Features

or the past 40 years, Pier 1 Imports has made its home in Fort Worth, Texas. If Chairman and CEO Marvin Girouard has his way, the US$2-billion company will call Fort Worth home for at least the next 40.       In 2004, Pier 1 moved into its new $90-million corporate headquarters in the […]

f having one Top Small Town is great for a county, then having two is better. Just ask the folks in Iredell County, N.C.       By registering 24 new and expanded corporate facility projects in 2004, the Statesville- Mooresville, N.C., Micro-politan Statistical Area claimed Site Selection’s Top Micropolitan of the Year award.   […]

ith 613 projects, the transportation equipment sector had the most projects of any industrial sector in 2004, according to the Conway Data New Plant Database.       Three of the top five transportation projects by investment were automobile plants in China, led by DaimlerChrysler with its US$1.25-billion complex in Beijing, in addition to its […]

ased in Windlesham, in the affluent borough of Surrey Heath, U.K., that is known for its knowledge-intensive companies and pharmaceutical expertise, industrial gas company The BOC Group employs more than 44,500 people and had 2003 sales of over US$7.4 billion. It also serves almost any industry you can think of: glass to steel, semiconductors to […]

ne company’s scandal is another company’s opportunity.       Last year, the U.S. Air Force had a preliminary US$23-billion dollar deal with Boeing to lease and buy 100 aerial refueling tankers. But the deal fell apart amid a growing procurement scandal. Last May, Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld returned the process to square one by […]

verybody in this room has something to do with the rebound since 9/11.”       That’s how Jim Dieter, executive managing director for CB Richard Ellis, greeted a full house of continuous learners at the IAMC Professional Forum on Monday morning, March 21, as he prepared to explore with them the “Dynamics of the […]

ur New Plant Database tallies are complete, and this issue of Site Selection is brimming with related rankings of Top Metros, Industries and States (see the Governor’s Cup cover story on page 146). by MARK AREND My congratulations to all of the areas mentioned in the rankings, because they would not appear if they hadn’t […]

ig Blue is getting a whole lot bigger in New York. And IBM’s bringing along a host of other high-tech heavyweights in Since a watershed investment decision that kept Big Blue in New York, IBM’s Fishkill complex has served as an investment catalyst. a US$2.7-billion expansion blitz. A trio of Empire State projects will create […]

From Site Selection magazine, March 2005 WORLD REPORTS ‘New Europe’ Beckons Foreign direct investment increasingly is shifting to the European Union’s eastern sector. by JULIA COX In years to come, 2004 may well be viewed by analysts of inward investment trends as the year that the map of FDI activity in Europe was fundamentally re-drawn. […]

SITE SELECTION / NAI GLOBAL INDUSTRIAL LOCATION INDEX From Site Selection magazine, March 2005 C H A R T Site Selection / NAI Global Industrial Location Index PDF Format, 140 KB TOP OF PAGE Top of Page | Cover | Letter to Editor | Site Selection Online | SiteNet | ©2005 Conway Data, Inc. All […]

Dear IAMC Members and Prospective Members,       Just as we often ask ourselves on the job, I find myself asking this question at the end of my tenure as chair of IAMC: “Where did the time go?”       But I know the answer. It went into a year and a half […]

orporate real estate executives like the impact that Sarbanes-Oxley (SOX) is having on the reporting Bob Zane and management of facility performance. They just wish that compliance with the law cost less time and money.       That’s the bottom line of a new research study conducted by the Atlanta-based Industrial Asset Management Council. […]

on-Way Transportation, a US$2.6-billion freight forwarding and logistics specialist based in Ann Arbor, Mich., has a vast and growing portfolio. The company employs nearly 20,000 and operates about 28,000 trucks, tractors and trailers with about 450 facilities of various sizes and functions.      Bill Giles, Con-Way’s national pre-construction coordinator, sets things in motion for […]

From Site Selection magazine, January 2005 WORLD REPORTS Robust Times For Robotics Automakers, New Applications Boost Demand by JOHN W. McCURRY Craig Jennings has a problem most presidents of manufacturing companies would love to have: Market growth for his products is so great that he’s constantly looking at ways to boost capacity around the globe. […]

s IAMC membership builds a head of steam, it comes as no surprise that new and old members alike have met before, often over projects.       New corporate member Robert Waller, senior vice president of operations for IAMC member organizations Alcoa and the Oregon Economic and Community Development Department are seeing eye to […]

ealthcare services heavyweight McKesson Corporation was looking for new software to help it with transaction and project management in 2002. The San Francisco-based company wasn’t satisfied with the software it was using at the time and was in the market for something better to keep track of its growing portfolio.       McKesson opted […]

his year’s crop of client-service award winners had two features in common: a demonstrated ability to exceed corporate real estate clients’ service expectations and a profound understanding of how those expectations are evolving. The Site Selection/William Dorsey Service Provider Awards, now in their sixth year, recognize those organizations that not only claim to be client-focused […]

hat do you do in an industry that was estimated in 2003 to have global over-capacity equivalent to 40 OEM assembly plants? Compete, that’s what.       That’s what NAFTA’s 10-year-old partners have been doing for automotive investment, whether against each other or, increasingly, banding together against the rest of the world. Sometimes the […]

f you think your metro area has reached, or is reaching, its development threshold, you had better sit down. You haven?t seen anything yet.      New development research produced for The Brookings Institution Metropolitan Policy Program in December 2004 predicts a staggering amount of new residential, commercial and industrial development in the next 25 […]

ocusing on core competencies is a catch phrase that is heard more frequently than ever these days. And for good reason. Corporations across all avenues are stretched to the max, and focusing on projects that are not directly related to a department’s primary functions can be daunting. Today, many corporations are understaffed because of the […]

ntario Premier Dalton McGuinty wasn’t shy about supporting Ford Motor Company‘s proposed US$818-million expansion. In fact, after his province authorized $82 million in incentives for Ford in mid-April of 2004, the premier threw down the gauntlet.      “We have put our money where our mouth is,” McGuinty said. “Now it’s time for the federal […]

ENVER, Colo. — Lower leasing rates have contributed to a rebounding industrial market in severalmajor American cities, according to a new report by the ProLogis Research Group.       The new market “leaders” in the distribution-warehouse sector, according to the Denver-based company,are the Los Angeles Basin, New Jersey, Las Vegas, Reno, Seattle and St. […]

eptember 2004 saw hurricanes on two coasts and a major earthquake on another, but it was a federal appeals court decision in the U.S. heartland that packed an economic development wallop still awaiting measurement.       On Sept. 2, the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Sixth Circuit —whose jurisdiction encompasses automotive corridor states […]

cores of corporate real estate executives are by MARK AREND working today at leading industrial manufacturing companies with insights and intelligence their counterparts elsewhere are doing without. I am referring to those executives who participated in the Industrial Asset Management Council’s (IAMC) Fall 2004 Professional Forum in late September. From BASF to Boise Cascade, Philips […]