< Previous24 JANUARY 2019 SI T E S E L E C T IO NWORLD REPORTSby G ARY DAUGHTERSgar y.daug hter s @ site s ele c tion.c omImages courtesy of Helsinki MarketingPhoto courtesy of Talgo2431Ode to OodiAs public libraries worldwide face budget cuts and closures, Helsinki has sunk $110 million into Oodi. Finnish for “Ode,” the city’s new central library was dedicated December 5, the eve of Finland’s Independence Day, and feted as a gift to the Finnish people. Located adjacent to the Finnish Parliament in Helsinki’s Kansalaistori Square, the 17,250-sq.-ft. (1,600-sq.-m.) space features book-sorting robots, a restaurant and café, audio-visual recording studios and a “makerspace” with 3D printers. Finns are some of the world’s most literate people, and Finnish libraries are popular gathering spots during the frigid Scandinavian winter.2Real estate capitalization rates and yields are leveling o and rents are growing in most markets. We expect advanced economies to slow in 2019 but still remain in growth mode.”— UBS Real Estate and Private Markets Real Estate Summary 2018Real estate capitalization rates and 1Ready When You AreTalgo, a family-owned company based in Spain, announced plans to hire 1,000 people for a projected 753,000-sq.-ft. (70,000-sq.-m.) factory in Longannet, Scotland, to make high-speed railcars. A second site, the former Hartington Colliery in Chester eld, Derbyshire, will serve as an Innovation Center, and part of Talgo’s plans to develop an “All Britain” strategy. The projects are initially focused on the UK market, but will eventually be geared toward export. Talgo says it is seeking an “anchor client” before launching construction. S I T E S E L E C T I O N JANUARY 2019 25Going Digging in GreenlandGreenland has doubled its number of active mines — to two — with the recent commissioning of the White Mountain anorthosite (calcium feldspar) quarry. Canada’s Hudson Resources, which has a 50-year license to operate the mine, expects to deliver its rst shipment of processed anorthosite to Owens Corning in the U.S. in early 2019. Also found on the moon, anorthosite is primarily used in berglass. Greenland, whose economy is nearly totally reliant on shing, has hopes of developing two more mines by 2022 in an effort to add new revenue streams.3Image courtesy of FacebookPhoto courtesy of Hudson Resources524Up, Up and AwayAt 11 stories and 1.8 million sq. ft. (167,225 sq. m.), Facebook’s rst data center in Singapore will be one of the largest such structures in the world. Singapore’s scarcity of available land dictated the vertical design of the $1-billion project, scheduled for completion in 2022. Google operates a ve-story data center in Singapore, its tallest data center anywhere in the world. A novel liquid cooling system allows for reduced water consumption in Singapore’s hot, humid climate.5Siemens Returns to its RootsManufacturing giant Siemens announced plans for Siemensstadt (Siemens City) 2.0, a $681-million industrial and technology hub in Berlin, where its predecessor company set up factories at the end of the 19th century. The company says the 173-acre (70-hectare) project in the German capital’s Spandau district is to transform a large industrial area into a modern, urban district of the future to promote innovation and collaboration in elds such as distributed energy systems and energy management, electric vehicle technology, machine learning, arti cial intelligence and blockchain.444444444444444444444Image courtesy of Siemens hink your workforce challenges are growing? You’re not alone.Site consultants surveyed by Site Selection magazine in October say that workforce is the No. factor driving expansion or greenfi eld location decisions for their corporate clients today. Outpacing No. factor transportation infrastructure and third-place available buildings and sites, workforce is now the location variable dictating where projects are going. is theme has been constant for several years now, as consultants increasingly say they are struggling to identify critical skillsets in suffi cient numbers for their corporate clients. As a result, workforce training and development incentives are increasing in importance as well.State and local tax structure now ranks as the fourth most important location factor, just ahead of regulatory environment and incentives. Utilities check in at No. , followed by university and college resources at No. and cost of real estate at No. . e responding site consultants also noted that:• Headquarters and back-offi ce operations tied with advanced manufacturing as the most active project sector, just ahead of logistics projects.• ey are increasingly turning to various online resources, industry publications and professional associations for information in their fi eld. eir peers came in fourth, just Site Selectors say job skillsets are the driving factor in location decisions.by RON S TARNERron.s tarner @site selection.comShow Me the Workforce TSITE SELECT ORS SUR VEY: AMAZON HQ2THE SUR VEY26 JANUARY 2019 SI T E S E L E C T IO Nahead of economic development websites.• e No. deal-killer was politics or lack of responsiveness, followed by lack of available qualifi ed labor. • Adopting better incentives is the policy change they most recommend, followed by improving education and the workforce.• Accurate and up-to-date data is the resource they most want to fi nd on an EDO website, followed by a contact name and information.• Greater Washington, D.C., was far and away the leading vote-getter as the top choice for Amazon’s HQ, getting nods, while New York City garnered only two votes. Atlanta received votes, while Chicago and Dallas each got . e consultants also shared some interesting views on locations and their competitiveness. When asked to name the state that had done the most to improve its overall attractiveness to business and industry over the last years, Texas garnered the most votes, with . North Carolina fi nished second with votes, followed by Ohio and South Carolina with votes each. Georgia, Michigan, Indiana, Nevada and Wisconsin each secured votes.If you were advising Amazon on where to locate its second headquarters, which city would you select? S I T E S E L E C T I O N JANUARY 2019 27Where site selection consultants turn for informationadvising Amazon locate its second which city would ADVERTISEMENTIf you want to know how the Columbus Region works as a business destination, the best place to turn is the business community itself. The following are the actual words of business leaders who have made a habit of doing business in Greater Columbus:• “Columbus provided Ji ti with an ideal breeding ground for our retail technology business. We found the Columbus community to be both empowering and supportive during the critical stage of startup mode. It is this environment that enabled and propelled us to achieve that which we have thus far, and for that we are eternally grateful.” – Yaacov M. Martin, Co-Founder and CEO, Ji ti, an online gift registry platform that chose Columbus as its U.S. startup hub and has since taken the global retail gift registry world by stormWhy Executives Love COLUMBUSUSUSUSUS• “What strikes me most about Columbus is the diversity of its economy, housing industry leaders in retail like L Brands, Abercrombie & Fitch, Express, DSW, in banking like Huntington and JP Morgan Chase, in insurance like Nationwide and most recently logistics, a booming sector, and where Boyd e-commerce client Gwynnie Bee operates one of its most successful ful llment centers in the popular Columbus submarket of Groveport. Gwynnie Bee leverages the logistics advantage for Columbus being that it is within a -hour drive of about half of the U.S. population. Our client JP Morgan Chase has put its stamp of approval on Columbus in a big way by growing to be the largest private sector employer the city. I understand its CEO Jamie Dimon was in Columbus just last month and spoke highly of the Columbus workforce and the bank’s ability to recruit top talent there.” – John H. Boyd, Principal, e Boyd Company Inc.,site selection consulting rm based in Princeton, N.J.Photos of Columbus, Ohio courtesy of Getty Images30 JANUARY 2019 SI T E S E L E C T IO NWhen asked to name the U.S. region or metropolitan area that had most improved its attractiveness, respondents said the Midwest and the Southwest tied for fi rst, with tallies each. e Southwest, Greater Columbus, Ohio, and Dallas-Fort Worth were all next with .Finally, the consultants off ered advice to states and communities on how to improve their chances of landing more projects. Here is a sampling of their comments:• “Create a program that incentivizes students to remain in the state after graduation.”• “Reduce the overall tax burden on businesses.”• “Have less channels for regulatory decision-making.”• “Off er fl exible incentive programs that can be tailored to a company’s needs, rather than a one-size-fi ts-all program.”• “Fully fund the cost of technical education.”• “Off er employers an excellent public school system.”• “Embrace the Work Ready program.”• “Eliminate all sales tax associated with energy usage.”• “Incentivize localities and regions to work together on infrastructure.” Site Selectors’ Most Important Location CriteriaMost Common Deal KillersWorkforce SkillsTransportation InfrastructureBuildings & SitesState & Local TaxesRegulatory Environment32 JANUARY 2019 SI T E S E L E C T IO NSITE SELECT ORS SUR VEY: AMAZON HQ2How Amazon turned the world upside down to deliver HQ2 packages to New York and Virginia.Type “relentless.com” into your web browser and it takes you straight to the home page of Amazon.com. at’s tting, because “relentless” is the perfect word to describe every aspect of the -month-long site selection process that ended on November when Amazon announced the two winning locations of the Seattle-based retail juggernaut’s HQ : Crystal City, Virginia, and Long Island City, New York.From day one of the project RFP release on September , , until the site announcement days later, media coverage of the process didn’t stop. If it seems like every expert and quasi-expert o ered their opinions on where the $ -billion, ,-employee Amazon would go, it’s because they did.Along the way, locations submitted bids to land HQ , nalists were selected, and two winners were announced (three if you count Nashville; see related story on page ). O cials in New York and Virginia each celebrated the awarding of $ . billion in capital investment and , high-wage jobs in their respective states. Here’s how they did it:Yes, Virginia, There is a Santa Claus… … And his name is Je Bezos. From the moment the world’s richest man purchased a $ -million, ,-sq.-ft. mansion in Washington, D.C., speculation centered around the Greater Washington market as the frontrunner to snag HQ . It didn’t hurt by RON S TARNERr on. s t ar ner @ site s ele c tion.c omasternpromisesTHE PROCESSNext >