Features

 T he heat created by the North American push into Europe for new call centers has turned desirable locations into no-go areas for some U.S. corporates. But while some locations have become victims of their own success, others are emerging as new winners in the current cooler environment for new call center operations — especially […]

 C orporate real estate managers with outsourcing contracts coming up for renewal have a unique opportunity, which is to hear how the provider of the service defines what has come to be known as “second-generation outsourcing.” If that provider cannot articulate how the next chapter in a service provider agreement will be better than the […]

 I n the January issue of Site Selection, I introduced the Strategy Alignment Model, which is a framework for directly aligning corporate real estate with the core business. As shown in Figure 1, the model is comprised of three components and seven guiding principles.         The focus of the first installment was […]

  L  ook closely — there’s a new luster on Site Selection‘s Governor’s Cup this year, a gloss that began taking shape last fall, when a new set of competition criteria came into being. After all, the successful systems in place in the business world are those that are maintained and refined as necessary to ensure […]

From Site Selection magazine, March 2002 TOP METROS   The 2001 Governor’s Cup   • and the winner is …   • New Corporate      Facilities and      Expansions   • 2001’s Biggest U.S.      Corporate Facilities   • Top Metros   • Top Industries   • Global Location      Activity Chicago Breezes By Competition for Top Metro Spot By GINNY […]

From Site Selection magazine, March 2002 TOP INDUSTRIES   The 2001 Governor’s Cup   • and the winner is …   • New Corporate      Facilities and      Expansions   • 2001’s Biggest U.S.      Corporate Facilities   • Top Metros   • Top Industries   • Global Location      Activity The Auto Industry Leads All Sectors by RON STARNER   T  […]

From Site Selection magazine, March 2002 GLOBAL LOCATION ACTIVITY   The 2001 Governor’s Cup   • and the winner is …   • New Corporate      Facilities and      Expansions   • 2001’s Biggest U.S.      Corporate Facilities   • Top Metros   • Top Industries   • Global Location      Activity Canada, Far East Lead Top Global Projects in 2001 […]

 L ocation searches frequently focus on the larger metropolitan areas, and for good reason. Data sources are more readily available for these locations, and they represent the largest labor markets, airports, developed properties and other resources. However, there is a whole other layer of locations the small towns — that represent communities with populations of […]

 W hen the Intel Corp. started searching two years ago for a place to build a new wafer fabrication plant for manufacturing semiconductor chips, the world’s largest chip-maker found exactly what it needed in Chandler, Ariz.         When WorldCom needed to expand its international telecommunications empire in December 2001, it announced a […]

 D uring the closing months of 2001, activity in the real estate sale-leaseback market surged as more and more corporations sought to raise cash in a declining economic environment.         W. P. Carey & Co., LLC, completed US$185 million worth of transactions in the fourth quarter of 2001, nearly half of the […]

From Site Selection magazine, March 2002 IDRC ABSTRACTS Following are abstracts of major presentations of the International Development Research Council, which this year is merging with NACORE to form CoreNet Global — the world’s pre-eminent corporate real estate association. “Corporate Energy Strategies: Corporate Real Estate and Economic Development Perspectives,” Texas World Congress, Oct. 22, 2001: […]

 O ver the past decade, build-to-suit (BTS) commercial real estate has proven to companies that expansion or relocation requirements can be better filled by going beyond finding available market vacancies. Whether the company’s main consideration is to have its name on a cornerstone or to move into a commercial or office facility that’s individually tailored […]

 E ven a cursory look at the best-performing states in the Governor’s Cup competition — our annual ranking of states based on their business-expansion success — reveals a new competitive landscape. Relatively sparsely populated states, such as South Dakota and Mississippi, are finalists in the overall ranking, for instance. And the perennial favorites in the […]

 C ompanies whose business is not producing, but rather using, energy have discovered the havoc which volatile energy costs can play upon one’s financial statements. Perhaps with the possible exception of labor costs, few other elements of variable corporate expenses have been paid such attention as energy recently.         This has been […]

 T he International Development Research Council’s Annual Survey of Corporate Real Estate Practices is a one-of-a-kind resource for tracking corporate real estate and facility management trends. Since first conducted in 1993, the survey has provided insights into how these corporate functions and their service providers operate.         Here’s a survey nugget for […]

 R ising employment, industrial inventories and prices will make the American economy’s recovery this year even stronger than most blue-chip economists forecast, Prudential Financial’s chief economist told a gathering of corporate and commercial real estate leaders Jan. 10 in Atlanta.         Susan Hickok, the keynote speaker at a forum of CoreNet Global […]

 T ransnational corporations (TNCs) will favor Germany, the United Kingdom and France when they invest in Western Europe during the next three years. This prediction is among the findings of a recent survey of 129 TNCs conducted by the United Nations Conference on Trade and Development (UNCTAD), the Invest in France Agency and Andersen, the […]

 M anaging risk has always been the cornerstone of the corporate relocation process, although rarely has a corporate executive or his economic development counterpart framed the decision-making process in quite those terms. In the post September 11th environment, however, risk management has moved beyond its traditional spheres of technological and financial risk assessment and now […]

 W hen a company finds success, they tend to run with it. Such is the case with Xerox’s Canadian call center operations. The firm already has operations in Saint John, New Brunswick, and announced in September 2001 a new center to be located in Halifax, Nova Scotia. The site will initially employ 150 full-time workers […]

 M oney talks, or so they say. So the US$315 million and 18 investments Portugal attracted in a one-month time frame (July 2001) certainly speak volumes about the country’s appeal as a business location. The fact that these investments came from major U.S., European and Asian companies only reinforces the idea that Portugal is a […]

Survey: Efficiency Issues Challenge Lenders’ Profitability Mortgage lenders’ profitability – already on shaky ground – is being jeopardized by inefficiency and insufficient use of technology, according to a recent survey conducted by Ernst & Young’s Real Estate Advisory Services Group. The survey was sponsored by CapitalThinking, a financial services technology firm. Ten of the largest […]

Abstracts of major presentations of the International Development Research Council, the world’s pre-eminent corporate real estate association. “Disposition Strategies for Surplus Property in the Economic Downturn,” Texas World Congress, Oct. 23, 2001:         “What every corporate real estate department needs to realize in this economic downturn is that every asset has a […]

 W hen they turn their attention to the Internet, corporate real estate departments have been mainly concerned with improving communications, customer service applications and Web site development. But a Corporate Real Estate Technology Benchmaking Survey conducted in August 2001 by Ernst & Young (E&Y) and the National Association of Corporate Real Estate Executives (NACORE) suggests […]

 T he maxim used as a headline here is worth thinking about carefully the next time you prepare to sign a service provider contract, no matter how it’s structured. The agreement you commit to will be the starting point of any number of business scenarios, and how you and your service provider relate at the […]