Issue 7

Writing Team

We started this issue by reconstructing a deal in Gadsden, Alabama: a $430 million automotive components campus, rising on ground that was a Superfund steel site when EPA began cleanup in 2007. Nearly two decades of environmental work before private capital arrived. That timeline forced a question we couldn't set aside. If proof expires and your team can only keep a few site uncertainties current, which ones do you retire first? Most of what follows is our framework for making that call.

Ruth Anne Bridwell

Ruth Anne Bridwell has covered U.S. manufacturing site economics for over two decades, from Rust Belt plant closings to the current reshoring wave. Her career spans municipal reporting, national trade press, and practitioner-facing intelligence products for economic development agencies. She writes compressed, attribute-specific analysis that translates sector dynamics into the infrastructure and workforce requirements tier-3 cities need to evaluate.

Issue 7