Features

 A s if their plates weren’t full enough already, economic conditions are mandating that corporate real estate managers figure out how to do more with less. More what? They must now demonstrate more of an ability to contain, if not reduce, costs where property assets are concerned, because shareholders and real estate investors are less […]

 W hen SYKES, a world leader of customer care management (CRM) solutions, decided to locate a call center in Sveg, Sweden, the decision was based on the fact that SYKES could service all of Scandinavia from this low-cost, remote location. SYKES typically locates facilities in remote areas. Helping Sveg land the facility was a young, […]

Connectivity Drives a New Strategic Alliance Cushman & Wakefield (C&W) has signed a unique strategic alliance with American Fiber Systems (AFS), Rochester, N.Y., a leading provider of dark-fiber-optic communications networks — fiber-optic cable without electronics equipment attached. The alliance calls for Cushman & Wakefield to negotiate arrangements that allow for the interconnection of AFS’s dark […]

 D ALLAS — Visitors to the Adam’s Mark Hotel in mid-June couldn’t be faulted for wondering if a new baby boom was under way in the commercial real estate industry. Most of the speakers at the Realcomm conference held here had something to say about the importance of adoption. They were referring, of course, to […]

CB Richard Ellis’s Call Center Solutions Group, based in Phoenix, is teaming up with an academic expert on call center operations data to quantify the synergies and savings companies can realize by looking outside metro areas for suitable labor pools. CB Richard Ellis’s James J. Trobaugh III, an expert on siting call centers, explains how […]

Welcome to the 2nd Quarter 2001 Johnson Controls USA Office Occupancy Costs Index, which provides a snapshot guide to the cost of providing and operating property and facility management services in the USA.         This cost index briefing is published twice a year and has become a powerful and dynamic business reference […]

W hen Boeing Co. touches down in Chicago and opens its new headquarters on Sept. 4, the world’s largest aerospace firm will teach corporate asset managers everywhere a valuable lesson: Don’t be afraid to leave home. Rather, base every real estate decision according to how your company is structuring itself for the future.     […]

Ron Starner  C orporate real estate executives who think they have nothing to learn from the boom-and-bust era of New Economy companies should think again. “The real estate legacy of the dot-com era will outlive many of the start-ups that have now collapsed,” says Jacques N. Gordon, international director of LaSalle Investment Management Inc. in […]

S ite selectors throughout North America will long recall 2001 as the year energy cost and availability moved to the top of their location criteria lists. Not long ago, it was virtually taken for granted that affordable and abundant electricity was within reach of any new project location that made the short list. Property asset […]

Abstracts of major presentations of the International Development Research Council (IDRC), the world’s pre-eminent corporate real estate association. “Strategies for Managing Through the Economic Downturn,” Pacific Northwest World Congress, May 14, 2001: Remaining competitive in the global marketplace requires a company to hire and keep the best workers, says Jacques Gordon of LaSalle Investment Management. […]

W ith the current state of affairs in California and the success of the Julia Roberts’ Oscar vehicle Erin Brockovich, utilities were not seen in the best light in 2000. But those in the corporate real estate field know better. They realize the important role utilities play in site selection and expansion.       […]

 D ALLAS – If the financial securities industry is any indication, traditional brokerage models are in for a rude awakening. The success of online trading services for institutional and individual investors should not be lost on brokers in other industries, including the commercial real estate industry, where brokers are facing inevitable change in how they […]

 S ILVER SPRING, Md. — The founder of a two-year-old company near the nation’s capital says he’s discovered a way to solve the so-called “last mile” barrier to fiber optic connectivity. The solution, he says, is to get down and dirty.         Using a device called a SAM — sewer access module […]

 B elfast is struggling to regain its footing as one of Europe’s most inexpensive locations for foreign companies as the U.S. economic slowdown dampens Yankee investor enthusiasm Europewide. After a boom year 2000, uptake of new office space in Belfast fell in the first half of this year to an estimated 185,000 sq. ft. (17,187 […]

Site Selection Managing Editor Mark Arend recently met with Canada’s new consul general in Atlanta, Astrid Pregel, who takes charge of her nation’s economic interests in an increasingly important U.S. region to Canada. The southeastern United States is in the geographic center of what may soon be a free trade zone covering all of the […]

New Partnership To Supply Benchmarking Data The CB Richard Ellis Call Center Solutions Group (www.cbre.com), Phoenix, has formed a partnership with Dr. John Anton, an e-business expert at the Purdue University Center for Customer-Driven Quality and BenchmarkPortal, Inc., a call center benchmarking firm (www.BenchmarkPortal.com). “As our two groups join forces, we will analyze and evaluate […]

D espite the prolonged shakeout among occupants of commercial real estate Internet “space,” not all Web services catering to the industry are floundering. Indeed, observers of the market at its height all predicted the shakeout, and the economic slowdown has underscored its impact. It’s not that there isn’t a role for the Internet in the […]

M ONTGOMERY COUNTY, Md. — Can the building blocks of life become the foundation of a new economy? They can if the companies mapping the human genome happen to be in your own backyard.         In Rockville, Md., Celera Genomics Group captivated the attention of the scientific world on Feb. 12 when […]

A stute architects today bring more to the table than a set of drawings. Corporate and industrial real estate owners are asking — and more often than not expecting — design professionals to add value to the project team, new value measured in terms of staffing and strategy, savings and speed.         […]

S EATTLE — Operating in the “post-New Economy” era of corporate downsizing and declining profits, real estate executives face a huge challenge — maximizing real estate’s value while contributing to next quarter’s bottom line.         And, oh, by the way, their bosses declare by edict, do this while keeping space commitments at […]

G en. Colin Powell once said, “Don’t be afraid to challenge the pros, even in their own backyard. Learn from the pros, observe them, seek them out as mentors and partners. But remember that even the pros may have leveled out in terms of their learning and skills. Sometimes even the pros can become complacent […]

W hen the average age of a company’s employees is just 31, it’s a safe bet that its parking lots are full of Jeeps and the interior workspace is downright hip. While popular taste in cars may change from year to year, at least one such company’s commitment to maximizing the value corporate real estate […]

Abstracts of major presentations of the International Development Research Council (IDRC), the world’s preeminent corporate real estate association. “Building New Economy Towns,” Florida World Congress, Nov. 7, 2000:     If your company is still building class A office space in remote suburban locations that force workers to spend two hours a day trapped in traffic, […]

S uch headlines abound in the current news media, and for many the outlook is dreary. But is it really as bad as it seems? In a market that saw company growth rates skyrocket and labor wages creep higher due to increased demand on a short supply of knowledge workers, maybe it’s just what the […]