Site Selectors Are People, Too

When a new economic development project lands and the ribbon is cut, everyone celebrates the new jobs. But an unasked question often remains for the new hires: where are we supposed to live? In this episode of Site Selectors Are People, Too, host Devin Hillsdon-Smith sits down with Marisa Conatser, Senior Development Director at TWG Development, to discuss why housing needs to be treated as critical infrastructure—not just a "quality of life" slide at the back of a pitch deck. Marisa takes us behind the scenes of the housing industry to explain the mechanics of how market-rate, affordable, and workforce housing deals actually get done. Devin and Marisa discuss: Defining the Terms: The real difference between affordable housing (30-60% Area Median Income) and workforce housing (50-80% AMI). The Capital Stack: A look under the hood of a typical $30M housing development and how it gets funded. Tax Credits Explained: Breaking down the Federal and State Low-Income Housing Tax Credit (LIHTC) programs, including the difference between 4% and 9% credits. Local Incentives: How communities can be good partners to developers using tools like PILOTs (Payment in Lieu of Taxes), creative tax abatements, and land donations. Streamlining Development: Actionable advice for local governments to de-risk projects through fast-track zoning and smoother entitlement processes. Whether you're an economic developer, a community leader, or just curious about how communities manage growth, this episode provides a masterclass on bridging the gap between bringing in jobs and building homes for the workforce.   Guest info: Marisa Conatser Senior Development Director TWG Development [email protected]

In this special crossover episode of Site Selectors are People Too, host Devin Hillsdon-Smith reconnects with longtime friend and industry powerhouse Keeley Stingel. With a career spanning state government (OCRA), regional economic development (Radius Indiana), elected office, and now the private sector with Garmon Construction, Keeley brings a 360-degree perspective on how communities actually grow. Devin and Keeley dive deep into the realities of transitioning from public service—where communities come to you—to the private sector, where you must continuously demonstrate value. They explore the critical gap that private partners fill in closing deals and bringing local visions to life, emphasizing that economic development is fundamentally a relationship business. Key Topics Discussed: The Public-to-Private Shift: How moving to Garmon Construction changed Keeley’s approach to solving community problems and driving development. Networking in a Post-COVID World: Why face-to-face interactions still move the needle and how to stay top-of-mind without being obnoxious. The "Extroverted Introvert" Dilemma: Managing your social battery, recognizing when you need to recharge, and giving yourself grace during busy seasons. Building Championship Habits: How drawing inspiration from Nick Saban’s coaching philosophy and Atomic Habits can replace a traditional CRM with sustainable, daily networking habits. Self-Care as a Business Strategy: Navigating Seasonal Affective Disorder (SAD), establishing morning routines, and why you must take care of yourself before you can take care of your network. Special Crossover Event: This episode is Part 1 of a two-part series! Once you finish this conversation, head over to Apple or Spotify and search for the Driving Change podcast. In Part 2, Keeley flips the script and puts Devin in the hot seat.   Guest information: Keeley Stingel Strategic Development Director Garmong Construction [email protected]

The era of easy data center approvals is over. Across the country, massive billion-dollar hyperscaler projects are facing unprecedented local opposition. The party of big announcements and giant ribbon cuttings was fun, but communities are waking up with a "hyperscaler hangover" and asking hard questions about what exactly they agreed to. In this episode of Site Selectors Are People, Too, host Devin Hillsdon-Smith breaks down why the tide has turned on data center developments and how economic development organizations (EDOs) have been making the case for them all wrong. We dive into the four major concerns driving community pushback—water usage, noise, tax breaks, and jobs—and why developers can no longer rely on secrecy, code names, and vague promises to get deals done. Key topics in this episode include: The Big Disconnect: Why data centers are tax base projects, not job creators, and why overselling them as "job projects" destroys community trust. The Real Community Concerns: The difference between evaporative and closed-loop cooling, the reality of constant low-frequency noise, and the true cost of state tax exemptions. The Ratepayer Nightmare: How utility tariffs, minimum demand charges, and exit fees can protect local residents if a massive data center campus shows up half-empty. The "Honest Data Center Readiness Sheet": A crucial one-page checklist every economic developer needs to fill out before stepping up to the microphone at a public zoning hearing. The Nerd Section: Devin pulls out the calculator to explain the "but-for haircut" on state incentives and how to calculate a project's true net local fiscal impact. Whether you're an economic developer, a site selector, or a community member trying to understand the sudden boom of data centers in your county, this episode is your guide to navigating the new reality of hyperscale development. Sometimes, the best way to get a good deal passed is knowing when to walk away from a bad one.

It’s month eighteen. The ribbon-cutting photo is still on your office wall, but the compliance report just landed in your inbox—and the company you fought so hard to win is miles short of its job targets. Now what? This week on Site Selectors Are People, Too, Devin tackles the hardest conversation in economic development: the clawback. When a project goes sideways after the giant scissors are put away, EDOs are often left holding two conflicting promises—one to the company, and one to the taxpayers. Using the composite story of Marston County and "Halvern Components," Devin breaks down the reality of post-announcement project management, exploring why missed targets are rarely villainy and usually just the realities of delayed switchgear or shifting labor markets. In this episode, we cover: The Four Doors of Clawbacks: Why enforcing an agreement isn't just a binary switch (Enforce, Pause, Renegotiate, or Wait) and what each door costs you. The Three Questions: How to confidently choose your path and explain it to your board (Delay or downsize? Did they call first? Was it in their control?). The Nerd Section: The 6 anatomical parts of every performance agreement, the math behind pro-rata recapture, and why "threshold bands" save relationships. The Post-Ribbon Playbook: 7 structural lifelines you need in every deal before the ink dries, and how to build a Project Announcement Compliance Calendar so nobody drops the ball. Write the clawback like you’ll have to use it. Write the relationship like you’ll never have to.

This week on Site Selectors Are People, Too, host Devin Hillsdon-Smith turns the camera around. While past episodes have focused on economic developers, this installment is a playbook specifically for site selection consultants. It’s time to tackle the side of the process EDOs rarely get to see: managing the corporate client. From hidden executive preferences to shifting timelines, Devin breaks down the unspoken human elements that secretly drive multi-million dollar location decisions and how consultants can navigate them honestly. In this episode, we cover: The Invisible Criteria: Why unwritten factors—like the CEO's lake cabin, family relocation needs, and institutional scar tissue—often override the formal RFP. Moving the Goalposts: How to handle mid-search changes in leadership or project scope by re-baselining, rather than just absorbing the chaos and wasting community resources. The Preferred Site Problem: What to do when the client already has a favorite location in mind before the analysis even begins, and how to test it without rigging the process. The Power of "No": Identifying the critical moments you owe your client a direct pushback, and how to deliver hard truths about fatal flaws or unrealistic timelines using the "no, but" framework. The Nerd Section: A deep dive into the principal-agent problem and the trap of "decision-based evidence making"—where matrix weights are quietly shifted to justify a pre-determined winner. Plus, stick around for a highly practical, 7-question kickoff discovery script you can steal for your next engagement to surface a client's true motivations in week one. Whether you are a consultant trying to keep a complex project on the rails or an economic developer wondering why a surefire deal suddenly went quiet, this episode pulls back the curtain on how site selection actually works.