Small world doesn't quite cover it.

A casual conversation with a coworker in Charlotte turned into one of those moments that remind you exactly how connected the Midwest really is. She played soccer at Cincinnati. I mentioned Toledo. And before long, she's telling me her husband's college friend "helped out" with economic development in Northwest Ohio.

Helped out. That's one way to put it.

That friend turned out to be Brandon Sehlhorst — and if you've been paying attention to Toledo's growth trajectory over the last several years, you already know the name. If you don't, you're about to.

It's a reminder that the talent and the people shaping this region don't stay invisible for long. Even in Charlotte, the work shows up. This week, we're putting a face to that work.

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The University of Toledo just landed the largest single federal award in its history; and it has nothing to do with football.

The U.S. Department of Energy handed the Rockets $19.2M to lead the Great Lakes Partnership to Enhance the Nuclear Workforce, a $39M initiative that puts Northwest Ohio at the center of one of the most consequential energy conversations in the country. Out of 10 university-led projects funded nationally, UToledo received the largest award.

The timing makes a lot of sense; and the numbers behind it are staggering. The Department of Energy projects a need for 375,000 additional trained nuclear workers by 2050. The global nuclear energy market, valued at roughly $400Bn today, is expected to nearly double by the end of the decade. Meanwhile, nuclear currently supplies about 20% of U.S. electricity, more than wind and solar combined. The gap between today's workforce and tomorrow's demand is enormous. That gap is exactly where the economic opportunity lives for NW Ohio.

The university is positioning itself, and this region, to own a significant piece of that pipeline.

The partnership is a who's who of the energy industry: Constellation, DTE, Vistra, Westinghouse, Xcel Energy, the University of Michigan, Idaho National Laboratory, and more than a dozen other institutions and unions. Davis Besse Nuclear Power Station sits 29 miles from campus. This is infrastructure, built in real time, in Northwest Ohio's backyard.

What's actually happening here goes beyond workforce training. Nuclear is having a serious moment; and not just because of climate policy. As AI data centers explode in scale and strain an already pressured electrical grid, energy providers are scrambling for reliable, around-the-clock base load power. Wind and solar, for all their growth, can't fully answer that call. Nuclear can. The industry that was written off a decade ago is quietly becoming the most credible answer to a grid under extraordinary pressure. $MSFT ( ▲ 0.06% ), $GOOG ( ▼ 0.0% ), and $AMZN ( ▲ 2.37% ) have all signed agreements in the last two years to power operations with nuclear energy. When Big Tech starts buying what you're selling, the market has spoken.

The economic ripple for Northwest Ohio is specific. Nuclear jobs aren't gig work. The average nuclear power plant worker earns >$100,000 annually; nearly double the median household income in Lucas County. These are high-wage, long-tenure positions with benefits, union representation, and regional roots. Workers in this sector don't tend to leave. They buy houses, send kids to local schools, and spend locally. The coursework the University of Toledo is building creates a talent base that attracts employers to the region in the first place.

Layer in the K-12 outreach, the summer programs for underserved populations, and the co-op network connecting students to +400 companies, and you're now looking at a generational workforce strategy with Northwest Ohio as the hub.

This is also about reputation. The university’s recent R1 research university designation already elevated its standing nationally. Leading the largest DOE nuclear workforce award in the country; while sitting 29 miles from an operating nuclear facility, with a manufacturing base that understands skilled trades. It makes the case that this isn't a college town trying to punch above its weight.

Toledo has spent years building the case that it belongs in serious economic conversations. Owens Corning doubling down downtown. A 600,000 square foot automotive facility landing in Rossford. And now, the largest nuclear workforce investment in the country anchored right here in Northwest Ohio.

At some point, it stops being a streak and starts being a pattern.

The region is writing a different story about itself; and the rest of the country is starting to read it.

When my coworker in Charlotte mentioned her husband's college friend "helped out" with economic development in Toledo, I didn't think much of it. People help out with things all the time.

Then she said the name. Brandon Sehlhorst.

If you've been paying attention to Toledo's last seven years the announcements, the deals that keep landing; you already know what that name means. If you don't, the numbers will catch you up.

Over 200 city-owned properties sold. More than 400 acres returned to productive use. $4.5 million in city revenue generated. $180 million in private investment catalyzed. 1,500 jobs created. And that's before you get to the site-level numbers; Southwyck, Textileather, Ironville, and NorthTowne combined now support 3,700 jobs, $114 million in annual payroll, and $1.3 billion in capital investment.

That last number isn't a typo.

Southwyck is now an Amazon delivery station. Textileather became a Jeep customization facility. North Towne Mall is the city's largest industrial park. Each project required someone to see the potential before it was obvious, build the coalition to make it viable, and close before another city moved in. Toledo has ranked in Site Selection Magazine's top 10 mid-size metros for economic development six consecutive years, claiming the top spot nationally in 2021. The Ohio Economic Development Association named Sehlhorst its Economic Developer of the Year in 2024; its highest honor.

The results aren't luck but rather a system Sehlhorst has built.

Sehlhorst serves as Chief Growth Officer for the City of Toledo and Executive Director of the Toledo Community Improvement Corporation; and both titles matter. Armed with an Urban Planning degree and an MBA in Real Estate from the University of Cincinnati, he returned to Toledo by choice, at a time when most people with his options don't.

The Chief Growth Officer role isn't ceremonial. It comes with real levers. He manages the city's real estate portfolio, structures financial incentives that make Toledo competitive against larger markets, and coordinates across city departments, regional partners, state agencies, and private developers. The Toledo Community Improvement Corporation gives him a dedicated vehicle to proactively prepare sites; so that when a company calls, Toledo is already ready.

That last part is the whole game. In economic development, the cities that move fastest win. Sehlhorst has built Toledo's infrastructure to be permanently ahead of the ask.

Here's what doesn't show up in the press releases: none of this happens alone.

Closing the deals Sehlhorst closes requires extraordinary table management. Site selectors, corporate real estate teams, state officials, federal agencies, union leaders, neighborhood advocates, Metroparks, university partners, private developers; getting all of them aligned, moving at the same pace, toward the same outcome isn't a logistical task. It's a relationship task. And it's where Sehlhorst separates himself.

That relationship capital is visible everywhere you look. The $200M Glass City Riverwalk; which influenced Owens Corning's $250M downtown commitment. The $28M Reconnecting Communities grant rebuilding 38 city blocks in Uptown. The UToledo nuclear workforce initiative that just landed the largest federal award in the university's history. The Vibrancy Initiative unlocking $14.7M in private investment across Toledo's commercial corridors.

All these stories are connected, but Toledo needed someone to hold the connective tissue together.

Toledo's momentum isn't accidental. It's the product of having the right person, in the right role, with the tools to execute; and the relationships to make others want to execute with him.

Behind most of Toledo's recent wins, there's a ‘hometown kid’ who chose to come back and decided that wasn't enough.

That's how a city changes its own story.

Here are a few headlines we are snacking on

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