Features

I llinois has broken archrival Michigan’s five-year claim to having the most new and expanded facilities in a calendar year – by just three projects. The 2002 almost-tie is testament to the Midwest’s economic strength; Ohio and Indiana also made the Top 10 list.         Illinois, however, like virtually all states, saw […]

I n a repeat of 2001’s one-two finish, Chicago and Detroit head up Site Selection‘s list of top U.S. metropolitan areas for new and expanded facilities in 2002. While the order and the approximate winning margin are the same as last year, the pace was off considerably. Both metros were off by about 300 total […]

W ith 591 projects, the transportation industry again dominated the rankings of top new and expanded U.S. manufacturing facilities by industry sector in 2002. The headlines were led by the new Hyundai plant in Alabama, and backed by just-as-major plant expansions, including three in the top 10 from Michigan. It marked the fourth consecutive year […]

T he rest of the world is doing just fine, thank you.         That’s the message coming through loud and clear when analyzing the thousands of new projects that located somewhere outside the United States in 2002. And the rest of the world that’s achieving the most is made up of countries […]

W hen Graceland Fruit announced the US$15 million, 60,000-sq.-ft. (5,574-sq.-m.) expansion of a food-processing plant in the Traverse Bay area of Michigan in 2002, the news only confirmed what many corporate executives already knew about this location.         It’s the Top Small Town in America. According to the Conway Data New Plant […]

I f you haven’t heard by now, the inaugural conference of the Industrial Asset Management Council (IAMC) in October was an unqualified success – highlights of the meeting in Savannah can be found in this issue’s IAMC Insider.         Attendees, who included corporate real estate executives and service providers, participated in a […]

From Site Selection magazine, January 2003 WORLD REPORTS edited by JOHN W. McCURRY Survey Says European Companies Prefer Switzerland as Headquarters Site Dr. Herbert Wanner A recent Arthur D. Little survey indicates European companies consider Switzerland to be the most attractive place for global headquarters location in Europe. The study also found that headquarters are […]

Pro-Business Bipartisanship Brings SCIENX Plant to Upstate N.Y. Politics may make for strange bedfellows. A major New York site selection decision, however, made for surprisingly cordial ones.         There on the dais, a mere six days before November’s elections, were Gov. George Pataki (R) and U.S. Sen. Hillary Rodham Clinton (D), linked […]

    “I was very impressed with the content of the sessions. In each one, there was at least one nugget I could take away and apply to my own situation.” – Charles Veley, Director, Global Real Estate, United Technologies Corp., on the proceedings of the inaugural IAMC Forum in Savannah, Ga. Westin Innisbrook Hotel, […]

D evelopers of new facilities have a very basic decision to make at the outset of a project, be it a new manufacturing plant, a distribution center or any other facility. Will its impact on the environment be negative or positive in the long term? Those who choose to design and build a project that […]

S ynthetic leasing by its very nature is two-faced, an adjective most corporations are scrambling to avoid in today’s scandal-plagued environment. A corporate user gets to be the owner of an asset for income tax purposes and gets to treat it as an operating lease for financial reporting purposes. What could be better? The rent […]

E ight corporate real estate service provider companies have won Site Selection/ William Dorsey Service Provider Awards for work they did in 2002 that exceeded the expectations of their clients. These awards, now in their fourth year, recognize those companies that are helping evolve the definition of client service in the corporate real estate context. […]

C orporate real estate executives from most of Silicon Valley’s high-tech companies gathered in early June in Redwood City, Calif., to participate in one of two Jones Lang LaSalle Leading Edge Series 2002 events to take place this year. Besides high-level presentations on economic forces influencing business decisions, the impact of changes in accounting rules […]

S teps taken to make the Tar Heel State even more competitive with surrounding states are paying off. For the second year in a row, North Carolina has claimed the top slot in Site Selection‘s annual business climate ranking. Among the measures helping to boost the state’s allure was passage in the state house of […]

S tate budgetary shortfalls have mirrored the U.S. economy at large over the past year, prompting many legislatures to adopt stringent measures to curb spending and maintain the tax base. Many held special legislative sessions in order to achieve some fiscal progress.         While some economic development branches have been streamlined, most […]

H opes were high at the beginning of the year that 2002 would see the start of a sustained economic recovery in Europe and the rest of the industrialized world. The figures for the first few months appeared to show that the optimism was well founded. The leading global economies grew at 2.4 percent in […]

C ompanies facing earnings pressures are taking public-sector incentives more seriously during these challenging economic times, according to a survey recently completed by Stadtmauer Bailkin Biggins (SBB), L.L.C [a firm where the author is a principal]. The study, which queried both corporate real estate executives and economic development agencies on developing trends in incentives, was […]

D rive along the southern edge of Lake Michigan, and the steel legacy of northern Indiana becomes inescapably apparent, in both the best and worst of senses. Much of the industry’s looming gray capacity has gone dormant, but there is still a core that thrives. And where big steel has suffered, little steel is doing […]

S tates across America are developing strategies for cloning the biotechnology industries that have emerged in California, Massachusetts, and Maryland over the past 30 years.         In the wake of the burst high technology bubble, biotech offers them the promise of renewed economic growth.         Or does it? According […]

W ith a new round of U.S. military base closures on the not-too-distant horizon of 2005, more communities will be dealing with the accompanying job losses and subsequent base redevelopment. But that’s not necessarily bad news. Dozens of previously closed bases have been reinvented as centers of industry and research.         Since […]

T he most likely candidate for a location decision involving a new or expanded facility will be in the manufacturing sector, according to corporate executives surveyed by Development Counsellors International (DCI), a New York?based economic development marketing firm. More than 280 corporate executives participated in the exercise.         Forty-four percent of the […]

From Site Selection magazine, November 2002 NORTH AMERICAN REPORTS Edited by ADAM BRUNS Lilly Growing in Puerto Rico Too NOTHING COULD BE FINER: Eli Lilly executives join with local residents and community officials to break ground on a $450-million facility in Carolina, Puerto Rico. The plant is Lilly’s third major facility announcement of 2002, with […]

From Site Selection magazine, November 2002 WORLD REPORTS edited by ADAM BRUNS Alcoa Moving Forward on Icelandic Mega-Project In a deal worth an estimated US$1 billion, Alcoa Executive Vice President G. John Pizzey, Iceland Minister of Industry Valgerdur Sverrisd?ttir and national power company Landsvirkjun‘s Managing Director Fridrik Sophusson signed a memorandum of understanding in July […]