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Relocation Strategist Comes Full Circle: Fantus Moves Back to New York

In a move that one observer calls "deliciously ironic" for New York and its image as a business location, site selection consultant Fantus -- which for years advised its clients to close shop in the Big Apple and move to cheaper space -- has decided to move a large number of its New Jersey-based staff back into the city. Fantus, of course, is perhaps the oldest corporate location advisory firm. Launched in Chicago in 1919, the company opened a New York office 14 years later. But following the advice it increasingly gave clients concerned about the city's high-cost environment, Fantus moved its New York office across the Hudson River in 1971. At various times over the last 29 years, Fantus operated out of New Jersey facilities in South Orange, Millburn, Florham Park and, last of all, Princeton. Fantus became part of Deloitte & Touche in 1996, and today it's known as Deloitte & Touche Fantus. Deloitte & Touche (www.dttus.com) recently took space at One World Financial, and it will consolidate its real estate professionals -- those already in the city and the Fantus staff -- on the 17th floor. The firm already has some 3,000 employees in New York City, and its 200-strong real estate practice is the largest of any consulting firm there. "Two elements drove the relocation of Deloitte & Touche Fantus back into New York City," says Jim Schriner, the firm's director of location strategies. "Our clients, such as Kajima, Tishman Speyer, Bear Stearns and Merrill Lynch, typically require expertise across a number of functional areas. Deloitte & Touche Fantus provides the corporate real estate services component for our multi-functional approach, which also includes financing, tax, valuation, systems, outsourcing and so on. Co-locating our professionals helps provide the level of service clients expect." And increasingly, Schriner says, the best professionals are attracted to the vibrancy and lifestyle of New York City. "With Deloitte & Touche a Fortune best company to work for, and located in New York City, our ability to attract the top talent is substantially enhanced." Indeed, the ability to recruit the best and brightest young people is probably Deloitte & Touche Fantus's greatest need, as it is for many companies today, opines Rob DeRocker, executive vice president of New York-based economic development marketing firm Development Counsellors International. "And these days, that kind of talent is in, and wants to be in, the city," he says. "Cities are back." After a nearly three-decade stint in the suburbs, Fantus's internal location strategy has come full circle. "The tremendous improvement in quality of life and business climate in New York City and New York state is now attracting the premier location strategy firm back into the city," Schriner says.

Electric Deregulation's Joyful Jolt: Prices Come Down

Deregulation of the electric utility industry has brought big changes for New York's electric utility companies. It also opens the door for companies to save money -- big money -- on their electric bills. "We've been deregulated here in New York, and I guess the biggest change is that we've become basically a distribution company," says A.J. (Chris) Wood, Binghamton-based manager of economic development for New York State Electric & Gas. "We've divested the generation part. The biggest change is that we've got the emergence of a robust wholesale market for energy, both electric and gas." That's accomplishing two things, he says. "One, it's driving down the wholesale and retail cost of power. Second, it's encouraging construction of new gas-fired power plants, so it's adding to the supply. On the company side, we still offer a bundled discounted incentive rate for economic development projects of any significant size. Or we can do a discounted unbundled offering. If the company has numerous plants in other states where deregulation is in place, they have the opportunity to aggregate the load for all those plants and go to the energy market and get a better price because they're able to purchase power predicated on the volume." The main point, he summarizes, is that any company considering an expansion or a new capital investment has good alternatives. "It's not the old traditional monopoly utility that you find in most states," he concludes.