Ken Biberaj is a site selector at Savills who specializes in advanced manufacturing. He's become the go-to guide for modern industrial companies navigating site selection – usually for the first time.
The way he sees it, the best innovators in America are no longer building apps to deliver food. They're building battery technology, rare earth mineral processing, drones, autonomous systems. The best and brightest are physically building things again.
"By helping these companies figure out where to put these projects, it is now something that is of the largest order of magnitude for our country," Biberaj says.
But this new breed of industrial upstart – companies like Anduril, Divergent, Hadrian, Hermeus, Saronic, Redwood Materials – don't operate like Lockheed Martin, Toyota, or Eli Lilly.
"A lot of these companies don't have real estate departments," Biberaj says. "They don't have government affairs departments."
State economic development leaders used to winning Fortune 500 projects are now competing for a different animal.
Here's what Biberaj says they need to understand.
1. 🇺🇸 Washington Matters
Biberaj is based in Washington, which gives him an edge.
"This is the first time that Washington has mattered from a real estate perspective," he says, "because so much of that innovation requires the buying power and support of the federal government."
That support emanates from places like the Pentagon's Office of Strategic Capital, the Office of Energy Dominance Financing, and the Export-Import Bank.
For states trying to lure companies receiving federal backing, this changes the game.
"Understanding what's happening in DC – that's a new part of your job," Biberaj says of economic development leaders. "That wasn't the case two years ago because some of these companies now getting billions from the federal government didn't even exist three years ago."
States and regions winning these deals are getting out of their communities – showing up in El Segundo, visiting MIT, coming to DC to learn who the new players are.
2. 🪖 Understand Your National Security Nexus
"I don't know how many real estate brokers comb through the President's National Security Strategy," Biberaj tells me. But on page 13, it calls for the reindustrialization of America.
His point: the imperative to compete with adversaries and advance American interests has added a national security layer to domestic manufacturing – aerospace, defense, critical minerals, energy, shipbuilding.
Finding the nexus between federal policy and state and local assets is key for states looking to land the projects these companies are siting.
Your state has port infrastructure, but do you have a shipbuilding strategy?
If you have airports, do you have a drone or eVTOL strategy? Biberaj says if your airport director doesn't know what eVTOLs are, you need to catch up.
"I was at a conference recently and I asked 90 different local and regional economic development leaders, 'Have you created your own state national security strategy to meet the national security strategy?'" Biberaj says.
"Nobody had obviously. But I mean that in sincerity. Every state and locality should be responding to this national reindustrialization."
States that have aligned their assets with federal priorities – and can articulate why – are the ones these companies take seriously.
3. 🗺 Find Your Niche, Build Your Narrative
These startups aren't locked into legacy supplier networks. That means the map is wide open.
"If energy companies in the past had to be in Arizona for solar or in Louisiana for gas and Texas for oil, now Redwood Materials is building batteries in Nevada and South Carolina. People are building aerospace in Ohio and Utah," Biberaj says.
There's an opening for places doing the work to define their competitive advantage and where they fit into industrial policy.
"Tulsa wants to be known for drone technology. Utah wants to be known for aerospace. Louisiana wants to be known for shipbuilding. Some of these states are developing their own narrative and ecosystem to attract more of that business."
But it can be a dead end for those that haven't.
"When I as a site selector go to a community and ask, what kind of project is good for your community – if they say 'everything, just bring us what you got' – that to me means you haven't done the hard work," Biberaj says. "You're not thinking critically."
This matters especially for unicorns because they're under the microscope. Bankers and investors scrutinize their site selection as part of due diligence when they go to raise money and eventually IPO.
4. 🤝 Show That Government Can Be Their Partner
Many founders setting out on site selection for the first time aren't used to government feeling like a friend.
"If you're coming from New York or California, you're used to a cumbersome regulatory environment – you don't think government is your friend," Biberaj says. "Then you have a governor calling you, asking you, what do you need? I'll pick you up at the airport. And the guy who signs the permits is gonna be in the car with us."
"That's mind-blowing," he says. "What a relief for a client to see that a community is not only eager for them to come, but they're going to make it quick, easy, and efficient."
5. ⚠ Don’t Let Data Centers Crowd Them Out
Data centers are paying top dollar for sites and power, and utilities are backlogged chasing that demand.
Biberaj says his clients can sometimes encounter a kind of arrogance when they show up – utilities calibrated to hyperscalers, not advanced manufacturers.
He worries about the trickle down effect of data centers – stirring local opposition, clogging power pipelines, and consuming the attention of economic developers – on addressing national imperatives.
"This is maybe a call to governors and municipalities working with utilities," Biberaj says. "Understanding who our clients are and that they're not data centers is an important aspect of this."
The bottom line: These companies are building the next generation of American industry. The states that understand how they think – and signal that they get the moment – will win them.
