEDA) for their informational video entitled Lubbock Economic Development Alliance – 2012 Forecast.

Each year, LEDA hosts an Economic Forecast luncheon for select members of the Lubbock, TX community. This video was used to highlight an entire year’s worth of work not only for LEDA, but also for Visit Lubbock (the convention and visitor’s bureau) and Lubbock Sports. This year’s video was created to appeal to a wide audience with eye-catching visuals and in-depth testimonials from clients, business partners and community partners. The video is a direct reflection of how all of these entities work together to enrich, empower and strengthen the entire Lubbock community.

BEST USE OF SOCIAL MEDIA

Saratoga Economic Development Corp.
SEDC’s award-winning networking strategy is to monitor all content coming in and out of their networks to make sure it is relevant to the Saratoga NY area’s mission. The key to their success comes from the SEDC’s members being very active themselves. The organization’s president, vice president, and director of marketing all are on these social networks (especially LinkedIn) and supporting SEDC’s cause.

The SEDC LinkedIn Group is their strongest social profile, boasting 1,849 members made up of primarily C-level executives from the region and industry sectors they are trying to reach. By keeping their group’s audience limited to only qualified members, it keeps the content being exchanged relevant and supportive to the area.

The post FEATURE STORY: 2013 Economic Development Awards appeared first on Business Facilities.

Gov. Bentley

Like most of our friends from the Deep South, Gov. Robert Bentley speaks in a laid-back cadence that embraces a new acquaintance with neighborly warmth and welcomes a thoughtful conversation.

Folks who don’t know better might jump to the conclusion that an easy, deliberate pace also applies to the economic development strategy Gov. Bentley is implementing in Alabama. They better think again.

As Gov. Bentley detailed for us in an exclusive interview with Business Facilities, Alabama is moving full speed ahead with a dynamic growth strategy that is rapidly transforming the state into an economic powerhouse. Alabama is driving to the head of the class in jobs-rich sectors including automotive and aerospace.

Soon after Bentley took office in January 2011, he reorganized the state’s economic development structure and summarized its marching orders in one word: Accelerate.

“I believe in organization. When I came into office, Alabama was progressing, but I felt we needed more organizational structure to our economic development,” Gov. Bentley told BF. “So we created something called the Alabama Economic Development Alliance, which [executes] our strategic plan for the state—what we call Accelerate Alabama—concentrating on 11 major industries.”

“If you’re not organized, you’re not going to meet your goals quickly,” he added.

Bentley’s organization is not only meeting its goals, it’s exceeding everyone’s expectations, propelling Alabama into the top tier of the most dynamic state economies in the nation—the states that have unlimited growth potential.

The Accelerate Alabama plan aims to build on the state’s already solid foundation of manufacturing, forestry, chemicals and agriculture by targeting new growth sectors, including bioscience and information technology.

Mercedes-Benz plant in Tuscaloosa

The development that literally put Alabama on the map as a major jobs producer took place two decades ago, when Mercedes-Benz decided in 1993 to locate its North American manufacturing hub in Tuscaloosa. Bentley hails Mercedes’ decision as a game-changer: the German automaker’s arrival opened the door for other industrial giants to come to Alabama. It also established the state as a front-runner in foreign direct investments and jump-started a torrent of exports from Alabama to the world.

“Had Mercedes not come to Alabama in 1993, we probably would not have had all these great international companies. When you talk to Mercedes, they will tell you that their best manufacturing plant in the world is at Tuscaloosa,” Bentley said. “Mercedes is a great cheerleader for Alabama.”

Airbus’ first U.S.-based production facility—which will build A320 Family jetliners at the Brookley Aeroplex in Mobile, Alabama, beginning in 2015—will produce between 40 and 50 aircraft annually by 2018.

The loudest cheers since Mercedes-Benz arrived in Alabama came last year, when Airbus decided to put its first North American aircraft assembly facility in Mobile. Airbus will use the facility at the Brookley Aeroplex in Mobile to assemble its A319, A320, and A321 aircraft. The project represents a $600-million investment that will create up to 1,000 jobs when the plant reaches full capacity; building the facility will create nearly 3,200 construction-related jobs over a three-year period.

The Airbus plant is expected to anchor a huge expansion in Alabama’s already thriving aerospace sector and may move the center of gravity for this industry in the state from Huntsville—ground zero of NASA’s legendary rocket program (including the Saturn V that carried men to the moon)—down to Mobile.

A supplier network already is queuing up to put down roots in Alabama to service Airbus. A subsidiary of Labinal, Safran Engineering Services, announced in December that it will operate an engineering supporting facility in Mobile, creating up to 50 jobs. Labinal is part of the French aerospace conglomerate, Safran Group. Gov. Bentley met with Labinal officials during a visit to the Farnborough International Air Show in England last year and encouraged the company to locate in Alabama.

Gov. Bentley is moving quickly to make sure that neighboring states eagerly eyeing the aerospace bonanza in Alabama don’t gain an edge in pulling the Airbus supplier network across their borders.

After Mississippi and Florida passed tort reform measures shielding aircraft manufacturers from long-term liability complaints, Bentley quickly put forward the Alabama Commercial Aviation Business Improvement Act, a tort reform tailored to companies like Airbus that make commercial jets seating more than 100 passengers.

“We put $158 million into bringing Airbus into the state, and while the 1,000 [permanent] jobs are very important, it’s the suppliers who will keep bringing jobs to the state,” Bentley explained. “We wanted to do everything we could to make sure there is a level playing field and these suppliers come to Alabama.”

Alabama Becomes An Automotive Superpower

Mercedes-Benz’s long-term commitment to Alabama was followed by a parade of auto giants who have vaulted the state into the top five in U.S. automotive production, with 880,000 vehicles produced in 2012. Hyundai, Honda, and Toyota have major automotive production facilities in Alabama, all of which are in the process of expanding.

“When you see companies like Mercedes adding new lines [the company will produce its fifth new model in Tuscaloosa this year], when you see Hyundai put a third shift in, adding 800 new jobs, and when you see the level of automation at the plants, you know that we’re producing the high-quality vehicles here in Alabama,” Bentley told BF.

Gov. Bentley knows that world-class manufacturers need a highly skilled workforce, and he has made sure that workforce training programs are up to the task in Alabama.

“The Alabama Industrial Development Training [AIDT] program is one of the best workforce training programs for companies. They will come in and put a training facility on-site to train the workers,” said Bentley. “We have a maritime training program that includes a ship-building training site in Mobile and we’re building a training facility on-site for Airbus. We have one at the engine factory in Huntsville and at all the automotive plants.”

Earlier this year, the state signed an agreement with Mercedes-Benz that recognizes Shelton State Community College as one of the best in its field in preparing individuals for careers in manufacturing. Mercedes-Benz U.S. International, Inc. (MBUSI) and AIDT formalized a $1.6-million contract for Shelton to support MBUSI’s technical programs. The initiative will be funded through AIDT’s Workforce Development program.

“We’ve had resounding success with our Automotive Technician and Mechatronics programs over the past year,” said Markus Schaefer, president and CEO of MBUSI. “Today, more than 100 candidates have enrolled in the program, which has been recognized in Alabama, nationally and globally as a model in the arena of workforce development. Shelton State and AIDT have been critical in the success of these efforts.”

Shelton will use the largest portion of the funds ($1.2 million) to buy equipment that will be housed on campus to train students in robotics, electrical and other high-tech skills required in manufacturing. The remainder of the funds will be used to support students with tuition, fees other program expenses.

FDI, Exports Surge In AL

The migration of overseas manufacturers to Alabama goes well beyond Mercedes-Benz and Airbus. About 70 German companies have set up shop in the state, including industrial giant ThyssenKrupp, which is building a new steel plant near Mobile.

Gov. Bentley has headed trade missions to Germany three times in the past two years; Alabama Commerce Secretary Greg Canfield also is a frequent flyer to Europe seeking to draw new business to the state.

Gov. Bentley also has the Far East on his radar. He is actively courting business in Japan, South Korea and China, most recently convincing Golden Dragon Copper Tubing to set up its first U.S. operation in Alabama. Bentley pushed through special legislation to mitigate U.S. tariffs imposed on copper tubing. He also was able to get the Chinese company to put the plant in the part of the state with the highest unemployment.

“That’s up to 500 new jobs for that area. It’s going to improve the situation and we’re very excited about it,” the governor said. [On his official Twitter feed, Gov. Bentley has pledged that he will not accept a salary as governor until Alabama achieves “full employment.”]

Bentley noted that Alabama’s status as a right-to-work state meets a prerequisite of a majority of Asian companies. “European companies don’t say it as much, but there’s no doubt that Asian companies want to go to a right-to-work state,” he said.

Governor Robert Bentley standing with recipients of the Governor’s Trade Excellence Awards in the Old House Chamber at the Alabama State Capitol.

Gov. Bentley has made increasing Alabama’s exports a top priority of the state’s long-term economic development plan, and the results have been impressive. Alabama has achieved a record $19.5 billion in exports during his tenure. The governor goes out of his way to throw his spotlight on successful Alabama exporters. He recently presented Governor’s Trade Excellence Awards to eight Alabama companies that have expanded exports this year. Bentley also meets regularly with the consulate from Canada, Alabama’s top export partner.

In addition to meeting trading partners’ concerns about issues like tariffs, the governor says expanding exports still comes down to a basic requirement:

“First, you have to make very good products, and we do that. You have to produce something that people want to buy, not only in the rest of the country but all over the world,” he said.

Regions Bank Unveils $1B Development Fund

It isn’t hard to find a consensus of economic development analysts who will tell you that the banking industry hasn’t played a very constructive role in the recovery, on either the national or state level. Though their balance sheets were stabilized by billions in federal bailout funds and an infusion of capital from the Federal Reserve, the major banks have been tightfisted about spreading that fresh cash around in the form of new job-creating loans.

The standout exception has been Regions Bank in Alabama, which recently agreed to set up a $1-billion Economic Development Loan Pool to support job-creation in the State specifically aimed at small businesses. Gov. Bentley expressed pride that it was a large bank in Alabama that stepped forward and set an example for a nation struggling to recover from the worst economic downturn since the Depression.

“The bank initiated this, and we were very excited by it because one of the [biggest] problems that states are having is the ability to acquire capital,” Bentley told BF. “This will provide capital for many of our small businesses as they try to get up and going. It already is spurring activity in Birmingham. For them to put a billion dollars here is very important, because capital is such a vital part of our ability to create jobs, especially on the small-business level.”

“I hope this will encourage a number of the other large banks to do the same thing,” the governor added.

Alabama has had to deal with more than its share of disasters during Bentley’s first term as governor—both natural and man-made.

On his 100th day in office, a monster tornado tore through Tuscaloosa, the worst natural disaster ever to hit the state. The twister caused 254 fatalities in Alabama and left miles of devastation in its wake (the Mercedes-Benz plant and the stadium that is home to the National Champion Crimson Tide college football team were spared).

“This was something that no one can prepare for, but the way you respond is very important,” Bentley said. “Things went well in Alabama not only with the initial response, but because we allowed the local leadership to do their job and we had a very good cooperative effort with FEMA and HUD. They did everything we asked them to do, and I’m thankful for it.”

Gov. Bentley created a Tornado Response Action Council to prepare for future disasters. He asked the council to produce “common-sense” recommendations, many of which already have been implemented. The governor initiated a special sales tax holiday covering household goods needed to cope with storm damage.

Bentley also has had to deal with the nation’s worst maritime oil spill, the massive BP drilling disaster in the Gulf of Mexico, which soiled Alabama’s coastal white-sand beaches. Alabama is among several Gulf Coast states that are still in the process of recovering damages from the British oil giant.

“We’ll see if we’re able to settle,” Bentley said. “We have the first beautiful white beaches you come to, so we think it damaged us more than anyone else.”

The post FEATURE STORY: Accelerating In Alabama appeared first on Business Facilities.

The flooded Whitehall subway tunnel in Manhattan.

By Donna Clapp
From the March/April 2013 issue

The aerial photos taken after Superstorm Sandy swept through the Northeast in October 2012 told the whole story. Houses and businesses cleared away, leaving swatches of sand or burned-out ruins in their wake. Not just in some small, low-lying areas, but huge tracks of land from Atlantic City, NJ to Breezy Point, NY. The tunnels leading to Manhattan filled with water, huge trees were pulled up by their roots, and the beloved boardwalks of the Jersey Shore were either pulverized or simply washed away, with some shore towns, like Belmar, NJ covered in sand for miles. For many people in the area both their homes and businesses were wiped out in a single night.

Nearly 50 fatalities were reported in New York in the days after the storm; the death toll in New Jersey did not exceed 40 thanks to heroic efforts by NJ Gov. Chris Christie and many others to successfully evacuate nearly 1 million state residents from vulnerable areas on the Garden State’s 130-mile-long coast.

In the wake of Sandy, electricity was cut off to 7 million of New Jersey’s 8.8 million residents; 136,000 families were left homeless; more than 10 million cubic yards of debris had to be cleared from public property; the Jersey Shore, which generates more than $40 billion in revenue annually for the state, was decimated.

The night after the storm passed through, Gov. Christie said, he logged onto Google Earth and took a look at his state from space.

NJ Gov. Christie

“It was dark,” the governor said.

In the weeks immediately after the storm hit, the enormous scope of the economic damage inflicted by Sandy came into focus: In November, economic research firm Moody’s Analytics put storm losses at $49.9 billion. About $30 billion of the loss came from the physical storm damage, split fairly evenly between households, businesses and public infrastructure such as rail lines, roads and water and sewage systems. The rest of Moody’s estimate comes from lost business activity. Moody’s also estimates that Sandy will be the third most costly U.S. natural disaster, trailing only the $157 billion total economic loss from Hurricane Katrina in 2005 and the $54.5 billion loss from 1992’s Hurricane Andrew (totals adjusted for inflation).

In January, HuffPost reported that Sandy damaged or destroyed 305,000 housing units and disrupted more than 265,000 businesses in New York. In NJ, 346,000 housing units were destroyed or damaged, and 190,000 businesses affected.

The good news is that the governors of NY and NJ began recovery assistance efforts immediately, and both states have poured extensive monetary and human resources into helping business move back toward a level of economic equilibrium.

NJ Mobilizes Storm Relief

Gov. Christie’s administration recently unveiled its proposed Community Development Block Grant (CDBG) Disaster Recovery Action Plan, which outlines how the State plans to utilize $1.8 billion in federal funding. This is the first phase of CDBG funds provided to NJ by the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development. Additional CDBG recovery funds are expected in the coming months. With this first phase of funding, NJ is focusing primarily on helping homeowners, renters, businesses and communities impacted by Superstorm Sandy.

The Christie Administration will dedicate more than half of this funding for low-to-moderate-income households, in accordance with HUD guidelines. Additionally, per HUD guidelines, 80 percent of the funds will be dedicated to the nine most heavily impacted counties in the state: Atlantic, Bergen, Cape May, Essex, Hudson, Middlesex, Monmouth, Ocean and Union.

Bay Head, NJ

If approved by HUD, the Christie Administration expects that more than 20,000 homeowners, more than 5,000 renters and more than 10,000 businesses will be helped, as well as dozens of local governmental units.

“This plan puts into motion the specific actions we’ve been designing to get relief out as quickly as possible to our Sandy-impacted homeowners and businesses—to reconstruct, rehabilitate and elevate homes, and to get over hurdles for our small businesses to get up and running again,” says Gov. Christie. “These programs have been carefully, but quickly designed to fill the unmet needs faced by our residents to rebuild in a safer, more enduring way, to strengthen our impacted local economies going into this summer and to help preserve the unique character of our shore communities as we’ve known them. With this first round of funding, we will also begin an aggressive marketing effort to let people both in the region and across the country know that New Jersey is rebounding and that the Jersey Shore will be open for business this summer.”

As part of the plan, the Christie Administration is setting aside $500 million in funding for the New Jersey Economic Development Authority to administer the following activities:

• Small Business Grants of up to $50,000 to eligible businesses that sustained physical damage. A $300- million allocation will fund grants that can be used for purposes including rehabilitation, new construction, equipment, inventory, mitigation, refinancing and working capital.
• No-Interest Loans for Storm-Impacted Small Businesses ranging from $100,000 to $5 million for documented physical damage not covered by other sources. These loans are intended to assist eligible businesses that suffered physical damage, as well as spur economic revitalization by providing funding for expansion and new businesses in storm-impacted areas.
• Neighborhood And Community Revitalization Programs to provide funding of up to $10 million to help communities rebuild commercial areas with public facility improvements such as streetscapes, lighting, and sidewalks and undertake other activities critical to restoring and strengthening local economies, including micro-loans for storm-related damage and loan guarantees as well as façade and code-related improvements.
• A Tourism Marketing Campaign to promote storm-impacted businesses and shore communities by letting the nation know that New Jersey is recovering and that communities are open for business. The $25-million campaign also would encourage New Jerseyans and tourists to shop local.

In addition, the NJ Business Action Center is working to increase awareness of access to state and federal programs, attending local chamber of commerce roundtables and regional/county business development events, continuing outreach to key economic development partners and collaborating with higher education. The Economic Development Authority (EDA) is leading the Main Street Disaster Relief Program, boosting the lending capacity of community development financial institutions, and, following approval of New Jersey’s Action Plan from HUD, will work to provide grants and no-cost loans to small businesses, and launch an aggressive marketing campaign to help storm-impacted businesses and communities.

President Obama joins Gov. Christie at a post-Sandy press conference in Brigantine, NJ.

“In response to this natural disaster, New Jersey has coordinated a range of multi-agency resources to assist impacted businesses and ensure they are operational quickly,” says Lt. Gov. Kim Guadagno. “Providing a thorough and interdepartmental business recovery assistance program is another demonstration of our support for our business community and their workers. The Business Action Center can help businesses tap into a variety of resources that will help them begin to recover from this catastrophic storm.”

On top of these new programs, New Jersey has a number of incentives in place to help with the recovery. Many loans, disaster relief and other programs that are helping companies rebuild are being implemented at the local and state level. Here are some of the programs being offered by NJ to assist companies during the recovery process:

• REBUILD New Jersey: This program provides low-interest loans to businesses that are recovering from the storm. The loans range from $10,000 to $30,000 and can be used to pay for building repairs, equipment and inventory purchases, rent or mortgage payments, salary expenses and utility costs.
• Clean Energy Program: Any business owner that is recovering from Sandy and is located within one of the identified damaged areas may be eligible to receive enhanced incentives on high-efficiency equipment/ appliances under NJ’s Clean Energy Program.
• Main Street Disaster Relief: This program provides guarantees of up to $500,000 for commercial lines of credit to businesses that need access to cash to improve their damaged property while awaiting insurance proceeds.
• Storm Recovery Loan Program: Launched by UCEDC, a non-profit economic development corporation, this program is a low-interest, fast-turn-around, working capital loan program for small businesses damaged by Sandy. Small business owners can borrow up to $25,000 at 2 percent interest for five years with no collateral requirements. For larger capital needs, the program offers loans up to $250,000 with conventional interest rates and processing periods.

Preparing For NJ’s Future

There are also several initiatives in place to invest in New Jersey’s future growth. A $26-million investment by the state Department of Labor Workforce Development aims to connect those that are unemployed to Sandy recovery job opportunities through:

• Recovery4Jersey: Funds will support private sector companies focused on rebuilding New Jersey. Companies working with utilities, construction and other cleanup efforts will have access to this grant for up to $100,000.
• Skills4Jersey: This initiative focuses on upgrading the occupational, literacy and safety skills of current employees and the training of new employees.
• Opportunity4Jersey: Focused on filling the need for skills workers, this step of the initiative will fund training programs directly connected to the need of a number of employers.

Seaside Heights, NJ

Companies continue to invest in New Jersey, with recent announcements by Lockheed Martin, Pfizer, Amazon and others. In fact, the Partnership for Action continues to be very busy responding to companies expressing interest in the state. According to the state, the volume of requests has actually increased since Sandy.

This may be due to the fact that the state has been more aggressive than ever to let the world know that NJ is open for business. Choose New Jersey, Inc. launched an integrated marketing campaign titled “New Jersey. A State of Resilience” in January targeted at corporate decision-makers in key markets. Advertisements were strategically placed in Washington, D.C. during the Presidential Inauguration, New Orleans during the Super Bowl and Mardi Gras, and at the Site Selectors Guild Conference, as well as and on highway billboards throughout NJ. The ads will continue to run throughout the year in top metro areas based on alignment with New Jersey’s target industry sectors.

In addition to these advertisements, the Partnership for Action and Lt. Governor Kim Guadagno have been taking the message on the road, meeting with companies and site selectors face-to-face in New Jersey, as well as in other U.S. and international markets to make sure they know New Jersey is open for business.

Superstorm Sandy obviously put tremendous pressure on the state’s utility infrastructure. PSE&G announced a $3.9 billion, 10-year proposed infrastructure plan at the end of February that will raise many electric switching stations and substations throughout New Jersey to protect them against any future natural disasters. The plan is awaiting approval from the Board of Public Utilities.

NY’s Rapid Response

Just a few days ahead of Gov. Christie’s action plan announcement, NY Gov. Andrew M. Cuomo submitted New York State’s proposal for housing and business recovery programs to HUD to help New Yorkers devastated by Superstorm Sandy. These programs will provide billions of dollars in direct aid to individuals, homeowners, and small businesses using funding from the $60 billion Sandy Aid approved by Congress in January. The State designed the diverse array of programs to specifically target federal aid to New Yorkers most in need and ensure the affected communities, and the entire region, builds back smarter and stronger than before.

President Obama speaks with NY Gov. Cuomo in Staten Island.

“Superstorm Sandy was the worst storm to hit New York State and our region in recorded history, and its impact devastated homes and businesses across Long Island and the metro area,” says Gov. Cuomo. “This plan was put together with the input of homeowners and small businesses in affected communities, and it will serve as a blueprint to guide our housing and private sector recovery.”

Recently, HUD issued rules and regulations governing the use of the first $1.7 billion allocated to New York. The programs will be offered outside New York City (NYC will administer similar programs to meet the same needs its own CDBG-DR allocation of $1.7 billion). The Action Plan represents the spending plan only for this initial allocation of CDBG-DR funds and does not reflect the full scope of recovery activities being undertaken by NY through other state and federal programs.

“I look forward to building on the partnership we have created with Governor Cuomo to help communities in New York rebuild in a way that makes them stronger, more economically competitive and better able to withstand the next storm,” says Housing and Urban Development Secretary Shaun Donovan, who also serves as Chair of the Hurricane Rebuilding Sandy Task Force.

Gov. Cuomo has made it clear that preparing for the next storm must also include some tough decisions about which areas should be restricted from rebuilding. The NY governor wants to set aside $400 million to purchase vulnerable shore properties and restore them to uninhabited wetlands.

Breezy Point, NY

NY also proposes to use $415 million to help businesses replace or repair lost or damaged inventory and equipment, repair and mitigate damaged facilities, and cover working capital needs. The funds will be disbursed through the following programs:

• Small Business Grants—$233 million: NY will direct grant funds to help businesses, including farming and agricultural operations, and non-profits that suffered physical damage or inventory loss, as a result of Superstorm Sandy. Grants of up to $50,000 to cover eligible, uncompensated losses are proposed to enable an affected business to purchase or repair needed equipment, repair or rebuild facilities that were damaged or destroyed in the storm, and/or provide the working capital necessary to sustain and grow the business. The state may extend grants up to a total grant amount of $100,000 to businesses that suffered physical damage and are at risk of closure or significant employment loss without an increase in grant size. Special Business Mitigation Grants of up to $100,000 are also proposed to cover expenses such as installing back-up generators or elevating key equipment, to help prevent damage to these businesses in future disasters.
• Small Business Loans—$130 million: NY will create a low-interest loan program to help small businesses, including farming and agricultural operations, and non-profits that are at risk because they suffered losses of inventory, or physical assets as a result of the storm. Loans of up to $1 million may be available to help these businesses purchase or repair needed equipment, repair and rebuild facilities that were damaged or destroyed in the storm, and/or provide the working capital necessary to sustain and grow the business. Loans of higher amounts may be offered to eligible businesses that are at risk of closure or significant employment loss. Terms will be flexible, with interest rates held below 2 percent for borrowers.
• Business Consulting, Mentoring—$3 million: NY will create an online network to facilitate connections between consultants and business practitioners who are willing to provide consulting and mentoring services to small businesses hit hard by the storm. Up to $3 million will be used to build the network and support the providers of the consulting and mentoring services, including financial management, real estate, marketing, legal and industry-specific assistance.
• Coastal Fishing Industry Recovery Program—$20 million: Coastal fishing supports thousands of jobs in New York State. Superstorm Sandy caused significant damage to the fisheries along New York’s coastline, and while these fisheries will also be eligible to participate in the other small business assistance programs announced today, the industry is subject to unique considerations. To help this vital industry recover, New York State will create a targeted program to support grants of up to $50,000 available to affected businesses. These grants would cover otherwise eligible, uncompensated losses and help the industry prepare now for the upcoming fishing season.
• Seasonal Tourism Industry Recovery Program—$30 million: While these seasonal tourism businesses also will be eligible to participate in the other small business assistance programs, seasonal small businesses in coastal and riverine communities require an immediate injection of support to ensure that they can reopen and operate in time for the upcoming summer season. Accordingly, the state seeks to provide grants of up to $50,000 to eligible businesses in this industry. The grants will cover otherwise eligible, uncompensated losses and working capital needs to help them prepare for the coming season.

In addition, New York State will create a dedicated infrastructure bank to help coordinate infrastructure development and investment across the disaster region. An initial capitalization of $20 million from the first allocation of CDBG-DR funds will be combined with State funds and committed to financing eligible infrastructure projects that apply for assistance through the Bank. The Bank will benefit New York by introducing a centralized approach to infrastructure related decision making rather than a project-by-project, agency specific process. The focus of the Bank’s investments will be on projects that increase the resiliency of the area’s infrastructure to withstand future threats or provide redundancy of critical systems. It is expected that the Bank will be funded with up to $200 million through subsequent allocation rounds or such other amount to be jointly determined with HUD.

The infrastructure bank will take several steps to carry out these goals, including developing a system for prioritizing infrastructure projects and initiatives, providing a centralized approach to the state’s infrastructure planning process, managing state recovery funds for infrastructure and other sources of capital, negotiating opportunities for private sector investment in infrastructure and financing approved projects. The planning processes and expertise of the New York Works Task Force will be embedded into the Bank’s functions.

The infrastructure bank may make use of funds from several sources, including federally allocated recovery funds, diverted or created revenue, proceeds from the sale of long-term debt and credit enhancements with other state entities. In addition, the bank will work with both public and private investors to raise funds to finance infrastructure developments. An advantage that the bank will have is the ability to combine several sources of funds (e.g., Federal funds with private funds) to finance projects as effectively as possible. The bank will showcase potential projects to engage the private sector in opportunities for investment in infrastructure.

New York State also will establish the Community Reconstruction Zone (CRZ) program to facilitate community-driven planning to rebuild and revitalize severely damaged communities. The state anticipates allocating approximately $25 million from this first allocation to provide planning grants to communities that suffered community-wide impacts. Later allocations will be used to implement final CRZ plans. The planning grants will facilitate the retention of outside experts as consultants to a participating community’s planning committee, as well as the completion of critical studies to determine the key vulnerabilities and needs of the community. The state will provide information and guidance to the committees to assist them in identifying and using such outside resources effectively and efficiently. It is anticipated that the CRZ program will be funded up to $500 million, an amount to be jointly determined with HUD.

Energy-related storm damage mitigation is critical for essential services facilities including, in particular, hospitals, nursing homes, and other facilities for vulnerable populations. Many essential services facilities did not have backup power systems or had ineffective backup systems that failed during the storm. As a result of this, numerous facilities had to evacuate patients which posed a greater risk to those patients than allowing them to remain in place during the storm.

To address this critical need, New York State will establish the Resilience and Retrofit Fund. The State anticipates allocating approximately $30 million from this first allocation of CDBG-DR funding to provide credit enhancement or leverage for private sector financing of energy-related mitigation projects.

Sandy affected more than 140,000 National Grid gas customers in New York City and on Long Island. In addition to the state’s efforts, National Grid has launched a $30-million Emergency Economic and Community Redevelopment Program to complement federal, state, city, insurance and other funding sources currently available to help communities and individuals rebuild. Administered through their partner HeartShare, the program targets gas customers—encouraging job retention and promoting installation of energy-efficient equipment and systems. The program has three tier levels:

1. Funding plumbing inspections (one-time, $150 bill credit eligible to residential customers)
2. Funding heating equipment for the most vulnerable residential customers, with grants available up to $6,000
3. Supporting commercial redevelopment and rebuilding communities with grants available up to $250,000

“We remain steadfast in our commitment to keep New York State a great place to live, work and prosper,” says National Grid’s NY Jurisdiction President Ken Daly. “This is our home, and we’re 100 percent determined to help our customers and communities recover from the devastating effects of Sandy.”

The post SPECIAL REPORT: Steadfast And Strong In The Wake Of Superstorm Sandy appeared first on Business Facilities.

By Business Facilities Staff

It’s usually a tough task when we get down to parsing the particulars in making our annual determination of which state deserves to wear the crown as our State of the Year.

Well, the 2012 selection for our most prestigious honor made the job easy for us. Texas, a perennial front-runner for Business Facilities’ State of the Year designation, has reclaimed its position at the top of our annual list with a tour de force that vaulted the Lone Star State to the top of just about every credible business ranking out there, including those created by our competitors and the general business media.

The Lone Star State last took the BF State of the Year crown in 2007 and has placed no lower than second in the fierce competition for our highest honor in each of the last five years.

“Texas is our 2012 State of the Year because it without a doubt has the most dynamic economy of any state in the nation,” Business Facilities Editor in Chief Jack Rogers said. “The job-producing engine in the Lone Star State barely sputtered during the Great Recession, bouncing back over pre-Recession levels faster than anywhere else in the U.S.”

“As our friends in Texas like to remind us, if Texas was a separate country its economic vitality would rival most of the world’s leading economies and even give the U.S. a run for its money,” Rogers added.

We had more than an inkling that Texas would be angling for the top spot in our State of the Year contest when we tallied up the results in our annual State Rankings Report last summer. Texas was our top-ranked state in Best Business Climate; it also garnered the top spot in Best Transportation Infrastructure and Installed Wind Power Capacity Leaders.

A recitation of our other top-ten rankings for Texas in the 2012 Rankings Report reads like a table of contents: second in Wind Projects Under Construction (2012); third in Most Business Start-Ups; third in Aerospace/Defense Industry Leaders; third in Alternative Energy Industry Leaders; fifth in Biotechnology Strength Employment Leaders; fifth in our new Credit Quality category; sixth in Economic Growth Potential; ninth in Workforce Training Leaders; ninth in Installed Solar Power Capacity Leaders; and ninth in Best Business Tax Climate.

Texas cities and MSAs also filled the ranks of our 2012 Metro Rankings, with Odessa and Austin sharing the top spot in our two Economic Growth Potential rankings (based on population) and Houston taking first in Top 10 Manufacturing Cities. Dallas-Fort Worth also notched a fifth place in Lowest Cost of Doing Business, among other Texas localities that proliferated in our top 10 Metros.

And the recitation of Texas’ 2012 accomplishments won’t permit us to pause and catch our breath here: before the end of last year, Austin’s success in snaring Apple’s new Operations Center stepped up and claimed the Bronze Award in our 2012 Economic Development Deal of the Year competition.

If we had any doubts about who the consensus winner would be, these were erased when the time came to crunch the project data we review as the first step in our State of the Year decision. Texas easily outpaced the other contenders: the top five job-creating projects in Texas yielded nearly 9,000 new jobs, more than twice the nearest competitor, and the Lone Star State reported more than $13 billion in investment generated by the top five in terms of capital investment.

TEXAS TWO-STEP: BEATING THE RECESSION, BOUNCING BACK

Texas was the first state in U.S. to bounce back to pre-Recession employment levels in 2011, while most of the rest of the country was still digging out of the deep economic trench. Without question, Texas’ natural supremacy in the oil and gas sector was the turbocharger that kept its jobs engine humming during tough times. But the folks in the 10-gallon hats are not content to rely on the ups and downs of the energy sector for sporadic growth.

Texas has executed a diverse and aggressive economic development strategy which has seen it become a global leader in semiconductors and a rising star in other high-tech growth sectors including bioscience, supported by a world-class university system. Apple’s new global Operations Center is bringing more than 3,600 new jobs to the state capital (see Bronze Award story).

The Lone Star State also has steadily built up an impressive portfolio in a resurgent manufacturing sector, including a growing constellation of automotive and heavy equipment production facilities. Even alternative energy has been given a big “Howdy” in the home of Big Oil—Texas is a national leader in wind power.

“Texas isn’t shy about incentivizing new business development,” Rogers said. “When you factor in traditionally low labor costs, strong infrastructure, a growing population and a stellar higher-education system, you have an unbeatable combination.”

States competing for BF’s coveted State of the Year designation are asked to submit a breakdown of their five largest projects of the year in terms of job creation and a second list of the top five in terms of capital investment. The project numbers are the starting point for an evaluation that also takes into account the state’s overall economic development strategy and its success in executing that strategy.

Runners-up in the 2012 State of the Year contest included Louisiana, South Carolina, Georgia and Utah. The Beehive State took top honors as our 2011 State of the Year, while Louisiana was our 2010 State of the Year.

All of the leaders in the State of the Year competition were home to major projects that received honors in our 2012 Economic Development Deal of the Year contest.

Baxter International’s decision to put a $1.3-billion bio/pharma facility in Covington, GA was our Gold Award winner , the top prize in our Deal of the Year sweepstakes. Louisiana’s mega-deal with South Africa’s Sasol for a new petrochemical complex in Southwest LA garnered our Silver Award. South Carolina’s new Bridgestone tire plant, Utah’s eBay expansion and Georgia’s new Caterpillar facility all received Honorable Mentions.

Business Facilities congratulates Texas, our 2012 State of the Year, and all of the worthy runners-up.

The post FEATURE STORY: State of the Year – Texas appeared first on Business Facilities.

Inside a state-of-the-art cleanroom at CNSE’s Albany NanoTech Complex

By Jenny Vickers
From the January/February 2013 issue

The semiconductor industry is responsible for producing integrated circuits or “chips” that have become one of the necessary components for our world to operate. They act as the brains of every electronic device—and are literally found everywhere—inside phones, cars, clothes, computers, home appliances, medical devices, car brakes, weapons, and more. As nanotechnology has advanced, so have the chips. Companies are now able to produce wafers with microchip circuits as small as 28 nanometers—which are barely visible to the human eye. However, with an industry garnering billions of dollars in sales and creating thousands of new jobs, there is certainly nothing “nano” about it.

In 2011, U.S. semiconductor sales alone totaled more than $150 billion, and semiconductors make our trillion dollar electronics industry possible. But the industry produces more than just financial returns. Jobs in this industry are in line with the types of employment opportunities that are sought after: stable, well-paid, semi- and high-skilled labor jobs, as well as managerial, design and engineering positions. In the U.S. semiconductor employment is the biggest job growth sector overall with employment rising nationwide by 3.7 percent to nearly a quarter of a million workers in 2012.

The semiconductor industry is a highly competitive global industry with constant pressure on chip makers to come up with something better and even cheaper than what redefined state-of-the-art only a few months before. New technologies are being developed at an unprecedented pace and our highly mobile world is changing the shape of the semiconductor industry in new ways.

“We are moving away from a market dominated by PCs and into a new era of mobility,” said Jessica Kerley, Communications Specialist for GLOBALFOUNDRIES, one of the world’s leading semiconductor manufacturers. “Over the past 10 years, computing has moved from the desktop to the laptop to the pocket. There are now almost as many cell phone subscriptions as people in the world. ‘Mobile’ is the watchword in today’s landscape.”

The industry stretches across almost every region of the country and into the majority of states from California and Texas to Florida, Massachusetts and New York. However, there are several regions which are developing semiconductor “ecosystems” in order to attract innovation-driven companies and grow the economy. These areas are not only conducting advanced semiconductor manufacturing, design and commercialization, bat are training workers for jobs that can compete on a global scale.

In Upstate NY, GLOBALFOUNDRIES is investing $6.9 billion to establish a new factory on an abandoned rocket-testing site in Malta and just this week announced it is building a new $2 billion technology development center. In Austin, TX, Samsung is already at work in a $4 billion plant expansion in Austin. In Chandler, AZ, Intel is investing more than $300 million to build a new R&D facility. And in Albuquerque, NM, Sandia’s MESA facility is in the midst of groundbreaking R&D work on semiconductor wafers, while emerging technology company Skorpios Technologies is helping spearhead the evolution of the networking industry.

UPSTATE NY’S TECH VALLEY: GLOBAL NANOTECH HUB

The semiconductor industry has been a key driver to the revitalization of upstate New York’s “Tech Valley”—a 19-county region of eastern New York State that spans from just south of Montreal to just north of New York City. Over the past decade, this region has seen billions of dollars of public and private investment, the result of which is the development of a true technology cluster in upstate New York with significant semiconductor and nanotechnology assets, including IBM, GE Global Research, Sematech and the College of Nanoscale Science and Engineering (CNSE).

The region is now a major hub for advanced semiconductor manufacturing and research, attracting big firms, their vendors and suppliers, smaller start-ups, new education and research facilities. Today, more than 1,500 high-tech companies call Tech Valley home.

Recognizing the region’s potential, Forbes recently predicted that “New York’s Tech Valley could become the Silicon Valley of Nanotech and even surpass it in economic importance.”

Aerial view of CNSE complex in Albany, NY

At the heart of this development is the Global 450 Consortium (G450C), an initiative spearheaded by Gov. Andrew Cuomo to further position New York to become the nanotech capital of the world. In September 2011, Gov. Cuomo announced the consortium, a $4.8 billion, first-of-its-kind collaboration housed at the CNSE’s Albany NanoTech complex. The G450C consists of five leading international companies that are working to create the next generation of computer chip technology: IBM, Intel, GLOBALFOUNDRIES, TSMC and Samsung.

“This unprecedented private investment in New York’s economy will create thousands of new jobs and make the state the epicenter for the next generation of computer chip technology,” said Gov. Cuomo.

IBM has pledged to invest $3.6 billion towards developing 22-nanometer and 14-nanometer process technology for computer chips. IBM will also work on a second project with Intel, TSMC, GLOBALFOUNDRIES and Samsung on moving existing 300mm (12-inch) wafer manufacturing technology to more advanced 450mm (18-inch) technology. 450mm wafers yield roughly twice the number of chips as today’s 300mm wafers, which lowers the cost of making future chips. The project is expected to create and retain nearly 7,000 jobs across New York, including 2,500 new technology jobs.

To support the project, New York State is investing $400 million in CNSE to expand and house the world’s first G450C, adding nearly 500,000 square feet of next-generation infrastructure, an additional 50,000 square feet of Class 1 capable cleanrooms, and more than 1,000 scientists, researchers and engineers from CNSE and global corporations.

CNSE is the world’s most advanced university-driven research enterprise, offering students a one-of-a-kind academic experience and providing over 300 corporate partners with access to an unmatched ecosystem for leading-edge R&D and commercialization of nanoelectronics and nanotech innovations. CNSE’s foot print spans upstate New York, including its Albany NanoTech Complex, an 800,000-square-foot, $14 billion state-of the-art megaplex.

“[CNSE] houses the most advanced clean rooms, tools and equipment, as well as next generation tools that are still several years from making it out into industry,” said Steve Janack, CNSE vice president for marketing and communications. “It is a unique environment unlike any place in the world. You have the world’s leading tech companies doing next generation innovation R&D and commercialization work here on site and doing so in an environment that allows them to mitigate the costs and accelerate their research by pooling their money.”

According to Janack, public and private investments are being leveraged to drive high tech growth opportunities across Upstate New York, including Utica, Rochester, Syracuse, and other areas. In Utica, CNSE has partnered with SUNYIT to build a facility known as Quad C (Computer Chip Commercialization Center) where companies can develop system-on-a-chip technologies. In the Rochester area, CNSE’s Smart System Technology and Commercialization Center (STC) offers state-of-the-art capabilities for MEMS fabrication and packaging.

“If you are a company that needs to be at the cutting edge, you are looking for opportunities to innovate while reigning in costs and to do so in an environment that allows you to accelerate your innovation at a rate where you can beat the competition,” said Janack. “What we are seeing is that increasingly the location of choice for the semiconductor industry to do R&D, commercialization, and advanced manufacturing is New York.”

There’s no question that New York is at the forefront of a nanotechnology revolution. Just last week, GLOBALFOUNDRIES, which is now the second largest computer chip foundry in the world, announced they are going to build a $2 billion Technology Development Center (TDC) to complement their existing computer chip fab in Malta, creating 1,000 new jobs.

The TDC will include 90,000 square feet of flexible cleanroom space that will house a variety of semiconductor development and manufacturing areas to support the transition to new technology nodes. Construction of the TDC is planned to begin in early 2013 with completion targeted for late 2014.

Fab 8 is the most advanced semiconductor foundry campus in the world. Since breaking ground on Fab 8 in 2009, the project has created approximately 2,000 new direct jobs, 9,000 new indirect jobs, and more than 10,000 new construction jobs. The company has been making significant investments in technology development at Fab 8 and today development is underway at the 20nm and 14nm technology nodes. When fully ramped, the total clean-room space will be approximately 300,000 square feet, roughly equivalent to six football fields of state-of-the-art semiconductor wafer manufacturing space, and will be capable of a total output of approximately 60,000 wafers per month.

“The TDC is expected to play a key role in the company’s strategy to develop innovative semiconductor solutions allowing customers to compete at the leading edge of technology,” said Jessica Kerley, Communications Specialist for GLOBALFOUNDRIES.

According to Kerley there were many important reasons that drove GLOBALFOUNDRIES decision to build Fab 8 in upstate NY, but the three primary considerations involve education, ecosystem and economics.

“New York’s investment in the semiconductor industry, including the incentives and tax credits for the Fab 8 project, represents a long-term economic development strategy that is working,” said Kerley. “The State of New York expects to see a return of $2.54 for every $1.00 spent on the Fab 8 project, and the State’s innovative approach to public-private partnerships is reshaping upstate NY’s Tech Valley.”

AUSTIN, TX: CHIP CAPITAL

The mobile technology revolution has swept over the nation and is helping Austin’s semiconductor industry thrive. Some of the fastest-growing tech companies in town—including Apple, Cirrus Logic, Intel, Mutual Mobile and even newcomer Visa Inc. and startup Starmount, which develops software for mobile point of sale—all have mobile aspects to their business.

“Several years ago when the semiconductor industry started declining in the U.S., it hit several areas very hard,” said Adriana Cruz, Vice President of Global Corporate Recruitment at the Austin Chamber of Commerce. “Austin was one of those along with Silicon Valley. However, mobile devices and the technology for those mobile devices have changed the semiconductor industry entirely.”

Texas is now the nation’s No. 2 semiconductor job market after California, according to an analysis of federal data by the Semiconductor Industry Association—and many of those jobs are located in the Austin area. Austin is now one of the nation’s top emerging high-tech cities, with more than 108,000 people employed by around 4,400 technology firms. Semiconductor companies in Austin include chip designers Intel, IBM, and Advanced Micro Devices (AMD) and chip manufacturers Freescale Semiconductor, Samsung and Spansion. Together, they employ thousands.

Samsung is investing more than $13 billion in its Austin, TX facility

Samsung Electronics Co., the world’s second largest chip maker, is already at work in a $4 billion plant expansion at their Austin Semiconductor facility. The expansion includes retrofitting their main fab to logic chips to supply mobile and tablet production. Samsung’s overall investment in Austin is one of the largest single investments by a foreign company in the nation and is the largest fab in the U.S. This is Samsung’s only location in the world outside of South Korea that manufactures chips for the electronics giant.

Along with new renovations, Samsung’s Austin Research Center also grew its presence with about 200 engineers dedicated to design and development of the latest technologies for mobile application processors.

“Our ongoing, multi-billion dollar investments in Austin will expand our footprint as a comprehensive semiconductor hub and demonstrate our strong commitment to manufacturing, research and development in the United States,” said Woosung Han, president of SAS.

Austin wouldn’t be a hub or a center for semiconductor development without the presence of the University of Texas (UT) at Austin, which has one of the largest and most diverse university semiconductor research programs in the world, the Microelectronics Research Center (MRC). The MRC offers opportunities for students to participate in cutting-edge R&D, while receiving the training and experience to successfully pursue a rewarding career in microelectronics. The MRC has developed programs which have been utilized by major integrated circuit manufacturers throughout the U.S.

The Optoelectronics Group at MRC has developed novel vertical-cavity, surface-emitting lasers, and radically new photodetectors. MRC has also established active research efforts in GaN and related materials, which is projected to become the dominant material for short-wavelength emitters, ultraviolet photodetectors and high-power electronics.

Austin is also home to California chipmaker Altera Corp., which signed a major lease in June 2011 in Southwest Austin to establish a new R&D center. The company chose the site largely because several major tech companies were located nearby.

Altera develops customizable chips, used mainly for equipment in communications, industrial, broadcast, computer and storage, medical and other markets. It operates in 19 counties and employs 2,600 people. Altera employs over 200 people at its R&D center in Austin.

The company took space previously occupied by GLOBALFOUNDRIES, which left Austin after it spun off from AMD about two years ago.

Altera said it needed to make an Austin footprint because of growth in the smartphone and mobile device market. The company said a result of that growth had been an increased need for back office and communication infrastructure.

“There’s been a lot of activity in Austin over the past couple of years,” said Cruz. “The economy has been incredibly strong. We are one of the areas that went into recession last and came out first.”

ALBUQUERQUE: GROUND ZERO FOR CLEAN ROOMS

Clean rooms, which ensure that dust particles don’t contaminate microchips, are integral to the semiconductor industry. Clean rooms were actually invented in Albuquerque, New Mexico in 1962 when Willis Whitfield pioneered the modern Clean Room at Sandia National Laboratories. Whitfield, who died in November 2012—the same month Sandia celebrated its 50th anniversary—changed the face of electronics, medicine and technology forever.

Mesa facility in New Mexico

Today, Sandia is a multibillion-dollar engineering and science complex that continues to pioneer groundbreaking research and innovation in Albuquerque. Sandia is still one of the nation’s major clean rooms and its $500 million Microsystems Engineering Sciences and Applications (MESA) facility is known for its groundbreaking R&D work on semiconductor wafers.

In December 2012, Sandia announced it is investing $16 million to build five regional test centers around the country for solar companies to field-test their hardware before installing multimillion-dollar photovoltaic (PV) systems on buildings. It also just completed a $17.8 million upgrade to its National Solar Thermal Test Facility in Albuquerque, and it’s preparing to commercialize new, breakthrough PV cell technology that could cut manufacturing costs, improve efficiency and provide more applications for photovoltaics in everything from clothing to Mars rovers.

Sandia is part of the Department of Energy’s ‘SunShot Initiative’ to support manufacturers and expand and accelerate installation of PV systems in the U.S. Apart from Albuquerque, centers will be located in Denver; Orlando, Florida; Burlington, Vermont; and Las Vegas.

While the regional test centers will focus on PV systems, which directly convert sunlight to electricity, Sandia’s Solar Thermal Test Facility is working to improve concentrating solar power (CSP) systems that use sunlight to heat liquids to generate steam for turbine generators.

Sandia’s Materials, Devices and Energy Technologies group is also receiving industry accolades for developing micro-scale solar cells called “solar glitter.” The cells, about the width of a human hair, can be mass manufactured with standard semiconductor micro-scale tools and technologies. The tiny, crystalline silicon cells are about 10 times thinner than conventional PV cells, yet they perform at about the same efficiency.

In addition to solar, Sandia is working to advance innovations in communications technology at its Science & Technology Park (SS&TP). Currently 33 companies and organizations and more than 2,000 employees reside in SS&TP’s 340-acre high-tech campus.

In September 2012, Sumitomo Electric Device Innovations USA Inc. (SEDU), which develops products necessary to meet the requirements of high bandwidth, high-speed optical networks, announced it is setting up shop at Sandia’s SS&TP.

SEDU has purchased technology developed by for high-speed data communications from Emcore Corp., which makes compound semiconductor-based components and subsystems for the broadband, fiber, optic, satellite and terrestrial solar power markets. Emcore has 165,000 square feet of manufacturing space at SS&TP. By acquiring Emcore’s next-generation vertical cavity surface emitting lasers and parallel optics technology, the company will continue to advance high-performance computing applications.

Outside of Sandia, emerging technology companies are helping to help spearhead the evolution of the networking industry. Albuquerque’s Skorpios Technologies, an innovator in composite silicon photonic technology, closed on a $19 million Series B round of financing in September 2011 in order to expand its infrastructure and complete the commercialization of its technology.

“We are obviously very pleased to have closed such a substantial funding round and thrilled to have the support of industry leaders from throughout the communication networking ecosystem,” said Stephen Krasulick, President and CEO of Skorpios Technologies. Ericsson, Nokia Siemens Networks and other leaders in the communications ecosystem participated in the funding. Also participating were founding investors Cottonwood Technology Fund and Sun Mountain Capital.

“Skorpios’ large scale silicon photonics technology and integration process is spearheading the evolution of the networking industry,” said Jan Haglund, President of Product Area IP & Broadband at Ericsson. “With this technology we will be able to bring even better solutions to our customers.”

Intel’s Rio Rancho facility, northwest of Albuquerque, makes up the bulk of almost all of New Mexico’s semiconductor industry. Intel began operations in New Mexico in 1980, with 25 employees on a small piece of land previously used as a sod farm. More than three decades later, Intel is the largest industrial employer in the state, with approximately 3,500 employees at its campus and an annual state economic impact of nearly $1 billion. The site is home to Fab 11X, one of Intel’s largest 300-mm semiconductor manufacturing facilities, which has undergone significant expansions since its opening. In 2007, Intel spent $1 billion to retool Fab11X to become Intel’s fourth factory for next generation, 45-nm technology; in 2009, Intel spent $2.5 billion to upgrade Fab11X to speed up deployment of 32-nm manufacturing technology.

More importantly, in 2011 New Mexico approved an update to Intel’s air quality permit which could have the potential to position the plant for the future manufacturing of new technology. Although there are no plans at the moment for expansion and upgrade, it exemplifies State and community commitments to assisting economic development projects.

“This [the permit approval] sends a message that New Mexico should be watched because of how quickly the state acted on this,” said Gary Tonjes, president, Albuquerque Economic Development.

AZ: NO. 4 IN U.S. AND RISING

Arizona, which ranks as the No. 4 state for the number of semiconductor industry jobs, is a hotbed for semiconductor activity. A bulk of the semiconductor activity takes place in Chandler, the southernmost city in metropolitan Phoenix and fourth largest city in Arizona, and Tucson, located about one hour southeast of Chandler.

Chandler has a strong semiconductor presence, the largest of which include Intel, Microchip Technology and Freescale Semiconductor. The city is helping to attract electronic companies due to the cluster of major technology employers and highly-educated, diverse workforce. In addition, Arizona State University (ASU) and the University of Arizona work closely with electronics employers to ensure a strong workforce through an effective public/private partnership. In fact, a significant portion of Intel, a world leader in computing innovation, engineers are ASU graduates.

In August 2012, Intel announced it is investing more than $300 million in the construction of a new R&D facility at its Chandler campus. The facility will create several hundred Intel jobs and nearly 1,000 construction jobs, including positions for military veterans with technical training. Intel is the world’s largest chip maker whose processors are the brains powering Apple’s sleek MacBook laptops and other computers, as well as most of the PCs around the world.

“This significant investment in R&D reflects Intel’s principal role in defining the future of technology,” said Babak Sabi, Intel vice president and director, Assembly and Test Technology Development. “The innovation set to take place within the walls of this new research center will influence technology trends for years to come, and we’re delighted to bring that distinction to the community of Chandler and the State of Arizona.”

Intel’s new Chandler facility will be built to support packaging operations for the company. Construction of the two-story, approximately 285,000-square-foot R&D facility is expected to be completed in the second half of 2013. The building is being designed to enable Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design (LEED) certification.

News of this additional investment comes as Intel forges ahead with construction of Fab 42, its new manufacturing facility in Ocotillo, a Chandler community. Upon its completion this year, Fab 42 will be the most advanced, high-volume semiconductor manufacturing facility in the world.

While more than three-fourths of Intel’s sales come from outside the U.S., Intel manufacturers three-fourths of its microprocessors in the U.S. The addition of Fab 42 will increase the company’s American manufacturing capability. The new fab is being built on the leading-edge 14-nm process, enabling Intel to manufacture more powerful and power efficient computer chips. The nanometer specification refers to the minimum dimensions of transistor technology. A nanometer is one-billionth of a meter or the size one ninety-thousandth the width of an average human hair.

Intel began operations in Chandler in 1980. With about 11,000 employees, Intel Arizona is the company’s second largest site in the U.S., and is the largest employer in Chandler. Overall, Intel’s combined investment in the new Chandler facilities will exceed $5.3 billion.

To keep up with Intel’s expansion, Air Products, an international corporation who sells gases and chemicals for industrial uses, announced in June 2012 it is doubling in size. Intel uses nitrogen gas pumped through underground pipelines from the Air Products plant. The company’s expansion includes laying a pipeline to Intel’s Ocotillo campus and adding distillation columns.

Air Products is doubling its capacity to produce nitrogen gas at this facility in Chandler, AZ.

Nitrogen has a wide range of uses, but its largest use is in the electronics industry to flush air from vacuum tubes before the tubes are sealed.

Tucson, Arizona’s second largest city, will soon be home to a new high-tech manufacturing plant. In September 2012, Integrated Technologies Groups (ITC), a California-based maker of magnetic components and related products for high-tech applications, announced it is opening a plant in Tucson that is expected to employ up to 200 people in five years. ITC, which has customers in the semiconductor, medical, energy, industrial automation and aerospace industries, has purchased a 25,000-square-foot building in Butterfield Business Park from Applied Energetics Inc., which is moving to smaller quarters nearby.

The company’s new location in Tucson will focus on product integration and testing, including clean-room assembly.

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Google’s reception area in Bakery Square in the Steel City.

By Jenny Vickers
From the September/October 2012 issue

When you think of U.S. tech hubs, Silicon Valley, Boston, New York City and other areas certainly come to mind. However, technology companies are realizing that to be truly global, they need to tap innovation at more locations and in new high-growth markets. This means that new hot spots of tech innovation are springing up in places like Kansas City, the site of Google’s new high speed Google Fiber network, and Pittsburgh, a new hotbed for innovative tech start-ups.

Some of the locations already are  well-known for developing the next generation of technologies, such as Austin, home to Dell, Apple, Facebook and Google, and Tucson, with its hotbed of solar technology innovation. Regardless of where they are located, these regions all have a few things in common: a large talent pool with lower costs of doing business, innovative technology development, and regional development support. If technology makes the world go ‘round, then these new tech clusters are certainly starting to spin.

Pittsburgh, PA is a Top-ranked Tech City
Pittsburgh was recently ranked by Forbes as one of the “Top 10 Up and Coming Tech Cities” in the nation. Groundbreaking discoveries being made at the region’s leading research institutions, including the University of Pittsburgh and Carnegie Mellon University have made the region a hotbed for high-tech start-ups. Successful partnerships between academia and industries are regularly developing new products and technologies.

One of Pittsburgh’s top regional strengths is its Information and Communications (ICT) industry, which includes nearly 1,600 ICT firms with more than 26,000 employees and 6,000 computer and electrical engineers. In the past decade, nearly $1.8 billion in venture capital was invested in emerging regional business and 300 ICT companies announced plans to add more than 8,600 jobs in the region from 2003-2011.

California-based software development company, Smith Micro Software, has established a significant presence in the Pittsburgh region. The company, which develops software applications for mobile platforms, opened its R&D center in southwestern Pennsylvania in 2010.

With the company counting major conglomerates such as Verizon, AT&T, Dell and Microsoft as clients, its growth potential is evidenced by a global market of mobile broadband users that totals 300 million now and is expected to grow to 3 billion in the next 10 years.

Smith Micro has received $1.8 million in state incentives, including a $1 million opportunity grant, $125,000 in job training assistance and $696,000 in job creation tax credits.

To make downtown Pittsburgh more attractive to technology-driven, innovative companies, the local real estate community has developed Larimer’s Bakery Square and the proposed Bakery Square 2.0, as well as co-working space such as Revv Oakland, Beauty Shoppe and StartUptown. Companies located here include the University of Pittsburgh’s Roar Lab, UPMC’s Technology Development Center and Google’s new office.

Google’s growth in the city has helped put Pittsburgh in the top tier of regional technology sites. Over the summer, the company expanded into a 40,000-square-foot office in Larimer’s Bakery Square.

Google’s Pittsburgh site has focused on three areas of work: the Google Product Search, which presents items available for online purchase; work that determines which ads to display based on a search query; and search infrastructure, which handles the computer systems fueling every result page.

At Google’s Carnegie Mellon University (CMU) location, the company is a roommate with the Apple Pittsburgh office and the local Intel Research Lab, among others.

“Nearly five years ago, we announced that we would begin building an engineering presence in Pittsburgh, a city with a strong technology ecosystem, as well as an entrepreneurial spirit and great quality of life,” said Andrew Moore, Engineering Director, Google Pittsburgh. “Since then, we’ve grown from two engineers to more than 150, and we’re continuing our commitment to growth in the region as we’ve officially opened a new Google Pittsburgh office in an old Nabisco factory in Bakery Square. The Collaborative Innovation Center at Carnegie Mellon University had been our home since 2006, and our relationship with CMU remains invaluable to us.”

Other new tech expansions in the Pittsburgh region include:

• The Resumator: 8 new jobs; recently expanded to 8,000 SF to accommodate growth; develops Web 2.0 recruiting software; President Obama’s re-election website is using The Resumator to power hiring.
• M*Modal: 120 new jobs, CMU spinout focused on voice recognition technology, taking on two additional floors in current space  —27,000 square feet
• Vivisimo: 25 new jobs, IBM recently acquired the Squirrel-Hill based search technology company; Vivisimo also recently unrolled a mobile version of its customer service product.
• UPMC Technology Development Center (TDC): 16 new jobs, 31,000 SF expansion at Bakery Square with an option to expand to 48,000 SF; the TDC identifies, analyzes and develops new solutions to address health care’s greatest challenges and create the next generation of health care IT products.
• Carnegie Learning: 105 new jobs, additional space in the Frick Building; provides innovative, research-based math curricula for middle school, high school and post-secondary students; recently teamed up with NBC Learn, the educational arm of NBC News, to produce ‘Decision 2012: Election Math.’
• Tiversa: 25 new jobs, a cybersecurity company that recently expanded into a $2.6M, seven-story, 48,000-square-foot building in downtown Pittsburgh.
• Medallion Analytics Software: 11-16 new jobs, provides software that enables better communication across the loan origination process; closed on a $1.5M funding round.

Austin: A Tech Hotbed Grows in the Southwest
Austin, Texas has emerged in recent years as a new technology powerhouse, ranking No. 5 on a list of the nation’s leading high-tech metro areas by a national publication, the Atlantic Cities. The study’s ranking index combined a measure of the concentration of high-tech companies (based on the Milken Institute’s Tech-Pole Index) and two measures of regional innovation, patents per capita and average annual patent growth.

And it’s no surprise. The northern Texas city hosts the start-up fest South by Southwest every year and is home to computer giant Dell and top operators such as Apple, Facebook and Google. The city also has a lower cost of living and doing business than other technology centers on the coast and a growing base of engineering talent. Today, more than 3,800 technology companies and 91,000 technology employees call Austin home.

2011 was a record year for tech development in Austin, which saw the addition of 1,000 new tech establishments, 6,000 new tech jobs and 45 regional tech company expansions—the largest increase in over a decade. Regional investment announcements increased 13 percent as well, totaling over $1.1 billion.

Austin is becoming well known for its development of mobile Internet technology, the technology that is rapidly changing how people access the Internet and communicate with friends, bank and make purchases.

The city is home to year-old Chaotic Moon Studios, the team behind multiple groundbreaking mobile brands such as News Corps’s The Daily, The Discovery Channel, Groupon and Best Buy. With more than 60 patents in process, Chaotic Moon Labs incubates, develops, launches and monetizes internal hardware and software innovations as well as manages Chaotic Moon’s investments in other mobile companies.

Chaotic Moon Labs joins other mobile tech companies in Austin including Mutual Mobile, which has created a shopping app for Google, and Phunware, which developed an app for the Discovery Channel show “Mythbusters” as well as the popular Petfinder app.

Austin’s 30-year software and semiconductor industry has proven to be a strong foundation for some of the newer-generation companies. With early investments from corporations such as Motorola and AMD, in addition to the location of two national research consortia, MCC and SEMATECH, the semiconductor industry in Austin has evolved to include the entire value chain from R&D to materials and chips, hardware, software, systems and services.

Samsung’s semiconductor factory in Austin is well known—its investment in Austin represents the largest foreign investment in U.S. history. The facility is the largest fab in the U.S. and is the company’s only semiconductor plant outside of Korea. Samsung joins a host of semiconductor companies which are all headquartered or have significant operations in Austin including AMD, Applied Materials, Freescale, IBM, Intel and Tokyo Electron.

Samsung recently announced it will invest nearly $4 billion dollars to expand and renovate its manufacturing plant, creating 600 new permanent jobs and 3,000 construction jobs. Samsung’s total investment in Austin now exceeds $13 billion.

The remodeled facility is slated to start mass production during the second half of 2013, mainly producing 28-nm system-on-a-chip (SoC) solutions for tablets and smartphones.

According to Samsung, the renovations are needed to better meet the rapidly growing demands of its OEM customers for mobile chip technology.

“We are extremely pleased to extend our presence in Austin and reinforce Samsung’s capacity for highly advanced logic products,” said Woosung Han, president of Samsung Austin Semiconductor, in a press statement. “The added ability in production will allow our customers to better respond to market needs.”

Apple, Inc. also is moving ahead with a proposed plan to create a major operations center in Austin. The tech titan will be investing $304 million in the plan, which will involve hiring 3,600 workers over the next decade. Apple is in line to receive $21 million as part of the state’s business incentives program.

“Apple is known for its bold innovation and game-changing designs, and the expansion of their Austin facility adds to the growing list of visionary high-tech companies that have found that Texas’ economic climate is a perfect fit for their future, thanks to our low taxes, reasonable and predictable regulations, fair legal system and skilled workforce,” said Texas Gov. Rick Perry in a statement.

Greater Kansas City: Silicon Prairie
Greater Kansas City, which straddles the Kansas and Missouri state line, has all the pieces in place for the making of a vibrant technology and entrepreneur community. The region is home to tech giants Sprint Nextel Corp. and Cerner Corp., as well as a growing number of tech start-ups and entrepreneurs.

In 2011, the Wall Street Journal featured the Kansas City area as one of seven national up-and-coming growing innovation centers. Kansas City most notably stood out for its significant growth of tech companies. In 2009, Kansas City’s tech company population jumped by 5 percent to 2,900—a faster growth rate than established tech hubs such as Silicon Valley, Boston and Austin, the report said, citing a 2010 study by the TechAmerica Foundation

One of the most exciting initiatives to come out of Kansas City is the rollout of Google Fiber. In 2011, Google chose Kansas City over 1,100 others to set up its broadband Internet service; making Kansas City the first area where Google’s ultra-high speed service would be available.

“In selecting a city, our goal was to find a location where we could build efficiently, make an impact on the community and develop relationships with local government and community organizations,” said Milo Medin, Vice President, Access Services, in a Google blog. “We’ve found this in Kansas City. We’ll be working closely with local organizations including the Kauffman Foundation, KCnext and the University of Kansas Medical Center to help develop the gigabit applications of the future.

The new ultra high-speed fiber network, which will run 100 times faster than current broadband, will likely help bolster cloud-based technologies and pave the way for high-definition streaming services that will be hard to find elsewhere.

“Google Fiber is another lifestyle asset to draw talented engineers and developers to our region,” said Ryan Weber, President of KCnext, a non-profit industry advocacy group for technology in the region. “From an entrepreneurial standpoint, if you are a tech start-up you are going to have extremely high access for a very low cost and that will reduce your overhead significantly.”

Google Fiber will offer three options. These include a free broadband Internet option, a 1 Gbps Internet option for $70 a month and a version that includes television service for $120 per month. The Internet service includes 1 terabyte of Google Driver service.

According to Weber, Google Fiber is helping to bridge the digital divide that exists in America and in most communities.

“For families that have not been able to afford other options, it’s a real advantage to having an inexpensive connection so you can apply for jobs or take online courses,” said Weber. “That’s a huge asset for our region.”

Photo credit: Sportsaddicts.me

The Google Fiber project also has served as a catalyst to put attention on other exciting technology initiatives happening in the region. Besides IT, Kansas City also is cultivating its biotech industry.

Currently, there are 200 biotech companies located in the Kansas City area, employing more than 20,000. In recent years, Kansas City has developed specific areas of expertise within the broader industry, including animal health and pharmaceutical development and a growing research base. Biotech research spending has more than doubled in the region since the year 2000 and there are 12 new research facilities currently under construction. Public and private research spending now exceeds $1.8 billion.

In June 2012, the Kansas Bioscience Authority (KBA) launched BioResearch Central, a new collaborative network of more than 90 contract research organizations (CROs) and related service providers stretching from central Kansas through to central Missouri. This network represents one of the 15th largest concentrations of CROs in the U.S.

“We have about 90 CROs that employ about 9,000 people and derive over a billion in sales every year,” said Tom Krol, director of commercialization for the KBA. “We’re very hopeful that we can grow the biosciences here and the CROs are a part of that.”

A CRO is defined as a company that does contract work for a pharma, biotech or medical device company in human or animal health. A recent KBA-commissioned study by Tufts University found “tremendous breadth and depth of expertise” among the region’s CROs and related service providers, covering the range from discovery, formulation and toxicology to bioanalytics, clinical trials, regulatory services and commercial support.

In recent years, the 16 largest global pharmaceutical firms have all enlisted BioResearch Central companies for contract research services. In addition, BioResearch companies have contributed to the successful development of more than 60 pharma products.

The KBA has also launched the new Bioscience Park, a 100 acre park located in within the Kansas City Animal Health Corridor, home to one-third of total sales in the $19 billion global animal health market. A key component of the park is the KBAs Venture Accelerator wet lab incubator, which facilitates the growth of early-stage, high-potential bioscience companies.

The year-old Venture Accelerator is now home to Agrilytics, Epic Medical Concepts and Innovations, Expedite Animal Health, Novita Therapeutics and its two spinoff companies, Flow Forward and Metactive.

“The Bioscience Park is a prime location for bioscience companies to locate,” said Mr. Krol. “We have an incubator for start-up companies with offices and wet labs. The idea is that once the companies grow they can move out into their own facility within the bioscience park or alternatively we have land that can be gifted to companies that would like to locate here.”

In May 2012, Ceva Biomune announced it is moving to the Venture Accelerator for the next year as the company completes extensive renovations to its R&D facility in Lenexa. Ceva will be the ninth company in the KBA facility, which is 80 percent leased.

Other recent additions to the accelerator include Pasture USA, which develops medical countermeasures to biological accidents or attacks, disease outbreaks and pandemics, and Wound Care 360, which develops products for wound closure and care.

Albuquerque: High-Tech Haven
The Albuquerque metro is continuously recognized as a high tech haven by national publications such as Wired and Small Times magazines thanks to its variety of companies and technology savvy workforce available to new and expanding companies.

Albuquerque officials and representatives from Japan’s New Energy and Industrial Technology Development Organization cut ribbon on smart grid project.

With more than 310 days of sunshine a year and the highest elevation of any major city in the U.S., Albuquerque has built a thriving renewable energy cluster. A renewable energy study published by Ernst & Young in February 2012 ranked New Mexico No. 2 in renewable energy attractiveness, just behind California.

A rapidly developing cluster of solar technologies exist in the Albuquerque metro area including Unirac, Emcore, Array Technologies, Sacred Power and Fraunhofer CFV Solar Test Laboratory. In addition, the New Mexico Technology Corridor, stretching from Los Alamos National Laboratory northwest of Santa Fe to New Mexico State University just north of the Mexican border, contains an array of technology-based organizations involved in the research and development of alternative energy products.

In the past year, New Mexico’s solar companies received a substantial growth in utility- and commercial-scale projects. Unirac Inc, which makes mounting platforms for solar PV systems, projects an 80 percent jump in revenue in 2012.

Array Technologies, Inc., a maker of solar trackers, and Sacred Power Corp, which makes and installs fully assembled solar systems, also forecast double-digit expansion.

In July 2012, the Fraunhofer Center for Sustainable Energy Systems, an applied R&D development laboratory dedicated to the commercialization of clean energy technologies, opened a PV outdoor test field in Albuquerque.
The field is an extension of the center’s Albuquerque solar research annex, which launched in 2011. The Fraunhofer Center also co-owns the CFV Solar Test Laboratory at Mesa del Sol in Albuquerque, which opened in 2011.

“This facility reinforces our commitment to conducting cutting-edge solar research for our clients, and gives our experienced technical team the flexibility to accommodate a broad range of solar power performance testing products,” said Dr. Christian Hoepfner, scientific director at Fraunhofer CSE, in a news release.

The federal government recently unveiled a long-term plan for solar energy development in six Southwestern states, including New Mexico. The plan, announced July 2012, designates 17 solar energy zones totaling about 285,000 acres of public lands as priority areas for utility-scale solar development.

New Mexico’s only solar energy zone under the proposal is the Afton zone, which totals about 30,000 acres in the Las Crucs/Dona Ana County area.

In addition to solar technology, New Mexico has launched a Green Grid Initiative to develop a rapidly growing Smart Grid. In May 2012, Mesa del Sol, Albuquerque’s mixed-use, master planned community, unveiled its new Smart Grid system, the first of its kind in the nation.

The newly installed micro-grid used on-site solar, fuel cell, natural gas and back-up battery storage to power the 78,000 square-foot Aperture Center at Mesa del Sol.

Partnering with Mesa del Sol on the Smart Grid is Japan’s New Energy and Industrial Technology Development Organization (NEDO), PNM, Sandia National Laboratories, The University of New Mexico and nine Major Japanese companies including Shimizu Corporation. The system was unveiled today with VIPs and dignitaries on hand.

NEDO is investing $22 million in the smart grid. In addition to funding to construct the system, NEDO will monitor and test the system for the next two years. Once complete, the entire project will be turned over to the University of New Mexico’s Center for Emerging Energy Technologies for continued research and smart grid development.

“The new smart grid has a building management system that is automated and manages the electric supply and distribution between our on-site generation sources, energy storage and PNM’s power grid,” explained Manny Barerra, Mesa del Sol’s Director of Engineering in a statement.

With the global population to exceed 9 billion in 2050, of which 70 percent are estimated to live in an urban environment, the building of smart communities with reduced energy and water needs is essential for a sustainable society. Energy use is on the increase and the Smart Grid will help reduce reliance on fossil fuels and increase the use of more sustainable sources of energy such as renewables, while maximizing energy efficiency.

“The Smart Grid at the Aperture Center is another example of Mesa del Sol walking its talk,” said Mesa del Sol Vice President of Development Chris Anderson in a statement. ‘We have built this community to be sustainable at every level. It’s not an afterthought but a key facet of everything we do.”

Another Green Grid Initiative is the $1.5 billion Tres Amigas Superstation, which will link the nation’s three major electricity grids. In May 2012, the company picked Albuquerque as the location for its new headquarters, creating 75 to 100 high-paying jobs. The company is building a 15,000 to 20,000 square-foot “dual center” complex in Rio Rancho that will house a backup control room and training and simulation space, creating additional jobs.

New Mexico Governor Susana Martinez signed into law this year a specialized tax credit intended to help lure Tres Amigas to New Mexico. “I am excited that Tres Amigas has chosen to invest and locate in New Mexico, and I believe the work that was done to make New Mexico more competitive during last year’s session helped to make this announcement possible,” Gov. Martinez said in a statement.

The superstation will include a hub near Clovis to serve as the meeting point for high-voltage power line interconnections that serve the eastern and western halves of the U.S. and a separate grid that supplies Texas. The project is intended to allow electricity to flow more freely across the grids and break down barriers to ramping up alternative energy in the U.S.

Northeast Ohio: Shaking Off the Rust
A new technology cluster is forming in the Northeast—and it’s not on the coast. Cleveland, long recognized as “America’s Medical Capital,” is developing a robust medical and biotech industry, while Pittsburgh is becoming known for its strengths in developing new and innovative technologies. Together, this new tech cluster is helping to drive regional growth, create jobs and have long-term, positive economic impacts on the region.

The Northeast Ohio technology scene, which consists of Cleveland, Akron, Canton, and Youngstown, is being bolstered by a large biomedical presence. In the past five years alone, the biomedical industry has grown 37 percent. From 2004 to 2010, 189 new bio-related firms began operating in the Cleveland area.

The Cleveland area is now home to more than 700 biomedical facilities, 60 hospitals, 230,000 health care and bioscience workers, outstanding manufacturing capabilities, and a strong network of more than 25 colleges and universities.

Health care is the largest industry sector in Cleveland, making up 18 percent of its economy. In the last ten years, over $1 billion has been invested in over 110 health care start-up companies, 34 health care start-up companies have been acquired, creating economic growth and additional startups and 67 national venture investors have funded Cleveland’s health care companies.

In 2013, the city will unveil its own health care “Pentagon” to the international medical industry. Construction is under way on the Cleveland Medical Mart & Convention Center, which, once completed, will be a state-of-the-art healthcare industry education and training center, attracting the nation’s leading medical societies and association meetings to a facility located within close proximity to the nation’s leading healthcare providers. The Medical Mart will provide the industry’s leading manufacturers with a platform for showcasing medical innovation and technology in the heart of the nation’s medical capital.

The complex will include a 235,000-square-foot, four-story medical mart and an adjacent convention center with 230,000 square feet of Class A exhibition hall space. The $465 million project broke ground in January 2011. Completion is scheduled for August 2013 and the project is currently aiming for LEED Silver certification.

Cleveland also is home to a three-mile, 1600-acre Health-Tech Corridor (HTC), a prime location for biomedical, healthcare and technology companies looking to take advantage of close proximity to four world-class healthcare institutions including the Cleveland Clinic and University Hospitals, eight business incubators, four academic centers and more than 123 high-tech companies engaged in the business of innovation.

In September 2012, IceCure Medical Ltd., an Israeli medical device company, announced the expansion of its U.S. operations from private clinics to breast cancer institutes at large hospitals, after completing its first year of marketing activity in the U.S.

IceCure opened its U.S. headquarters on June 1, 2011 in Cleveland’s Global Cardiovascular Innovation Center (GCIC). IceCure Medical is leasing space in GCIC’s 50,000 sq. ft. facility adjacent to the Cleveland Clinic, which provides close proximity to clinical researchers and clinicians along with extensive facility and business support services.

“The unique infrastructure for growing biomedical companies, the support we received from many organizations and the progressive health care environment that includes world-class institutions such as the Cleveland Clinic and University Hospitals Case Medical Center, led us to choose Cleveland for our U.S. operations,” said Hezi Himelfarb, CEO of IceCure Medical.

In addition to locations in Detroit and Newport Beach, Calif., IceCure has installed its IceSense3 systems at the Cleveland Clinic in Cleveland and the St. Elizabeth Health Center in Youngstown. The installations will give more women access to the company’s cryoablation procedure for the removal of breast cancer tumors. The system replaces the need for surgical excision of the tumors.

The Cleveland Medical Mart will serve as a health care industry training facility and a convention center.

“The Health Tech Corridor builds on one of our region’s economic strengths and is an international destination for medical technology companies,” said Mayor Frank G. Jackson. “Cleveland’s ability to attract companies like IceCure and help them develop their business is essential for the growth and success of the area.”

In addition to IceCure, Cleveland has attracted Israeli medical tech companies MDG Medical, NI Medical and Simbionix. The Ohio Capital Fund and Bridge Investment Fund LP, which provided the companies with innovative technology set up operations, played a key role in attracting foreign companies to the region.

The University of Akron has created the FirstEnergy Advanced Energy Research Center to develop technology to generate efficient electric power with minimal carbon dioxide emissions. Specifically, the center will research and create ways to capture carbon dioxide, which then would be used at fossil-fueled power plants, and to develop coal-based fuel cells for commercial use.

Because of its well-known expertise in several engineering and manufacturing disciplines, including mechanical, corrosion and polymer engineering, as well as research, development and technology commercialization, The University of Akron also has been selected to be a key collaborator in the pilot program of a major national effort to revitalize the U.S. manufacturing industry. An announcement introducing this pilot effort was made  at M-7 Technologies in Youngstown.

The TechBelt Regional Additive Manufacturing Innovation Institute (AMII) is part of President Obama’s new National Network for Manufacturing Innovation (NNMI) program announced last March. The NNMI would be the catalyst for a network of up to 15 Institutes of Manufacturing Innovation around the country, each serving as a hub of manufacturing excellence that will help make U.S. manufacturing facilities and enterprises more competitive while encouraging investment in them as well. Additive manufacturing was deemed as the technical focus of the pilot institute.

Additive manufacturing, the science of manufacturing three-dimensional, functional objects, is a rapidly growing technology being used to create usable parts for industries such as aerospace, energy, medical and consumer products. A revolutionary suite of manufacturing technologies for building up parts, and potentially entire systems, AM creates these systems in a layer-by-layer fashion, placing material precisely as directed by a 3D digital file. It also is being touted for its cost savings and waste reduction.

Each Institute of Manufacturing Innovation (IMI) will be competitively selected. The proposal by UA and its partners in Ohio, Pennsylvania and West Virginia for the pilot institute stood out among a host of other industrial and academic partnership proposals.

UA’s strengths in various engineering disciplines—particularly the “multi-layering” of polymer films and multiple electronic printing technologies available in its National Polymer Innovation Center (NPIC), corrosion engineering and finishing the surfaces of materials—make it uniquely positioned to play a major role in the AMII.

UA’s part of the winning proposal was a collaborative effort between the College of Polymer Science and Polymer Engineering and the College of Engineering. Proposal and technical team members included Cakmak; Bryan Vogt, Ph.D., associate professor of polymer engineering; Jae-Won Choi, Ph.D., assistant professor of mechanical engineering; David Simmons, Ph.D., assistant professor of polymer engineering; and Ajay Mahajan, Ph.D., associate dean for research in the College of Engineering.

Tucson is the Sun King
One of the fastest-growing regions in the Southwest, Tucson’s technology assets includes a renowned bioscience global hub and an internationally-recognized location for solar energy activities.

Tucson has been identified as one of thirteen Solar America Cities by the U.S. Department of Energy, and several large scale initiatives are underway, including a new project to build a 14.5-megawatt photovoltaic (PV) solar array, the Air Force’s largest in terms of generating capacity, at Davis-Monthan (D-M) Air Force Base. D-M  already is home to the largest residential PV installations in the nation, 6 megawatts worth of solar at D-M’s Soaring Heights Communities base housing complex.

Construction on the D-M project, initially announced in September 2010, will begin soon with completion planned for no later than December 2012, the Air Force said. The base has entered into an agreement with California-based solar developer SunEdison LLC to design, finance, build, operate and maintain the array on 170 acres of underutilized base property.

The $38.4 million power purchase agreement provides electricity to D-M at a reduced rate for a period of 25 years, saving the base from $400,000 to $500,000 a year in utility costs, the Air Force said. The project will provide 35 percent of the energy needed to power the base.

The post FEATURE STORY: High-Tech Hubs Are Moving To Their Markets appeared first on Business Facilities.

Many governors reserve their attention for the largest projects that come to their states. But we often get releases from Kentucky in which Gov. Steve Beshear hails smaller job-producing initiatives. When we sat down with Gov. Beshear for this Governor’s Report, we asked him why he feels it’s important that every step forward, big or small, gets its share of the state spotlight during tough economic times.

Gov. Steve Beshear (Photo Credit: Office of the Governor)

“Since coming into office, my number one priority has been on the retention and creation of jobs,” he said. “Despite strenuous economic times, Kentucky has found ways to work with companies, big and small, to make investments for the future. Job by job and company by company, we’re turning Kentucky’s economy around, and I feel strongly that every job, every investment is worth celebrating.”

Gov. Beshear recently presided over the opening of the Kentucky-Argonne Battery Manufacturing R&D Center, which already has drawn at least one key player in advanced lithium storage materials to Lexington. Beshear is confident a full supplier network will develop in Kentucky to support the emerging advanced battery industry.

“As the lab’s reputation grows, so will its funding from federal grants and from research contracts with companies locating here to use this open access facility,” he said. “This builds a critical mass of research-based companies, which in turn will attract a network of suppliers. We’re already starting to see this happen with firms like nGimat, which moved part of its operations from Atlanta to Lexington in order to access the Kentucky-Argonne facility. We’re excited by this early success and are confident others will follow, especially as studies show that for every dollar invested in public research, there is up to four dollars invested by the private sector into industrial research and development.”

Kentucky plans to leverage biomass and biofuel resources as well.

“One of the goals in Kentucky’s  energy plan is to produce 12 percent of our motor fuels from biofuels by 2025. I still think that’s very achievable and we already have ethanol and biodiesel plants operating in the Commonwealth. The real potential for Kentucky lies in the more than 500,000 acres of farmland that can be converted to growing biofuels feedstocks, such as switchgrass, without impacting our food crops. This resource alone could provide more than 360 million gallons of ethanol per year,” Beshear said.

Gov. Beshear recently returned from another successful trade mission to Japan. Japanese-owned companies operate more than 156 facilities in Kentucky and the state has the second-highest Japanese foreign direct investment on a per capita basis. We asked the governor what has made Kentucky so attractive to Japanese investments.

“Japanese companies are drawn to Kentucky for a variety of reasons, including an extensive existing network of Japanese companies and the presence of multiple Japanese Saturday schools,” he said. “Because of our history with the Japanese business community, we also share a lot of personal connections and have built strong relationships over the years, which have cultivated a level of trust and confidence among companies to do business in Kentucky.”

Amazon has had a huge presence in the state for years, with several distribution/fulfillment centers and now a new customer service center. Beshear credited Kentucky’s geographic advantage as a decisive factor in the fierce competition among states for Amazon facilities.

“Kentucky is blessed with a great geographic location. Companies operating in our state can access over two-thirds of the U.S. market within a day. Logistically, this creates significant advantages in getting a product or service to market.  We are also home to the largest UPS Worldport Hub in North America and DHL’s U.S. hub, offering next-day service to the world,” the governor said.

Kentucky’s governor favors performance-based incentives like those available in the Kentucky Business Investment Program.

“All three forms of assistance [in the program] require companies to perform and each has its advantages,” he explained. “The difference is the timing of when the incentive is received.  Performance-based incentives require companies to perform prior to receiving an incentive. Companies must create jobs before claiming the wage assessment and be profitable before claiming a corporate income tax credit. Providing incentives after achieving a performance measure usually requires less time and resources than providing an up-front incentive.”

Ford’s assembly plant in Louisville.

Kentucky earned our 2011 Deal of the Year Gold Award for the new partnership with Ford, which will invest more than $1 billion in its Louisville plants and extend a relationship that stretches back nearly a century. Beshear outlined the critical factors that convinced Ford to double-down on its commitment to the state.

“We knew it would take a significant investment for Ford to retool.  As a result, we created new incentives allowing us to partner with Ford and reduce that burden so that more money could go into hiring employees, updating machinery, and ultimately improving their facilities,” he said. “Once their state-of-the-art manufacturing improvements were complete, we knew they would need a workforce capable of operating in an advanced manufacturing environment. Therefore, we committed $10 million to help Ford create that workforce. This type of commitment illustrated to Ford that Kentucky was in this partnership for the long haul.”

Gov. Beshear is confident the resurgence of manufacturing will continue to be a driver of the nation’s economic recovery, and Kentucky will help lead the charge.

“I am very confident that the resurgence of manufacturing in the U.S. will lead the economic recovery momentum, especially in the area of advanced manufacturing,” he said. “Kentucky has deep manufacturing roots, and it’s because of our strength in manufacturing, especially in the automotive industry, that our percentage employment increase rose faster than any other state in the eastern U.S. last year and was 7th highest overall.”

Gov. Beshear noted the irony of the manufacturing revival, especially in the wake of years of pronouncements by experts that manufacturing in the U.S. was “dead.”

“I’m just glad Kentucky didn’t drink the Kool-Aid,” the governor said with a smile.

The post FEATURE STORY: Building A Jobs Bonanza In The Bluegrass State appeared first on Business Facilities.

According to a recent report, 10 million manufacturing jobs are unfilled worldwide due to a shortage of skilled workers. The report, issued by World Economic Forum and Deloitte Touche Tohmatsu in April 2012, says that economic growth and success rests with a skilled workforce.

“In the race to future prosperity, nothing will matter more than talent,” said Craig Giffi, co-author of the report. “The skills gap that exists today will not likely close in the near future, which means companies and countries that can attract, develop and retain the highest skilled talent—from scientists, researchers and engineers to technicians and skilled production workers—will come out on top.”

The lack of skilled workers is nothing new. In the U.S., about 600,000 jobs in manufacturing remain unfilled, a situation that is expected to get worse in the next three to five years as older workers retire. Worker shortages are found in skilled trades such as heavy equipment mechanics, construction, truck drivers, healthcare, and certain jobs in the IT sector to name a few.

To overcome talent shortages in the U.S., many states have launched workforce training programs that are helping workers develop the most relevant 21st century skill sets. Currently, at least 20 states offer some kind of training support. In this feature, Business Facilities has uncovered eight states that are planting the workforce seed for success—with oft emulated programs that are creating a seamless path between high school, post secondary and the workforce and helping states compete globally, create jobs, and achieve economic growth.

AIDT Builds Skilled Labor in AL
Alabama’s AIDT (Alabama Industrial Development Training) is a major force for workforce training in the state. For more than 40 years, AIDT’s “Total Workforce Delivery System” has provided thousands of skilled, motivated employees to AL industries.

AIDT offers comprehensive pre-employment selection and training, post/on-the-job training, maintenance assessments, industrial safety assessments and training, leadership development, and process improvement assessments—all specific to a company’s needs. AIDT’s workforce selection and training processes have achieved the world’s first ISO 9001:2008 certification for a state-funded workforce training program.

Technology changes constantly, evolving at an exponential rate, so AIDT has developed a new project to help train workers to keep up with high tech advancement. Called the Alabama Robotic Technology Park (RTP), the project is helping to move Alabama to the forefront of education, training and technology.

The first phase of the project, which was recently completed, consists of the Robotic Maintenance Training Center, a state-of-the-art facility where technicians will be trained to work on robotic machinery. The 52,000 square foot facility is staffed by trainers supplied by top robot builders and is home to several major robotics and automation brands.

“One of our struggles has been keeping up with the demand for multi-craft industrial maintenance techs and welders,” said Jacqueline Allen, AIDT’s Public Information Officer. “We have addressed this issue with the creation of Phase 1 of the Alabama Robotics Technology Park in North Alabama (Tanner) and the Maritime Training Center in South Alabama (Mobile).”

The RTP is a three-phase campus approach to training workers, developing technologies and integrating those technologies and workers into companies. It is a collaboration between the state of Alabama, Calhoun Community College, AIDT, and robotics industry leaders across the nation. When completed, the RTP will consist of three individual training facilities each targeted to a specific industry need. The three buildings will have an investment of approximately $73 million, including robotics equipment.

In Phase 2, the Advanced Technology Research and Development Center will feature a test facility for companies currently in the robotics manufacturing industry. The 30,000 square foot facility will be used by NASA and the U.S. Army Missile Command for the purpose of research, development and testing of leading edge robotics used for military projects and space exploration.  The structure will have appropriate infrastructure to support these activities with substantial outdoor areas for testing in a variety of environments.

In Phase 3, the Integration and Entrepreneurial Center will be a collaborative consolidation of technology involving higher education and industry.  This facility will allow companies to build and adapt robots for new industries. Start-up plants will be able to set up manufacturing lines to integrate software and equipment, test systems and train maintenance and production staff.

Alabama’s aerospace workforce is soaring after a recent announcement by leading aircraft manufacturer Airbus. In July, the company announced it will open its first U.S.-based production facility at the Brookley Aeroplex in Mobile, Alabama, creating as many as 1,000 new high-skilled jobs. Airbus is the largest export customer for the U.S. aerospace industry. Since 1990, the company has spent $127 billion with U.S. suppliers—$12 billion last year alone.

“The time is right for Airbus to expand in America,” said Fabrice Brégier, Airbus President & CEO at the announcement in Mobile. “The U.S. is the largest single-aisle aircraft market in the world—with a projected need for 4,600 aircraft over the next 20 years—and this assembly line brings us closer to our customers. Mobile is now becoming part of Airbus’ global production network, joining our successful and growing assembly lines in Hamburg, Toulouse and Tianjin.

Mobile has long been a hub for world class shipbuilding and it will now become one of just a few communities in the world capable of manufacturing high-tech, large commercial aircraft. Airbus workers in Mobile will assemble both Airbus’ existing A320 jet family as well as the A320 new engine option, or A320neo, jets.

“This project will create 1,000 stable, well-paying jobs that the people of this area need and deserve,” said Alabama Governor Robert Bentley. “Alabama has the best workforce you’ll find anywhere in the U.S.”
According to a recent news article in Mobile’s Press-Register newspaper, the training of workers will be primarily handled by an existing aircraft manufacturing and electronics training center at the Brookley Aeroplex. The training programs would be a partnership program with AIDT and Brookley’s Alabama Aviation.

Growing a High-Tech Workforce in Florida
Creating and sustaining jobs and workforce development is the central focus of Gov. Rick Scott’s economic growth strategy, including prioritizing STEM (science, technology, engineering and math) to focus Florida’s K-12 and higher education systems on producing graduates that can support a growing high-tech workforce.

Florida’s workforce and training programs consistently receive high accolades. According to the National Chamber Foundation, Florida ranks in the top eight in four of the six workforce and training measures. It ranks first in higher education efficiency and share of high school seniors taking advanced placement exams. The state ranks fourth for the efficiency of its workforce placement system and eighth in college affordability. In addition, Florida was ranked number two for workforce in a CNBC special report, “America’s Top States for Business 2011.”

Florida’s Quick Response Training and Incumbent Worker Training programs have a strong track record for helping businesses maintain a competitive talent pool. Administered by Workforce Florida, the statewide workforce investment board, both programs are nationally recognized and structured to be flexible to meet a business’s training objectives. In addition, the programs reimburse employers for a portion of their training costs.

Florida’s Quick Response Training (QRT) grants provide funding for customized training to new or expanding businesses. Through this customer-driven program, Florida is able to effectively retain and attract businesses creating new high-quality jobs. The grants are structured to be flexible and “respond quickly” to meet the business’s training objectives. As of June 2009, QRT grants have provided nearly $73 million in funds for customized training for almost 82,000 employees for just under 320 businesses and industries throughout Florida.

Florida’s Incumbent Worker Training (IWT) grants provide funding for customized training to existing for-profit businesses. Through this grant, Florida is able to effectively retain businesses and help them stay competitive by supporting skills-upgrade training for existing full-time employees. IWT grants are structured to be flexible to meet the business’s training objectives. The business may use a public or private training provider, or may use an in-house training provider based on the nature of the training. Since its inception, IWT grants have helped provide customized training to more than 98,000 Floridians at more than 1,000 businesses throughout Florida.

Nearly $1 million in QRT grants have been set aside to train approximately 1,000 new and existing workers at seaport businesses as well as manufacturing, logistics and related companies aimed at retaining jobs and expanding international trade and exports in Florida. Another $600,000 in QRT grants will provide training for 600 people who work for air cargo-related businesses, again with an eye toward boosting productivity and competitiveness for Florida companies to increase the state’s export volume. In addition, Workforce Florida is investing up to $600,000 to help create new career academies to develop pipeline talent for international trade jobs and forge stronger partnerships between local workforce investment boards and Florida’s deepwater seaports. Up to 15 career academies are being created in high schools throughout that state focused on international trade and logistics and advanced manufacturing for international trade opportunities.

GA Guarantees a Quick Start
Georgia’s Quick Start training program, which is ranked among the top workforce training programs in the country, is one of the main reasons that many companies choose to set up shop in Georgia, Caterpillar, Baxter International, Outdoor Network LLC, NCR, Kia Motors, and ZF Industries have all identified the program as a key reason for picking Georgia over other states.

Quick Start was a deciding factor in Caterpillar’s decision to locate its new manufacturing plant in Georgia

Quick Start provides intensive, specified training to give companies the skilled employees they need to open quickly and run efficiently. These services come at no cost to qualified new companies or those adding new jobs or technology. The basic rule is that manufacturers can receive Quick Start benefits if they create at least 15 jobs over a 12-month period.

Created in 1967, Quick Start is the nation’s oldest state job training program. It has trained about 976,000 employees through more than 6,200 projects. During the 2011 fiscal year, Quick Start provided 168 customized projects, creating or saving 13,366 jobs.

Quick Start is a division of the Technical College System of Georgia, and some of the program’s training is held at technical colleges throughout the state. Once the program’s training is complete, companies can contract with the local technical college for ongoing support.

Quick Start was the deciding factor for Caterpillar Inc. moving its plant out of Japan and locating in Georgia. Georgia was behind several other states when it was making its decision to move to the U.S., but Quick Start help catapult Georgia to the top of the list. Caterpillar is the world’s leading manufacturer of construction and mining equipment, diesel and natural gas engines, industrial gas turbines and diesel-electric locomotives.

In February 2012, the company announced it is locating a new manufacturing facility in Georgia’s Clarke and Oconee counties. The new facility will be part of Caterpillar’s Building Construction Products Division (BCP). When fully operational, the new facility will have about 1,400 employees and a total investment in Georgia of $200 million.

Working through Athens Technical College, Quick Start will train Georgia workers in the full spectrum of Caterpillar’s needs—including those working in the office and production employees.

Quick Start has helped launched dozens of successful projects in the state. In March, National Cash Register (NCR) Corporation, a leading provider of ATMs, opened a second Columbus, GA, facility. More than 300 jobs are being created at the 100,000 square-foot facility, where employees will manufacture self-service point of sale terminals for retail and hospitality applications. NCR says that part of its success in Georgia is due to Quick Start, which has tailor-made a curriculum to train workers specifically for the new NCR plant.

“They’re training our people before they even hit the factory floor,” Rick Marquardt, senior vice president for global operations, said in the article. “It’s been a great asset to us. I give those people a lot of free advertising because I believe it’s one of the best in the country.”

In April, Baxter International, Inc., a global, diversified healthcare company that produces medical devices and pharmaceuticals and biotech products, announced they are locating a new bio-pharmaceutical manufacturing facility east of Atlanta as well as plasma centers throughout Georgia that will employ approximately 1,500 people across the state with potential for hundreds more. Total investment by the company will exceed $1 billion.

To assist the company with its workforce requirements, Quick Start will build and operate a state-of-the-art biotech training center that will not only provide Baxter with a fully-customized training program that meets the company’s start-up needs, but also builds capacity and curricula within the Technical College System of Georgia for maintaining a long-term pipeline of highly skilled employees who are well-trained in bio-manufacturing operations.

In June, Outdoor Network LLC, the parent company behind an extensive network of outdoor, powersports and marine-related sites, moved its primary business units for Outdoor Network distribution and Powersports Plus to Albany, Georgia, creating 112 jobs at a new order-fulfillment center and investing $3.2 million.

Outdoor Network already operates a retail operation in Albany, known as Powersports Plus, where it sells motorcycles, all terrain vehicles, parts and provides maintenance for these. Work force training for Outdoor Network will be provided by Quick Start through Albany Technical College.

“Quick Start brought to us a level of expertise that we did not have…in warehouse management and call center operations,” said Tom D’Azevedo, Owner of Outdoor Network LLC. “They have enabled us to go to the next level. That was a very, very instrumental part in our decision to move here.”

Louisiana Sets the Standard
Lousiana’s FastStart has been Business Facilities’ top-ranked workforce development programs in the nation for the past two years. The program, which is run by Louisiana Economic Development (LED), was launched in 2008 to help attract and develop workers for new projects.

One of its first successes was helping convince Gardner Denver Inc. to not close its Thomas Products Division plant in Louisiana, but rather to expand it by moving production from Wisconsin. LED FastStart became the key factor in convincing Gardner Denver to keep its Louisiana plant open, retaining 70 jobs and adding 200 new positions.

As part of a strategic incentive package, FastStart hosted job fairs and open houses in Monroe to build interest in the new jobs, and the FastStart team traveled to Wisconsin, where they performed key business analysis—defining behavior and competency requirements for the new jobs—and documented essential steps needed for a seamless transition from Wisconsin to Louisiana.

“FastStart gave the leadership team the assurance that they would be there, they would help us through the process,” said Rick Swoboda, Director of Manufacturing.

Just months after launching the Gardner Denver project, FastStart not only helped the company complete a successful transition to Louisiana, the project paid tangible financial dividends.

“The outstanding training support provided by the State of Louisiana … has been integral to the success of the project,” Gardner Denver CEO Barry Pennypacker said, telling Wall Street analysts in a third quarter 2009 conference call that the Louisiana project contributed significantly to an increase in the company’s profit margin.

To date, FastStart has completed nearly 70 major projects for expanding companies in Louisiana. The projects touch a variety of sectors, from agribusiness to digital media software development and corporate headquarters expansions. Often, the program becomes the key reason why companies choose to expand or relocate in Louisiana rather than another state or nation.

FastStart pursues projects in various industry sectors, everything from digital media companies to enterprise zone software to aviation training and corporate headquarters relocations. According to Secretary of Louisiana Economic Development Stephen Moret, FastStart sets itself apart from other workforce training programs in several critical areas. Expanding companies in Louisiana are eligible to receive LED FastStart assistance at no cost, if they meeting the following requirements:

• Alignment with Louisiana’s economic development targets, including:
• Digital media
• Headquarters and business operations
• Service industries
• Advanced and traditional manufacturing
• Warehouse and distribution
• Research and development.
• Company commitment to create a net of at least 15 new permanent manufacturing jobs;
• Or a net of at least 50 new permanent service-related jobs.
• Each request is evaluated prior to project commencement to ensure all eligibility requirements are met.

A perfect example of FastStart’s success is none other than EA Sports, one of the leading sports entertainment brands in the world. When EA Sports partnered with LED FastStart in 2008, the interactive entertainment company sought new methods for training video game testers inside its new North American Test Center in Baton Rouge.

Through close collaboration, FastStart took EA’s traditional form of training to the next level. Understanding that potential game testers are both young and accustomed to the visual intensity and the fast action of electronic games, FastStart incorporated game play into the training.

Utilizing recognized EA game platforms, the computer-based modules developed by FastStart introduce the important instructional points as part of the “game” that the tester is “playing.” Taking full advantage of visuals, voice-over, audio cues and text, FastStart created effective training material that feels much more like “play” than “study.”

So successful were FastStart’s training modules and procedures developed for the Louisiana project, that EA incorporated them into their training operations worldwide.

“We were wowed,” said Sarah Chavez, Global Training Manager at EA. “This is totally different than anything I’ve ever seen. This is totally engaging and fascinating. We like that kind of stuff, we like the high-tech experiences that we can get both in game and now with training. FastStart has been able to provide that.”

FastStart is also supporting a new GE Capital technology center in New Orleans. GE Capital, one of the world’s largest providers of credit, announced the project in February 2012. It will create 300 new direct jobs in IT and software development.

FastStart is providing GE Capital with significant recruitment processes to attract the right talent for the company’s very specific needs. FastStart is also deploying various tools that attract and speak to the culture of New Orleans, in an effort to convince the right talent to relocate and call New Orleans home. Additionally, FastStart has a unique program that provides destination services and relocation assistance to executives and key employees who are relocating from outside the state.

In another high tech project, FastStart has partnered with Pixomondo, an international visual effects company with a global network of studios, to open a new Baton Rouge studio in June. FastStart created a digital media training studio, complete with the necessary hardware and appropriate software to train digital compositors and rotoscope artists, all at no cost to the company. The training is both comprehensive and tailored and ties back directly to Pixomondo’s specific workflow, as well as the company’s unique culture.

One of LED’s most recent projects involves creating a pipeline of manufacturing-ready workers to meet the anticipated demand for automotive and aircraft manufacturing jobs expected in the state. LED’s FastStart worker training program, which helps attract and develop workers for new projects, is working with the Louisiana Community and Technical College System to launch C4M, or “Certified for Manufacturing.” The pipeline stage of the program was just completed and is unique due to the fact that there are no textbooks—the entire curriculum is delivered via iBooks, streaming videos and hands-on simulation in conjunction with Louisiana’s two-year schools and high schools.

LED’s long-term plans are to develop a similar program for digital media, one of the fastest growing sectors of the Louisiana economy.

Here are some additional Louisiana FastStart statistics: Total projects: 67; total hours trained: 140,480; total number of unduplicated trainees: 13,500; total number of trainees: 36,150.

NH Picks Up Training Cost
New Hampshire currently offers several workforce training programs that address both individual needs and employer needs. For individuals, it offers Individual Training Accounts, On the Job Training, and the Return to Work program, which allows prospective workers to “try out” a company while still receiving unemployment benefits. It also offers employers the Job Training Fund, which provides a 1:1 match for training costs for employee.

New Hampshire employers needing new hires can utilize a program that reimburses up to 90% of a new employee’s training wages. The On-the-Job training program is one of several offered through the Office of Workforce Opportunity and can be combined with other reimbursable job training funds designed to encourage employers to hire both trainable and skilled workers.

“While New Hampshire’s unemployment rate is well below the national average, there are still many skilled workers looking for full-time employment,” said Jackie Heuser, Director of the Office of Workforce Opportunity.

The On-the-Job training opportunity provides employers with a great incentive to hire workers who are eager, trainable and available to re-enter the workforce. The training wage reimbursement applies to new hires that have been unemployed 18 weeks or longer.

The average duration of unemployment for a New Hampshire worker is currently over 16 weeks, so we know there are many highly skilled people without work through no fault of their own,” said Heuser.

The On-the-Job program provides an incentive to hire such men and women who only need some training to fit the particular job requirements. For a business with 50 or fewer employees, a 90 percent training wage reimbursement is available. For business with 51 to up to 250 workers, a training of up to 75 percent is available by utilizing the On-the-Job training program.

A key component of the program is that employers are provided a list of qualified candidates, and the employer interviews and makes the selection.

“This is a classic ‘win-win’ situation, where a New Hampshire business owner can be reimbursed while training a new employee they select for their growing company,” said Heuser. “In addition, the unemployed worker now has a job, pays taxes, and returns to the skilled workforce New Hampshire needs to compete.”

The state’s “Return to Work” program can also be used first to test possible employees skills (while the trainee collects unemployment benefits); then entered into the On The Job reimbursable training wage program; and continued employee training with New Hampshire’s very successful Job Training Fund.
The Job Training Fund grant is a great opportunity for businesses to offer skills enhancement training for their employees without bearing the full cost of the training.

This matching grant program is eligible only to private businesses located in New Hampshire and businesses intending to locate in the state and to those who pay quarterly taxes into the NH Unemployment Trust Fund. Businesses that make voluntary (reimbursable) contributions are not eligible. In addition, local, county and state political subdivisions are not eligible for the program.

Employer-based training programs provide an opportunity for the business to choose the type of training needed – not only to increase the skills of workers, but ultimately to increase the company’s production.
Although New Hampshire has been successful with workforce development it has had a few hurdles to overcome—however its successes far outweigh any challenges.

“Funding is the largest challenge, with shrinking federal dollars being allocated to States, and state-level funding minimized or eliminated,” said Michael Power of New Hampshire’s Office of Workforce Opportunity. “However, New Hampshire is a small state, which enables us to collaborate among state and local agencies to a better extent than larger, more populated areas of the country.”

For example, New Hampshire’s federally-mandated statewide workforce board is the state’s only workforce board, whereas other states have multiple levels of jurisdiction, including regional workforce boards and local workforce boards.

New Hampshire has also seen success through the Workforce Investment Act (WIA), the federal law for workforce development programs funded by the U.S. Department of Labor’s Employment & Training Administration. “Our successes include placement rates for those going through our NH Works Career Center programs, including training programs funded by WIA for eligible (economically disadvantaged or dislocated) workers,” said  Power.

PA: Ahead of the Curve
Pennsylvania has been at the leading edge of a U.S. movement to build a workforce system that is responsive and can meet the skill needs of employers, expand opportunity and security for workers and boost the competitive position of the commonwealth. Employment and training programs in Pennsylvania focus on new and innovative ways to encourage facilitation between economic development leaders, companies, educational and training communities, and workers to make them as effective as possible.

Two particular programs are major successes within the commonwealth. The Incumbent Worker Training program provides assistance to employers to help with certain expenses associated with new or upgraded skills training of full-time, permanent company employees to avert layoffs, reduce turnover, and become more competitive. The program benefits businesses and industry by assisting in the skill development of existing employees (incumbent workers) and increasing employee productivity, and the growth of the company.

The Industry Partnership (IP) program is a multi-employer collaborative effort that brings together management and labor around the common purpose of improving the competitiveness of a cluster of companies or organizations producing similar products or services and sharing similar supply chains, critical human resource needs, infrastructure requirements, business services, and/or retention/recruitment challenges.

The program concentrates attention and resources on high growth, successful clusters and/or those which face serious challenges to growth or retention. The program is a success because it brings together employers and their workers, allowing the public sector to learn significantly and qualitatively more about the opportunities and challenges facing a set of similar companies.

According to the Pennsylvania Bureau of Workforce Development Partnership, the annual wage and retention record for Pennsylvania shows that IP training participants’ wages start out, on average, 11 percent higher than individuals that do not engage in training when they switch careers within a targeted industry cluster. The wage and retention record also indicates that individuals that engage in incumbent worker training have an 11 percent higher retention rate within their industry than those individuals that do not participate in training.

In spite of a funding cut of more than $11.7 million (nearly 60 percent) from 2008 to 2009, the drop off in the number of workers trained was only 26 percent and the numbers of partnerships remained relatively even. This demonstrates the ability of the partnerships to adjust and adapt using local resources and relationships to stretch their limited dollars further.

Since 2005, the cost of training per participant has decreased by 82.8 percent. This is evidence of the strategic benefits of consortia-based training and the partnerships’ ability to identify cost-effective training providers as well as work together to negotiate high-quality, low-cost training programs that benefit a collective group of employers in the partnership. The cost per training program has decreased by 84.5 percent overall.

Pennsylvania has several job training programs to ensure that its workforce maintains its skills:

• Customized Job Training—The third largest program in the nation, the Customized Job Training program responds to employer needs by providing grant funds for specialized job training for existing or newly hired employees.
• Guaranteed Free Training Program—Through the Workforce and Economic Development Network of Pennsylvania (WEDnetPA), employees of qualified companies can receive free job training for basic entry-level skills and advanced information technology skills.
• Workforce Investment Act of 1998—A federal program that provides job training to eligible individuals for private and public sector employers.

Champions Emerge in Wheeling
In northwest suburban Chicago a vibrant manufacturing base exists. However, an aging workforce and worker shortage has created a major hurdle for area companies to overcome as they try to fill empty positions on the factory floor. Local economic development officials and leaders say that image and perception are key factors in the crisis. They say that because students aren’t aware of the key opportunities that lie in manufacturing most aren’t pursuing it as a career path.

Currently, the state has 80,000 manufacturing jobs that need to be filled—jobs that are, according to Terry M. Iverson of Iverson & Company, filled with “extreme technology, advanced innovations and exhilarating and good paying careers available for the next generation.”

To help change the public perception of manufacturing, Mr. Iverson created a new program called Champion Now, which is helping prepare young workers for a 21st century economy.
“Together, with the power of the industry supporting us, we will reach the next generation with exciting educational films that demonstrate how manufacturing is the foundation of our North American economy and offers exhilarating career choices,” says Mr. Iverson.

The Champion Now program, an acronym that stands for “Change How American Manufacturing is Perceived In Our Nation,” has created the Edge Factor Show, a High Definition film series that features real life manufacturing stories and shows the manufactures as the heroes. Edge Factor also includes a design contest with a reality show twist. Students submit designs and watch as their design idea transforms into a 3D model on our Reality Redesigned series. For more information on this program, visit www.championnow.org.

The post FEATURE STORY: Nothing Matters More Than Talent appeared first on Business Facilities.

By Business Facilities Staff

In every project we cover on the pages of Business Facilities, there usually is tucked away in the middle of the article a reference to the role played by local or regional utility in nailing down the deal.

But we have always known that there are a select group of utilities that have made economic development a central part of their mission. This year, we have decided to give these standouts their own showcase.

We conducted a comprehensive survey of more than two dozen leading utilities. We requested that the finalists for our new Top Utilities designation send us a submission outlining the utility’s economic development program and resources. We asked them to highlight cooperative efforts between business, government and utilities that have had a regional impact on development and job creation; specific projects in which the utility played a key role in bringing the project to fruition and securing a new facility, relocation or expansion; and information regarding initiatives undertaken to develop alternative energy resources. The finalists were encouraged to submit a brief narrative, along with charts listing top projects and case histories.

After reviewing these submissions, we realized that we had two categories of contenders. Therefore, we are pleased to name two Regional Powerhouses (Tennessee Valley Authority and Entergy) along with our six selections as the Top Utilities for 2012. Without further ado, here are the designees who earned our spotlight.

TVA: Giant Among Giants

The Tennessee Valley Authority (TVA) is the nation’s largest public power provider, generating electricity that serves nine million people through local distribution utilities. Economic development is a core mission of TVA. TVA Economic Development partners with regional agencies, state governments, local power distributors, directly served customers and communities within its seven-state service region to promote economic development. TVA provides technical services, financial assistance and other incentives to help companies bring their operations to the region and succeed.

In fiscal 2011, 43,000 jobs were added or retained as a result of these efforts and total investment was $4.9 billion. TVA support has contributed to more than 300,000 new or retained jobs and $32 billion in business investment since 2005.

TVA’s Megasites program is a multi-year economic development effort designed to make it easier for large industries to find an optimal location that is ready for use. A third-party consultant (McCallum Sweeney Consulting) has identified locations that offer large developable acreage, have access to utilities, are close to interstate highways and railways, and can supply a plentiful labor force. Megasites help companies save time and money and reduce their risks in locating in the region.

Volkswagen opened a 2,000-employee, $1 billion Passat factory on a Megasite in Chattanooga, TN, in May 2011 and by September saw the 10,000th car roll off its assembly line. Employment at the VW plant by the end of this year is projected to be 3,500. Toyota, which in 2007 selected a Megasite near Tupelo, MS, for a plant to build Corollas, celebrated the first car off its production line in November 2011. Toyota and its suppliers are providing more than 2,500 jobs.

Tennessee Valley Authority 2011 Projects

The Valley Investment Initiative (VII) is another economic development partnership jointly offered by TVA and participating distributors of TVA power. VII offers financial incentives to qualifying customers who contribute to economic growth in the region and also complement TVA’s power system resources. VII contracts executed in 2011 captured more than 31,000 created and retained jobs and $2.9 billion in capital investment.

TVA reaches out to its partners in local communities to increase their economic competitiveness by providing training to community leaders, helping rural communities market themselves more effectively, and linking communities with retail business opportunities through the Retail Development Program. During fiscal 2011, the Community Development staff conducted a total of 107 training and development workshops in the TVA region.

The Regional TaP (Targeted and Prepared) Community Program helps communities find ways to assist existing businesses and recruit new jobs in targeted industries. TVA retained Boyette Strategic Advisors to study regional strengths and target industries for the nine-county West Tennessee area.

In 2011, more than 40 percent of TVA’s energy came from clean or carbon-free sources, including nuclear, hydro and renewable power.

Entergy Energizes Four States

Entergy Corp. is an integrated energy company engaged primarily in electric power production and retail distribution operations. Entergy owns and operates power plants with about 30,000 megawatts of electric generation capacity, and it is the second largest nuclear generator in the U. S. Entergy delivers electricity to 2.8 million utility customers in major portions of Arkansas, Louisiana, Mississippi and Texas. Entergy has annual revenues of more than $11 billion and approximately 15,000 employees.

Through its operating subsidiaries, Entergy Arkansas, Inc., Entergy Louisiana, LLC, Entergy Mississippi, Inc., Entergy New Orleans, Inc., and Entergy Texas, Inc. Entergy economic development employees work closely with state, regional and local allies to attract new business investment and retain existing business. In 2011, Entergy economic development teams partnered with state and local allies to help attract 151 new projects generating $3.2 billion in new capital investment and creating approximately 10,732 new jobs. As a leading force for economic development, the Entergy Team streamlines the economic development process by providing businesses seeking to expand or locate in their service area access to the people and information they need to make the best possible business decision. Examples of cooperative efforts between communities, businesses, states and Entergy that have led to new business development and job creation include:

In August of 2011, Saint-Gobain announced a new $100 million, 100,000 square foot manufacturing facility in Saline County, AR. Saint-Gobain’s Proppants division is building a plant on a 68- acre site to produce innovative ceramic products.

GE Capital recently announced the creation of a major new corporate office in New Orleans with 300 new direct jobs to provide information technology and software development for the company’s financial services business. The 300 new jobs will have salaries ranging from $60,000 to $100,000 and will result in 600 direct and indirect jobs. This was a cooperative effort of the Louisiana Department of Economic Development, The Mayor’s Office, GNO, Inc. The New Orleans Business Alliance, Ochsner and Entergy New Orleans, Inc.

KiOR, a Houston-based pyrolysis company, has committed to constructing five plants in Mississippi with an investment in the state estimated at $500 million. The projects will create 1,000 direct and indirect jobs over a five-year period and will generate $85 million in incremental payroll for the state,

In May of 2011, Pandora Methanol reached financial closure for the purchase of an abandoned methanol and ammonia facility in Beaumont. The Entergy-Texas Economic Development team partnered with allies including the Texas office of Economic Development Group, Beaumont Chamber of Commerce, City of Beaumont and Jefferson County to assist in bringing the Pandora project to Beaumont and solidifying plans to operate the abandoned facility. Pandora has spent over $65 million in the rehabilitation of the facility.

Entergy was included in the 2011 Dow Jones Sustainability North America Index for sustainability leadership for the 10th consecutive year. Entergy also was named in 2011 to the Carbon Disclosure Leadership Index for the seventh time in eight years. The index recognizes companies with good internal data management practices for understanding greenhouse gas emissions. Entergy also was honored by the National Wildlife Federation in 2011 for its environmental programs, and it was named one of the 500 “greenest” companies in the U.S. based on Newsweek magazine’s 2011 Green Rankings.

SMUD Raises The Green Bar

When it comes to setting the bar for partnerships, the Sacramento region and the Sacramento Municipal Utility District (SMUD) are definitely raising it—and setting a new standard for other regions and utilities in the development of the cleantech sector.

Companies like Intel, Siemens Mobility, Micron-Numonyx, and SynapSense call Sacramento home. New arrivals include Jadoo Power Systems, Altergy Systems, Bloo Solar, and Zeta Communities. Sacramento cleantech players are now nearly 100 strong (see map).

The Brookings Institution, together with the Battelle Memorial Institute, produced Sizing the Clean Economy: A Green Jobs Assessment, which concluded that the growth in the clean economy in the Sacramento region significantly outpaced the growth in the same sector in the U.S. overall. Among the 100 largest metropolitan regions, Sacramento ranked 12th in the total number of clean tech jobs, numbering 37,319 and representing 4.5% of all jobs in the region.

SMUD provides electricity to the 1.4 million residents of Sacramento County, a 900-square mile area in the center of the Sacramento region.

SMUD has consistently taken the lead in developing renewable energy and energy efficiency programs, all the while keeping rates well below those of surrounding utilities. In 2010, SMUD became the first large California utility to meet—and exceed—the state-mandated 20 percent renewable portfolio standard (RPS), or required percentage of renewable power in its energy supply. SMUD has set for itself a goal of achieving 37 percent renewable energy supply by 2020.

Through its Savings by Design program, SMUD provides design and construction help, as well as cash incentives for energy efficiency. Specialists can create customized energy management plans for local businesses. Currently, public and private sector leaders in the Sacramento region are developing a collaborative economic development strategy, the Next Economy. This is a broad-based effort to create effective strategies to drive new job creation and investment, and to build an innovation-based economy in the region. Clean and green technology features prominently in this plan.

SMUD is a prominent supporter of the Sacramento Regional Technology Alliance (SARTA), an organization which promotes the development of technology-led industry in the Sacramento region. CleanStart is an initiative of SARTA designed to accelerate the development of clean technology ventures within the Sacramento region.

According to the latest CleanStart Progress Report, in 2011 the Sacramento region’s clean tech companies generated revenue exceeding $1.5 billion—double any previous yearly number. Sacramento Mayor Kevin Johnson, the former NBA great, has called the Sacramento region “the Emerald Valley,” which aims to be “the greenest region in the country.”

Hoosier Grows Rural Indiana

Hoosier Energy is the generation and transmission utility for 17 member electric distribution cooperatives in central and southern Indiana. In 2011, it added a member cooperative in southeastern Illinois. This addition increased the population of our service area to 600,000. Because much of its service territory is rural Hoosier channels a great deal of its time and resources along with tailoring its programs to help local government develop their properties from undeveloped farm land to shovel ready sites. Members of Hoosier’s power network are on dozens of local development boards and many regional development groups.

In recognition of the ever increasing role of the Internet in the business location process Hoosier Energy continues to place a great deal of emphasis on its economic development website, Hoosiersites.com. Besides an extensive property search feature, called “Hoosier InSite,” and a cost of living calculator, the Hoosier site offers two unique tools—a property tax abatement estimator and a workers’ compensation estimator.

Hoosier Energy in 2011 facilitated the creation of 2,766 jobs and $630.5 million in investment of which 2,668 jobs and $602 million in investment were non-retail, non-government (see chart).

The 2011 announcement of the $37-million expansion at Honda provides another chapter in a long development process that started in the 1990s. Hoosier’s involvement first began with the fight to save the abandoned Conrail rail line that served the eventual Greensburg, IN Honda site. Over the intervening years Hoosier paid for engineering/ infrastructure cost studies on Interstate interchange property to help convince local development to get under control as much land as they could. In hindsight this turned out be fortuitous because Greensburg was able to offer 800 acres when land negotiations fell apart elsewhere. Hoosier led the fight to convince City government to establish a redevelopment commission, which offered TIF financed incentives to Honda. Finally, when Honda came looking Hoosier offered as an inducement an attractive economic development rate and promised to provide dual transmission service.

Also in 2011, Hoosier Energy furthered its sources of renewable energy with several projects. These include the purchase of a landfill generating plant in east central Illinois; a 20-year purchase power agreement from a northern Illinois hydroelectric plant; a 25-megawatt wind purchase power agreement; and the start of construction of a plant in western Indiana that will tap coal bed methane reserves to directly produce electric power.

GA Power: A Global Rep

Georgia Power, the largest subsidiary of Southern Company, is an investor-owned utility known around the world for its work in economic development. Georgia Power has been helping companies locate and expand in Georgia since 1927, and over the past decade alone has helped bring almost 100,000 jobs and $19 billion in capital investment to the state. The Community and Economic Development organization works in partnership with state and local partners on all economic development projects.

Georgia Power has one of the most experienced and knowledgeable teams of economic development professionals in the world, including five statewide project managers, four engineers, a five-person Metro Atlanta team, and a seven-person non-metro regional team.

Georgia Power offers a full range of products and services:

• Total project management, including coordination of site/ community tours
• Use of the Georgia Resource Center, the first multimedia, interactive facility for site selection in the world when it opened in 1992
• Online database of all available sites and buildings in Georgia, includes information such as population, income, workforce, taxes and incentives
• Custom city and state comparisons
• Custom maps, including labor sheds and drive-times
• Workforce analysis
• Engineering evaluation/site analysis
• Preliminary site plans and designs
• Site optimization earthwork analysis with cost estimates
• Infrastructure analysis: electrical, water, sewer, telecom
• Virtual 3-D building construction

Georgia Power’s online property search tool, found at www.SelectGeorgia.net, contains more than 500 data fields on each buildings and site, including surrounding population, workforce, taxes, incentives, wage and salary information, zoning and land use, fire insurance ratings and transportation infrastructure. Technical colleges and universities in the area, as well as the closest hospitals and trauma centers, also can be found.

Georgia Power’s community development teams work with local leaders to help their communities grow and prosper. Leadership development, strategic planning and implementing the services and infrastructure needed for business recruitment, expansion and retention are vital to a region’s long-term economic health.

Santee Cooper: No. 3 In U.S.

Santee Cooper (South Carolina Public Service Authority) is South Carolina’s state-owned electric and water utility and the state’s largest power producer. Based on generation, Santee Cooper is the nation’s third-largest publicly owned utility among state, municipal, and district systems based on megawatt-hour sales to ultimate customers. The source of power for more than 2 million South Carolinians, Santee Cooper provides direct service to more than 164,000 retail customers in Berkeley, Georgetown and Horry counties. Santee Cooper is the primary source of power distributed by the state’s 20 electric cooperatives to more than 700,000 customers located in the state’s 46 counties.

Santee Cooper also supplies power directly to 29 large industrial customers in 10 counties, the town of Bamberg, the city of Georgetown and the Charleston Air Force Base. Santee Cooper operates two regional water systems: the Santee Cooper Regional Water System on Lake Moultrie, and the Lake Marion Regional Water System. Santee Cooper was the first utility in the state to offer electricity generated by renewable resources such as solar, wind and landfill methane gas. The Green Power program recently notched its 10th anniversary.

Through the Santee Cooper Rural Economic Development fund and the Santee Cooper Economic Development Investment Fund, the utility partners with electric cooperatives, local governments and regional economic development corporations by providing funding for strategic planning, professional development, marketing, and infrastructure and site development. As a member of the South Carolina Power Team, Santee Cooper provides funding for certification of industrial sites through the SC Department of Commerce Industrial Site Certification Program. Since 2006, Santee Cooper has invested $945,201 in 24 site certifications. In 2011, the efforts of Santee Cooper and its partners resulted in more than 1,450 new jobs and capital investment exceeding $193,645,000.

Santee Cooper and SCANA Corp. are in a cooperative effort at the V.C. Summer Nuclear Station to construct two nuclear reactors. Santee Cooper holds a 45 percent ownership in this effort, which will employ up to 3,000 construction workers and 600 to 800 permanent employees.

In 2011, Santee Cooper was pleased to be an integral partner in the expansion of Showa DenkoCarbon, Inc., one of the world’s premier manufacturers of ultra high-powered graphite electrodes. The expansion created over 100 new jobs.

Committed to product development, Santee Cooper is a key player in the Myrtle Beach International Technology and Aerospace Park (MBITAP). Santee Cooper has partnered with the Myrtle Beach International Airport, Horry County, Myrtle Beach Regional Economic Development Corporation, the city of Myrtle Beach, the Myrtle Beach Air Force Base Redevelopment Authority, and the South Carolina Power Team to develop and certify this 420-acre industrial park adjacent to Myrtle Beach International Airport. Santee Cooper continues to help promote the MBITAP as a premier location for aerospace and aviation companies.

Santee Cooper is also engaged in the development of the Bucksport Marine Industrial Park in cooperation with Horry County and the Grand Strand Water and Sewer Authority. Master planning and environmental permitting are underway to create this 200-acre industrial park with bulkhead for heavy-cargo loading and travel lift, supporting large boat manufacturing.

Green Power is available for purchase by customers in blocks of 100-200 kilowatt hours, and all revenues generated by these voluntary purchases are reinvested in new renewable generation. In January, Santee Cooper unveiled its Reduce the Use business campaign offering a suite of initiatives and rebates to substantially reduce the use of electricity and improve energy efficiency among its roughly 30,000 business customers.

In January, Santee Cooper introduced the Economic Development Incentive Rate Program offering significant reductions in power costs to new or expanding industrial customers. The rate has an eight-year commitment, workforce and capital investment requirements, and a four-year discount period.

National Grid: Smart Growth

National Grid’s economic development program promotes sustainable, “smart” growth in upstate NY by redeveloping vacant buildings, Brownfield sites, and urban centers. National Grid’s grant programs have helped to create or retain over 19,000 jobs since 2003; over 700 grant applications have been approved to date, representing $46 million in funding.

In May 2011, National Grid was the recipient of the New York State Economic Development Council’s Chairman’s Award for its role in creating economic development results.

GlobalFoundries Fab 8 commenced operations earlier this year. National Grid built electric and gas infrastructure, including three high voltage electric feeds to the GlobalFoundries site, in record time. The project will create 1,500 new high-tech jobs, with a $4 billion capital investment. The electric load will exceed 75 MW and the operation will consume 35 million therms per year by 2014.

The GE Battery project is an adaptive reuse of an industrial building in the GE complex in Schenectady, NY, the latest step in GE’s transformation from an old-line manufacturer to one embracing green technologies, such as wind power and batteries that can provide uninterrupted back-up electricity for 20 years to cell phone towers, data centers and other facilities. Last year GE opened its Global Renewable Energy headquarters on the Schenectady campus. When it is finished next year, the plant will be capable of initially producing 1 million advanced battery cells annually; it will employ 350 people.

National Grid approved its first application for the Renewable Energy and Economic Development program, a $750,000 grant that will assist in the development of a biomass generation project at an upstate NY paper mill. Several other large projects have been approved thus far, including what is expected to be New York State’s largest dairy farm digester project in WNY. Five Brownfield Redevelopment Assistance grants provided $850,000 in funding to aid in the clean up and redevelopment of sites in the Capital, Central and Western NY regions. Three ShovelReady Infrastructure grants were reimbursed during the year, including support for a $2 million infrastructure improvement project at the 46-acre Tech Meadows light industrial park in Glens Falls and a $1.5 million utility/road project at the 100-acre Woodbine

Business Park in the Town of Dewitt. Three grants were provided to customers through our Power Quality Enhancement program, including two health care service providers who used National Grid grant funds to install equipment that will help mitigate serious power quality disturbance issues and enable the continued growth of their operations. Our Manufacturing Productivity Program (MPP) provides matching grants for “lean manufacturing” and other productivity assistance, as well as growth-oriented initiatives that are designed to utilize excess manufacturing capacity. Fifteen MPP projects were completed providing over $206,000 in assistance to mostly small and medium sized manufacturing businesses across upstate New York. According to data from the annual survey of MPP grant recipients, $966,800 in cost savings and $19 million in new annual revenues were achieved through the program.

Northeast Utilities: Pooling The Resources Of Six States

Northeast Utilities’ “Discover New England for Business” initiative began formally in 1999 to help stimulate increased business investment in the company’s regulated service territories.

The New England program started with a partnership between the economic development operations of Connecticut Light & Power, Yankee Gas Services, Western Massachusetts Electric Company and Public Service of New Hampshire, all Northeast Utilities’ subsidiaries. NU then began to convene business recruiters who work for the region’s six state development agencies and state-level nonprofit business and real estate marketing arms. NU partners in this effort with The New England Council, which serves as the regional consortium’s “bank.”

The strategy was to enhance the business recruitment efforts of the six states by pooling their marketing resources and capitalizing on opportunities they were previously unable or unwilling to address. In 2002, NU hired a full-time economic development marketing veteran to coordinate marketing outreach and provide marketing training for the region’s state-level economic development representatives.

NU joined with Blue Cross, Liberty Mutual, The New England Council, Yankee magazine, the region’s six state tourism offices and various nonprofit groups to commission a university research survey of an estimated 400 domestic business executives, 100 international executives, 50 site selection consultants and 1,000 random adults from across the country to gauge their perceptions of New England.

The survey prompted the group to create a new trade show exhibit booth that emphasized New England as a whole and highlighted its business and educational assets. In addition, the group published the first six-state business development marketing brochure; produced a New England Developments newsletter to bring attention to policy issues affecting the region; designed a new web site to serve as a regional portal; and jump-started a comprehensive branding project.

Over the past 10 years, Northeast Utilities has invested $1.5 million in the “Discover New England for Business” initiative, leveraging more than $1 million from the six states’ economic development departments and allied non-profit organizations in support of marketing activities. The New England Council is working with NU on the branding initiative.

Economic and policy leaders throughout New England see NU as an important and neutral economic development partner and catalyst (a time-honored role for large utilities nationwide) in the region’s business development initiatives.

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