f a city can be ancient and brand new at the same time, it would look like Zaragoza, the capital city of the autonomous region of Aragon, in northeast Spain. The ruins of a Roman amphitheater in the city center are a short walk from the Milla Digital, or Digital Mile – a 107-hectare (264-acre) development for residential, commercial, transportation and recreational uses. The development is unique in that all of its components link the user to the latest in information connectivity, making it a living laboratory for entrepreneurs, digital content creators and others helping to define the future of the Information Age.
   Even Caesar Augustus, for whom the city is named, would be impressed.
   But the very-old-and-very-new dichotomy extends well beyond the Zaragoza city limits. In Alcañiz, for example, a 12th century castle that serves as a hotel today is just one medieval landmark in the historically rich Maestrazgo region of southeastern Aragon. But Alcañiz is also the home of La Ciudad del Motor, or Motor City, a 3.5-million-sq.-m. development dedicated to technology, sports, leisure and culture. The project will build on Alcañiz's heritage as a center for automotive sports, particularly racing trials; it held its first Gran Prix in 1965 and hosts a classic vehicle fair.
   Similarly, 45 miles (72 km.) north of Zaragoza near Huesca, Parque Tecnológic Walqa provides such IT companies as Microsoft, Vodafone, Simco Networks and Ayanet TIC, among many others, a rural, yet state-of-the-art location in which to conduct R&D and other business-development tasks. Situated at the foot of the Pyrenees and the French frontier, the park is similar to IT enclaves in Colorado and Utah, where workers have easy access to mountain-related recreational amenities. What's missing from the U.S. versions of the Walqa park, though, is a territorial history that includes Roman, Moorish, Napoleonic and other forces coming and going on the area's broad plains over the centuries.
   Back in Zaragoza, the starkest contrast yet between old and new is taking shape as the city prepares to host EXPO Zaragoza 2008 on a site where the Ebro River forms a large peninsula not far from the central business district. When complete in time for the Expo's June 14th opening, the gleaming plazas, pavilions and 78-meter- (256-ft.-) high, water-drop-shaped Water Tower will be framed by Zaragoza's skyline of centuries-old basilicas.
   Appropriate for a riverside site, the Expo's theme is Water and Sustainable Development. The Ebro notwithstanding, much of Aragon is arid. Its proximity to the Pyrenees ensures a good supply of water, but a dry, hilly topography outside the metro areas reminds locals and visitors alike of the need to be vigilant where the use of natural resources, especially water, is concerned. For more on the Expo, its message to the dozens of millions of visitors anticipated and its layout, visit www.expozaragoza2008.es. In the meantime, plans already are under way to convert exhibit space at the Expo site into commercial office space after the conclusion of the event in mid-September 2008.    Companies are investing and expanding in Zaragoza and Aragon for reasons well beyond the area's historical attributes and new infrastructure. EDS Omega S.L.U., for example, is expanding into larger quarters being vacated by Barclays Bank so that EDS can better manage technical support and other operations for EDS' EMEA-region clients. In 2003, EDS chose Zaragoza as the location for a consolidated Control Center over alternative EDS locations around the Mediterranean region.
   "We had to convince senior management that the best location was Zaragoza, and we did in fact convince them of that," says Manuel Lima Roca, manager of the Control Center. The center supports more than 100 customers, including General Motors, which operates a plant near Zaragoza. "The level of workers at this location is quite high with respect to skills, including language skills, and technical knowledge, and the people coming out of the universities here are very well prepared."
   Roca also points to a low level of attrition at the Zaragoza center – it was 9.8 percent in 2006. "In Madrid and Barcelona, that rate is at least double," he notes, adding that quality of life is part of the reason. "We don't have the problems associated with the big cities in Europe, such as bad traffic. People prefer to work in Zaragoza, even if they like going to Madrid and Barcelona now and then." Zaragoza is home to about 650,000 people and is equidistant, at about an hour each by high-speed train, to Madrid and Barcelona.    More significantly, Zaragoza has what Madrid, Barcelona and other metros do not: plenty of space for commercial projects within a few kilometers of the city. Vast new developments are in place catering to global businesses seeking a southern Europe location from which to service Spanish and EMEA markets. One is the intermodal logistics and transport park known as Plaza (Plataforma Logistica Zaragoza). Another is the 836-hectare (2,065-acre) Parque Tecnologico de Reciclado Lopez Soriano (PTR).
   As for logistics, "Many areas in Spain and elsewhere consider themselves to be logistics hubs, but ours has been in place for quite some time," says Alberto Larraz Vileta, Aragon's Mininster of the Economy. "The automotive industry, including suppliers and its logistics platform, has been here for 25 years. The GM plant here is considered to be one of the most effective plants in Europe, and logistics plays an important role."
   Plaza is the cornerstone of Zaragoza's plan to become the leading logistics location in southwestern Europe. Intermodal components are in place, including Zaragoza Airport, a canal, highways and rail track for high-speed trains. Geographically, Zaragoza and its logistics infrastructure link the Iberian peninsula with the rest of Europe. It is at the heart of a hub of such commercial centers as Barcelona, Valencia, Madrid and Bilbao, Spain and Toulouse, France – each is about 300 kilometers away. All of the main European capitals are served by air from Zaragoza Airport.
   Opened in 2000, what is emerging today at the Plaza site is a logistics park, complete with customs area, agro-foodstuffs and bulk logistics platforms, a logistics assistance center and other related services. Construction recently began on the new home for the MIT Center for Transportation & Logistics, a research and education partnership established in 2003 by MIT, the University of Zaragoza, the Aragon government, industry participants and the Plaza development. More than a degree program in logistics and supply-chain management, the center serves as a living laboratory where researchers experiment with different processes for solving logistics issues – and then implement them directly into industry.
   Several characteristics make the partnership unique, not the least of which is Aragon's substantial support for the Center and commitment to working with a university of MIT's caliber.
   Also, adds Dr. Jarrod Goentzel, executive director, "Rather than putting the laboratory in the university, we put the university in the laboratory, which is why the new building will be in the middle of the Plaza logistics park. The idea is to embed the innovation activities in the midst of the industrial activities. That commitment to innovation at the highest levels and the opportunity to build something new from scratch – and the unique setting of the park – these are what MIT found so intriguing."
   Corporate investors, too, find Plaza intriguing. Inditex is one of the world's largest fashion distributors with 3,200 retail outlets in 65 countries. Store brands include Zara, Zara Home, Pull and Bear and Bershka, among others. The company's size, though, is less impressive than its business model, where the stores serve not just as points of sale, but also as market information hubs, conveying customer preferences to design teams and adding appropriate stock as needed.
   Inditex's logistics centers, therefore, like the one at Plaza, are located near where commercial decisions involving suppliers and supply-chain managers for the various brands are made. The Zaragoza logistics platform mainly serves the Zara stores in Europe. "We needed a location closer to Europe than an existing facility in northwest Spain," says Raúl Estradera, director of communications and industrial relations. "It needed to have a good transport infrastructure and qualified human resources."
   As for the business model, "Store managers convey important market trend information to the commercial department on a daily basis," he adds. Sales are not necessarily lost when a size or color is unavailable, because the logistics network enables preferences to be met expeditiously, since most of Zara's retail stores are in Spain and elsewhere in western Europe. The "stop back tomorrow, and we'll have that color for you" strategy is a large part of Inditex's skyrocketing revenues.
   Just south of Zaragoza is the PTR development, which got under way in 2004. PTR is unique in that the vast majority of the park is dedicated to so-called special industrial usage, or activities related to waste management. These include collection, storage, reuse, recycling and value recovery. Industries whose production processes involve reuse or second-generation raw materials are the target market for PTR. In addition to special industrial usage parcels ranging in size from 79,500 square meters up to 325,000 square meters, PTR includes sports areas, retail and social amenities, parking, green space and starter industry buildings. If Plaza – just 15 km. north of PTR – is all about distribution and logistics, then PTR – just minutes from the city center – is where companies will find a similarly central location at which to manufacture their goods.
   Until Zaragoza's 2008 Expo construction is complete, as well as the Digital Mile, and other infrastructure, the area's makeover will progress at a frenetic pace. But the end result will make Zaragoza and Aragon an important new destination for industry and visitors alike.