Features

W hen Lee Arnold talks about the impact of the Internet on corporate real estate executives, he uses phrases like “fast-moving flexibility,” “blurring of the lines,” “bandwidth access” and “the barrier of inertia.” With Arnold, information technology chairman for global service provider Colliers International (www.colliers.com), the concepts of speed and transition aren’t just fodder for […]

O RLANDO, Fla. — Corporate real estate executives have a choice: Change in the face of the e-business revolution or risk being made extinct by it.       In a nutshell, that was the overriding theme of the 76th North American IDRC World Congress, held Nov. 4-8 in the tourism capital of the world: […]

W aves of “creative destruction” will see large numbers of managerial, professional and technical personnel put out to pasture because the technology is so good. These were only some of the conclusions to come out of the Copenhagen World Congress of the Industrial Development Research Council (IDRC), the pre-eminent corporate real estate (CRE) association, on […]

W hoever said ignorance is bliss obviously wasn’t looking to site a facility, especially not a call center. And when ignorance means missing out on 40-50 percent in labor costs savings … well it could mean blissful unemployment. But on behalf of those not knowing that Canada’s British Columbia (BC) could save their firms that […]

P anelists at a recent session on Internet-based capital sources had their work cut out for them. The speakers were part of the program at a NAIOP (National Assoc. of Industrial and Office Properties) conference in Orlando, Fla., in October. “We hope you get so comfortable using the technology that you don’t even think about […]

T he Internet is helping all of us to work faster and better, right? Well, yes and no. Development organizations have created hundreds of Web sites targeting site selectors, but are they really getting the job done any better or faster than the hundreds of brochures, CD-ROMs and videos that came before? To find out, […]

R epresentatives of 10 corporate real estate service provider companies left the International Development Research Council’s Florida World Congress in November with at least one item with which they did not arrive in Orlando. These people accepted the 2000 Site Selection/William Dorsey Service Provider Award on behalf of their organizations. This awards program, now in […]

T ACOMA, Wash. — When Mitch Davis needed a high-speed launching pad for his startup Internet company, he ditched high-priced Seattle for its blue-collar neighbor some 35 miles to the south: Tacoma. When John Gorst needed a place to set up his Internet utility company that provides Web hosting of applications for small businesses around […]

Those funding new Internet ventures–and those in corporate real estate to whom they are targeted–are wise to sit back for a while and let the dust settle. Consider the past 18 months. In mid-1998, perhaps a few dozen Internet operations were in place working on “Web-enabling” various real estate processes, having secured a round or […]

O ne of the challenges businesses face in the New Economy is adapting to changing times without losing their core values – those character qualities that define who they are. The task is no less real for Site Selection magazine as we enter our 48th year of publishing.         Launched by McKinley […]

Abstracts of major presentations of the International Development Research Council (IDRC), the world’s preeminent corporate real estate association. “Impact on the Workplace and Location: CREM Implications of the Wire-Free Economy,” Copenhagen-Malmo World Congress, Sept. 12, 2000: There’s another major technology race shaping up, much like the race for outer space in the second half of […]

W hen people think of Florida, most probably envision sandy white beaches, family-oriented theme parks and lots of retirement communities. When business people think of Florida, the hot spots of Miami-Fort Lauderdale, Tampa-St. Petersburg, Orlando and Jacksonville readily come to mind.       But what about Northwest Florida — or the region locals like […]

I t’s no secret that two of the hottest corporate real estate markets in America are Chicago and Boston. What you may not know is why. After nearly a decade of record US economic expansion, why do these two diverse and yet similar metropolitan markets continue to top the charts for corporate users of industrial […]

The Renaissance of the South is, by now, an old story. From Atlanta to Charlotte to Raleigh-Durham, the metropolitan areas of the Southeastern U.S. experienced unprecedented economic growth during the 1980s and 1990s. What may not be so well known is the economic resurgence of the Old South’s southernmost state: Florida. From Tallahassee to Jacksonville […]

Abstracts of recent major presentations of the International Development Research Council (IDRC), the world’s preeminent corporate real estate association. “Using Web-Based Technologies to Manage the Corporate Infrastructure,” New York World Congress, May 2, 2000: Peregrine Systems’ Nancy Johnson Sanquist told this jam-packed workshop session, “Infrastructure management is the mortar that connects the clicks with the […]

A recognized industry leader in providing corporate real estate (CRE) information over the Internet, IDRC has unveiled its newly designed Web site. “E-business is changing everything,” commented IDRC Marketing Committee Co-chair Dennis Boles, Haworth director of global facilities. “The new IDRC home page reflects how the association recognizes that change.” A key element of the […]

Study: East, West Coast Metros Tops for ‘Total Living Costs’ How much it costs to live and work in a location has a huge impact on employee recruiting and retention. And when it comes to the most expensive U.S. metros in which to live and work, the coasts have it, Rochester, Wis.-based Runzheimer International (www.runzheimer.com) […]

The workplace plate just got very, very full for Turner Properties, which manages the multifaceted real estate empire of Atlanta-based Turner Broadcasting System (TBS at www.turner.com). TBS has announced that it’s spend US$1.2 billion over the next five years on Atlanta projects that will accommodate 3,800 new employees. Those 3,800 new jobs represent a whopping […]

Like an approaching storm front, a looming market glut promises to shake up the European real estate management landscape. Already, a broad range of continental firms is shedding real estate to concentrate on core businesses. And heated competition is sparking a Europe-wide binge of restructuring and consolidations that promise to dump a mountain of property […]

Corporate site evaluators may consider satellite imagery an unnecessary extravagance in routine site searches, a nice-to-have tool but not a need-to-have one. But Space Imaging (www.spaceimaging.com), a Denver, Colo.-based provider of satellite imagery and aerial photography, hopes to change that perception. ABOVE: an IKONOS image of Thornton, Colorado, a suburb of Denver. In September 1999, […]

N ew York City’s real estate market — or markets, if you consider Midtown and Downtown to be distinctive situations — is hot, any way you cut it. Too hot, for some, such as publisher John Wiley and Chase Manhattan Bank, which are moving across the Hudson River to new space in Hoboken and Jersey […]

How much space will the company need next year? It’s the corporate real estate executive’s million-dollar question, and the answer is about as easy to predict as the number of times your phone will ring in the next 12 months. The science — or art — of demand forecasting relies on how well we can […]

U.S. firms have become very good at planning, designing and operating their plants, offices, and other corporate facilities for optimal results. But there are still many unrealized opportunities for capturing value over the lifetime of these resources. When business or industrial properties are no longer actively needed, for instance, some of them go on to […]

It?s official, already: The glow is back on the Golden State?s business climate. That?s the scoop from the top of Site Selection?s business climate rankings for 2000. California this year moved all the way up to No. 1 from 1999?s No. 5 finish. The Golden State ranks as a perennial business location powerhouse, of course, […]