SPECIAL REPORT

Gary Daughters’ report on the region includes:

• An overview of why the area is “Busting Loose.”
• His conversation with city father and retired Bank of America CEO Hugh McColl, “The Man Who Built Charlotte.”
• An exploration of why “Young People Are Choosing Charlotte.”
• A look at the reasons behind the region’s electric vehicle leadership in “Eyes on EVs”
• Why a thriving sports culture is about “More Than Just Fun & Games.”

DATA CENTERS

Electricity is the new gold in the race to build more data centers, reports Ron Starner.

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This is one of the busiest weeks of the year at Walt Disney World Resort in Orlando, Florida.

Photo by JHVEPhoto: Getty Images

On the brink of one of Walt Disney World’s busiest weeks of the year, The Walt Disney Company last week unveiled a new research report that says the company generated $40 billion in economic impact across Florida and more than a quarter of a million total jobs in fiscal year 2022. See Site Selection’s reporting on the continuing tension between the company and Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis in an otherwise glowing Florida Spotlight published earlier this year. The company says it generates $6.6 billion in tax revenue in the state and that without its impact, the state’s unemployment rate would jump from 3% to 5.4%. Disney in September announced plans to “accelerate and expand investment in its Parks, Experiences and Products segment to nearly double capital expenditures

This story about Walt Disney's work with Stanford Research Institute to find a location for what became Disneyland appeared in our September/October 1954 issue.

over the course of approximately 10 years to roughly $60 billion.”

Site Selection has reported on Disney development activities for most of the publication’s 70 years, including a piece (photo below) documenting site selection for the original Disneyland in California and an Investment Profile of San Bernardino County in our September 2023 issue that includes Ron Starner’ conversation with the founder of the company that makes the amusement parks’ animatronics.

Graphic courtesy of WIPO

The World Intellectual Property Organization (WIPO) in September released its Global Innovation Index 2023, which finds WIPO’s home country of Switzerland topping all countries for the 13th year in a row, followed by Sweden, the United States, the United Kingdom and Singapore.

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Photo courtesy of CLUI

If you’ve never visited the Center for Land Use Interpretation, hold onto your hats because you’re in for a trip. Describing itself as “dedicated to the increase and diffusion of knowledge about how the nation's lands are apportioned, utilized and perceived,” the center’s Land Use Database provides what it calls “an evolving and expanding catalog of unusual and exemplary places across the USA,” including industrial plants across the nation and the still-unfolding show business story behind this image of the Nipomo dune field on the California coast.