MIAMI-From gateway American cities to inland areas in CentralEurope, industrial and manufacturing is making a comeback. Withmajor developers constructing new buildings and repurposingexisting properties, SIOR executives toldGlobeSt.com during an exclusive interview inside the PresidentialSuite at the organization’s 2012 Spring World Conference thatcities across the country and beyond are seeing growth.

“The term is on-shoring, and it is a very real phenomenon,” saidSIOR president Geoff Kreusser. “ Wages have beengoing up 20% a year in China and US wages have actually dropped 20%over the last four years for manufacturing,” explaining thattransportation costs alone make it more feasible to manufacturegoods in the States. “It does not make sense to make lots of typesof products on the other side of the globe and bring them all theway back here,” he added. “The wages in Mexico have increased aswell, but Mexico has also seen a lot of expansion. They’ve seen asubstantial amount of auto manufacturing that used to be done inKorea and Japan, and they’ve been wanting to make the productscloser to the US market.”

One of the other main drivers is intellectual capital, Kreussersaid. “We are finding that US corporations are losing their patentprotections in places like China, or even in Brazil,” he said.“There are all types of dealings where they don’t have full controllike they do if they manufacture it here in the US. We areexpecting this trend to continue. Last year, it created over200,000 jobs, so it’s been one of the brightest spots within the USjob sector.”