ompanies looking for space in an industrial park have thousands of options globally, and dozens if they've narrowed their geographic options to one or two countries. In Europe, a new option is emerging – the independent industry park. These parks are the result of chemical companies looking to improve their balance sheets and focus on their core business by selling capital-intensive infrastructure to independent parties and external companies, which in return supply services required by the companies on site. Typically, the new owner of the park is in a better position to make improvements that will attract new investment.
      Energy companies are logical investors in this excess property and infrastructure. Some, such as NUON with its headquarters in Amsterdam, The Netherlands, are seizing the opportunity to partner with chemical and industrial companies to maximize the use of the excess property and infrastructure assets. NUON, in fact, has created an Industry Park Management (NUON IPM) business unit to work with these companies to improve the properties and to act as a service provider to companies seeking space at their sites.
      NUON IPM manages six parks in Germany and The Netherlands and is building its portfolio of industry parks by acquiring new ones, providing more location options for energy-intensive corporate investors. A network of industry parks, such as NUON IPM's, has several advantages over stand-alone parks. Chief among these is access to lower costs, because the network operator can provide energy, wastewater disposal and other services at a reduced rate by virtue of the network's ability to procure those services in bulk.
      NUON naturally provides a wide range of energy and utility services, including steam, pressed air, cooling systems and a variety of water types and gases. But it also helps tenant companies optimize their energy consumption and manage their wastewater treatment. Some of NUON's parks also offer fire brigades, laboratory services, logistics, human resources services and security.       "NUON industry parks create value for occupying companies by offering a sustainable environment, taking care of infrastructure and peripheral services so that those companies can concentrate on their core business," says Petronella Gerards, a NUON IPM executive. "At our parks, we can supply companies with power and utilities and a range of other services, including logistics, disposal, personnel and administration services. As an independent industry park manager, we help businesses grow and achieve success. We are successful when our clients are successful."
      Companies at the parks consider NUON employees to be partners in the process of establishing their operation in northwestern Europe. This is particularly true where dealing with bureaucracies is concerned; NUON maintains a network of local and regional government contacts that can facilitate regulatory and permitting tasks.
      Whether in Germany or the Netherlands, NUON's industry parks have several attributes in common, including access to a highly educated work force, research and development facilities and universities, and access to international transit routes and logistics hubs.
      One of NUON IPM's parks – Oberbruch Industry Park in Heinsberg, Germany, between Aachen and Dusseldorf – was the subject of an editorial report in the July 2007 issue of Site Selection. That park was a former AKZO Nobel chemical production site. Today, it is home to 20 companies and more than 1,500 employees.
      Oberbruch and the other parks in NUON IPM's portfolio play an increasingly important role in their home towns' economies. Companies that want to divest installations and services for common use at industrial sites can now sell those sites to an organization such as NUON IPM, to improve and develop the property for existing and future tenants. As those tenants come on to the site, jobs are created that would likely have gone elsewhere.
      But for that to happen, NUON IPM must work closely with state and local governments, which has clearly been the case, particularly in the case of Oberbruch Industry Park.
      Josef Offergeld, the mayor of Heinsberg, put it this way recently: "With the excellent collaboration of the Ministry of Economic Affairs of the [German] state of North Rhine-Westphalia, Oberbruch Industry Park and the City of Heinsberg, the site is an important base for further development. The future of the Oberbruch Industry Park and the creation of new jobs is very important for the city and the region."