Site Selection Planning Checklist

Before comparing locations, make sure your team has clearly defined what the project requires from a U.S. location.

This practical checklist helps manufacturing and industrial companies organize project requirements, align stakeholders, and identify questions that may need further evaluation before or during the site selection process.

Designed to Complement Your Existing Process

Experienced industrial and manufacturing teams often have established processes for evaluating investments, defining project requirements, and making location decisions. This checklist is not intended to replace those processes.

Instead, it serves as a practical reference for reviewing factors that may influence a site selection project and bringing different perspectives into the same discussion.

✓ Review existing project requirements

✓ Support cross-functional discussions

✓ Align stakeholders around location considerations

✓ Identify questions that may need further evaluation

✓ Prepare for conversations with site selection professionals

Bring Multiple Perspectives Together

A site selection decision can involve leadership, operations, finance, workforce, engineering, supply chain, outside advisors, and other stakeholders. Each group may already have requirements defined for its area. The checklist provides a shared reference for bringing those considerations into the broader location planning conversation.

Leadership can clarify strategic priorities. Operations can define facility and production needs. Finance can review investment considerations, while workforce and HR teams consider talent and relocation needs. Supply chain and engineering teams can assess logistics, infrastructure, and utilities. Outside advisors may also have relevant requirements and planning considerations.

The goal is not to replace expertise. It is to bring the right considerations into the same conversation.

Review the Requirements That Shape Location Decisions

The checklist covers the major areas your team may want to review before beginning a U.S. industrial or manufacturing site selection project.

Project Overview - Project type, purpose, operational scale, existing locations, estimated capital investment, and major capital expenditures.

Project Timeline - Project start, operational target, location decision date, major milestones, deadlines, and timeline flexibility.

Facility Requirements - Square footage, production space, warehouse or distribution needs, office space, building specifications, specialized requirements, and future expansion.

Infrastructure & Utilities - Power, water, wastewater, natural gas, telecommunications, transportation, rail, highway access, and airport or port access.

Workforce Requirements - Initial headcount, occupations, skills, shifts, future hiring, training, and hiring timelines.

Geographic Preferences - Preferred states or regions, markets of interest, areas to avoid, current operations, customers, suppliers, transportation, and workforce availability.

Housing & Relocation - Executive and employee relocation, housing availability and affordability, commuting, and short-term housing.

Development & Professional Resources - Construction, architecture, engineering, environmental services, site development, permitting, and other project resources.

Decision-Making - Decision-makers, stakeholder roles, criteria, non-negotiable requirements, trade-offs, approvals, and the target decision timeline.

Use the Checklist as a Working Reference

Compare the checklist with the requirements and processes already established for your project. Use it as a shared reference across the teams involved in the location decision, then highlight areas where additional information, analysis, or discussion may be needed.

Before evaluating locations, review project scope, capital investment, timeline, facility size, production requirements, expansion capacity, infrastructure, workforce needs, geographic preferences, housing considerations, and decision authority.

A completed checklist can help prepare your team for discussions with outside advisors and site selection professionals.

What Does Your Operation Actually Require From a Location?

Every project is different. The requirements that matter most will depend on the operation, investment, workforce, infrastructure, logistics, geographic strategy, and long-term plans.

A location should support the operation today and as it grows.

Gain a Clearer Location Perspective

We help domestic and international industrial and manufacturing companies evaluate how operational requirements translate into U.S. location strategy.

Your team brings the operational expertise, investment objectives, and strategic priorities behind the project. We bring an additional location-focused perspective informed by site selection analysis, workforce and labor considerations, infrastructure, logistics, incentives, economic development coordination, housing and relocation, and other factors that can influence location strategy.

Whether you are evaluating a new manufacturing facility, production expansion, operational relocation, warehouse, distribution operation, or supply chain location, the checklist can help create a clearer starting point for a more informed location evaluation.

Turn Planning Into a Clearer Location Strategy

For teams that want an outside, location-focused perspective on their project requirements and U.S. location strategy, Schedule a conversation.