OUR APPROACH

We think like developers.
We execute like engineers.

The market doesn't need more land brokers or utility introducers. It needs people who understand every layer of the problem — and can move a project through all of them. That's the gap we fill.

OUR PHILOSOPHY

A firm built on a simple observation

The data center and large industrial power market has a structural problem. On one side you have developers and investors with capital, ambition, and deployment pressure. On the other you have utilities, landowners, municipalities, and communities that each have their own language, incentives, and timelines. Almost nobody in the market can operate fluently on both sides of that divide.

Brokers introduce parties but can't solve the technical problems. Engineering firms understand the utility side but don’t speak the developer’s language. Site selectors find land but disappear when entitlement gets hard. Developers end up assembling fragmented teams of specialists who don't coordinate well and hand off at exactly the wrong moments.

We built Still Industries to be the one firm that stays embedded through all of it. That means we need to be technically credible with utility engineers, commercially fluent with developers and investors, politically sophisticated with municipalities, and genuinely trusted by communities. That's an unusual combination. It's also the only combination that consistently produces shovel-ready projects.

Our work is most valuable not when projects are easy — but when they're hard. When a utility's initial study comes back negative and most people walk away. When a municipality is skeptical and needs to be educated. When a community has concerns that could become organized opposition. Those are the moments where deep experience and genuine relationships change outcomes.

"The market pain isn't land. It's utility delays, power that doesn’t materialize, entitlement risk, queue congestion, entitlement risk, and community opposition. That's what we solve."

David Gibson, PE — Founder

The first utility response is rarely the final answer. Experience allows us to know where to look next and find a path forward where others have stopped looking.

Still Industries

OUR METHODOLOGY

How we evaluate and advance a project

Every market and every site goes through the same structured process — so nothing gets missed and no capital gets committed to an impossible project.

1
Market identification
Before we ever visit a site
We start with the utility and transmission landscape — not the real estate market. We screen for available substation capacity, expandable transformer banks, favorable queue position, and sub-transmission access that isn't already spoken for. A market that looks attractive on paper is often constrained in ways that only become visible when you talk directly to utility engineers.
Transmission and distribution topology review
Interconnection queue analysis by substation
Utility load growth appetite and rate structure assessment
Economic development climate and municipality posture
2
Utility engagement
The step most firms skip
We engage utility engineering teams directly — not through a formal application process, but through the relationships we've built over decades of working alongside them. That means we get real information about what's feasible, what the real timeline looks like, and what problems to expect before a developer commits capital.
Pre-application technical conversations with utility engineers
Substation and feeder loading reality check
Upgrade pathway and cost range discussion
Timeline and queue position assessment
3
Site screening and origination
Power first, land second
Once we know where power is genuinely accessible, we work backward to identify land that can support the project. We engage landowners directly and screen simultaneously for zoning, environmental constraints, fiber access, water availability, and community posture.
GIS screening and land identification
Landowner engagement and control strategy
Zoning and environmental preliminary review
Fiber, water, and infrastructure access assessment
4
Entitlement and community
Where projects win or lose
Entitlement is where most projects stall — not because the project isn't viable, but because the developer didn't build the right relationships early enough. We engage municipalities and communities before we need anything from them, positioning projects as economic development assets.
Economic development authority and municipal outreach
Zoning strategy and variance planning
Community stakeholder engagement and opposition mitigation
Permit coordination and submission management
5
Feasibility and decision support
Clarity before capital
At every stage we synthesize what we're learning into clear, developer-grade documentation — not reports for the sake of reports, but decision tools that tell the client what's real, what's uncertain, what the risks are, and what the path forward looks like.
Power path and conceptual interconnection analysis
Development timeline and risk matrix
Go/no-go recommendation with supporting rationale
Incentive and tax abatement opportunity identification
Site due diligence studies
What Sets Us Apart
Approach you won't find elsewhere
01 — Engineering Depth
We speak utility engineering as a first language
Our founder is a licensed Professional Engineer with 40 years of utility-side experience — including leading energy efficiency programs for Ameren Illinois and FirstEnergy Ohio. That means we don't just introduce developers to utilities. We engage their engineering teams as peers, access information that doesn't flow through formal channels, and find solutions that require real technical fluency to see.
02 — Established Relationships
Relationships built over decades, not months
We have established relationships with utilities across the country — IOUs, rural electric cooperatives, and municipals. These relationships were built through years of working alongside utility teams, not through a sales process. They give us access to candid information about capacity, timeline, and feasibility that developers relying on formal channels simply don't get.
03 — Full-Cycle Commitment
We stay embedded through the hard parts
Most firms earn their fee at origination and disappear when entitlement gets complicated. We structure engagements to keep us involved through zoning, permitting, community engagement, and utility interconnection — because those are the stages where things actually go wrong. Our clients get continuity of expertise and relationships across the entire development lifecycle.