The State of Site Selection 2025: Key Takeaways from the Site Selectors Guild Conference

Conor Eckert, Incoming President & CEO of the Orange County Partnership pictured with other NYS economic development leaders

By Conor Eckert, Incoming President & CEO

In addition to our trip to Taiwan last month, I also attended the Site Selectors Guild Annual Conference in Florida. This conference is a staple in the national economic development landscape – the top site selectors and real estate consultants in the country attend this event to provide insights on site selection and economic trends, and to connect with economic developers from across the United States. A small team of economic developers from across New York State attended the conference.

There were a handful of unique themes driving the site selection and industry attraction to compete for modern site selection projects:

• Site readiness remains a critical factor driving location decision-making
• Access to robust infrastructure – especially power and natural gas – is the most sought-after variable in manufacturing-centric site selection                                                                               
• Communities must develop local and regional talent pipelines to fill skills shortage demand
• Domestic production of critical assets including batteries, semiconductors, and aerospace component parts is expected to increase
• Data center projects will continue to grow as AI grows – but siting them will continue to be a challenge given a large infrastructure profile and NIMBYism

These macro trends align with the localized site selection trends that we’re seeing in Orange County and the Hudson Valley. Over the last few months, we’ve seen a substantial increase in the number of data centers, pharma/life sciences, and robotic/infrastructure-intensive logistics facilities with active requirements in the market. As we look toward the future, it’s critical that we continue to focus on the development of shovel-ready sites with public infrastructure, building an organic talent pipeline, and building on the momentum of interest that we’re seeing following our Taiwan trip from an FDI perspective.

As we work through short-term uncertainty in market dynamics – we must be laser-focused on preparing for the next wave of complicated site selection opportunities.