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Certainty is the new competitive advantage in site selection

October 7, 2026

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By: Jennifer Wakefield | President and CEO of Greater Richmond Partnership

New research from the Site Selectors Guild reveals how power, workforce, community acceptance and speed-to-market are reshaping corporate location decisions, and it reinforces many of the priorities in Greater Richmond Partnership’s strategic plan.

Companies searching for their next location have always asked familiar questions: Is there a site? Can we find the workforce? What will it cost? How quickly can we be operational?

In 2026, there is another question increasingly sitting above all of them: Can we be certain this community can deliver?

That’s one of the most important conclusions from the 2026 State of Site Selection, released by the Site Selectors Guild and Development Counsellors International (DCI). Based on research with members of the 72-member Guild, the report describes a corporate location environment increasingly defined not simply by a scarcity of resources, but by a “scarcity of certainty.”

For regions competing for investment, that represents an important shift. It also closely aligns with the direction Greater Richmond Partnership (GRP) established through our 2025-2030 strategic plan, titled “30 & Thriving.”

The plan recognizes that successful economic development requires more than generating leads and promoting the region. It requires continually strengthening Greater Richmond’s competitiveness, developing talent, supporting innovation, maximizing regional assets and building deeper expertise around the industries where our region has the greatest opportunity to compete.

The Guild’s latest research provides valuable external validation of that approach and offers some important lessons about where economic development is headed next.

Energy moves to the top

Perhaps the most striking finding is the growing importance of electric power.

Seventy-nine percent of Guild members identified power availability as one of the factors having the greatest impact on site selection, compared with 50% for workforce availability.

That reflects the changing nature of corporate investment.

Data Centers represent the most active sector among responding Guild members, cited by 67%, followed by Aerospace and Defense at 44%, Advanced Manufacturing at 38% and Energy at 35%. Electronics and Semiconductors, Life Sciences, and Food and Beverage followed at 19% each.

Many of these sectors require significant power, specialized infrastructure and highly skilled talent.

For economic development organizations, understanding infrastructure is becoming just as important as understanding real estate.

Communities increasingly need to know not simply whether power is theoretically available, but how much is available, where it is available, when it can be delivered and what upgrades may be required. The Guild specifically cautions against describing power as “available” when it is contingent upon upgrades, queues or other conditions.

This closely corresponds with the competitiveness and regional-assets priorities in GRP’s strategic plan. As infrastructure becomes a larger factor in corporate decisions, regional economic development organizations have an important role to play in understanding those constraints, identifying gaps and working with utilities, localities and other partners to improve competitiveness.

A site isn’t ready simply because the land is available

The research also reinforces the importance of true site readiness.

When consultants were asked what causes a location to be eliminated from a shortlist, 65% identified the lack of an available, suitable site, followed by power availability at 51%, operating costs and financial feasibility at 43%, and workforce availability and quality at 41%.

The distinction between available and ready matters.

Environmental and geotechnical work, utility planning, zoning, permitting and other due diligence completed before a prospect arrives can remove uncertainty from a project schedule. The Guild recommends maintaining a real inventory of development-ready sites, completing due diligence and documenting permitting processes and timelines. It is a lesson Greater Richmond has learned first-hand, and it shapes how we work with localities to prepare sites long before a prospect calls.

That preparation is increasingly valuable because projects themselves aren’t necessarily moving faster. In fact, 43% of Guild members report that project timelines have slowed during the past year. Economic and political uncertainty was the most frequently cited reason for changing timelines, followed by utilities, permitting and infrastructure.

This is another important connection to our strategic plan. Improving regional competitiveness means looking beyond traditional marketing metrics to the underlying factors that determine whether Greater Richmond can successfully compete for and execute projects.

Workforce still matters, but the workforce is changing

Despite the growing attention on infrastructure, talent remains fundamental.

Half of Guild members identify workforce and labor availability as a major factor affecting site selection, and 41% identify workforce availability and quality as a factor that can eliminate a community from consideration.

What companies need, however, is changing.

As manufacturing and other operations become more automated and capital intensive, demand is increasing for specialized skills in engineering, controls, CNC, maintenance, cybersecurity and advanced production. The Guild describes a workforce “barbell,” with demand at one end for highly specialized technical and engineering talent and at the other for production and entry-level workers capable of operating in increasingly sophisticated environments.

That creates an opportunity for regions that can connect employers with universities, community colleges, K-12 systems and workforce partners — and demonstrate not only the workforce that exists today, but the pipeline capable of meeting tomorrow’s needs.

Talent is a central component of GRP’s strategic plan for precisely this reason. Our role increasingly includes helping employers connect with the region’s talent ecosystem, identifying gaps between industry needs and available skills, and bringing employers and education partners together around future workforce needs.

The Guild’s findings suggest that this work will become even more important as artificial intelligence, automation and advanced technologies continue to change the skills companies require.

Communities are being evaluated before they know it

Another major change is happening well outside the traditional RFI process: community response has moved upstream. Long before a company submits a request for information, site selectors are forming a view of whether a community will welcome a project, and that view is difficult to reverse once it takes hold.

That represents a shift in when community sentiment matters. Public Scrutiny was once something a project encountered late, at a rezoning hearing or a permit review, after a site had already been selected and a company had already committed. Today it is part of the earliest screening. A consultant assembling a list of candidate markets can read past news coverage, meeting minutes and social media, then reach a conclusion about a community’s appetite for a project without ever contacting anyone in it.

Public opinion toward economic development was identified by 46% of Guild members as a major factor affecting site selection, while 22% identified community opposition or NIMBYism (Not in my backyard) as something that can eliminate a location.

Site selectors increasingly research how communities have reacted to previous development projects and whether particular industries or project types could encounter opposition.

In some cases, that research occurs when consultants are evaluating 10 or 12 locations, not simply the final three or four. That means a community can potentially be eliminated without ever knowing it was under consideration.

For economic developers, transparency and proactive community engagement are therefore becoming competitive tools.

This reinforces the importance of GRP’s role as a regional convener. Greater Richmond’s ability to compete depends on collaboration among four localities, state partners, utilities, education and workforce organizations, private-sector leaders and many other stakeholders. Building alignment before a project arrives can make it easier to respond quickly and credibly when an opportunity emerges.

Industry focus matters

The research also challenges another long-standing economic development practice: trying to pursue too many industries.

When asked how many target industries an EDO can credibly pursue, 69% of Guild members said three to four.

But the recommendation goes further.

Rather than simply targeting broad sectors such as Advanced Manufacturing or Aerospace, consultants recommend understanding the sub-verticals in which a region possesses genuine capabilities, from workforce and suppliers to infrastructure, research assets and existing companies.

This recommendation closely aligns with GRP’s strategic emphasis on deeper industry expertise. One way we are putting that strategy into action is through our Industry Councils, which bring employers and regional partners together to better understand the opportunities, challenges and competitive needs within Greater Richmond’s priority sectors.

The Guild’s findings suggest an opportunity to take that work even further: identifying the specific niches within our target industries where Greater Richmond has the strongest combination of companies, talent, research capabilities, infrastructure and other assets, then concentrating our resources where we can compete most effectively. Energy and Aerospace, Aviation and Defense are useful examples. Both rank among the most active sectors Guild members are working on today, and both draw on capabilities already established across the region.

Rather than trying to be everything to everyone, the opportunity is to understand precisely where Greater Richmond has a differentiated value proposition and build deeper expertise around those areas.

Research becomes a competitive advantage

There is another thread running throughout the Guild report that closely corresponds with GRP’s strategic plan: the importance of reliable information.

The report describes trusted EDOs as organizations that know their sites, understand the company and industry, identify challenges early, coordinate stakeholders and provide concise, organized and source-dated information. Confidence declines when organizations overstate site readiness or utility capacity, provide inconsistent information or rely on generic promotional language rather than answering the project’s actual questions.

That underscores the importance of GRP’s investment in regional research and data.

Our research function increasingly goes beyond responding to RFIs. It helps us understand how Greater Richmond compares with competitor markets, identify emerging economic trends, measure industry and talent strengths and uncover potential weaknesses before they affect a project. It is also why we built our regional Data Dashboard, which puts current demographic, workforce and industry data in front of companies, consultants and regional partners on demand. Our research team stays involved at every stage, from a consultant’s first look at the region through final due diligence, answering the project-specific questions the dashboard can’t.

That intelligence can also help regional leaders make better decisions about infrastructure, talent, sites and other investments that ultimately determine Greater Richmond’s competitiveness.

As site selection becomes increasingly data-driven and risk-conscious, high-quality regional intelligence becomes part of the product we offer.

From promoter to trusted advisor

Perhaps the report’s most important lesson for economic development organizations isn’t about power, sites or workforce.

It’s about trust.

The strongest economic development organizations are evolving beyond simply promoting their communities. They understand the project, acknowledge challenges, bring the right partners to the table and help companies solve problems.

As the report describes it, they move from selling to advising.

That evolution also reflects the role envisioned through GRP’s strategic planning process.

Our job is not simply to generate leads or market Greater Richmond. It is to provide the regional intelligence, relationships and problem-solving capacity that help companies make informed location decisions and help our partners successfully compete for investment.

And that relationship shouldn’t end when a project is announced.

The Guild recommends formal project aftercare that continues through permitting, utility connections, workforce onboarding and implementation.

That is an important reminder that a successful economic development project isn’t simply one that gets announced. It is one that gets built, hires employees, succeeds and grows.

Our strategic plan meets the market

When GRP developed our strategic plan, we set out to position Greater Richmond for the next era of economic development by focusing on competitiveness, talent, innovation, regional assets and stronger industry engagement.

The 2026 State of Site Selection provides an important external perspective on that strategy.

It tells us that companies increasingly need certainty around infrastructure and sites. Our competitiveness work can help identify and address those issues.

It tells us that specialized talent is becoming more important. Our talent strategy can help connect employers with the educational and workforce resources needed to build that pipeline.

It tells us that industry expertise matters. Our Industry Councils and cluster-focused research can help us go deeper into the sectors and sub-sectors where Greater Richmond has a meaningful advantage.

It tells us that accurate, sophisticated information builds trust. Our research capabilities can help companies understand Greater Richmond while helping regional leaders understand where we need to improve.

And it tells us that execution matters as much as promotion. GRP’s role as a regional convener allows us to bring together the public- and private-sector partners necessary to move projects from consideration to investment.

In that sense, the State of Site Selection doesn’t point Greater Richmond toward an entirely new strategy. It validates and sharpens many of the priorities already established in our strategic plan.

Making certainty part of Greater Richmond’s value proposition

The next opportunity is to make certainty itself part of Greater Richmond’s value proposition:

Can we demonstrate the power?
Can we document the workforce?
Can we show the permitting pathway?
Can we identify the sites that are truly ready?
Can we understand potential community concerns before they become obstacles?
Can we provide the data companies need to make a decision?
And can we bring the right regional partners together quickly enough to solve problems?

Those questions can help guide the next phase of Greater Richmond’s future.

Our strategy provides the framework. Research such as the State of Site Selection allows us to continually question that strategy against what companies and site selectors are experiencing in the marketplace, and adjust our work as the competitive environment changes.

Greater Richmond is no longer competing on cost, location or quality of life alone. We are competing on our ability to execute, and that is a case built on evidence rather than adjectives. The strongest pitch we can make is not a list of reasons to choose Greater Richmond. It is the proof that Greater Richmond can deliver.

About The Author

Jennifer Wakefield, APR, is the president and chief executive officer of the Greater Richmond Partnership (GRP), where she works with public and private sector stakeholders to set and drive the organizational vision. She assumed the role in February 2021 after serving in several leadership positions at GRP, including twice as interim president and CEO. Before joining GRP, she spent 11 years leading marketing and communications for the Orlando Economic Development Commission. A recognized thought leader in economic development marketing, she serves on the board of the International Economic Development Council.

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