Time now for our business beat.

Today I'm joined by Mark green, editorial director and vice president of the Lane Report, which covers business news across the state.

And you all have been tracking the latest and economic trends and developments for 40 years.

Now, we were talking about that long history of you all doing that.

So let's start with a trend that many Kentuckians really may not be aware of.

And that is metals.

We have such a foothold in the steel and aluminum industries.

It it is a surprise.

I had been hearing about this for a few years and decided to look into it.

After the cabinet, the Economic Development Cabinet started an organization to support the different metals operations in the state, and I had been hearing about large operations, but it turns out Kentucky is the biggest aluminum producer in the country.

There there used to be, you know, 20, 25 aluminum mills or around the country.

And now there's only five in the country and three of them are in Kentucky.

And fourth one is right across the river in southern Indiana.

And then the fifth one is just right over in, Missouri or Arkansas, right near us.

So what makes Kentucky such a perfect place for these aluminum companies?

Well, the main answer is place.

We are located in the middle of the manufacturing belt.

We're located centrally to the the US eastern, eastern United States market, which is the largest, richest, most lucrative business market in the world.

Kentucky is able to, interact with any other business in this part of the country within one day's drive, and that's a great benefit.

And then we have always had cheap electricity.

That's traditionally been one of our strengths.

We have the cheapest electricity east of the Mississippi over near this.

This rich marketplace that everybody wants to be in.

So we, we've had the metals sector here for a while, and then as it's fallen way and the rest of the country, we are the ones left standing.

And then there is our efforts to rejuvenate metals in the United States because, so much of it has shifted.

Elsewhere.

The, the United States used to be the top aluminum producer in the world, and now we do 2%.

But Kentucky also has a lot of steel and and copper.

We have the largest copper recycling operation in the country in Shelbyville.

We have the largest stainless steel mill in the country on the river between Louisville and Cincinnati.

And then there's a brand new billion dollar steel plant in Brandenburg, right, right down the river from Louisville.

There is a lot of metals operations, and we are in the manufacturing supply chain.

We don't we don't make final products, but we supply the the metal that goes into everything into vehicles, appliances, makeup has or deodorant has, has aluminum in it.

Now so many things have have copper steel and aluminum nowadays.

And so we are in the vital middle of all of these supply chains.

And our location is is our greatest asset.

And I'm curious how these domestic companies are reacting to President Donald Trump's new tariff policy.

Well, they they are kind of quiet, but, the statements they have put out have been supportive there, and they are very happy with higher tariffs on foreign, metals operations because they they want to have more of the market.

They want to have more, more economic incentive to grow.

They want to grow very much.

And, if it makes the the overall financing for creating and growing new operations better for them if, if there's tariffs on foreign metals.

Let's talk about something else here.

Your team also tracking a major project in Oldham County, a multi-billion dollar investment there.

These billion dollar investments are that that staggering that really get your attention.

And we we just wrote last month about, how data center construction was a growing trend because the whole country needs more and more of these data centers to run, AI operations and cloud computing.

And, it just so many functions are shifting into this field.

And, the news reports for the last year have been that the United States needs to double the number of data centers that it has.

And so, a month or two ago, there was a large project announced in Jefferson County.

I think that was a $400 million or 400MW.

These are big, big electric consumers.

And so there's a lot of infrastructure involved in putting these things in.

So, right on cue, after we had an article about how significant, data center construction is this week, another project was announced in Oldham County that's going to be $6 billion, eight buildings.

And, it would take some years to get there, but that that would be one of the biggest, economic development projects in Kentucky history.

I'm talking about more than one.

And that historical announcement potentially.

So, yes, there is apparently room for growth in this sector of the economy.

Yeah, there there are some around the state, but, there has is new state policy that provides some economic incentives for, for data centers, which burn through a lot of equipment.

So the state enacted, tax breaks for for sales tax, for replacing equipment.

And so the industry is responding and coming in here, another article that you all recently published talks about, the restaurant business.

We all love a good meal, and I especially love it when someone else prepares it.

Meaning I like to eat out.

And we have amazing restaurants, very talented chefs in Kentucky.

But let's talk about this accounting firm that caters specifically to restaurants.

There are challenges in managing the that that was yeah, that one was really interesting.

Yeah.

Louisville and Lexington both have great restaurant scenes.

And the whole state really has a good food sector.

Food and beverage is one of our one of our strongest business sectors.

But Bob Patterson in Louisville for 25 years, he was a partner in a coffee supply company who all of their clients were restaurants.

And he kept saying that they were having, financial issues.

You know, he said they would interact with them.

They would say, oh, my gosh, you know, my bookkeeper stealing from me or or I have a I'm having this terrible cashflow crunch.

And he said, restaurant operators tend to focus on the food and their customer service and operations and not on running their finances.

And so he he decided that that was a real opening for him to do the finances for him, as he was an accountant, an accountant.

So he started as a one man operation about 12 years ago, Patterson and company, to work specifically with the restaurants and do their bookkeeping, their payroll, their taxes, their financial statements, give them advice on how to avoid the annual cash crunch right after the holidays every year.

And now he's got 22 people.

He's got 200 restaurant clients all over Kentucky, Tennessee, Indiana, Alabama, Missouri.

And, he's doing he's doing very well.

Yeah.

Just unique.

And it's interesting to see the unique challenges that.

Yeah, restaurants are one of the classic small businesses that people start and go into.

And he's helping them be successful at it.

Mark Green here on behalf of the Lane Report, we sure appreciate your time today.

Thank you sir.

Thank you for having me.