By Steve Brawner, © 2025 by Steve Brawner Communications, Inc.
How does a community convince a big employer to select it for its next manufacturing plant or other big facility? Have a site ready, have adequate electricity and other utilities available, and roll out the welcome mat with incentives that can close the deal.
That was the message five national site selection consultants presented at the Clinton Presidential Center Oct. 15.
The Power Up Little Rock luncheon was hosted by the Metro Little Rock Alliance, a 13-county regional marketing coalition staffed by the Little Rock Regional Chamber of Commerce.
Regionalism is often a big component of economic development. Neighboring communities – including those across state lines – can combine their strengths to attract the kinds of employers that will benefit the entire area.
The five, all members of the 70-member Site Selectors Guild, were spending three days in Arkansas as paid guests. Their itinerary included lunch with Gov. Sarah Huckabee Sanders, a closed event at the Saline County Career and Technical Campus in Benton, and visits to economic development sites in the region.
Didi Caldwell, president & CEO of Global Location Strategies, told the luncheon crowd that the three biggest factors that drive a big company to select a community is a development-ready site, adequate electricity, and access to workforce talent.
“Those three things: product, which is sites and buildings; power; and people are the three things that drive our projects,” she said.
She said Arkansas is one of the states that has funding to help communities prepare a site. However, she had encouraged the governor to do more during their breakfast meeting that morning.
Availability of utilities, particularly electricity, has become a key part of the site selection process, said Mike Mullis, president and CEO of J.M. Mullis, Inc. Big employers now require enormous amounts of power, and there’s often not enough to go around. More than 70% of the national grid network has not been improved in more than 20 years. Every major utility tells him it is operating at maximum capacity.
“What we are caught in is a quagmire now of energy deficiency like we have never seen,” he said.
Communities also need natural gas, adequate water and wastewater treatment facilities and broadband infrastructure.
Consultants and big employers go through a process of elimination when choosing a community. John Longshore, senior consultant at Newmark, said site selectors determine their clients’ needs and then request information from the communities. Once they’ve narrowed their choices, they engage with communities face to face.
Then comes perhaps the most controversial part of the process. Near the end, it’s time to see what tax breaks, infrastructure improvements and other financial incentives states and communities will offer these billion-dollar corporations.
Often derided as “corporate welfare,” these incentives serve as a “deal closer,” said Monty Turner, senior vice president at Colliers. He compared them to a coupon that encourages a customer to choose one pizza restaurant over another.
“Incentives rarely make a bad site good, but they can make a good site great,” he said.
Another issue that can affect a community’s chances of landing the big new employer is an available workforce. Denise Mullis, senior vice president and partner at J.M. Mullis, Inc., said every community should have a manufacturing workforce council that addresses talent shortages. Its members would include manufacturers, local machine shops, workforce boards and educational institutions. Colleges and technical schools should work directly with manufacturers so they can prepare the workforce needed for jobs like industrial maintenance. Technical school pathways should be available for young people in addition to pathways for college.
She said communities should remove barriers to employment by investing in working families. In Clarksville, Tenn., economic developers sought child care providers to locate at their industrial park. Another community ensured bus routes stopped at the facility in response to a company request.
Caldwell encouraged communities to be ready when opportunity arrives. Site selectors like her will narrow the list of potential locations to the last few. At that point, the employers will choose to do business with the people with whom they feel the most comfortable.
She noted that the Port of Little Rock had not been Trex’s first choice when it decided in 2021 to build a $400 million campus there. When company officials arrived to visit the proposed site, a quaint setup featuring Trex outdoor furniture and decking was waiting for them.
“Little Rock changed their mind,” she said. “Arkansas changed their mind. And that Trex furniture was no small part in that.”
Steve Brawner’s column is syndicated to 21 outlets in Arkansas. Email him at brawnersteve@mac.com.