CORPORATE REAL ESTATE AWARDS

or more than 50 years, Site Selection has been reporting on industrial real estate and infrastructure projects around the world, from automotive assembly to alternative fuel production, distribution centers to desalination plants – and everything in between. But none of the projects in our pages would come to pass without the leadership of the corporate real estate manager in his or her various forms:

the site selector, the project manager, the lease administrator, the incentives negotiator and the corporate diplomat, among others.

   Which other profession has had so direct an impact on areas’ economic prosperity as corporate real estate? When an auto manufacturer decides to locate a plant in Blue Springs, Miss., or Hermosillo, Mexico, the suppliers follow, in some cases doubling the number of jobs created by the original investment.

   As the editorial team of the leading U.S.-based publication covering corporate real estate and economic development, my colleagues and I interact with real estate executives in virtually every industry. To a person, they are smart as a whip, stretched too thin, good natured and good humored, and in most cases underappreciated. That’s why we want to recognize the managers who, behind the scenes and with no fanfare, do the deals, manage the projects, turn expenditures into investments and make their superiors look terrific.

   As 2008 gets under way, my colleagues and I are designing an awards program that will recognize excellence in the corporate real estate profession. This program will provide corporate real estate managers an opportunity for a member of their team to be recognized nationally for outstanding performance in the execution of their work. Service providers, too, will be able to nominate corporate clients for excellence they perceive in working with them.

   Information on how to nominate a colleague or client, how the judging will take place, when the awards program will commence and the venue for the presentation of the awards will be forthcoming. In the meantime, think about who on your staff or client list deserves the recognition that only the leading publication in its field can bestow.