Montrose Group Announces Top Ten 2020 Corporate Site Location Trends

David J. Robinson
The Montrose Group, LLC

2020 will have ten critical corporate site location trends that will impact economic development across the United States.  The Montrose Group provides corporate site location, economic development planning, project financing and lobbying services to companies and organizations across the United States and annually releases the top ten economic development trends impacting corporate site location.  The Montrose Group has negotiated corporate site location projects totaling over $1 B in economic development incentives and has active projects in multiple states.

Based upon the experience in representing companies in projects across the United States, the Montrose Group concludes the following corporate site location “Top Ten” trends for 2020 exist.

1. The United States will remain a corporate site location powerhouse in 2020 ignoring the chaos of a presidential election and continued trade disputes.
2. While the United States remains a global economic powerhouse, not all regions of the United States are created equally from an economic development standpoint, and the South and Southwest will remain regional macroeconomic growth leaders in 2020.
3. Economic disruption will be the prime economic driver in 2020 as major corporate site location projects will follow a new era of technology companies growing beyond their corporate headquarters in a sear for IT talent.
4. Demographic data impacts corporate site location trends, and 2020 will see the start of the workforce impact of Generation Z on the corporate site location process as this generation younger and more job centered focused enters the American workforce.
5. The development of robotics training programs will become a central strategy for the retention and attraction of manufacturing jobs in 2020.
6. Rising opportunities from electrification driven by the expansion of robotics, automation and Artificial Intelligence (AI), will drive utilities to play a larger role in economic development at the regional and state level in 2020.
7. Data centers, indoor agriculture, logistics, and food processing industries will lead the continued expansion of industrial corporate site location projects across the United States in 2020.
8. 2020 will see regions and states forced to use economic development incentives to retain, not just attract, high-wage manufacturing jobs as this industry continues to automate its processes to successfully compete globally.
9. Rural communities, while facing long-term economic challenges, are primed for corporate site location projects tied to strategies to recruit industrial development, attract technology companies and address critical quality of place issues in 2020.
10. Negative views toward companies based upon the financial services crisis and populist politicians will demand a new approach for the corporate site location process in 2020 that focuses not just on the benefits to the company, but also for the community, through a measure of the Return on Investment of tax incentives offered.

2020 will certainly prove to be an interesting year where public policy interacts with a booming real estate market, substantial economic disruption of trillion-dollar traditional industries, automation of manufacturing and other long-standing job producing industry, and a new generation jumping into the workforce.