February 23, 2024 - Page 3 of 10 - Southern Business & Development

Broken Arrow, Oklahoma’s bdtronic to add 60 jobs

Posted on February 23, 2024October 25, 2024 by Michael Randle

A leading global supplier of automated production machines, bdtronic, will add 60 new jobs over the next five years with an average wage of $66,000, officials said.

The jobs announcement qualifies bdtronic for the Oklahoma Department of Commerce’s Quality Jobs Incentive.

“With bdtronic’s leading position as a supplier to this market, we have undertaken a rapid growth strategy and are pleased to partner with Oklahoma in being approved for the Quality Jobs Incentive,” said Michael Yarnall, President of bdtronic.

Yarnall said the 60 new positions highlight expertise in project management and engineering, machine controls software, mechanical and electrical assembly technicians, and support administration over the next 5 years.

Tulsa World

German manufacturer to invest over $38M, add nearly 200 jobs in Charlotte region

Posted on February 23, 2024October 25, 2024 by Michael Randle

A German electrical manufacturing company has chosen Iredell County for its U.S. expansion and promises to create nearly 200 jobs in the Charlotte region.

DEHN Inc. will invest more than $38.6 million and create 195 jobs from 2025 to 2029 in Iredell County, the North Carolina Economic Investment Committee said Tuesday during its regular meeting.

The family-owned German electrical engineering company specializes in manufacturing surge and lightning protection systems as well as safety equipment.

The state committee approved $1.2 million in tax incentives for DEHN Inc. over 12 years for its project in Mooresville, just north of Charlotte, according to a news release from Gov. Roy Cooper’s office.

DEHN Inc. is a U.S. and Caribbean subsidiary for DEHN SE, based in Neumarkt, Germany.

Charlotte Observer

Brownsville, Tenn. mayor talks area potential growth fueled by massive BlueOval City project

Posted on February 23, 2024October 25, 2024 by Michael Randle

Ford Motor Co.’s massive BlueOval City project could be a turning point for Brownsville.

The $5.6 billion electric truck and battery project in rural West Tennessee — scheduled to open in 2025 — is expected to create about 5,800 jobs and provide a significant economic boost to one of the region’s most economically disadvantaged counties.

Brownsville Mayor Bill Rawls believes the small, rural West Tennessee city with an estimated population of 9,500 could experience a population explosion after years of depopulation. The city is 13 miles from the BlueOval City campus in Stanton.

“Because we had a population decline for so many years, we don’t have any new housing development,” Rawls said. “The thing we’re working on now is establishing utility capacity to accommodate this type of growth. We all heard the phrase they build it; they will come. That’s true, but in this case BlueOval is here and they’re coming.

Memphis Commercial Appeal

Louisville Metro, Greater Louisville Inc. collaborate on targeted marketing campaign

Posted on February 23, 2024October 25, 2024 by Michael Randle

Greater Louisville Inc. (GLI) and Louisville Metro Government are launching a targeted marketing campaign to increase awareness of the region in specific markets and industries.

Clark Welch, GLI vice president of economic development, said the $120,000 campaign will focus on Boston, Chicago, San Francisco and Washington D.C. It intends to attract executives and site selectors working for expanding or relocating companies in industries like biomedical manufacturing, life sciences, logistics, digital health and electric battery production.

“As we engage with site selectors and brokers out of market, one of the things that we consistently hear is that Louisville is sort of a best-kept secret,” Welch explained. “There was an opportunity for us to be more proactive in making external markets aware of the offerings of Greater Louisville. That’s really the intent of this campaign.”

Louisville Business First

Here’s how Florida ranks among top states to start a business in 2024

Posted on February 23, 2024October 25, 2024 by Michael Randle

The Sunshine State is once again one of the best places to start a business.

Simplify LLC analyzed all 50 states using the most recent data from the Census Bureau, Bureau of Economic Analysis and Federation of Tax Administrators.

Florida was No. 4 overall, ranking highly in several key factors, including job creation and consumer spending.

The study analyzed seven factors in all 50 states and Washington, D.C.

Here is how Florida ranked in each category:

Net migration of educated workers: 144,915 (No. 1)
Job creation: 12.7% increase (No. 6)
Consumer spending: 3.4% increase (No. 15)
Corporate tax rate: 5.5% (No. 20)
New business formation: 7.9% increase (No. 28)
Business success: 12.7% say their business is “performing excellently” (No. 34)
Inflation since 2021: 19% increase (No. 35)

This year, the top 10 states to start a business are:

Wyoming
Texas
South Dakota
Florida
Missouri
Tennessee
Delaware
Kansas
North Carolina
Nevada

Orlando Business Journal

German manufacturer of BMW parts picks Gaston County, N.C. for plant

Posted on February 23, 2024October 25, 2024 by Michael Randle

The U.S. arm of a Germany-based automotive parts manufacturer will invest over $12.7 million to establish a plant in Gaston County.

Heyco-Werk USA Inc. will create 34 jobs at a new facility at Apple Creek Corporate Center. It will serve as the company’s second U.S. production plant.

The company, which is a subsidiary of Heyco Group, makes plastic molded parts for BMW’s SUV models worldwide. Heyco-Werk USA will build a 65,000-square-foot production facility at Apple Creek. The company becomes the latest international manufacturer to sign on at Apple Creek, where Gaston County has drawn a slew of projects.

The jobs created by Heyco-Werk USA will pay an average annual wage of $63,382. That’s well above the Gaston County average of $46,351.

Charlotte Business Journal

Randolph Community College targets Liberty, N.C.-area site to serve both Toyota and Wolfspeed

Posted on February 23, 2024October 25, 2024 by Michael Randle

Randolph Community College has a site in mind near Liberty to help train workers not only for the nearby Toyota auto-battery plant but also for the Wolfspeed semiconductor plant in neighboring Chatham County.

College President Shah Ardalan briefed county commissioners on the plan earlier this week as he and college trustees and administrators outlined fiscal requests of the county.

The college has identified a 22-acre parcel about five minutes from Toyota’s site and some 10 minutes from Wolfspeed, Ardalan told commissioners. The college expects to build on about 15 acres in all, he added.

He did not identify the site except to say it is near the entrance to the Toyota site and on high ground.

The idea is to make it a multi-use site, Ardalan said. The college would use about a third for training related mostly to Toyota and Wolfspeed, part would be a building used by bachelor’s degree-granting universities serving the companies’ needs locally, and about another third will be available for lease to companies that want to be near the megasites but do not need their own buildings, he explained.

Triad Business Journal

State of Startups in the Southeast: Where does Alabama stand?

Posted on February 23, 2024October 25, 2024 by Michael Randle

Though inflation concerns and interest rate hikes marred the landscape in 2023, funding is still flowing into startups in the Southeast, according to a recent report.

“Nationally, gone are the days of ‘growth at any cost’ and long lists of mega deals,” BIP Ventures’ the State of Startups report read. “Instead, we see a heightened sense of responsibility and careful recalibration of venture capital funding. More acutely, we have seen a shift to follow-on and later-stage deals. Across almost every state in the Southeast, the size of seed investments has risen and seems to be staying there. And while fewer deals are happening, the ones completed are generally larger.”

The report pointed to signs of “measured optimism.”

Highlights of the report include that $5.8 billion in capital was deployed across the region in the first half of 2023, compared to $14.7 billion in second half of 2022. Further, the average check size increased $1.2 million from $5.5 million in 2018 to $6.7 million in 2023 YTD. There was a 75% increase in the size of seed deals in the Southeast, from $150,000 in 2018 to $260,000 in 2023 YTD.

Capital deployed annually increased by $1.8 billion from 2018 to the projected 2023 capital.

Alabama performed among the top in the Southeast in 2023. Halfway through the year, the total invested was $462 million — more than double the total invested in the state in 2022.

Birmingham Business Journal

Birmingham metro ranks 5th nationally in job growth

Posted on February 23, 2024October 25, 2024 by Michael Randle

With the addition of over 16,000 jobs, the Birmingham-Hoover metro had the 5th highest employment growth in the nation (by percentage) between 2022-2023, according to a recent report from the U.S Bureau of Labor Statistics (BLS).

The report was compiled from an assessment of metros across the nation whose populations were at least 1 million as of the 2010 Census, according to the BLS website. Out of these 51 metros, 30 saw notable employment increases and 21 were “essentially unchanged,” BLS said.

The metro areas that had the largest net employment increases from November 2022 to November 2023 were Dallas-Fort Worth-Arlington, Texas (139,700), New York-Newark-Jersey City, New York-New Jersey-Pennsylvania (122,200), and Los Angeles-Long Beach-Anaheim, Calif. (107,000).

AL.com

X wants to keep cluster of AI systems in Atlanta, receives $10M tax break

Posted on February 23, 2024October 25, 2024 by Michael Randle

Despite opposition from residents, a Fulton County agency changed course this week and approved a roughly $10 million tax break over the next decade for X Corp., owned by billionaire Elon Musk.

The social media platform formerly known as Twitter says it is investing $700 million into artificial intelligence systems at an existing Atlanta data center on Jefferson Street.

The Development Authority of Fulton County (DAFC) on Tuesday voted 6-2 to approve the request.

This week’s decision followed a previous vote in December when the agency failed to grant the tax break by a tie vote of 4-4. Since then, DAFC Chairman Marty Turpeau died following a brief illness. He had opposed the request.

On Tuesday, X Corp. representative Dhurv Batura said the company would invest in new AI equipment in Portland, Oregon unless it got an incentive in Atlanta.

“We’ve got close to $200 million of equipment coming through in the next several months,” Batura said, adding the company is freeing up space in Oregon, where it has an existing tax abatement. But X would prefer keep the cluster of computers in Atlanta, he said.

Atlanta Business Chronicle