Welcome to Great Lakes Growth Report, a newslettter brought to you by the Great Lakes Economic Development Council. Growth Report brings you economic development news, announcements and issues from across the Great Lakes region. We welcome your feedback and suggestions. Send story ideas, announcements or events to info@greatlakesedc.org
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This Week in Perspective
The most important theme this week may be reshoring becoming tangible rather than theoretical. VIA Rail’s decision to build passenger cars in Ontario and Québec, Stellantis’ commitment to bring Belvidere back online and the national reshoring survey all point in the same direction: companies and governments are placing greater value on domestic capacity, resilient supply chains and reduced exposure to trade disruptions.
At the same time, power is moving to the front of the economic development agenda. Consumers Energy’s $1.3 billion Michigan project and the economic-development results reported by PPL and Ameren show that communities competing for manufacturing, technology and data-center projects increasingly need an energy strategy alongside their traditional site, workforce and incentive strategies.
Finally, advanced technology is not replacing Great Lakes manufacturing so much as changing what the region manufactures. Xanadu’s quantum hardware operation in Toronto and the expanding aerospace cluster in Southwest Ohio demonstrate how established manufacturing capabilities can become platforms for entirely new industries.
Alstom Lands C$4.7 Billion VIA Rail Deal, Bringing Rail-Car Manufacturing Back to Ontario and Québec
Alstom Canada will design, manufacture and support 313 new VIA Rail passenger cars under a C$4.7 billion agreement announced Sept. 3. Design and engineering will take place in Saint-Bruno-de-Montarville, Québec; car bodies will be manufactured in La Pocatière; and final assembly will occur in Thunder Bay, Ontario. The project is expected to create or support as many as 670 direct
Alstom jobs, along with hundreds more throughout the Canadian supply chain.
The deal is particularly significant from a reshoring perspective: passenger cars previously sourced from the United States will once again be manufactured domestically. Alstom estimates the project will add more than C$1.6 billion to Canadian GDP and strengthen rail-manufacturing capacity against future trade disruptions. More: Alstom project announcement
Xanadu Launches C$893 Million Quantum Manufacturing Project in Toronto
Toronto-based Xanadu Quantum Technologies is moving forward with Project OPTIMISM, an C$893 million initiative that will establish a 158,000-square-foot advanced photonics research and manufacturing facility called Inception. The project is expected to create 275 jobs and give Xanadu specialized cleanrooms, precision equipment and testing capabilities needed to move photonic quantum computing from research toward commercial-scale production.
Canada is committing C$195 million through its Strategic Response Fund. The project is notable not simply as an R&D investment but as an effort to establish a domestic quantum supply chain for components, integration, assembly and testing — areas increasingly viewed as strategically important for computing, defense and cybersecurity. More: Business Facilities coverage
Stellantis Commits More Than $800 Million to Restart Belvidere Assembly Plant
Stellantis has increased its commitment to the idled Belvidere Assembly Plant in Illinois to more than $800 million, with plans to return the facility to production as part of the company’s next-generation Jeep Cherokee program. The plant has been idle since 2023, making its reopening one of the Midwest’s most closely watched manufacturing-retention stories.
The project carries importance beyond one automaker. Belvidere once anchored a network of suppliers, workers and service companies across northern Illinois and southern Wisconsin. Restarting production demonstrates the potential economic impact of reactivating existing industrial infrastructure rather than relying solely on new greenfield projects — particularly as automakers reorganize North American manufacturing footprints. More: Coverage of the Belvidere investment
Consumers Energy Plans $1.3 Billion Bay County Power Plant
Consumers Energy plans to replace its Karn plant in Essexville, Michigan, with a modern combustion-turbine facility representing approximately $1.3 billion in investment. The new Bay County plant is expected to support between 400 and 600 union construction jobs and as many as 20 permanent positions, with completion planned by 2031.
Consumers also plans a long-term power purchase agreement with Midland Cogeneration Venture. The project illustrates why electricity is becoming a central economic development issue throughout the Great Lakes: utilities are simultaneously trying to replace aging generation, accommodate industrial and data-center demand and assure prospective employers that reliable power will be available when major facilities come online. More: Midland Daily News coverage
Southwest Ohio Aerospace Cluster Tops 185 Manufacturers and Nearly 19,000 Jobs
Southwest Ohio’s aerospace industry continues to gain momentum, with more than 185 aerospace manufacturers and nearly 19,000 aerospace jobs across Greater Cincinnati. GE Aerospace alone employs more than 10,000 people in the region, while newer companies are adding another generation of aviation investment stretching north toward Dayton and Springfield.
Among the largest current projects are Beehive Industries’ $70 million expansion and 200-plus jobs and Electra’s $850 million Springfield aircraft manufacturing project, expected to create 1,975 jobs. Electra evaluated more than 140 locations before selecting Ohio, citing talent, research institutions, testing infrastructure and proximity to Wright-Patterson Air Force Base. More: Axios coverage of Southwest Ohio aerospace
Ontario Takes Top Spot in Site Selection’s 2026 Canadian Competitiveness Rankings
Ontario ranked No. 1 in Site Selection magazine’s 2026 Canadian Competitiveness Awards, based on corporate facility investment, employment creation and project activity tracked by the Conway Projects Database. Qualified Ontario projects represented approximately $4.1 billion in investment and more than 5,900 jobs during the ranking period.
Recent qualifying projects included Vianode’s $3.2 billion St. Thomas investment, Chapman’s C$200 million Markdale project, Sanofi’s C$294 million Toronto expansion and Northern Transformer’s C$152 million Barrie project. The rankings also highlighted Great Lakes communities including Brampton, where qualifying projects represented C$318 million in investment and 1,265 jobs. More: Site Selection’s 2026 Canada’s Best Locations
Ameren-Supported Projects Generate $2 Billion and 1,450 Jobs in Illinois
Ameren also earned recognition as a 2026 Site Selection Top Utility after projects across its Missouri and Illinois territories generated $3.6 billion in capital investment and more than 3,700 jobs during 2025. Within Illinois alone, companies invested approximately $2 billion and created more than 1,450 jobs in Ameren’s service territory.
One example is Manner Polymers, which invested $54 million in a new 100,000-square-foot Mount Vernon plant expected to create 60 high-wage jobs. The larger numbers reinforce the growing importance of utilities as front-line economic development partners as manufacturers place greater emphasis on electricity availability, transmission capability and project certainty during site selection.
More. Ameren economic development results
New Survey Finds Manufacturers Increasing U.S. Reshoring Activity
A new 2026 USA Reshoring Survey finds manufacturers increasingly moving production and sourcing back to the United States, creating potentially significant opportunities for Great Lakes manufacturing communities. The study surveyed 249 manufacturers, including 118 original equipment manufacturers and 131 contract manufacturers.
Among the strongest findings, 63% of OEMs plan U.S. capital expenditures during 2026 or 2027 for reshoring or other domestic expansion, while 32% of contract manufacturers are currently quoting reshoring projects — twice the level reported last year. But workforce availability and policy uncertainty remain obstacles, suggesting communities will need both prepared sites and deeper skilled-labor pipelines to capture these projects. More: Business Facilities reshoring survey coverage
PPL Earns National Recognition After Supporting $12.8 Billion in Pennsylvania Investment
PPL Electric Utilities was named one of Site Selection magazine’s 2026 Top Utilities in Economic Development after supporting 20 projects representing more than $12.8 billion in capital investment and 1,775 new jobs across its Pennsylvania service territory during 2025. Projects ranged from manufacturing and agriculture to distribution, technology and life sciences.
PPL itself plans more than $8 billion in infrastructure improvements between 2026 and 2029, while also preparing for sharply higher power demand associated with data centers and other major users. The recognition illustrates how utility economic development increasingly involves both recruitment support and the ability to demonstrate future generation and transmission capacity. More. PPL economic development recognition
