You’ll soon see work at Amazon’s Northern Virginia’s HQ2. Here’s what’s happening.

Posted on by Michael Randle

Clark Construction plans to begin installing utilities for PenPlace, the second phase of Amazon’s HQ2, which remains delayed but, we’re told, not scaled back.

Work on South Fern Street, South Eads Street and 12th Street South in Arlington will begin March 18 and continue through April, according to a Monday construction update email from Clark.

Amazon.com Inc. (NASDAQ: AMZN), which in March of 2023 paused development plans for the second and larger phase of its second headquarters, wouldn’t say when construction would start or when the project would deliver. A spokesperson told me in an email that the e-commerce giant has made “no changes” to its hiring or construction plans, including for a new public school.

While that’s been the party line since last year, we can’t be blamed for wondering whether Amazon might throttle back its HQ2 plans, along with its hiring.The firm laid off 27,000 corporate and tech employees in the first few months of 2023, and in its most recent earnings conference call didn’t suggest a major hiring spree is on the horizon.

While Amazon is adding roles in some areas, “there’s a general feeling in most teams that we’re looking to hold the line on headcount, perhaps go down as we can drive efficiencies,” Chief Financial Officer Brian Olsavsky told reporters in a call Feb. 1.

Phase one of Amazon HQ2, known as Metropolitan Park — 2.1 million square feet of new office space in two towers — opened to workers in May of 2023. Eventually, 14,000 people are supposed to work there.

Washington Business Journal

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Acadiana Center for the Arts Establishes New Music and Sound Recording Initiative with Entertainment Development Fund Award

Posted on by Michael Randle

BATON ROUGE, La. – The Acadiana Center for the Arts (AcA), a community-supported nonprofit organization that fosters education and workforce development in the area’s creative industries, has been awarded $750,000 from the state’s Entertainment Development Fund establishing a program to train and promote local musicians and recording professionals.

The Louisiana Scoring program will create opportunities for local musicians to expand into the motion picture production industry in Louisiana through musician development, training sessions, promotional material and infrastructure enhancements. These initiatives aim to build and retain the local talent pool while strengthening and promoting Acadiana’s advantages for the entertainment industry.

“As one of the top motion picture production destinations in the world, this innovative training program will further enhance job opportunities for our local musicians,” Louisiana Entertainment Executive Director Chris Stelly said. “In addition, the film industry will benefit from world-class talent from Acadiana and Louisiana which is one of our greatest natural resources.”

AcA will receive $250,000 a year from the fund for three years, for a total of $750,000. The organization will seek to utilize the state’s talent pipeline by recruiting graduates from university music programs such as University of Louisiana at Lafayette, LSU, Northwestern State University, McNeese State University and the University of New Orleans into the Louisiana Scoring program.

“Culture is one of Louisiana’s greatest exports, but we are still missing opportunities to translate that prestige into jobs for artists and musicians,” AcA Executive Director Samuel Oliver said. “AcA is happy to launch the Louisiana Scoring project to help employ Louisiana musicians and music industry workers and keep their talents in our community.”

AcA supports education and workforce initiatives as well as the creation of new works of art, exhibits, festivals, performances and public art across an eight-parish region that includes Acadia, Evangeline, Iberia, Lafayette, St. Landry, St. Martin, St. Mary and Vermilion Parishes.

This is the 16th Entertainment Development Fund award announced by LED since the program was launched in 2017. Previous Entertainment Development Fund awards were made to higher education institutions and nonprofit community programs in Shreveport, Natchitoches, Lafayette, Thibodaux, Baton Rouge and New Orleans.

“Lafayette and Acadiana have long experienced the positive impact of small to mid-sized film productions, an impact that resonates through the community long after the cameras stop rolling,” Lafayette Economic Development Authority President and CEO Mandi Mitchell said. “Post-production work presents an exciting opportunity to further amplify this local impact by engaging talented individuals like Andrew Morgan Smith, the visionary behind the Louisiana Scoring Initiative. This endeavor will solidify Lafayette’s standing as a vibrant production hub while leveraging talented locals and nurturing continuous growth and innovation in the industry.”

About Acadiana Center for the Arts
Founded in 1975, the Acadiana Center for the Arts (AcA) is a community-supported regional arts council that fosters art and culture in South Louisiana. Rooted in a cultural community that has made its mark on the world through food, music, and art, AcA aims to ensure that this living culture flourishes for generations to come. AcA aims to bring equitable access to the arts through intensive residency work in schools and supports fair compensation of artists. On average, AcA serves over 300,000 people annually and provides fair compensation to 2,700 artists. AcA supports the creation of new works of art, exhibits, festivals, performances, and public art across an eight-parish region that includes Acadia, Evangeline, Iberia, Lafayette, St. Landry, St. Martin, St. Mary, and Vermilion Parishes.

About Louisiana Entertainment
Louisiana is one of the top destinations in the world for motion picture production; digital interactive and software development projects; live performance; and sound recording. With state-of-the-art facilities, a wealth of talent, production-friendly communities and a competitive incentive program, Louisiana is the perfect location for the entertainment industries. For more information on Louisiana film, digital interactive, live performance and sound recording programs, visit Louisiana Entertainment, a division of Louisiana Economic Development, at LouisianaEntertainment.com.

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Gov. Lee, Commissar McWhorter announced new manufacturing capture

Posted on by Michael Randle

Tennessee Gov. Bill Lee, Department of Economic and Community Development Commissioner Stuart C. McWhorter and INTOCAST officials announced today the company will locate its first U.S. operations in Tennessee.

INTOCAST will invest a minimum of $15 million and create 103 new jobs as the company constructs a state-of-the-art mega class factory at the Huntingdon Industrial Park South, a Select Tennessee Certified Site.

The Carroll County site will be dedicated to manufacturing magnesia-carbon (MgO-C) refractories and materials to support INTOCAST’s U.S. market.

The company will host a groundbreaking today in Huntingdon and anticipates construction to begin in July.

Founded and globally headquartered in Germany, INTOCAST specializes in manufacturing and marketing refractory products for the iron and steel industries. Today, the company employs 2,000 people worldwide and is growing with its newest operations in Huntingdon, Tenn.

Tennessee Department of Economic & Community Development.

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Commerce Welcomes Back Vince Howie as Oklahoma State Director of Aerospace & Defense

Posted on by Michael Randle

The Oklahoma Department of Commerce (Commerce) recently welcomed Vince Howie back to serve as State Director of Aerospace & Defense. In this role, Howie will lead Commerce’s Aerospace & Defense team, also known as ACES, as they work to strengthen the industry in Oklahoma by enhancing workforce efforts, providing assistance for business retention and expansion, and recruiting new companies in the state. Vince previously served in the same role at Commerce from 2015-2020 before leaving to serve as part owner, Senior Vice President and CEO of Aircraft Towing Systems Worldwide (ATS), LLC, an Oklahoma aerospace startup.

“Aerospace and defense is our fastest growing industry,” said Hopper Smith, Brigadier General (Ret.), Interim Executive Director of Commerce. “We are extremely fortunate to welcome Vince back to Commerce in this role. He is a well-known leader in the aerospace and defense sector and will be able to lead this team and continue the momentum as we work to grow existing Oklahoma companies and bring new aerospace and defense operations to the state.”

Oklahoma Department of Commerce

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Metal recycler hiring in rural SC

Posted on by Michael Randle

DCC Metal Recycling (DCC), a metal shredding and recycling company, today announced it is growing its South Carolina footprint with a new operation in Dillon County. The company’s $11 million investment will create 78 new jobs. 

Founded in Hemingway in 1943, DCC purchases, shreds and recycles scrap metals. This process significantly reduces the cost and environmental impact of the company’s products which include aluminum, stainless steel and copper.

The new 48-acre site located at 1324 Smith St. in Dillon will be the company’s seventh South Carolina operation.

Operations will be online in the first quarter of 2025. Individuals interested in joining the DCC team should visit the company’s careers page.

The Coordinating Council for Economic Development approved job development credits related to the project. South Carolina Department of Commerce

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Apple, Tesla, Samsung have spent billions in Austin of late

Posted on by Michael Randle

If there’s an antidote for the malaise that has been plaguing the tech sector nationally, Austin may be on to it.

A trio of big-name global tech players — Samsung Electronics Co. Ltd., Tesla Inc. and Apple Inc. — have made huge investments in the metro over the last few years, positioning them to add thousands more employees here in the coming decade.

The result is a foundation for new tech-related jobs in the region at a time when many large internet-facing companies here such as Meta Platforms Inc. and Google LLC retrench with layoffs.

It also has led to changes in the rankings of the top tech-sector employers in the Austin metro. According to the 2024 Austin Business Journal list of tech companies with the biggest local workforces, Tesla has supplanted longtime No. 1 Dell Technologies Inc., Apple has held steady at No. 4 but gained ground, and Samsung has moved up a notch from No. 7 to No. 6.

While Tesla can’t rise any higher, in terms of its ranking, Samsung and Apple appear poised to continue ascending in the future. All three are still in the relatively early years of major projects — massive factories for Samsung and Tesla, and a new corporate campus for Apple — that are expected to fuel their job growth locally.

Austin Business Journal

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‘Battery boom’ drives GridStor to enter Texas market with new Galveston County plant

Posted on by Michael Randle

With Texas set to lead the nation in new power storage generation added to its grid, developers are eyeing the Lone Star State for their projects. Portland, Oregon-based GridStor is the latest to announce its intent to break into the Electric Reliability Council of Texas’ service area.

GridStor acquired the Evelyn Battery Energy Storage project this week from Moab, Utah-based Balanced Rock Power. GridStor will construct and operate the project, which is located in Galveston County near the Hidden Lakes substation owned by Texas New Mexico Power.

 

Jason Burwen, vice president
of policy and strategy at GridStor

Construction on Evelyn will begin this summer, and the project will go online the following year, the company said. Jason Burwen, GridStor’s vice president of policy and strategy, said faster interconnection times to the Texas grid, compared to other options, were a big incentive for the company.

“Texas benefits from having the closest thing to a pure market in its power sector. When prices signal that it’s valuable to the consumers to have power at peak demand periods, these assets will show up to provide that service,” Burwen said. “Texas battery storage is not in a bubble, it’s in a boom, because the scale of need in Texas is so significant and the fundamentals of the grid are going to require it for some time to come.”

Houston Business Journal

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Texas economist warns of consequences of LNG export pause

Posted on by Michael Randle

A state economist is warning of the near-term effects of the U.S. Department of Energy’s temporary pause on liquefied natural gas export authorizations.

More than a month has passed since the DOE first announced a temporary pause on reviewing any pending or newly filed LNG export applications to non-Free Trade Agreement countries.

While several export projects have already sailed through the approval process, roughly 9 billion cubic feet per day (bcfd) of LNG exports pending approvals are at stake, says Dean Foreman, chief economist at the Texas Oil and Gas Association.

“These prospective approvals translate to a 20% increase in all of Texas natural gas production – 20%,” he told the Business Journal.

San Antonio Business Journal

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Big Sun Solar powers up huge project for manufacturing facility in Seguin

Posted on by Michael Randle

Big Sun Solar’s 2.6 megawatt solar project for automotive supplier Vitesco Technologies is complete seven months after its first announcement.

Along with being the largest single-location project San Antonio-based Big Sun has ever commissioned, what makes the project unique, says CEO Robert Miggins, was that it formed under a historic three-party agreement between Vitesco, Big Sun and Guadalupe Valley Electric Cooperative.

“To our knowledge, it’s the first three-party PPA that we know of in Texas,” he said.

The project, which consists of 4,800 ground-mounted solar panels on a 12-acre solar farm next to Vitesco’s Seguin manufacturing facility, is fully operational after five months of construction, Miggins said. Generating 4,800 megawatt hours per year – enough energy to power 330 Texas homes – the project will account for about 13% of Vitesco’s annual energy consumption at its Seguin facility and reduce emissions equivalent to removing nearly 600 cars from the road for a year, according to Big Sun.

San Antonio Business Journal

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Before pausing Georgia factory, Rivian struggled to meet expectations

Posted on by Michael Randle

Electric vehicle startup Rivian on Thursday introduced its R2 crossover, the mass market EV the company for years said would be built at a new Georgia factory the company as recently as last month said would open in 2026.

The expected landmark moment for Georgia’s emerging EV sector instead turned into disappointment.

Rivian CEO RJ Scaringe announced the two-row EV would start production at the company’s existing factory in Illinois. Though he said expansion in Georgia remains part of Rivian’s future, the company announced the $5 billion factory is on hold.

“I want to be absolutely clear we remain committed to building our future in Georgia,” Scaringe wrote in an op-ed to The Atlanta Journal-Constitution. “This shift in launch cadence puts us in a stronger position prior to launching our Georgia plant.

Atlanta Journal Constitution

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