Key Takeaways
- Loudoun County, Va., benefits from data center growth, boosting electrical contractor potential by $178 million YOY.
- Cincinnati, Columbus, Ohio, and Indianapolis are seeing major projects such as hospitals, airports, and industrial facilities, fueling demand.
- Boise, Idaho, experiences a 10.6% increase in electrical sales potential, driven by a $15-billion Micron plant and stellar population growth.
- Charlotte and Raleigh in North Carolina are expanding rapidly, with large data center projects and significant population increases, making them top markets.
- Florida metros like Miami, Orlando, and Tampa-St. Petersburg, continue to grow with multiple multi-family, airport, and resort projects, in addition to attracting new residents daily.
Electrical Marketing’s (EM’s) annual picks for hot markets to watch over the next 12 months are in, and there are a few surprises as well as some perennial all-stars.
Most of our picks this year have made our list of hot markets in the past because of impressive increases in both estimated sales potential and population growth. We also watch residential closely at the local level, but in many markets, both single-family and multi-family building permits aren’t currently increasing at impressive levels.
Loudoun County
New to our picks (see Table) is Loudoun County, Va., which enjoyed some huge growth in electrical contractor potential, thanks in large part to being home to the largest concentration of data centers in the United States. In addition to the $1.92-billion Realty LLC data center campus that entered the planning stages in April 2025, there’s also a $500-million retrofit of Dulles Airport’s Concourse E on the drawing boards. Loudoun County’s estimated electrical contractor sales potential increased by $178 million YOY, according to EM’s estimates.
Cincinnati, Columbus, and Indianapolis metros
We are also highlighting three metropolitan statistical areas (MSAs) in the Midwest — Cincinnati, Ohio-Ky.-Ind.; Columbus, Ohio; and Indianapolis-Carmel-Anderson, Ind.
The Cincinnati metro has a big hospital project in the pipeline: the $365-million Cincinnati Children’s Hospital in Liberty, Ohio. Columbus contractors are working on the $1.8-billion John Glenn Columbus Airport project that broke ground in February 2025 and are hoping plans for billions in new construction become a reality, including Intel Corp.’s plan (recently delayed) for the $20-billion Johnstown Gateway Planned District near several semiconductor plants; a $500-million Amazon data center in Jefferson, Ohio; and Google’s $28-billion expansion project in New Albany, Ohio.
The Indianapolis metro is seeing a nice mix of commercial, institutional, and industrial construction. The largest construction project underway that EM’s editors found is the $2.25-billion Eli Lilly Medicine Foundry in Lebanon, Ind., an Indianapolis suburb. Also of note are the $571-million Signia Hotel project underway in Indianapolis, the $200-million Westin Hotel being built at Indianapolis Airport, and the $187-million Purdue University Academic Success Building being built in West Lafayette, Ind.
Boise, Idaho
Boise, Idaho caught the eye of EM’s editors because of its growth over the past year in estimated total sales potential, electrical contractor sales, and industrial sales potential. EM estimates that its 2025 total electrical sales potential grew $58.6 million to $612.7 million, a solid 10.6% increase supported in large part by a $43.4-million increase (12%) in contractor sales potential.
The largest construction project underway in the Boise area is a new 1.2 million-sq-ft Micron plant, which, according to www.wscarpenters.org, is worth $15 billion in total construction value and will employ 2,000 workers at its expected 2026 opening date.
The area continues to attract new residents in a big way, with the population of the area growing by 75,605 between 2020 and 2024. That averages out to an estimated 41 new residents per day.
Charlotte-Concord-Gastonia, N.C.-S.C. and Raleigh, N.C.
For years, North Carolina has been a top growth market, and these two MSAs are often powering a big chunk of the construction activity and population growth. The state was also recently recognized as 2025’s No. 1 State for Business by CNBC.
Although both metros are seeing increases in contractor sales potential at just over the national level percentage of roughly 2%, big construction projects in the pipeline, a double-digit YOY increase in Raleigh’s multi-family building permits, and the always impressive population growth in both cities made these metros Top 10 picks. The Charlotte metro has several big data center projects in the proposal stage, including a $10-billion Amazon data center and AI campus in Hamlet, N.C. A large industrial project of note is the $380-million PPG factory under consideration in Shelby, N.C. Charlotte has also seen massive population growth over the past four years, according to U.S. Census Bureau data. The metro’s population increased by 215,006 residents from 2020 to 2024.
Raleigh is also seeing big-time population growth, with an increase of 144,861 from 2020-2024 for an estimated 86 new residents each day. Through July 2025, the metro was one of the few MSAs in the nation seeing a double-digit increase in multi-family building permits, with a 13.8% year-to-date increase to 3,682 permits. No doubt some of these new residents will eventually be moving into two new multi-family projects now under construction — the $200-million Strand mixed-use project with 362 units and the $200-million Highline Glenwood residential tower that will top out at 37 stories. The city also announced plans for a $387-million expansion of its convention center in October.
Miami, Orlando, and Tampa-St. Petersburg
It was tough to not include perennial high-growth Florida metros like Jacksonville, Sarasota, and Fort Myers-Cape Coral in this year’s picks, but Miami, Orlando, and Tampa-St. Petersburg just had too many construction projects underway and in the pipeline to ignore. Miami had five multi-family projects topping $200 million in total contract value, the $350-million Riverside Wharf mixed-use project, as well as a $600-million airport project and eye-popping numbers of new residents moving into the area — 324,486 from 2020-2024 and an estimated 307 new folks coming into town every day. The Orlando area has plenty of stadium, airport, and theme park construction in the pipeline to keep contractors busy for a long time, as well as stellar population growth numbers. And the Tampa-St. Petersburg metro has a $1.5-billion airport project underway, a ton of downtown construction, and an estimated 148 new residents moving in each day.
Additional data on these markets, as well as 300 other MSAs, can be downloaded at www.electricalmarketing.com.
About the Author
Jim Lucy
Editor-in-Chief, Electrical Wholesaling & Electrical Marketing
Over the past 40-plus years, hundreds of Jim’s articles have been published in Electrical Wholesaling, Electrical Marketing newsletter and Electrical Construction & Maintenance magazine on topics such as electric vehicles, solar and wind development, energy-efficient lighting and local market economics. In addition to his published work, Jim regularly gives presentations on these topics to C-suite executives, industry groups and investment analysts.
He launched a new subscription-based data product for Electrical Marketing that offers electrical sales potential estimates and related market data for more than 300 metropolitan areas. In 1999, he published his first book, “The Electrical Marketer’s Survival Guide” for electrical industry executives looking for an overview of key market trends.
While managing Electrical Wholesaling’s editorial operations, Jim and the publication’s staff won several Jesse H. Neal awards for editorial excellence, the highest honor in the business press, and numerous national and regional awards from the American Society of Business Press Editors. He has a master’s degree in communications and a bachelor’s degree in journalism from Glassboro State College, Glassboro, N.J. (now Rowan University) and studied electrical design at New York University and graphic design at the School for Visual Arts.