Features

One way to virtually ensure superior service from companies charged with solving business problems — service providers — is to stress your shop’s high-growth company characteristics. (That’s not a stretch for most high-tech and telecom companies.) Why? Because service providers are bending over backwards to retain the business of such players in the hope they’re […]

”The rich,” F. Scott Fitzgerald wrote, “are not like you and me.” Similarly, Fitzgerald might’ve added, fast-growth firms are not like you and me — or most of our businesses. Very few of us can claim status as one of today’s fabled “gazelle” firms, who’ve become something like the business world’s Furbies. Everyone wants to […]

A look at recent major presentations of the International Development Research Council (IDRC), the world’s preeminent association of corporate real estate professionals. “Interactive Member Survey and Awards Luncheon,” IDRC San Antonio Fall World Congress for Corporate Real Estate Executives, Nov. 2, 1998: This interactive survey provides likely the most persuasive evidence of the growing importance […]

In the beginning, Paychex was about not getting paid, providing an object lesson in fast-growth small and medium-sized enterprises’ (SMEs) cash-starved travails. Today, the Rochester, N.Y.-based payroll services provider is a US$500-million-a-year business with 100 facilities. But for five long years in the 1970s, Paychex was a $0-a-year business with zero facilities. “I started with […]

IDRC, the world’s leading professional association for corporate real estate executives, is going electronic with its membership services offerings. “Members on the Web” will include a number of new interactive features through IDRCNet, the group’s World Wide Web site in response to the growth of event registrations and other services on line. “Visits on IDRCNet […]

Merger-contemplating executive No. 1:     “Can anybody stop us?” Merger-contemplating executive No. 2:     “Hmmm . . . NATO?” Citigroup does things big, as boldfaced by that humorous exchange, reported during 1998’s Travelers-Citicorp merger discussions. Just how big is obvious in Tampa. “We have 9,400 employees in Florida, 2,500 in the Tampa area and 2,200 […]

Relocation: What’s Your Currency Conversion? How far will your employees’ current salaries go in a new location? Homefair’s Web site (www2.homefair.com) provides online assistance in that important currency conversion. We randomly picked 10 U.S. cities and calculated how far a US$100,000 salary in relatively low-cost Peoria, Ill., would go in each. And $100,000 of Peoria […]

Where do real estate consultants go for their expertise before meeting with corporate real estate professionals to plot strategy? Besides drawing on their own professional credentials, many attend educational meetings of The Counselors of Real Estate, a Chicago-based association of real estate consultants. The group’s Midyear Meeting in Seattle, held April 18-21, was a good […]

Awards range from the sublime to the ridiculous, from the Nobel Prize to a Hair Club for Men’s vice presidency. A major yardstick for any award, though, is who wins it. Clearly, that standard elevates the Krafsur Award. The award’s consistently high quality was again evident at the New England World Congress of the International […]

Site Selection: Congratulations on your new assignment at Cushman & Wakefield. How do you envision your role and that of the new Advisory Services unit going forward? Arnold C. Thomas: Advisory Services is a function that has been ongoing at several Cushman & Wakefield offices in the U.S. But the firm did not have an […]

 JULY 1999  SITE SELECTION  EUROPE’S 1998  FACILITIES RACE   • COVER PAGE   •  INTRODUCTION   •  EUROPEAN     CHAMPION:THE UNITED KINGDOM   •  THE RUNNER-UP:      FRANCE   •  GERMANY GRABS      THIRD PLACE   •  BELGIUM, NO. 4   •  POLAND TAKES      FIFTH PLACE   •  IRELAND, NO. 6   •  HUNGARY TAKES      SEVENTH PLACE   •  SPAIN, NO. 8   •  THE NETHERLANDS      RECORD BREAKING   &nbsp  YEAR   •  […]

Breaking down outmoded boundaries: It’s a key element in the ongoing revolution in corporate real estate service delivery. And boundary-breaking is precisely what’s driving the creative alliance between Cleveland-based KeyCorp (www.key.com) and service providers Johnson Controls (www.johnsoncontrols.com) and Trammell Crow Corporate Services (www.trammellcrow.com). Formed in September of 1997, the KeyCorp Real Estate Enterprise (KREE) is […]

Most owners of diverse real estate holdings would jump at the chance to organize their property tax records and be able to access tax-related information for specific properties easily. And all owners of real estate would want to reduce their property tax burden wherever possible. Users of Property Tax Office (PTO), a software program from […]

Much of the US is running out of attractive, properly prepared industrial land. Twenty-five years ago, the issue of site availability for expanding companies was not usually a major concern. When a client needed a fairly conventional property of perhaps a hundred acres, there was usually a range of choices. Virtually every community or region […]

From Site Selection magazine, May 1999 1 9 9 8 ‘ s     T O P     1 0     D E A L S Dovetailing Development Excellence with Corporate Strategy b y     J A C K     L Y N E From Boeing to UPS, 1998’s top 10 deals cut a wide industry […]

From Site Selection magazine, May 1999 T O P     D E A L S 1998’s Very Honorable Mentions A hot year for the world economy, 1998 saw a dizzying array of top-flight facility deals, too many to be crammed into one top 10. Here are a few other eminently worthy deals Site Selection cites […]

From Site Selection magazine, May 1999 Championship Caliber: Site Selection‘s 1998 Top 10 Development Groups b y     T I M     V E N A B L E Hundreds of growing companies played the location game with skill and poise last year, capitalizing on the championship-level services of Site Selection‘s 1998 top development groups. […]

From Site Selection magazine, May 1999 Other Top Development Organizations: Honorable Mentions from 1998 TTaken from the many nominations received for this year’s Site Selection list of top 10 development groups, here are profiles of other worthy organizations from 1998: Bowling Green Area Chamber of Commerce, Bowling Green, Ky.: Played a key role in attracting […]

Breakthrough Deals: New Trend-Setting Corporate Locationsb y     T I M     V E N A B L E  Auto plants in Detroit. Financial services offices in New York City. Distribution centers in Chicago. Those cities and facility types go together like bread and butter, the result of decades of business success. But the world […]

The more things change the more they stay the same, goes the saying. Access to a skilled work force remains the No. 1 priority of corporate site seekers, according to a recent Site Selection survey of economic development (ED) groups and service providers. This has been the case for years, and as long as unemployment […]

Corporate site seekers zeroing in on the best places for new facilities evaluate competing areas against the backdrop of today’s constantly changing — and increasingly competitive — location landscape. New financial incentives, strengthened work-force training programs and enhanced World Wide Web sites are just a few of the tools communities are using to make themselves […]

From Site Selection magazine, May 1999 C O V E R     S T O R Y b y     J A C K     L Y N E MCI WorldCom stands poised to be the 21st century telecom prototype, having acquired all the requisite pieces, including a ton of real estate assets. But can […]

Real estate and corporate resources executives from several leading financial companies gathered in New York City in mid-December 1998 to discuss ways in which they are helping drive change in their organizations. Unless an organization changes, it stops growing, becomes less competitive — even non-competitive — and will be left behind by more nimble players. […]

Site Selection: Congratulations on your recent promotion to Senior Vice President, Corporate Services. How does this change your role at Charles Schwab? Parkash P. Ahuja: Thank you. As for my responsibilities, prior to this change I was responsible for corporate real estate facilities, purchasing, travel, food services and corporate records. I used to report to […]