Research
We'll continue to add more data as we find it. Please use this information in your letters to officials (local and state) and with your neighbors. See something really intriguing? Link this page to your Facebook and email your county friends!
Virginia MegaSites - A visual study in economic development failure (and wasted tax dollars)
USA Megasites (dated 2015)
Want to learn more about Site Selection? This is a valuable source. Site Selection Magazine online
List of Southern Megasites from Southern Business and Development magazine.
Advanced Manufacturing does not always work out as advertised: (most of these happened since Fall 2017)
- Here's a fascinating 2014 Washington Post article about our county's most-mentioned megasite in Smyrna, TN
- https://www.bloomberg.com/news/features/2017-03-23/inside-alabama-s-auto-jobs-boom-cheap-wages-little-training-crushed-limbs
- https://www.usatoday.com/story/money/cars/2018/04/03/bmw-auto-worker-dies-head-trauma-s-c-plant-accident/483827002/
- https://www.usnews.com/news/best-states/pennsylvania/artiles/2018-02-02/2-killed-1-critical-after-accident-at-crane-manufacturer
- https://www.desmoinesregister.com/story/news/2018/01/21/danfoss-employee-who-died-ames-factory-identified/1052046001/
- https://www.publicopiniononline.com/story/news/local/2018/02/28/man-reported-dead-mellot-manufacturing-police-say/382600002/
- http://philadelphia.cbslocal.com/2017/10/06/worker-dies-after-accident-at-a-manufacturing-facility-in-fairless-hills/
- https://www.usnews.com/news/best-states/virginia/articles/2017-12-14/treading-dangerously-lax-safety-inside-goodyear-tire-plants
- http://www.parispi.net/news/local_news/article_4bbbf952-c8e1-11e7-8957-6be27c495788.html
- https://www.usnews.com/news/best-states/indiana/articles/2017-10-23/worker-killed-at-southern-indiana-auto-parts-factory (article cites "willful violations by company")
With code name, how Toyota-Mazda set off secret race for 4,000-job plant -- read this to see, in detail, how some very exceptional, established megasites competed for this project. Notice the map -- Virginia is NOT highlighted, though former Sec. Haymore stated on 4/11 that Chesterfield's potential megasite property was "in play" -- we call "baloney" on that.
South Carolina Awarded These Corporate Grants from 2011-2014 --
$293,919,337 grants awarded. 24,688 announced jobs.
STAND UP FOR RURAL SHENANDOAH COUNTY (check out the More Research link)
Chance Favors the Prepared Megasite
Subsidy Tracker Database - fascinating!!! We've all heard of "Corporate Welfare," right? This database shows the money multi-nationals are getting from taxpayers state by state.
Randolph County, NC, after a few years of no tenant interest, began community meetings about acquiring right-of-way for water, sewer, and power lines. Will the land grabs ever end?
Chesterfield County says it won't build infrastructure until it has an interested tenant. Can we believe them?
- Probably not. Here's why:
- "Large manufacturing firms like Boeing, BMW, Continental Tire and others are looking for basically the same things. In addition to generous incentive packages from states and counties and no unionization headaches, they want sites that already are serviced with water and sewer, have convenient interstate access and existing rail lines, among other factors." Source
More Megasite Failures - SC's Central Megasite in Kershaw County - NO TENANT found since approving site in 2011! Named one of the “Best MegaSites in the Southeast" in 2016 -- still no tenant on the 1,426 acre site.
More megasite news showing a shovel-ready site is essential to catching a big fish.
Urban Land Institute Report to Chesterfield on Meadowville Technology Park (MTP) in 2005