They dig into Western South Carolina’s effort to develop a 1,900-acre industrial park, the growing constraint of electrical capacity, and the heated debate surrounding data centers.

Will argues that communities should evaluate data centers the same way they evaluate other industrial projects: by looking carefully at infrastructure, utilities, location, tax impact, jobs, and community compatibility rather than reacting to misinformation or fear.

The conversation ultimately becomes one about trust, communication, zoning, AI, long-term community building, and the economic developer’s role as the “connective tissue”, or, as Will puts it, “community duct tape”, that holds people and institutions together.

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10 Actionable Takeaways for Economic Developers

1. Start planning electrical capacity earlier. Large projects increasingly require enormous amounts of generation and transmission capacity, making power availability a fundamental site-readiness issue rather than something to address after a prospect appears.
2. Build sites for the next generation of projects, not the last one. Western South Carolina spent years assembling 1,900 acres because larger contiguous sites with strong interstate and workforce access can take years to create.
3. Treat data centers like any other industrial prospect. Examine electricity, water, sewer, noise, location, jobs, taxes, and infrastructure requirements instead of automatically treating the industry as either uniquely good or uniquely bad.
4. Put intensive uses where they belong. Good land-use planning and appropriate buffers can prevent many conflicts before a project is announced. Will specifically points to industrial locations and property-line noise standards as tools communities can use.
5. Don't mistake the loudest voices for the entire community. Public meetings can amplify a small group of highly motivated opponents, so economic developers and elected officials should seek broader community understanding before assuming opposition is universal.
6. Communicate before controversy forces you to. Economic development can no longer happen entirely “in the kitchen.” Practitioners need systems for explaining projects publicly while still respecting legitimate company confidentiality.
7. Use your track record to build trust. When skepticism is high, point to previous projects, their actual outcomes, and the community's experience rather than relying only on promises about a new project.
8. Recognize that automation changes jobs more often than it simply eliminates them. Will compares today's AI concerns with earlier fears around manufacturing automation, which increased the need for more skilled workers even as processes became more automated.
9. Think in decades. Will expects the new industrial park to develop over roughly 25 years. Economic developers should be comfortable investing in infrastructure and assets whose full payoff may come long after their own tenure.
10. Build a network far beyond the usual power players. Will's career advice is to “grow where you're planted” and know as many people as possible—not just utility executives and elected officials. Those relationships become sources of information, introductions, and problem-solving capacity.

Special Guest: Will Williams.

Links:

• Will Williams | LinkedIn
• Home - WesternSC

Damian shares how his move to Liberal, Kansas changed the way he thinks about community, belonging, and the people-first side of economic development.

The conversation moves from rural marketing and relationship-building to Yukon’s new incentive policy, the Miller Crossing project, TIFs, sports tourism, and the increasingly complicated question of data centers. For economic developers, this episode is a reminder that projects matter, but trust, policy, infrastructure, and community buy-in are what make growth work.

10 Actionable Takeaways for Economic Developers

1. Build the relationship before you need the deal. Damian’s approach is clear: trust opens doors with property owners, developers, tenant reps, brokers, city departments, and regional partners.
2. Create policy before the pressure hits. Yukon’s work on incentive and economic development policies gave the city a framework for handling projects, negotiations, and community expectations.
3. Treat residents as part of the project equation. Especially in communities reliant on sales tax, residents need to see why a project matters and how it benefits the place they live, work, and raise families.
4. Use incentives to create community value, not just close deals. Yukon’s requirements around chamber membership, public art, city services, and community impact show how development agreements can ask more from projects.
5. Do the infrastructure homework early. For data centers and other major projects, water, power, utilities, noise, and capacity questions need to be understood before promises are made.
6. Do not reduce data centers to job counts. Damian notes that a data center may bring only 20 to 25 jobs, but the broader financial and infrastructure deal can still matter if negotiated well.
7. Know what your community can realistically support. Economic developers should understand market capacity, utility capacity, resident concerns, and policy constraints before pursuing major industrial or technology projects.
8. Move quickly, but do not confuse speed with sloppiness. Yukon’s Miller Crossing TIF moved in less than 60 days, but Damian also emphasized the stress, negotiation, and policy work behind that speed.
9. Let personal experience shape professional practice. Damian’s time in Liberal, Kansas changed how he thinks about belonging, service, and the human side of economic development.
10. Remember that buildings do not build communities by themselves. Projects, investment, and development matter, but the strongest communities are built through people, trust, participation, and shared pride.

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Special Guest: Damien Denmark.

Sponsored By:

• Sitehunt: Sitehunt helps economic developers understand their sites, match them to projects, and respond with confidence in minutes instead of scrambling for days.

Links:

• Damien Denmark | LinkedIn
• Yukon, OK | Official Website
• Rural Marketing for Chambers, EDOs & Cities

Anna explains how power availability, behind-the-meter solutions, and infrastructure capital are shaping everything from advanced manufacturing to data centers, and why communities need to rethink economic development beyond job counts and CapEx.

The conversation also covers community backlash, board education, regenerative industrial ecosystems, family office conferences as an overlooked deal source, and how economic developers can become more empowered, proactive, and creative in building their own pipelines.

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Special Guest: Anna Cardona.

Sponsored By:

• Sitehunt: Sitehunt helps economic developers understand their sites, match them to projects, and respond with confidence in minutes instead of scrambling for days.

Links:

• Anna Cardona | LinkedIn
• Wolves Development Group

Heath shares how a four-and-a-half-person team coordinates across municipalities, tribal nations, academia, and public health to execute a regional strategy that blends quantitative results with qualitative community engagement.

From a $1.2 billion battery manufacturing project to evolving policies on nondisclosure agreements and enhanced due diligence, this conversation offers a behind-the-scenes look at modern county-level economic development in action

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Special Guest: Heath Vescovi-Chiordi.

Sponsored By:

• Sitehunt: Sitehunt helps economic developers understand their sites, match them to projects, and respond with confidence in minutes instead of scrambling for days.

Links:

• Heath Vescovi-Chiordi, MPA, AZED Pro | LinkedIn — Heath Vescovi-Chiordi, MPA, AZED Pro
• Economic Development | Pima County, AZ

Tim explains how explosive demand from data centers and industrial users is overwhelming electric utilities, reshaping incentive policy, and lengthening timelines for securing capacity. He breaks down the biggest misconceptions around power lead times, why transmission is often the bottleneck, how utilities are adapting with costly engineering studies and take-or-pay requirements, and what steps EDOs must take to credibly position their sites.

This is a masterclass on the new electricity-driven geography of economic development.

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Ten Actionable Takeaways for Economic Developers

1. Build strong, direct relationships with utility contacts who will actually talk to prospects.
2. Understand that real timelines for securing large loads run in years, not months.
3. Work with utilities to pre-identify transmission routes and right-of-way feasibility.
4. Gather realistic load estimates from prospects instead of just taking their engineer's peak numbers.
5. Know whether your sites already sit near substations with real remaining capacity.
6. Incorporate redundancy needs early, since 100 percent backup can double infrastructure requirements.
7. Prepare for developers who request huge speculative loads and learn how to differentiate serious projects.
8. Recognize that incentives tied to data centers may face political pressure due to ratepayer impacts.
9. Push utilities and state partners to invest in long-range planning that anticipates industrial and data center growth.
10. Educate local stakeholders that modern site readiness now includes power readiness as a top priority.

Special Guest: Timothy Comeford.

Sponsored By:

• Sitehunt: Sitehunt helps economic developers understand their sites, match them to projects, and respond with confidence in minutes instead of scrambling for days.

Links:

• Market Update: The Growing Demand for Data Centers
• Tim Comerford | LinkedIn
• Biggins Lacy Shapiro & Co.
• Timothy R. Comerford | BLS & Co.