Features

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 […]

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 […]

They called it “the Building of the Month Club” at Cisco Systems ( http://www.cisco.com) , and it was exactly that. For 19 consecutive months in 1998-99, Cisco brought yet another new building online in North San Jose. By the time that flurry finished — however momentarily — Cisco had built 35 separate facilities spanning 6.3 […]

From Tallahassee to Sacramento, lawmakers in state capitals around the United States heeded business leaders? call to ?run government more like a business.? The result: lower taxes, higher revenue surpluses, more incentives for new business, a rush of ?e-government? and information technology initiatives, and greater investment in needed infrastructure projects like roads, bridges, public schools […]

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, […]

World business climates in late 2000 are, for the most part, fair. But some forces are at work that could change that in the New Year. Energy prices in Western markets, particularly the United Kingdom and Continental Europe, are exerting pressure on businesses that manufacture and transport goods. A scarcity of skilled labor is a […]

A good man is hard to find, especially in a market where unemployment rates have dropped nearly a full percentage point from last year and continue to drop by approximately one-tenth a month. For this reason, many site seekers are looking away from Europe’s usual suspects for more abundant labor pools. Although the European labor […]

When Chicago-based Navistar International Corp. needed to expand its new truck assembly operations in 1998, the company selected Monterrey suburb Escobedo in Nuevo Leon, Mexico, for the same reasons that have catapulted the Mexican economy to the forefront of Latin America. Factors like a strong work ethic, an abundant supply of highly skilled manufacturing employees, […]

We live in an age of e-commerce, fiber optics, information systems and infrastructure, and ideas and initiatives moving at the speed of light through a network of silicon and wiring. And that prompts one to ask, why do so many good ideas go bad? Could it be that we have forgotten in this gizmo-oriented age […]

A group of leading government and industry leaders known as the Industrial Rebirth Council was formed in July 2000 to expand and support Japanese economic reform initiatives. The council, which was convened by — and is chaired by — Prime Minister Yoshiro Mori, is comprised of key government ministers and CEOs of such companies as […]

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 […]

Editor’s note: This feature is a follow-up report on “Europe’s 1999 Facility Race,” which appeared in the July 2000 Site Selection. This article goes beyond the ranking and looks at which industries are hot and which are not in the top European markets. To be or not to be — in the European Monetary Union […]

Foreign investment in China is poised to take off, particularly if the Asian mega-market is permitted to join the World Trade Organization (WTO). Every sector of the Chinese economy shows signs of growth, from investments in infrastructure to renovation of state-owned firms and industries to the emergence of a major service industry. Politics aside, China […]

Freshwater is the lubricant that fuels development. And that means development is in trouble: “Forget oil. In the 21st century water will be king. Already, a supertanker full of water from a pure source . . . is worth more than any supertanker full of oil to thirsty populations in Asia,” says U.S. Congressman Bob […]