May 1, 2001
A s globalization accelerates, obliging firms to maximize operational flexibility, the U.S.-led sale-and-lease-back craze is spreading to Europe. Firms are rushing to minimize commitment to fixed assets and re-engineer corporate real estate portfolios to generate more funds for their core business. Says Denis Kavanagh, international director corporate finance Jones Lang LaSalle, […]
May 1, 2001
N on-European firms seeking to establish a call center in Europe faced relatively few obstacles in the late 1980s and early 1990s. They opened individual centers in whichever countries they felt the need to be in. By today’s standards, the centers were generally low-tech, and the notion of networking multiple centers had yet to catch […]
May 1, 2001
Editor’s Note: The following report was prepared by Jan Smit, senior consultant for International Location Advisory Services at Ernst & Young in London (jsmit@cc.ernsty.co.uk). G ermany is the economic powerhouse of Europe. It has a highly educated population, registers a high percentage of European patents and overall presents an interesting proposition to high tech-inward investors. […]
May 1, 2001
T he California blackouts and the state’s continuing electricity crisis took center stage at the IOU-EDA Winter Forum, held on Feb. 21-23 in San Diego, and these problems bring to the surface an important question for site selectors: Will utilities in a deregulated market be capable of providing the service my company needs? Many technology […]
March 1, 2001
N aysayers predicted havoc when the British handed over Hong Kong to Mainland China in 1997. But instead of Red Chinese soldiers charging in to take control, the floodgates opened the other direction. Hong Kong capitalists living in this landlocked economic powerhouse began pouring large sums of money into South China. […]
March 1, 2001
I n the new global supply chain — reduced by globalizaton and falling trade barriers — the crunch to shrink costs is driving world-class industries to position production facilities strategically closer to raw materials sources. Low-cost development zones are emerging to accelerate the reverse migration and few industrial sectors have been […]
March 1, 2001
D ETROIT — It wasn’t that long ago that pundits and pols alike were lamenting the demise of the Motor City and the state to which it belongs. There is little such talk now. Winning Site Selection magazine’s coveted Governor’s Cup for a record fourth year in a row (see the […]
March 1, 2001
W hen Lee Arnold talks about the impact of the Internet on corporate real estate executives, he uses phrases like “fast-moving flexibility,” “blurring of the lines,” “bandwidth access” and “the barrier of inertia.” With Arnold, information technology chairman for global service provider Colliers International (www.colliers.com), the concepts of speed and transition aren’t just fodder for […]
March 1, 2001
A bstracts of major presentations of the International Development Research Council (IDRC), the world’s preeminent corporate real estate association. “Digital Darwinism: Strategies for Evolving, Adapting, Surviving and Thriving in an e-Business World,” Florida World Congress, Nov. 6, 2000: The companies that evolve the quickest and adapt to the new e-business landscape […]
March 1, 2001
Fast Track Project Management WorkPlaceUSA (www.workplace-usa.com), a Dallas-based provider of project management and other real estate services, is using an Internet-based project management system from Citadon (www.citadon.com), San Francisco, to facilitate the simultaneous creation of 13 network information centers for WorldCom. The $900 million effort involves building 12 centers totaling 1.3 million sq. ft. (120,700 […]