Sponsored
The West North Central Region’s largest markets, Minneapolis-St. Paul-Bloomington, MN, MS (-3%); St. Louis, MO-IL, MSA (+1%); and Kansas City, MO-KS, MSA (+1%), were seeing slow YOY growth through Sept. 2024, according to EW’s electrical sales potential estimates. On a local level, the Sioux Falls, SD, MSA, logged +6% growth to $223 million in estimated sales potential and on the state level. South Dakota led all other states in the region with +5% YOY growth to $589 million in sales potential. Missouri’s state-level growth of +4% YOY to roughly $2.9 billion was twice the national average.
Despite the sluggish growth numbers, there were still some impressive construction projects in the pipeline. St. Louis plans to build a new $3-billion airport, and the area also has a $2.1-billiion Novo Nordisk plant underway; and a proposal on the table for the $650-million 483,000-sq-ft Mercy hospital in Wentzville, MO. You can usually find a bunch of data centers underway or being planned in Iowa and Nebraska, and this year is no exception. There’s at least $2.5 billion in data center work underway, in the pipeline or nearing completion, including projects in Omaha, NE; Cedar Rapids, IA; and West Des Moines, IA.
Positioned squarely in the nation’s wind belt, over the past few years the region has been home to some large wind farms. The largest wind farm underway now in the area, according to EW research, is the $533-million Flat Ridge Wind Farm in Harper and Kingman Counties in Kansas. The $750-million High Banks wind farm in Belleville, KS, is also in the planning stage.