BLS & Co. Executive Managing Director Jay Biggins spoke with Site Selection Magazine on what Intel's massive investment in Ohio means for the Midwest and beyond.

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The ink on Intel’s $20 billion investment deal in Ohio was barely dry in January when experts started weighing in on the long-term impact of the deal.

Much of the analysis in the press centered on Ohio’s $2 billion incentives package for the $200 billion California-based company, but the ramifications of this project in New Albany on the outskirts of Columbus go much further than that.

What does Intel’s semiconductor manufacturing gambit — the first ever to land in the Midwest — mean for the industry?

Site consultant Jay Biggins of Biggins Lacy Shapiro says, “In many ways, this project was less about the incentives than the state’s readiness and ability to assemble and deliver the site. It requires the state and local governments to cooperate in an affirmative strategy to assemble large sites and equip them with the needed infrastructure and deliver them on a reliable schedule that companies can trust. They had to begin that assemblage in advance. That is a long-term investment that is worth making. If there is a lesson coming out of the Intel project, that is it.”